₦airaland Forum

A former Nigerian Minister of Finance, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been appointed a member of the international advisory panel of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Mr Song Liyan, AIIB Senior Communication Officer, in a statement made available to newsmen on Friday, announced that Okonjo-Iweala would join 10 other key persons on the panel.

“The Panel provides impartial, objective and independent advice to the President, allowing the Bank to benefit from the international experience and expertise of panel members,” Liyan said.

He quoted AIIB President, Jin Liqun, as saying that the panel members would advise the bank on the development of its strategy.

“It is a great honour to convene such an experienced and diverse group of international leaders to advise on the development of the Bank’s strategy.

“I have no doubt that the advice the panel provides will help shape the development of the Bank in the years ahead.

“I could not ask for a better group of ambassadors to help promote our new Bank to the world,” Jin said.

The panel members are former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Dr Zeti Aziz, former Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and former Swedish finance minister Anders Borg.

The others are former Timor-Leste finance minister Emilia Pires, former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern and former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Global Foundation secretary-general Steve Howard.

Others include Korea National Diplomatic Academy chair professor and former South Korean deputy prime minister and strategy and finance minister Dr Oh-Seok Hyun.

Former U.S. ambassador Paul Speltz and London School of Economics professor and former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa are the remaining panel members.

AIIB, a multilateral international development bank was set up on Dec. 25, 2015, with an initial capital of 100 billion U.S. dollars (RM419bn), one million shares and an initial paid-up capital of 20 billion U.S. dollars.

NAN

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has allegedly linked Justice Ademola’s arrest with the unconditional bail he had earlier granted Nnamdi Kanu which the Federal Government rejected.

A statement from IPOB Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, the group noted that Kanu has spent one year in detention illegally while the court of competent jurisdiction granted him unconditional release on 16th and 17th December 2015 by magistrate and federal high court Abuja but since then federal government, APC and the DSS were still holding him and others in prison custody.

He urged Biafrans to be resolute and determine towards the restoration of the God’s own project which is Biafra republic, saying that the project was ordained by God Almighty.

Powerful stated that Biafra will be a country where people of Africa will benefit, ‘the Africa will be technologically, economically, politically and spiritually free through the new republic’.

“However, we are aware of the systematic way of delaying the members of IPOB who were detained illegally in all the prisons and security cells across the country”.

In a related development, Kanu as sued the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Department of State Services (DSS) for contempt of court over failure of the federal government to release him from detention.

On December 17, 2015, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, a judge of the Federal High Court ordered Kanu’s unconditional release of Kanu.

In a statement at the weekend, Ifeanyi Ejiojor, counsel to Kanu, linked the continued detention of the IPOB leader to President Muhammadu Buhari’s comment at the presidential media chat on December 30, 2015, where he said no court would grant him bail.

“The order made on December 17, 2016 by Justice A.F.A. Ademola, directing the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu was served on the Department of State Services (DSS) that same day the order was made,” he said.

“Still, the DSS failed, refused and/or neglected to obey the order directing the unconditional release of Kanu, apparently due to reasons best known to them, which has no justification under any law.

IPOB said none of the affected institutions of the government affected by the order or the Federal Government has lodged an appeal against the order directing the unconditional release of Kanu.

Ademola was one of the judges arrested by the DSS on Saturday on the allegation of corruption.

“Nevertheless, it comes as a surprise on Friday 7th October 2016 at exactly 11:45am we received information that the Biafra land national coordinator of the indigenous people of Biafra Mr.Chidiebere Onwudiwe who have been arrested by DSS was called up in the federal high court Abuja court 7 of Justice Ademola without the prosecutors been in court to defend the matter against Chidiebere Onwudiwe” he stated.

“The DSS being the prosecutor of the matter were nowhere to be found in the court on Friday 7th October, they are running because Chidiebere Onwudiwe committed no crime against humanity or the federal government of Nigeria” Powerful stated.

“Comrade Chidiebere Onwudiwe was arrested in the odd hour of midnight in Igweocha (PH) Rivers state where he was sleeping on Friday 22nd June 2016 still detained in DSS cell incommunicado and have not been taking to any court since 128 days”.

“The lawyer incharge of the matter Bar, Ifeanyi Ejiofor who filled motion for his bail in the federal high court 7 Abuja. The chief judge Ademola who adjourned the matter to be on Tuesday 11th October for hearing because the DSS did not produce mazi Chidiebere Onwudiwe the national coordinator of the indigenous people of Biafra IPOB Biafraland in court” said powerful.

Meanwhile, a political pressure group, Concerned Abians for Good Governance and Justice (CAGGJ) has commended the Department of State Services (DSS) over last weekend’s arrest of some senior Judges across the country and their subsequent arraignment yesterday for alleged corrupt practices.

This is even as the group flayed what it described as the ignoble role played by Gov Nyesom Wike of Rivers State in the failed attempt to arrest a Federal High Court Judge in Port Harcourt by operatives of the DSS.

In a statement by its chairman, Egwu D. Uwa, CAGGJ said Nigerians have for years be yearning for a day like this, when men no matter how highly placed would be made to account for what they have done with what were entrusted in their care.

Uwa said as far as his group was concerned, what the DSS operatives did was what Nigerians had been yearning for over the years, stressing that it was only those who benefitted from what have been happening in the judiciary over the years that would condemn the action.

CAGGJ regretted that most of the politics-related judgments delivered after the 2015 general elections were cash induced, saying no nation would grow politically if this anomaly was not checked.

“It was glaringly clear that most of the politics-related judgments delivered since after the2015 general elections were cash and carry judgments and no good government that what its salt will sit idly and watch things like this go on and that is why we are commending the DSS for this bold step”.

Uwa said it was unfortunate that those who are condemning the modus-operandi the DSS operatives adopted in arresting the Judges, have closed their eyes to the huge cash recovered for the houses of the arrested judges.

Wondering where the Judges got such huge amount of money in both local and foreign currencies, Uwa opined that if the operatives of the DSS had not adopted such method, the deliveries could not have been made.

CAGGJ condemned Gov Wike’s action in allegedly using some party loyalists to stop the arrest of a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, saying the action was capable of sending wrong signals to the public.

CAGGJ said if Wike had no special interest in the Judge, he wouldn’t have left the Government House at about 1.30am to ensure that the said Judge was not arrested.

“We don’t think if Gov Wike had no interest in the particular Judge, he would have left Government House by the time he did to ensure that the Judge was not arrested. Again his efforts in trying to defend the Judge over the amount alleged to be in his house, left much to be desired”, Uwa said.