₦airaland Forum

This is Orubebe style in action,i wonder what they taught our lawyers while they were in school,they have thrown caution to the wind and no longer behave as a learned colleague as they were.Cos of money they want injustice to prevails while many people are wallowing in abject poverty many people like Saraki are burying money in sockaways and under declaring their worth,leave persecution apart he is one of those corrupt politicians whose pasts is indescribably ugly and worth crucifying

No escape route for Saraki, his time is up.

FROM ARCHIVES

Alhaji AbdulGaniy Folorunsho Abdulrazak, a former Nigerian Ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire, claims to have met the father of Dr. Olusola Saraki in Abidjan in the sixties. In this interview with BAMIDELE JOHNSON, he tells the story of his friendship with the older Saraki, whose origin he gives as Abeokuta

Q: What do you know about the background of Dr. Olusola Saraki?
Well, in 1962, I was appointed Ambassador of Nigeria to Cote d’Ivoire and one of those who met me at the port as part of the Nigerian community in
Abidjan turned out to be the father of Olusola Saraki, Alhaji Muttahiru Saraki. As an ambassador there, my second secretary in the embassy, Ignatius Olisemeka, who later became Foreign Affairs Minister, led officials of the embassy to come and meet me. That was around September or
October 1962. In those days, there was only one flight from Lagos to other West African countries. Ships plied the coast of West Africa, carrying some
passengers. One of the ships named General Mangaine travelled on the West African coast, stopping at principal ports. After leaving the Cameroons, it came to Lagos, where I went aboard together with Ado Ibrahim, who is now
the Emir of Kano. Both of us were appointed the same day as ambassadors; he to Senegal, I to Ivory Coast. We went with our respective families,
stopping at several ports along the way until we finally disembarked at Abidjan. So, I observed that the crowd that came to meet me at the port was divided into two and members of each group had flags of different colours,
saying: “Welcome, our ambassador.” One group had white and the other, green. And they were supposed to be a Nigerian community welcoming their ambassador. Then, Olisemeka, my secretary, took me to my official residence. He was more like a permanent secretary to me. He was like a permanent secretary is to a minister. When we got home, he showed me the rooms along with my children and wife. Later, I called Olisemeka and asked why members of the Nigerian community that came to meet me were waving different banners and were standing apart, not mixing. He said I was very perceptive. I asked if they were divided and he said they were. He explained that the division was caused by a fighting over who would lead the Nigerian community. When I asked who the contenders were, he said one was called Alhaji Muttahiru Saraki, while the other was Emmanuel Alabi.

So, I told Olisemeka that one of my first duties would be to see Alhaji Muttahiru Saraki and Emmanuel Alabi. And I said I would see only the two of them and not their supporters at 10a.m. the next day. On getting to the embassy in the morning and settling down in my office, Olisemeka came to tell me that the two gentlemen had arrived. He then brought in Muttahiru Saraki, who sat on my right, Alabi on the left. I thanked them for welcoming me on my arrival and told them that my secretary, also present, told me that the two of them were fighting over the leadership of the community. I said I was not prepared to work with a divided community. I also told them that I had not invited them to the embassy to hear why they were fighting.

I said from their looks, Muttahiru Saraki would be the older person. And
because of that, I said I was recognising him as the leader of the community. And against my expectation, Alabi stood up and prostrated before Saraki, holding his leg and saying: ‘I accept you as my leader.’ And I told him he would be Saraki’s deputy.

Alabi then asked for permission to say something and I asked him to go on. He said nobody ever called the two of them together and it was only their followers who were treating the matter that way. And Alhaji Saraki also said he accepted him as his deputy.

I later thanked them and they went away together. About a week later, Olisemeka came to me saying he wanted to thank me for the resolution of the problem between Muttahiru Saraki and Alabi. He said it was like a miracle and that within a week, he had seen a reduction, to about one per cent, in consular problems like fighting between Nigerians, going to police stations and so on. From then on, throughout my stay there as ambassador, I went to the mosque to say my Friday prayers with Alhaji Muttahiru Saraki. I’d go out of my way to take Alhaji Saraki from his house and we’d drive to the mosque together. After prayers, I also brought him back. Naturally, the relationship between the two of us blossomed. Then one Sunday, my guard, a policemen, came and said there was an old man who wanted to see me and his name was Saraki.

He then brought in Muttahiru Saraki and we started to talk. Then he asked me where I come from. I told him I am from Ilorin. Alhaji Saraki said he was an Egba man from Abeokuta. By this time, I did not even know the existence of Olusola Saraki. So, the man told me he was from Abeokuta, but he went to a Quranic school in Ilorin at Agbaji, an area of reputed for Islamic scholarship. The man, with his own mouth, told me he was an Egba man from Abeokuta. And as of that time, I knew of no existence of any member of his family. This was in early 1963. So, we carried on like that.

The fact that I resolved the problem between him and Alabi helped us a great deal for our consular cases. As the leader of the Nigerian community and being older than me, Saraki, at my request, always sat by my side wherever I went in my my capacity as Nigeria’s representative. At a point, members of the Nigerian community were calling him deputy ambassador and he enjoyed that. Anywhere I went officially, I took him along. When I was going to present my letters of credence to the head of state (Houphouet-Boigny) I took him along, too. Incidentally, President Houphouet-Boigny was a medical doctor and had been Saraki’s doctor before he became President. They knew each other before I came on the scene. After the man entered politics and he became minister and later, president, they saw less of each other. So it was a great reunion for them on that day. Of course, the news quickly spread that the “deputy ambassador” was a friend to the president. We carried on like that and had a good personal relationship.

Did you meet his wife?
He was a polygamist. He had about three then, with some children, some older than Sola Saraki, and some younger. When I got to the house every Friday to take him to the mosque, I saw them. One Sunday, he came again through the policeman at the gate. And after entertainment with drinks, he told me he had come that day to thank me. He said he had never met any human being, not even his own children, who had honoured him as I had done and that he did not even know how to show his appreciation. I said there was no need for all that. That was in 1963. He then said that he had a son who was studying to be a doctor in London and whenever he came home on holidays, he’d like us to meet. One Sunday during the summer holidays, Alhaji Saraki brought Sola to introduce him to me. And after they took their seats, Alhaji Saraki started talking by saying ‘Sir’. I asked him to cut that out because he was as old as my father. He then reminded me about his son he said was in London. I stood up to greet Sola and he stretched out his hand for a handshake. The father got up and slapped his face, saying: That’s my god you want to shake hands with. You should prostrate.

But I said we were both young men, within the same age group. I made light of it, saying we knew how to greet each other. That was how I met Sola Saraki.

Did you relate with him at all?
I will get to that. So, the father now said he was putting him in my care. ‘Take care of him for me,’ he said. Alhaji Muttahiru Saraki, the father of Sola is dead now, and is in the right place. If I am telling lies, he is hearing. That was how I met Sola Saraki. And I told him that it was good that as a young man, he is a professional. I advised him to return home to participate in politics. I am talking of 1963.

I remained in Abidjan till 1964, when my party, the Northern Peoples Congress, through my leader, the Sardauna of Sokoto, sent for me. He said I had to resign because they wanted to appoint me a minister in the cabinet of Tafawa Balewa. So, the Sardauna sent for me and said I was going to be a minister in the next government. He said he would tell Ilorin people that I’d be returned to the parliament unopposed. I was appointed minister in charge of Nigerian Railways and I performed other functions, like being a confidante to the Prime Minister.

Back to Sola Saraki. When I then went back to campaign in 1964, to go to parliament, with a view to be appointed a minister, Sola surfaced. That was two weeks to the election. He told me that he had decided to heed the advice I gave him in Abidjan to go into politics. I asked where he wanted to contest and he said Asa. Asa is a local government that shares a boundary with Ilorin Central. When I replied Sola, I admitted that I advised him to come into politics, but he had come too late. In Asa, there was a member of parliament, Mr. Babatunde, whom the party had decided to return unopposed. However, he said he would contest.

Did you raise the issue that he was an Egba man when he said he was going to contest?

That didn’t arise at that time. It is now that the sort of question is being raised. He said he would contest. He went to Lagos and brought some packets of medicine and he put up a mat and a hut in Asa and started giving people injections. These were for people who lacked medical attention. The whole of Asa local government had no hospital at all. If anybody fell sick, they had to take the person to Ilorin.

He started giving them cheap medicine, thinking that it would win him their votes. He did not take into consideration that one, there was a member of parliament on ground. Second, the same man was being presented by my party. Also, he was going to be an independent candidate. Naturally, he was defeated. That was his entry into Ilorin politics. Then, he started visiting Ilorin, sharing money to people; money that he had made from medical practice through the retainership he had with the Nigerian Ports Authority and Ministry of Defence. At that time, the army did not have a hospital or a medical department. The Air Force also did not have any. So, whatever bills he sent to them, they paid him.

So, he was making constant visits, and building himself up. And that was the situation in Ilorin. If he says he is an Ilorin man, ask him where the home of his father is.

He will point to Agbaji. Agbaji was the place his father schooled. That is
the only connection he has to the place. He knows I know this and he cannot face me and say it is not true. There was one time he wanted to change his identity, claiming he was from Mali. If the father of Bukola is not an Ilorin man, how can Bukola be?

Who is the mother of Bukola? We know she is not from Ilorin. It is even doubtful that she is a Nigerian. The wife that I know with Sola Saraki, that he brought to my house in 1964, when he became a doctor, did not have a job. I was then a minister, living at No 2 Thompson Road, Ikoyi. He brought his wife, saying they had just come together from England. And I got the wife a job through my friend and colleague in the cabinet, who was the Minister for Establishment. That was the first job of Morenike, the mother of Gbemi. And the mother of Gbemi is not the mother of Bukola.

All through this time, were you still in touch with his father whom you left in Cote d’Ivoire or you broke off?

I maintained my friendship with his father. His father was writing me letters. In one of the letters, he told me he was very sick. And at that time, Sola was in private medical practice at Offin in Lagos and I went there to rebuke him. I said he was a useless doctor if his father was suffering in a foreign country. I said he should be his number one patient at his clinic. And he brought him back. It was in that hospital that the man died.

If you were that close, you must have met some of Muttahiru Saraki’s family members. Do you recall running into any of them in Ilorin?

None at all. Even up till now. There was one Iya Alaro. But Iya Alaro was a daughter of Alhaji Muttahiru Saraki, married to an Ilorin person. And that is the root of Sola Saraki coming to Ilorin. When he came to Ilorin, he stayed with Iya Alaro at Agbaji. But Iya Alaro’s relationship with Ilorin was that of a wife of an Ilorin man. I know Alhaji Saraki had a male child in his house in Abidjan. He was older than Sola. He did not have Western education. And I think he must have settled back in Lagos or Abeokuta.

Dr. Olusola Saraki’s claims to Fulani ancestry and Ilorin indigeneship are challenged by disclosures that he is an Egba man from Abeokuta in Ogun State-BAMIDELE JOHNSON
At a press conference in Abuja in August 2009, Dr. Olusola Saraki told his audience that he is essentially of Malian origin. His great-grandfather, allegedly a Fulani, he said, migrated from the West African nation to settle in Ilorin about 200 years ago.

“My great-great grandfather originated from Mali and I am talking about some 150 to 200 years ago. And they are Fulani and that is where we got our Fulani connection from. My great-grandfather settled in Ilorin preaching the religion of Islam...My great-grandfather brought our own Qur’an to Ilorin from Mali to Agbaji, where we settled,” he claimed.

His mother, Saraki added, hailed from Iseyin in Oyo State. His father, he declared, hailed from Ilorin. The last claim has for long been a subject of muted dispute in Kwara, where Saraki has been the major determinant of political fortunes for decades. His hold on political affairs has delighted and riled in equal measure. Saraki’s already declared intention to instal his daughter, Gbemisola, a senator, as the next governor of Kwara State has angered more than a few people in Ilorin–for a variety of reasons. To the indigenes of Ilorin, a city reputed as a centre of Islamic learning and culture, the attempt to instal a female governor is a desecration of Islamic injunctions on the position of women. Also, the incumbent gover•nor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, is his son.

This has provoked allegations that Saraki has enslaved indigenes of Ilorin and the state in general. It has also re-invited public attention to his origin. Mrs. Sarah Jubril, a Peoples Democratic Party presidential aspirant, recently rekindled public interest in Saraki’s claim to Ilorin indigeneship. “Please, check the roots of the Sarakis...Did he not come out one time to say he is from Mali? Please, check the magazine where it was published because I • Saraki: Is he really from Abeokuta?. of the community would be. The contenders, Olisemeka explained, were Muttahiru Saraki and one Emmanuel Alabi, both of whom were present when Abdulrazak was welcomed at the port.

The next day, on Abdulrazak’s orders, the two men were brought to the Embassy without their supporters. The objective was to find a solution to the feud. “I thanked them for welcoming me on my arrival and told them that my secretary (who was also present) had told me that the two of them were fighting over the leadership of the community and that I was not prepared to work with a divided community. I also told them that I had not invited them to hear stories about why they were fighting,” said the ambassador.



http://saharareporters.com/2010/12/09/saraki-not-kwara-alhaji-abdulganiyu-folorunsho-abdulrazak

From Washington, the headquarters of the Breton Woods multilateral institutions – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in America – came praises for Nigeria’s economic recovery programme, according to the Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun.

The commendation is even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said yesterday that the country’s foreign exchange restriction policy has begun to pay off with some manufacturers of some imported goods indicating interest to begin manufacturing in Nigeria instead of offshore activities because of the high cost of imported products occasioned by the policy.

The two key government officials made the revelations in Washington DC, United States (U.S.) at a press briefing as part of activities of this year’s Spring Meeting.

The minister spoke on the gains of this year’s Spring Meeting and the several bilateral meetings held between Nigeria and her partners.

Her words: “The gains are various and important for the Nigerian government. At least, we were able to network with our colleagues, other ministers of finance of the G-7 countries and the G-24 countries and compared notes and their experiences. I think this reinforces the validation that the course we have chosen to restructure Nigeria is the right one.
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“We got many endorsements and the direction in which we seek to take the Nigerian economy. Specifically, we held bilateral meetings with specific bilateral agencies, including the Islamic Development Bank where we have agreed to work together on a micro-finance scheme for women; the Japanese development agency where we have agreed to work together on power projects and they have agreed to make significant investments in the area of power which I think will be very beneficial for Nigeria and the IFC. Similarly, we had a meeting with them this morning (yesterday), again talking about investment in power and some of our banks to shore up their positions and similarly the ADfB on agreements for investments in agriculture and collaborations in a range of initiatives that would help us to diversify the economy.

“Similarly, we had discussions with the World Bank around our budget support request and we have been able to have very productive meetings to understand what the next steps are in the process and we are very positive of a good outcome.”

In his comments, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, spoke on the various monetary policy measures of the government to boost productivity at all levels of the economy, adding that both in the medium and long terms, the various policies, including the foreign exchange policy regime, are bound to stimulate the economy.

According to him, in furtherance of its statutory mandate, the apex bank is also focusing more to expand lending to key sectors such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing, adding that some of the immediate gains of the fiscal and monetary policies are the increasing foreign investments in the economy.
https://www.today.ng/news/national/108180/imf-wbank-laud-nigerias-economic-recovery-plan-adeosun

Abdul Kafarati, a justice of the federal high court, Abuja, has asked Senate President Bukola Saraki to face his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

The judge dismissed Saraki’s fundamental rights suit to quash the charges against him at the CCT for lacking in merit.

“It appears to me all that the applicant is trying to do is to stop his criminal trial at CCT. The CCT is a competent court to try the criminal matters,” he held.

“This court cannot interfere with the case at the tribunal which has power to try cases.

“It is not appropriate for the applicant to approach this court. This case is hereby dismissed.”

On March 22, Kafarati had withdrawn from the suit filed by Saraki to quash the charges of false declaration of assets brought against him by the federal government at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

Kafarati had explained that his integrity had been called into question in the matter, hence he would disqualify himself from it.

He had read a report of online medium accusing him of corruption.

He, therefore, said that if he ruled against or for Saraki, his decision would be interpreted differently.

“It is only in this country that people can wake up and start calling people names,” he had said.

“In the circumstance, I disqualify myself from this case. I will hereby send the case file to the chief judge for re-assignment to another judge.”

But Ibrahim Auta, chief judge of the federal high court, prevailed on Kafarati to deliver his judgment on the matter.

In February, after the judgment of the supreme court dismissing Saraki’s appeal to stop his trial, his lawyer, Ajibola Oloyede filed the lawsuit asking the federal high court to stop his trial and to disqualify the chairman of the CCT, who is presiding over the trial.

The senate president couched his prayers in the violation of his rights to fair hearing by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) of which he said did not invite him for explanation before it filed charges against him at the CCT.

He also claimed that his trial was politically motivated, but the court held that he should go and face his trial.
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https://www.thecable.ng/breaking-must-face-trial-court-tells-saraki

Qaddafi was not killed for humanitarian purposes but for the oil and for money. His ideas of an African gold-backed currency were his major undoing.

The recent Hillary Clinton email leaks have opened a can of worms everywhere including in Africa. Wikileaks released an unclassified U.S. Department of State document emailed to Clinton, dated April 2, 2011. Sidney Blumenthal, the sender of the email confirmed what the world already suspected. Qaddafi was not killed for humanitarian purposes but for the oil and for money. His ideas of an African gold-backed currency were his major undoing.

In April 2011, then President of the World Bank, Robert Bruce Zoellick spoke at a panel discussion about how he hoped the World Bank would have some sort of role in the reconstruction of Libya along with other countries.

“Reconstruction now means (Ivory Coast), it now means Southern Sudan, it means Liberia, it means Sri Lanka, I hope it will mean Libya,” he said.

To the ordinary person, this was the World Bank hoping to come in to help a failing state but to Economist John Perkins, the World Bank was not to be considered as fulfilling its supposed mandate. It was in actual fact a U.S. bank together with its sibling, the IMF. The United States controls about 16% of the World Bank while the second largest member, Japan has a paltry 7%. The United States again has around 17% voting rights in the International Monetary Fund. His point was that these institutions were and still are extensions of the Western foreign policy.

“So, we might ask ourselves: What happens when a “rogue” country threatens to bring the banking system that benefits the corporatocracy to its knees?” he asked later saying the Western empire has a standing army (NATO) to violently protect its position.

Libya was the “rogue” nation but the question is: Just what did Gaddafi have in mind?

According to the IMF, Libya’s Central Bank is 100% state owned and in 2011, it was estimated to have 144 tons of gold in its vaults. Muammar Gaddafi’s plan was to introduce a gold-backed currency which he hoped African and Muslim nations would adopt. He felt it could rival the euro and the dollar, and rightly so too.

Sidney Blumenthal, in his email to Hillary Clinton confirmed, “Qaddafi's government holds 143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver. During late March, 2011 these stocks were moved to SABHA (south west in the direction of the Libyan border with Niger and Chad); taken from the vaults of the Libyan Central Bank in Tripoli.”

He went on to say the gold and silver was valued at $7 billion and was one of the reasons Nicolas Sarkozy embarked on a French attack of Libya.

“Sarkozy's plans are driven by the following issues:
a. A desire to gain a greater share of Libya oil production,
b. Increase French influence in North Africa,
c. Improve his internal political situation in France,
d. Provide the French military with an opportunity to reassert its position in the world,
e. Address the concern of his advisors over Qaddafi's long term plans to supplant France as the dominant power in, Francophone Africa,” wrote Blumenthal.

If Qaddafi had succeeded, the United States of America and Europe would have been forced to buy oil and minerals in the gold backed currency thus tipping the scales. This was a horror the West dared not experience. The situation would have been a more lethal re-enactment of Saddam Hussein’s currency wars when he supported the new Euro currency at the expense of the United States Dollar. At this point, the U.S. was highly insecure about the effects of the new currency to its economy. Hussein’s decision to sell oil in the then new currency was a blow to the U.S. worsened by the proclamation that the dollar was the “currency of the enemy”. Currency wars have therefore been a fact of history with the Hussein situation being a peculiar intra-Western conflict that culminated in the Middle East instability promulgated by U.S. interventionist policies. That Qaddafi would be killed for planning to introduce an African currency to the fray is not surprising but that does not make it acceptable.

The leaked Clinton email has far-reaching implications on the fluid state of post-colonial relations with the West. If anything, it is an eye-opener. Where Africa seeks to build an independent economic structure, the West is seen to try and derail those plans so as to retain its primacy in world affairs.

With regard to the creation of a new currency, Ministry of Peace Founder, Dr James Thring said, “It’s one of those things that you have to plan almost in secret, because as soon as you say you’re going to change over from the dollar to something else, you’re going to be targeted.”

And Qaddafi was targeted. He may not have been the most democratic leader in the world but Libyan citizens had arguably the best way of life in Africa. His plan of action (without the human rights violations) should be a blueprint for African development.


https://www.africanexponent.com/post/new-evidence-the-real-reason-gaddafi-was-killed-2706

Senator Gbenga Ashafa, who chairs the Senate Committee on "Land Transportation," has debunked the assertion by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and the Chair of House of Representatives Appropriation Committee, Abdulmunin Jibrin and other lawmakers that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Railway project was never included in the 2016 budget.

In a press statement below, the Senator made it clear that while the initial budget did not contain the project, his Committee later received an amended budget from the executive branch through the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who also defended the budget before his committee. He stated that the committee decided to allocate money to commence construction of the Lagos-Calabar rail in 2016. A counterpart funding is expected to be provided by the Chinese Export-Import Bank for the project.

Senator Gbenga Ashafa See full text of Senator Ashafa's Press Statement below:


I have carefully followed the news items making the rounds in relation to the budget presented to the National Assembly and what was defended by the Ministry of Transport before the Senate Committee on Land Transport which I have the privilege of chairing.

The focal points of controversy seem to be the Lagos to Calabar railway modernisation projects and the completion of the Idu – Kaduna rail line.

I confirm that the Lagos to Calabar rail line was not in the original document that was presented to the National Assembly by the Executive. However subsequently at the budget defense session before the Senate Committee on Land Transport, the Hon. Minister for Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, did inform the committee of the omission of the Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation project and indeed sent a supplementary copy of the ministry's budget to the committee which contained the said project.

The minister noted that the amount needed for the counterpart funding for both the Lagos to Kano and Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation projects was in the sum of 120 Billion Naira, being 60 Billion Naira per project.

While the committee did not completely agree with all the changes made in the subsequent document, being fully aware of the critical importance of the rail sector to the development of our dear country, distinguished members of the Senate Committee on Land transport keyed into the laudable (Lagos to Calabar, rail modernisation) project and found ways of appropriating funds for the project without exceeding the envelope provided for the ministry.

In so doing, the committee observed that the Lagos to Kano rail rehabilitation project had been allocated the sum of N52 Billion Naira as against the sum of 60 billion which the Hon. Minister requested as counterpart funding while no allocation whatsoever was made for the Lagos to Calabar rail line.

Hence, the sum of 54 billion Naira that was discovered by the Senate Committee on Land Transport to be floating in the budget of the Ministry of Transportation as presented by the Executive was injected into augmenting the funds needed for counterpart funding of both projects (Lagos to Kano and Lagos to Calabar Rail modernisation), as at the time the committee defended its report before the senate committee on Appropriation. The Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation project was therefore included in the Senate Committee on Land Transports recommendation to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

With regard to the Idu to Kaduna rail completion, the Senate Committee on Land Transport did not interfere with what was provided for in the budget as sent by the executive, being approximately 18 Billion Naira hence I am equally surprised to read on the pages of the newspapers that the amount allocated to the said project was reduced by 8 Billion Naira.

While I would have preferred to wait till Tuesday April 12th 2016 when the National Assembly reconvenes in order to have the benefit of viewing the details of the budget that was conveyed to the executive as passed, I am compelled to place the facts in proper perspective as it relates to the activities of the Senate Committee on Land Transport.

Without prejudice to the considerations and powers of the Senate Committee on Appropriations with regard to the appropriations process, the foregoing is the true reflection of what transpired at the committee level with respect to the Land Transport sector of the Ministry of Transport.


Senator Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos East)
Senate Committee on Land Transport

http://saharareporters.com/2016/04/11/federal-government-included-and-defended-inclusion-lagos-calabar-rail-2016-budget-senate

Nigeria’s immediate past Senate President, David Mark, has links to at least eight offshore shell companies while holding public office, in violation of a federal code of conduct law, a massive leak of files belonging to Mossack Fonseca, a law firm in Panama, shows.

The files, seen by PREMIUM TIMES, show how Mossack Fonseca, reputed as one of the most secretive companies in the world, helped clients register offshore entities, some of which are then used to launder money, evade tax and dodge sanctions.

They also provide details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world, including in Nigeria.

The trove of 11.5 million files shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.

The revelations are among the findings of a lengthy investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other global news organizations – including PREMIUM TIMES.

PREMIUM TIMES is the only Nigerian publication involved in the investigation, which lasted a year.

As a former senate president, Mr. Mark stands out among other notable Nigerians named in the files.

The 68-year old former military officer spent the last 40 years covered by the investigation largely as public office holder. But he is widely seen to be far richer than his legitimate incomes could have provided.

He served as military governor of Nigeria’s north-central state of Niger, minister of communications, and later as president of the Nigerian Senate from 2007 to 2015.

Mr. Mark has been in the senate since 1999, and remains a senator of the federal republic, representing Benue South Zone in the upper legislative chamber.

Mr. Mark and his secret companies

The Mosseca Fonseca database shows that Mr. Mark is one of Nigeria’s most extensive users of offshore shell companies, even while being a public official.

In documents, Mr. Mark was linked to eight active companies registered in the British Virgin Island.

They are Sikera Overseas S.A, Colsan Enterprises Limited, Goldwin Transworld Limited, Hartland Estates Limited, Marlin Holdings Limited, Medley Holdings Limited, Quetta Properties Limited, and Centenary Holdings Limited.

In the documents, Mr. Mark was repeatedly marked as a politically exposed person, and at a point the former Senate President had to send documents, across to Mosseca Fonseca to prove that he was clean.

It remains unclear what businesses Mr. Mark is conducting with the companies.

While not all owners or operators of such offshore entities are criminals, owning or maintaining interest in private companies while serving as a public official is against Nigerian laws.

Section 6(b) of the Code of Conduct Act says a public office holder shall not, “except where he is not employed on full‐time basis, engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade”.

In a previous investigation by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr. Mark’s estranged wife, Vikky Preye Mark, was also exposed as an operator of secret offshore accounts.

Mrs. Mark operated an account with the Swiss branch of HSBC, but with details made largely secret.

Although she was known within the bank as the beneficial owner of the account, she was largely identified with a secret code – 14312MP.

Mrs. Mark opened the account on December 18, 1989 and closed it on July 12, 1991. About that time, her husband, then a top ranking army officer, had served as military administrator of Niger State and federal minister of communications, a period during which he is believed to have made a fortune.

Court papers during a messy divorce with his wife suggested that some of Mr. Mark’s children schooled in Switzerland, but it is not clear whether it was during that period that Mrs. Mark operated the HSBC account.

The court papers also showed that the Marks operated foreign accounts elsewhere.

About six million pounds in four accounts – three at the Northern Bank, Isle of Man, and one at the Allied Irish Bank, Jersey – were frozen in October 2000 as a result of the ancillary relief sought by Victoria Mark in the couple’s divorce case.

Part 1, Section 7 of the Code of Conduct law provides that, “Any public officer specified in the Second Schedule to this Act or any other persons as the President may, from time to time, by order prescribe, shall not maintain or operate a bank account in any country outside Nigeria.”

If the Code of Conduct Bureau decides to slam charges on Mr. Mark following the #PanamaPapers revelation, the politician may lose his senatorial seat, a position he won back just on February 20 after his initial election of March 28, 2015 was annulled by a tribunal. His fiercest challenger had alleged irregularity.

Section 23 of the Code of Conduct law, which stipulates punishment for violators, say:

(1) Where the (Code of Conduct) Tribunal finds a public officer guilty of contravening any of the provisions of this Act, it shall impose upon that officer any of the punishments specified under subsection (2) of this section.

(2) The punishment which the Tribunal may impose shall include any of the following-

(a) vacation of office or any elective or nominated office, as the case may be;

(b) disqualification from holding any public office (whether elective or not) for a period not exceeding ten years; and

(c) seizure and forfeiture to the State of any property acquired in abuse or corruption of office.

The #PanamaPapers had on Monday exposed Mr. Mark’s colleague in the Senate, Bukola Saraki, as failing to declare at least four assets belonging to his wife, all tucked away in secret offshore territories, as required by Nigerian laws.

But the President of the Senate denied any wrongdoing, saying he “declared his assets properly in accordance with the relevant legislation,” and that the charges against him “are both unfounded and politically motivated.”

Mr. Mark wouldn’t comment
The former senate president did not answer or returns calls made to him by PREMIUM TIMES reporters seeking comments. He also did not respond to a text message.

His spokesperson, Paul Mumeh, initially said he would only comment if given access to the database from which the story about his boss was sourced. He later said Mr. Mark was out of Abuja, and was unreachable.

“I’m not sure about the accuracy of your claims,” Mr. Mumeh said. “I need to consult him (Mr. Mark) before commenting.”
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/201272-panamapapers-ex-nigeria-senate-president-david-mark-illegally-operates-secret-companies-in-tax-haven.html#.VwOq14foF40.twitter

ADVANTAGES OF FUEL SCARCITY IN
NIGERIA
1) Most compounds are noiseless because 'I
better
pass my neighbour' generators are on
sabbatical leave.
2) Wives are happy because husbands
who like
hanging out are now staying at home
with the family because drinks outside
are not cold and no fuel to drive out.
3) All the housewives are cooking good
food because no more Crunches and Mr Biggs,
4) Kids are reading their books since
watching
TV needs fuel.
5) No more congestion in network since
many
peoples phones are off.
6) Browsing & downloading is faster than before
cause not much people are online.
7) Everyone sleeps very early now, No more late
night movies.. Light no dey naa
There are MORE PRAYERS & less
distractions
lolzz.
9) Parents are over-joyed because their children
that were always online now concentrates on
their studies
10) Even God himself was very happy when he
saw people who haven't gone to church for
months and years going to church and staying
for both First and second services just to charge
their phones...

oday is Orubebe Day:
Mr. Orubebe almost derailed d 2015 presidential election when he disrupted d announcement of results after he accused d former INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, of bias.

Lol...'Jega go to ur office' Jega U r partial, Jega U r tribalistic, We wee not take it #smh. Òjo buruku esu gbomi mu. See d way I was shaking where I sat,a memorable day it was indeed #winks

Unfortunately the British will not help. Firstly, Kanu is dual citizen, in fact by his own activities, a triple citizen; British, Nigerian and Biafra. Now the British government recognises dual citizenship but if a British citizen happens to be in trouble in his dual nationality country, he is considered as being in his own country, in this case Nigeria. The bottom line is Kanu is on his own as far as being in trouble with Nigeria authorities is concerned. Secondly, the British authorities snare at their citizens who travelled to other countries be it Nigeria, Syria, Afannganistan, Iraq or wherever to former trouble either to fight war as Jihadist or to lead cause to divide another country. The British authorities will not support such divisionist or Jihadist wars, and so again, Kanu is on his own. Finally, the British government does not recognise triple nationality, in case of Kanu being a British, a Nigerian and a Biafrain. Therefore, Kanu being a naturalised British rather than being born in the UK, the British are likely to remove or take back his British naturalisation, because Kanu is a citizen of more than two countries which is illegal in British laws. So again, Kanu is on his own. I know the pro-Biafrains will start raining insults on me after this, but I am only making a clarification, free from sentiments and for elithingment.

Embattled Senate President Bukola Saraki trial will commence officially before the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja after the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal; Justice Danlami Umar struck out an application by his counsel challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal.

Saraki through his lawyer, Kanu Agabi had filed a motion seeking to quash corruption charges relating to false declaration of assets preferred against him. Mr. Agabi in challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal repackaged some of the issues the Supreme Court had already decided upon. The defense counsel argued that the failure of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to invite Saraki to confront him with the breaches and noncompliance in his assets declaration forms had affected the validity of the charges and thereby faulted the action of the Bureau in approaching the tribunal.

The motion which was strongly opposed by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs was described as unfounded, frivolous, absurd and a clear case of abuse of court process, Mr. Jacobs, therefore, asked the court to dismiss the motion.

While throwing out the application in his ruling the Chairman of the tribunal, Danladi Umar said that the case is within the purview of the tribunal to hear and, therefore, declared that the tribunal was ready to go on with the trial.

Saraki was accompanied to the tribunal today by 80 lawyers with 10 Senior Advocate of Nigeria defending him at the trial.

The tribunal judge stated in his ruling that the case will be heard on its merit starting from April 5th 2015.
http://saharareporters.com/2016/03/24/saraki-face-trial-code-conduct-tribunal-affirms-jurisdiction

So guys, You were walking home around 10pm through a lonely street in your neighbourhood and you walked into this.

First of all, you tried to recover from the shock before looking around but there was not a single soul in sight.

What would you do?

A Niger Delta peace advocacy group, Concerned Progressives for Development and Good Governance, CPDGG, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the appointment of capable and upright indigenes of Niger Delta region into his cabinet.

According to the group, though the progressive minded indigenes of the Niger Delta have never been in doubt over the capability of President Buhari to reposition development in the region, it described the recent political appointments, particularly the appointment of Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh (retd) as the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Implementation Committee, as commendable and needful for the growth of the region. The group, in a statement by Chief Timnadi Oweilabofagh (Bayelsa), Oghenekaro Umukoro (Delta) and Chief Fred Fuberesima (Rivers), described Buhari’s administration as concerned about the complex issues of development and empowerment in the region. It said: “Unlike in the immediate past, the indigenes of the Niger Delta have come to realise that the present administration is a product of the region in spite of unfounded claims and propaganda meant to whittle down its impact. Boroh’s appointment as Chairman of the Amnesty Implementation Committee and other key appointments have shown that square pegs are now in square hole for the implementation of accelerated development in the region.” “Our private assessment of the functions of the Amnesty Implementation Committee showed that it has met with the President anti-corruption and accountability status quo. For the first time, a Federal Government security committee under Brig. Gen. Boroh had the courage to return a whooping sum of N416, 222, 850.55 unspent funds in the 2015 budget to the national treasury. Such action received commendation from the Senate Committee on Niger Delta contrary to the claim of the anti-Niger Delta elements.”

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/buhari-gets-kudos-appointment-n-delta-indigenes/

•Fault Senate President’s reliance on decision in Tibunu’s case

The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has cautioned Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) Chairman, Danladi Umar against repeating some of its past errors in its handling of the case involving Senate President Bukola Saraki.

The CCB, which is prosecuting the Senate president on a 13-count charge of false assets declaration, faulted Saraki’s reliance on the CCT’s 2011 decision in the case involving former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Saraki’s lawyer Kanu Agabi (SAN) urged the tribunal to adopt its decision in the Tinubu case and strike out the case against his client.

Agabi noted that since the charge against Tinubu was struck out on the ground that he was not first invited to either admit or deny the anomalies in his assets declaration forms, his the charge against Saraki should also be struck out because he was equally not allowed to either deny or accept responsibility for the perceived anomalies in his forms.

In its counter argument, now before the CCT, filed by its lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), the CCB reminded the CCT Chairman, that the tribunal has in subsequent cases after the Tinubu case, admitted being misled into committing an error in striking out the charge.

It contended that it would amount to a wrong paractice where the tribunal persists in rendering wrong decisions on the pretext of abiding by the principle of precedent.

The Bureau also faulted Saraki’s reliance on the provision of Section 3(d) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal (CCB/T) Act. In arguing that he was never invited to make written admission or denial of the alleged breach of the Code of Conduct.

It noted that the CCB/T Act was enacted in 1989 as Decree No. 1 of 1989 and that the Act and Section 3(d) thereof were patterned after the 1979 Constitution, which in Paragraph 15(1)(d) of Part 1 of the 5the Schedule to the 1979 Constitution.

The CCB noted that the effect of Paragraph 15(1)(d) of Part 1 of the 5the Schedule to the 1979 Constitution is that once a public officer, who contravened any provision of the Code of Conduct is invited and he/she makes a written statement, admitting the contravention, the CCB would be incapacitated and would not be able to try such public officer or refer the case to the CCT.

“This provision of the 1979 Constitution was however adopted in Section 3(d) of the CCB/T Act when the CCB and CCT were established in 1989. This absurd situation led to the failure of the CCB and CCT under the 1979 Constitution.

“This deficiency has however been corrected in the 1999 Constitution, with the deletion of the provision, in the 1979 Constitution and the Code of Conduct Decree N. 1 of 1989, to the effect that once a written admission is made by the erring public officer, no reference should be made to the tribunal.

“Paragraph 3(e) of Part 1 of the 3rd Schedule to the 1999 Constitution provides that: ‘The Bureau (CCB) shall have power to…receive complaints about non-compliance or breach of the provisions of the Code of Conduct or any law in relation thereto, investigate the complaint and, where appropriate, refer such matters to the CCT.’

“Under the 1999 Constitution, the CCB needs not request the erring public officer to either admit or deny the allegation of breach of the Code of Conduct,” CCB said,

It argued that in view of the provision of Section 1(3) of the 1999 Constitution, the provision of Section 3(d) of the CCB/T Act, which was Decree No. 1 of 1989 cannot override the clear provisions of Paragraph 3(e) of Part 1 of the 3rd Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.

“Decree No. 1 of 1989 codified in the Laws of the Federation as CCB/T Act, CAP C15, LFN 2004, as an existing law under Section 315 of the 1999 Constitution, is only applicable to the extent that it is not inconsistent with the provision of the Constitution itself,” it said.

The CCB opined that Saraki could not rely on the CCT’s decision in the case of FRN v. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, decided on November 30, 2011 to request that the charge against him be struck out. It cited other cases later decided by the CCT, including the case of FRN v. Emil Lemke Inyang (in charge No: CCT/ABJ/02/2012 where the CCT admitted being misled in giving the decision it gave in the Tinubu case.

“This tribunal, in its subsequent judgments, has realised that its decision in FRN v. Bola Ahmed Tinubu was given per incuriam (without due regard to the law or the facts) and had departed from it and followed the provision of the Constitution.

“This tribunal found (in the FRN v. Emil Lemke Inyang case) that its earlier decision was given by it without reference by counsel to the provision of Paragraph 3(e) of Part 1 of the 3rd Schedule to the 1999 Constitution. That Schedule emphatically removed and omitted the proviso requiring written admission or denial.

“That proviso that is repeated in Section 3(d) of the CCB/T Act cannot be sustained any longer under the 1999 Constitution. The decision in Tinubu’s case was given per incuriam and the tribunal should not follow such a decision.

“It is indeed, well settled that this tribunal will not perpetuate error through dogged application of the doctrine of stares decisis (requiring court to abide by principles established in earlier decided similar cases) by following a decision that was given per incuriam.

“The tribunal or any court must depart from its previous decision once it discovers that the decision was given per incuriam,” it said.

CCB also faulted Saraki’s argument to the effect that since the alleged anomalies in his assets declaration forms were not formerly brought to his attention by the CCT within a certain time, he was deemed to have been cleared, in view of the provisions in Paragraphs 3(b)and (c) of the 3rd Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.

“The defendant failed to take cognizance of the provision of Paragraph 3(e) to the 3rd Schedule of the 1999 Constitution that enables the CCB ‘to receive complaint about non-compliance with or breach of the provision of the Code of Conduct or any law in relation thereto.’

“The provision did not limit the power of the CCB to the examination of the declaration only, but also empowers the CCB to receive complaint of non-compliance from outsiders, including body corporate such as the EFCC and Independent Corrupt practices and other related offences Commission (EFCC).

“Since there is no time limit within which an individual can submit a complaint of an infraction or non-compliance with the provision of the Code of Conduct, the defendant’s argument that once there was no official complaint against him within a reasonable time of his submitting the declaration, he could no longer be investigated and prosecuted, cannot stand.

“There can be no clearance by implication, unless it is expressly stated by the statutes and time does not run against the state,” the CCB said.

However, despite the Supreme Court’ judgment to the effect that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) was applicable to the CCT, and the provision of Section 396(2) of the ACJA, CCT Chairman, Umar has scheduled ruling for tomorrow.

Section 396(2) of the ACJA provides that: “After the plea has been taken, the defendant may raise any objection to the validity of the charge or the information at anytime before judgment, provided that such objection shall only be considered along with the substantive issues and a ruling thereon made at the time of delivery of judgment.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/sarakis-trial-ccb-urges-cct-not-repeat-past-errors/

First Nigerian Governor to visit a first class ruler (Ewi of Ado Ekiti) in short nicker, t-shirt and canvass.

First Nigerian Governor to do the work of a traffic warder and FRSC joint together by stopping vehicles and checking their licenses in public.

First Nigerian Governor to beat a talking drum in public without caring who is looking at him.

First Nigerian Governor to visit a local market to buy efo, ata rodo, eja titus, ata ijosi, ewedu and other orisirisi for cooking.

First Nigerian Governor to cut Ponmo (Cow skin) in public without caring whose ox is gored (Even that of President Buhari)

First Nigerian Governor to declare on a National television that ‘mum wear pampers’

First Nigerian Governor to handpick illiterates and area boys to act as honorables and speaker at the state house of assembly.

First Nigerian Governor to appoint a 72 years old carpenter as Local Government Chairman.

First Nigerian Governor to drive a public truck in the city without even minding his status as a state chief executive officer.

First Nigerian Governor to buy Ogede Agbagba (Banana) publicly from a school boy young enough to be his last born.

First Nigerian Governor to act as UNOFFICIAL SPOKESMAN of the opposition party, The PDP!

First Nigeria Governor to beat a judge mercilessly....is about to do something funny again what do u think is it?

Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki’s desperate bid to evade prosecution for false assets declarations and corruption has been met with a robust response. Saraki, a former governor of Kwara State, continues to push the claim that his prosecution is politically motivated, despite a welter of evidence. He similarly concocted other stories and engaged in legal manoeuvres to ensure the trial does not proceed.

On March 7, Saraki had filed a motion to restart the jurisdictional battle, asking once again that the Code of Conduct Tribunal decline jurisdiction validly affirmed by the Supreme Court in February. This has resulted in another shift in the date of the commencement of his trial till March 24th.

On March 18, when the trial was billed to open, Kanu Agabi, Saraki’s counsel, had ambushed the prosecution by requesting the tribunal to give room for the hearing of Saraki’s motion, arguing that it was in accordance with the law.

Agabi had also argued that that the Attorney-General of Federation and Minister of Justice lacks the powers to file charges before the Code of Conduct Tribunal and claimed that the failure of the Code of Conduct Bureau to confront him with discrepancies in his assets declaration forms makes the charges against the Senate President invalid

But a counter-affidavit, filed on 15 March by Peter Danladi, an operative of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), punched holes in the Senate President's claims and laid bare what he is struggling to conceal from the public.

Danladi’s counter-affidavit, exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters, identified depositions contained in paragraphs 5 to 34 of Saraki’s motion as false and made with the intention to mislead the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

In the counter-affidavit, Danladi said Saraki, who was elected twice as governor of Kwara State filed four assets declaration forms. The law requires certain public officers to do so on the assumption of office and at the end of their tenure.

The first assets declaration by Saraki (Form CCB1), with ID 001440, was filed on September 16, 2003, following his assumption of office as Kwara State governor. The second (Form CCB1), with ID 000041, was filed on July 11, 2007, at the end of his first term as governor. The third, Form (CCB 1), with ID 000040, was also filed on July 11, 2007, on assumption of office for his second term as governor.

The fourth (ID000218), which marked the end of his second term as governor, was filed on 3 June 2011.

Danaldi added that he was informed by one Yahaya Bello, an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on 14 March 2016, that the EFCC was in possession of a slew of petitions alleging the existence of dinosaur-sized skeletons in Saraki’s closet. As governor, Saraki has engaged in a variety of corrupt practices, including money laundering and theft.

Danladi said EFCC operative told him, these revelations provoked investigations into the petitions by the Commission. The investigations yielded valuable information showing that Saraki on numerous occasions abused his office as well perpetrated corruption with impunity.

Specifically, Saraki, the EFCC discovered, obtained loans running into billions from commercial banks, particularly Guaranty Trust Bank, and used proceeds of such to acquire eye-popping landed properties in Lagos, Abuja and London while serving as governor of Kwara State.

Rather than use his legitimate income to repay the said loans, the EFCC discovered, Saraki took billions of naira in public funds and lodged same in several tranches and cash into his Guaranty Trust Bank account in GRA Ilorin, Kwara State. Saraki’s account officer, the EFCC said, told the commission that the he was given cash many times by Saraki in the Kwara State Government House for lodgement into the current Senate President’s account. Occasionally, disclosed the account officer, Saraki sent his aides from the Government House with cash to hand over for lodgement into his account.

On completion of its investigations, the EFCC submitted its report to its legal department and the Federal Ministry of Justice. With the gravity of what was perpetrated, particularly regarding properties acquired and the various huge amounts transferred into Saraki’s many overseas accounts while he was governor, the Federal Ministry of Justice was persuaded that the matter can be better investigated by the Code of Conduct Burea and prosecuted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) then sent the findings and evidence sourced through EFCC’s investigation of the misdemeanours as a complaint to the CCB, directing the bureau and EFCC to collaborate for effective investigation.

Danladi explained in his affidavit that collaboration is the norm among all the anti-graft agencies.

“That I know for a fact that there is a long-standing collaboration between the EFCC, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau and that as 2006, the Presidential Committee headed by EFCC and comprising of other anti-corruption bodies in Nigeria, including the Code of Conduct Bureau, was set up with the responsibility to investigate cases of corruption involving public officials,” Danladi said in his affidavit

The CCB operative added that the various assets declaration forms submitted by Saraki were forwarded to the CCB, which has the responsibility of ascertaining the veracity of declarations made.

In the process of doing this, Danladi said, the CCB found a variety of financial misdeeds perpetrated by Saraki. For instance, the landed property listed by Saraki as No. 42 Gerrard Road, Ikoyi in Lagos, was visited by one Ikechi Iwuagwu, a Deputy Director with the CCB, who found it was still an empty land. The implication was that contrary to Saraki’s claim that he was earning a yearly income of N110m in rent on the property, there were no tenants as the property was a vacant piece of land.

Saraki was also found to have lied on the properties at 15A and 15B McDonald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, which he listed as his in his 2003 assets declaration. CCB investigators found that the said properties were acquired in 2006, three years after Saraki had claimed to be their owner. The properties were acquired by Saraki in 2006 from the Implementation Committee of the Federal Government on Federal Government Landed Properties through his companies Tiny Tee Limited and Vitti Oil, paying N396, 150,000.

The CCB also discovered a whiff of a graft within graft in the above transaction. Saraki made an anticipatory declaration of the two properties, acquiring them in the name of the two companies because he could not buy two government properties in his own name.

Also, Saraki was discovered to have bought properties listed as 17, 17A and 17B from the Implementation Committee of the Federal Government on Federal Government Landed Properties, paying a total of N497,200,000. This was despite his monthly income, as shown by a scrutiny of his account with Intercontinental Bank (now Access Bank), could not have yielded the amounts he spent on properties. His account (No. 0100857813) showed that he earned N500,000 monthly. Public officials, by law, are barred from engaging in trading.

Saraki, despite earning the said amount monthly and barred by law from trading, also bought Plot 2A Glover Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, from the Central Bank of Nigeria, which is a Federal Government agency, through his company, Carlisle Properties. He paid the sum of N325m between 2007 and 2008 while he was governor.

The said property, however, was not declared in his asset declaration form, dated 3 June 2011, which he submitted to the CCB. Similarly, Saraki failed to list the property at No.3 Targus Street (otherwise known as Cadastral Zone A06), Abuja, in his declaration of assets dated 16 September 2003, shortly after being sworn-in for his first term as governor. Saraki claimed to have to have bought the property in November 1995 from one David Baba Akawu.

In the same vein, his declaration of assets document of June 3, 2011-at the end of his second term as governor-was silent on his ownership of 3 Targus Street (otherwise known as 2481 Cadastral Zone A06), Abuja. This he claimed to have bought off one Alhaji Attahiru Adamu.

Saraki’s first asset declaration document as governor in 2003, Danladi’s affidavit showed, did not include the fact of his leasehold interest in No 42 Remi Fani-Kayode Street, which he acquired in 1996 via his company, Skyview Properties from First Finance Trust Limited on 12 December 1996.

Saraki, through Carlisle Properties, also bought Plot 37A Glover Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, while he was governor.

During the same period, Saraki operated a domiciliary account with Guaranty Trust Bank ( account number 441441953210, from which he made cash transfers totalling $3.4million between 2009 and 2012 to American Express Service Europe Limited with account number 7030580 domiciled with American Express Bank, New York. Various sums were then transferred from this to the card account (No. 374588216836009) that Saraki maintained outside Nigeria.

The Senate President’s misdeeds while he was governor also included obtaining a N375 m loan from Guaranty Trust Bank in February 2010 and converting to 1, 516, 194.3 GBP, which he instructed the bank to transfer to the United Kingdom in favour of Fortis Bank SA/NV that Saraki claimed was the full payment for the mortgage on a property he purchased in London.

Danladi, in his affidavit, said the assets declaration forms submitted by Saraki and information supplied by him were sworn to at the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin and on being discovered to be false, given that they were made under oath, would make Saraki criminally liable.

Saraki had claimed in his motion, filed on 7 March, that the gaps in the assets declaration forms submitted between 2003 and 2011, which forms the basis of the charges against him were mere inconsistencies, irregularities and discrepancies. But Danladi, relying on the investigation by anti-graft agencies, contends that they were made to conceal corruption and theft of public funds.

Saraki had also claimed that he was given a clean bill of health by the CCB, a claim Danladi described as false. He also dismissed Saraki’s claim that his prosecution was politically-motivated, saying charges were not filed in bad faith before the CCT but because investigations came up with strong prima facie case against Saraki.

Danladi also challenged paragraph 30 of Saraki’s motion. “That contrary to paragraph 30 of the Affidavit in Support, the Code of Conduct Bureau, upon receipt of complaints from Attorney-General’s Office and preliminary investigations made by the EFCC, the Bureau investigated the assets declaration forms submitted by the defendant/applicant between 2003 and 2011 and the facts contained in the declarations are quite fresh in the minds of the investigators and the defendant,” said Danladi.

The CCB operative added that he was told by Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), counsel to the EFCC, that Saraki's motion amounted to an abuse of court process. Jacobs, who urged the CCT to dismiss Saraki's motion, Danladi said told him that the Senate President had, in a similar motion, argued up to the Supreme Court, contended that the charges were incompetent for being filed at a time the Office of the Attorney-General was vacant. But the Supreme Court ruled that the charges and the jurisdiction of the tribunal were valid.
http://saharareporters.com/2016/03/21/no-hiding-place-saraki-code-conduct-bureau-exposes-his-new-lies

Senator Bukola Saraki and other senators have arrived the court room around 9:55 am. He immediately went to greet members of his legal team led by Kanu Agabi.

At 10:28am, Justice Umar Danladi finally walked in with the other members of the tribunal. Proceedings has commenced with the Tribunal Clerk calling the case.

The Senate President is again seated inside the dock and as usual, he is not looking comfortable inside at all.
Chairman Code of Conduct Tribunal, Justice Umar Danladi

Saraki’s lawyer has also announced that the number of the lawyers to defend the Senate President may have increased to 80 as indicated by his lead counsel at the commencement of the trial.

“We shall win as there are 80 of us on this side,” Kanu Agabi said as he started announcing the the names of the other lawyers with him.

The Chairman of the Tribunal and others in court burst into laughter as he said this. He then began to reel off the long list of names of lawyers with him.
http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2016/03/18/update-saraki-arrive-cct-trial-with-80-lawyers/

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a deacon of Jesus Saves Church, a Lagos Pentecostal church, Obinna Aneke, for allegedly defiling a seven-year-old girl, Ngozi (pseudonym).

Aneke, 44, was alleged to have slept with the victim six different times in his apartment on James Esu Street, in the Bariga area of the state.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the Udi, Enugu State indigene, and the victim’s parents were friends.

Ngozi’s mother, a food vendor, was said to have reached an agreement with Aneke to be leaving her two daughters with him pending their resumption time at school at 7.45am.

This was because she always left the house for her trade at 6am, while her husband, a security guard, also left for his place of work the same time.

It was learnt that one of Aneke’s three daughters attended the same school with Ngozi and her younger sister, which made the arrangement to work.

While Aneke’s wife, a trader, who equally left the house early for her shop was away, the suspect was alone with all the children as they prepared for school.

A police source at the command headquarters’ gender office explained that the suspect started using the opportunity to allegedly defile Ngozi.

He said, “The girl’s mother had been good to him in the past. There was a time he didn’t have a job and it was the woman who fed his four children.

“So, since he had had his own job, the woman thought he would reciprocate by assisting her family to get her two daughters to school, along with one of his three daughters attending the same school.

“Unfortunately, the man took advantage of the seven-year-old. He would UnCloth her and insert his manhood in her private parts. When he could not penetrate, he would apply his spittle to make it easier.”

He explained that the act went on till last Tuesday when he again raped the victim and afterwards threatened her not to tell anybody and if she did, he would kill her.

It was learnt that the girl opened up to her parents.

The matter was subsequently reported to policemen at the Bariga Police Division and the suspect was arrested.

It was learnt that the victim was taken to the Mirabel Centre, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where a test allegedly confirmed that there was a penetration.

The matter was subsequently transferred to the Gender Office, Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja.

The suspect, however, denied raping Ngozi, saying he only attempted to defile her once.

He said when he could not penetrate, he suspended the action.

He said, “This girl was taught to lie against me. I only attempted to have sex with her once and that was the day she told her parents.

“I didn’t even remove her pants. On that day, I shifted her pants sideways and wanted to penetrate, but when I saw it was not possible, I left her and ejaculated outside her private parts.

“I am a leader in my church and I don’t want to bring my church into this mess. Even before anybody condemned me, I have already condemned myself and I wish I was not born. I was influenced by evil forces to do this.

“I just want to beg for forgiveness from all those I have offended through this action and I just want to die.”

It was learnt that the Lagos State Government had already taken custody of the victim at the Heritage Home, in the Anthony area of the state.

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, warned parents to be watchful so that their children would not fall victims of abuse.

She said, “We will arraign the suspect at the conclusion of investigations. It is unfortunate that the scourge of rape is on the increase, but we are working to checkmate the activities of paedophiles in our society.”
http://www.punchng.com/deacon-44-rapes-seven-year-old-blames-evil-forces/

Former running mate to late ‎Prince Abubakar Audu, Hon. ‎James Faleke, yesterday, alleged before the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, that ‎Governor Yahaya Bello, is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Faleke, who is laying claim to the Kogi State governorship seat, mounted the witness box yesterday to testify in support of the petition he lodged before the tribunal. Led in evidence by his counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, Faleke adopted several statements on oath and documents which he filed in respect of the petition, as his evidence, and prayed the tribunal to accept them and declare him governor of the State. ‎He insisted before the tribunal that contrary to the position of the ‎Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the November 21, 2015, governorship election in the state was conclusive with the winners known. While being cross-examined by INEC lawyer, Dr. Alex ‎Izinyon, ‎SAN, Faleke said he was not aware that governor Bello was a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC. “My lords, I am fully aware that Yahaya campaigned for the Peoples Democratic Party during the election”, he told the tribunal. More so, the petitioner who equally joined the APC as a respondent to his petition, said he was not also aware that governor Bello contested primary election of the party with late Prince Audu. Faleke said he was duly informed that Audu resounding won the primary contest, saying before the primary held, himself and others were sent out of the venue by the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai on the ground that they were not delegates. Asked whether he was aware the November 21, 2016 election was inconclusive, the petitioner said the results were announced both at polling units ward collation centre and State collation centre. He said votes were recorded for all participating candidates and parties, noting that the returning officer erroneous claimed that the over 49000 registered voters in 41 polling units that did not cast their votes were higher than the margin of votes scored by the APC. Similarly, Faleke, while responding to a question by counsel to governor Bello, Mr. Joseph Daudu, SAN, maintained that at no point did he see himself as an independent candidate. He said he was a loyal member of the APC who is only aggrieved by the action of the INEC. Faleke told the tribunal that Audu died at about 8am and INEC declared the election inconclusive at about 4pm. He contended that though he is currently representing Lagos state in the House of Representatives, the 1999 constitution allowed him to contest election in Kogi State, being an indigene of the state. ‎Meanwhile, ‎the Justice Halima Mohammed-led three man panel tribunal has adjourned further hearing on the matter till today. Specifically, Faleke went before the tribunal to challenge the refusal of INEC to declare him as the valid winner of the governorship election in Kogi State. He is praying the tribunal to declare that INEC acted wrongly when it declared the outcome of the November 21 gubernatorial poll inconclusive. ‎Faleke who is currently representing Ikeja II Federal Constituency, Lagos, contended that the initial election had produced a winner in late Prince Audu, saying his death arrogates to him, the status of Governor-elect. Insisting that he had a joint ticket with late Audu, Faleke argued that INEC should not have declared the election inconclusive since they had already secured enough votes to warrant the declaration of a winner on the basis of the total number of votes that were cast.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/ii/

Offices of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have been shut nationwide, according to reports as workers of the state owned oil company embark on strike.

There was no prior warning about the strike said to have been ordered by the two oil unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN.

Workers reported for duty at the headquarters in Abuja today, only to find their offices under lock and key.

The unions are said to be protesting against the unbundling of the corporation ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday.

An inside source told PM News that NNPC has not really been unbundled technically and legally, as the Act setting up the 39-year old organisation will need to be amended.

“As it is, NNPC remains, nothing has really changed”, said a source.

The re-organisation of NNPC was announced on Tuesday by Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state and group managing director of the NNPC.

The new units are Upstream, Downstream, Gas & Power, Refineries, Ventures, Corporate Planning & Services and Finance & Accounts. They will run independently.

With the announcement of this new policy road map, the realigned NNPC comprises of five business-focused and two service driven units.

The chief executives of the new units are: Bello Rabiu (Upstream); Sa’idu Mohammed (Gas and Power); (Anibor Kragha) Refining; Henry Ikem-Obih (Downstream); Dr. Babatunde Victor Adeniran (Ventures).

Others are Isiaka Abdulrazaq (Finance & Accounts) and Isa Inuwa (Corporate Planning & Services).

The new NNPC design is based on ‘FACT’ organisation which is Focused, Accountable, Competitive and Transparent.

According to NNPC, “the organizational realignment is not about staff layoffs, but about placing the right people in the right places to do the right thing”.
http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2016/03/09/nnpc-unbundling-workers-go-on-strike/

Peter check in Chelsea and Arsenal ?

CNN CONFIRMS MODU SHERIFF AS BOKOHARAM FOUNDER....!!!

WHAT AGAIN IS BUHARI WAITING FOR..

Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has lamented for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over its choice of former Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff as its national chairman.

The former president in a series of tweets, on a twitter handle purportedly belonging to him, said that he expected nothing less of the opposition party to make Sheriff who was accused of having created Boko Haram sect its national chairman.

He said, “I don’t expect anything better than Ali Modu Sheriff as PDP Nat. Chairman not when Ayo Fayose & Olisa Metuh are the microphone of the party.”
“May the days ahead bring forth a better opposition party for Nigeria, that doesn’t have a Boko Haram sponsor as its National Chairman. Amen!

“With the emergence of Ali Modu Sheriff as PDP Nat. Chairman, let’s have a minute of silence for PDP.

https://naijaanews./2016/02/19/pdp-is-dead-with-boko-haram-sponsor-as-its-chairman-obasanjo/

The Statement credited to Esogban in the palace of Oba of Benin that Oduduwa came from Benin and that Oba of benin is greater in position than any Yoruba Oba is a distortion of history.

During my findings on the above subject-matter of interwoven history, I dug out some salient facts and records that I feels and thinks as much that history will be kind to me, if I am able to put them on good record and to the knowledge of not only the Yoruba race, but the world at large.

For it is true that, the only debt we owe history is to re-write it and rekindle it's perspective without any attempt to distorting and/or tainting its facts in any form, shape and size.

In dabbling into the seeming "war of supremacy" between the Yoruba and Benin people, one does not have to be a trained historian, but it is absolutely necessary for one to consciously and cautiously adopt enough empirical evidences and historical references. These shall be revealed in the course of my submissions. Records don't lie. It is we human beings that lie in our efforts to distort history in trying to re-write it! But it is necessary for us to always pay our debts that we are owing history. Our fathers preserved our history for us and we are also duty bound to hand it over to the next generation.

It was indicated in one of the "Letters of Junius" (or Junius: Stat nominis umbra) - a collection of private and open letters from an anonymous polemicist Junius, as well as other letters in-reply from people to whom Junius had written between 1769 and 1772, that: "We owe it to our ancestors to preserve those rights, which they have delivered to our care and we owe it to our prosperity, not to suffer their inheritance to be destroyed."

Let us start our excursion to history with some indisputable records regarding the supremacy of Yoruba and by extension, Ile-Ife, over Benin Kingdom. I quote thus: "In 1916, when Aguobasimi was installed as Oba of Benin in place of his father who died in Calabar while on exile, and the royal messengers of the then Ooni of Ife - Oba Ademiluyi(aka Lawarikan), went to him after a series of earnest requests, they delivered Ooni's message thus:

"YOUR FATHER GREETS YOU." (See Nigerian National Archives: Oyo Prof. 1, File 133, 24th May, 1916).

And listen to this: "The place called "Orun-Oba-Ado Bini" is the site from where great Oranmiyan set out to found the Yoruba Dynasty in Benin, and it is to here that the heads of the Kings of Benin were brought for burial. The head and nail pairings of King Adolo, the 34th Oba of Benin, who reigned between 1848AD to 1888AD was brought from Benin to Ife in 1888 AD, during the reign of Ooni Derin Ologbenla (1880–1894) - the last occasion on which the tradition was kept." - (See "Ife: The Genesis of Yoruba" p240-1), by Late Dr.(Chief) M. A. Fabunmi."

Note: Fabunmi was the Personal Secretary, for over 20 years or there about, to the Late Oba Adesoji Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife, who reigned for 50 years from 1930 - 1980. The late Ooni was born in 1891 and he died in 1980.

And again, in 1982, when the then Oba of Benin paid an official visit to Ile-Ife, a speech of welcome presented by Ooni to the Oba was at that time prepared for the Ooni by Prof. (Sabiru) Biobaku, and I think that the man or people who knew this are still alive. He was a former Vice-Chancellor of University of Lagos and a Professor of History (like Ade-Ajayi). Part of the speech read:

“We welcome Your Royal Highness most heartily back to Ile-Ife, the cradle of our common culture, the origin of your dynasty and ours. Today is really a very good day for us in us and its environs because since you left in 891 AD, we have come to know that your dynasty has performed wonderfully well."
Biobaku is not just an ordinary historian but one of the best Yoruba and African historians.

Oranmiyan - the famous and an unequaled Yoruba prince and warrior was the only Yoruba royal enigma to have ruled over Benin Kingdom, founded and became the very first Alaafin of Oyo and later came back to become the Ooni of Ife! He, it was who restructured Benin Kingdom, married in Benin, had two sons who later became Oba of Benin monarch. It is on record that Ogiso troubled dynasty was discarded and subsequent kings in Benin became known and addressed as "Oba" till date, based on the order established in Benin Kingdom by Oranmiyan. Even up to 1939, Yoruba language was the official palace language in Benin. No wonder then that many Benin families bear Yoruba names! And what about designs of the Benin palace after the renowned and historical Oduduwa palace in Ile-Ife?

And from Wikipedia comes this introduction: "The Ọọ̀ni of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ is the traditional ruler of Ile-Ife, whose dynasty goes back hundreds of years. Ife-Ifè is an ancient Yoruba people city in south-western Nigeria. Ọọ̀ni Lajamisan, who was the 8th Ọọ̀ni of Ile Ife, was a Son of Ọọ̀ni Oranmiyan, (Ọọ̀ni Oranmiyan was also The first Oba of Benin, First Aláàfin of Oyo and the Father of Oṣile of Oke-Ona Egba). Ọọ̀ni Lajamisan the son of Ọọ̀ni Oranmiyan, was also the Father of Ọọ̀ni Lajodoogun, the 9th Ọọ̀ni of Ile Ife, through whom the genealogy of all succeeding Ọọ̀nis of Ile Ife until the reigning Ọọ̀ni Adeyeye Ogunwusi Ojaja II , Arole Oduduwa and the Head of the Yoruba Nation, is traced down to Ọọ̀ni Odùduwà, The Ancestral Father of the Yorubas Globally."

From Oba (Dr) Adedapo Tejuoso’s 212 page book, titled: "Oranmiyan: What’s in a name?" , I quote: "In Yoruba parlance, a name is given to signify situation of birth in a home, posterity, sense of character and projection into the future.

Oranmiyan was one of the seven sons of Okanbi, the only child of Oduduwa, and he reigned as the sixth Ooni of Ife. He was famed as a strong enigmatic leader, who led his people into a path of greatness that lasted several centuries, leaving a heritage that last till today. After several wars and conquests, and establishing the Benin and Oyo kingdoms, he was to later become the Ooni of Ife. The throne he held till he joined his ancestors."

It is my salient advice that, we must not allow ourselves to be hypnotized by the hollow rhetoric and any distortions of facts of history. We must not let any overpowering effluvium envelop our sense of history.

Before I draw curtain on this important historical argument, I want to borrow some facts from the submission of Kunle I Sowunmi, a Yoruba man of Abeokuta origin, who had earlier wrote from Dallas Texas, in the United States of America, in his writing titled: "Ile Ife - The Final Resting Place of History." And I quote, in extenso, "Ooni who is not a direct son or descendants of Oduduwa may not necessarily be considered viable in this discussion.
Alafin of Oyo who is a descendant of the acceptable link between Yoruba and Edo must examine his place in history and that of his senior brother Orangun of Ila the first son who had disappeared into history because he never challenged Oranmiyan.

The abdication of the throne is a loss of right for Oranmiyan to his son in Benin but if the son (Eweka) and his descendants according to history continue to respect tradition and be buried at Ife or received blessing before being crowned then we can conclude that Ife is superior to Benin and Edo’s must have in fact originated from Ife.

The question is this: Can a son be greater than his father? No. Or can a river be greater than its source? No. Otherwise it will dry.

The fact of history of allegiance of Oba of Benin to Ile Ife the cradle of Yoruba race before being crowned and after death is an indication that Ife is the source of scientific and foolproof history to support this argument.

"Hilary Cliton has inspire me to run for President" - Dame Patience Jonathan

Far removed from the opulence of Aso Rock, Dame Patience Jonathan, former First Lady of Nigeria, has been off the radar, leading a rather lowkey life by her standards in Otueke, Bayelsa.

The Wife of former president Goodluck Jonathan, popularly called Mama Peace, has curiously not joined her husband as he tours the world receiving awards. We caught up with her at the family home in Bayelsa where we discussed Life outside the spotlight, Politics and moves for the future.

FNN: Your exelle....

PEJ: No, just call me mama Peace.

FNN: Mama Peace, how have you managed to stay away from the news for this long?

PEJ: My brother, its God. I am just happy to be alive, me and my husband and children.

FNN: so what has Mama Peace been up to?

PEJ: I have been going classes to get my Ph.D. I cannot allow only Ebele to be answering Doctor in the house *laughter ensues*

FNN: do you miss life in Aso Rock?

PEJ: I cannot tell you lie, I miss it. But to God be the Glory, in 2019 I will be back there

FNN: Wow! Does President Goodluck intend to run again?

PEJ: Noo, not Ebele. Me

FNN: Wow Wow Wow

PEJ: yes O my brother. I have been looking Tele and seeing what Hilary is doing in America. If she can contest, I will contest. Man have been ruling our country since 1960, but look at us. Suffer suffer everywhere.

FNN: So you fancy your chances of becoming president? Do you think you have the CV?

PEJ: Did Obasanjo have CV?

FNN: Valid point.

PEJ: look, this our country have mature to have a Woman President. Hilary that is contesting, does she have two head? The woman in Liberia does she have 2 head?

FNN: But Mama Peace, do you think you have the requisite political clout?

PEJ: I have requisite, I have deposit. Go and look at Wike in Port Harcourt. I will not say more than that. Those wey know know *laughter*

FNN: Well it's been a pleasure interviewing you Ma. Best of luck in your future endeavors.

PEJ: Thank you my brother. Greet your family for me.
http://www./posts/187038/

I am writing this piece as Joe Igbokwe not as APC Publicity Secretary Lagos State. I am writing as an independent writer and a public commentator on national affairs. Please permit me to air my views before we swear in Alhaji Yahaya Bello who never won the governorship election in Kogi State. The System may have decided in their own wisdom to swear in Mr Bello but l want history to record that l saw a travesty and an aberration coming and raised an alarm. The alarm may be ignored but history which neither personal wealth or power can circumvent will be my witness.

The truth here and nothing but the truth is that the late Chief Abubakar Audu/ James Abiodun Faleke won the November 21 2015 Governor election fair and square before Audu's death in the early hours of Sunday,November 22 2015. When the news filtered into the public space that Audu had died what the State INEC Returning Officer, Professor Emmanuel Kucha would have done is to do an urgent truthful and honest consultations, carry out a simple Arithmetic, check the number of registered voters, check the number of those with PVCs in 91 polling Units. The world was told that there are 49,000 Registered Voters in the remaining 91 polling Units and out of that 49,000 Voters only 25,000 have PVCs. But the late Audu was leading with 41,000 votes. Assuming that all the 25,000 persons with PVCs voted for PDP, Abubakar Audu would still have beaten Governor Wada silly with 16,000 votes. This professor turned sound reasoning upside down by saying the election was inconclusive and ordered for supplementary election in the remaining 91 polling units. Now what was the result ? Only about 10,000 votes were garnered in the futile exercise that wasted everybody's precious gift of time, energy, money, strength and power.

Now a combination of ethnic politics, Primordial sentiments, and fear of the unknown led APC Kogi and APC National to do the unthinkable by pushing Alhaji Bello who lost the primaries, and may not have supported the APC candidate in the cause of the elections proper to steal the mandate won by Prince Audu and James Faleke in a keenly contested exercise fraught with excruciating pains , doubts, apprehension,anxiety, fatigue, panic and unease . What was their excuse? Faleke did not partake in the primaries. Now do Deputy Governors take part in Primaries? This is the absurdity that led to the emergence of an interloper and intruder, Alhaji Bello. After the travesty, I saw BELLO's Family members singing and dancing the music titled 'Na God Win'. No, No, our God is a God of justice and equity. You cannot reap where you did not sow . Another will not plant and another will harvest.

I rely like other eminent Lawyers in Nigeria who are not being economical with the truth on Section 181 (1)of the Constitution that says' if a person duly elected as Governor dies before taking and subscribing the oath of allegiance and oath of office, or is unable for any reason whatsoever to be sworn in , the person elected with him as the deputy governor shall be sworn in as governor and he shall nominate a new deputy governor who shall be appointed by the governor with the approval of a simple majority of house of the assembly of the state' I rely on this because the election had been won and lost before Prince Audu died. This has been proved beyond reasonable doubts by the miserable outcome of the useless supplementary election. This grave injustice and open stealing of another person's mandate taking cover in a confusing and complicated Document called the Electoral Act. They tell me in the Human rights community that when a law structured in such a way that it will encourage injustice the law must be broken. In international jurisprudence they say It is better to set 1000 criminals free that to convict one innocent person.

The shenanigans and ethnic champions in Kogi State never bothered to think about the huge sacrifices and pains Prince Audu went through to win the election. They have not cared to remember that he went into elections with ill health and still managed to come out victorious through dint of hardwork though he died thereafter. Did any of these people bother to think about the family he left behind? What about what he expended in the cause of the elections? Did Bello transverse the length ad breathe of Kogi State canvassing for votes as did Audu and Faleke ? Did Bello support APC during the election? What is going to happen in Kogi State on Wednesday January 27 2015 frightens me as an activist and believer in equity and social justice. It worries me to the marrows that there is deafening silence in town as if all the decent men and women who should speak out have suddenly lost their steam and voices. I am told that the truth that must be spoken never forgives silence. Evil triumph in any society when good men do nothing.

I know fully well that Supreme Court of Nigeria will do the needful when Faleke gets there in the fullness of time. Audu/ Faleke got the majority of votes in Kogi governorship election and got the mandate to preside over the affairs in that state for four years. That Faleke refused to accept the poisoned chalice as deputy governor should serve as a signal to the interlopers and intruders in Kogi that Wednesday event is not the end of the matter. Those dancing the music 'Na God Win' are using the name of God in vain. They will dance 'Our God Na God of Justice'when the chips are down. James Faleke please go to sleep. You are the owner of the game when common sense returns even though common sense is not common. I rest my case.

Joe Igbokwe

Lagos
http://saharareporters.com/2016/01/26/can-we-allow-travesty-kogi-state-stand-democracy-joe-igbokwe

Nigerians have gone ballistic on Twitter after it was reported that the Eritrean government ordered its men to marry two wives because of shortage of husbands.

Nigerians, most of whom, have stated that they will trace their relatives or roots to Eritrea made light of the new government’s policy.

In what has turned out to be an hilarious topic, Eritrea could actually benefit economically if Nigerians, Kenyans and people from other countries actually get on the flight to Eritrea.

Here are some tweets for you:


http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2016/01/26/on-twitter-nigerians-go-gaga-for-eritrea/

BREAKING: Dead bodies discovered in foundation of Enugu church building

There is outrage in Enugu State following the discovery, Monday evening, shocking images of dead bodies buried in shallow graves along the Enugu Port-Harcourt Express Road.
The incident, which occurred at the Ugwuaji Area of the State has kept residents in tears.
DAILY POST gathered that human parts and fresh dead bodies were discovered at an uncompleted building, inside a bush along the Express Way.

A source hinted that curious villagers raised the alarm, which prompted security agencies to invade the location.
In the meantime, villagers are pointing accusing fingers on a new church located close to the scene.
One of those who were at the scene described the act as “wicked and the most inhuman action I have seen in my entire life.”

http://www.247nigerianewsupdate.co/2016/01/breaking-dead-bodies-discovered-in.html

She goes by the name Esther Okono on Facebook, a die-hard supporter of the former President, Goodluck Jonathan. According to reports, she once wished Buhari dead and even went to the extent of calling him “A walking Corpse”.


She died of an undisclosed illness on the 22nd January 2016.

Please Note: This is a very sad event and a great lesson that never wish death for anyone no matter what.


http://spynigeria.com/tragedy-lady-who-wished-buhari-dead-during-2015-campaign-dies-spy-nigeria/

Fear the North, why should Amechi cancelled the proposed Maritime University in Delta state?

You're Now One of Us - Arewa Thanks Amaechi for Cancelling Proposed Maritime University in Delta

Honorable Minister for Transport, Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi, we are really pleased with your continuous exceptional kind gestures towards the North, in spite of the attacks on your person and ideology from some sections of the country as a result of that.

We first took cognizance of your extreme love for the North when you courageously supported the then Jega-led INEC creation of additional 30,000 polling units, at a time that Southern Leaders led by former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, Chief Edwin Clark, Senator Femi Okuronmu and Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, were strongly against it for favouring the North against the South. You boldly and openly criticised the then president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for halting it because it favoured the North.

Honorable Minister Sir, we also appreciate the pivotal role you played in the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the
APC presidential candidate as well as his victory at the polls. Even though it was totally against the will of your people, but you shunned ethnic sentiments and placed the interest of the country first before that of your people. We salute such
unprecedented patriotic gesture.

Sir you gladdened our hearts when you announced the cancellation of the needless NIMASA proposed Maritime University in Gbaramatu Delta State, because of the plan of this government to upgrade the Nigerian Aviation College in Zaria to a university status.

We cannot forget the good treatment and empowerment you accorded our people residing in Rivers State while you were
the Governor of that state. Our people doing all kind of legitimate business in Rivers State, including cattle rearers
came back home to tell us how fairly you treated them.

We urge you not to be distracted by those calling you unprintable names but continue to use your good office to support the North because, we will always stand with you in your political career.

We thank you so much and may God bless you richly for everything you have done for us. Sir we are glad to inform you that, we formally adopt you as one of our own because, you have proven to be a true friend of the North. You are always welcome here because, you have earned yourself a home in the North.

Signed:

Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim.
National Publicity Secretary.

25 January, 2016.
- See more at: http://www.thewhistleng.com/amaechi-is-now-one-of-our-own-arewa-consultative-forum/#sthash.A2z4jNrh.dpuf
Amaechi is now ‘one of our own’: