Corruption: EFCC removes Ibori from list of ex-governors on trial
By Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja
Published: Saturday, 11 Apr 2009
There are strong indications that the Federal Government and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission might have tactically discontinued the corruption trial of a former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori.


[b]Presidency sources said that Ibori‘s name did not appear on the list of former governors still being tried by the EFCC for corruption while in office.

But the names of former governors Ayo Fayose (Ekiti), Orji Kalu (Abia) Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu), Sani Ahmed (Zamfara), Saminu Turaki (Jigawa), Rashidi Ladoja (Oyo), Joshua Dariye (Plateau) and Jolly Nyame of Taraba State were still on the new list.

Also, it was gathered that the EFCC had appealed the ruling of the Federal High Court Enugu, on a former governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion.

The court had sentenced Igbinedion to a fine of N3, 579,524.16 on a one count charge, for his failure to declare the said amount found in his Guaranty Trust Bank account.

Before Igbinedion was let off the hook, he was slammed with a 191-count charge for corrupt enrichment, money laundering and embezzlement by the commission during the early period of his trial before the charges against him were abridged.

Ibori, the two-time ex-governor of Delta State, is believed to be the biggest financial sponsor of Alhaji Umaru Yar‘Adua‘s Presidential campaign in the 2007 election. His arrest, detention and trial marked the beginning of the chain of events that culminated in the removal of the former EFCC boss, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu.

It was learnt that the EFCC compiled the latest list of ex-governors undergoing trials, in which Ibori’s name was omitted, on Tuesday last week.

”Do you know that the commission has just compiled the names of those facing trials for alleged corruption and the name of Chief James Ibori is conspicuously missing? I don‘t know why it is like that, but all I can tell you is that his name is no longer on the list, which I saw,” a source in the EFCC said.

Since the inception of Yar‘Adua‘s administration, Ibori is known to be an influential figure supporting his government and had a cabinet nominee, just as he had followed the President on a state visit abroad.

Apart from his botched prosecution in Nigeria, Ibori was also tried in London where a case against him was dismissed on the grounds that the evidence did not emanate from the Nigerian government.

A day after the Court of Appeal in London ruled on the matter, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Michael Aondoakaa, SAN, had said that the trial of Ibori would continue in Nigeria .

He said the Nigerian government would not shield anyone from being tried for corruption.

Andoakaa had said that the evidence of the London Metropolitan Police and the trial of Ibori were abuse of Nigeria ‘s bilateral agreement with the UK, stressing that his office would seek for the evidence with a view to studying it.

He had said, ”We have no intention to protect any corrupt person in the country. The case against James Ibori would run its natural course in the court. We protested against what the Met Police did, not because it was Ibori, but it was against the sovereignty of the country. We have to look at the treaty which says that such evidence must have the permission of the government as not doing that could lead to anarchy as several people could just come here and take evidence and use it to prosecute people anyhow.

”In that case, the sovereignty of Nigeria is at stake and I am happy the judges in London agreed that you don‘t just enter into another country and bring evidence against an accused person without the authority of the government in that country.”

Hardly had he finished speaking on December 19, 2008 than the Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna said it was wrong to arraign the former governor in far away Kaduna. [/b]
The court said that it was wrong for the EFCC to try Ibori in Kaduna which is about 700 kilometres away from Delta State, where he allegedly committed the offence.

According to Justice Amina Adamu-Augie of the Appeal Court, who delivered the lead judgment, the case file should be returned to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment to a court of competent jurisdiction.

But since the December ruling, neither the EFCC nor Aondoakaa‘s office had taken any steps towards continuing the trial.

An EFCC source told Saturday Punch that since the Appeal Court ruling, many of the commission‘s cases against ex-governors had suffered set backs as they now claim that the courts where they were currently being tried lacked jurisdiction to handle their cases.

However, reacting to the delisting of Ibori‘s name from the EFCC list of ex-governors facing trial, Aondoakaa said the case would be pursued to its logical conclusion.

Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Taiye Akinyemi, on Thursday in response to an enquiry by our correspondent, the AGF reminded Nigerians who are anxious to see the determination of the Ibori case that the Halliburton bribe scandal happened 14 years ago and it is now that some facts about it are unfolding.

He said both the EFCC and the London cases would be looked into.

”This (London) case is not the type of case that can be rushed. What Nigerians should know is that there must be a structure and that rule of law must be followed. That is what the government is doing in collaboration with the foreign country involved,” Akinyemi said.

The AGF spokesman added, ”No matter the interest we have and our level of impatience, we must follow what the law says, and that is the only way we can achieve success. The request that the AGF talked about in December 2008, as you said, had been made and as soon as a reply is got, action would be taken and Nigerians would be duly informed.
”
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200904111501426

;d ;d

Uniben

Welcome to University of Port Harcourt
http://www.uniport.edu.ng/

ok.

the binis have no shame?

The story of Nigeria's 'untouchables'
By Andrew Walker
BBC News, Enugu, Nigeria

Pastor Cosmos Aneke Chiedozie is about to make an admission that virtually no Nigerian like him would be prepared to make.

"My grandfather was an Osu," he says.

[b]He is standing outside his church in Enugu, south-eastern Nigeria, clutching his Bible which he believes has saved him from being a marked man.

Among the Igbo people of eastern Nigeria the Osu are outcasts, the equivalent of being an "untouchable".

Years ago he and his family would be shunned by society, banished from communal land, banned from village life and refused the right to marry anyone not from an Osu family.

Marriage

The vehemence of the tradition has weakened over the last 50 years.

“ I remember when I was a child, seeing the Osu and running away ”
Prof Ben Obumselu
Nowadays the only trouble the Osu encounter is when they try and get married.

But the fear of social stigma is still strong - to the point that most would never admit to being an Osu.

They fear the consequences for their families in generations to come or at the hands of people who still believe in the old ways.

It took the BBC a long time track down an Osu willing to talk, Igbo journalists, human rights advocates, academics and politicians could suggest no-one.

It was only by chance that Cosmos admitted his family were Osu after an interview with the Pentecostal church - known to oppose the tradition.

Now a born-again Christian, he has had a hard fight to escape the stigma of the Osu.

Sacrifice

People say the Osu are the descendants of people sacrificed to the gods, hundreds of years ago.

“ The village said the reason I was ill was I was being possessed by the spirit of my grandfather, and he was angry that we had rejected the old ways ”
Cosmos Aneke Chiedozie
But an academic who has researched Igbo traditions says he believes the Osu were actually a kind of "living sacrifice" to the gods from the community.

"I remember when I was a child, seeing the Osu and running away," says Professor Ben Obumselu, former vice-president of the influential Igbo organisation Ohaneze Ndi Igbo.

"They were banned from all forms of civil society; they had no land, lived in the shrine of the gods, and if they could, would farm the land next to the road."

"It was believed that they had been dedicated to the gods, that they belonged to them, rather then the world of the human," he said.

Nigeria's growing cities began to break down such traditions of village life, he says.

"If someone lives in Lagos these days, the only time a person may come into contact with it is when they are planning to get married. They go home to tell their families, their parents turn around and say, 'No you can't marry because they're Osu.'"

Initiated

Cosmos' father had denounced the traditional beliefs that made him an outcast from society.

He raised Cosmos to be a Christian too, hoping the bloodline of the Osu would be broken.

But when Cosmos was a child his grandfather died and at around the same time Cosmos fell sick.

"The village said the reason I was ill was I was being possessed by the spirit of my grandfather, and he was angry that we had rejected the old ways," he said.

The village elders put pressure on his father to initiate Cosmos into the old traditions and culture.

It was either that, or he would die, they said.

So he left church, learnt about the spirits and his status in the village.

Outlaw

But this ostracism, he now believes, left him without "moral direction".

He became an itinerant smuggler and outlaw, bringing in goods illegally over Nigeria's northern border from Niger.

“ The continued belief in ritual avoidance has caused great harm to society ”
Prof Ben Obumselu
Eventually he was arrested and thrown in jail.

"It was in the prison yard that I was born again," he said.

"When I believed in the old ways, I could not marry or be part of my community," he said.

"Now I've been born again, I have rejected all that, and my wife, she is born again too, and doesn't care about it either."

His wife's family had also rejected the traditions of the Osu and did not object to their daughter's choice of husband.

Education advantage

Other Osu have been able to use the ostracism to their advantage, says Mr Obumselu.

Unable to make a way in village life, some Osu embraced "Western" education and became Nigeria's first doctors and lawyers, he says.

Consequently many of modern Igboland's prominent families are Osu.

So why does the stigma remain?

Mr Obumselu says the traditions have a lingering hold on people because they are not sure how much power the "old ways" still have.

Traditionally the Osu are treated as a people apart, but were never the victims of violence.

But today some community conflicts have erupted between people each accusing the other of being Osu, Mr Obumselu says.

"The continued belief in ritual avoidance has caused great harm to society, especially in Enugu."

Pentecostal churches, like Mr Chiedozie's, are having an effect and a growing population may also drown out the stigma of being Osu, says Mr Obumselu.

"After all, if in 1800 there might only be a handful of Osu in any place, in 2000 it may be a third of the village!" [/b] Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/a ,  977734.stm

Witchcraft: Community Sacks Six; Sets Homes, Farms Ablaze
April 09, 2009 14:22, 271 views

By Emma Una /Calabar


[b]
The Anineje Community in Akamkpa, in the outskirts of Calabar, the Cross River state capital, sacked six members of the community after they allegedly confessed to possessing witchcraft powers.


The six men, whose names are given as Ebiale Dan, Aseng Ela, Josiah Samuel, Doctor Abat, Ella Ella, and Sampson Ono, were alleged to possess witchcraft powers with which they have been terrorizing other members of the community through untimely deaths, ill fortune and bad farm harvest. Consequently, the members of the community are alleged to have destroyed their houses, farms and domestic animals.

When P.M.NEWS visited the village, the Village Head was said to have travelled to Calabar, but an elder of the village, who gave his name as Onun Egaje Ekpa, said: “Happenings in the village in the past few years clearly indicate that Anineje was under a spell and we had to seek for the source and it was revealed to us that those persons were carrying our village on their heads and have brought untold havoc on us.” According to him, the people were asked to vacate the village since they do no want the peace and prosperity of the place.

“You cannot say you belong to a place if you do not want the place to prosper, the appropriate thing is to leave, which we asked them to do.” The sacked villagers are currently taking refuge in neighbouring villages. However, some of the relatives of the sacked persons are threatening violence if the village does not rescind the decision to sack their kith and kin. ‘’This is quite barbaric. Where do they want them to go? When the so called village head comes back, if he does not call these people to order and return my relatives back, they shall have no rest any more here,” Egab Ntui, a relative of some of the sacked persons, who teaches in the village school, told P.M.NEWS. The Police spokesman for the Cross River Police Command, ASP Dickson Essien, said the situation in the village is being monitored by the police and would soon dispatch men to keep watch there.[/b]


http://thepmnews.com/2009/04/09/witchcraft-community-sacks-six-sets-homes-farms-ablaze

Akala, Fashola on war path over dumping of destitutes   
Written by Ola Ajayi     
Friday, 10 April 2009 

OYO State Governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala and Raji Fashola of Lagos are now at daggers drawn over the alleged dumping of about 120 destitutes by the [b]Lagos State Government in Ibadan. Following his resolve to rid Lagos State of destitute that have become nuisance in major streets, Vanguard gathered that some of the destitutes who claimed they are from Oyo State were conveyed back to Ibadan yesterday.

It was further gathered that the destitutes had earlier been camped at Majidun, Ikorodu in the last six months. But due to congestion, the government, as reliably gathered, sorted out those who had been mentally deranged and taken responsibility for their rehabilitation while those  who are still mentally balanced were said to have been taken back to their various states.

One of the destitute, Fehintola Oguntola who claimed to be an indigene of Ilesa, Osun State said she was seeing off her friend when some officials of the state government picked her up and took her to Majidun about seven months ago. Further investigation revealed that some of the destitutes were from Kwara and Osun States.

Some of them who spoke with Vanguard said they were given N200 before they took off from Lagos. They said they were abandoned at Molete on the wee hours of Thursday.

But Akala is already fuming with anger on the decision of the Lagos State Government, saying he would not accept it at this period he is trying to rid the ancient city of destitute. He said his government would not take it lightly with the Lagos State Government.

Akala said, through his Special Adviser on Public Communication, Prince Dotun Oyelade that “the information that eight buses filled with destitute were dumped in Ibadan today is absolutely unacceptable. The matter will be taken up at the highest level”.

“Oyo government is working hard to clean the environment and rid the city of destitute and any act of sabotage from Lagos or any neighbouring state will be highly resisted”, he vowed.[/b]


http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/33274/46/

oluchi is ugly

Naomi.

Abia again.?

The culture of eatting human flesh rituals/blood money like those ones they show in ejiro movies.

the culture of widow marring their late husband brothers
the culture of money conscious

the culture of widow drinking water from their late husband bathing water.
the culture of osu discrimination.

the culture of high bride price.
more later,

lightskin nigerians.
Esan/ishan

Kalabari 

Ibibio

Efik

Etsakor

Owan

ijaw.

/o Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation [HRJPF]

93, Market Road, First Floor, Back, Aba, Abia State, Nigeria

E-mail: hrjpfoundation@yahoo.com

Tel: +234 803 505 6312

8TH April, 2009

PRESS RELEASE

[b]ABIA, NOT SAFE

In the early hours of today, two expatriate staff of the 7UP Bottling Company, Ogbor Hill, Aba, Abia State, were kidnapped and taken to an unknown destination by bye-products of the T.A. Orji-led mal-administration.


Recall that since Orji’s ascension to power through the backdoor of corruption of the electoral process, kidnapping for ransom and ritual, which was alien to the state has become the order of the day. An average of two persons is kidnapped every week in Abia State.  This explains why Abia was rated as the state leading with over 100 cases of kidnapping in Nigeria.

Rather than gear efforts towards eradicating this cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabric of the ill-fated state, the new civilian dictator, chose to travel to the United States of America to launder his image. Also, a close aide of the Governor who is apparently uncomfortable with the continued criminal ruination of the state confided in us that Orji travelled with hundreds of millions of Abia funds for purchase of property overseas.

One of the lies the Governor who, before his criminal imposition on Abians was standing trial for over 100 count charges of stealing of the funds of the suffering and dying people of Abia, sold to the rented crowd in Maryland, was that kidnapping has been reduced to 80% in the crisis-ridden state.

But the kidnapping of expatriate staff of a construction firm working along Ohafia-Arochukwu Road on 5 th April, 2009; killing of two mobile policemen at Opobo Road, Ogbor Hill, Aba on 7 th April, 2009; and the abduction of two staff of the 7UP Bottling Company on 8 th April, 2009, at Ogbor Hill, Aba, respectively have once again vindicated our stand that Governor Orji is a pathological liar. He is not only an expert in spreading the blanket of lies on his people but also derives great pleasure from the anguish of his suffering and dying people.

As a result of the insincerity of the Orji-led mal-administration in eradicating kidnapping for ransom and rituals as well as armed robbery in the state, we call on foreigners to stay clear from Abia State for any reasons until the state is safe for them.

May we also use this opportunity to call on the FBI and the Interpol to beam their searchlight on Governor Orji of Abia State whose administration has been sponsoring terrorism in his state? [/b]   

Comrade Chidi Nwosu

President

Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation [HRJPF]

 

Comrade David Kalu

Regional Secretary [South-East]

Campaign for Democracy [CD]

 

Comrade Cassius Ukwugbe

General Secretary

Centre for the Advancement of Children’s and Women’s Rights [CACWR]

 

Miss Meg Chukwu

General Secretary

Centre Against Human Rights Violations and Corrupt Practices [CAHRVCP]



http://pointblanknews.com/pressrelease170.html

Ambrose Ali.