SOME prominent Nigerians who had held political offices or been in the corridors of power are owners of luxury properties in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirate (UAE).

According to a dataset shared with The ICIR by Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a US-based nonprofit newsroom, Nigerians have owned no fewer than 800 properties in Dubai.

Transparency International had in 2019 described Dubai as a ‘Money Laundering Paradise’ due to the heavy flow of illicit funds into the city which is one of the seven emirates of UAE

Most of these Nigerians do not have clean slates, as corruption charges have been hung on their necks in the past.

While some have been acquitted of corruption charges others are still caught in the web of multiple allegations of financial crimes.

And there are those who yet have not been accused of corruption.

The list of Dubai property owners include Mustafa Balogun, a former Inspector General of Police, Olisa Metuh, former spokesperson of the People’s Democratic Party, his wife, Kanayo Olisa Metuh, Attahiru Bafarawa, former governor of Sokoto, Orji Uzor Kalu, the former governor of Abia State and senator in the 9th Assembly.

Mustafa Balogun (Former Inspector General of Police)

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/prominent-nigerians-owning-properties-in-dubai/

In this report, Jennifer UGWA went undercover as an intending bride in need of a statutory marriage license to expose sharp and corrupt practices of marriage registrars and officials appointed by the Federal Ministry of Interior within the FCT.

The inconspicuous sign stringed to the low- fenced wall on the dusty road only read: Marriage Registry, Kuje Area Council, Town Hall.

A flat white iron board– was the only indication of the presence of a registry as an arrow was pointing in the opposite direction away from the Women Development Centre.

On this hot Wednesday afternoon, Abah Benjamin, office assistant to the registrar sat bent over notes scattered on an old wooden desk in the reception.
As the sound of approaching footsteps got closer, Benjamin stopped writing and attended to the visitor.

Tits for Tats

Among the scattered sheets of paper on Benjamin’s clustered table is a pamphlet advertising a ‘Now and Forever’ union in Kuje registry.

“Good afternoon. How may I help you?” Benjamin greeted.

Upon this reporter’s revelation that she was there to legalise her marriage, the assistant proceeded to give her a download of how much her quest will cost.

Benjamin explained that for N20,500( Twenty thousand five hundred nairas) ($53.2645) which can be paid in installments, the marriage can be certified within 21 workdays.

However, despite the favourable fees which were below the official sum of N21,000, as of March, the officials had found a loophole to squeeze out more cash from couples.

Since Saturdays are often a free day from work and business engagements for most people, ceremonial activities are also slated for the weekends.

Nevertheless, if a solemnisation is to take place in this registry on such days, “You have to pay an additional fee of N10,000,” Benjamin disclosed.

“We are civil servants, officially we don’t work on weekends. So you have to pay. But feel free to choose any other day,” he said.

The foreknowledge that intending couples prefer a weekend wedding is the axe registrars wield to their advantage.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/insidious-world-of-abuja-marriage-registries-where-officials-conduct-ghost-weddings-for-a-fee/

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has agreed to call of its eight-month strike which has grounded academic activities in the public universities.

READ MORE: https://infactng.com/2020/11/27/breaking-ASUU-agrees-to-call-off-strike-to-receive-n70bn/

A NON-EXISTING journalism institute, International Institute for Investigative Journalism (IIIJ), has faulted the investigative report done by the US-based news giant, Cable News Network (CNN) on the October 20 shooting at the Lekki Toll gate in Lagos.

A report that has been widely shared on social media claimed that IIIJ, which did not exist until 24 hours ago, issued a press statement saying CNN report was “poor” hatchet job targeted at the Nigerian Army.

In an electronic statement signed by, Francois Deburoiche, its special rapporteur on Wednesday, the IIIJ said it came to this conclusion following a careful investigation on the events that led to the escalation of violence at the toll gate.

Checks by The ICIR however, showed that Francois Deburoiche is a pseudonym and the only reference to that name on the internet is in the press statement issued.

Also, the body that is supposedly international has no digital footprint on the internet- it has no website, nor any social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook to identify them with.

Further checks by The ICIR revealed that an account associated with the ruling party in Nigeria, the All Progressive Congress (APC), on Twitter shared the report published by The Daily Sun newspaper from the press statement issued by the non-existing journalism institute, a report that was later deleted on the website of the newspaper due to lack of verification.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/fake-journalism-institute-condemns-cnn-report-on-lekki-shooting/

My advice to women
is to fully and
unapologetically
take their place
in the world.
Women should stop
asking for a place at
the table – they should
create their own table.

Read more here: https://twitter.com/TheICIR/status/1331553155113496577?s=20

AN American microblogging and social networking service, Twitter has suspended the account of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The ICIR contacted the NCC, for comment on the account suspension.

An NCC staff who is not authorised to speak on behalf of the commission said, the commission is aware of the suspension and that the account was suspended due to offshoot of the global issue currently with Twitter.

“It’s an offshoot of the global issue currently with Twitter and we are currently on it to get the account back.

“What we are experiencing right now is the issue with Twitter where people can’t login for a while,” she said.

The ICIR was unable to get any response from Twitter to know the reason why the account was suspended.

All efforts to reach Twitter was unsuccessful because the mail sent was not responded to as at the time of filling this report.

Meanwhile, common reasons why Twitter may suspend account for violating rules includes: https://www.icirnigeria.org/ncc-unaware-as-twitter-suspends-account/

As the shock over the unending killings in Kaduna State, Nigeria's North-west continues, Fulani leaders and groups have cried out saying 85 of their kin have been murdered and their properties destroyed in Southern Kaduna.

The NEXT EDITION and its associates had in the first part of this story, reported how more than 136 people, mainly Christians, were slaughtered between June 10 – August 21, 2020 in nine Southern Kaduna local government areas.

INVESTIGATION: Horror in Southern Kaduna: Untold story of endless massacres, plunder by suspected Fulani militia (Part I)

However, Fulani groups and survivors have rejected the narratives of the killings, saying their people have also been murdered and their properties pillaged by Atyap and other indigenous communities in the zone.

According to them, Fulani people were being killed in many parts of Zangon Kataf and Kaura local government areas.

The Chairman, Miyeti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Kaduna State chapter, Haruna Tugga, his counterpart in Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GADFAN), Ardo Gundaru, and Secretary General of the state chapter of Mobgal Fulbe Development Association (MOFDA), Nuhu Ibrahim, have come out to tell the other side of the story.

Others are the Chairman, Bandiraku Fulbe Youth Association of Nigeria (BAFYAN), Kaduna State chapter, Abbas Julde, and Coordinator, Kaduna State chapter of Fulbe Development and Cultural Organization (FUDECO), Abubakar Naseh.

The heads of the five Fulani groups have accused the media of putting out a jaundiced narrative about the crisis and insisted that their people have been slaughtered in many parts of Zangon Kataf and Kaura Local Government areas of the state.

In a document signed by leaders of the five groups and made available to this reporter, they alleged that between June 11 – 14, their members were "deliberately targeted, killed and maimed in a coordinated and systematic manner that leave us with no other conclusion than the fact that they are premeditated and well planned."

The leaders of the Fulani groups said they are speaking up against the calculated attempts to divert attention from the carnage meted to peace-loving and law-abiding Fulbe communities in Kataf Chiefdom and its surrounding villages.

"The current crisis emanated from a land dispute between the native Kataf farmers and the indigenous Hausa farmers of Zango town which eventually metamorphosed to an allegation of killing of a farmer of Atyap tribe, who went to cultivate the disputed farmland by unknown persons.

"This is a fact also acknowledged by the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, (SOKAPU) in its statement issued hurriedly by its National Publicity Secretary, who is also from the same aggressor Kataf (Atyap) tribe on 11th June, 2020, following which the Kataf youths erupted in violence on the same date by launching simultaneous but ferocious attacks on unsuspecting Fulani communities across several villages in the Atyap Chiefdom.

"The unanswered poser still remains, why should the Atyap youths transfer their aggression on peaceful Fulani communities which have nothing to do with either the farmland dispute or the alleged killing of the Kataf farmer?

"The answer is probably not far-fetched, the Atyap youth have been brainwashed and sponsored for such evil acts by a certain illegal union which has been instigating and supporting Adara youth to launch similar attacks against Fulani communities in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State and even in other parts of Southern Kaduna geo-political zone," the Fulani leaders indicated in the signed document.

The tribal leaders also alleged that after the June 11 protest in Zangon town, Fulani communities were subjected to four days of well-coordinated attacks by suspected Atyap people.

During the attacks, they said helpless Fulani women, children and the aged were slaughtered in their homes while sleeping, on the highways and in the bushes where they raised cows.

While the level of damage to lives and properties to their members cannot be quantified, the leaders said they have credible intelligence pointing to the Atyap people as those launching the bloody attacks.


READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-horror-in-southern-kaduna-untold-story-of-endless-massacres-plunder-part-ii/

OLUWAROTIMI Akeredolu, SAN, candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, has won the governorship seat in the Ondo State for another four -year term.

According to the result announced by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC on Sunday, October 11, Akeredolu in the 2020 governorship election defeated his closest rival Eyitayo Jegede of the People’s Democratic Party PDP with 292,830 votes against 195,791, representing nearly 20 percent lead.

The candidate of Zenith Labour party, Agboola Ajayi scored 69,178 votes.

As expected by many observers, both Akeredolu and Jegede recorded a landslide victory in their senatorial districts and local government areas.

Ondo North where Akeredolu comes from, the APC led PDP by 62,621 votes while PDP led by 23,996 votes in Ondo Central, the stronghold of Jegede.

ZLP was in a distant third in each of the senatorial districts including Ondo South, the home front of Ajayi, the current deputy governor.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/ondo-election-apc-candidate-akeredolu-wins-again/

APPLY HERE

https://twitter.com/I79Media/status/1313831201086545927

SITTING on a bench in the waiting room at Wumba Primary Health Centre, located in Apo Resettlement Area, an outskirt of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, Aishetu Audu fans herself with a notebook.

The sweltering heat in her ward which she also shared with another patient was unbearable. She later sought respite outside the ward where hours earlier she was delivered of a baby boy.

The Wumba PHC which is the closest to Aishetu is about 45 minutes from her home. She was rushed to the clinic early that August morning.

From the ward window, she could see glowing light bulbs across some houses on the street, but the health centre had no electricity.

“Houses across the street at least have a few hours of power supply daily, but a clinic that should have lighting for patients is in darkness. Look at me running around the clinic looking for fresh air and cool breeze,” she said.
The ceiling fan in Aishetu’s wardroom had not worked since February 2019, after the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC, disconnected the community health clinic from the national grid.

The health centre was disconnected because its outstanding electricity bills had accumulated to over N100,000 ($262.5) which it cannot afford.

Currently, it depends on a petrol-powered 1.5Kva generator which gulps s N6,000 ($15) worth of fuel every week, according to Mary John, the health officer in charge. This means N24,000 ($62) is kept aside monthly, as fuel costs.

“We put on the generator mostly at nights or whenever there is an emergency such as when a woman is in labour or during cases where minor surgeries are performed at the centre,” she said.

But the noise from the generating set is another problem.

Read more:

ONE afternoon in July 2013 while descending the stairs of a Lagos hospital where she worked as an auxiliary nurse, Abosede Oriabure, 45, heard a snap in her left knee. She felt a sharp pain.

The pain persisted for a few minutes but later subsided. Although the pain did not completely disappear, it was nothing serious beyond a mild ache and she did not think much about it.

But days later, the pain returned with a vengeance. Her knee was practically burning from the inside. She could barely lift her left leg. To ease the unrelenting pain, Mrs Oriabure resorted to self-medication. She used Tramadol, a recently banned painkiller, oxycodone and other similarly addictive analgesics.

But the pain never went away. In fact, it got worse.

As the pain became increasingly excruciating, she visited an orthopaedic doctor, who recommended she did an MRI scan to determine why the pain had persisted. The cost of the MRI Scan was N85,000.00. Unemployed and barely scraping a living, the mother of three could not raise the money. She resigned to taking the addictive painkillers to get by one day at a time. When she thought things could not get worse, one Sunday in August 2018 she woke up and discovered that her left knee had twisted into an arc giving her a K-shaped stance when she managed to stand upright.
After months of enduring excruciating pains, she managed to do the MRI scan in September 2019 after her husband took a loan from a consumer credit finance firm. Although she has been told she may be needing a knee replacement surgery, her doctor told her that the pressure on the knee during the six years she waited before seeking professional help may have caused irreparable damage to the knee.

“My condition would have been better if I had done the MRI scan in 2013 or soon after and started treatment then. But I couldn’t raise N85,000 then,” she said.

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-kickbacks-for-referrals-how-nigerian-doctors-hospitals-diagnostic-centres-are-defrauding-patients/

NIGERIA’s government and that of Kaduna State have done very little to halt the killing, maiming and plundering of communities in Southern Kaduna, North-west Nigeria.

As far back as 2017, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in its report had indicated that Kaduna State is currently enmeshed in a humanitarian crisis.

OCHA had labelled Southern Kaduna as the epicentre of deadly violence with “most of it inflicted by herdsmen on farming communities.”

But the situation in Nigeria’s headquarters of deadly violence is worse today than when OCHA published its report in 2017.

From June 10 to August 21, survivors, community leaders and rights groups said a total of 136 persons have been murdered in unprovoked attacks.

Amnesty International in its August 24, 2020 report said at least 366 people have been killed between January and July 2020 in Southern Kaduna.

“Amnesty International has documented an alarming escalation in attacks and abductions in several states in the north-west and north-central Nigeria since January 2020.

“Worst affected are villages in the south of Kaduna State, where armed men killed at least 366 people in multiple attacks between January and July 2020,” the report stated.

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-horror-in-southern-kaduna-untold-story-of-endless-massacres-plunder-by-suspected-fulani-militia-part-i/

See thread on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheICIR/status/1301123698397786113

A FORMER Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, said that 90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty.

The claim was published on Twitter on August 27, 2020.

In one of the series of tweets, Moghalu, a former Presidential Candidate, on the platform of Young Progressive Party (YPP) in the country’s 2019 general election wrote: “90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty and the country is essentially bankrupt not because we don’t have brilliant economists, but because our politics and leadership are a grand fraud. Prosperity requires nationhood, first, followed by strong, effective institutions”.



THE CLAIM:

That 90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty.
THE FINDINGS:

The United Nations defines Extreme poverty, also known as Absolute or Abject poverty as, “a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education, and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.” This description is contained in chapter two, item 19, page 38 of the World Summit for Social Development WSSD 1995 agreement, held in Copenhagen.

A 2016 World Bank report done in collaboration with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) titled ‘Ending Extreme Poverty: a Focus on Children’ benchmark extreme poverty as those living on less than $1.90 per day.

Read more here: https://www.icirnigeria.org/are-90-million-nigerians-living-in-extreme-poverty/

UNSCRUPULOUS Nigerians are exploiting the ineffective or rather failed regulatory system of agrochemicals administration in the country to afflict fellow citizens, findings by The ICIR have shown.

Fruit, fish and meat sellers and farmers flagrantly use the chemicals to ripen or preserve their goods or yields in order to maximize profit, without having regards for the health of the consumers.

The ICIR’s investigation has shown that some of the chemicals that were banned 12 years ago and those that were recently considered too unsafe by the government to be sold in open markets are still very much available in various Abuja markets. Pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and other chemicals can be found in the open market. The chemicals are used on foods such as grains, cereals, legumes, and later taken to the market against approved duration when the potency of the chemicals should have worn off.

The investigation has also revealed that while the administration of some of the chemicals is allowed at permissible levels for food storage to avoid post-harvest losses, those who administer the chemical on the food items are untrained to do so.

Pests such as weevils, moths, flour beetles, borers, et cetera and rodents, fungi as well as bacteria destroy farm yields. They also produce substances that are toxic for humans and animals, such as aflatoxins, fumonisins, patulin among others. It is for these reasons that many farmers choose to preserve their products with chemicals.

Such activity is expectedly supposed to be done outside human and animal residences, but The ICIR found out they are being done right inside living rooms. Wrong uses of the products in Abuja are common among illiterates who constitute the majority of sellers of agro-chemicals in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The reporter observes that, at least, two out of five sellers of agro-chemical products in satellite communities in the city can hardly read or write. Communication is usually a barrier and there is a possibility for buyers to get the wrong products.

Read more: https:///31bfbNI

ON August 6, 2014, exactly 18 days after resuming a new job at First Consultants Medical Centre in Obalende area of Lagos, late Justina Ejelonu, a 25-year-old nurse, died of Ebola virus.

Ejelonu was the attendant nurse to Patrick Sawyer, a 40-year-old Liberian-American who was the first recorded case of Ebola in Nigeria. Sawyer flew from Liberia to Nigeria’s most populous city of Lagos on July 20, 2014.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe illness which symptoms include vomiting and diarrhoea, with a capability of impairing kidney and liver function as well as lead to internal and external bleeding.

The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population via direct contact with blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids.

Ejelonu in an old Facebook post had disclosed that she helped the patient feed and constantly checked his vitals. She however said she never came in contact with his fluids.

“I never contacted his fluids. I checked his vitals, helped him with his food (he was too weak)…..I basically touched where his hands touched and that’s the only contact. Not directly with his fluids.

“At a stage, he yanked off his infusion and we had blood everywhere on his bed…..but d ward maids took care of that and changed his linens with great precaution,” the late nurse’s post on facebook read.

The young nurse spent the following days in quarantine before her eventual demise.


Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/gone-and-forgotten-nurse-who-died-of-ebola-virus-after-attending-to-patrick-sawyer/

THE Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President (OCEAP) got approval for the sum of N573.45 million as capital allocations in the last five years without a clear identity of presidential appointee answerable to the fund’s utilisation, findings by The ICIR have shown.

From the above N573.45 million capital budgets, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) under the Federal Ministry of Finance, released a total sum of N114.97 million (N114,971,989) to the contentious office for its operations.

This literally excludes N12.1 million received by the OCEAP in the 2015 fiscal year.

But a document from the AGF, dated July 6, with reference number FD/OAGF/ADC/305/I/DF shows the OCEAP, in 2016, got a total release of N39.08 million from the N78.17 million capital budget approved for its operations.

In 2017, it received N35 million as its total budget releases from N60 million capital allocation for the year.

The following year, N60 million was also approved for the OCEAP while the accountant general’s office made available N24 million backed with cash.

In 2019, the unmanned office also received N16.89 million for its operations. The sum was the amount released from the N42.23 million capital budget for activities of the controversial office.

Though the office is yet to receive an allocation for the fiscal year 2020 as of July this year, yet, it got the highest approved capital allocation of N333.06 million in the past five years.

But for the global pandemic, indications have shown that the office would have received the annual release for the year 2020.

Nevertheless, despite these allocations and releases, the office is shrouded in secrecy.

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/non-existing-office-of-buharis-chief-economic-adviser-gets-n573-45m-in-five-years/

“During the lockdown, the National Emergency Management Agency came here with two buckets and liquid soap so that we can wash our hands for prevention of the coronavirus disease. But they did not bring foodstuffs or any other palliatives for us, even though our major problem is hunger,” Luka Yadume said, sadness and despair written all over his face as he spoke of the travails of internally displaced persons at an IDP camp in New Kuchingoro, a sleepy village in the Abuja Municipal Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.

The interview with Yadume took place during a visit to the IDP camp on July 13, 2020. ‎Yadume is the secretary of the camp, which has about 2,000 residents, mostly refugees from Borno and Adamawa states, who had been displaced from their homes by Boko Haram.

The New Kuchingoro IDP camp, a ramshackle, squalid, barely habitable cluster of tents ‎made of tarpaulin, zinc and fabric, sprang up in 2014 in what was hitherto undeveloped hectares of land filled with cashew trees.

Six years after the IDPs settled in the camp, the residents still lack the most basic amenities.

Some old women sat on the floor, under the tree shade, looking on, silently, as Yadume spoke of challenges faced by residents of the camp. Children, clad in dirty and torn clothes, ran about the camp, seemingly oblivious of their unfortunate situation. The few youths around ‎sat in a group under another tree, discussing in subdued tones.

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/homeless-and-hopeless-idps-in-abuja-face-second-eviction-from-temporary-homes/

THE management of Shoprite, a South African owned retail supermarket in Nigeria has refuted viral claims that it is set to close down operations in Nigeria.

According to Vanguard, Ini Archibong, the Country Director for Chastex Consult confirmed that Shoprite is not closing operations in Nigeria.

Contrary to claims that Shoprite is leaving Nigeria, Archibong said the business is only opening its doors to local investors.

“We have only just opened to Nigerian investors which we have also been talking to just before now. We are not leaving, who leaves over a $30billion investment and close shop? It doesn’t sound right,” Archibong reportedly said.

He added that the decision to engage local investors was made in order to expand its business plan in Nigeria.

READ MORE = https://www.icirnigeria.org/no-its-not-true-shoprite-is-not-leaving-nigeria-management/

Due to fear of contracting #Coronavirus, the staff of government hospitals in #Lagos abandoned non-#COVID19 patients to die.

Kindly WATCH OUT for @TheICIR investigation on Thursday.

See more here: https://twitter.com/TheICIR/status/1288476164290420736

WITH less than 24 hours to the 2020 Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, national elections scheduled to take place between July 29 and 30, The ICIR examines the likely blindspots that may compromise the transparency of the elections.

On July 6, the Electoral Committee of the NBA, ECNBA, released the list of 24 candidates who were cleared to contest for national leadership positions and rejected the nominations of 19 aspirants.

Now only three candidates are in the race to take over from Paul Usoro as the 35th president of Nigeria’s umbrella association of professional lawyers.

Two Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, in the race includes Adesina Julius and Ajibade Babatunde who both have on their belt 38 and 31 years of legal practice respectively.

Olumide Akpata who is the younger of the other two candidates if elected would join the small league of previous NBA presidents without a SAN title.

The ECNBA is saddled with conducting free, fair and transparent elections into national leadership of the NBA. This includes verifying 39,291 eligible voters for one of the largest professional bodies in Africa with over 200,000 members.

As the 2020 contenders for President of the NBA jostle for votes from their colleagues alongside other contestants for national leadership positions, issues ranging from voter verification, missing names on the voters’ list, and an untested electronic voting portal threaten to scuttle the outcome of the elections.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/compromised-voters-register-flawed-e-voting-process-threaten-2020-nba-elections/

NIGERIA’S diplomatic missions and embassies abroad have a poor culture of responding to enquiries via their online email addresses, as most have inactive email addresses while several others simply ignore mail enquiries, according to checks by The ICIR.

One of the Nigerians who has recently experienced the ineptitude of the Nigerian embassies is Motolani Ogunsanya, the Assistant Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centre in the United States

In August 2019, she wanted to book an appointment with the Nigerian embassy in Atalanta, Georgia to renew her passport which she thought would be possible via the official email on the embassy’s website or its hotline. But she was rudely shocked when her email to the embassy was not replied, she said.

Read more: https://twitter.com/TheICIR/status/1286702916775092224

THE ICIR investigations revealed how millions of naira released for the National Biosafety Management Agency’s capital projects were mismanaged via inflated project prices. Niyi OYEDEJI reports:

THE National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) headed Dr. Rufus Egbegba has spent over N365 million on vehicles, computers, and equipment, all between 2016 and 2019, among other procurements. The ICIR’s investigation, however, revealed that the prices quoted for these items are inflated beyond the market price.

NBMA was established by the National Biosafety Management Act of 2015 and on April 15, 2015, Dr. Egbegba was appointed as the pioneer Director-General/Chief Executive Officer but the agency commenced full operation in 2016.

The agency is mandated to regulate modern biotechnology activities and the release into the environment, handling, and use of genetically modified organisms which are products of modern biotechnology to prevent adverse impact on the environment and human health.

In the last four years, the agency has executed not fewer down 30 capital projects, but all at inflated prices.

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-national-biosafety-management-agency-enmeshed-in-contract-inflation/

THE House of Representatives on Thursday commenced the process of establishing a criminal legal action against Godswill Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta over alleged falsehood and defamation of character.

Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House said he had directed the Clerk of the House to engage the services of lawyers to institute the legal action.

This is coming after Gbajabiamila instructed Akpabio to present in 48 hours, the list of lawmakers who allegedly benefited from contract awards by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as claimed by the minister.

Read more: https://twitter.com/TheICIR/status/1286323046140317696

MAMATI, a five-year-old girl, (real name concealed to protect the victim from societal stigma), was drugged and raped by her 38-year-old neighbor at Paparanda, Anguwar Hardo in Bauchi LGA of Bauchi State.

“On the 16th day of July 2020, I sent my little daughter (Mamati ) to go and buy Spaghetti at about 7:00 am but she didn’t return on time”, her mother told a human rights group, Prison Inmate Development Initiative in Bauchi State.

WikkiTimes reports that the perpetrator is not only a member of the vigilante group; he is also the Chairman of the group at Paparanda, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis.

The mother said the suspect, Saleh Hassan (Shoe Shiner); a vigilante member (popularly called Yan Kwamiti) drugged her daughter, by giving some tablets “on her way home”, from where she was sent for shopping.

The victim’s mother said her daughter drowsy and slept off upon taken the drugs. “So when she woke up, my daughter said he (the culprit) showed her a knife and said if she tells anybody, she will be killed.

“While she was coming, I noticed that she was leaping, I asked her where she has been and what was wrong with her but she said nothing,” added Sureya, the victim’s mother.

She said the terrible experience forced her daughter into dreadful cries because of her inability to walk following the pains inflicted on her by her predator.

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-bauchi-vigilante-defiles-5-year-old-girl-threatens-to-kill-her/

AT LEAST four Nigerian government officials have developed varying ‘health issues’ while undergoing probe for alleged funds misappropriation and corruption in their offices.

These sudden ill-health conditions often occur when investigations are carried out on various unexplainable spendings and at other times, during court cases, which inadvertently delay process and frustrate justice.

The ICIR takes a look at peculiar cases where officials have taken ill or developed sudden ill-health conditions while under probe for alleged corrupt practices.

Kemebradikumo Pondei

Upon interrogation, Kemebradikumo Pondei, the Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), who took over from Joi Nunieh in February, blacked out during the House of Representative investigative panel hearing held in Abuja on Monday.
KEMEBRADIKUMO Pondei
Interim NDDC MD, Pondei blacks out in National Assembly

The interim MD ‘fainted’ while he was being quizzed about N641 million naira paid to a certain Clear Point Communications company for the purpose of ‘locating NDDC projects across Nigeria’ and a N536 million to another company for a campaign tagged Save Lives in the Niger Delta.

Pondei also faced members of the panel in defence of financial malfeasance to the tune of the N81.5 billion, which is reported to have been expended by the commission between January to May.

However, the NDDC via its Twitter page on Sunday countered the notion, submitting that the said amount was spent between October 29, 2019 and May 31, 2020.

“It’s false to say #NDDC mismanaged N81.5 billion between Jan and July 2020. Truth is that sum was spent by two Interim Management Committees of the NDDC between October 29, 2019 and May 31, 2020, according to the #CentralBankofNigeria,” the tweet read in part.

The NDDC was established in 2000 for the sole mandate of developing the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/flashback-four-govt-officials-who-have-developed-health-issues-during-alleged-corruption-probe/

THE Nigerian Airforce (NAF) on Sunday released findngs of its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Tolulope Arotile, Nigeria’s first female combat helicopter pilot, who died in a car accident on July 14 at the NAF base in Kaduna State.

Ibikunle Daramola, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information disclosed that Arotile was knocked down by a Kia Sorento SUV, with Registration Number AZ 478 MKA, driven by a former classmate, Nehemiah Adejoh.

Daramola said the 23-year-old pilot died shortly after being knocked down by the car which was occupied by three former classmates of Arotile: Mr Igbekele Folorunsho, Mr Festus Gbayegun and Adejoh, the driver of the vehicle.

“Mr Nehemiah Adejoh, Mr Igbekele Folorunsho and Mr Festus Gbayegun, drove past her in a Kia Sorento SUV, with Registration Number AZ 478 MKA. It is noteworthy that Messrs Adejoh, Folorunsho and Gbayegun are all civilians who live outside NAF Base Kaduna, but were on their way to visit one Mrs Chioma Ugwu, wife of Squadron Leader Chukwuemeka Ugwu, who lives at Ekagbo Quarters on the Base.

“Upon recognising their schoolmate, Arotile, after passing her, Mr Adejoh, who was driving, reversed the vehicle, ostensibly in an attempt to quickly meet up with the deceased, who was walking in the opposite direction.

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/naf-identifies-classmate-who-hit-arotile-police-to-handle-case/

NIGERIA’S Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, one of Africa’s most respected technocrats, has locked horns with seven other candidates gunning for the top job at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as the current DG, Roberto Azevedo sets to step down in August.

But what chance does Dr. Okonjo-Iweala stand to become the next Director-General of the global trade body?

The WTO is an International organisation established in 1995 to deal with the global rules of trade between nations, pushing for a coherent and smooth regulation of trade among nations of the world.

Presently, the organisation has 164-member nations and 24 observer governments.

Okonjo-Iweala, a finance and international development expert, is Nigeria’s nomination for the position.

However, she is facing seven other high flying candidates from Africa, Europe, the Middle-East, North America, and Asia who were also nominated by their governments.

Okonjo against other African contenders

The Egyptian candidate, Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh, a senior official of WTO since 1990 and an international trade lawyer, is one of the Africans contesting for the position.

Mamdouh, a nominee of the African Union boasts of a long career in trade policy and diplomacy.

Starting out as a commercial attache in Egypt’s ministry of economy and foreign trade, Mamdouh worked up the ranks, playing key roles at the WTO and partaking in negotiations that have contributed to the standing of the international organisation till date.

Another contender is Amina C. Mohamed , Kenyan’s former minister of foreign affairs and international trade.

Mohamed served as her country’s permanent representative to the WTO for six years, emerging as the first woman to chair the General Council of the WTO in 2005, before her appointment as minister. She’s a law degree graduate and a Chevening fellow alumna.

On the other hand, with a combination of experiences working as a development economist, finance and international development expert, Okonjo-Iweala comes with a set of unique core competencies that position her as a great candidate for the job.

She graduated with a degree in economics from Harvard University in the United States (US) and also earned a doctorate degree in regional economics and development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), also in the US.

The development economics expert also has 15 honorary degrees from top universities around the world including Yale, Brown, and University of Pennsylvania.
Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/wto-elections-odds-against-nigerias-okonjo-iweala/

Examination malpractice has flourished in Nigeria for a long time and many people have created an illegal business around their ability to outsmart the system, as revealed in this investigation.

After documenting stories on how results are easily bought at Bachel Academy, Damilola BANJO and Habib OLADAPO investigate some of the claims.

In this Investigation, Banjo, under the pseudonym of Grace Adebiga enrolled at Bachel Academy in Egbeda area of Lagos State, for both WASSCE and JAMB examination.

Grace Adebiga is a 25-year-old rice seller, who wanted to get tertiary education. She would need to write WASSCE and JAMB in order to achieve her goal of gaining a tertiary education. For six months, Grace went through the Bachel Academy as an admission seeker who was too busy to study but willing to pay for the needed grades. She registered for the 2019 WASSCE and JAMB in the school where she documented evidence of extortion, bribery and examination fraud.

Not all that glitter is genuine

Bachel College, and its other affiliates, like the Bachel Academy, are popular for churning out good WASSCE results and well above 200 JAMB scores. On the school’s Facebook page, a former student shared how she made her O’level result at Bacheal Academy after five failed attempts elsewhere.

“Mr bachel is the only solution for all the people in the nation that see education as the problem of our nation like me now have loss hope about all this education stuff have been doing waec gce neco for almost good five years but i thank god today because have make my result math b3 phys b3 chem b3 eng c5 biology c6 bachel is too much and one thing is that some people didn’t know that we used our money to buy our self good things love bachel once again (sic),” the student, Humble Sinner, praised the school.


This would have been commendable if the results were achieved through hard work but the cue to how students of Bachel make outstanding grades is obvious in the disjointed and grammatical blunder in the testimonial of Humble Sinner. The lack of punctuation and capitalization would have earned Sinner a grade way below C6 but at Bachel even a ‘sinner’ can be made a saint.

Bachel is one of the notable private schools in Lagos by all standards. It has state-of-the art secondary schools in Ayobo, Ogba and Egbeda areas of Lagos State. The school at Ayobo is built on a large expanse of land with a lush green field for recreation. The level of examination fraud perpetrated in all the branches of Bachel schools is antithetical to the quiet exterior at the Ayobo branch.

With well over 2,000 students in its three branches, including the tutorial centre, Bachel has the capacity and infrastructure to be in the business of education, but lacks integrity to inspire value of hard work in its students.

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-inside-a-lagos-state-school-where-a1-can-be-bought-part-1/

ON Thursday, July 16, Dele Momodu, a Nigerian journalist and publisher of The Ovation magazine claimed that Kenya’s Amina Mohammed has beaten Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General’s position.

The claim which was started with the kicker “Breaking News” was tweeted on his twitter handle @DeleMomodu around 6:30pm.

Momodu has over 1.2 million followers on his verified handle. The tweet garnered 370 likes, 170 retweets and 64 comments before it was deleted.

A news medium, City News also posted a similar report on its website.



CLAIM

The tweet reads: “Breaking News: Kenya’s Amina Mohammed beats Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo Iweala for the WTO’S top Job.

The claim here is : Did Kenya’s Amina Mohammed beats Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo Iweala for the WTO’s top job?

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/spot-check-did-amina-mohammed-beat-okonjo-iweala-for-the-wtos-top-job/

THE Nigerian Air Force says Tolulope Arotile, Nigeria’s first female combat helicopter pilot who died on Tuesday in Kaduna was knocked by her former classmate who hit her while reversing a car.

Ibikunle Daramola,  Director of Public Relations and Information for the Nigerian Air Force revealed in a statement on Wednesday that the ex-classmate, whose identity is yet to be released, was reportedly reversing the car when it hit Arotile and caused her to hit her head on the tarmac.

“Flying Officer Arotile died on July 14, 2020 at the age of 24, when she was inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of an excited former Air Force... Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-naf-pilot-tolulope-arotile-died-in-incautious-car-accident/

THE Nigerian Air force (NAF) on Wednesday announced the death Tolulope Arotile, Nigeria’s first female combat helicopter pilot, who died in a road accident at the NAF Base Kaduna.

The NAF confirmed in a tributary tweet that the 23-year-old pioneer combat helicopter pilot died on Tuesday, as a result of head injuries sustained during a road traffic accident.

“It is with great sorrow that the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) regretfully announces the unfortunate demise of Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile, who died today, 14 July 2020, as a result of head injuries sustained from a road traffic accident at NAF Base Kaduna,” the statement read.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigerias-first-female-combat-helicopter-pilot-dies-eight-months-after-commissioning/