The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has frozen a bank account belonging to Mrs. Bola Shagaya, a businesswoman which Forbes Magazine described as one of the wealthiest in Africa.

It was learnt that Shagaya, who is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bolmus Group International – a diversified Nigerian conglomerate with interests in oil, real estate, banking, communications and photography – had become a subject of investigation due to her links to Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Sources within the EFCC told SUNDAY PUNCH that Shagaya’s account with Unity Bank with a balance of N500m was frozen.

The business tycoon, who is also the Managing Director of Practoil Limited, one of the largest importers and distributors of base oil in Nigeria, was said to have made suspicious payments into bank accounts belonging to Patience, who has been under EFCC investigation for about six months.

A source at the EFCC said, “When we were investigating Patience and looking into her accounts, we discovered that Bola Shagaya had been making huge and regular payments into her (Patience’s) bank account.

“We then discovered that the monies were kickbacks. The Ministry of Trade and Investment gave suspicious commission to Shagaya’s company on every crude oil sent abroad. The commission was put in an account for Bola Shagaya. The money will then go to Patience’s account. So we started investigating her.

“We were able to trace the N500m to her account at Unity Bank. So, we placed a ‘No Debit Order’ on the account.”

The source said when Shagaya realised that her account had been frozen, she rushed down to the bank and tried to use her position as a board member of the bank to lift the restriction.

The detective added, “When she heard about the restriction, she ran down to the bank to stop the order from being carried out. We then called the bank to let them know that doing such would amount to a criminal conspiracy. At that point, she had no choice.”

When contacted on Saturday night, Shagaya said, “Please, don’t call this number. I am sleeping. Write anything you want to write.”

The Head of Corporate Communications, Unity Bank, Matthew Obiazikwor, could not be reached for comments as his phone line was switched off and a text message sent to him had not been responded to as of the time of filing this report.

Patience attempts to withdraw $5m from frozen account

Sources within the EFCC also told our correspondent that it foiled a fresh attempt by Patience Jonathan to withdraw $5m from her frozen account during the week.

The source said the commission was informed by Skye Bank that Patience had placed a standing order for $5m to be withdrawn from the account but it was stopped.

The detective added, “We received an alert from Skye Bank during the week that Patience attempted to withdraw $5m from her personal account titled Patience Ibifaka Jonathan which is domiciled at the bank.

“We immediately told the bank not to allow any withdrawal because a ‘No Debit Order’ had been placed on the account.”

It will be recalled that the EFCC had frozen four other company accounts with a balance of $15m. The accounts were linked to a former Special Adviser to Jonathan on Domestic Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa.

However, during the arraignment of Dudafa and the directors of the companies, Patience filed an application claiming ownership of the money.

She subsequently asked the court to lift the restriction on the accounts.

On Wednesday the directors of the companies pleaded guilty to money laundering. The EFCC applied for the money to be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government, a request which has been deferred by the Federal High Court.

The Independent National Electoral Commission has said none of its officials, who are undergoing investigations for alleged bribery, will be assigned any electoral duty.

It said the officials, whose names were on the list sent to it by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, would be barred from electoral duty until they cleared themselves of the bribery allegations against them.

Though none of those under investigation had been suspended by INEC or indicted by the EFCC, the electoral umpire stated on Monday that it would be morally wrong to continue to assign electoral duties to the suspects.

It was gathered that the EFCC sent a letter to INEC and demanded the release of over 100 officers for interrogation for alleged bribery during the 2015 general elections.

The Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had earlier confirmed the number of the suspects, saying at the end of the investigations, those found guilty would be fired by the commission.

Some states’ Resident Electoral Commissioners were allegedly bribed before, during and after the 2015 polls.

Many electoral officers and others were also said to have been involved in the alleged bribery scandal.

The bribe cash was said to have been disbursed by a bank from the N23bn deposited in the bank by the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, who spoke with our correspondent in Abuja on Monday, said none of those under investigation would be used in the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State.

He added that until the concerned officers were cleared by the EFCC, they would not be used for any electoral duty.

Oyekanmi stated, “We have made it clear to them that none of those whose names appeared on the list sent by the EFCC would be involved in any electoral duty.

“Using them will send a wrong signal to the people about our integrity and all that.

“Though these people have yet to be indicted and they remain innocent until proved guilty, we have to safeguard the integrity of the commission as well.

“That is why we have placed embargo on them concerning electoral duties. There are other jobs they could do at the commission, but not electoral duty.”

He said the commission was poised to conduct a free, fair and credible election in Ondo State.

A former REC in Rivers State, Mrs. Gesila Khan, and other top INEC officials in the South-South geopolitical zone were alleged to have received N675.1m from the poll bribe cash.

Reliable sources at the EFCC had alleged that Khan, who was later redeployed as the REC in Cross River State, allegedly received N185.8m ahead of the March 28 and April 11, 2015 elections.

The commission also arrested one Oluchi Obi Brown, who, as the INEC administrative secretary in Delta State, allegedly received over N111m.

Further investigations by detectives revealed that Brown had about $75,000 in an account in the United States.

The anti-graft agency also arrested one Edem Effanga, who is a retired INEC official. Effanga was arrested alongside his alleged accomplice, Immaculata Asuquo, who was the Head, Voter Education of INEC in Akwa Ibom State.

Effanga was alleged to have received over N240m, which he shared among INEC ad hoc workers during the elections.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said on Monday that despite what his administration might want people to believe, former President Goodluck Jonathan was never committed to ending the Boko Haram insurgency during his tenure.

Osinbajo said this in a lecture titled, “The unraveling of Boko Haram and the rebuilding of the North-East of Nigeria” which he delivered at the Harvard University’s Weatherland Centre for International Affairs, United States.

The Vice-President’s media office made the speech available to journalists on Monday.

While attributing his position to many factors, Osinbajo said it was politically convenient for the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party to claim that the Boko Haram sect was sponsored by a northern-Muslim political elite to discredit the government led by a Christian.

He recalled that when the All Progressives Congress was formed, the then ruling party was also quick to paint it (APC) as the political wing of the Boko Haram sect.

He said it was not until President Muhammadu Buhari who was then the leader of the opposition, was nearly killed in an attack in Kaduna that the false narrative began to lose credibility.

The Vice-President added, “Secondly, the ruling party also somewhat cynically seemed to have considered that since BH attacks were actually in the heartland of the opposition it was not necessarily an unwelcome development as it could only weaken the opposition.

“Third, extensive corruption in arms procurement estimated at about $15bn, ensured that the military remained poorly equipped and demoralised.

“A number of well-publicised mutinies occurred and troops involved were taken through widely unpopular court-martials.

“As the government dithered and equivocated BH proceeded to realise the objective of occupying territory and establishing Islamist states in Nigeria and in the Lake Chad basin.

“In Borno State alone, it occupied and hoisted its flag in 20 of the 27 Local Government Areas that constituted the state. In Adamawa State, BH took Mubi and some villages in Yobe State.”

Osinbajo said it was not until the abduction of more than 200 secondary schoolgirls from their dormitories in Chibok that public outrage against Jonathan’s government’s inept handling of the insurgency reached its peak.

He added that the government then incurred widespread anger when it denied that an abduction took place and suggested that the opposition had simply invented the story.

Osinbajo, however, said Buhari’s assumption of office changed the tide.

He said the strongest reasons for Buhari’s victory in the March 2015 presidential election was the expectation that going by his reputation as a no-nonsense soldier, he would defeat Boko Haram and restore peace to the North-East.

True to type, he said within six months of Buhari’s Presidency, the sect had been effectively dislodged from all the local governments they once held and had retreated into the Sambisa Forest and the northern border towns and villages.

He said the terrorists’ military capacity had been severely degraded and their supply lines effectively blocked.

Osinbajo said the ability of Boko Haram to get willing suicide bombers remained a mystery.

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company has disconnected electricity supply to the National Headquarters of the All Progressives Congress over its inability to settle a N1.2m debt.

The secretariat is on Blantyre Street, Wuse 11 Abuja..

It was learnt in Abuja, on Monday, that the AEDC is seeking a balance of N1.2m after the party paid N.5m out of the outstanding N1.7m debt accumulated over time.

A copy of the receipt of payment of the N.5m pasted at the entrance of the party secretariat indicated that the payment was made on October 24, 2016 via a Zenith Bank cheque, with deposit slip number: 316088.

The document also has PHCN receipt number: 0024102016000 and payment reference number: ZIB/PHCN/24-10-2016 with the (original) customer name written as the Nigeria Export Promotion Council clearly written out.

A member of staff of the AEDC, however, confided in our correspondent that the disconnection was actually carried out close to two weeks ago “when the management felt the party has not shown sufficient commitment towards meeting its obligations.”

The source said, “I understand they have made a part payment of N500, 000 out of the debt. I cannot say if this gesture is sufficient to enable us to restore power to the building.”

None of the party officials was willing to speak on the record about the issue because “it is too embarrassing.”

However, a high ranking party member who spoke in confidence said, “You know the country is in recession. We are not immune to the funding challenges facing other sectors of the Nigerian economy.

“In fact, I think Nigerians will now know that this is a departure from the immediate past because we are the governing party it does not mean we can dip our hands into the national treasury to meet our obligations.”

The source was however silent on what happened to funds generated from the sales of expression of interest and nomination forms for the Edo and Ondo states governorship elections estimated to be in excess of N100m.

Attempts to get an official reaction to this development failed.

Calls to the mobile telephone number of the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, were neither picked nor returned, a text message sent to him had yet to be replied as of the time of filing this report.

Similar calls to the party’s National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni, indicated that it was switched off. A response to a text message sent to him was also being expected as of the time of filing this report.

Most of the power distribution companies have described unpaid bills and vandalism as some of their biggest challenges.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Lagos State has commended the administration of Governor Akinwumi Ambode for resuscitating abandoned projects under the Babatunde Fashola government saying there are signs that Lagosians are feeling the impact of Governor Ambode in Lagos.

In a statement by its publicity secretary, Mr Taofik Gani, the party warned President Muhammadu Buhari against relying on the unverified claims of achievements of Fashola as minister of Power, Works and Housing.

According to the party, “Without adopting the government of Ambode, at least we can now see signs of government presence in some erstwhile abandoned areas under Fashola.”

The party accused the former governor of allegedly promoting mediocrity, propaganda and inappropriate speculation. The party opiend that Fashola was unfit, as a lawyer to occupy such combined ministries of engineering specialities.”

The party said: “This patriotic advise is on the heels of the minister celebrating a proposed injection of a mere 30 megawatts of power from the gurara-hydro power plant, when indeed the minister has collected monumental funding well enough to have injected over 500 megawats into the National grid.”

sunnyb0b0:


Obasanjo met the foreign reserve at $3.5bn, oil price at $9 and a foreign debt of $32bn.

Buhari met the foreign reserve at $30bn, oil price at $40 and foreign debt of about $8bn.

So, what are you guys on about?

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i8sins:
biko, shey na d carcass of shekau dem dey look 4? abi no be dem showed us many pishure of how he was killed by the Nigeria Army?!

APC can lieee
Buhari can lieeeee
in fact, Nigeria can lie 4 Africa

dearestaramide:
MY uncle and I love to have conversations on life, relationships, politics etc. Any way, we got into discussion on the high rate of divorce in Nigeria and he went on to express what he felt were cause of it. He emphasized on patience and forgiveness and went on to tell me of an experience that cured him of his player life style

Years ago, my uncle was like the average Nigerian man, that is of course womanizer but like the average man, he was smart not to flaunt it, though as women, we always can tell. His wife had always known and was always told by her over sabi friends but since she never caught him red handed, she couldn't do anything about it.

The constant late night calls, meetings, sudden travels increased her belief of what she already knew. what could she do? yes, as any average wife, she was in pains but still showed him love and made sure she was there for him any time he needed a friend to talk to. She never complained or cried to her family or friends but kept in all inside her. He respected her for this even though as he said, he was too addicted to women to stop, though he tried.

My uncle was called off for a conference which was to last for one week and as usual with out delay, he jetted off. A cousin of my aunt whom she had not seen for over two years then came to visit and but was staying in a hotel which was by all means high standard and very expensive. My aunt decided to visit her on a Saturday so as to stay longer and catch up on old times. My aunt as you suspected caught sight of her husband really romancing a woman in the pool area and as you know, the man was supposed to be in Port Harcourt and had presumably jetted off three days before. She calmly finished what took her to the hotel and went back home.


My aunt never showed her husband any difference and still treated him normal as usual but one day whilst he was in a very good mood and they were watching an interesting movie in their room, she calmly told him what she had seen THREE MONTHS EARLIER and asked him not to do it again as he had hurt her deeply.

That night, shame, shock, fear all kinds of thoughts but best of all respect clouded my uncle's thought. He did eventually stop but not immediately oooo. He said it was gradual but he eventually stopped.

MY aunt fell ill and died years later and my uncle was sooo heart broken. He is still single by the way.

WHAT I LEARNT

all men are the same only thing that differentiates them is fear of God and self control.
Women need to be wiser and more matured than men.
Never act immediately this enables you time to think and strategise
shouting doesn't change men but pushes them away