The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has parted ways with one of its top prosecutors amid a sprawling probe into how a high-profile case was bungled last month.

The anti-corruption office received a severe reprimand from a federal judge last week during a verdict on the criminal bribery case involving former attorney-general Bello Adoke, the proprietors of Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd, and multinational giants Eni and Shell. Justice Abubakar Kutigi threw out the case, which the EFCC first filed in 2020 before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, saying the agency wasted four years yet was still unable to prove key elements of its indictment.

The case was the last serious attempt by the Nigerian government to impose accountability on organisations and individuals with suspected ties to the vast corruption that has for years plagued the possession of Nigeria’s deepwater OPL 245 oil block. The new Tinubu administration had already abandoned the civil liability strand of the controversial deal in favour of a lucrative business deal with the oil firms, Peoples Gazette previously reported.

Officials managing the situation told The Gazette the EFCC brass moved quickly to castigate Offem Uket as the wellspring of untold humiliation the agency suffered in court after he suddenly said there was no inculpatory evidence to send Mr Adoke and another suspect Abubakar Aliyu to jail or foist criminal liability on Eni and Shell.

Mr Uket, one of the agency’s prolific prosecutors who earlier handled cases involving Stella Oduah, Peter Nwaoboshi and Sambo Dasuki, was terminated because the agency’s chairman, Ola Olukoyede, was particularly incensed by the prosecutor’s alleged misconduct, according to multiple officials briefed on the matter.

“He was sacked because extensive internal investigation revealed he compromised the case,” an official familiar told The Gazette. “But this may not be the end of the matter.”

The official said the EFCC planned to fight to resuscitate the case through an appeal process because there was enough evidence against the suspects and Mr Uket went rogue in his submission declaring otherwise before the court.

The agency initially tried to save the case in Mr Kutigi’s courtroom, but Mr Adoke and Wole Olanipekun — defence attorney for Mr Abubakar — filed opposing motions and the judge said it was already too late.

Prior to his controversial submission that led to the granting of the defendants’ motion to dismiss, Mr Uket had told some of his office that he was under pressure to accept bribes from Messrs Adoke and Olanipekun, officials said under anonymity to discuss an active investigation.

“He reported to the office that he was under pressure of financial inducement from Bello Adoke and Wole Olanipekun over the case,” another official said. “But we thought he was just following internal ethical compliance by informing the office, we didn’t know this would happen.”

The Gazette was not immediately able to ascertain the steepness of Mr Uket’s ties to the suspects. He did not return a request seeking comment, but some of his colleagues said his action came as a shock because he had displayed his mettle as some of the agency’s best hands.

One of the officials said Mr Uket’s contract was not renewed as part of the fallout from the botched trial, adding that he departed on a good note with the agency’s executives.

“His contract expired around the time he was accused of sabotaging the Malabu case,” one official said. “That’s why it was amicably decided that he should not be granted a renewal.”

Officials did not immediately convey whether or not the probe would remain limited to Mr Uket or be expanded to include those suspected of having offered bribes to the ousted prosecutor.

The 1991 graduate of the University of Nigeria Nsukka joined the police shortly after completing school, from where he moved to the EFCC as a contractor in the aughts. His ouster may leave a vacuum in the agency’s pool of prosecutors and marked only the latest in charges bordering on prosecutorial sabotage. For several years, attorney Festus Keyamo was bruised from charges that he sabotaged cases while serving as a contractor prosecuting cases for the EFCC during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Mr Keyamo later teamed up with some of the politicians he was purportedly prosecuting in the All Progressives Congress and went on to clinch ministerial position twice, including now as aviation minister under President Bola Tinubu.

Mr Olanipekun declined comments over two days. But Mr Adoke, who stepped down a criminal case against Mr Tinubu in 2011, said he did not offer bribes to the official, accusing the EFCC of being out to further besmirch his reputation after beating the agency’s charges in several courts in and out of Nigeria.

“Not in this world would I offer Uket bribe or anyone for that matter,” the former attorney-general said in a statement to The Gazette. “It is unfortunate that anyone would come up with such a lame excuse. I have no reason to offer Uket or anyone bribe.”

“Don’t forget that they lost their cases in London and Milan, and the U.S. Department of Justice and SEC found nothing wrong with the transaction, and ditto the Dutch government. The claim is utterly ridiculous cynical, and irresponsible,” he said.

While the cases against Eni and Shell in Italy were resolved in favour of the multinational giants, they did not necessarily suggest Mr Adoke’s innocence of the bribery allegations because he was not a party in the lawsuits. Moreover, the Italian court said evidence submitted at trial indicated Mr Adoke received $2 million in suspicious payment as part of the 2011 deal.

The Nigerian politician, however, continued to maintain his innocence and has touted the recent judgement in Abuja as his most resounding vindication yet. The EFCC, however, vowed to make the suspects’ victory lap short-term because the case would be handled by a different prosecutor who would effectively itemise evidence on appeal.

The Federal Government and the International Criminal Police Organisation have commenced the process of extraditing a Binance chief, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who escaped from detention on March 22.

Security agencies had in February arrested Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan, two executives of the crypto-currency firm, Binance Holdings Limited, over alleged money laundering.

They were detained in ‘a safe house’ in Abuja on the order of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.

Among other charges, the firm and the two executives were arraigned for $35,400,000 money laundering at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

But on Friday, March 22, Anjarwalla escaped from detention and left the country using a Kenyan passport.

On Tuesday, top government sources confirmed to The PUNCH that the process of extraditing the fugitive had begun.

The sources noted that Anjarwalla’s absence would not affect the arraignment of Binance and Tigran and Gambaryan in court on Thursday over a five-count money laundering charge.

“Mr Anjarwalla’s extradition process has begun. The Federal Government is working as did with INTERPOL to extradite the fugitive to Nigeria. He’s a fugitive that escaped from lawful custody, and his other partner is still in custody and would be arraigned on Thursday alongside their company, Binance,” a source noted.

Another source revealed, “It is true that the Federal Government has commenced the process of extraditing Binance’ Anjarwalla in order to bring him back to Nigeria to answer to his money laundering case in court, among others. The arraignment of Binance and Gambaryan in court on Thursday will also aide Anjarwalla’s extradition.”

Meanwhile, a top security source confirmed to our correspondent that the soldiers detailed to monitor Anjarwalla were being grilled by special investigators drawn from the military, Department of State Services, the police, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the National Intelligence Agency.

“The soldiers detailed to monitor Anjarwalla have been detained as you know, and they’re still being grilled by special investigators drawn from various security and intelligence agencies and services- the military, DSS, NIA, and the police, all hands are on deck as it is a matter of national security.”

Meanwhile, the EFCC will on Thursday arraign Binance Holdings Limited and two of its senior executives Gambaryan; and Anjarwalla, th fugitive over alleged $35,400,000 money laundering.

The EFCC had on Thursday, March 28, charged Binance Holdings Limited, Gambaryan, Anjarwalla with $35,400,000 money laundering.

The EFCC which has now fully taken over the case from the Office of the National Security Adviser, has also detained Gambaryan, and obtained a court warrant to arrest and extradite Anjarwalla.

Confirming the development to our correspondent on Friday, impeccable sources noted that Anjarwalla would be arraigned in an absentia alongside Binance and Mr Gambaryan who’s now in EFCC custody.

“The detained Binance executive, Gambaryan is now in custody of the EFCC. The NSA has totally handed over the matter to the EFCC for investigation and prosecution. The commission has charged Binance, Gambaryan and Anjarwalla to court for $35,400,000 money laundering, and they’ll be arraigned in court on Thursday, April 4, 2024.” a source noted.

Another source revealed that, “The EFCC is now partnering the International Criminal Police Organisation, the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation, the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Kenyan government, to effect the arrest and extradition of Mr Anjarwalla, the fugitive who fled from lawful custody in Nigeria.”

Following the takeover of the investigation into the alleged financial irregularities committed by Binance, the EFCC had filed five-count charges bordering on money laundering against the crypto-currency giant and two of its executives, Anjarwalla and Gambaryan.

The court documents obtained by our correspondent revealed that the charges were filed on Thursday, March 28, 2024, before the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Abuja division.

The charges read, “That you, Binance Holdings Limited (“aka Binance”) Tigran Gambaryan, and Nadeem Anjarwalla (now at large), between January, 2023 and January, 2024 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court carried on specialized business of other financial institution without valid licence and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 57(1) and (2) of the Banks and Other Financial, Institutions Act, 2020 and punishable under section 57(5) of the same Act.

“Count two, that you, Binance Holdings Limited (“aka Binance”) Tigran Gambaryan, and Nadeem Anjarwalla (now at large), between January, 2022 and January, 2024 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court engaged in business of other financial institution (other than insurance, stock broking and pension fund management) without valid licence and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 58(5) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, 2020.


“Count three, that you, Binance Holdings Limited (“aka Binance”) between January, 2022 and January, 2024 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court not being an authorized dealer in Nigeria’s Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market used your virtual asset services platform to unlawfully negotiate foreign exchange rates in Nigeria and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 29(1) (c) of the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring And Miscellaneous Provisions) Act.

“Count four, that you, Binance Holdings Limited (“aka Binance”) Tigran Gambaryan, and Nadeem Anjarwalla (now at large), and other persons at large between January, 2023 and January, 2024 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court conspired amongst yourselves to conceal the origin of the proceeds of your unlawful activities and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 21 (a) and punishable under section 18(3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

“Count five, that you, Binance Holdings Limited (“aka Binance”) Tigran Gambaryan, and Nadeem Anjarwalla between January, 2023 and December, 2023 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court concealed the origin of a cumulative sum of $35,400, 000 (Thirty Five Million, Four Hundred United States Dollars) generated as revenue by Binance in Nigeria knowing that the funds constituted proceeds of unlawful activity and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 18(3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and prohibition) Act, 2022.”

The Federal Government, on Monday last week, contacted the INTERPOL and issued an arrest warrant for the apprehension of Anjarwalla, who escaped from lawful custody.

The PUNCH reported on March 26, 2024 that the accused used a Kenyan passport to escape, while his colleague was still in custody.

According to the report, Anjarwalla, escaped from Abuja through a Middle East airliner.

The office of the NSA had confirmed the escape of Anjarwalla in a statement issued in Abuja on March 26 by the Head of its Strategic Communication, Zakari Mijinyawa, who stated that preliminary investigation showed that the escapee fled Nigeria using a smuggled international passport.

Anjarwalla escaped from ‘a safe house’ where he and his colleague were detained guarded by heavily armed soldiers.

Financial Times had on February 28, 2024, reported that two executives of the company were arrested and detained after they flew into the country as a result of a ban on their website.

On March 12, 2024, the FT reported that the EFCC asked Binance to share data on its 100 top users in Nigeria as well as all transaction history for the past six months.

According to the report, the request is at the centre of negotiations between Binance and Nigeria.

There is panic in the Nigerian financial sector over massive job losses as banks battle to meet the recently announced minimum capital requirements by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The National President of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions, Olusoji Oluwole, expressed these concerns during an interview with Channels Television on Monday.

He said the Association had already informed the CBN and the Ministry of Labour about the impact of the recapitalization exercise on workers in the sector.

“We are very aware of what happened in the past during such recapitalization programmes, the last being in 2005. We knew that some banks had to pull it through themselves, some through mergers, others through acquisition.

“It has an impact on the employment of workers; because of that experience, we have proactively acted by informing the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Labour of the likelihood of the programme on our members.

“When things like this happen, there are bound to be jobs lost. We expect that there will be a lot of fairness in the actions of the banks and to ensure that our members are well protected and compensated”, he said.

DAILY POST recalls that the CBN raised the minimum capital requirements for commercial banks with international authorization, National Spread Regional, Merchant Banks, National Non-Interest Banks, and Regional Non-interest between 100 and 900 per cent last Thursday.

What the 2024 Recapitalization exercise means

With the move, the CBN proposed to achieve the $1 trillion economy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government.

Also, the bank said the exercise would engender the emergence of healthier banks with the capacity to underwrite larger levels of credit/loans.

The development came nearly 19 years after the apex bank had last conducted its recapitalization exercise in 2005 under former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Prof Charles Soludo as CBN governor.

According to reports, over 5,000 staff members of affected banks such as Oceanic bank, Fin Bank, Spring Bank, Union Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Stanbic IBTC, and others lost their jobs.

This is why the announcement of the 2024 recapitalization programme sent a shockwave across the country’s banking sector.


Banks’ available options

CBN had given all the banks 24 months, starting from April 1, 2024, to kick the ground running in meeting the new set capital benchmark.

Within the set period, Nigerian banks have been boxed into Injecting fresh equity capital through private placements, rights issue/or offer subscriptions, mergers and acquisitions( M & As) and Upgrades or downgrades of license authorization options.

It is left to banks to explore either option to escape extinction.


Controversy clause

Unlike in the 2005 recapitalization exercise, CBN placed a caveat that 2024 minimum capital requirements shall only comprise paid-up capital and share premiums, ruling out the shareholders’ funds.

The non-inclusion of the Shareholders’ Fund had raised dust among the sector’s players.

In his statement reacting to the development, Johnson Chukwu, CEO of Cowry Assets Management Limited, faulted the exclusion of retained earnings and advised the CBN to align the new capital requirements with industry dynamics to facilitate a seamless transition.


Will Nigerian Banks Survive 2024 Capitalization?

With the development, the top ten Tier 1 and 2, namely Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, United Bank of Africa, Access Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, EcoBank, Stanbic IBTC, First City Monument Bank, Fidelity, Sterling and others, will have raised over N3.3 trillion minimum capital base in 24 months.

Meanwhile, Ernst and Young, a global financial services company, had earlier predicted that about 17 banks would survive recapitalization.

“In a worst-case scenario, i.e., given a capital multiplier of 15, about 17 out of 24 banks would not meet the new minimum capital,” it said.


Financial Experts Reactions

Speaking to DAILY POST on Monday, a renowned economist and former President and Chairman of the Council of Chartered Institute of Bankers, Prof Segun Ajibola, said many banks may be unable to meet the current requirements, especially the family-like banks in terms of ownership and operation.

The economist said that a successful banking recapitalization exercise could benefit the Nigerian economy if well implemented.

According to him, with the exercise, Nigeria’s domestic economy will enjoy the patronage of existing and new local and foreign investors to meet the capital requirements. However, he said the country needs to be mindful of how the ownership of Nigerian banks can be ceded to foreign interests.

“The recapitalization of Nigerian banks by their owners is no doubt an exercise that is long awaited due to the current value of Naira, and by extension the size of the bank’s financial position, when viewed globally. The current value has constrained the banks’ capacity to handle large ticket deals even within the domestic economy.

“Many banks may be unable to meet the current requirements, especially the family-like banks in ownership and operation. There may be voluntary and involuntary mergers and acquisitions.

“One only hopes that the situation of 2005, when banks formed ”unholy alliances” and strange bedfellows, those with conflicting orientations, cultures and governance practices, were forced together to save their shareholders from total loss, etc. Some banks may seek downgrades as a way out of pollution and dilution of their shareholders.

“It remains to be seen if the domestic economy can cough out the funds required to meet the required capital.

“However, the flow of foreign funds to the Nigerian economy by the existing and would-be shareholders will be a welcome development if it happens.

“There is a need for the authorities to assure potential investors of stable and consistent investment and exchange control policies for a safe and predictable investment environment, among others.

“The definition of what constitutes capital under the Basel Accord is shifting from Tier I to Tier III. As said earlier, it is hoped that the domestic economy will enjoy the patronage of existing and new local and foreign investors to meet the capital requirements.

“Again, one is mindful of the extent to which the ownership of Nigerian banks can be ceded to foreign interests.

“A successful banking recapitalization exercise can have a beneficial impact on the Nigerian economy. It can help to rejuvenate the overall growth of different sectors of the economy through appropriate, timely funding of economic activities.

“Yes, it has the likely effect of crowding out investments in other suitable areas of the economy. It can lead to some job losses. But the overall benefits outweigh these side effects if successfully executed”, he told DAILY POST.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, said that the real issue is that Nigeria’s soaring inflation has weakened the value of money over time, which makes recapitalization imperative and inevitable.

He, however, urged that the exercise be done to minimize shocks and disruptions to the banking system and the economy.

Yusuf added that the apex bank should caution all players in the banking sector against predatory and other anti-competitive practices in the industry because of the recapitalization policy.

He told DAILY POST: “The last major review of the minimum capital requirement was done in 2005, some 18 years ago. That was under President Olusegun Obasanjo, with Prof Charles Soludo as CBN governor.

“But since then, the value of the minimum capital has been significantly eroded by inflation. For instance, the official exchange rate in 2005 was about N130 to the dollar.

“This meant that the N25 billion for a national bank, for instance, was equivalent to $192 million. The naira equivalent today is about N250 billion. The International Banking license would be about $384 million, an equivalent of about N500 billion.

“The capitalization requirement has not increased materially in real terms when adjusted for inflation.

“The real issue is that inflation has weakened money’s value over time, making recapitalization imperative and inevitable.

“The essence is to ensure the safety of depositors’ funds, strengthen the financial system’s stability, deepen the banking system’s resilience and reposition the bank to support growth.

“Reports from the Central Bank of Nigeria attest that Nigerian banks have good soundness indicators. The industry Capital Adequacy Ratio as of January was 13.7 per cent, above the prudential threshold of 10 per cent.

“The Non-Performing Loans as a ratio of total loan assets was 4.81 per cent as against the prudential threshold of 5 per cent, which is also positive. The liquidity ratio is 40.14 against the prudential minimum of 30 per cent, which also reflects a healthy position.

“The summary is that based on the financial soundness metrics, Nigerian banks are judged to be generally healthy.

“However, this does not diminish the need for regulatory authority to ensure that this soundness and stability are preserved and improved, especially because of the recent macroeconomic headwinds.

“This, perhaps, is what informed the current policy of the CBN to review the capital base”, he stated.

Similarly, the CEO of SD & D Capital Management, Mr Idakolo Gbolade, said the recapitalization exercise will allow Nigeria to maintain its leading role in the African continent.

“The recapitalization of banks in categories is long overdue”, he told DAILY POST and advocated for the expansion of our economy.

“The time frame is very adequate as well. Some international banks have already envisaged this process and have started making provisions early enough. Banks that cannot meet the new capital requirements have mergers and acquisitions options.

“Nigeria has the highest GDP in Africa, and for us to maintain that position and operate a trillion-dollar economy, the banks must be adequately capitalized.

“A trillion dollar economy must have local capacity to initiate and execute million dollar transactions locally without foreign intervention in key areas of development like oil and gas, steel production, mining, mega construction projects and Public Private Partnerships with the government.

“This can only materialize if we have adequately capitalized banks that can rise to the occasion. Nigerian banks also need to take pride in Africa regarding capitalization because Nigerian banks are not among the most capitalized in Africa.

“Therefore, this new recapitalization policy will adequately position our banks for the emergency economy in Nigeria or Africa and worldwide.

“The exclusion of shareholders’ funds as additional Tier 1 capital shows the CBN wants to distinguish fresh funds from existing funds which could be subject to regulatory infractions because shareholders’ funds is not a statutory capital base”, he told DAILY POST.

A battle of supremacy by two bandit groups over the control of some mining sites has led to the killing of several terrorists.

A credible intelligence obtained by PRNigeria revealed that the brutal clash was between Jammatu Ansarul Musulmin Biladis Sunna, also known as Ansaru, and Dogo Gide’s group of bandits at Kuyello area of Birnin Gwari local government area of Kaduna state.

“A wanted terrorist leader, Mudi and his son Murtala, on Dogo Gide’s side, lost their lives.
“Dogo Gide’s side also suffered severe losses, including close associates and some family members.

“The rivalry is a battle of supremacy over the control of mining sites.

“There are several gold mining sites in Birnin Gwari. Most mined products are smuggled outside Nigeria into Niger, which implies a strong connection with criminal elements in the Republic of Niger.

“The recent clash draws attention to more rivalry attacks in the days ahead, considering the encroachment of JAS and ISWAP elements in the Northwest,” the source told PRNigeria.

The defence intelligence source who confirmed the rival clash between the terrorist factions further said that the casualty figure was high on both sides going by the sighted corpses, which littered the affected areas.

The Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Air Peace Airlines, Allen Onyema, has narrated how his airlines suffered what he called both internal and external conspiracies.

Onyema disclosed this on Monday while fielding questions on Arise Television’s Morning Show programme.

Onyema said ‘his own country’ denied Air Peace and threw back its application for a Technical Country Operators (TCO) permit, which could have allowed the airlines to start going into any European country.

He lamented that it took the nation’s leading airlines seven years to get the designation to go into London.

“You suffer what I call both internal and external conspiracies. It took us seven years. We got the designation, I think about six and a half years ago to go into London. Since then, it has been a Cat-and-Mouse game.

“We actually procured our three 777s because of this route, not for any other route,… However, we were not allowed to go.

“Whether you like it or not, there is what is called international aero politics which is very dirty. We applied for the TCO. TCO means Technical Country Operators permit, you must get that one before you start going into any European country, UK inclusive. And the TCO organization from Europe wrote our Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority- Do you know Air Peace? Do you know about their designation? And we were denied. My own country denied us, so they threw it back.

“We went back to the NCAA, they said, oh, we didn’t tell them. Who designated us, the Federal Ministry of Aviation, whose duty it was and still is to do that. We said okay, we’re ready. They refused, they said until they allow us to apply. So, we got a designation from the Federal government, and the NCAA, under the same Federal Government, was telling us that we should not make any application towards going into the UK.”

Onyema suggested that Nigerian airlines need all the necessary support they could get from the Federal Government.

The Minister of Works Dave Umahi said God told him that President Bola Tinubu will rule Nigeria for eight years.

Umahi, the immediate past governor of Ebonyi State, stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

Recall that President Tinubu was inaugurated on May 29th 2023 and is currently serving his first year of a four-year tenure.

Umahi said, “You must know that the coming onboard of Mr President is divine. When God starts a thing, He completes it.

“So, I strongly believe and I am persuaded to let you know that God told me that this administration will last eight years because this administration is born of God.”

Umahi restated that the Tinubu-led government is on the right path to restoring the country’s dignity.

He said, “You can see the miracle that Mr President is doing through the inspiration of God Almighty who brought him to right all the wrongs.

“So, we are taking back this country and giving back this country to Nigerians and that’s what Mr President has come to do and we are just there to give him support.”

Speaking about the repair work on the Third Mainland Bridge, Umahi disclosed that 99 per cent of it is done.

According to him, once the major work is completed, the bridge will be open in the coming days.

He said, “When you talk about the total rehabilitation of the bridge, you talk about the deck. Mr President has released the money and I can say that 99 per cent of the project is done.

“But what is to be done is additional work: we are putting up solar lights; we are replacing the generator lights with solar lights. The top of the deck is completed, but the main markings are still in progress.

“We are putting up CCTV both on top of the bridge and under the bridge because the president told me that part of the problem we are having is people who are illegally mining the sand. And I agree with him. I have seen it. They even go as far as destroying the concrete to anchor their small boats.”

At least three groups of terrorists operating from Zamfara State were involved in the recent abduction of more than 130 students in Kuriga, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, two intelligence sources and a security expert told PREMIUM TIMES.

The students regained freedom last Sunday, two weeks after their abduction. The school authority earlier estimated their figures to be 287, but the state governor, Uba Sani, later contradicted them, insisting the students kidnapped were 137. A teacher was also kidnapped but died in the custody of the terrorists.

Abduction masterminded by inexperienced bandit

The abduction was orchestrated by Yellow Janbros, one of the top commanders of the late Ali Kachala, who analysts said had no prior experience in mass abduction.

Other kingpins like Dogo Gide and Halilu Sububu later came on board. While the latter helped in keeping some of the kidnapped students, the former was contracted to combat military operatives trying to rescue the students, our sources said.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the Kuriga abduction was the first mass abduction string to be pulled by Mr Janbros, but he almost bungled it.

“Janbros thought it is easy to stage mass abduction,” a security expert, Yahuza Getso, who said he had participated in 84 negotiations [and succeeded in only one] for the release of kidnap victims, told this newspaper.

The security expert, who doubles as the Managing Director of Eagle Integrated Security and Logistics Company Ltd in Abuja, added that Mr Janbros and his gang were disturbed by the military operatives who were trailing them “to rescue the kidnapped students.”

Unfortunately, the students were successfully whisked away while Dogo Gide and his group fought the operatives.

“For any mass abduction and negotiation to be successful in the North-west and North-central, Dogo Gide must be involved,” Mr Getso explained, expressing concerns over Mr Gide’s notoriety.

How students were distributed among kingpins

A local intelligence source who wished not to be named corroborated Mr Getso, explaining that Mr Gide’s involvement was based on the agreement that some of the kidnapped students would be given to him.

There were no casualties on the side of the military. Still, some terrorists aiding Mr Gide to fight the operatives lost their lives, according to the source who is close to Danjibga, a village around Dan Gurgu forest where Mr Janbros kept the students, before taking some to Mr Sububu in Bawar Daji forest.

Mr Gide is believed to have been injured in the battles amidst reports he may have died.

The intelligence source further shared an audio recording with our reporter in which an informant confirmed the location of the students in Bawar Daji.

According to the informant, 73 students were taken to Mr Sububu. He added that some women earlier kidnapped from Dan Gulbi in Maru LGA, Zamfara State, were set free upon the arrival of the students.

“But Dogo Gide did not take the students to his camp,” he said. “He kept them under the custody of Janbros.”

‘Money in Ghana-must-go bags delivered to bandits’

Five days after the students were kidnapped, their abductors demanded a N1 billion ransom to release them.

Although the federal government claimed troops rescued the students, a statement by Governor Uba suggests otherwise.

The governor, while speaking on Channel Television’s Sunday Politics, said it was not important whether ransom was paid or not.

“What is more important today is that our children are back home,” the governor said. “Most of those permutations are not necessary. If your child is kidnapped, will you be sitting down and talking about how he was released?”

“For me, what is more important is that those children are back home. Their parents are extremely happy, and what is important to them is to reunite with their children.

“But some people who have no business with the situation are the ones coming out with some irresponsible permutations about whether ransom is being paid, whether someone had gone into the kinetic or non-kinetic approach. What is important to us in Kaduna is that the children are back home.”

Ransom was paid, according to our sources.

In a recorded telephone conversation obtained by our reporter, a witness revealed that some unidentified mediators drove into Dangabji in SUVs and covered Hilux vans to meet two bandit groups who went their separate ways after collecting the ransom arranged in Ghana-must-go bags.

“I am an eyewitness, and any person living at Kuchere and Danjibga can testify,” the witness told the other person he was on call with.

“He [the unnamed mediator] came to Danjibga using a commercial vehicle. After he packed his Jeep (a common Nigerian description of an SUV), he used a motorcycle and entered the forest, where he spent six days. He later returned and met the traditional head of my town, who led him to the military commander at Danjibga and from where he left.”

He continued: “Two days later, residents of Danjibga witnessed a convoy of Jeeps and Hilux, which were about 18 in number. Some of the Hilux are covered, suggesting they were conveying money.

“They subsequently moved to the Unguwar Gyauro area where they packed the vehicle and delivered the ransom to armed bandits who were using about 30 motorcycles.”

He noted that 18 motorcycles were loaded with two bags of ‘Ghana must go’ filled with money.

“The two groups took their separate ways after the delivery,” the source said, adding that the same vehicles used to deliver the ransom were used to evacuate the students from the community.

Mr Getzo, the security expert, did not dispute this. Even though he discourages ransom payment, he said it is rare that money would not be involved in such cases.

PREMIUM TIMES understands that negotiations in some cases may include the exchange of incarcerated terrorists with kidnap victims. But Mr Getso said he doubts the government still tolerates such an arrangement.

According to him, a similar condition was given by terrorists who kidnapped students from Federal University Gusau, but “the government declined, and that is why they are still keeping some of them.”

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr Peter Obi, has given the biggest hint yet about the possibility of him dumping the party ahead of the 2027 election season.

He said this during an engagement with his supporters on his Verified X space, hosted by Parallel Facts, yesterday.

The former Amambra State Governor explained that his primary focus, which committed members of the Obidient Movement have bought into; is all about making Nigeria work for all citizens; as such, he refuses to be distracted.

According to him, the contrived crisis in the Labour Party was part of a distractive strategy, which neither he nor his supporters were willing to fall for.

Obi said, “Our engagement is about Nigeria, they are trying to change our focus. What we want to do is not about Labour Party; it is about what the Obidients want to do about Nigeria.

“We are thinking about water, we are thinking about power, we are thinking about employment, thinking about security. That should be our focus.

“The other matter we will deal with. We were somewhere, we didn’t start with Labour.

“I’m a Christian. Jesus said, When you go into a city, try to change them, live with them, fast with them. in the end, you can’t, come out and even wash the sand that is on your shoes.

“He didn’t say go there and die with them. I tell you, I’m making spirited efforts to change them (LP), but I’m not going to die with them.

“That will not stop what we set out to do. We will try to change them (LP), if we can’t, we will leave them; we will not die with them.”

There is a growing feeling of unease in the polity over recent appointments by President Bola Tinubu, seen to favour his friends and political associates, at the detriment of ‘competence’, which he vowed to be the key criterion in the recruitment of his lieutenants.

Barely one month after he was declared the winner of the 2023 presidential election, President Tinubu declared in a statement that neither religion nor ethnicity or other such considerations would determine appointments into his government.

“As your incoming president, I accept the task before me. There has been talk of a government of national unity. My aim is higher than that. I seek a government of national competence.

“In selecting my government, I shall not be weighed down by considerations extraneous to ability and performance. The day for political gamesmanship is long gone. I shall assemble competent men, women and young people across Nigeria to build a safer, more prosperous and just Nigeria.

“There shall be young people. Women shall be prominent. Whether your faith leads you to pray in a church or mosque will not determine your place in government, character and competence will.

“To secure our nation and make it prosperous must be our top priorities. We cannot sacrifice these goals to political expediency. The whims of politics must take a backseat to the imperatives of governance,” the president said emphatically ahead of his swearing-in, while countering certain calls on him to form a government of national unity.

Contrary to that solemn promise, however, some Nigerians are raising great concerns about the tendency of the president towards the appointment of friends, family and associates to positions of authority, in some cases, without proper regard to their qualifications.

Aside from the suggested disregard for competence, some party leaders and foot soldiers who worked for the victory of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), are also raising voices of concern about being “left out” in the series of appointments President Tinubu has made so far.

Some politicians, analysts and ordinary Nigerians said the expectations the President Tinubu administration would have learned from the mistakes of his predecessors are being dashed with different rounds of appointments. Allegations of lopsidedness, which were raised against former President Muhammadu Buhari, have resurfaced.

Some names that have come up when the allegation of cronyism against the president is discussed include the appointment of his daughter’s husband, Oyetunde Ojo as the Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Mr Tinubu’s daughter, Folashade Tinubu Ojo, is the Iyaloja of Lagos.

Also mentioned is the appointment of the daughter of Chief Bisi Akande, Temitope Ilori, as the Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), as well as the appointment of Umar Abdullahi Ganduje as the Executive Director, Technical Services, Rural Electrification Agency (REA). Umar is the son of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the national chairman of the APC.

Other appointments that have raised eyebrows in recent times include that of Olufemi Akinyelure as Head of Project Management Unit, Nigeria Electrification Project. Olufemi is the son of Chief Pius Akinyelure, who Tinubu earlier appointed as the non-executive board chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

The president also appointed Muhammad Abu Ibrahim, the son of his political associate, Senator Abu Ibrahim, as the Executive Secretary of the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF).

Aside from this, observers have also raised questions over the vetting process adopted in some of the appointments, which the president had to withdraw after backlash. Such include the withdrawal of the nomination of Imam Kashim Ibrahim Imam, 24, as the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) after Nigerians raised concerns over his age. Also included is the withdrawal of the nomination of Dr Maryam Shettima (Shetty), 44, as a minister, with the APC national chairman, Ganduje, explaining that the president was ‘misled’ into nominating her.


APC members worried, promises of patronage yet to be fulfilled

Top APC stalwarts and foot soldiers have expressed grave concerns over the president’s various appointments. The party stakeholders are reported to be unhappy with Tinubu’s style of appointment since he became president, with many of them worrying why only a few individuals have been benefitting the most from the appointments already made, while others worry over why he was yet to make a wholesome appointment into boards of agencies and parastatals.

Credible sources familiar with the development also lamented the delay in fulfilling promises of political patronage at the centre.

According to a senior party leader who asked not to be named, the president’s 2027 ambition might be in jeopardy since he is now seen as a man perceived to be running a “one-man show” in Abuja and does not care about party members from states he got votes from.

“Most of those who showed unwavering loyalty to him with the hope that their supporters would be rewarded with federal appointments are disappointed,” the source said.

Another source familiar with the workings around the presidency said, “The president had asked governors to submit names for chief executive officers of agencies, which they did, but he failed to act on those names till date.

“Instead, he has gone ahead to appoint his people into those agencies, including those that governors nominated party members to fill and CVs attached to them. Look at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and other agencies recently announced. Certain names were pencilled earlier, but when the announcements were made, different names emerged.”

Another source who pleaded anonymity told this paper that the idea of governors submitting names was to correct the alleged infractions noticed in ministerial positions and other previous appointments by those people the president trusted.

“It is now evident to those governors and other stakeholders that the president has dumped the list he asked them to submit as it is now obvious that he is running a one-man government with his kinsmen from Lagos and Osun,” he lamented.

According to the source, it is important that, as things stand, President Tinubu learn from the mistakes of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.

“2027 is at hand, and we are patiently waiting to see who the president will run to. Nigerians don’t forget easily. Jonathan’s treatment may befall Tinubu in 2027 if he doesn’t quickly address this lopsidedness and cronyism. The governors are angry and disappointed. The president needs to do the right thing,” he added.

Another stalwart of the APC said most of them were crying out, not only because the appointments were favouring the president’s close friends and associates alone, but even those that are not members of the party have been benefitting more from the government.

The stakeholders complained about the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike getting about eight federal appointments already for his Rivers Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members while most APC stakeholders have been excluded.

It was gathered that in the list the president commissioned to be compiled and approved, the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA) was listed for Kebbi but was later given to Rivers through Wike. Dr Dakorinama Alabo George, who was announced as the new director-general of the agency on March 14, was in charge of the multiple construction projects executed by Wike for the eight years he was the governor of Rivers State.

Aside from this, some of the leaders of the APC in the FCT recently held a protest to challenge the recent appointments by Wike, which they said favoured PDP members from Rivers above them.

About eight months ago, some stakeholders of the APC in the South West geopolitical zone asked President Tinubu to be wary of a seeming hijack of all appointments meant for the zone by Lagos politicians in the party.

The stakeholders, under the aegis of South West APC Support Groups (SASG), alleged that states in the zone were being sidelined in the appointment of presidential aides announced, as only the ‘Lagos boys’ were snatching the slots.

In a statement signed by its national coordinator, Otunba Dele Fulani, the SASG expressed worry that the trend might be extended to ministerial and board appointments for ministries, departments and agencies if not addressed immediately.

In the statement titled, “Dangers of ‘Lagosizing’ South West,” the South West stakeholders cited the case of the 20 aides that were in the earliest appointments by the president, saying at least 13 of them are Lagos-based politicians.


‘Nothing abnormal in president’s appointments’

Reacting, Bayo Onanuga, the president’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, told Daily Trust Saturday that there was nothing unusual in the appointments made by the president so far, insisting that as long as those appointed have the needed competence, Nigerians should not make mountains out of molehills.

He said that all over the world, leaders are known to appoint people they know and trust enough to add value to their administration, citing examples of President John F. Kennedy and President Donald Trump, both of the United States.

“This is not abnormal. It is done everywhere in the world. In the United States, President Kennedy appointed his younger brother as attorney-general; recently, President Donald Trump appointed his son-in-law; and even this week in Kano State, alluding to Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s appointment of the elder son of his political godfather and the leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, as a commissioner in his cabinet.”

“If they are qualified, I don’t see any issue. The emphasis should be on their qualifications,” he added.

On the allegation that APC stalwarts and foot soldiers are being left out of the appointments, and that the presidential approved list had been hijacked, Onanuga said, “No information on that.”

He, however, added that more appointments were on the way, stressing that there are over 7,000 federal positions to be filled by appointments and less than 1,000 have been announced.

“Many appointments will still be made in due course,” he said, adding that there was absolutely no reason to create an issue where there is none.


Like Buhari, like Tinubu?

It would be recalled that similar concerns were raised during the Buhari administration, with Nigerians accusing the then president and his close associates of cronyism.

Among many other such appointments that favoured friends, family and associates, people cited the choice of Muhammad, the son of Buhari’s friend, Malam Musa Bello from Adamawa State, as the minister of FCT; the appointment of Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, son of the former president’s ally, when he (Buhari) chaired the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF), as Managing Director of the REA; and the selection of his brother-in-law, Dr Mahmood Halilu Ahmed, as Managing Director of the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting (NSPM) Plc.

The naira, on Friday, appreciated to N1,280 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market.

The current FX rate signifies a 5.19 percent appreciation from the N1,350/$ reported on March 27.

Currency traders in Lagos, also known as bureau de change (BDCs) operators, quoted the buying rate of the greenback at N1,260 and the selling price at N1,280 — leaving a profit margin of N20.

“The price of the dollar as well as other major currencies have been falling. It is affecting our business as some customers prefer to keep their currencies than change it with us,” a currency trader identified as Aliyu told TheCable.

At the official section of the FX market, the local currency depreciated by 0.69 percent to N1,309.39/$ on March 28 — from N1,300.43/$ on March 27.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on March 29, said the economy recorded over $1.5 billion in foreign exchange (FX) inflow this month, indicating its monetary policy initiatives are effective.

The apex bank said the naira is headed in the right direction, and the administration of Yemi Cardoso, CBN governor, remains committed to ensuring the stability of the market and the appropriate pricing of the naira against other major currencies worldwide.

Members of the defunct Rivers State PDP Presidential Campaign Council in the 2023 general elections have declared support for President Bola Tinubu.

The group at a press briefing in Port Harcourt, on Thursday, also declared their “total loyalty and support” for Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

The group coordinated the 2023 campaign activities of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in Rivers State.

Abiye Sekibo, the former director general of the campaign council in Rivers and former minister of transport, made the declaration on behalf of former members of the council.

Mr Sekibo said elections were over and that it was time for governance, particularly after the Supreme Court confirmed the electoral victories of President Tinubu and Governor Fubara.

“It is for this reason that we call on all our supporters to give total support and unalloyed loyalty to the Governor of Rivers State and Mr President.”

What we will do to Wike

Nyesom Wike, the immediate past governor of the state and now FCT minister, had aspired to become Nigeria’s president but lost the primary to Atiku.

After losing at the primary, Mr Wike formed G5, a group of five PDP governors that worked against the success of Atiku at the 2023 presidential polls.

Mr Wike, who backed the APC candidate, Mr Tinubu, in the election, also frustrated the efforts by the PDP campaign committee in Rivers to have Atiku hold a campaign in the state, including denying them a campaign venue.

But despite not supporting the PDP at the national level, Mr Wike aided the victories of PDP candidates in the state, including Governor Fubara.

He, however, fell out with Mr Fubara because of disagreement over the control of politics and governance in Rivers, a development that triggered a crisis in the state.

The former members of the PDP campaign, in a text of the press briefing, berated Mr Wike, whom they said publicly threatened to destabilise the peace of the state. They called on the president to call the minister to order.

“The FCT Minister has threatened publicly to destabilise the peace in Rivers State. The President has a duty to call him to order. We, the Rivers people, will not stand by while an individual decides that we will not sleep with our two eyes closed. The Holy book says, ‘He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind’. If Wike troubles Rivers people, he shall surely inherit the wind in overdose

“Today, we are sad because, in the last few months, the peace of our state has been disturbed by the foolish actions of one selfish man who believes that more than 7 million Rivers people are his slaves for electing him as their Governor for eight years. Our people are not a conquered lot and would never subscribe to the mentality of conquest. We also refuse to be divided along tribal or ethnic lines.

“We have nothing against Mr President compensating Mr Wike with the office of Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. However, we owe the President a duty to explain some facts and advise him on the character and machinations of his appointee.

“We wish to let the President know that this appointee ran a kleptocratic government when he reigned supreme as governor of Rivers State and may do the same in the Federal Capital Territory if the President looks the other way. We strongly advise Mr President to keep a close watch on the FCT Administration.”

The remark by the PDP leaders shows that the feud between Governor Fubara and Mr Wike is far from being over despite a peace deal midwifed by President Tinubu in December last year.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Wike’s spokesperson, Anthony Ogunleye, he declined to comment on the allegations against the minister.

A newly wedded wife, Amina Abashe, has allegedly poured boiling water on her husband, Shehu Abdullahi, following a disagreement over her frequent phone calls with other men in Kontagora LGA of Niger State.

The husband, Abdullahi, who spoke via telephone with City & Crime from his hospital bed at the Kontagora General Hospital, said they got married two months ago after the death of his former wife.

He said his wife first attempted to stab him to death but that he was able to collect the knife from her before she went to take the water she was boiling and poured it on him.

Abdullahi explained that two months after the marriage was contracted, his wife refused to move to his house and that he went to her parents’ house to complain.

He said that on Tuesday evening, the day the incident happened, his wife called him on phone to come to their house and that right there, she told him that she was no longer interested in the marriage, saying that she had someone who would pay back his dowry.

He alleged that at that same venue, she was on the phone with a man suspected to be her boyfriend.

He added that, “At that point I became angry and attempted to seize the phone from her and she took a knife to stab me but I was able to collect the knife from her.’’

Efforts to get the reaction of the state’s police spokesman, SP Wasiu Abiodun, were not successful.

Some Nigerians who benefited from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and NIRSAL Microfinance Bank’s targeted credit facility (TCF) have failed to pay N261.07bn out of N419.42bn given out.

Daily Trust reports that the facility launched in April 2020 was to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on households and SMEs.

In a document released by the CBN, it said the facility led to the creation of 1,585,872 direct and indirect jobs, contributing to Nigeria’s employment landscape.

It added that of the N419.42 billion disbursed, principal repayments amount to about N41.39 billion, with interest repayments standing at approximately N174.60 million.

But there is a significant outstanding amount of roughly N378.03 billion, with an overdue amount of N261.07 billion, indicating that a large number of recipients have not kept up with their repayment schedules.

The document stated that each of the top beneficiaries of the loan get N2.5m for the purpose of SME finance but categorised as ‘non-performing’, indicating challenges or failures in repayment.

Only one, Centriculture Limited, has been noted as ‘performing’, with a repayment of N1m.

Some recommendations made in the document include to subsume the intervention under the Agri-Business/Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme (AgSMEIS) for better management and outcomes.

Another recommendation is developing a clear exit strategy that aligns with the outstanding balance to aid in the smooth final closure of the scheme.

Governor Similanayi Fubara of Rivers state has said he would not operate as a dictator.

Speaking at Government House, Port Harcourt, during the formal presentation of Certificate of Recognition and Staff of Office to the Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom, King Ateke Michael Tom, on Tuesday, Fubara said his administration will collaborate and continue to consult widely in delivering a liberated state experiencing enduring peace.

He said as someone with the interest of the state at heart, he is determined to leave a lasting legacy that can be celebrated.

“We are at a crossroad in our state where we all need to stand for what is right. It happens once in a life time. So, for now, be one of those people that will be in the course to liberate and free our dear State.”

“And I know strongly that having the support of a peace-loving Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom, having the support of the wonderful Council of Chiefs, having the support of the great people of Rivers State, we will bring peace to our State. We will do those things that are right to develop our State.

“We will continue to consult. We will not act as dictators. We will act as people who know that one day, we will leave, and when we leave, the way we have acted will speak for us. We will not force people to talk good about us. Our legacy will be a signature for how we led.”

Governor Fubara explained that he acted within the ambit of the law to upgrade the traditional stool upon which King Ateke Tom sits in recognition of his efforts in promoting peace in Okrika, and indeed, the State, and urged him to continue to do justice to everyone.

In a startling revelation, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Governor Yemi Cardoso, has disclosed that law enforcement agencies are investigating foreign exchange forwards valued at approximately $2.4 billion.
Cardoso noted that these transactions are deemed ineligible for payment.

This disclosure emerged after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday, March 26.

The CBN governor shed light on the meticulous forensic audit conducted on these transactions, uncovering numerous discrepancies and rendering them invalid.

The CBN, upon settling certain tranches of FX backlog, encountered transactions marred by issues concerning their authenticity.

Consequently, Deloitte management consultants were engaged to conduct a comprehensive forensic analysis spanning several months to scrutinize the legitimacy of these forward-contracted transactions.

During the audit process, it was established that several transactions failed to meet the criteria for validation. Instances were found where allocations worth millions of dollars were disbursed without corresponding requests, and some transactions lacked proper documentation or were outright illegal.

According to Cardoso, “In the cause of that forensic audit, we determined that a number of these transactions did not qualify. In some cases, you had some requests, which well you actually had some allocations that were made in millions of dollars, which were never requested for.

“You also had somewhere they had no Naira and they were also allocated, you know, huge sums, the foreign exchange and the list goes on and it was for that reason that we refused to validate those particular transactions.

“We refused to validate them because you know apart from the fact that documentation was not satisfactory in many cases they were outright illegal and the law enforcement agencies of course are now looking into those transactions that are as far as we’re concerned, not valid to be paid.”

Addressing concerns about potential backlogs among stakeholders, Cardoso assured that the market remains open and transparent for them to address any outstanding contractual obligations. However, the CBN has diligently verified and settled recognized backlogs of forward transactions.

Cardoso reiterated the CBN’s commitment to maintaining price stability and fighting inflation. He emphasized the need for strict adherence to the core mandate of the central bank, ensuring the restoration of the average Nigerian’s purchasing power.

To this end, the MPC announced a significant hike in the benchmark interest rate to 24.75 percent as part of efforts to curb inflation. This decision, accompanied by adjustments to reserve requirements for banks, aims to tighten control over the money supply and stabilize prices.

According to Cardoso, the committee decided to: raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 200 basis points to 24.75 percent from 22.75 percent; adjust the asymmetric corridor around the MPR to +100/-300 basis points; retain the Cash Reserve Ratio of Deposit Money Banks at 45.0 percent; adjust the Cash Reserve Ratio of Merchant Banks from 10.0 percent to 14.0 percent and retain the Liquidity Ratio at 30.0 percent

Looking ahead, the CBN anticipates a gradual moderation of inflation rates by May, with measures in place to foster economic growth while maintaining price stability. The committee called for the full implementation of agricultural policies to enhance food supply and urged broader fiscal consolidation to improve tax collection.

Furthermore, Cardoso addressed concerns regarding the forex market, emphasizing the need to foster competition and transparency. He criticized the “oligopolistic nature of restrictions on dairy imports,” advocating for an open and inclusive foreign exchange market.

On the issue of cryptocurrency regulation and the Binance scandal, Cardoso clarified the CBN’s limited role, highlighting collaboration with relevant authorities while emphasizing that cryptocurrency regulation falls under the purview of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Justice Daketima Kio of the Rivers State High Court has declared that Mr Celestine Omehia cannot be held accountable for the payment of millions of naira in pension benefits from the state government.

The judge noted this while delivering judgment in the suit brought by Omehia against the Rivers State Governor, Attorney General of the State, Speaker, and the State House of Assembly, challenging the directive of the government to refund over N696 million paid to him as pension and other benefits until his derecognition.

The court also declared that Omehia could not be held liable for the errors of the defendants in the suit, even as it acknowledged that Omehia had never officially served as governor of Rivers State under proper interpretation of the governor and deputy governor pension and free benefits law.

The court added that the state pension law precludes him from benefiting from the pension scheme.

Justice Kio emphasised that Omehia never sought recognition from the state government or the House of Assembly and thus cannot legitimately demand the funds paid to him erroneously.

Affirming the Supreme Court’s characterization of Omehia as an imposter, the court held that he should not be accorded the status of a former governor or benefit from the governor and deputy governor pension law.

The court refrained from awarding costs in favour of any party, directing that each party should bear its costs.

Counsel for the Rivers State Government and House of Assembly, Success Gibert, expressed satisfaction with the aspect of the judgment favouring his clients.

However, he declined to comment on the ruling regarding the repayment of funds by the claimant, stating that the government will address the matter accordingly.

Counsel for Omehia declined to comment on the judgment.

In a related development, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) on Sunday urged President Bola Tinubu to obey a court judgment ordering the Nigerian government to recover pensions collected by former governors.

SERAP asked President Tinubu "to emulate the good example of governor Alex Otti of Abia State by immediately obeying the judgment ordering the Federal Government to recover pensions collected by former governors, and to challenge the legality of states' pension laws permitting those involved to collect such outrageous pensions".

According to the civil society organisation, the judgment, dated November 16, 2019, was delivered by Honourable Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo following a suit by SERAP.

Mr Otti recently signed into law the bill to repeal 'The Abia State Governors and Deputy Governors Pensions Law No 4 of 2001', after it was passed by the House of Assembly.

Under the law that was repealed, former governors and deputy governors in the state were paid lifetime salaries and got houses in Abia and Abuja.

In the letter dated March 13, 2024 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: "We urge you to emulate the good example of governor Otti by urgently obeying the judgment, something which former president Muhammadu Buhari blatantly failed to do.

"Unless the judgment is immediately obeyed, former governors and their deputies including those now serving as ministers in your administration and members of the National Assembly who receive pensions would continue to evade justice for their actions.”

The letter read in part: "SERAP agrees with former president Olusegun Obasanjo's conclusion that states' pension laws are 'acts of daylight robbery', and his call for such laws to be abolished by other state governors.”

SERAP identified those reportedly receiving double emoluments and large severance benefits from their states as including Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano); Kabiru Gaya (Kano); Theodore Orji (Abia).

It said, "Others are Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa); Sam Egwu (Ebonyi); Shaaba Lafiagi (Kwara); Joshua Dariye (Plateau), and Jonah Jang (Plateau).

"At least 22 states starting from Lagos State have reportedly passed life pensions laws for former governors and other ex-public officials. Other states include Akwa Ibom; Edo; Delta; Ekiti; Kano; Gombe; Yobe; Borno; Bauchi; Abia; Imo; Bayelsa; Oyo; Osun; Kwara; Ondo; Ebonyi; Rivers; Niger; Kogi; and Katsina.”

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Abdulaziz Ahmed Sule, has reportedly bought a 2023 Lexus LX 600 model for the Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, SaharaReporters has learnt.

The SUV was procured for 298,444,187.50k.

Sources told SaharaReporters that Sule bought the vehicle from the internally generated revenue of the company to bribe the minister to ensure that President Bola Tinubu does not remove him from office.

Documents exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters show the vehicle with Chassis No. JTJPBACX6P4026917 was procured from Kaura Motors Nigeria Limited through a contract agreement dated January 17, 2024, under the heading "Procurement Of Vehicles For Management Staff (Lot 1&2)".

A payment document with the heading "Payment Advice" shows that N261,103,961.25k was paid to Kaura Motors Nigeria Limited account domicile with Fidelity Bank from TCN account through the Central Bank of Nigeria on February 20, 2024, at exactly 09:05 am and with Ref No: 997617729.

The Batch Number is 15161 and the detailed description reads, “Payment for the supply and delivery of 1No Lexus LX 600 2023 Model for management staff lot 1 and 2."

A letter from Kaura Motors to the Managing Director of TCN dated January 22, 2024 and with reference number KMNL/TCN/22012024/AI is titled: "Re: Procurement Of Vehicles For Management Staff (Lot 1&2). Request for payment.”

The letter signed by one Suleiman Umar for the Managing Director of Kaura Motors Nigeria Limited, reads, "We refer to your contract agreement dated 17th January 2024 for the Procurement of Vehicles for Management Staff (Lot 1&2) with a total contract value of N298,444,187.50k only.

"Find below our account details for payment as we have successfully supplied."

Meanwhile, sources told SaharaReporters that the vehicle was bought by the TCN Managing Director and CEO, Sule for Mr Adelabu as a bribe to ensure his position was safe.

"The MD/CEO of TCN Engr. Abdulaziz Ahmed Sule bought the vehicle from the internally generated revenue of TCN to bribe the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu to ensure that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu does not remove him from office.

"That was why when new Executive Directors were appointed for TCN by the president, the MD/CEO of TCN was not touched. This is pure corruption," a source said.

When Saharareporters contacted the communication manager of TCN, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, after listening to our inquiry, she asked for some time to get to her office. However, she did not answer subsequent calls from our reporter. Instead a media consultant who gave his name as Oyofo Sule called on behalf of the company.

He admitted that the TCN managing director bought the vehicle for the minister but denied that it was a bribe.

He said, "Yes, he bought the vehicle for the minister. It is a normal thing and all the agencies and parastatals do it. There is nothing like bribery in the procurement. Other agencies buy vehicles for ministers and members of the National Assembly committee chairmen."

In January, SaharaReporters reported that a document obtained from sources in the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) revealed that TCN MD/CEO, Sule, violated the Public Procurement Act, 2007 in N5,677,692,943.26 worth of contract award.

Also in November 2023, it was reported that Abdulaziz had allegedly been involved in violation of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 in the award of contracts running into billions of Naira, including contract splitting.

Sources had told SaharaReporters that most of the contracts the MD awarded under emergency procurement were not emergency in nature and that he awarded most of the contracts to his friends who pulled out the funds and remitted such to him.

Though when contacted, the company denied any wrongdoing, a document in which the BPP reviewed and responded to TCN’s request letter for “No Objection” for 285 contracts it awarded under emergency process showed that the Bureau refused to grant the request and clearly stated that the company violated the Procurement Act in 33 of the contracts.

The Bureau pointed out that the 33 contracts the TCN awarded under the emergency process were not qualified to be emergency, according to the provisions of Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.

The document signed by Babatunde Kuye on behalf of the Director of the Bureau, read, “The Bureau observed that out of the 285 projects executed through the Emergency Procurement Method, 252 projects met the requirements for the adoption of the special method, while 33 projects should have been procured through other methods of procurements as indicated in the Table above.”

It further stated, “The Bureau's consideration for the TCN's request for approval for the Emergency procurement is mostly based on the reason that it was resolved at the strategic meeting held between the management of the Bureau and the TCN on 24th of May, 2022 that the TCN should avail the Bureau with the details of the projects that require accelerated procurement process (Emergency) in order to meet the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) requirements especially where there is the need to adopt the special methods in some of its procurement that require interactions with the infrastructure of other stakeholders in the sector.

“Furthermore, the TCN at the meeting emphasized significant of the signing of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between it and the Distribution Companies (Discos) across the country on zero tolerance for outages amongst other things, which will negatively affect the reputation and revenue of TCN if these projects are not procured within reasonable time.

“The Bureau sees the absence of some of these critical works and supplies in TCN substations, Transmission Lines and other assets as a sign of inadequate provision of key components in the acquisition of its major infrastructure which could expose Government's assets to danger/destruction

“In this light, BPP is obliged to consider the request and also ratify the 33 projects which ought not to have been procured through emergency procurement method as stated in Table 5.0 above.”

The Bureau had in the response document asked TCN to “officially make a request for these projects through Direct Procurement method and provide full status of the projects including payments made so far.

“The Bureau reasons that proper needs assessment and planning would have provided the TCN the opportunity to identify the projects that require urgent attention, perhaps such situations would have been arrested through other special methods of procurement.”

“The BPP hopes that the TCN did not deliberately skew the scope of works and contract sums in such a way that not even one of the projects required MTB nor FEC approval.

“If this is found to be the case during the Bureau's oversight, we will not hesitate to invoke severe sanctions on TCN management,” it also said.

The BPP warned that the “TCN's attention is drawn to note that subsequent volume or stockpile of emergency procurements carried out by it without immediate submission of such for approval after the cessation of the emergency situation will not be considered by the Bureau”.

Reacting to the BPP report, TCN in a rejoinder by its General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, said the company did not violate the provisions of Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 as alleged by the BPP document.

The TCN spokesperson said, “In accordance with the request by Sahara Reporters quoting the document from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) on alleged violations of some provisions of the law in the procurement process by the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), contrary to that allusion, no such thing has happened—at least not with the astute management in place at TCN.”

She stressed that Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act 2007, states that “A procuring entity may for the purpose of this Act, carry out emergency procurement where the; (a) the country is either seriously threatened by or actually confronted with a disaster, catastrophe, war, insurrection or act of God. The condition or quality of goods, equipment, building, or publicly owned capital goods may seriously deteriorate unless action is urgently and necessarily taken to maintain them in their actual value or usefulness.”

According to the TCN spokesperson, “Under this condition, TCN can undertake emergency procurement of the projects.

“The process of management is difficult and sometimes requires extraordinary measures to put things in place. Nevertheless, it is pertinent to state at this juncture, that every contract awarded to remedy the perceived observations followed due process.

“The TCN management has in place Technical and Legal departments that scrutinizes all submissions along with the Procurement and Audit Departments; together, they ensure that regulations governing pre and actual qualifications are in place such as valid Company Profiles, Tax, and detailed status of relevant contractors.

“Under the circumstances, it is impossible for any underhand practice to take place, not to mention contravention of the rules.

“The management of the TCN is focused on delivery of its mandate and has never shied from this responsibility.

“However, in the course of meeting Nigeria’s dire electricity needs, the management is not averse to adopting some accelerated procurement process (Emergency procurement), where there is need to adopt special methods in the procurement of critical and very urgent infrastructure, that require interactions with that of other stakeholders in the sector.

“Furthermore, it is the determination of the TCN management never to complain but to discharge its duties with the highest level of competence and professionalism, especially with the significant signing of what is known as ‘Service Level Agreement’ between it and distribution companies (Discos) across the country on zero tolerance for outages amongst other things, to avoid tampering of the reputation and revenue of the company, if these projects are not procured within reasonable time.”

She further stated that it is important to understand that the management of electricity generation and distribution revolves around some kind of sensitivity which is open to professionals in the field and some stakeholders.

Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has berated President Bola Tinubu’s administration over the reported escape of one of the detained Binance executives.

Atiku was also the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections.

Shaibu accused President Tinubu’s government of transforming Nigeria's detention centres into amateur magician training grounds where detainees escape any time they want.

It was earlier reported that one of the two executives of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange who were arrested in Nigeria had escaped from the custody in Abuja.

Sources privy to the incident disclosed this to PREMIUM TIMES, identifying the fugitive as Nadeem Anjarwalla.

The 38-year-old Mr Anjarwalla reportedly fled from the Abuja guest home where he and his colleague were detained on Friday, March 22, when guards took him to a nearby mosque for prayers because of the ongoing Ramadan fast.

According to insiders, there is a likelihood that Anjarwalla, who also has Kenyan citizenship, flew out of Abuja on a Middle East airliner.

However, it remains unknown how Mr Anjarwalla got on an international flight even though his British passport, with which he entered Nigeria, is still in the hands of Nigerian authorities.

Reacting to the report, Shaibu in a post on his social media handle described Anjarwalla’s escape as another riveting episode of what he called “Nigeria's Got Escapes,” saying that no one needs security in the country anymore when the government can provide an escape room experience for all detained executives.

He said, “Another riveting episode of ‘Nigeria's Got Escapes,’ brought to you by the @officialABAT administration! Detained Binance executive pulls off a vanishing act right under their noses?

“Bravo, @officialABAT, for transforming our detention centers into amateur magician training grounds! Who needs security when you can provide a thrilling escape room experience for all detained executives?

“Stay tuned for the next episode: "Escape from Nigeria: The Sequel” or ‘Nigeria's Got Talent: The Fugitive Edition.’”

Nigeria has detailed allegations of bribery and corruption against Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company, in papers filed before a high court of the federal capital territory (FCT), Abuja, and seen by TheCable.

In his motion on notice, Olu Agunloye, former minister of power, attached documents in which the federal government alleged that Adesanya offered money and women to ministers in the Muhammadu Buhari administration in trying to secure favourable recommendations on the $6 billion Mambilla hydroelectric power project.

In January 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Agunloye before a federal high court over allegations of fraud in the award of the contract in 2003.

Sunrise is in arbitration with Nigeria at the ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris, France, demanding $2.3 billion in compensation for the country’s failure to honour the contract which was awarded by Agunloye — a day after the federal executive council (FEC) asked then-minister of power to step down the memo.

Nigeria is alleging fraud and corruption of public officials involved in the original contract award and also in the subsequent settlement agreements reached in an attempt to settle the dispute.

Nigeria is likening the conduct of Sunrise and its promoter to that of P&ID officials in the failed gas supply and processing agreement (GSPA) of 2010.

Despite securing an arbitration award rising to $11 billion against Nigeria, P&ID could not enforce it.

A UK court set it aside because public officials got illegal payments in the contracting process and this fact, considered by the judge as significant, had been hidden from the arbitration tribunal.

The court also ruled that P&ID was illegally in possession of privileged internal documents of the Nigerian legal team during arbitration.

The P&ID case ended in victory for Nigeria — with the country’s legal team now hoping this would be a precedent in arbitration cases arising from suspicious and questionable contract awards.


‘ADESANYA’S MODUS OPERANDI’

In the motion of notice dated February 26, 2024 and marked FCT/ABJ/CR/617/2023, Agunloye attached Nigeria’s defence at the arbitration wherein the country alleged that Adesanya made repeated attempts to exploit and fraudulently extract huge sums of money from the country “on false pretences”.

“Mr. Adesanya repeatedly sought to undermine Nigeria’s defence of this Arbitration by all means possible without regard to legality. As detailed below, Mr. Adesanya attempted to bribe the former Minister of Water Resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu, in the lead-up to the settlement meeting between Sunrise and Nigeria in London on 9 November 2019 by offering him money and women and sought to bribe the former Attorney General of Nigeria and Abubakar Malami, also with money and women, in order to take decisions favourable to Sunrise and influence Nigeria’s defence in this Arbitration,” the document reads.

“A look at the pictures of smiling young women whom Mr. Adesanya blithely offered to Mr. Adamu in November 2019 during the settlement discussions and latterly the Attorney General as inducements, can leave no doubt about Mr. Adesanya’s character.

“The below extract of Mr. Adesanya’s WhatsApp message to Mr. Malami with a picture of a woman in November 2021, when Mr. Adesanya was lobbying Nigeria is illustrative.”


Alleged extract of WhatsApp messages from Adesanya to Malami

Nigeria argued in the document that Adesanya is a man “who fully understands” how to game and take advantage of the weaknesses in the institutions of the Nigerian government.

“He wrongfully procures contracts that his companies are incapable of performing, colludes with key Government officials to obtain confidential Government documents, creates a semblance of credibility through document exchanges with Government officials, files claims against the Government, and then unlawfully seeks to pressure the Government to enter into settlement agreements with his companies in order to obtain a pay-out,” the document reads.

“Adesanya has been successful in obtaining contracts and bringing about settlement negotiations with the Nigerian Government on many occasions in the past. He has a track record of questionable settlements and not contract delivery.

“As regards Sunrise, Adesanya:

succeeded in getting a Minister of Power, Dr. Olu Agunloye, who is currently collaborating with Sunrise/Mr. Adesanya, to issue Sunrise an award letter contrary to the decision of the Federal Executive Council (“FEC”) chaired by the President of Nigeria; succeeded in engineering another settlement negotiation leading to the signing of the Terms of Settlement and General Project Execution Agreement (“GPEA”) in 2012 between Sunrise and Nigeria;

succeeded in engineering yet another settlement negotiation leading to the signing of the Terms of Settlement and Addendum to the Term[s] of Settlement (the “Settlement Agreements”) between Sunrise and Nigeria in 2020; almost succeeded in obtaining a pay-out from the Nigerian Government, but for the refusal of the Former President of Nigeria, President Buhari, to approve the settlement and the Ministry of Justice’s vigorous defence of this.
“In all of these settlement deals, Mr. Adesanya, advised by his consortium of Nigerian and French law firms, insist on well-crafted arbitration clauses, in order to clothe those deals with legitimacy and provide the basis to file claims against Nigeria and in furtherance of his ‘arbitration business’. That is Mr. Adesanya’s stock in trade: he simply finishes one settlement deal with the Nigerian Government and moves on to the next.


Another message to Malami

“President Buhari captured this vice well when he commented, in relation to the decision of the English Court in the P&ID case, and said: ‘It was definitely worth the struggle: this [P&ID] was an attempted heist of historic proportions, an attempt to steal from the treasury a third of Nigeria’s foreign reserves. But even at this moment, we should note what the English judge cautioned. The arbitration process in London ‘was a shell that got nowhere near the truth.’ We need better contracts, in the public and private sector. And we need greater transparency: the reality is that had P&ID not conjured up quite such an outlandish ransom, they may have found themselves in the same place as the myriad other invisible contractors who all too often quietly take Nigeria for many millions in out-of-court settlements.'”

Nigeria said if not for their “greed and outlandish claims”, Sunrise/Adesanya might have succeeded in obtaining a payout of $200 million as the price Nigeria was willing to pay for getting an important infrastructure project back on track and getting them out of the project.

“However, the price they wanted was unacceptable to President Buhari, who saw a parallel between Sunrise’s claim in this Arbitration and P&ID Nigeria and therefore refused to approve any settlement deal with Sunrise,” the document reads.


INTERFERING WITH ARBITRATION

Adesanya was accused of specifically requesting the removal of Nigeria’s counsel in this arbitration in his direct messages to Malami.

“He even called for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (“EFCC”) to investigate Nigeria’s counsel in this Arbitration for filing a request for security for costs against Sunrise,” Nigeria stated its in defence.

“Adesanya has actively tried to interfere with and prevent EFCC’s investigation into his and Sunrise’s involvement in the Mambilla Project by contacting witnesses who were invited for interview either directly or through his proxies and using his Nigerian counsel, BA Law, to coordinate this Arbitration and the satellite court action filed in Nigeria to block EFCC’s investigation.

A message allegedly sent to Malami’s aide by Adesanya to influence arbitration proceedings

“He also contacted Mr. Zaccheaus Adeyanju, the Director of the Solicitors Department at the Ministry of Justice, who was in charge of the Sunrise files at the Ministry of Justice and the preparation of the Settlement Agreements, following his invitation by EFCC. Mr. Adeyanju then deleted all email correspondence between him and Mr. Adesanya to prevent EFCC and this Tribunal from seeing the content of those emails as well as certain documents on his phone.

“The above is in addition to the evidence showing that Mr. Adesanya made payments to the Minister who purportedly awarded the contract to Sunrise without the approval of the FEC chaired by the President of Nigeria. He also made payments to senior Government officials who were involved in the negotiation and signing of a memorandum of understanding titled General Project Execution Agreement (the “GPEA”) in 2012, and has corrupted a number of Government officials who were involved in the preparation and signing of the Terms of Settlement and Addendum to Terms of Settlement in 2020.

“There can be no doubt that Sunrise/Adesanya’s involvement in the Mambilla Project was procured and sustained through collusion with and bribery of senior officials of the Government of Nigeria, as well as fraudulent acts against Nigeria. Mr. Adesanya has made a career out of exploiting his connections to individuals within the Nigerian Government and his understanding of the government’s failings to extract and extort money from his own country, Nigeria.”

The defence said unlike in P&ID/Nigeria, where the arbitrators did not have the benefit of evaluating the evidence regarding the corrupt and shady manner in which P&ID was awarded the contract, as the English Court noted, “this Tribunal will have the opportunity to see how Mr. Adesanya conducts himself”.

Adesanya is accused of interfering with arbitration in this WhatsApp chat with Malami

Malami, Adamu, and Babatunde Fashola, former minister of power, have also submitted witness statements to the tribunal.

TheCable previously reported that former President Olusegun Obasanjo has offered to testify in arbitration or at “any forum” over the contract, which he said was illegally awarded when he was in office.

Buhari has also written to Lateef Fagbemi, Nigeria’s current attorney-general, dissociating himself from the $200 million settlement reached with Sunrise in 2020, maintaining that he did not authorise it.

“While I understood that my ministers of justice, power and water resources were approached by Sunrise and were engaging with various stakeholders that were involved in the project to resolve the issues blocking the project’s implementation, at no time did I specifically instruct them to enter into and conclude any settlement agreement with Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited,” Buhari wrote.

“Indeed, when the proposed settlement agreement and addendum were presented to me for my consideration and approval on 20th April 2020, I refused to approve the settlement deal because I was convinced that there was no basis for Sunrise’s claim.”


HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Sunrise had on October 10, 2017 taken Nigeria to arbitration for “breach of contract” in relation to the agreement to construct the 3,050MW plant in Mambilla, Taraba state.

Nigerian authorities insisted that the contract award was irregular and did not go through due process.

In May 2003, Agunloye had issued a letter awarding the contract a day after the federal cabinet told him to step down his request for approval and explore other sources of funding for the project.

Sunrise initiated legal action when a bid process for the civil works was announced by the federal government in 2007 and a series of litigation has since stalled the project.

To get the project off the ground, the federal government had attempted to settle the arbitration in 2020 with a compensation offer of $200 million but a lack of funds is believed to have truncated the move.


ADESANYA APPEARS TO MOCK TINUBU

Although unrelated to the contract saga, some of the screenshots of WhatsApp messages attached to the motion appear to show Adesanya sharing uncomplimentary pictures and messages about Bola Tinubu, now Nigerian president, during the 2023 presidential campaign.

Adesanya allegedly sent a picture that appears to mock Tinubu over his soaked ‘agbada’

In one of his messages to Malami, he forwarded the images and ages of Charly Boy (71), Onyeka Onwenu (70) and another uncomplimentary of Tinubu (69).

This picture of an apparently wizened Tinubu appears to suggest was lying about his age.

He also forwarded a picture of Tinubu with a wet overflowing gown along with a question: “Na true say Tinubu piss for body yesterday?”

It is unknown whose message he forwarded, but he appeared to have added a comment: “Unfortunate, Jagaban may have a prostate.” This could be a reference to prostate cancer.

There was no indication that Malami responded to the messages.

Adesanya has since been declared wanted by the EFCC, although he recently secured a reprieve from a federal high court in Abuja which restrained the EFCC from arresting him.

The decision is now being challenged by the EFCC.

Paramount Ruler of Igbomotoru Communities in Bayelsa State, HRH Ayibaikie Aseimighen Ofongo, has narrated how the militant gang currently on the run over the killing of soldiers in Delta State, forced him out of his community.

Addressing reporters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa capital, the monarch said the over the years, the gang, which operated unchallenged, perpetrated criminality in Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa.

He said after he was banished from the community three years ago, the militant leader took control until the killing of soldiers at Okuama.

Ofongo, a retired army officer, said having served in the armed forces, he could not have kept quiet while militants perpetrated criminality in his domain.

He also commended the military operations in Igbomotoru Communities, saying so far, troops have only gone after the fleeing militant leader and his boys.

He said: “My Community, Igbomotoru, for some time now, have had some internal problems; there is a group that went and brought militants to the community to dissolve the ruling class, and at the same time leading to vandalizing national assets of oil companies in our area, which I opposed. I said if we had any problem with the oil companies, we should apply the normal system of communication so that they can look at those issues, but this advice did not go through with the group.

“And since that time, there have been problems, based on that differences we had. For almost three years now, I have not been allowed to visit my own community. My life was threatened; I had to escape from the community. I only went to the community when I heard about the death of my relations.

“From where I’m hiding, I got telephone calls from both home and from some other relations and friends on what happened at Igbomotoru; what I was told was that military men came into the community, particularly on Igbomotoru ll, Igbomotoru is on both sides of River Sangana. So, when I had this issue, I enquired from sources. I was told there was an Army invasion of the community, I was told a militant leader from Igbomotoru by name Endurance Amagbain went to Delta and some military officers who were there to make peace were shot dead, that was why military invaded our community last Sunday.

“The Army troops that came, they know where the person they wanted was and they went there, and some miscreants who are members of the militant gang came out and wanted to know what was happening in their usual militant way, and there was opening of fire from the Army, and some of them were killed. So, it was only members of the militant gang that were killed, not the natives.

“I have previously written several petitions to both the presidency, the state government and the security agencies about the activities of this militant gang, and we attended meetings with the governor, we also had time with the oil companies representatives, because when they started, they started with the oil companies and then rolled back to me, claiming I had been deposed and all that, so all those activities were reported to the government, and so many meetings were held by the government and oil companies to resolve that, but the people continued to do what they thought was good for them, until we reached this state. It was my opposition to this militant group that made them force me out of the community.

“As a Paramount Ruler and somebody who has served in the Nigerian Army and retired, I always report any act of lawlessness to the authorities, if not, that means I am involved. Army operation at Igbomotoru Community is just after the fleeing militant gang at Igbomotoru ll, where their leader resides and commit all these crime. In fact, they have not crossed to Igbomotoru 1, but because of fear, people have deserted the entire community.”


Military has done well

“You see the military has done well, what happened to the military, even during my time as a soldier, you cannot go and tempt the lion and you will think he will sit down and begin to look at you, the militant gang went to Delta to kill army personnel and the army came to kill them, they didn’t move from house to house in Igbomotoru to kill everybody.

“I am not against government taking any action in respect to what has happened, because lives have been lost. It was only houses where the prime suspect in the killing of soldiers staysthat were burnt not innocent people’s houses. That is why I appeal to the federal government to establish army formation at Igbomotoru Community, it will help checkmate the criminality.

“So, I urge the army to continue to be civil as they are hunting for their suspected killers of soldiers, because the community is ready to assist them to ensure that all suspects involved in the dastardly act are apprehended,” he said.

The federal government has charged all the 11 electricity distribution companies (Discos) in the country to be ready to receive and distribute not less than 6,100 megawatts (MW) of electricity in the next six months. Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who stated this, also announced the government’s plan to secure funding ranging from N250 billion to N300 billion to close the over seven million metering gap in the country on an annual basis over the next four to five years.

He explained that the government intended to raise that fund through a N75-billion seed capital to be provided by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, along with additional debt capital injections from the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).Adelabu revealed these at the weekend when he visited Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) in Lagos and the Momas Electricity Meters Manufacturing Company Limited (MEMMCOL) in Ogun State.

He revealed that a bill for legislation to replicate local content law in the power sector was underway.Speaking at the Eko Disco office, Adelabu said the charge to the Discos to be prepared to uptake 6,100MW became necessary after the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) successfully conducted system stress tests, where it demonstrated its ability to transmit over 8,100MW, alongside the proposed plans for a partial Sovereign Risk Guarantee (SRG) to enhance generation companies’ (Gencos) capacity.

With Eko and Ikeja Discos having exceeded a specified threshold through improved collection efficiency and service quality, Adelabu said he had unveiled a strategic plan to utilise the two Discos as model Discos to pilot test the anticipated effective supply to be implemented sector-wide in the next few months.He said the two Discos would serve as a standard for emulation by others.

However, at the MEMMCOL meter plant in Ogun, Adelabu also stated that in line with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the government was targeting to provide about 2.5 million prepaid meters every year to close the nation’s metering gap.This, he said, would help the government in the promotion of import substitution policy of locally-made products in the power sector and encourage backward integration in the areas of technical training.

He equally expressed the current administration’s commitment to support local original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by working on a bill that would promote local content for the power sector.“We have a Presidential Metering Initiative that has the target of installing a minimum of two million to 2.5 million meters every year for the next five years, for us to close the huge metering gap that we currently have in the power sector.

“Even if we cannot close it 100 per cent as there will be new connections, we have to reduce it significantly and the government cannot do it alone. We have to do it jointly with all parties because we all contributed to the decay in the sector and we must also contribute to reversing the decay”, the minister stated.He maintained that the initiatives would encourage investors to risk their equity and debt capital to establish local industries.

“In the power sector, it is our choice to have significant local content in our projects and our contracts. We are trying to work on a bill now that will legislate local content for the power sector just like we have in our oil and gas. That is the only way we can sustain local producers. So, that is the reason I am here.”In his earlier briefings to the minister, the Chairman of MEMMCOL, Mr. Kola Balogun, thanked Adelabu for the courage and commitment he had shown so far to reverse the ugly trends in the power sectorBalogun, however, noted that the demand for prepaid meters in Nigeria surpasses the volume of other countries in Africa, noting that local patronage was still needed for them to meet the investment threshold.

Thirty-one state governments owe the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, a total of N339.9bn obtained to pay workers’ salaries between 2015 and 2023, a document obtained from the apex bank has revealed.

The document also stated that the sub-nationals had yet to pay an outstanding of N339.97bn and a loan default of N1.31bn as of September 2023.

The fund, which was facilitated through the Salary Bailout Facility, a strategic intervention by the CBN aimed at alleviating the fiscal pressures faced by the states, was part of the over N10.3tn intervention fund made available by the apex bank under the immediate former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele.

In contrast, the current governor, Olayemi Cardoso, stopped the programme, stressing that the apex bank could not continue to fund more intervention programmes amidst the current economic crisis.

The CBN said the SBF was designed to help the state governments to clear the backlog of salaries owed their employees. The initiative underscores the critical role of the CBN in stabilising the country’s financial landscape, especially in times of fiscal distress faced by state administrations.

The programme, which has been closed according to its status report, involved key stakeholders, such as the benefiting state governments, Deposit Money Banks, the Federal Ministry of Finance, and the Accountant-General of the Federation, all of whom played pivotal roles in implementing and managing the bailout package.

A breakdown of the report showed that 31 state governments benefited from the initiative, with N457.17bn disbursed. Despite the substantial disbursement, the principal repayment made so far totalled N117.21bn, with interest repayments at N45.21bn.

It also showed that the states collectively borrowed N457.17bn to pay salaries to their respective civil servants and an overdue amount of N1.31bn.

The report further said the top beneficiaries of the bailout facility included Imo, which received N20.46bn; Kogi, N20.26bn; Kano, N20.21bn; Oyo, N16.81bn; and Osun, N15.93bn.

The inability of the states to perform their primary obligation to their workforce has been a front-burner issue in recent times amidst clamour by labour unions to increase the minimum wage from the current N30,000.

Last year, state governments borrowed about N46.17bn from three banks to pay salaries between January and June, according to an analysis of the half-year 2023 financial statements of Access Bank, Fidelity Bank, and the Zenith Bank Group.

It was observed that the states borrowed the most from Access Bank in the six months, with a record of N42.97bn loan.

This was followed by Zenith Bank with N1.78bn, and Fidelity Bank with N1.42bn in the six months.

The PUNCH also exclusively reported the inability of 24 states to pay workers’ salaries this year without having to wait for federal allocations from the central government despite improved federal allocations.

The development also means that the respective wage bills of the affected states surpassed their various internally generated revenues, raising concerns about workers productivity and state governments’ efficiency in internal revenue generation.

The 24 states include Bayelsa, Ondo, Yobe, Sokoto, Taraba, Plateau, Oyo, Niger, Nasarawa, Kogi, Kebbi, Katsina, Jigawa, Gombe, Ekiti, Ebonyi, and Borno.

Others are Benue, Bauchi, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Abia, and Delta.

In 2023, state governors got the most Federal Account Allocation Committee disbursements in at least seven years. The rise in FAAC allocations to the three tiers of government, especially the states, followed the removal of petrol subsidy and currency reforms of the current administration. The reforms have reportedly led to a 40 per cent boost in income.

Financial experts have raised concerns about states’ spending on recurrent expenditure, highlighting the need to embrace financial innovations.


‘States risk insolvency’

The Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf, said the report indicated that a majority of states were not financially sustainable and were at risk of insolvency if there was no boost in investment.

He said, “This issue is a fiscal sustainability problem, showing that many states are not fiscally sustainable and need to work towards it; and that the states need to do a lot more to attract more investments to their states so that their level of dependence on the Federal Allocation Accounts Committee would reduce.

“Even as we speak, many of them are also in debt, and by the time they pay salaries and service their debts, there is not much left to improve on infrastructure. It’s in the interest of the sustainability of the states for them to be more creative in generating more revenue and attracting more investment to their states so that they can generate more revenue.

“Secondly, we also need to address the issue of fiscal federalism because some of the states don’t have power over some resources in their domain and can’t bring investors into it. For instance, mining is controlled mainly by the Federal Government, you get permission from them and revenue is remitted to them. So we need to revisit the issue of restructuring to help states have more control over resources within their domain.”

A development economist, Aliyu Ilias, said many states had yet to fully develop themselves as industrialised and marketable to attract investors.

Ilias urged governors to develop an area of strength they could leverage to attract foreign investments.

To address these ongoing challenges, the report recommends that an increased focus be placed on enlightening state investment companies about the benefits of Public-Private Partnerships. Such partnerships could significantly enhance the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, improving fiscal health and reducing dependence on bailout facilities for salary payments.

This delay underscores the broader challenges of fiscal management and sustainability within the states, highlighting the need for more robust financial strategies and practices.


N4.94tn domestic debt

The Federal Government borrowed a total sum of N4.94tn from domestic sources in the first six months of the administration of President Bola Tinubu, indicating significant dependence on loans.

This is according to the latest debt stock document obtained from the Debt Management Office on Saturday.

According to the document, the domestic debts rose by N4.94tn from N48.3tn recorded in June 2023 to N53.3tn as of December 31, 2023.

Sunday PUNCH observed that although external loans reduced by $664m in the six months ($43.2m in June and $42.4m in December), the figure increased by $901m when compared with $41.5m in September and $42.4m in December.

The DMO in a statement on Friday said the public debt soared by 10.7 per cent to N97.34tn in the fourth quarter of 2023 from N87.91tn recorded in the previous quarter.

Delving deeper into the specifics, the DMO explained that the N97.34tn public debt comprised N59.12tn in domestic debt and N38.22tn in external debt.

It said the increase was largely due to new domestic borrowing by the Federal Government to part-finance the deficit in the 2024 budget, and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral lenders, adding that loans from multilateral sources constituted 49.77 per cent of the country’s external debt stock, while loans from bilateral sources constituted 16.02 per cent.

It said, “Nigeria’s public debt stock as of December 31, 2023, was N97.34tn or $108.229 bn. This amount comprises the domestic and external debt stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the 36 state governments, and the Federal Capital Territory.

“There was an increase of N9.43tn over the comparative figure for September 2023, which was largely due to new domestic borrowing by the FGN to partly finance the deficit in the 2024 Appropriation Act and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral lenders.”

An analysis of the domestic debts showed that the government borrowed N2.29tn from the FGN bonds market with the figure increasing by 5.45 per cent from N41.97tn recorded in June 2033 to N44.26tn as of December 31, 2023.

The government also borrowed N1.79tn from treasury bills, N8.47bn from savings bonds, N350bn in Sukuk loans, and N549.02bn from promissory notes.

Under external debt, increased borrowing was observed from the African Development Bank and the Exim Bank of China, with a total loan of $541.5m.

The increased debt is, however, contradictory to promises made by the Tinubu administration to reduce borrowing and focus more on increasing revenues.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, at different forums, noted that the country needed to improve its revenue standing because it could not afford to rely on borrowing going forward.

Reaffirming the country’s revenue position, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, declared at the public presentation of the 2024 budget that revenue generation remained the major hindrance to the country’s fiscal viability.

“Revenue generation remains the major fiscal constraint to Nigeria’s fiscal viability. However, the government is reviewing current tax and fiscal policies to improve revenue generation. The target is to increase the ratio of revenue to the GDP from less than 10 per cent currently to 18 per cent within the current term of this administration,” he said.

This is a position backed by the World Bank, which believes that Nigeria’s debt servicing cost is on course to hit over 200 per cent of its revenue by 2026 until its recent reforms and policy redirection. The bank, however, believes that recent reforms in the country are set to boost revenues and keep debt levels below 40 per cent of the GDP over the medium term.

It predicts that debt servicing cost is set to fall from about 101.5 per cent of total revenue in 2022 to 43 per cent in 2026.


Economy sick – Experts

Experts have said that the Nigerian economy is currently sick as a result of the increasing debt profile.

While debt financing has helped other countries to boost production and increase capital infrastructure, experts say Nigeria has no business borrowing more funds with the current debt situation.

An economist at Sankore Global Investment, Jonathan Thomas, said the country’s debt profile was hindering economic growth, noting that the only justification for the huge debt was if the country recorded a positive growth in capital stock.

Thomas stated, “This increasing rate of debt in Nigeria is undoubtedly not the best because it is hindering the growth rate. The high amount of the revenue is used for debt servicing; at least not less than 90 per cent of our revenue is used for debt servicing. Before we can justify the debt rate, we must see a positive impact on our capital stock, but there has not been any proof to show that our capital stock is increasing; so, the increased debt is used for consumption and debt servicing.

“It doesn’t make any sense when revenue is used to service debt. It is better to run the economy based on internally generated revenue.”

He noted that the government needed to plan towards offsetting the previous debts to sustain positive economic growth.

Thomas added, “The government needs to plan towards offsetting the debts from the past years, especially those of the previous administration.

“The idea of debt for now is not rational. No one can justify this. The government is still borrowing because it feels what is for everybody is for no one.

“The government needs to be selfless enough to tackle the debt situation of the country.”

An economist at Lotus Beta Analytics, Shedrach Israel, said Nigeria’s high debt profile gave the impression that the country could not sustain itself. He also called on the government to tackle the recurring debts.

He said, “It is shocking to know that we are still borrowing as a nation because petrol subsidy removal is meant to provide more revenue to the government. The government is already doing a lot to restructure the tax system, so there are enough sources of income. The implication of borrowing more cannot be over-emphasized. It’s reducing the country’s revenue for capital infrastructure. Borrowing gives a false sense of liquidity. It is like eating the future today and bearing the consequences later.

“Borrowing gives the impression that the economy is not viable and cannot survive outside of borrowing.

“For every money that’s borrowed, there are budgetary allocations because the loans cannot be paid within a short time. The amount spent on debt servicing is almost more than the budgets of some ministries, departments, and agencies of the Federal Government.

“The government has to put an end to borrowing, especially borrowing without public knowledge.”

President Bola Tinubu on Friday said the ban on foreign trips for government appointees will save the country over N5bn.

This is as he urged Nigerians to patronise made-in-Nigeria products and services to sustain the recent gains of the Naira in the foreign exchange market.

He said the recent appreciation of the value of the naira against the dollar does not spell Uhuru yet. Therefore, he called for more collaboration from citizens, whom he urged to blow the whistle on persons seen engaging in practices that undermine the local currency.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, revealed these to journalists when he delivered President Tinubu’s message at a State House briefing Friday afternoon.

Ngelale explained that the FG expects to save N5bn quarterly by imposing a strict three-month ban on all publicly-funded foreign trips for ministers, heads of government agencies, and other officials.

In a letter dated March 2, 2024, from the Office of the President’s Chief of Staff, Tinubu imposed a three-month ban on all official foreign trips for heads of ministries, departments, and agencies beginning April 1, 2024.

The letter explained that the aim is to reduce the rising expenses incurred by ministries, departments, and agencies on international travel and ensure that cabinet members and heads of MDAs focus on their respective mandates for effective service delivery.

The Presidential Spokesman said, “With the temporary ban being put in place from April 1 on all but unnecessary foreign travel, we’re expecting to save over N5bn per quarter.

“This is going to be one out of several initiatives the President is taking to ensure that we reduce waste in the public sector in such a way that we can steer these very needed recurrent resources into the hands of those who are doing important work on behalf of the Nigerian people.”

He cited recent reviews of the pay structure of judicial officers to ensure internationally competitive remuneration.

Recall that upon assuming office 10 months ago, the Tinubu administration discontinued subsidies on petrol, which, he said, would save the government monies for infrastructural expansion.

He also unified the foreign exchange rates to curb currency arbitrage.

However, these moves sparked collateral instability in the value of the Naira and heaped hardship on Nigerians as food prices soared.

In February 2024, N1,900 was exchanged for one USD in the black market.

The Naira has recently steadily climbed against the US dollar, exchanging N1,382/$ at the official market on Thursday.

Ngelale argued that a stronger naira is necessary for working citizens as it would complement the new minimum wage upon implementation.

He explained, “I’m confident that Nigerians have witnessed the strengthening of the Nigerian Naira against the United States Dollar. This is the direction all of us have wanted to head and we are very sober to the fact that this is no time to rest or to clap.

“This is why His Excellency President Bola Tinubu has approved a series of interventions to ensure that we see a mass strengthening of the Nigerian Naira against all other global currencies.

“One, President Bola Tinubu, wants to communicate very clearly to our people that there has never been a more important time in our history to actively agree together that we will patronise and purchase made-in-Nigeria products across all value chains, across all sectors.”

With billionaire Femi Otedola in the saddle as its new Chairman, First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc, on Wednesday, appointed two new non-executive directors for the holding company and three new non-executive directors for the First Bank.

Updating the Nigerian Exchange Group of recent development within the bank, the company’s Secretary, Adewale Arogundade, announced the appointment of Olusola Adeeyo and Viswanathan Shankar as non-executive director and independent non-executive director respectively in FBN Holdings.

The company also announced Remilekan Odunlami as non-executive director for First Bank while Anil Dua and Fatima Ali were appointed as independent non-executive directors.

The appointments of the five new directors are subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Adeeyo, a former banker and ex-Chairman of AXA Mansard Insurance Plc, is currently the Chairman of Astral Waters Limited, a water bottling and delivery company.

Shankar, the Chief Executive Officer of private equity investments firm Gateway Partners, previously served as the CEO of Standard Chartered Plc.

Odunlami has served as Director at CitiBank Nigeria Limited and FirstBank. She currently sits on the Board of Access Pensions Limited as an Independent Non-Executive Director and the Board of Rand Merchant Bnak Limited as a Non-Executive Director.

Also, Dua has sat on the Board of Dangote GSP Offshore FZE, Seychelles International Mercantile Banking Corporation, Heirs Holdings Oil and Gas Limited, Matador Investment Management Limited and Africa Property Development Managers Limited.

Ali, founder of Santi Food and Beverage Limited, currently sits on the Board of Reconnect Health Development Initiative International, a mental health charity organisation.

Late January, First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc appointed Otedola, the 20th richest man in Africa as its new Chairman.

With his appointment, Otedola, also the Chairman of Geregu Power, succeeded Ahmad Abdullahi.

Otedola was recently ranked by American business magazine, Forbes, as the 20th richest African with a fortune of $1.1bn.

Otedola was first appointed to the Board of FBN Holdings Plc on August 15, 2023 as a Non-Executive Director, the company said.

The Presidency has assured Nigerians that the Naira will soon appreciate.

President Bola Tinubu’s special adviser on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, urged speculators to quickly dump their dollars to avoid “tears.”

Onanuga who posted on social media while reacting to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosure that it had cleared the $7 billion foreign exchange backlog inherited by Governor Yemi Cardoso, said Naira is set to appreciate further.

He wrote: “With backlog FX settled, Naira is set to appreciate further, faster. Currency speculators should quickly dump their stock of dollars to avoid sorrows and tears.”

The Nation had reported that the CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Mrs Hakama Sidi Ali, confirmed the settlement of all valid FX backlog claims.

Ali said the apex bank employed Deloitte Consulting, an independent auditing firm, to meticulously assess the transactions, ensuring that only legitimate claims were honoured.

“Any invalid transactions were referred to the relevant authorities for further investigation,” she stated.

The CBN’s commitment to tackling the FX backlog appears to be paying off, with the external reserves seeing a significant rise, reaching $34.11 billion as of March 7, 2024, the highest level in eight months.

A Nigerian man, Steven Opeyemi Moses, has cried out after a DNA test revealed that he is not the biological father of a child with an SS genotype, which his wife had claimed was his.

Moses had appeared on a Nigerian-based TV courtroom show last year to present the matter.

He revealed on the show that his wife gave birth one year after marriage, only to discover that while he was AA, his wife, who was AS, had an SS-carrier son. During the hearing, the judge reportedly ordered a DNA test to be carried out, and the DNA analysis revealed a 0% probability of paternity, indicating a negative result.

Following a clip shared by a social media user, Moses provided an update revealing that his ‘wife’ has since refused to undergo a maternity test.

He made this known in a series of posts on his social media account (Steve Mosoes) on Monday.

He wrote: “I am still in awe of how we got here. We got married precisely on May 21, 2016. A year down the line she got pregnant and gave birth on her birthday November 8, 2018. The first crisis the body had we spent thousands in hospital and that’s when we first discovered he was SS.

“At this point I was confused. She first told me it was the enemy that was doing us through the boy. I didn’t believe and at the same time I didn’t argue with her. I started making my research if it was possible for AA + AS to produce SS.”

“I saw some rare occasions of extreme weather conditions but it wasn’t possible in Nigeria as a result of good weather. I spoke to few councillors and midwives in Ifako General Hospital and Lagos State teaching Hospital.

“We kept on living together, & we kept praying & fasting and nothing change. The boy kept on going through crisis. At this point we were already out of cash and could not afford a DNA test because I was already uncomfortable, having confirmed from many sources that it was impossible.

“For me to produce SS even when I marry SS as a AA. So I started voicing my displeasure out to my friends and one of them pointed me to Justice Court that they will do the DNA test for free. So I contacted them and arranged a sample for me and the boy for Paternity test.

“Paternity test results came out in December, and we had a court session where it was unveiled as seen in the video. Since December, she has been dulging and refusing to pick calls from Justice Court to carry out the Judge verdict to run a maternity test.

“So as I write this story, Justice Court has not been able to reach her over the phone. She is not picking calls. One funny thing in all this is, in November last year. Her family got me arrested from Ajuwon Police Station because I was not dropping upkeep for the said child.

“It took intervention of our family lawyer to get the case out of police station. I remember the police were supporting her. In December, DNA results came out and it was negative. The need to clear herself arises and she went into isolation.”

He also dismissed the possibility of a ‘child-swap’ at the hospital.

“The above video shows the last part that says ‘Is the child swap in hospital?’ It may be possible, but the chances are slim. I was present in the labour room and there were only two woman in labour that day. It wasn’t a hospital; it was Ojodu Health Center at Gbadamosi, Ojodu.

“The other woman already gave birth while she was in labour. I remember following the nurse to clean him up & collected him back. I dropped him beside her on the bed waited for her sister to come and then I left to cook something for her. Honestly, this marriage wrecked me.”

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria have projected a marginal reduction in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, produced from the Port Harcourt Refining Company once the plant begins operations next month.

IPMAN and MEMAN also declared their readiness to load products from the facility, as they urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to fulfill its promise of pumping put refined products from the plant in two weeks time.

On Friday, The PUNCH reported that the Group Managing Director, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, announced that the Port Harcourt refinery would commence operations in about two weeks time.

Kyari, who appeared before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee investigating the various Turn Around Maintenance projects of refineries, revealed that mechanical works had been completed on the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, stressing that the Kaduna refinery would commence operations in December.

“We did a mechanical completion of the (Port Harcourt) refinery, that was what we said in December. We now have crude oil already stocked in the refinery. We are doing regulatory compliance tests that must happen in every refinery before you start it, and I assure you that this Port Harcourt refinery will start in the next two weeks.

“Completing the mechanical work means that you are done with the rehabilitation work, now you have to test to see how it works. Of course, we have also completed the mechanical work on the Warri refinery.

“It is also undergoing regulatory compliance; processes that we are doing with our regulator, and this will soon be completed and it will be ready. The Kaduna refinery will be ready by December. We have not reached that stage in Kaduna, but we promise Kaduna will be delivered by December,” Kyari had explained.

Reacting to this on Monday, the National President, IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi, told our correspondent that marketers had been informed of the development and were ready to start lifting products.

He also stated that once products start coming out from the plant, the cost of petrol would reduce, but stressed that this would be a marginal reduction.

“As independent petroleum marketers, immediately we received the information, we told all our members to start preparing for loading, especially those in the South-South region of the country, because it is closer to them.

“So at any time they (NNPCL) say we should come and start loading, we are ready. We are just waiting for them to start,” the IPMAN president stated.

He added, “Price reduction is obvious when they start releasing products, and there will be availability because it would serve as support to the imported products. So we are expecting a change in price, for no matter how small the reduction is, it is still a reduction.

“Also, the commencement of operations there will create more employment for Nigerians. So it is a welcome development and IPMAN is happy about this, especially if products start coming out from the plant in the next two weeks as promised by NNPCL.”

On his part, the Executive Secretary, MEMAN, Clement Isong, stated that major oil marketers had been buying products from the trading arm of NNPCL, adding that this arm of the national oil firm would be in charge of the products to come out from the Port Harcourt refinery.

He noted that though the facility would not be able to provide all the volumes of petrol required by the consumers, MEMAN would definitely load from the plant by buying refined products through the trading arm of NNPCL.

“Sure, we have been buying from the trading arm of NNPCL and we will continue once products from the refinery are being released. On price reduction, this is going to be marginal, because the product is being produced in Nigeria,” he stated.

Kyari had told the Senate that over 450, 000 barrels of oil had been stocked into the Port Harcourt refinery, which means the plant is ready to deliver refined crude to the market.

“All crude lines are active and have actually delivered over 450,000 barrels into Port Harcourt refinery.

“We are confident of the integrity of it. Yes, there may be security issues, but also the government is responding to the situation,” the NNPCL boss had stated.

The Federal Government had announced in December 2023 that the mechanical completion of Port Harcourt refinery had been completed, stating that products from the plant would get to the market before the end of last year.

This, however, did not happen, as Nigerians anxiously await the production of refined petroleum products from refineries in Nigeria. Currently, Nigeria imports its refined petroleum products through the NNPCL

It was gathered that the incident occurred in Rafin Guza community in the Kaduna North Local Government Area of state.

The Kaduna State Police Command has arrested a housewife who hired assassins to kill her husband.

It was gathered that the incident occurred in Rafin Guza community in the Kaduna North Local Government Area of state.

Zagazola Makama, a counterinsurgency expert and security analyst in the Lake Chad region disclosed in a post on his X handle on Sunday that the suspect’s husband had lent the sum of N400,000 to the wife to do business but when he demanded the money from her, she refused to refund him.

Rather than refund the money, she decided that she should hire a gangster known as Tola and his gang to eliminate the husband so that he would stop disturbing her to repay the debt.

Attempts to get more information from the police failed as the Public Relations Officer of the Command, Mansir Hassan, answered the first call made to his mobile line but said he was driving. Subsequent calls were not answered.

The claim by a senator,

Abdul Ningi, that over N53 billion worth of projects in the 2024 Appropriations Act are without a specific location, is true, a check by PREMIUM TIMES has revealed.

The suspended lawmaker, who represents Bauchi Central Senatorial District, recently accused the leadership of the Senate of fraudulently smuggling projects into the 2024 budget.

The lawmaker, who was suspended by the Senate on Tuesday over the claim, had disclosed that he got experts to review the budget and discovered some projects that do not have locations.

A review of the document obtained by this newspaper as well as a review of the proposed 2024 budget and the one eventually passed by the lawmakers, indicate that there is substantial merit in Mr Ningi’s claim.

According to Mr Ningi’s document, the consultants traced 36 projects that are worth N53 billion though the projects have no specific locations they are to be sited.


The 2024 Budget

On 29 November 2023, President Bola Tinubu presented the N27.5 trillion budget to the joint session of the National Assembly.

The budget has a recurrent expenditure profile of N9.92 trillion, a capital expenditure component of N8.7 trillion while N8.25 trillion was set aside for debt servicing.

Within 30 days, the lawmakers passed the budget, increasing it by N1.2 trillion and bringing the total figure to N28.7 trillion

Many observers believe that the lawmakers sacrificed diligence on the altar of speed.

It was not only the lawmakers who were in a hurry, President Tinubu also signed the bill into law within 48 hours after it was transmitted to him.

However, barely 60 days into the implementation of the budget, controversy arose.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the meeting between Mr Ningi, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and some principal officers of the Senate.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio
During the meeting, Mr Ningi, who at the time was the leader of the Northern Senators’ Forum, alleged that about N3.7 trillion worth of projects were smuggled into the budget.

Mr Ningi also had an interview with BBC Hausa, during which he was quoted as saying, “Apparently, we discovered N3 trillion was inserted into the budgets for projects without locations. This is the highest budget padding that happened in Nigerian history under Senator Akpabio’s watch.”

The lawmaker later claimed that he was misquoted in the interview, insisting that he never mentioned “budget padding” or Mr Akpabio.

He, however, refused to be pressured to recant his claims by his colleagues during Tuesday’s plenary session. He was subsequently suspended.

In the course of the saga, two main issues have occupied centre stage – budget padding and constituency projects.


Tracking the 36 projects without location

In the document Mr Ningi has, for instance, N500 million was allocated for “Energy Poverty Intervention in Selected Rural Cooperators Settlements.” The project is under the Federal College of Land Resources Owerri, Imo State.

This line item has a very vague description with an equally vague location. “Selected rural cooperators settlement” was the only description for the location of the project.

Further checks revealed that this project was not in the budget proposal submitted by President Tinubu.

Aside from this project flagged by Mr Ningi, this paper also flagged several other projects placed under the same college in Imo.

For instance, N500 million was allocated for the “construction of solar street lights in selected cooperators settlement”. Like other projects, it has no specific location and it was not contained in the proposed budget submitted by the president.

In total, 14 projects worth N2.4 billion were injected into the institution’s budget. These 14 projects were not in the proposed budget by the president.

A similar vague project was domiciled in the budget of the Agricultural Council of Nigeria. The N40 million project is tagged, “supply of farm inputs and farm implements in selected communities.” No specific location was put in place for the project.

When President Tinubu presented the budget, the agency had a N2.7 billion budgetary allocation. After the lawmakers’ controversial insertions, the agency’s budget was increased to N22.9 billion.

Many of the projects are to be executed in different senatorial districts. However, some have very vague descriptions.

For instance, N297.6 million (N297,555,911) was repeated four times in the agency’s budget for projects without specific locations.

There is “Solar street light installations in selected federal constituencies in the six geopolitical zones”, and there is another: “entrepreneurship/empowerment of SMEs in some six geopolitical zones in the country.”

Another agency that Mr Ningi flagged is the Nigeria Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research. He highlighted N1.5 billion worth of projects that could not be tied to any specific location. A simple search revealed that Mr Ningi only scratched the surface. Over N54.2 billion worth of projects were dumped by the lawmakers in this agency. Many of them are vague.

In the budget of the National Centre for Agriculture Mechanisation, over N36 billion was inserted in the budget of the agency by the lawmakers. When President Tinubu presented the budget in November 2023, the agency had about N1.8 billion as total estimated expenditure. However, by the time the lawmakers dumped their projects in there, the allocation increased to N38.6 billion.

Duplicating same untraceable projects in two agencies.

Mr Ningi’s claim that projects worth about N2 billion in the budget of the National Horticulture Research Institute, Ibadan, cannot be traced to any specific location is also true.

Four line items at the rate of N500 million each are in the budget without any specific location.

However, the problem is not just the lack of specific locations of the projects, there appears to be an intent to commit fraud. These same projects in the National Horticulture Research Institute, Ibadan were also dumped in the budget of the Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research. It has the same amounts and the same project titles.

These projects were not in the original budget submitted by the president. They were included by the lawmakers.

Most of the projects flagged by Mr Ningi checked out following an investigation by PREMIUM TIMES. However, the lawmaker only scratched the surface, as a deeper search showed that many more projects were dumped by the lawmakers.


Budget Padding vs Constituency Projects

The emergence of the phrase “budget padding” into Nigeria’s political lexicon could be traced to 2016, when Abdulmummin Jibrin, the then chairperson of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, accused the then Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and some principal officers of the House of padding the budget of the House with projects.

Amid that scandal, Mr Jibrin was suspended by the House.

However, controversies over the insertion of projects into the budget could be traced to the beginning of this Fourth Republic.

Lawmakers have always maintained that they reserve the power to insert projects into the proposed budgets.

As a minority leader in the House in 2013, Femi Gbajabiamila argued in favour of the lawmakers having the constitutional power to do so.

“Surely a legislator represents his people in the centre and part of his responsibility is to attract federal presence to his community. How else can he do this? The annual budget provides him with the opportunity to attract the much-needed federal presence in his constituency and justify his raison detre,” Mr Gbajabiamila stated in an opinion piece published by PREMIUM TIMES in 2013.

However, the argument on the other side has been compelling. Shehu Sani, a member of the 8th Senate, had called for the scrapping of the constituency projects, describing it as a “distraction”.

Over the years, the phrase “budget padding” has been used to connote the “smuggling of projects” into the budget by lawmakers.

Ordinarily, Nigerian lawmakers are entitled to a statutory fund called the Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIP), also called constituency projects. The ZIP is a N100 billion fund allocated annually under which lawmakers can allocate funds to nominate projects in their constituency.

Under the scheme, the N100 billion is shared between the Senate and the House of Representatives at a ratio of 40 per cent to 60 per cent respectively. The fund is shared equally across geopolitical zones. For instance, senators in the South-east may get more than senators in the North-west because the latter has more senators than the former.

In the case of the House, lawmakers from Bayelsa State may get more ZIP funds allocated to their constituencies than lawmakers from Lagos because while Bayelsa State has five lawmakers, Lagos State has 24.

However, 10 per cent of the funds of the respective chambers are set aside for the principal officers of both chambers. The sharing formula shows that the principal officers of the Senate and the House get N4 billion and N6 billion respectively.

In the case of the House, the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Whip, Deputy Whip, Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip and the Deputy Minority Whip are to share N6 billion, hence, they get more as ZIPs.

Ordinarily, ZIPs are supposed to be nominated by lawmakers, while MDAs are charged with the responsibility of implementing them.

However, the process of implementation of ZIPs has been riddled with corruption. Oftentimes, lawmakers, MDAs and contractors collude to siphon the funds. In some instances, lawmakers use personal companies to execute ZIPs.

Despite the ZIP provision, the lawmakers still smuggle projects worth hundreds of billions into the budget. Budget padding has become an annual ritual in the National Assembly during the passage of the document.

In the 8th Assembly, the then leadership of the National Assembly and former President Muhammadu Buhari had a strained relationship over the power of the lawmakers to include projects in the budget.

In 2018, the then-president accused the lawmakers of inserting non-essential projects into the budget while cutting the essential ones. The accusation by the president led to back-and-forth arguments between the lawmakers and the executive.

The relationship between Mr Buhari and the 9th Assembly was a bit cordial and gave the lawmakers more leeway to add projects to the budget. However, despite the friendly relationship, on several occasions, Mr Buhari raised alarm over the smuggling of projects into budgets by the lawmakers. He said he reluctantly signed the 2022 budget into law because of the insertions by lawmakers.


Extra N100 million for lawmakers

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that each member of the 9th House got an additional N100 million aside from the so-called constituency projects allocated to them.

Speaker Abbas Tajudeen confirmed this during the campaign for the speakership. While trying to convince his colleagues to support him, he said members of the 9th Assembly got an additional N100 million worth of projects in the budget for their constituencies.

“Let us take the 9th Assembly, which was the first time when the thinking of the members coincided with the thinking of the government. What happened? We saw a tremendous shift in the body language of the government. We saw a tremendous shift in the cooperation between the executive and the legislature. N100 million was handed to say thank you to each member. An unprecedented move,” Mr Tajudeen said during a meeting with lawmakers at the Transcorp Hotel in Abuja.

“It never happened in the history of the parliament. A N100 million capital project was given to each member. Choose whatever you want for your constituency, N100 is there for you.”

He added: “Also, our traditional ZIP was funded right from 2019 till date.”


Tinubu’s disposition

President Tinubu appears not to be against lawmakers inserting projects into the budget. During the budget presentation, Mr Tinubu urged the lawmakers to include only projects that are of “equitable spread” into the 2024 budget.

He, however, warned that projects should be within sectorial mandates.

“We must ensure that only projects and programmes that would be of equitable benefits to all Nigerians are allowed into the budget, additionally, only projects and programmes which are in line with the sectorial mandates of MDAs and which are capable of realising the vision of our government should be included in the budget. As a government, we are committed to improving the lots of our people,” he said.
While signing the passed budget, Mr Tinubu did not object to any inclusion, including the increase of the budget of the National Assembly from N197 billion to N344 billion.

The current federal government is run by former legislators. Mr Tinubu and his vice, Kashim Shettima, are former senators. In the short-lived Third Republic, Mr Tinubu served as the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Also, the man in charge of the budget, Atiku Bagudu, who is the minister of budget and national planning, is also a former senator while Mr Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila spent 20 years in the House.

Perhaps, this accounts for the reason the executive seems unperturbed by the allegation of budget padding. It, in fact, scolded Mr Ningi for alleging that the government is running two different budgets. Mr Ningi has since recanted the comment.

By Daily Trust


Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has said President Bola Tinubu is not the problem of the country but his appointees.

He said Tinubu means well for Nigeria, but the government officials working with him are undermining his efforts.

Enchanted by the Beautiful City near Cambodia Border - Nếm TV

Onyema made this known in an exclusive interview with Vanguard.

He lamented the ordeals his airline encounters despite the phenomenal support it is offering to Nigerians and the economy.

Onyema, however, said that Tinubu will surmount the country’s challenges amid criticisms from Nigeria, saying that he faced a similar experience when he became Lagos governor.

“However, what happened to those after him? Do they pick calls? Do they even listen to you? The problem is not President Tinubu. He means well but he should look at his appointees,” Onyema said.

“It is the appointees of the government that cause problems, not the elected man. They block the elected man from seeing the truth about things.

“As far as I know President Tinubu, he means well for the country. When Tinubu came on board in 1999 as governor of Lagos, on the back of Brigadier General Buba Marwa’s successes, people were not patient because Marwa created a large shoe.

“For anyone to fit into those shoes, he had to outperform Marwa. When Tinubu came in, people were crying, just like it is happening now. But when he hit the road running, he outperformed whatever Marwa had done.

“Sincerely, I believe it is the same way now. He inherited something not so good and I believe he has that vision, goodwill and good intent to help this country. What he needs is the right people to work with. That is all.”

The Air Peace also said that local investments are what Nigeria needs to achieve a vibrant economy.

He said, “Like I always say, it is only indigenous investments that can protect this country. Foreign investments are good, but you also have to encourage indigenous investments to stabilize and succeed.

“Indigenous investments provide the real jobs and when the chips are down, they are the ones to save the country. When I talked, nobody wanted to listen to me, but I beat my chest and I am happy today. I am absolutely happy for what I have done for this nation in the last few days.

“Do you know the millions of dollars or billions of Naira Air Peace has single- handedly saved for this country by what we did? From N17 million, we brought a Business class flight to London down to N4 million. From N6 million we brought economy class flight down to N1.2 million and even afforded our students a further 15 per cent of the N1.2 million.”

The Tin-Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs have intercepted a catche of arms and ammunition allegedly being smuggled into the country by some criminal gang.

Among items intercepted are military camouflage and illicit drugs such as Colorado.
The arms recovered include automatic single barrel rifles and pump action guns.

Though, details of the interception is still sketchy as at press time, sources said the arms were recovered during an inspection of consignments imported into the country.
It is not clear as at press time if any arrest has been made.

The interception is coming barely eight months after Customs seized 31 arms of various types at Tin-Can and Multi-Purpose Terminals (PTML) ports in Lagos.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Mr. Adewale Adeniyi, told journalists then that two suspects were arrested in connection with the seizure.

The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Atiku Bagudu, has said that the National Assembly did not break any law with new insertions in the 2024 budget.

Bagudu, while speaking during a press briefing Thursday in Abuja, said since 1999, it has become a norm in the passing of appropriation for the National Assembly to insert new line items to provide some dedicated projects to their constituencies, which often leads to the rise in approved budget from what was presented by the president.

President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, has been in the eye of the storm following allegations that the senate padded N3.7 trillion into the approved budget, with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calling for his resignation.

Senator Abdul Ningi, representing Bauchi Central, who first raised the alarm over budget padding, was suspended for three months by the Senate.

But reacting to the reports, Bagudu said the new insertions did not violate any law because what the president presented to the National Assembly was a bill, but the budget passed with modifications was an act by the assembly.

He said, “The president submitted a budget to the tune of N27.5 trillion and the National Assembly, in its wisdom, increased it to N28.7 trillion. When we presented the budget, it was at an exchange rate of N750 to a dollar but the assembly increased it to N800 to a dollar. That created more revenue. The assembly also appropriated that the Government Owned Enterprises contribute more revenue. Then there was the increase of the budget of the judiciary, legislature and executive.

“The president in signing the 2024 appropriation acknowledged that in democracy, institutions have their power and the National Assembly has the last word.

“The evolution of constituency projects and projects by National Assembly members, which did not begin now but since 1999, is a reflection of the challenge that elected persons are facing.

“There has been a long debate and a former president went up to the Supreme Court to define the appropriation power of the executive and the National Assembly. Later, there was an out-of-court settlement. Till now, this issue has not been resolved. So, what is the power of the National Assembly as regards the budget? There is no Supreme Court judgment and the choice of our democracy is that the National Assembly has the last word. Even when they pass an appropriation that assent is refused, after 30 days it becomes law.

“Do they have the right to increase a budget line? I will say yes.”

He added that there has been a misconception on why budgets for agencies regarded as statutory transfers do not have line items of their budgets disclosed.

“These are transfers for agencies that are created by the constitution or legislation. So, they have the right to draw up their own budget. They can be supervised by a committee but it is not the federal government that appropriates for them; the most popular ones are the NJC, FCT, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, NEDC, NDDC and others,” he said.


Akpabio will not resign

Akpabio has also been backed by his colleagues as the Chairman Senate Committee on Media, Senator Yemi Adaramodu (APC, Ekiti South), has flayed PDP’s call for his resignation.

Adaramodu told newsmen yesterday in Abuja that Akpabio won’t resign because “He has not committed any wrong doing to warrant resignation.”

He said: “The PDP has elevated chicanery to statecraft and fatally failed in their sordid attempt to hoodwink the unsuspecting public on the ineffectual but spurious allegations of budget padding.

“The party’s ludicrous call for the resignation of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the Senate president is unthinkable and shows the party as a massaging balm for falsehood and immoral legislative outbursts.”

He said no amount of lies and fake allegations will distract the 10th Senate, under Akpabio, from delivering good legislation and effective oversight for Nigerians.


Some of us got over N200m – Ndume

Meanwhile, Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, has admitted that 10 principal officers of the senate got over N200 million each for constituency projects in their senatorial districts.

Ndume was responding to allegations by Senator Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe from Cross River North that some senators got about N500 million each from the 2024 budget.

Agom-Jarigbe had on Tuesday, during a stormy session in Abuja, made the startling disclosure while the lawmakers debated budget padding claims by Senator Ningi.

Speaking on Channels TV, Ndume admitted that he and other leaders of the 10th Senate got more than the N200 million allocations for constituency projects in the 2024 budget.

“My colleagues (floor members) know that I got more than them. All the senators have N200 million each as their constituency projects but I am a leader. That is the difference,” Ndume said.

“Ten of us are leaders including those in the opposition. We get more than the floor members. It’s normal… My colleagues know that I got more than them,” he said.

The current leaders of the 10th Senate are, Godswill Akpabio – Senate President; Jibrin Barau – Deputy Senate President; Opeyemi Bamidele – Senate Majority Leader; Ayelola Yisa Ashiru – Deputy Majority Leader; Ali Ndume – Chief Whip; Lola Ashiru – Deputy Whip; Abba Moro – Minority Leader; Kamorudeen Olarere – Deputy Minority Leader; Osita Ngwu– Minority Whip and Rufai Hanga – Deputy Minority Whip.


Atiku demands probe

Adding his voice to the debate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has demanded an “immediate and thorough” investigation into the budget padding allegation rocking the Senate.

Atiku, in a post via his verified Facebook page on Thursday, warned the Senate not to collude with the federal government and deprive the people of good governance, especially in view of the prevailing situation in the country.

This was as he also condemned the suspension of Senator Ningi, saying the suspension without investigation has only fueled the crisis.

The PDP presidential candidate in the last election said, “Over the past few days, allegations have rocked the Senate, questioning the very integrity of the 2024 Appropriation Act, the cornerstone of our nation’s annual planning and development.

“A fiscal policy analytics and advocacy organisation has unequivocally confirmed a disturbing lack of transparency within the 2024 Appropriation Act.

“Furthermore, the sudden suspension of the whistle-blower senator, without adequate explanation, has only fueled the crisis, leaving us with more questions than answers.

“I demand an immediate and thorough investigation into these allegations. Appropriation lies at the heart of governance, and any deviation from serving the people’s interests will be met with fierce opposition. Denials are unacceptable, and the suspension of one senator cannot silence accusations of corruption and illegal fiscal spending by the federal government.”

The former vice president said, “Without a clear explanation to the people of Nigeria, we must treat these allegations for what they are: outright fraud. The accusation of budget padding totaling N3 trillion cannot be dismissed lightly by the government.

“Given the current hardships facing our nation, a padded budget is already translating to a padded hunger, padded poverty, padded insecurity, padded energy crises, padded forex instability, and the soaring cost of living.

“The people of Nigeria cannot afford to ignore allegations that worsen our already dire economic situation.”

He said the National Assembly, as the elected representatives of the people, are constitutionally obligated to legislate for the peace, order and good governance of our nation, without colluding with corrupt elements.

“Failure to do so and persisting in denial will only confirm the government’s complicity in official malpractice,” he said.