₦airaland Forum

I read it on Nairaland that the president is preoccupied with watching football as he recovers. Information reaching me from my contact in saudi has it that he is earnestly waiting to watch the man city - chelsea clash today.don't ask for my source.

@alias

they could have made a better site.that website portrays the neglect of the region.

No he should not resign.I want him to lead us even if he is coma! can you beat that.Nigeria will enter the guiness book of records as the first country that the president ruled from coma,the president rules from abroad for upwards of 3months and above because of ill health.Nonsense.

he that is down need fear no fall.you are already low.where do you want to descend again.LMAO suffering and neglect has beclouded your reasoning.when was the last time you saw nepa for 24 hrs.have you even experienced it since you were born? you need a holiday outside nigeria.

learn what? nonsense,nonsense!! when all nigerians are cowards.demand for your right,they say that you are asking too much.talk sense what they what is nonsence.am sorry for all Nigerians.go and read my blog.i advised Yar'adua to resign on nov 9th before the hand of God came down on him.say anything about it on nairaland.overly emotional misplaced priority patriotic coward nigerians say otherwise.

@bluetooth

no need to flare up.the same recommendation and recipe for you.i dont know where you live but i see that you have that disease inflicted on over 150million nigerians by its government.you want to know the disease,go to saudi hospitals,they will diagnose it.

@ jimmysho

you need to go for a holiday outside kaduna for one week.Not in Nigeria but possibly Ghana,south africa or kenya.Europe,asia or america may be too far and unaffordable.when you do that and enjoy 24/7 electricity in a less poorer country than Nigeria,it will change the way you think.right now,your thinking faculty is not clear but gloomy.try and see

this anonymity of nairaland is good,it portrays how stupid and foolish minded Nigerians have become as a result of the persistent suffering and neglect meted out on them by the government

www.theaaronteam.org

source-vanguard

you see thats the problem with Nigeria.Its a mismatch.What thats gibberish in yoruba.you think that it is everyone that understands the language.anything you said there is for you and your generation

no sentiments.lets be pragmatic.is this the africa/nigeria we all want? between washington and abuja,it is glaring that we share similiar characteristics. our government is patterned exactly like that of america courtesy of zik,we are supposed to occupy the same position US occupies on global affairs in Africa.where are we today? smaller nations like Ghana that is only the population of lagos is rendering insults on us.am not interested in enlongating any post.am even outraged at the comparison between facebook and nairaland.this are two parallel.you can hook me up on frankgod02@yahoo.com or frankgod02@gmail.com. for further cross-fertilization of ideas.i love Nigeria but the conditions inherent makes me bitter.

what diplomacy.You see Africans like you are fools who never recognise that there is no diplomacy better than putting your house in other. Just look at it,in your own Africa,somalia needs 40,000 troops to stablize.No one can help out,Gahdafi is only interested in ruling a United States of Africa,all the presidents of Africa are enmeshed in corruption.The continent is backward and in perpetual depression and you are opening your fool's mouth to talk of diplomacy.Diplomacy my foot,get your house in other and other nations will respect you. Obama has gone to china to recognise china as a fellow super power,fulfilling late samuel huntington prophecy in his book clash of civilization.Instead of a revolution calling for change in Africa,you are talking of cowardice diplomacy.where was your president during the UN summit.

what else do you want them to base their decisions on? Is there any other problem greater than the corruption inherent?

what are you saying then? Do you mean that they are lying.

Saturday, December 05, 2009

What President's Doctor Did Not Tell Nigerians, By Falomo
By Muyiwa Adeyemi, Godwin Ijediogor, Lagos and Adamu Abuh, Kano

EVEN as Nigerians are yet to be told of when President Umaru Yar'Adua will return to the country from a Saudi hospital where he is being treated for pericarditis, the controversy over his capability to continue in office rages just as it is believed in some quarters that his doctor did not disclose the president's actual ailment.

Specifically, Dr Ore Falomo, a senior medical expert and one-time personal physician to the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, believes the President is not suffering from only pericarditis, insisting that Yar'Adua's doctors should come clean by telling Nigerians the actual disease afflicting their leader.

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, Falomo said: "The frequency of his going to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, before we came to the present situation, showed that he needed regular review and follow-up of an ailment, which the country was not told about. We know that at a time, people took him to task to disclose the nature of his illness, but government thought that was the President's personal business.

"But it cannot be his personal business, as it has now been revealed the last thing that took him to Saudi Arabia. We now know that pericarditis is the last condition that took him to Saudi Arabia, as has now been revealed by his doctor. We must be very clear on that. The doctor did not go ahead to tell us that in addition to that, the President has suffered so and so ailments. So, Nigerians were made to believe that it is only pericarditis that took the President to Saudi Arabia."

Falomo, who has managed the health of some Nigerian leaders said further: "To some of us, we know that cannot and is not true. We know that if it is the first time he is having pericarditis, he doesn't need to lose sleep over it, because he would recover from it and return to his seat.

"But when you have pericarditis on top of other debilitating situations, then the condition is grave. That is where we are, speaking as a medical person. Is it the isolated case of pericarditis or a retrogression of the health of our President that led to this pericarditis, because it is an auto-immune disease? You cannot divorce it, as if he got pericarditis overnight. No! It is very unlikely."

For Prof Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional lawyer and law teacher at Bayero University Kano (BUK), "If indeed the President, as we are speaking, is incapacitated and due to his incapacity, governance would suffer. I think the most logical thing to do and in the interest of democracy and constitutionalism is for him to invoke Section 145 of the constitution.

"It would cultivate a good working relationship and also send the correct signal that we all would someday die and hope for orderly succession, and orderly succession does not arise even in the case of death, but in other circumstances.

"I think the party in power and the President and his advisers, if they are satisfied, because the decision is their own, that the President's condition warrants he delegate his powers to his vice, there is no reason on earth that anybody can advance why he should not."

According to him: "I had said it elsewhere that the good thing about what is happening, if there is anything good about it, is that no one is asking that the military steps in. These interactions and public debates, if conducted with decorum and respect for privacy without ill will against political opponents and not in a partisan manner, can only help the democratic process.

"So, no one should view calls that the President should invoke Section 145 as not meaning well for him. I must emphasise that the office of the President is a creation of the constitution. His powers, tenure and everything about the office of the President are creations of the constitution. So, it would not help for constitutional government if we do not act according to the terms of the constitution when the need arises and we bring in all sorts of arguments and speculations to scuttle the issue.

"Many would look at the idea of the President handing over power as un-African. But I think we are not talking about Africanness, Nigerianness and tradition. He is not a traditional ruler, who should be in office for life and who would depend for his tenure on some oracular divination or what have you. I think strictly, the President should run the office and those who advise him must do things in accordance with the constitutional provision."

Guardian

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Anambra 2010: Appeal Court Stops Soludo
From Lemmy Ughegbe, Abuja

THE Court of Appeal, Abuja Division yesterday pulled the brakes on the gubernatorial ambition of former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, as it restrained all parties to the dispute arising from his candidacy as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) standard bearer from taking further step on it.

Specifically, the Court ordered that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), PDP and Soludo maintain status ante bellum with regard to the former CBN Governor's status as the PDP governorship candidate for February 6, next year's election in Anambra State.

In the interim injunction granted yesterday, the Appeal Court restrained the PDP, INEC and Soludo from presenting, recognizing and parading the ex-CBN governor in that order as the PDP governorship candidate in the Anambra polls.

Although no party sought the order, the Justice Mary Odili-led panel opted to give it apparently to preserve the res (subject matter of the dispute).

But Soludo who spoke with reporters yesterday said he had appealed to the Supreme Court against the Appeal Court order on three grounds.

The former CBN governor said he has also asked for a stay of execution of the appellate court's order.

It would be recalled that the appellants, including Valentine Ozoigbo, Nkoli Imo, and Ferdinand Okoye, had earlier argued before an Abuja High Court that the PDP had violated its own rules and electoral law in choosing Soludo as the party's candidate but lost the suit.

Following defeat, they went before the Court of Appeal praying it to set aside the ruling of the lower court.

Justice Odili, in a ruling on whether or not to grant the appellants an interim injunction yesterday, said, "We are not unaware of the essence of time in this appeal."

Hence, the court fixed December 14, this year in order for the PDP to respond to the pending motion so that the matter would progress.

Earlier counsel to PDP, Olusola Oke, who is also the party's National Legal Adviser, had told the court to discountenance the oral application of the appellants since he was not served, stressing that, "I am yet to see even one page of the motion."

He prayed the court to adjourn the matter so that he could get the motion and respond accordingly. Besides, Oke prayed the court to refuse the oral application on grounds that the Appellants failed to place any material evidence before the court to support their prayers and that they cannot be compensated for their own wrongdoing, that is not serving the respondent as ordered by the court.

In the same vein, Counsel to Soludo, Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), told the court that granting the application of the appellants would amount to subterfuge to the main order they sought to obtain in this appeal. He cited the case of Nwosu Vs Nnajiuba to support his argument.

In addition, he told the court not to allow it to be used as an "engine of operation and hardship in stopping a process of democratic governance."

Also, addressing the court before the ruling, Counsel to INEC, Amaechi Nwaiwu (SAN), told the court that his client "is an independent party in this matter" and that granting or refusing any application is at the discretion of the court.

Guardian

By Onche Odeh , Senior Correspondent (Reporting from Boston, Massachusetts)


Fear of corruption may have prevented a team of medical experts in the United States and their counterparts in Africa from continuing in an earlier plan to include Nigeria in the list of potential trial sites for a modern HIV diagnostic tool.

The team has instead opted to conduct the trials of their new tool in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and possibly Botswana.

The new tool, specifically designed to make HIV diagnosis available and affordable in developing countries, is a handheld CD4 counter that is cheap, easy and transportable.

This, according to the inventors, could make a big difference for the care of people living with HIV in developing countries and other remote areas.

CD4 cells are a type of white blood cells that fight infection. HIV destroys CD4 cells, weakening the body’s immune system and ultimately causing AIDS. The CD4 counts of HIV positive people are usually determined before a patient receives antiretroviral therapy and then measured regularly while the patient is on therapy.

Although infectious disease expert at Harvard Medical School and leader of the team, Dr. William Rodriguez, said the reasons the four countries were chosen is based on pre-existing relationships he has with them, the real reason Nigeria and China were dropped from the list of potential sites could be absolute fear of corruption.

“Trials for the technology is to hold in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and possibly Botswana. The main reason is that I have the best pre-existing relationships there; no other real reason, except that they are also good sites,” Rodriguez confirmed to Saturday Independent in Boston.

However, he had stated during one of the speeches he delivered at seminars to the current Knight Fellows at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), that it was difficult to pitch one of the trial sites in Nigeria because it was imminent that corruption would set in, but at what point was unknown to the team, hence it was better to avoid such.

For China, it was more of language difficulties, although the problem of corruption was a factor too.

This may have excluded Nigeria from sharing in the benefits that accrue to countries involved in the trials.

Rodriguez confirmed to Saturday Independent that the tool is likely to be commercialised in 2010. “If all goes well, we expect commercialisation at the end of 2010,” he said.

The latest low-cost CD4 counter is one of many HIV diagnostics that have been invented by Rodriguez and his team. He believes this could have a huge positive impact in the struggle to reduce the global burden of HIV/AIDS.

“Other people can comment on the impact, but making CD4 testing widely available at sites where pregnant women receive care (PMTCT sites), at VCT sites, at remote health clinics and health posts should help reduce the global burden of HIV,” he said.

Daily Independent

Check Aljazeera for full story

It is no gainsaying that the problems of Nigeria is caused to a large extent up to 90% by our leaders.

I get so infutriated with Nigeria and any time I watch CNN,Aljezaara,Skynews,BBC,FOX News and other foreign news channels,I get more bitter.

Ok,today,Obama is holding a job summit so as to find a solution to the 10% unemployment rate that they consider a crisis indicator.Yesterday he was addressing the world on his Afghan strategy.What is the unemployment rate in Nigeria,the stupid government will put it officially at below 10% but the real value is over 70% as it is vivid if real opioin poll companies and real statistica are gathered.

What is the situation in Nigeria today.A sickly,vegetable non-performing president who was imposed on the people is bent on ruling the country from coma.The over two and a half years he has spent in his adminitration is devoid of any meaningful achivements instead the nation has been on deline in all aspects of human development.

The most annoying scenario is that insane Nigerians have become overly emotional patrotic in the suffering and hardlife that this country has offered them since birth instead of demanding change for the better whether be it is by force.

That is why I call all Nigerians cowards and a revolution looms and hangs in their backyard.

forget this idea,it is not feasible,not reasonable and impossible,he should wait for 12years when the other tripods of nigeria has taken their turn

I think you have seen 24.Thats where i got to like that name.

check this link

http://www.saharareporters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4408:sickness-what-sickness-fec-says-yaradua-fully-in-control&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) met today with Goodluck Jonathan presiding amidst growing calls for Yar'Adua to resign from office on account of his failing health. The FEC briefed the media after the meeting, hitting back at critics and opposition politicians by declaring that it had no plan to take action against ailing Yar'Adua. Under the Nigerian constitution, the FEC, which consists mainly of appointees of the president, is empowered to send a request to Senate to appoint a medical committee to ascertain the fitness of the president in case he is ill and incapable of performing his constitutional duties.

Since a group of 55 notable Nigerians signed a document calling yesterday calling on Yar'Adua to resign, members of the FEC and security agencies have been harassing some of the signatories to the petition, even as the list grew exponentially 24 hours after it was released. Online, Nigerians are enthusiastically adding their names to the list wherever it can be found. A facebook page opened yesterday has also received enthusiastic signatories Click here>>>: Yar'adua Resign Now!.

Meanwhile, Yar'Adua remains holed up in a Saudi hospital in Jeddah where he is receiving critical care nine days after he was evacuated from Nigeria, and five days after the presidency said he would be returning home. Saharareporters sources said none of his aides and friends has any access to him and thus could not ascertain his condition.

The desperate efforts by members of his kitchen cabinet to fly him to Nigeria today never materialized because his condition had not improved enough to warrant such a trip. Most of them do not even know exactly where he really is.

A team of hangers-on made of political jobbers, politicians, governors, businessmen, power-traders and friends has gradually began to return to Nigeria after they could not meet with him in person.

Saharareporters has also learned that separate requests by former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida and Olusegun Obasanjo to visit him were rebuffed by his handlers. An angry political analyst told Saharareporters: “If Obasanjo is really a Christian, he should be visiting ordinary Nigerians, who are the victims of the mess he deliberately created, instead of trying to insult them further by using stolen public funds to visit Yar’Adua in a foreign hospital.”

With reference to what lies ahead, and the current political impasse in Nigeria, a reliable insider in Jeddah told Saharareporters that the only option being explored is for Yar'Adua to return to Nigeria for a short while in order for the political atmosphere to calm down, after which he would leave again for prolonged care.

We have also learned that a bunch of new equipment has been shipped to Nigeria in preparation for local care for Yar'Adua. A Lebanese-American medical doctor based in Boston, USA has been hired to fly to Nigeria in a very lucrative deal.

While Nigeria waits, with nobody particularly in charge, it is even less clear if when Yar’Adua would be able to leave Saudi Arabia. The FEC spokesperson, Dora Akunyili and the Secretary to the Federal Government, Ahmed Yayale who addressed the media today did not specify when Yar'adua would return.

“That is because they do not know anything,” said a commentator. “But it is critical for all of them to pretend to be in the loop. These Ministers do not know more than you and me. All they have to do is appear to be loyal. It is a cushy job, and they do not even need to pretend to be working anymore. Do you see anyone doing any work?”

Efforts by members of Yar’Adua’s kitchen cabinet to return him to Nigeria soon have so far not yielded any results, but sources told Saharareporters this evening that a “political gang” currently in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia vowed that the sickly leader will be flown home on Wednesday at all cost.

Saharareporters can reveal authoritatively that Yar’Adua has not spoken in person with anyone in Nigeria in the last 72 hours. That includes Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.

Saharareporters sources have confirmed that contrary to his advertised position on national TV last week Thursday, Mr. Jonathan has certainly not spoken to Yar’Adua since he was evacuated to Saudi Arabia on a medical emergency.

What VP Jonathan Goodluck alluded to, as his contact with the president was his conversation with Yar’adua’s State House chief of protocol, Ambassador Abba Abdullahi Tijjani.

A team of politicians led by Kwara State governor, Bukola Saraki; Bauchi State governor, Isah Yuguda; Katsina State governor; Ibrahim Shema and businessman Aliko Dangote are hanging around in Jeddah with the hope of returning with Yar’Adua on Wednesday. That state governors have no problem abandoning their states is proof that the game is loyalty, not service.

The frantic plot to return Yar’Adua home is to forestall any attempt by any one to persuade him to hand over power to his equally lackluster vice, Jonathan.

Our sources in Abuja and Jeddah said that despite the gathering of so-called political heavyweights in those cities, Yar’Adua's condition is not really known to them, since only his wife and a few of his children have had access to him in the last 72 hours. David Mark, the Nigerian Senate president, today clownishly called for a nine-day prayer for Yar’Adua while admitting that he has had no direct contact with Yar’aAdua since he his medical evacuation to Saudi Arabia. Senator Mark is Nigeria’s Number 3 citizen in the order of hierarchy. He participated in the fake turf-fight with the House of Representatives last week as they tried to cover up the fact that Yar'Adua was not well enough to deliver the national budget. In any case, presidential assistants later delivered an unprecedented four-page PowerPoint "budget" to both houses.

Saharareporters learns that the business of governance has grounded to a halt as powerful members of Yar’Adua's cabinet have swung into action to keep his “presidency” in place until the end of his tenure in 2011. Two of his top aides, Minsiter of Agriculture, Abba Ruma and his Chief Economic Adviser, Tanimu Kurfi reportedly flew in from different parts of the world into Jeddah. Abba Ruma was in the US to meet with former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, who is equally tending to his wife, Maryam who is afflicted with cancer. Tanimu was reportedly in Mauritius where he had gone on honeymoon with his latest wife, the daughter of late Bala Usman, when he abruptly returned first to Abuja to clean up some issues before heading to Jeddah to meet his principal.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has also weighed in by claiming that Yar’Adua was "stable" and plans to return home “soon”. Saharareporters sources said Yar’Adua's doctors have insisted that he requires a prolonged stay in the hospital, at first till the end of January for proper medical care and therapy, but his wife and associates are worried that should he choose to remain in Jeddah, his influence and presidency would wither away, since he would be obliged to hand over to his VP.

There has also been no formal briefing from his unusually chatty doctors and aides who initially claimed he was strong enough to attend the “Hajj,” only for his personal physician, Barau Banye, to announce to the public, through his spokesperson, that Yar’adua suffers from Acute Pericarditis, a complication of Churg Strauss disease.

A press statement issued by Yar’adua’s information minister, Dora Akunyili, today was not brimming with any optimism either as the statement did not make any allusion to a date of return for ailing Yar'adua, but generally called for “prayers” for Yar’adua and his family in “these trying times”.

criticism has trailed the “bitter truth” the United States Secretary of States, Sen. Hillary Clinton on the assessment of the Yar’Adua’s administration’s more than two year’s performance, some few days ago and to be sincere, some of the commentators on the issue should better examine themselves before they come to Equity bearing in mind that “he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.”

So many persons in government, politicians, activists and journalists as well has interpreted Mrs. Clinton’s message as either the bitter truth, outright rubbish or, as the case maybe, a ranting of a government that is somehow showcasing the theatrics of a ‘holier than thou’ attitude.

One of such comments on the issue which I find somewhat hypocritical as well as deceptive, if I should be critical in my analysis, is attributed by the Sunday Editor of the Sun Newspaper of August 16, 2009, Vol. 5 No 334 by Funke Egbemode.

In her column entitled, “And what exactly does Mrs. Clinton want?” the Editor begged to disagree with in more ways than one,” that the anti-graft Agency, the Economic and Financial Crime Committee (EFCC) has fallen off over the past two years, as delivered by the New York democrat that contested quite keenly with the present President of the United States, President Barrack Obama.

I am exactly marvelled at the clean bill of health handed down by the editor, who if my memory serves me right, was at a time, an aide to the former first lady speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Patricia Etteh. For the benefit of those who might be suffering from the syndrome of “forgetfulness”, a disease that is one of the bane’s of this country, Etteh was sent parking from her hallowed office over discrepancies in her attempt to refurbish her official apartment with over N600m.

That is certainly no news again in Nigeria and the matter has since been swept under the carpet which holds various corrupt cases that needs immediate and radical actions should our dear country be great again.

Before I digress to other issues, I would certainly, in the most critical way, present what I call the anatomy of corruption and misrule of law that has become the second nature of both the present government of Nigeria and the supposed almighty United States of America which prides itself as being the epitome of good governance.
Egbemode in her piece, tried to unsuccessfully paint the former EFCC helmsman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as someone who acted first and read the law later and heralded the present EFCC boss, Madam Farida Waziri as a lawyer and seasoned cop of international repute. She did not stop there.

“As at today she has secured 65 convictions in 12 months which represent about a third of all convictions secured since the establishment of the commission in 2003. She has also made recoveries of over N50bn in the last 12 months,” she informed. This is stale news considering the statistics in a release by the EFCC to media houses.
I will not bother to authenticate these claims by taking a cursory look at the acclaimed convictions and ‘enormous fund’ recovered. I will like to deal on one or two persons referred to as being convicted by the anti-graft agency.

Egbemode mentioned, Boni Haruna, Rasheed Ladoja, Bode George, Prince Ibrahim Dumuje, Roland Iyayi, and so on as making up the list of the 65 convictions the EFCC has recorded. Interestingly, the columnist failed to inform her readers that most of the names she pencilled are walking around and going about their business as free men; that is misinformation.

Even the former governors on the list, as we all know, are EFCC customers facing perpetual prosecutions. They are free men on bail ridiculing our judiciary system. A former Edo State Governor for instance, was given a soft landing despite his crimes, to pay N3.5m as fine for embezzling over N5b; that is the kind of convictions we have witnessed over the past 12 months under Egbemode’s famed Waziri.

However, Prince Ibrahim Dumuje though mentioned, was not a governor is connected with the infamous Police Equipment Fund (PEF) manned by Kenny Martins who outwitted all the law enforcement agents in the country with technical abracadabra that included taking refuge in a court.

Kenny Martins and his PEF robbed Nigerians and the international community of millions of dollars and these incriminating act was exposed by the human rights lawyer, Festus Keyamo and the then EFCC led Nuhu Ribadu, alerting the world of the fraud. Kenny Martins and Dumuje have been entertaining Nigerians and exhibiting how our judicial system can be manipulated. EFCC declared Dumuje wanted for fraud and conspiracy in the third degree and he is still wanted by the Kirtland Police in the US where it was discovered that a Mr. Joe Hill had been wiring money fraudulently to Ibrahim Dumuje whose date of birth is 3rd March 1956 as indicated on Dumuje’s international passport number A1049251. Police investigations revealed that Dumuje got at least $398,195 wired to him in 235 instalments. But the Farida Waziri’s EFCC is blind to this fact.

This charade smells of a government that is irresponsible and an incompetent judicial system that is handicapped. The government is not serious about tackling corruption and entrenching the “rule of law,” an anthem covering the nefarious acts of PEF actors. The question is, who is the unseen hand manipulating the system? Is it the hand of Farida Waziri, the famed cop, or Hilary Clinton, whose homeland security agencies have disregarded a court warrant hanging on Dumuje’s head. Where is the INTERPOL?

The results can be seen from the directives of a United Kingdom court that a Nigerian High Court judge should sign an agreement on the extradition process of one of Ibori’s accomplices in the massive looting of the Delta State treasury, a document signed by the Attorney General of the Federation, Mike Aondoakaa who the UK court passed a vote of no confidence to his maverick alliances with ex-governors on trial in the UK.

In retrospect, the PEF affair, for those afflicted with amnesia, should recall that the PEF was conceived with a sincerity of purpose and a vision to consolidate and empower the Nigeria Police Force. Three Nigerians conceived the idea, and before gestation, one of the visionaries was edged out under very bizarre circumstances which became the Achilles heel of Kenny Martins and Dumuje. Within a few months, N7.7 billion was deceptively withdrawn from all the 774 local governments’ councils in the country; millions of dollars were gotten from the international community financial institutions and ‘invested’ in the project.

Many heralded the dawn of a new and well-equipped Police Force. Nigerians felt that at last, trust police to serve them better but none of the objectives of the basic principles that established the fund was fulfilled. Instead, Kenny Martins, who hitherto was living like an ordinary citizen, was suddenly swimming in affluence.

He became a Father Christmas of sort and started doling out cash like has never been witnessed before. He sponsored a boxing bout, spent millions during his son’s wedding and was alleged to have acquired a vessel.
Suddenly, cars bought in the name of the Nigeria Police Force were distributed amongst his friends and other security agencies to indirectly secure an insurance against prosecution lest the files were opened.

In all these brazen display of ill gotten wealth and frantic mismanagement and misappropriation of state funds, Nigerians were alerted, the police were aware, EFCC was petitioned and the presidency notified both the upper and lower houses were in the know of the corrupt practices being perpetrated by Kenny Martins and his lieutenants but nothing happened. The media investigated and reported the fraud and it took a while for the wool to be pulled off the eyes of the police. A helicopter was paraded at Louis Edet house as part of the so-called largesse of the PEF to the police but after the show, it was never seen. Only then did the law enforcers act. The drama changed venue and act two of the unfolding theatrics continued in the courts.

The court and lawyers who appeared too involved them should be started the antics best known to them. Investigations of the cases which should have provided enough evidence for prosecution became wanting. The drama has since been on and Funke Egbemode claims the EFCC Waziri has secured 67 convictions? Can these convictions please be published on the pages of Newspapers than being mentioned in secluded press releases? Kenny Martins has been blabbing about, stating that the EFCC is incapable of prosecuting him and neither the police nor the EFCC under Waziri has proven him wrong.

At a time, “the Cop of unblemished record”, according to Egbemode, announced that beneficiaries of the car gift splash from Martins should return such gifts but it is more than a year since that order was given. Can Farida let Nigerians know how many of those Greek gifts have been returned to the EFCC? It has not bothered Farida to get the customs, another government agency that stinks of corruption, to show how the waiver gotten over the cars were utilized; information that would help her in prosecution.

The ALGON which were robbed of N10m each have not been contacted by the EFCC under Farida to explain under which circumstances a criminal withdrawal was made from their respective allocations yet, Egbemode is of the opinion that the EFCC has not fallen off.

As if the PEF scam was not enough, at least, Kenny Martins who discovered he was somehow above the law, went on to take his notorious trade outside the shores of the country.

Recently, even while still facing charges of corruption, mismanagement of funds of the PEF, Kenny Martins, used the PEF (which still bears the name ‘Police’) to defraud a company, Calvary Group of $400, 000. He was said to have illegally represented the Federal Government to defraud the American company the huge sum, an act punishable under section one (sub-section 3 and 10) of the Advance Free Fraud Act 2004.

He was also alleged to have entered into series of agreement under false pretence for the right of benefit from accessing a loan of $97.5 million from American Export –Import Bank.
Martins allegedly, illegally, presented himself as an official of Nigerian Government for the procurement of $97,800 from EXIM Bank.
These crimes, according to the charge sheet, were allegedly perpetrated by Martins between 2007 and 2008. The Federal Government was forced to embarrassingly send their defense team to tell the court and the US Bank that the loan being sought was not from the FG. With all these crimes committed so brazenly by Martins without the supposed long hands of the law catching up with him, how does President Umaru Yar’Adua expect to be invited to G8 Meetings of countries?

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Investigations investigated the activities involving the PEF and found that the monies collected from ALGON were obtained fraudulently and made a number of recommendations which included that the PEF should stop using the name Police to publicly solicit for funds and the name should be withdrawn with immediate effect; that the FG should freeze the accounts of the Presidential committee on the PEF; that a copy of the findings should be sent to the EFCC for further actions but the Demeji Bankole, the Speaker of the House of Representatives have failed to adopt the findings till date making millions of Nigerians keep wondering if the Bankole led House is assisting in upholding the rule of law or acting otherwise. Instead, what Nigerians have been witnessing is a slow motion justice system where the alleged criminals are granted bail to go and receive medical treatment abroad and while the Waziri-led EFCC is barking and not biting hard as was the case when Nuhu Ribadu was there.

The recent shake up in the banking sector has all of a sudden brought the EFCC to limelight again with the arraignment of the sacked bank chiefs. Waziri may have gotten a lifeline but then, the whole exercise smells of suspicion as nothing has been heard of some of the companies allegedly belonging to James Ibori that is owing billions of Naira to these banks. Another episode of comedy has been unleashed on Nigerians but what we ask is what is happening to the many cases involving the ex-governors, Kenny Martins and the PEF fraud of which Farida Waziri has swept under the carpet. The law is supposed to be no respecter of persons but it seems we still have highly placed sacred cows walking about and boasting of their connections in high places.

In all these, corruption has a face; we see them everyday in our television, on the pages of newspapers and hear their voices on the radio; their houses are in the choice areas in Maitama or Ikoyi and they are still the same people that have crippled our financial institutions. What worries me is that in all these embezzlement, fraud and mismanagement of public funds, we have never seen one of the faces of corruption convicted like we saw when a former Inspector-General of police was jailed yet Waziri and the EFCC is blind to all that we see and hear. Maybe Funke Egbemode can better explain.

Let those that are evil know this, “the evil that men do will certainly live after them and their generations to come.”

God Bless Nigeria.

Edward Egbabera
Coalition for a Corrupt-free Nigeria (CCN)

Sources-Saharareporters

By Tony Edike

ENUGU— Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders in the South East, yesterday resolved to do all within their powers to ensure the victory of the party’s candidate in the February 6, 2010 gubernatorial election in Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo.

The party leaders said the Anambra election would be a test case to their determination to reclaim the two remaining states of Abia and Anambra for the party, saying that they were not ready to leave any of the South East States to opposition parties.

Among those who attended the meeting which took place at the Nike Lake Resort were Education Minister, Dr Sam Egwu, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Deputy Governor of Imo State, Mrs. Ada Okwuonu, Professor Soludo, Senators Enyinaya Abaribe, Annie Okonkwo, Julius Ucha, Anyim Ude, Nkechi Nwaogu, Osita Izunaso amongst others.

Addressing newsmen after the meeting, the National Vice Chairman of the party in the zone, Chief Olisa Metuh said that the meeting resolved that the Anambra election remained a must win for the party, noting that the zonal working committee had temporarily relocated to Awka, to give all the necessary support to the party’s candidates.

He also said that efforts were in top gear to reach out to those who were aggrieved as a result of Soludo’s emergence, noting that already, the National Reconciliation Committee headed by Dr Egwu had already met with Senator Annie Okonkwo and Chief Nicholas Ukachukwu, while another meeting had been scheduled with the self acclaimed political god-father of Anambra State, Chief Chris Uba.

“We are doing all within our powers to ensure that nothing stops us from winning the Anambra election. We are already reaching out to those who still feel unhappy with the way and manner Soludo emerged. We hope that before long, we shall achieve success,” Metuh said.

Turai Yar'Adua

until we overcome our emotional useless misplaced priority patriotism and demand the right thing to be done in Nigeria,am sorry we will continue like this,until theUNSEEN intervenes

if you are a christain,there certain people who are described as walking dead.they cant do aything.i will be happy to wrestle yar'adua's spirit.i will be nice and unprecedented to do that.

is jonathan dead or ill? why should the section of the country that fuels the engine of this nation be denied the highest office? tell me,is the presidency of this nation the north's,south east or south west right?