₦airaland Forum

By Alao Abiodun

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July 2020 has been tough for Nigeria. Many of its prominent citizens have died in the month, throwing the nation into mourning.

Here is a list of prominent Nigerians who have died in July, 2020:

Mallam Ismaila Isa Funtua

The former President of Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) Mallam Ismaila Isa Funtua died after driving himself to a hospital.

Funtua, born in Funtua in January 1942, was a Second Republic Minister of Water Resources in the late President Shehu Shagari administration and a member of the Constitutional Conference convoked by the late military dictator Gen. Sani Abacha.

Until his death, Funtua was one of the most influential politicians and businessmen in the country. He died on July 20.

In the early 1980s, he established The Democrat, an all-colour newspaper in Kaduna which became authoritative on political matters. His construction firm, Bulet, became a household after constructing the magnificent Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

He was a life patron of the NPAN and also a patron of the International Press Institute (IPI). He attended the Commercial College in Zaria, Federal Training Centre in Kaduna, the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, the University of Manchester, and was the Monitor-General of Course 9 of the Senior Executive Course at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies.

Tolulope Arotile

Arotile’s young career was halted on July 14, a Tuesday, when, according to the NAF, she was “inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of an excited former Air Force secondary school classmate while trying to greet her” in Kaduna.

Born in 1995, she was admitted into the Nigerian Defence Academy on September 22, 2012 and commissioned five years later.

She made history in October 2019 when she was winged as Nigeria’s first female combat helicopter pilot in the Air Force’s 55 years of existence.

An official release by the Nigerian Air Force says as of October 2019, Tolulope had acquired 460 hours (about 19 days) of flight within 14 months in flying a helicopter.

She was a native of Iffe area of Ijumu LGA of Kogi State and fourth child of her family attended the Air Force Primary (2000—2005) and Secondary Schools (2006—2011), Kaduna.

Hon. Tunde Buraimoh

The Chairman, Committee on Information and Strategy of the Lagos Assembly, Tunde Buraimoh, died on July 10.

The late Buraimoh, who represented Kosofe Counstituency 2, was an active and eloquent member of the House.

Some of the lawmakers described Buraimoh’s death as a rude shock.

Aminu Adisa Logun

The late Aminu Adisa Logun was the Chief of Staff to Kwara Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, said Logun died of COVID-19 complications, only few hours after result of test carried out on him returned positive.

He was 73.

He was described as an industrialist, a public intellectual and an elder statesman.

Nomoreloss’ widow, Adeola Osinuga

The wife of late singer Nomoreloss, Adeola Osinuga also died in July, 2020.

Family sources said she died after battling a chronic ailment Fibromyalgia for over four years.

She was an On-Air Personality (OAP) with Rhythm 93.7 FM before she took ill.

It was gathered the ailment took a big toll, keeping her hospitalised and away from work.


Popular radio presenter, Iya Jogbo

A popular Max FM Lagos radio presenter, Emmanuella Pobeni Adepoju, popularly known as Iya Jogbo, died on July 24.

According to the management of TVC Communications, owners of TVC, TVC News and Max FM Lagos and Abuja, Iya Jogbo died after a brief illness from bronchitis and an enlarged heart.

She was popular with the Wetin Dey show on Max FM.

AbdulGaniyu Folorunsho Abdul-Razaq

The First Republic minister and ambassador to Ivory Coast, Alhaji AbdulGaniyu Folorunsho Abdul-Razaq, was the first lawyer from Northern Nigeria and father of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State.

He was 93.

The remains of the elder statesman were interred at his Idi-Igba family house in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, in accordance with Islamic traditions.

Yoruba actor, Yusuf Satia

He was a popular Yoruba actor and singer.

Yusuf’s death was announced on Instagram by his popular colleague, Adekunle Afod.

Dr. Michael Adeyeri

The late Dr. Michael Adeyeri was a former chairman of the Ondo State chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA).

He reportedly died of COVID-19 complications.
Adeyeri died at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo.

Jide Odekunle

The late Jide Odekunle was a former General Manager of the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASMRI).

Odekunle served under former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration for four years and 11 months.

He was until his death the Bobagunwa of Egbaland.

Major General Sam Momah(Rtd)

Former Minister of Science and Technology, Major General Sam Momah (Rtd.) died on July 29.

He died on July 29 after complicated diabetic issues at 77.

Pa Ayo Fasanmi

A prominent elder statesman and leader of Yoruba socio-cultural group Afenifere, Senator Ayo Fasanmi, died on July 30 at 94.

Senator Ali Ndume has criticised the Federal Government’s amnesty to terrorists, saying that a repentant Boko Haram member, who was recently integrated into the community, killed his father, stole his wealth and disappeared.

Speaking on a BBC Hausa programme monitored in Kaduna State yesterday, Ndume, who represented Borno South in the Senate, queried government’s rationale for spending the nation’s funds to ‘reform’ the terrorists.

The lawmaker alleged that many of the ‘repentant’ Boko Haram members had since gone back to their former den. He said: “They are like Kharajites. Many among those released have since run away. They will never repent. The government should know what to do about them, but not re-introducing someone who killed your parent or relations to you.

“Haba, not that he even apologised to the government. His thinking is that the government has failed; hence they are being pampered.”

According to him, the government’s amnesty programme is unacceptable, insisting that the right thing is to stop the banditry.

“If there is sincerity of purpose in this, those in the Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps should have been trained in various trades, so that they could start life again,” he added.The BBC also featured a widow, who condemned the programme because the terrorists killed her husband.

“This thing is hurting. They killed my husband and son in my presence. I am left suffering with four young orphans. Till death, I will never forget that day.

“Look at the kind of care given to the Boko Haram members. We that have suffered for six years now are not taken care of. Truly, government has not done justice here,” she said. A male victim also told the BBC that Boko Haram killed his relations and chased them out of their home.

“They killed four of my close relations. In what capacity are we going to live with them again? Do we see them as human beings or animals? Or do they want us to meet them and take revenge? There will be a serious problem.”

“Go to Gwoza and Bama; many of the ‘repentant’ terrorists have rejoined the bandits. There is nothing you can do to change a Boko Haram member,” he added.

There was uproar at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, on Wednesday after two airplanes collided at the international wing of the airport.


An Airbus A330-243 owned by Middle East Airlines with registration number OD-MEA, ran into a Boeing 777 airplane with registration number TC-LJC operated by Turkish Airlines.


Sources at the airport said the Turkish cargo flight was parked at the international airport apron when the Middle East airbus ran into it.

“The Turkish cargo flight was parked at the tarmac when the MEA airbus ran into it l, ripping off part of the empennage of the aircraft.

“The MEA flight was taxiing when it happened,” the source said.

The MEA airbus, which had been boarding passengers since 12:00pm, had to disembark every passenger on board.

Another source at the scene of the incident said the Middle East Airline and others had been carrying out commercial operations under the disguise of evacuation flights.

"These people have been running commercial flights under the disguise of evacuation. They come to this country at least three times a week.

"The MEA and even Turkish Airlines and others have been carrying out commercial operations," the source added.

A 47-year-old man has been dragged before an Akure Magistrate Court in Ondo State for allegedly beating his pregnant wife to death.

The man identified as Olabode Oluwaseun, was arraigned by the Ondo State Police Command on a one-count charge for allegedly hitting his wife, Blessing in the abdomen, which was said to have resulted into her death and her unborn child.

The accused was alleged to have committed the crime on April 3, 2020 at No 56, Oke-Agba area in Akure, the state capital.

According to the Police Prosecutor, Inspector Uloh Goodluck, the offence was punishable under Section 319 (1) of the Criminal Code Cap 36 Volume 1 Laws of Ondo State.

Uloh, who urged the court to remand Olabode to police custody pending legal advice from the Department of Public Prosecution emphasized that the crime was a case of murder.

Meanwhile, Counsel to Olabode, Ololike, did not oppose application for a remand order.

The Presiding Magistrate, Aladejana subsequently ordered that Olabode be remanded in custody pending legal advice from the DPP following the adjournment of the case to September 8, 2020.

A shadowy syndicate of international fraudsters specializing in smuggling, blackmail, extortion and money laundering scams are behind alleged involvement of some top Nigeria government officials in a deal to sell about 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s crude in 2015, documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES have shown.

On Monday, reports alleged that a huge volume of Bonny Light crude oil purportedly stolen from Nigeria was traced to some storage facilities in various ports and terminals in China, including Qingdao, Zhoushan and Rhizao just as President Muhammadu Buhari was being sworn into office in 2015.

SAMANO SA DE CV claimed it made the discovery of the purported stolen crude oil after its officials were approached by some people in China seeking buyers of the oil.

Counsel to SAMANO, Gboyega Oyewole, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said his client reported the discovery of the stolen crude oil to some senior government officials and requested them to investigate.

Mr Oyewole said the discussion with the officials involved the payment of five (5) per cent whistleblowing compensation for information furnished them. He said the Nigerian officials reneged on the agreement.

But court documents and reports of security and anti-graft agencies seen by this newspaper on Monday revealed that the allegations followed a familiar pattern in several schemes in the past involving SAMANO for which its officials are being chased by Interpol and the security agencies in the United States of America.

Court documents as well as reports from the Nigerian Police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) identify the ringleader of the syndicate as Marco A. Ramirez, an American, who took refuge in Nigeria years ago.

Mr Ramirez is currently on the wanted list of Interpol and U.S. security operatives for a series of money laundering charges pending against him, including forgeries, blackmail and obtaining by false pretence since 2010.

A sealed indictment against him in a case filed on March 29, 2016, before the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas named Mr Ramirez and his wife, Bebe Ramirez of being behind a fraud syndicate that swindled people of millions of dollars through various mail and wire fraud schemes between 2010 and 2013.

His Mexican associate, Jose Salazar Tinajero, has been in and out of jail in South America due to the involvement of his company, SAMANO, in highly sophisticated smuggling and money laundering scams.

Coincidentally, at the time Mr Ramirez was facing charges in the U.S., Mr Salazar was standing trial in Paraguay after being busted in August 2016 for involvement in various crimes, including smuggling of fake gold valued at about $22 million to be sold in Hong Kong.

Messrs. Ramirez and Salazar are accomplices now working through SAMANO SA DE CV, a shadowy company registered in Reynosa, Tamaulipas in Mexico as a marketing company, which has been behind most of their international criminal commercial scams.

Although registered as a trading firm dealing in “all kinds of supplies, equipment, merchandise and goods in general” as well as “professional and consultancy services to government and private entities, court filings showed SAMANO has been involved in more scams than trade.

Registered under the sole administratorship of Mr Salazar, who resides in Mexico, SAMANO has a network of partners and associates across Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, who sniff around for money-making opportunities, especially among senior government officials.

While in Nigeria, Mr Ramirez deployed the SAMANO strategy in its schemes, by hatching a plot to profit from Nigeria’s crude oil money through blackmail, intimidation, and manipulation of the media against top government officials.

Investigations showed that Mr Ramirez’s main targets were mainly key associates of President Muhammadu Buhari and some top officials of the administration, including the current Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari.

Mr Ramirez has been a fugitive wanted in the United States since 2012, a sealed indictment by a U.S. court revealed.


He was indicted for operating a foreign fraud scheme counterfeiting a U.S. Federal Immigration programme used to defraud several nationals, including Nigerians, of more than $3 million.

A grand jury in Texas filed 13-count charges of money laundering against him, his wife Bebe and another accomplice, David Perez Jr. in 2016.

Court documents seen by this reporter showed the Ramirezs conspired to enrich themselves through the perpetration of mail and wire fraud.

Describing the manner of their conspiracy, the prosecution said the Ramirezs received huge sums from clients after misleading them and failing to fulfil their contracts with them.

The document showed the Ramirezs used the proceeds of their fraudulent schemes to “purchase luxury cars, pay off civil judgments, refund other investors who demanded that their funds be returned, enriched themselves while failing to obtain permanent residency status through the EB-5 Visa Programme for the majority of the investors.”

Mr Ramirez fled the U.S. and settled in Nigeria where he managed to infiltrate government circles and made himself known to prominent persons in the country as an American businessman. He used his access to obtain sensitive government information used against officials in Nigeria and abroad.

In September 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice wrote to Nigeria to seek Mr Ramirez’s extradition to face charges in the U.S. for the crimes he committed in the country.

Since March 2019, Mr Ramirez, along with Mr Salazar and their Nigerian accomplice, Francis Ibomor and others at large, have been facing charges of extortion, blackmail and obtaining by false pretence brought against them in case file at a Federal High Court in Abuja by the federal government through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

The charges against them were made after repeated complaints from senior government officials and top businessmen in the country, some of who had fallen victim to the plot of the syndicate and lost huge amounts of money.

Official court records obtained by this newspaper showed that among those who reported extortion by the syndicate to the Nigerian Police included Air Commodore Mohammed Umar and one Ahmed Saleh who accused the suspects of defrauding them of $45,000.

The particulars of the offences Mr Ramirez and others were accused of are contained in a statement filed at a Federal High Court in Abuja by Akutah Pius Ukeyima, an assistant chief state counsel.

The statement accused the defendants of being in possession of forged documents they used to intimidate and harass top Nigerian government functionaries and putting them in fear of injury to their persons and reputation, thereby dishonestly inducing them to habitually deliver certain oil contracts to him.

Mr Ramirez is as well facing two separate criminal trials both at the Federal Capital Territory High Court in charge No. FCT/HC/CR/147/2016, and at the Federal High Court, Lagos in Charge No: id/2763/2016, both respective charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.


Police Report indicts SAMANO

An interim Nigerian police investigative report on Messrs. Ramirez, Salazar and their Nigerian accomplices exposed their criminal activities in Nigeria.

The 23-page report, dated April 29, 2019, and signed by DIG Anthony Michael Ogbizi, detailed how police investigators trailed the duo and their victims to uncover their criminal activities following a petition from the Attorney-General of the Federation’s office.

The report established that Mr Ramirez, who neither have residence permit nor work permit, first visited Nigeria on the invitation of one Habib Mohammed, who worked at the Nigerian Embassy in New York, to promote the US Visa programme in 2014.

That visit enabled him to meet many other Nigerians in both the government and the private sector, including Ahmed Saleh, a Kano-based businessman who later became one of his victims after he was duped of $45,000.

Mr Saleh, who provided information and document that nailed them, told the police that shortly after he was introduced to Mr Ramirez, he started bringing different business proposals and introducing different companies to him.

He said Mr Ramirez later invited Mr Salazar into the country after the Mexican claimed he had documents to show that some Nigerian crude oil stolen in 2015 were in China.

Mr Saleh, who is well connected within government circles, took Mr Ramirez and his partner, Mr Salaza,r to Air Commodore Mohammed Umar, who he claimed, was knowledgeable about oil matters.

But Commodore Umar immediately told them the Nigerian government had already established a committee on recovery of ‘stolen crude oil’ in China, and that it had most of the information it needed.

Again, Mr Saleh said the Commodore told them that the Chinese government already indicated interest to buy the crude.

Disappointed with that information, Messrs Ramirez and Salazar were said to have requested if Mr Umar could assist them to have a direct allocation of crude oil from Nigeria, a request Mr Saleh said was turned down because he did not have the power or influence to do so.

Regardless, he said he still introduced them to Mele Kyari who was then the Head of Crude Oil Marketing. But Mr Kyari told the duo that the possession of a refinery was one of the major requirements from prospective bidders to qualify to bid.

When the NNPC called for bidding, SAMANO also submitted documents but failed to qualify.

Police findings confirmed that while it was true that the criminal duo met Mr Kyari by virtue of his position as head of crude marketing department of the NNPC then, “There is no evidence that Mele Kyari ever received any gift, or promised any benefit to the suspects, or involved in any suspicious transaction with the suspects.”

The report further established that “There are suggestive influences that the suspects are skilful fraudsters/schemers who do not have any verifiable legal business in operation in Nigeria.”

The police said the criminals wanted to blackmail and exploit Mr Kyari’s “gentle disposition” and “patriotic move” to ensure that the actions of Messrs. Saleh and Umar did not drag officials and the government into disrepute.

Findings also showed the duo threatened to publish damaging reports about activities of top government officials as “a ploy to put fear and pressure” on them so they can succumb to their demands.

The police also found official government documents in their possession when Ramirez was arrested in 2019, forcing investigators to conclude that SAMANO had become a threat to national security.


Allegations Against Nigeria

In the letter by its legal adviser, SAMANO claimed to have discovered crude oil abandoned in storage tanks in China ports following information by a client in Dominican Republic who it claimed wanted to buy the crude.

SAMANO claimed to have contacted the authorities in Nigeria through its representative, Mr Ramirez, who said he later got in touch with his friend, Hamman Saleh, “to investigate and obtain authorization” from the Nigerian government to participate in the sale of crude oil.

Besides, the company claimed Mr Saleh informed them that the Nigerian government officials said they were not aware of any Nigerian crude oil in China ports.

However, on the company’s insistence that the company had to deliver the evidence physically to appropriate government officials in Nigeria, Mr Salazar was reportedly invited to Nigeria in August 2015.

On arrival in Abuja, Mr Salazar claimed there was a meeting with late Abba Kyari to whom he claimed to have delivered the evidence of the abandoned oil in company of Air Commodore Muhammed Umar.

In June 2016, SAMANO said it was one of the companies invited to meet President Buhari during his visit to Washington DC.

Mr Ramirez stated that he was invited again by Mr Saleh to come for a meeting with Mr Umar with further proof of their claims.

They group also claimed Mr Umar requested them to address all the “information collected” on the abandoned oil to Mele Kyari, who was then the head of the Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC.

SAMANO claimed at the end of “several negotiations and conversations” with both Messrs. Kyari and Umar, they “promised to reward him with 5% of the market value of the 48 million barrels when sold at $75 per barrel, the price Nigeria’s light crude oil sold was sold at the time.

Despite the agreement, SAMANO said it learnt later “in October and November” from its source that the abandoned crude oil was sold following a sales authorization by the NNPC.

They claimed all efforts to get the reward they were promised was rebuffed by the NNPC, resulting in their decision to sue the NNPC in Mexico or London.

SAMANO said it resolved to invoke the provisions of the Whistleblower Policy of the Federal Ministry of Finance to compel the NNPC to pay the 5% whistleblower compensation on the total value of 48 million barrels of oil at $75 per barrel.


The Big Doubt

Experts say it was impossible to ship 48 million barrels of crude oil out of the country illegally, nor dispense even a barrel of oil in China without the involvement of the government of the Peoples Republic of China prior to November 2018.

While the issue of illegal oil bunkering has thrived in Nigeria for long, the experts said it was a long shot to claim 48 million barrels of the country’s oil were ‘abandoned’ in China in 2015, when daily oil production was below 1.6 million barrels. This will imply that the entire crude production of one month was ‘abandoned’.

Counter Claims

However, the report of the Police investigation into the petition against Marco Ramirez, Jose Salazar, Francis Ibomor and other accomplices, accused them of criminal intimidation, threat to life, and conspiracy using forged documents to intimidate and blackmail.

Although three of the suspects are at large, the police said two of them are currently standing trial following a petition by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.

On SAMANO’s claim that it secured an agreement with Mele Kyari and Commodore Umar for 5% value of the purportedly stolen oil and all its logistics expenses, the report said they provided no proof of that.

As the company’s affidavit in a Mexican Court revealed, SAMANO planned to rely on WhatsApp conversations it had with these people as proof of an agreement.

The report said the implication is that in essence, there was no legally binding agreement with NNPC. Only pieces of electronic messages exchanged.


Whistleblower Policy

Nigeria’s Whistleblower policy provides that if the government can recover stolen or concealed assets through information provided by a whistleblower, then he/she may be entitled to between 2.5%-5.0% of the amount recovered.

However, to qualify for the reward, the whistleblower must provide the government with the information it does not already have and could not otherwise obtain from any other publicly available sources. The actual recovery must also be because of the information provided by the whistleblower.

However, indications are that SAMANO did not provide any information or evidence of the abandoned oil in China. Even by the company’s own admission, Nigerian officials doubted its claims and requested for proof, which was not provided.

The war of words between the National Assembly members and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, over Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) contract awards, yesterday, worsened, with the Senate describing Akpabio’s allegation as a cheap blackmail and fallacy of the highest order.

The position of the Senate was expressed by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Ayo Akinyelure (PDP, Ondo Central). Incidentally, the Senate mandated the committee on Thursday last week to investigate the allegation by Akpabio, that members of the National Assembly got 60 per cent of the NDDC contracts award. Reacting to the allegation while fielding questions from journalists at the National Assembly, Akinyelure said that lawmakers only facilitated projects to be awarded in their various constituencies while the execution of such projects reside within the confines of the Executive arm of government.

He said: “As a matter of fact, the submission of Senator Akpabio is a cheap blackmail which cannot be tenable anywhere in Nigeria. Senators are representatives of the people in the legislature and we have power of appropriation. “Projects allocated to us are put in the various ministries and agencies of government where they can be fully executed. Those of us from the Niger Delta region can lobby for some of the projects to be put in their various constituencies.

“That does not mean that the money for their execution will be given to senators. We don’t touch money here, but influence projects to be executed in our constituencies. When that is done, the executive arm of government will advertise for contractors to bid for them, and award them, following due process.

“The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs was a senator in the 8th Senate. Did he not facilitate projects worth billions of naira to his own constituency through the NDDC? The answer is yes, he did. If he admits that they paid him the money for the execution of the contracts, then, it is a question of investigating who won the contracts.

“The allegation that members of the National Assembly from the Niger Delta region facilitated projects is a fallacy because being indigenes of the region, they have the right to facilitate projects to their communities in the interest of their constituents. “If I’m the chairman of the Niger Delta committee in the Senate and projects worth N200 billion are to be allocated to the region, I will influence 10 per cent of it to my constituency.

The projects are meant for Niger Delta region, therefore, there is nothing wrong for the National Assembly members from the region to facilitate some of them to their constituencies. “However, if these projects were successfully facilitated and a particular senator used his company to take the money away, our committee will go and investigate; where they fall short, they would be nailed by the law. If the projects were never executed and senators used their companies to take the money away, that is fraud.

“Our committee can try any senator who engages in unethical practices whenever we have such a case. We don’t condone unethical practices. “Allegations that some senators have taken money to execute contracts in the NDDC is a fallacy of the highest order because we have our records, we don’t do that. Our committee will look into the allegations of blackmail against some lawmakers and make our findings public.”

In a related development, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Peter Nwaoboshi, challenged the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, to prove his allegation that he (Nwaoboshi) was awarded 53 NDDC contracts. Nwaoboshi also dared Akpabio to involve the antigraft and other security agencies to substantiate his allegation.

Declaring that the allegation against him was false and baseless, the lawmaker said that he would have made further comments on the issue but for the fact that the matter was currently before two competent courts of law. He said that the allegation was an orchestrated attempt by Akpabio to blackmail him so as to keep diverting public attention away from the serious mismanagement of the NDDC by the IMC under his supervision. Part of his statement reads:

“…Mr. Akpabio alleged that I was awarded contracts for 53 NDDC projects. I wish to state unequivocally that this allegation has no bearing with the truth and I challenge Akpabio to send so-called list to anti-graft and other security agencies if he can substantiate the apparently baseless allegation.

“This unsubstantiated allegation is in line with Akpabio’s well-known agenda to continuously blackmail me so as to keep diverting public attention away from the serious mismanagement of the NDDC by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) under his supervision and under the guise of a phantom forensic audit that has no operating time line. “My advice to Akpabio and the IMC is to focus their energy on explaining to Nigerians how they spent a whopping N81.5 billion within a period of five months.”

Similarly, Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South), challenged his accusers to prove their allegations with empirical evidences. Manager said, as Chairman of Niger Delta Committee in the Senate which ended in 2015, NDDC never awarded any contract to any company owned by him. “I do not know of any company owned by me that has ever gone into bidding of government job anywhere in the world.

This may come to many as a surprise, but that is the gospel truth,” he said. Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Mathew Urhoghide, (PDP/ Edo South) has also denied alleged complicity in the NDDC contract scam rocking the National Assembly. Urhoghide said that he never got a single contract from the agency.

He urged Akpabio to go to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to ascertain if he or anyone associated with him has a registered company doing business with the NDDC. “I want to put it here that Godswill Akpabio is mischievous, misinforming, misleading the people and wicked. He is leaving the truth and feeding Nigerians with lies.

There is no single job done by the NDDC in my constituency and that is the constituency that makes Edo State one of the NDDC states. “I have no trace of the company getting any job. The one awarded in Etete street was not to me, but to a company I don’t even know and the contractor was not even mobilized since the job was awarded as no single penny has been paid to the contractor,” Urhoghide said.

An unnamed presidency source told reporters on Sunday that the Azura Power deal was signed by the government of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013 — but TheCable can report that this is an attempt to confuse the issues.

The Azura power generation deal has placed Nigeria under heavy financial burden as the country’s transmission capacity cannot take all the power being generated.

Regardless, Nigeria will have to keep paying at least $30 million a month under the “take or pay” deal and risks a fine of $1.2 billion if government decides to exit from the agreement.

Although various agreements were signed with Azura-Edo Indepentent Power Project Ltd and Azura Power West Africa by Jonathan administration to facilitate the construction of the 461mw plant in Edo state, they were not activated before he left office on May 29, 2015, TheCable can report.

The bone of contention, according to documents seen by TheCable, was federal government’s reluctance to sign the World Bank partial risk guarantee (PRG) which would place the $1.2 billion liability on the country.

A SET OF AGREEMENTS

The Jonathan administration signed the power purchase agreement (PPA) on April 22, 2013 — as disclosed by the anonymous presidency source — as well as the put call option agreement (PCOA) on October 22, 2014.

The PCOA “direct agreement” was executed on December 18, 2014.

However, the deal could not proceed because Mohammed Bello Adoke, then attorney-general of the federation (AGF), said the PCOA was injurious to the interest of Nigeria and that a sovereign guarantee would put the country’s foreign assets at risk.

His letter to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, then minister of finance who signed the PCOA on behalf of Nigeria, was dated July 24, 2014.

Adoke raised a series of objections to the provisions of the agreement which he said were not in the country’s interest.

On December 1, 2014, Adoke also wrote to Jonathan, complaining that the PCOA was signed without the legal advice of his office, and that a circular from the office of the secretary to the government of the federation, dated August 11, 2014, had already said the federal government must be indemnified in all contracts and agreements, especially with foreign entities.

This, he said, was to protect the federal government and some of its separate legal entities such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) whose assets might be “attached” in enforcement of proceedings in foreign jurisdictions.

NEBO’S LAST-DITCH MOVE

However, Chinedu Nebo, then minister of power, later wrote a five-page memo to Jonathan, dated January 12, 2015, seeking that the “indemnity clause” be waived for Azura so that the country could give the sovereign guarantee.

Nebo wrote that “in the context of the Azura transaction, the application of this Specimen Indemnity Clause would prevent Azura from drawing down on any of the loan agreements that it has signed with its lender group (comprising 15 banks from 9 different countries) because these banks all require an unconditional waiver of the Government’s sovereign immunity”.

He asked Jonathan to grant a “special exemption” to the requirements of the circular because of the “heavy involvement of the World Bank” and that the Azura transaction was “critical to investors’ confidence in Nigeria”.

Nevertheless, Jonathan did not grant the waiver because the office of the AGF did not change its legal opinion.

As of the time Jonathan left office on May 29, 2015, the agreements were inchoate.

THE MAKING OF A GUARANTEE

After President Muhammadu Buhari came to office, Azura began to pile fresh pressure on the federal government to give the guarantee.

For the World Bank PRG to be activated, Nigeria needed to execute the guarantee instruments — the indemnity agreement, the support agreement, and the PCOA.

These are the instruments that needed to be activated for a drawdown on the letter of credit (LC) in the event of default by the federal government.

With Adoke out of the way and no AGF in place (Buhari did not appoint a cabinet until November 2015), TheCable understands that Abdullahi Ahmed Yola, who, as the solicitor-general of the federation acted as the AGF, came under pressure from senior presidency officials to upturn Adoke’s memo.

Yola eventually changed the legal opinion in July 2015 and on August 21, 2015, Nigeria executed the set of agreements that activated the deal, with the liability of $1.2 billion incorporated.

The senate has called for the cancellation of the contract — which has been likened to the P&ID failed deal for which Nigeria is currently fighting to escape a $9.6 billion arbitration award.

Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele The Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, has said that some bills are contributing to the misunderstanding of the ninth National Assembly by Nigerians.

He also said some of his colleagues are against the publication of their salaries and allowances because of national security.

Ndume wants part-time work for civil servants, lawmakers After Daily Trust report, Senators donate 50% of salaries to fight coronavirus There have been a lot of uproar over the welfare package of the federal lawmakers.

Many have called for it to be slashed. Within the last one year, some of the private member bills sponsored by the federal lawmakers for consideration and possible passage have been stirring controversy in the polity as regards their desirability or otherwise.

Some of the controversial bills are, the Anti-Social Media bill, hate speech bill, a bill seeking to establish an agency for repentant Boko Haram insurgents, a bill for an act to prohibit/ban the use of generators and the infectious disease bill.

Speaking in an interview with newsmen weekend in Abuja, Senator Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), said the bills were wrongly perceived by Nigerians regardless of the sponsors’ intention.

He said, “We have had some bills in the last one year that also didn’t help our popularity, regardless of the fact that the distinguished senators who sponsored the bills meant so well.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people are yet to understand the workings of the parliament. When a private member bill is read for the first time, it doesn’t matter how bad it is, you cannot hold the Senate responsible.

“We have other 108 members who will assess the bill, and part of the process of the legislation is that the bill itself, after the senators would have debated the general principle during second reading, will be subjected to public scrutiny. You could have a situation where the preponderance of opinion would have even killed the bill and that will be the end.

“But a lot of time, the parliament is assessed based on the kind or nature of bills that are read for the first time and then people bring it down with comments and insinuations on social media. They, however, mean well.”

He said he had been pushing for the publication of lawmakers’ salaries and allowances for the public to know, but some members had expressed reservations for reason of national security.

The report also added that N171m was paid in cash to 300 drivers to attend a driver training course, scheduled to take place when the nation was on lockdown.

The embattled Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission paid N570m to some staff members to undergo training programmes when Nigeria was on total lockdown following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The disclosure is contained in the report of the Senate ad hoc committee set up to unravel the alleged financial recklessness perpetrated by the IMC between October 1999 and May 2020.

Godswill Akpabio and acting NDDC MD, Kemebradikumo Pondei

A copy of the panel’s report obtained by Saturday PUNCH on Friday showed that N143m was paid to individual members of staff on April 1, 2020, to attend a participatory budget conference.

Incidentally, according to the report, “this period happens to be during the COVID-19 lockdown. It is obvious that the conference was not attended as the country was on absolute lockdown.”

The panel, therefore, recommended that the entire sum be refunded by the staff members concerned.

“This payment was made to five members of staff averaging almost N28m per person,” it stated.

The report also added that N171m was paid in cash to 300 drivers on February 3, 2020, to attend a driver training course, scheduled to take place when the nation was on lockdown.

The panel noted that the culture of cash payments to individual staff seems to be a standard practice at the NDDC.

“This custom is not only unethical; it lacks transparency and accountability. NDDC must do away with this practice as a way of improving its duty of stewardship,” the report stated.

It also added that the IMC paid N150m on April 3, 2020, to some NDDC union executives for an International Labour Organisation conference in Turin, Italy.

“Incidentally, this period also happens to be during the COVID-19 lockdown. It is evident that the beneficiaries of these payments could not travel out of the country as a result of the COVID-19 travel restriction.

“Hence, this sum must be refunded by the union members concerned,” the report added.

The report also revealed the names of “delegates” who attended the graduation ceremony of NDDC scholars in the United Kingdom in June 2020.

It also stated that the total cost of the trip was N85.6m, paid to 14 staff members to travel to the United Kingdom.

The report stated, “The composition of the travellers includes the MD/CEO, Prof (Daniel) Pondei; the Executive Director, Projects, Dr Cairo Ojougboh; and another Director, Mr Luke lbanga.

“These payments demonstrate a form of internal control failure in the NDDC, especially with the management’s choice to subject such transactions as cash payments to individual staff members.”

Samueltemi337:
Laycon: you think I'll let you stay in my head for free


Word

MOST of them had departed their homes in Nigeria in the hope of securing lucrative jobs in the oil rich United Arab Emirates, having lost hope in their own country and its system.

For many of them, however, the decision has turned out an awful error as many employers in the oil rich country are said to have barred Nigerians from applying for jobs, even when such jobs are meant strictly for Africans.

With the Eldorado they chased from Nigeria to Dubai, the UAE capital not anywhere in sight, many of them are desperate to return home, but they are not only stranded but also frustrated.

Their plight became public knowledge after a social media post indicating that Nigerians in UAE were precluded from applying for available jobs in the Asian country went viral.

Given that the post came on the heels of the arrest of Hushpuppi, the alleged notorious cybercrime kingpin, many were fast to attribute the predicament of other Nigerians in UAE to his atrocities.

But Nigerians who spoke with our correspondent from the UAE were unanimous in declaring that their plight had nothing to do with Hushpuppi. The ban on Nigerians, according to them, had been in effect long before the fraudster’s issue.

What then are the sins for which UAE employers prefer the nationals of smaller African countries to those of the so-called giant of Africa?

Femi Johnson, a Nigerian resident in Dubai, said: “I saw the information barring Nigerians from applying for the advertised vacancies.

When I asked why, I was told that it was not an official decision of the UAE government but that of employers of labour.

“The ban on Nigerians from applying for advertised jobs also has nothing to do with Hushppuppi. After all, he was not the only person arrested around that period.

People of other nationalities were also arrested but it was that of Hushppupi that grabbed the media space.

“Many Nigerians like the easy way out. For instance, sale of alcohol is regulated here but some Nigerians will want to be smart about it.

“Last Friday, some Nigerians held a party and in Sharjah area and ran into trouble with the authorities. An Indian neighbour told them that the music was too loud but they did not budge.

“An argument ensued and they threw the guy down from a 14-storey building. The police moved in and arrested many Nigerians and other Africans there.”

Such development, according to Johnson, robs off negatively on the image of innocent Nigerians.

He added: “At my place of work, my colleagues got angry about the incident and bombarded me with questions. I had to repeatedly explain things to defend my country and our people.

“I am working here in Dubai, and I happen to be the first African to work in the organisation. When my boss saw my level of diligence and hard work, he asked me to bring my brother to also come and work in the company. He is here working in the company with me.”

A Nigerian resident in Sharjah area of the UAE, Emem Akpan, said some employers bar Nigerians from applying for certain jobs because of their past experiences.

Sloan said: “It has nothing to do with Hushpuppi’s arrest. Some Nigerians always want to take advantage of situations. After some employers would have invested so much on some of them, the employees will just run away at a point.

“Some of the employers here prefer to employ Ethiopians instead of Nigerians. I went for an interview some time ago and a fellow Nigerian told me that once they helped her with a visa, she would work for two months and run away if another job came her way.

“I told her if she was not going to stay, there was no need making them to process her visa which costs almost a million naira.

Some companies deem such Nigerians to have absconded, and once they do that, it will be difficult for such Nigerians to get jobs.”

Another reason UAE employers of labour turn down Nigerians, according to Emem, is language barrier.

She said: “When I came here, I could not apply for a front desk job because I could not speak Arabic and could not transact with the people that were coming to do business.

“Some of the clients don’t speak English well so they always want somebody who understands and speaks Arabic. But Nigerians are still employed in customer care sections. Presently, I work with a travel agency.

“The Hushpuppi issue still pops up during newscast. But it is not only Nigerians that are committing crimes here. We read about Dubai police arresting some drug lords but they won’t publicise them because they are not Nigerians.”

Dada Ezekiel, who resides in Dubai, said he felt bad when he saw the post barring Nigerians from applying for jobs.

“It doesn’t actually make one feel well,” he said.

“When I saw the job vacancies Nigerians were barred from applying for, I initially thought it had to do with the Hushpuppi stuff.

“Later that day, I saw a report that it was not the UAE government’s position but that of the employer who placed the advert.

“There are two Nigerians in the company I work with. Before now, they didn’t want blacks. When they tried the first person and saw what he was able to do and has been doing, they asked him to bring another person from Nigeria, and that was how I got the job.

“When I was in Nigeria, I didn’t know the depth of this kind of issue on one’s psyche until I got to this place. It is here I got to know how it feels when you go for an interview and you feel isolated and people treat you like you are not a human being just because of the information they might have received about Nigerians’ involvement in scam.”

Many Nigerians, he said don’t care about how their actions affect other people.

“What Nigerians are generally noted for here is internet fraud. When I got here, I saw that there were a lot of services we could offer but a few of our people dent our image.

“Recently, a Nigerian colleague was trying to scam an Indian by pretending to be processing a Canadian visa for him.

“The Indian was almost paying the money when he noticed that he was being scammed. If he (Nigerians) had been caught, how would the hosts perceive somebody like me?

“Many of them believe that every black man is a Nigerian. They see Nigeria as a continent and not just a country. Whenever any black man commits an offence, they say he is a Nigerian.

“When I came here, there was a guy that came in with a three-month visa. When the visa expired, he absconded instead of making efforts to renew it.

“Those are the kinds of people who commit most of the crimes. They always run away from the police and do nothing than drinking.

“Sharjah is where you find many Nigerians. It is like a community for Nigerians and what most of them do is to drink with the females, doing all sorts of stuff.”

Corroborating Ezekiel’s remarks, a Dubai resident, who gave his name simply as Segun, said: “Why they prefer some other African nationals to Nigerians is the attitude of our boys.

Most of them want to make quick money. are doing here. They do leave those guys for some time because they know that they will confiscate all they have at the end of the day. There is no way they can take any of those things out of Dubai.”

He added: “Some of them don’t have any qualification and want to come here to make quick money. Here, they pay according to your qualification and level.

“People from other African countries come with good qualifications and experience. At times, there would be job vacancies for only Africans, but as soon as they see Nigerians, they keep them aside and interview nationals of other African countries, telling the Nigerians to go away.

“There are so many challenges for our brothers here. Most of them are not doing well at all.

“Some of them who got jobs in some companies would suddenly say they don’t want to work again because they think the pay is not enough for them.

“Most of them live extravagantly. They cannot safe when they lead extravagant lifestyle because Dubai is an expensive place to live in.

“No matter how much you are paid, if you want to live the way you want here, you may not be able to save a dime.

“Even some Europeans run into debts because of extravagant lifestyle, even though they earn fat salaries. Some of them get as much as N17 million monthly but they still run into debt.”

A United States court has dismissed the case against Olalekan Ponle, a Nigerian accused of multi-million dollar wire fraud.

Mr Ponle, popularly known as Woodberry, was arrested, alongside Ramon Abbas (Hushpuppi) in the United Arab Emirate on June 10 for multiple fraud charges after a raid by operatives of the Dubai crime unit.

The duo were extradited to the U.S. on July 2.

According to the complaint against Mr Ponle, an unnamed Chicago company was tricked into sending wire transfers totalling $15.2 million. Companies based in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New York and California also were victims of the fraud, prosecutors say.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) nabbed Mr Ponle through details accessed from his WhatsApp, iPhone and Bitcoin transactions. He was extradited to the United States on July 2.

The 29-year-old was facing charges bordering on wire fraud conspiracy at a United States District Court in Illinois.

In fact, a report of the grand jury, a group of lawyers empowered to conduct legal proceedings and investigate potential criminal conduct, indicted him.

The jury summed up the allegations against him to an eight-count charge of wire fraud, which violates section 1343 of the United States Codes.

Dismissal
The United States government on Monday filed a motion through its attorney, John R. Lausch, requesting that the case against Mr Ponle should be dismissed without prejudice.


“Counsel for the government has spoken with counsel for the defendant and defendant’s

counsel has no objection to this motion.

Respectfully submitted,” Mr Lausch stated.

He said it is in pursuant with Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure 48, which states that the government may, with leave of court, dismiss an indictment, information, or complaint.

Also, the government may not dismiss the prosecution during trial without the defendant’s consent.

A court order issued by Judge Robert W. Gettleman on Tuesday, said the government’s motion to dismiss complaint without prejudice was granted.

“Without objection the complaint against defendant Ponle is dismissed without prejudice. Motion presentment hearing set for 7/23/2020 is stricken,” Mr Gettleman ruled.

When a case is dismissed with prejudice, it is over and done with, once and for all, and can’t be brought back to court.

However, when it is dismissed without prejudice, like in the case of Mr Ponle, the dismissal is temporary as the prosecutor can refile the case within a certain period of time.

The probable causes of dismissal range from unavailability of sufficient evidence, an improper criminal complaint or charging document, to loss of evidence necessary to prove the defendant committed the crime.

While PREMIUM TIMES is yet to obtain the reason for the dismissal against Mr Ponle, there are indications that the prosecutor will re-file a case against him.

He is yet to be released from detention at the time of this report.

https://i0.wp.com/www.pmnewsnigeria.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Passengers-e1595376059798.jpg?resize=750%2C563&ssl=1
Some of the passengers arrested



By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Lagos State Police Command on Tuesday said 10 inter-state luxury buses were impounded and 150 passengers arrested in the State for violating restriction of movement during curfew period.

Bala Elkana, the Command’s Public Relations Officer, said on 18 July, 2020 at about 2300 hours, operatives of Lagos State Police Command on enforcement of ban on inter-states non-essential travel during the curfew hours, intercepted 10 luxury buses with 150 passengers travelling out of Lagos State to various destinations in the Northern and Eastern regions of Nigeria.

“The drivers and passengers were arrested, while the buses were impounded. The violators were arraigned in Lagos State Special Offences (Mobile) Court.

“The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, CP Hakeem Odumosu warned commercial vehicle operators and motor parks against violating inter-states movement restriction orders during the curfew hours.

“Passengers are also warned against non essential interstates travels during the curfew hours,” Elkana said.

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru


ABUJA-THE Presidency on Tuesday threatened to release tapes of meetings between the publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, and individuals led by late Mallam Ismaila Isa Funtua, who tried to broker his (Sowore) release from detention.

The threat was sequel to alleged remarks made by Sowore against the late veteran journalist and close associate of President Muhammadu Buhari after his death on Monday.

Responding to the alleged statement credited to Sowore, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said the publisher has nothing to gain by attacking the deceased.

Shehu also revealed that members of the team that met Sowore when he was incarcerated did so because they saw him as a publisher despite falling foul of the law because of politics.

According to him, the late Funtua, Vanguard Newspapers publisher, Sam Amuka and ThisDay Publisher and President, Nigerian Press Organisation, Nduka Obaigbena, all agreed that Sowore was a “rascal”, who had used his newspaper “to abuse all of us,” yet agreed to bail him out.

He said: “Let’s get the facts straight on the meeting with Sowore in SSS detention.

“First, it is important to state that the meeting was not instructed by the government. Nobody sent anybody to go and “negotiate” Sowore’s freedom as he put it.

““The late Malam Isma’ila, on his own called me to ask that I broker a meeting with him and two others with the SSS, which they agreed to.


“It is important that I state that it was the force of Malam Isma’ila’s argument that made the meeting possible. He and other veterans all agreed that Sowore was a “rascal”, who had used his newspaper “to abuse all of us,” but agreed, nonetheless to go and press for his release.


“As the late Isma’ila put it, although he (Sowore) got into his problems due to politics, not journalism the fact of him being a publisher imposed a duty on the media leaders to seek ways of making free.


“The meeting ended well, and contrary to the posturing by Sowore, he said he was happy with a resolution proposed but that his lawyer, whoever that was, needed to come on board.

“The fence-mending process apparently collapsed after the meeting of the trio with the lawyer in Lagos.

“I don’t know what Sowore wants to achieve by distorting the facts of what transpired, but my advice to him is that he should stop his attacks on a dead, well-meaning intercessor.

“Knowing the way the secret service works, it should surprise no one if they keep a recording of that meeting. Faced with this posturing and the unfair attacks on the dead, we certainly will be forced to ask for the release of tapes, in case they are available for the public to judge.”

The African Union has denied endorsing any candidate for the office of the director-general of the World Trade Organization.

The organisation headquartered in Addis-Ababa said meetings to pick a consensus candidate for the office of the director-general of the WTO has yielded no result.

A statement addressed to ministries of foreign affairs of member countries, seen by TheCable, explained that the AU has not endorsed any candidate for the job.

Egypt’s candidate for the office Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh had told members of the WTO that he had been endorsed by the AU — a position the AU has now denied.

“The Commission, under the guidance of the Ministerial Committee, has made concerted efforts towards the endorsement of one single African Candidate for this post,” the statement read.

“The meeting of the Committee at Ministerial level was planned for three separate dates in order to deliberate on it, namely 2nd July, 10th July and 15th July 2020.

“However, due to circumstance beyond the control of the Committee, the meeting has not materialized to date.

“As of present, therefore, there is no African Union-endorsed candidate for this post.”

There are three candidates from Africa, including Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former minister of finance.

Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta affairs, says most of the contracts in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) are given to national assembly members.

He spoke when he appeared before the house of representatives committee probing the commission.

“We have records to show that most of the contracts at NDDC are given to members of the national assembly… You people are the biggest beneficiaries,” he said.

He was then interrupted by the members of the committee who asked him to give clarifications on other issues.

Youths in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State rescued a 10-year-old girl subjected to rape by five men, including her aunt’s husband.

The victim, now in the custody of Hajiya Rabi Salisu of Arida Foundation of Nigeria (AFN), found herself in a circle of rape after her mother reported her to her aunt’s husband.

Hajiya Rabi, who appeared in a viral video with the minor a few days ago, said the victim’s mother, who had separated from the father, had reported the girl to her sister’s husband for refusing to hawk.

However, the sister’s husband took advantage of the situation and introduced two of his relatives who combined to rape her.

Hajiya Rabi said, “The girl reported to her mother when she started seeing blood in her urine and the mother warned the sister’s husband to stay away from her.

“However, since the girl continued to hawk, in the process, she met a man selling fairly-used clothes in the market, who bought her a school sandal and also began abusing her.

“Subsequently, a bakery owner also joined the queue after buying cooked rice that she was hawking.

“At the end of the day, about five men were sexually exploiting her.”

When our correspondent contacted Hajiya Rabi, she said the girl was being treated for infectious diseases and had bruises all over her genital area.

Hajiya Rabi said four of the suspected rapists had been arrested by the police. She further said, “We don’t know where the victim’s mother is at the moment, but her father is disabled and cannot move.

“So, he has handed her over to us to help her get justice and also enroll her in school.” She explained that, “One of the suspects is at large and we are waiting on the police to inform us of the arraignment date at the state magistrates’ court.”

The Kaduna State police spokesman, ASP Mohammed Jalige, said the police had strong evidence against two of the suspects who had already made confessional statements. ASP Jalige said, “The other two have not confessed yet, and we are still carrying out investigation.”

A group of contractors have petitioned the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), urging him to prevail on the National Assembly to pay them for the officials cars bought for lawmakers since 2017.

The contractors, 12 of them, are demanding payment of N875m within seven days with 21 per cent interest, failing which they would sue the leadership of the National Assembly.

The vehicles, which were bought by members of the 8th National Assembly, especially the House of Representatives, included Peugeot 508, 2017 model and Toyota Hilux pick-up vans, among others.

The 8th Assembly was led by Bukola Saraki as the President of the Senate and Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker of the House.

The 9th Assembly is being led by Ahmed Lawan as President of the Senate and Femi Gbajabiamila as Speaker of the House.

While the 8th House procured Peugeot 508 2017 model, the 9th House had ordered 400 units of Toyota Camry 2020 model. The Senate constantly acquires Toyota Sports Utility Vehicles.

The petition, filed by Roland Otaru, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, on behalf of the contractor, was dated July 17, 2020, with Reference Number OO/LIT/LAG/076/07/20, addressed to the President and copied to the Senate President, the Speaker of the House and the National Assembly Service Commission.

It was titled, ‘Re: Refusal of the National Assembly to Pay Our Clients Money Due and Payable to Them in Respect of Contracts Executed for the National Assembly Since 2017.’

The petition read in part, “It is as a result of your zero tolerance for corruption that we, on behalf of our clients, convey to you sir, the refusal of the National Assembly to pay our clients the various contract sums owed our clients despite the supply of various cars and office equipment to the National Assembly by our clients since 2017.

“On the instructions of our clients, we wrote letters of demand to the Clerk of the National Assembly and up till now, there is no any iota of response to our letters of demand.

“Sir, as our President who has zero tolerance for corruption, we have it on good authority that funds have been provided for the National Assembly by your government to pay all outstanding debts owed by the National Assembly, but the principal officers of the National Assembly chose to look the other way and have failed, refused and/or neglected to pay the debts owed our clients despite both oral and written demands.”

When contacted, Director of Public Affairs, at the National Assembly, Yahaya Danzaria, referred our correspondent to the Department of Finance and Accounts.

Also the Director of Information, National Assembly, Rawlings Agada, said, “Anything that has to do with services and concerning purchase by members of the Assembly, go to the Senate or House Committees on Services.”

Delta prince arrested over alleged murder
A top official in the National Assembly management, however, told our correspondent that the parliament has three account heads – Senate account, House account and Management account. The official also stated that the Senate and House Services committees should speak on the matter.

When also contacted, the Chairman of the House Committee on House Service, Mr Wale Raji, said he was not the chairman of the committee, which made procurements in the 8th Assembly.

webshopNG:
Not bad at all....He raps quite well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RCOUo6c8vI&list=PLwUIwtVgfRNM3Nza0vFBZeJAPk8--Ve3r&index=2

PORT HARCOURT – A deeper investigation by Sunday Independent into the crisis engulfing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has exposed multiple components carefully or­ chestrated by powerful forces beyond the Niger Delta region.

According to our sources, these forces are merely using the services of cronies in the oil-producing states to milk up the commission for the lubri­cation of their political wheels.


APC/PDP Factor In South South

As it stands at the moment, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been dislodged from the South-South geo-political zone, with the defection of the Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, to the Peoples Dem­ocratic Party (PDP).

Sources said this is not a palatable pill for the ruling APC at the centre.

“What this portrays is that with power blocs like the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, Senator God­swill Akpabio and the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo- Agege, holding sway, they want to control the political soul of the South-South.

“Doing so also means that so much funds would be need­ed to prosecute any political ambition. Hence, NDDC re­mains the only and viable cash cow to draw billions from to keep such ambition alive.

“With the ouster of the for­mer APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, from that exotic position, the afore­mentioned trio are currently squaring up to undo one an­other and emerge the political leader of the zone,” said one of our credible sources.

It was alleged that the screened board of the NDDC was dominated by represen­tatives of Amaechi and Omo- Agege.

The three powerful posi­tions of Managing Director, Executive Director of Project and Finance were to be occu­pied by candidates of these influential forces.

Also, the governorship elec­tion of Delta State has been linked to the raging crisis and looting in the NDDC.


Delta 2023 Governorship Election

It was gathered that as much as Senator Omo-Agege is seriously eyeing the gover­norship of Delta State, Dr. Cai­ro Ojougboh, Executive Direc­tor, Projects, of the NDDC, is equally preparing to confront anyone standing on his way of becoming the next state’s chief executive.

The Acting Managing Di­rector of the NDDC, Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei, in one of his press conferences, alluded to the fact that the governorship election in Del­ta State was part of the heat in the commission leading to the interventionist agency’s looting spree.

He said every finger is in the tilt to grab the Delta State governorship seat.

Our sources explained that although Akpabio may not eye the governorship position of Akwa Ibom State again, he has a name to protect.

“He wants to replicate his performance while he lasted as governor in the Niger Delta region as a supervising min­ister. He too wants to control the political soul of the region, hence other forces to contend with,” explained our source.


Northern Influence

There is also the palpable fear in some quarters that the ongoing crisis spiraling the NDDC has an invisible thread linking some powerful north­ern Fulani forces.

It was scooped that what be­fell the Amnesty Programme after the sack of Professor Charles Dokubo, where an administrator was appointed instead, may befall the NDDC.

A credible source hinted that the petitions against the financial recklessness in the NDDC maybe a well and tactfully coordinated arrange­ment to sow a seed of discord in the commission.

“The underpinning power play is basically to dissolve the present composition of the commission to make way for an administrator. This dispo­sition would be very detrimen­tal to the Niger Delta region in terms of infrastructural devel­opment.

“By extension, therefore, this same administrator would open the NDDC vault for the release of funds for the 2023 general elections in line with the choice of the APC on who becomes the presidential candidate of the party.

“A South-South minister is already said to have posi­tioned himself to become a running mate to a serving northern governor in 2023. Billions would be needed for that project. And NDDC is the surest pool.

According to another source, in the last general elec­tions, billions of naira were withdrawn from the NDDC to sponsor the polls.

He said the same forces wanted to cover any of the oil-producing states by all mean possible, hence, the bil­lions.

“This may be part of the reasons why the commission cannot account for some of the monies allegedly spent or mismanaged,” the source stressed.

Besides that, it was also gathered that about 60 percent of de-silting jobs in the NDDC are carried out by people from other regions, particularly north.

“What is going on is that they are using the South-South people to rebel against them­selves and cause confusion ev­erywhere to divert attention. The Niger Delta will not grow beyond what it is except politi­cians from the region change their orientation,” the source noted.


Why NASS Is Probing Commission

Akpabio’s insistence on the forensic audit of the commis­sion is basically the vector that has pitched the IMC against the National Assembly.

Some accused lawmakers are alleged to be using some cronies to attack the commis­sion’s management and im­pede its administration.

It was also gathered that some legislators had asked the IMC to part with some billions of naira for them to share, a re­quest the commission refused to grant, hence, the face-off.

Presently, the raging war of words between Akpabio and the former Managing Director of the NDDC, Dr. Joi Nunieh, is part of the game of confu­sion carefully crafted by the forces behind the scene.

Akpabio has said that the forensic audit must go on as planned to fulfill the desire of President Muhammadu Buhari in repositioning the Niger Delta region.


South-South Governors’ Position

Meanwhile, the South- South Governors Forum on Thursday declared its sup­port for the forensic audit of the NDDC as ordered by Pres­ident Buhari.

The Forum regretted the crisis rocking the commission and said that it was convinced and expecting that the audit would serve to put the NDDC on sound corporate gover­nance and reposition it to bet­ter deliver on its mandate to the betterment of the region.

Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Delta state, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, said the Ni­ger Delta governors had given full backing to the ongoing in­vestigation of the commission by the Senate.

“We believe the Senate is operating within its oversight functions through the ad hoc committee set up for that pur­pose. It behooves us to respect the Senate oversight function and allow it to discharge this responsibility in a fair, trans­parent and equitable manner.

“The South-South Gover­nors are desirous to see an NDDC that is fully alive and responsive to its mandate of accelerating infrastructural development of the Niger Delta region and enhancing the general living conditions of our people. Hence, we will not hesitate to give our un­qualified support to any policy initiative that will make this a reality.

“The Forum wishes to advise the combatants in the current crisis in the NDDC to refrain from utterances and actions that will breach the peace and security of the re­gion,” the forum stated.

It condemned the attempt­ed abduction of Nunieh, in the early hours of Thursday, saying it was unwarranted, unnecessary and uncalled for.


Stakeholders Kick

Miffed by the daunting rev­elations from the NDDC, the Pan-Niger Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF) has called on Pres­ident Buhari to immediately wade into the crisis rocking the commission and save it from further plunging into decadence.

Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, a chieftain of PANDEF, said the crisis involving Akpabio and Joi Nunieh was “a disgrace and shame to the Niger Delta people.”

He said those that want the forensic audit to be aborted are those stealing the commission blind.

Sara-Igbe noted that both the National Assembly and the Interim Management Com­mittee of the NDDC were re­sponsible for the sleaze in the interventionist agency, adding, “the ongoing investigation must be carried out fast so that the commission can start all over again on a clean slate.”

Also, Annkio Briggs, spokesperson of the Ijaw Republic Assembly (IRA), acknowledged that NDDC has been a “cesspool of cor­ruption” from inception. She alleged that the commission was not established to function properly for the development of the Niger Delta by those who mooted the idea in 2000.

“The game they are playing now is to scatter the NDDC and make the Niger Delta peo­ple to suffer the more. NDDC is a place where any party that is in power, whether APC or PDP, will send their people to go there and steal the money for their politics. That has been so from the time of former Pres­ident (Olusegun) Obasanjo.”

Briggs advised that au­diting firms from US, UK or Canada be invited to handle the auditing process which must be devoid of any form of influence by the government of the day.

On his part, the Executive Director, Global Forum for Accountability and Trans­parency, Joseph Ambakader­imo, said with the scandalous revelations coming out of the NASS probe of the NDDC, it becomes deeply troubling the way and manner the NDDC expends monies without re­course to prioritization of projects that will impact on the people of the region.

Ambakaderimo wants the revelations to be fully inves­tigated and decisive and far reaching action taken to re­position the NDDC to better serve the people of the region.

“It has become abundant­ly clear that the IMC and the Minister who are charged with the responsibility of superintending the forensic audit have their hands in the vault. Therefore, we call for the discontinuation of this fo­rensic audit and replace with the Justice Ayo Salami’s kind of panel.

“This is the appropriate time for the President to act swiftly on the NDDC as he did with the NSITF, EFCC and oth­ers. The NDDC cannot be treat­ed in isolation when so many financial infractions are being committed on a daily basis. When we express our disgust on the attitude of the President on issues currently unfolding at the NDDC, we will continue to impress it on the President to do the needful and take the necessary action to stop the hemorrhaging at the NDDC.

“If one would ask without trying to preempt the outcome of the forensic audit, will the audit capture the mismanage­ment of resources that have come out as a result of the NASS probe? Once again we reiterate that if the President may decide not to discontinue the forensic audit, we urge the President to discountenance whatever the report that will emanate from the audit. The reason is that the report will not be all encompassing to trigger the desired outcome to achieve the purpose for which it was intended.”

Ambakaderimo noted that the minister and the IMC have this habit of trivialising very important issues of allega­tions of corruption levelled against them. Instead of ad­dressing the issues of finan­cial improprieties, they take pleasure in name calling.

“With all of these disclo­sures such as claims of giv­ing monies to the Nigeria Police up to the tune of N475 million to buy sanitisers and face masks, and N3.14billion expenditure for COVID-19 pandemic palliatives to se­lected staff of the commis­sion when their salaries subsists? The issue of at­tending graduation ceremo­ny in the United Kingdom in the months when the entire world was on lockdown was as funny as it was unbeliev­able. The payment of schol­arship grant into personal accounts of top officials of the commission, calls for an independent probe.

“These schemes follow a pattern that are ingrained in NDDC which have become institutionalise corruption, where the purported benefi­ciary agency of government does not get the items claimed to have been requested for. It is just a scheme to take out monies from the coffers of the commission and that is steal­ing directly from the treasury.

“We need to hear from the Nigeria Police what they ac­tually got from the NDDC, is it cash or the physical items of sanitisers and face mask? These are questions that an­swers must be provided. Our investigations so far on this claim by the Ag MD on the police expenditure has not been corroborated by the police authorities.

“The tales of woes are beginning to crystallise on the real motive of Akpabio’s takeover of the NDDC and obsession has never been al­truistic, we have to reiterate this and it is a shame that our own people are the ones working against the develop­ment of the region.

“Going forward, there is nowhere in the NDDC Act that says the minister must approve before payment are made to contractors or whom to be awarded con­tracts, the minister flagrant­ly arrogated to himself the powers he does not have all in a bid to ride roughshod on the finances of the com­mission.

“Akpabio failed with his handling of affairs in the NDDC. The NDDC is in the midst of one of the worst governing failures in history. The intervention has become terrible, also his lawlessness cannot be left unnoticed for too long. He has brought too many embarrassments to the President,” he alleged.

With President Buhari urg­ing the National Assembly to speed up the ongoing investi­gations of the IMC, it is clear that the committee may even­tually be disbanded and the commission itself removed from the Ministry of the Niger Delta back to the Presidency.

Barely 24 hours after it was reported that outgoing Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Mohammed Sani-Omolori, and 150 top officials of the federal legislature who have attained the retirement age of 60 or spent 35 years in service had been asked to go, intense lobby for the job of the clerk has commenced, with five top civil servants angling to replace him.

LEADERSHIP Friday gathered that the secretary of procurement, estate and works, Arch Amos Olatunde Ojo; secretary of legal matters, Bala Mohammed Yabani, Clerk of the Senate, Nelson Ayewoh, Clerk of the House of Representatives, Patrick Giwa and director of legal services, Ademola Adebanjo are jostling for the juicy position.

The senior civil servants, it was learnt, had been lobbying principal officers of the National assembly, key lawmakers and some members of the commission, asking for their support in the selection of Sani-Omolori’s replacement.

“The offices of principal officers of the National Assembly have become Mecca of some sort for these senior civil servants. They go there very often to confer with the lawmakers they consider influential enough and seek their support for the clerk position”, a senior legislative aide confided in our correspondent.

As the controversy over the sack of the clerk and others rages, a group under the auspices of ‘Omolori’s Solidarity Group’ has register its displeasure with what it perceived as illegal retirement of the former clerk.

The group accused the leadership of the National Assembly under Senator Ahmed Lawan of unlawfully removing Sani-Omolori to plant his lackey as new Clerk.

The group comprising some affected staff of the National Assembly and other concerned Nigerians threatened to not only drag Senate President Lawan and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila before President Muhammedu Buhari over the development but also stage a 1000-man match to register what it described as “callous and mischievous memo from the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) implying that Sani-Omolori must be retired”.

The group wondered why Sani-Omolori and others were forced to retire when “the extant regulation as contained in NASS’ Revised Conditions of Service duly passed by both Chambers of the 8th National Assembly puts the retirement age of staff at 40 years of service and 65 years of age– whichever comes first”.

Sani-Omolori had yesterday, after the notice of his retirement came, argued that the resolution of the 8th National Assembly on the
conditions of service of staff has not been rescinded nor abdicated by the National Assembly, which under the authentic National Assembly Service Act 2014 as passed is empowered to review any proposed amendment to the conditions of service by the commission.

Meanwhile, as the jostle to clinch the Clerk position continues, a civil society organisation, Crusade Against Corruption and Injustice in Nigeria (COCIN), has written to the National Assembly Service Commission, asking it to review alleged irregularities in the promotion of the secretary of procurement, estate and works, Arch Amos Olatunde Ojo.

The petition dated July 15 and jointly signed by its executive director, Alhaji Abubakar Danjuma; director, public affairs, Comrade Patrick Momoh and director, investigations, Comrade Oyekunle Ajani, asked the commission to clear the augean stable in the National Assembly.

The group in the petition alleged that Ojo’s promotion to the directorate level did not comply with the statutory 4-year provision, even as he did not sit for any promotion examination to the Salary Grade Level 17.

The petition reads: “That in order to restore sanity and professionalism in the National Assembly service, you must make a clean sweep of the old order, which held the bureaucracy to ransom in the absence of a board.

“That we have reliably gathered that Arch. Amos Olatunde Ojo, the secretary, procurement, estate and works, who has been alleged to be part of the cabal that perpetrated all manner of irregularities in the absence of a commission, is lobbying to be the next CAN.”

The group told the commission that Ojo was not fit enough to be considered as the next clerk of the National Assembly.

COCIN continued: “Hon chairman, we wish to state without mincing words that Arch Ojo is not fit to be the face of the National Assembly bureaucracy because of the atrocities he had allegedly committed and the irregularities inherent in his career progression, which are in clear violation of the Public Service Rules.

“It is a known fact that Arch Ojo’s promotion to the directorate level did not comply with the statutory 4-year provision, neither did he sit
for any promotion examination to the Salary Grade Level 17. He was first appointed into the National Assembly service as chief architect
on GL14 on March 27, 2004 and was confirmed a permanent staff on January 1, 2007. On January 1, 2008, he was made an assistant director and became a deputy director on January 1, 2012.

“But in less than two years (from January 1, 2012 to september 24, 2013), he was appointed acting director and subsequently promoted to a
full-fledged director on November 24, 2014, while the promotion was backdated to January 1, 2013.

“This is an abnormality as he was not due for promotion to the rank of director because he was barely 1 year as deputy director. His promotion to the rank of director ought to have been with effect from January 1, 2016”.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) yesterday queried the outgoing clerk, Sani-Omolori, for issuing a press release to counter the commission’s directive on Wednesday.

The query dated June 16, and received by the office of the clerk, was signed by the chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission, Engr Ahmed Kadi Amshi.

The query alleged that Sani-Omolori breached the public service rules by issuing the press release.

The query, the outgoing clerk is given 24 hours to explain why disciplinary action would not be taken against him.

It noted: “The attention of the National Assembly Service Commission was drawn to a Press Release titled: “Retirement age for staff of the National Assembly Service is 40 years of Service or 65 years of Age, whichever comes first” dated 15th July, 2020 and signed by M.A Sani-Omolori, Clerk to the National Assembly.

“As you are very much aware, the Clerk to the National Assembly is an employee of the National Assembly Service Commission, vide Section 6(1) b of the National Assembly Service Act, 2014 (As amended). The Clerk to the National Assembly has no authority whatsoever to dictate anything to the Commission. Your press release is considered by the Commission as a gross insubordination to a constituted authority.

“You are, by this letter requested to explain to the Commission within twenty four (24) hours as to why disciplinary action will not be taken against you as per the provision of Section 6(2)b of the National Assembly Service Act, 2014 (As Amended) for this gross insubordination.”

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Mashi Council of Katsina State has asked House of Representatives member, Mansur Mashi, to retract comments made against President Muhammadu Buhari or risk recall.

Speaking on behalf of some members of the ruling party at a press conference, the chairman, Armaya’u Doka, said the comment belittled the APC and members of his constituency in Katsina.

Doka said the lawmaker, who represents Mashi/Dutsi Federal Constituency, had said that the only way Nigeria could progress was for Buhari to go the way of Umaru Yar’Adua who died in office.

His words, “The honourable said Buhari had to leave the scene the way the late Yar’Adau did, so that his vice, (Prof. Yemi) Osinbajo, would take over, and that such was the only way Nigeria could make progress.”

According to the party chair, the lawmaker likened the APC to a football team that had lost steam, “and may not be able to win majority votes in the next general election.”

He also said that Mashi, in an audio recording making the rounds in the state, described his constituents, who voted him into office, as ignorant and bunch of illiterates.

The chairman wondered why a lawmaker elected on APC platform should make such comments on Buhari, his constituency members and the party that brought him to office.

“The audio of what the lawmaker said is out there for all to listen to. By the grace of God, APC will win in the 2023 general elections and the party will only continue to grow stronger.

“We call on the APC to call him to order and the National Assembly to suspend him for making such comments.

“If our call is not heeded, we, as members of his constituency, have the right to take necessary action that is within the ambit of the law. And when we begin to take action, nobody should come and beg or ask us to refrain from what we are doing, as we have allowed avenue for action to be taken against him.”

When contacted, Mashi said he would reserve his comments since the matter was under investigation by the police.

The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) says it has established a case of fraudulent activities by an American corporate player in Nigeria.

John Mitchener had been accused of “economic sabotage, obtaining credit by false pretences, fraudulent trade practices and illegal repatriation of capital, intimidation and threat to life” by his Nigerian business partner.

After investigating, the Interpol national central bureau said it had established that the American was a “transnational fraudster” and asked that the case be handed over to the Nigerian police legal department for further action.

Ranger International Limited (RIL), a US company controlled by Mitchener, had in 2014 entered a partnership with the Nigerian Technixs Oilfield Support Limited, promoted by Abimbola Omotade, to incorporate a new business known as Ranger Subsea Nigeria Limited.

The company was set up to provide services and support for the offshore oil and gas industry.

In the shareholding agreement, Technixs was apportioned 51% while Ranger takes 49%.

Both entities agreed that modalities for the execution of contracts obtained or sourced for the new business must be discussed, especially the financial part of the contracts.

Without Technixs’ consent, jobs sourced from international oil companies such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil were allegedly carried out by Mitchener and proceeds of the projects were repatriated to the US without the board’s approval.

Ranger Subsea Nigeria Limited then suspiciously closed shop in Nigeria, leaving its partner and tens of vendors in debt of over N19 billion.

In another suspicious move, Mitchener returned to Nigeria with a new company, EPIC Companies LLC, to source other contracts.


‘THEY ARE TRANSNATIONAL FRAUDSTERS’

In its investigations, Intepol concluded that Ranger and Mitchener carried out fraudulent transactions around the business partnership it had with Technixs.

On September 27, 2018, he was arrested in Lagos after Interpol obtained a warrant from a magistrate court in the federal capital territory (FCT).

He was brought to Abuja the next day, and after making his statement, he was granted bail.

His passport was also registered with the police organisation to prevent him from leaving the country.

The Interpol, in its report signed by Garba Umar, its commissioner, said based on the development reached so far, “it suffices to state that this is an organised crime by the suspects who are clearly transnational fraudsters whose stock in trade is to cause untold hardship, pains and financial loss on unsuspecting victims as it is evidenced in this case under investigation.”

The police said the act of the suspects is contrary to the provisions of sections 1, 2 and 3 of the advance fee fraud and other related offences act, 2006.

It further recommended that the case file be forwarded to the legal department for appropriate direction on the matter.


‘HOW MITCHENER VIOLATED THE AGREEMENT WITH FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES’

In a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) dated February 5, 2019, Technixs had accused Mitchener of forging a shareholders’ agreement purporting to have been executed by Omotade on his company’s behalf.

The company said Mitchener, with one Tosin Labeodan, had been brandishing the agreement “to humiliate, intimidate and frustrate our company to get to the bottom of John Mitchener’s illegal activities”.

Listing the various allegations of infractions, he said Mitchener, through his Americans collaborators, obtained a loan of $60 million from AKRIFA Holdings LLC in the US purportedly to fund general working capital requirements of Ranger without any approval of shareholders.

The petition read in part: “Immediately the loans were brought to Nigeria, John Mitchener repatriated the funds back to America to fund some of RIL international operations in Mexico and Caribbean Island.

“John Mitchener illegally created preference shares in favour of AKRIFA Holdings LLC and proceeded to fraudulently alter the incorporation documents of Ranger Subsea Nigeria Limited to reflect this position without board approval. This was coordinated in conjunction with Tosin Labeodan.

“During the operation of RIL and John Mitchener in Nigeria between 2015 and 2018, John Mitchener fraudulently racked up a debt of over $48 million in the name of Ranger Subsea Nigeria regarding monies owed to vendors and the contract funds paid by International Oil Companies to Ranger Subsea Nigeria were at various times repatriated to America by John Mitchener.”

Reports and annual returns of the business were allegedly concocted by Mitchener as Omotade said they were not adopted as true representation of the financial dealings of Ranger Subsea Nigeria.


RANGER, ACQUIRED BY EPIC, LEFT WITH DEBTS UNPAID

In a letter dated December 19, 2017, the defunct Skye Bank had written to Ranger asking the company to pay up the debt owed Fortune Global Shipping & Logistics Limited (FGSL), one of the vendors who provided services for the company.

The bank emphasised that Ranger needed to pay up to enable liquidation of FGSL’s obligations to the bank.

Despite letters from Ranger showing willingness to make the payment, the bank said the company was yet to meet the obligations.

“The continued outstanding of this indebtedness may lead to its classification by the CBN. Where this happens, Ranger may be blacklisted with the consequent placing a vendor restriction on the company,” the bank warned in a memo seen by TheCable.

Giving Ranger a 14-day ultimatum, the bank said it would recommend the company to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for stiffer sanctions which will impact negatively on the creditworthiness of Ranger as a counter-party for and loan transactions in Nigeria.

A month later, Ranger, in a letter dated January 22, 2018, wrote FGSL to acknowledge that it was owing.

“We hereby confirm and acknowledge our indebtedness to your company in the sum of NGN 355,762,702,87 (Three Hundred Fifty Five Million, Seven Hundred Sixty Two Thousand Seven Hundred Two Nigerian Naira and Eighty Seven Kobo only) and USD 1, 913, 621, 81 (One Million, Nine Hundred Thirteen Thousand, Six Hundred Twenty One and Eighty One Cents) being debt, as at January 22nd, 2018 for services performed for Ranger Sub-Sea Nigeria Limited in respect of Shell SPDC-FYIP, Chevron, ConOil and Support projects,” it said in the letter, also seen by TheCable.

Ranger then gave assurance that it would be committed to making the payment.

After waiting for another six months, FGSL, in a letter dated July 11, 2018, wrote Ranger, demanding that they are paid.

“All your promises including the weekly payment of $25,000 (Twenty-Five Thousand US Dollars) on account of old debts and immediate payment for current transactions were never kept,” FGSL wrote.

FGSL further gave Ranger another 21-day ultimatum to pay up.

Barely two months later, in a curious manner, Texas-based EPIC Companies LLC would announced in August, 2018 that it had acquired Ranger.

“EPIC Companies, LLC (“Epic”) and Ranger Offshore, Inc. (“Ranger”) are excited to announce the business combination of Ranger and Epic. EPIC is now a global, full service marine contractor, able to provide customer solutions worldwide,” Epic wrote in a statement.

In October, 2018, Mitchener became EPIC’s director for West Africa and Brazil.


TECHNIXS UNDER PRESSURE

In a swift move, FGSL, in September, 2018, filed a suit at the superior court of judicature in the high court, commercial division, in Accra, Ghana, seeking an order for the arrest and detention of DLB SEA HORIZONI, a vessel belonging to Ranger which was within the jurisdiction of the court.

The suit with number CM/RPC/0641/2018 has Technixs, seen as one of the partners of Rangers, listed as the ninth of ten defendants. Ranger was listed as the sixth.

In its petition to the EFCC, Technixs who itself felt short-changed by Ranger, had said the liabilities and obligations to several vendors who are owed about N19 billion would put the company under pressure as some of the vendors are threatening to sue Technixs for complicity on the “fraudulent activities of John Mitchener”.

Epic and its directors are yet to respond to TheCable’s email seeking their reaction on the issue.

Dele Oyewale, EFCC’s spokesperson, has been contacted by TheCable for an update on the petition but he is yet to give an update on the progress.

The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress led to a drama in the Senate on Wednesday during the screening of some ambassadorial nominees by the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The panel started the screening of 41 non-career and one career ambassadorial nominees on Wednesday.

The nominee from Edo State, Yamah Musa, caused a stir when he was asked by the Chairman of the panel, Senator Muhammad Bulkachuwa, to explain his contribution to the APC in Edo State.


The nominee, who hails from the Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, answered that he ensured total victory for candidates of the APC in the area during the 2019 general elections.

He said, “I was one of the foremost party members who conducted primary elections for all our House of Representatives candidates in the South-West, one of whom is the Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives , Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.”

But a member of the committee, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, described the acclaimed achievements of the nominee as a sham.

Amosun said, “Please such exercise is not something you should be referring to as an achievement because as party members, we knew what happened then and those behind it .

“We don’t want you to carry this type of mindset to foreign post if eventually confirmed. The earlier you erased such unbecoming assignments as personal achievements, the better,” Amosun said.

Another member of the committee, Senator Rochas Okorocha, also hit the nominee.

He said, “You are here to be screened and possibly confirmed as an ambassador to represent Nigeria and you are reminding us of worst primary elections ever conducted by a political party in Nigeria under a man that had been sent away now.

“I hope you are not being rewarded for the sham you called primaries and injustice done against loyal party members.”


Bulkachuwa, however, came to the rescue of the nominee by appealing to other members to allow him take a bow and go.

The nominee hurriedly left the venue of the screening when he was told to take a bow and go.

Apart from the embattled Edo nominee, the committee also screened Ademola Seriki ( Lagos), Umar Suleiman (Adamawa), Maj. Gen. C.O. Ugwu (Enugu), and Mr Kelvin Peter Adamu (Adamawa), among others.

Though the letter claimed that the suspension of the directors was linked to the probe of Ibrahim Magu by a panel headed by a former judge of the Court of Appeal, Ayo Salami, findings by SaharaReporters on Wednesday revealed that they were removed from office after being suspected of handing out vital information to the online news publication to expose the corruption-fuelled lifestyle of Malami.

Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has in response to series of reports exposing his alleged corrupt amassing of unexplained wealth by SaharaReporters turned his fury on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission where a number of staff suspected of being behind the leaking of corruption files on him to the online news medium had been suspended.

Among the 12 directors of the EFCC suspended by the Presidency on Tuesday are four believed to be among those investigating the activities of the AGF.

Malami had on Tuesday sent a letter to Acting EFCC Chairman, Mohammed Umar, informing him of the suspension of the directors.

Though the letter claimed that the suspension of the directors was linked to the probe of Ibrahim Magu by a panel headed by a former judge of the Court of Appeal, Ayo Salami, findings by SaharaReporters on Wednesday revealed that they were removed from office after being suspected of handing out vital information to the online news publication to expose the corruption-fuelled lifestyle of Malami. Abubakar Malami

A source, who confirmed the issue to SaharaReporters, said, “I just had one of the staff confirming that key staff working on most of the sensitive cases were suspended.

“The likes of Kabir Latona, Muhammed Abba, Ibrahim Buhari, Rotimi Oyedepo and Ola Olukoyede were all removed.

“The system of the Private Secretary of Magu was moved from the office and his telephone collected by the panel since Monday. The panel has constituted its self into a hunting agency.


One of the affected staff confirmed to SaharaReporters that the Solicitor-General called the newly appointed acting chairman of the commission to confirm a letter of approval from the President confirming the suspension of the affected staff.

“These staff were never interrogated or interviewed until there suspension on Tuesday.”

In a desperate attempt to save face in light of the magnitude of the revelation that had been blown open, a group said to have been sponsored by the AGF staged a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday that made futile efforts to debunk the series of reports by SaharaReporters on Malami.

Apart from that, it was reliably gathered that the AGF had approached the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to arrest SaharaReporters journalists for alleged criminal libel.

Despite the allegations and evidence of corruption against Malami, Nigeria's Presidency is yet to issue a statement on the mind-boggling Revelations.

Malami, it was gathered, in order to save his neck attended the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday (today) and sat close to President Muhammadu Buhari to paint a picture that their relationship was very tight when in fact news of his corrupt acts had become the talk of town.

The study predicts that within the same period, Nigeria’s population will hit 791 million, making it the second-largest country in the world.

The research which was conducted by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation states that the general population of the world will drop due to a reduction in fertility rates.

However, the population of sub-Saharan Africa – arguably the poorest region in the world – is expected to triple in size to more than three billion people by 2100.

In an interview with BBC, researcher, Prof. Christopher Murray, said the population boom in sub-Saharan Africa would lead to migration of Africans to many European and Asian countries in need of higher population.

This, he said, would, however, lead to a high incidence of racism.

Murray, who is a former Director of the Harvard Centre for Population and Development Studies, said, “We will have many more people of African descent in many more countries as we go through this.

“Global recognition of the challenges around racism are going to be all the more critical if there are large numbers of people of African descent in many countries.”

According to the research, falling fertility rates mean nearly every country could have shrinking populations by the end of the century.

The number of children under the age of five will fall from 681 million in 2017 to 401 million in 2100. Conversely, the number of over 80-year-olds will soar from 141 million in 2017 to 866 million within the same period.

About 23 nations – including Spain and Japan – are expected to see their populations halve by 2100.

This also implies that countries would age dramatically, with as many people turning 80 as there are being born.

The fertility rate is dropping because women are getting better education and spending more time working coupled with greater access to contraceptives.

If the number falls below approximately 2.1, then the size of the population starts to fall.

In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime.

The research showed that the global fertility rate nearly halved to 2.4 in 2017 – and their study, published in the Lancet, projects it will fall below 1.7 by 2100.

As a result, the researchers expect the number of people on the planet to peak at 9.7 billion around 2064, before falling down to 8.8 billion by the end of the century.

Japan’s population is projected to fall from a peak of 128 million in 2017 to less than 53 million by the end of the century. Similarly, Italy is expected to see an equally dramatic population crash from 61 million to 28 million over the same timeframe.

About 21 other countries including Spain, Portugal, Thailand and South Korea are expected to see their population drop by half.

The population of the United Kingdom is predicted to peak at 75 million in 2063, and fall to 71 million by 2100.

Omololu Ogunmade and Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

As part of ongoing investigation into the activities of suspended Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, the federal government has directed intelligence agencies to mount surveillance on the headquarters of the anti-graft agency and its offices nationwide.

THISDAY also gathered that senior investigators of the agency close to Magu, known as “Magu Boys,” are being treated as “persons of interest,” whose movements have been restricted.

Some of the affected operatives are said to have appeared before the panel while others await their turn.

More of those officials yesterday appeared before the Justice Ayo Salami-led presidential panel investigating the 21-point allegation of corruption and insubordination levelled against Magu by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami.

Magu has been in police custody since Monday last week.

THISDAY’s investigation revealed that Magu’s office was searched after the code that opens the office, which is only known to Magu and one other official was extracted from him.

Intelligence operatives were also said to have been deployed in the headquarters of the commission to monitor movements of persons in and out of the commission, notably directors and investigators and others who worked on cases under Magu.

Magu’s stand-in, Mr. Umar Mohammed, has been briefed about the development while the “persons of interest” log in and log out daily under supervision.

As the investigation widened, other offices of the commission across the country were placed under intelligence surveillance as applicable to the headquarters.

Security and intelligence sources confirmed that major targets of investigation under Magu and other associates have been placed under watch.

Physical assets and others forfeited to the EFCC are under guard.

“This is a very important investigation and we are leaving nothing to chance. All necessary measures are in place,” a security source said.

THISDAY gathered that phone lines of staff of the commission are being monitored and this situation has led to phones not being answered or conversations cut short by staff.

Movements of files at the offices are also under strict supervision and surveillance, it was learnt.

The Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) sealed the office of the suspended EFCC chair and recovered bulletproof vehicles from his Abuja and Maiduguri residences. The vehicles are now parked at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.

The 10th floor where Magu’s office is located had, since last week, been placed under watch.

Officials and visitors to the commission are thoroughly searched with scanners, while vehicles moving in and out of the commission are subject to the same process.

Panel Grills Top Anti-graft Officials Again as Magu’s Interrogation Enters Seventh Day

Meanwhile, the probe of Magu continued in Abuja yesterday, as four top management staff of the commission who had been interrogated last week were further grilled by the presidential panel in Abuja.

The EFCC’s top shots, who are also heads of different units of the commission had first appeared before the panel last Thursday but were asked to re-appear within the next seven days following perceived inability of the men to provide satisfactory answers to the questions they were asked.

The men were also instructed to return for further interrogation with files of cases they had handled since 2015 including assets’ register and records of cash releases they had made.

Malami had in a letter he earlier sent to the president accused Magu and his men of perpetrating a range of atrocities including extortion, sale of recovered assets without following due process and failing to remit the proceeds of such sales to the federation account.

Magu was ambushed on the road in Wuse II, Abuja on Monday, July 6, by security operatives and dragged before the presidential panel which had been sitting three weeks earlier with their activities shrouded in secrecy.

He was subsequently detained at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) from where he is daily brought before the panel to defend the allegations.

His house was also searched last week and some sensitive documents recovered.

The suspended acting chairman, has, however, filed a bail application before the Nigeria Police through one of his lawyers.

He was formally suspended on Friday, July 10 by President Muhammadu Buhari and has been appearing before the panel every day except for last Saturday and Sunday.


Today will mark the eighth day of his appearance before the panel.

In the meantime, the presidency last night assured Nigerians that Buhari would not be deterred by what he described as baseless criticisms by the opposition in his efforts to combat corruption.

Reacting to a range of aspersions cast on the administration’s anti-corruption war by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since the beginning of Magu’s interrogation, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said the volume of anti-corruption crusade being championed by the government is a reflection of what the PDP left behind.

According to him, corruption became a tradition when the PDP was in power to the extent that the then ruling party had difficulties “in defining what is ‘corruption’ and ‘theft.”

Shehu argued that Buhari’s determination to end corruption in the country was the reason for several highly publicised charges and cases in courts.

“A large number of cases, new and old, may appear to be daunting but PDP, which is now heckling the president, has forgotten that the party bequeathed this to the current administration. They had a large number of cases they did not investigate and prosecute,” he said.

He advised the PDP to allow the process of investigation and prosecution to proceed smoothly, instead of pre-emptying ongoing cases and unduly inciting members of the public.

Shehu, who expressed hope that the judiciary would swiftly and satisfactorily handle ongoing cases, to deter future occurrences, added that “the current administration is handling many of the cases that the PDP should have dealt with and the new ones as they arise.”

A fourteen-year-old girl Anita Haledu Ibrahim of Angwan Dorowa Gbuja, in Akwanga LGA of Nasarawa state, has committed suicide over an unwanted pregnancy.

Investigation revealed the deceased, a student of Government Science school Andaha, near Akwanga, took herbicide to kill herself.

The Nation further gathered she was pregnant for her boyfriend whom she met in Andaha during the COVID-19 lockdown, who was introduced to her closest friend in the school.

When the guy discovered that Anita was pregnant, he sneaked out of the village to Abuja but Anita’s parents made efforts to contact him and he accepted responsibility, expressing willingness to marry her.

It was learnt the lady decided to take her life after her father, Haledu Ibrahim, discovered the pregnancy and beat her.

It was also gathered Anita took the herbicide last Saturday but was rushed to the hospital in Akwanga.

She died at the early hours of Tuesday.

When contacted the Police Public Relations Officer, Nansel Ramhan, said he was yet to receive official report from Akwanga division.

At the time of filling this report, preparations were ongoing for her burial.

Two families are now at war in Lagos after a housewife, Mrs. Remi Abimbola, reportedly caught a 62-year old widow, Mrs. Yemisi Onasanya, in her matrimonial home begging her husband, Taiwo, for sex.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that the incident happened at Yaba Close off Pipeline, Isheri Olofin area of Lagos, where they reside.

Mrs. Onasanya, who had been married to many husbands before she finally got married to her late husband, did not deny the allegations but explained that she lost her own husband years ago and since then she had been without any man and stays with her grown up children both men and women in the house she built.

The ugly incident has turned the two families into enemies which led to Mrs Onasanya’s grown up son, Kazeem to beat Mrs. Abimbola’s teenage son constantly in order to avenge the embarrassment to his mother.

The alleged assault was reported to the Police at Idimu Division; Kazeem was arrested and detained for interrogation over his conduct.

Narrating what transpired, Mrs. Abimbola said that the fight between the families started when she went out after her children had gone to school and later came back only to meet Mrs. Onasanya with only wrapper tied to her chest inside their house. When Mrs. Onasanya left, she engaged her husband to know why she was in their house while putting on only a wrapper. She said after that day that her family had not experienced peace of mind because of constant attacks from Mrs. Yemisi Onasanya and her children.

She said even at a time, Mrs. Yemisi was pleading with her husband to marry any of her daughters, who had separated from their marriages, since her husband refused to have affairs with her. But Mrs. Yemisi denied all claiming that she was older than Abimbola’s husband.
Mrs. Abimbola said having realised that they wanted to have her husband, she became very vigilant and they started attacking her children which prompted her to report to the Police.

When P.M.EXPRESS contacted Mrs. Yemisi Onasanya, she said she was only going to Mrs.Abimbola’s house as her neighbour before she started behaving strangely accusing her of attempting to snatch her husband, who she said was her junior and then she stopped going there. She denied that she was the person instigating his son, Kazeem, to beat Mrs. Abimbola’s son adding that her son usually insults her in the neighbourhood. Mrs. Yemisi said that she had been pleading with the family for peace to reign while assuring that the assault will not happen again.

When P.M.EXPRESS reporter visited Idimu Police Station, Mrs. Yemisi’s son, Kazeem, was still detained there and may likely be charged before the Court for the assault on Mrs Abimbola’s son, Oluwajobe.

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has demanded full disclosure of the Nigerian Embassy in Israel over the withdrawal of the sum of $1,046,258.99 to pay utility bills in 2014.

Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Wole Oke disclosed this during the review of the audit queries issued by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (oAuGF) against Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2013 to 2015.

The Auditor-General also queried the illegal withdrawing of the sum of $858,704 and $187,554 internally generated revenue by the Nigerian Embassy in Israel in respect to the visa and administrative charges from the period of 2013 to 2015.

According to the audit query, the following irregularities were observed: treasury book 6A and revenue booklet were not kept and consequently not made available. Revenue collector registered with details of Treasury 6A and relevant amount were not maintained.

“The revenue cash books were not updated with relevant entries throughout 2014 and 2015. The ordinary register maintained by the Consular section has no treasury receipt and the amount generated for each booklet monthly figures were just recorded without details. All these irregularities violated Financial Regulations 208, 209 and 210 and questions the accountability and transparency of the revenue collection.

The Permanent Secretary has been requested to explain the irregularities in revenue collection and account for the sum of $858,704.50 collected as well as carried out the surcharge of the officer-involved otherwise the full weight of the financial regulations 3112(2) should be applied, forwarding evidence of action for verification,” the query read.

While reacting to the allegation as read by the AuGF official, the Permanent Secretary argued that the Embassy initially “did not have treasury book 6A as revenues were paid directly to Federal Government Independent Revenue Account, and maintained with a bank in Israel.

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“There was no loss of revenue. I believe that this is a serious issue for the Mission but we have confirmed that that revenue has been paid and the appropriate statutory form is also being used by the Mission,” he said.

Unsatisfied by his explanation, Hon. Wole Oke explained that: “$1,046,258.59, that is the money that we want evidence of remission to John Chase Morgan. So the documents you showed us is just $107,000. So accepting without conceding Sir, that you had a hard time in Israeli and based on that, you used the IGR to cure those problems. But when you got the releases, we expect that the releases should go to CRF, to go to this Chase Morgan bank.

“So we are now asking you to show proof that you actually remitted. If you removed the $107,000 the one you see us to check on page 26, except you have several of this evidence if you add them up whether it will be equivalent to $1 million $187,000,” he noted.

The lawmakers also frowned at the refusal of the Embassy to remit the internally generated revenues for three years to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), just as they chided Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs for failing to take necessary steps

The lawmakers also queried the multiple alterations reflecting in the account, stressing that: “there was some kind of tampering with the figures side.

Similarly, a member of the Committee, Hon. Mark Gbillah queried the source of the some of the documents presented by the Official which indicated the payment of some.funds to certain individuals, noting that: “this document can as well be produced in Oluwole or printed from any printer, because it doe not give me any clarification as per when they were last paid,” in 2014.


He also underscored the need for a hands-on investigation into an Israeli bank, Leomi in Israel.

“Why I’m saying that is there was a sender – Bank Leomi and Customer – Embassy of Nigeria and an account number specifically written. That means it was not just a transit bank. They had an account in that country they are operating an obviously have signatories for these transfers to be made. For this amount to be kept in that bank.


He also demanded the documentary that the Embassy is operating bank account and it was from there monies were being paid not directly into JP Morgan Chase account.

“That is how come they were able to access money from the revenue account before refunding the same which in our opinion goes against the circular that was written which they also provided.

“I was about referring to hat constitutional provision. You pay directly to the consolidated revenue account so these are issues we need to address.”

To this end, Hon. Ok who demanded documentary evidence on the refund, said: “We want the documentary evidence to show that the sum of $187,000 was returned to the revenue account.”

The lawmakers also queried the basis why the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs paid on monthly basis some unidentified staff and former political appointees as stipulated by the Auditor-General of the Federation in 2014.

Similarly, the Auditor General in the 2014 audit query demanded an explanation on the dead (late) person and retired public servants who were paid in December 2014.


While responding, the official from the office of the Accountant General explained that the IPPIS in the Accountant General’s office monitors the payment under the IPPIS. So these numbers are unique with individuals they are not to be replicated.

“So the other issue of non-staff, that means that those staff who suppose to be on the nominal roll actually not staff of the Foreign Affairs Ministry even though they have their IPPIS number, that means they belong to another organization.


“They were not as at that time staff of Foreign Affairs Ministry that’s why we put non-staff there, they are not our staff as at that time. But going by the IPPIS number, you find out that they may belong to either another pool or another office.”

To this end, the Committee requested for the nominal roll and the bank schedule of Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In his response, the Permanent Secretary affirmed that one of the staff was overpaid for 6 months and that the Ministry wrote the officer to refund the salary while the salaries of other officers were stopped.


In the same vein, the Committee resolved to summon the Director in charge of the IPPIS in Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning who is in charge to come.and explain if these people are truly the full staff of the office of the Accountant General or not, as well as the political appointees.

In his remarks, Hon. Oke said: “Our ruling will be the Clerk should do a letter to the Director of IPPIS in the office of the Accountant General and ask him to come and explain to us if the staff that appeared on the bank schedule of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are indeed their personnel.


“And from where do they get their salaries becaue we have to find out whether they are being paid double salaries? So we have to deal with this issue exhaustively. We have to exhaust all the issues so that we can come into a conclusion on the matter,” Hon. Oke stressed.

Similarly, Hon. Oke harped on the ed for the Director of Human Resources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to appear before the Committee to explain those who are the personnel and political appointees and the pool staff, noting that the “pool staff sent to various MDAs draw their salaries from their parent ministries. So their names should feature on the Ministry personnel.”

Monies kept in Treasury Single Account (TSA) don’t yield interest, the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, told the Daily Trust on Sunday.

There were reports across the media at the weekend alleging that the embattled suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFCC), Ibrahim Magu, had re-looted the interest that accrued on some monies recovered by the anti-graft agency.

The stories were based on a report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), which cited a document from the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets that the interests on N550 billion recovered by the EFCC was allegedly re-looted.

It is one of the multiple allegations levelled against the former EFCC boss. The committee was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2017.

The period covered between May 29, 2015, and Nov. 22, 2018, the report said.

But in a telephone interview yesterday, the AGF said no recovered fund should be kept in an interest yielding account in any commercial bank as that will be a violation of the TSA policy.

The Daily Trust could not establish whether all the monies recovered by Magu were kept with the CBN or part of it was kept with the commercial banks.

But his counsel said all the recovered funds were kept in the TSA.

However, lawyers and civil society activists spoken to said in the event Magu was found wanting of depositing money in any commercial bank with a view to generating revenue for himself, he should be prosecuted.

How TSA works

According to the accountant-general, “There is a policy in place – the TSA policy. “I am talking to you as the Treasurer of the Federation.

“The TSA policy means no public funds should be kept in a commercial bank account, or in a deposit money bank.

“As far as we know, to the best of our knowledge and ability, we have not left any public money in any commercial bank.

“However, we are not a recovery agency. “We are not EFCC and we are not ICPC. So, if these agencies do their work and give us the money, certainly those money will be in a TSA account at the CBN,” he said.

Explaining the modalities for keeping recovered monies, the AGF said, “These monies are in different categories. “There is what we call permanent forfeiture – the money which is permanently recovered.

“There are monies that are under litigation and there are also monies under temporary forfeiture, which means the court has given a temporary forfeiture of the money pending the confirmation of certain things for the court to grant permanent forfeiture.

“These categories of money are kept with the CBN under the different TSA accounts as the circumstances warrant and depending on the nature of the money as I have narrated.

“As far as the CBN is concerned, it doesn’t give anybody interest on those accounts. “The government doesn’t collect interest on TSA accounts at the CBN.

“That is the best I know,” he said. Asked if he is aware whether some recovered loots by the EFCC were in custody of some commercial banks and they generated interests, the AGF said, “I don’t know.

But monies that were recovered, whether temporary recovery, or permanent recovery or under litigation, are kept in TSA accounts at the CBN and the government doesn’t collect interest on that.”

Attempts to get further insight from the CBN on the development were unsuccessful. Calls, text and WhatsApp messages to the CBN Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor were not responded to as at press time. When contacted, Magu’s lawyer Wahab Shittu debunked the claim that his client had re-looted interests generated on N550 billion recovered by the EFCC.

“It is elementary knowledge that recovered loot goes to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); to the Treasury Single Account (TSA),” Shittu said. “You should know that there is no issue of interest there.

“Once money is recovered, it goes into the TSA.

Those spreading false claims are fraudsters trying to deceive Nigerians.

It is libelous,” he added, assuring that they would avail this medium with details of all recoveries carried by Magu and their status.

Magu was arrested on Monday, July 6, 2020, and has remained in detention since then. He is being interrogated by a panel headed by retired Justice Ayo Salami on allegations of mismanagement and lack of transparency in managing recovered assets by the EFCC.

On Saturday, the presidency said a series of documented allegations were made against Magu, hence he was suspended.

Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu said in a statement that following a preliminary review of the allegations levelled against the acting chairman and several other members of staff of the commission, an investigative panel was constituted in compliance with the extant laws governing the convening of the EFCC. He said: “As is the proper procedure, when allegations are made against the chief executive of an institution, and in this case an institution that ought to be seen as beyond reproach, the chief executive has to step down from his post and allow for a transparent and unhindered investigation.

“The EFCC does not revolve around the personality of an individual, and as such cannot be seen through the prism of any individual.

“Therefore, the suspension of Mr. Ibrahim Magu, allows the institution to continue carrying out its mandate without the cloud of investigation hanging over its head,” he said.