₦airaland Forum

Long lines of lorries stretch like tentacles from Apapa port, the largest in Nigeria. Drivers doze in their cabs, feet flung over dashboards; some sling hammocks beneath the chassis. Musa Ibrahim, an ebullient trader, says he has been queuing for two days. He gestures at empty buildings. “Most of the companies you see here they done close,” he sighs, writes The Economist.

The Nigerian economy is stuck like a stranded truck. Average incomes have been falling for four years; the IMF thinks they will not rise for at least another six. The latest figures put unemployment at 23%, after growing for 15 consecutive quarters. Inflation is 11%. Some 94 million people live on less than $1.90 a day, more than in any other country, and the number is swelling. By 2030 a quarter of very poor people will be Nigerians, predicts the World Data Lab, which counts such things.

Nigeria’s engine was already sputtering when President Muhammadu Buhari took the wheel in 2015. The price of oil, which makes up 9% of GDP and more than 90% of export earnings, had crashed. But “Baba Go Slow”, as Nigerians took to calling him, made a bad situation worse. Instead of letting Nigeria’s currency slide, which would have stoked inflation, policymakers rationed dollars to maintain the naira’s long-standing and artificially high peg to the dollar. To do so the central bank refused to release foreign currency for a long list of imports, ranging from toothpicks to shovels. Without dollars for equipment or supplies, factories closed and workers were laid off, leading to a recession in 2016.

The central bank confused things further by introducing several exchange rates. One was an official rate of 305 naira per dollar. Its main use seemed to be to allow the bank to brag about how strong the currency was since it sold almost no dollars at that absurd rate. Its second rate was used to funnel artificially cheap dollars (about 320 naira each) to favoured importers. Naturally, there were not enough of these dollars to go around, so most Nigerians (especially those buying toothpicks) had to pay as much as 500 naira on the black market. The gap between most of these rates has converged of late at about 360. But having so many rates puts off investors.

The government thinks the answer to the “dollar shortage” is for Nigerians to make and grow more and import less. To this end, it has slapped import taxes on rice and fertiliser and is giving tax breaks for a huge new oil refinery.

There is little sign of the kind of export-led industrial revolution that has lifted incomes in Asia. This is not only because the naira is overvalued. It is also because the state has spent decades neglecting basic public goods, like roads, schools and electricity. “In Nigeria if you set up a business you have to build your infrastructure, you have to build your power plant, you have to build everything,” says Abdul Samad Rabiu, the chairman of the BUA Group, a conglomerate. Eghosa Omoigui, who manages a tech fund, compares running a business there to “running a nation state”.

Where urgency is needed, Mr. Buhari offers only caution. Few are holding their breath for any more drive in his second term, which began on May 29th. “We are trying to avoid shocks,” explains Adeyemi Dipeolu, his economic adviser: sharp currency movements or hikes in electricity tariffs would be felt by ordinary Nigerians. Yet officials are postponing a crisis, not averting one. Consider borrowing. The debt-to-GDP ratio is 28%. But Nigeria collects so little in tax that interest payments swallow about 60% of federal revenues.

“We don’t have a debt problem, we have a revenue problem,” insists Udoma Udo Udoma, budget minister in Mr. Buhari’s first term. The government plans to raise funds by selling off some of its share in joint-venture contracts with oil companies and might hike taxes on luxury goods. Revenues are rising, but fall far short of budget targets. Some of the gap is probably being filled by running up an overdraft with the central bank, which now holds more assets than the entire banking system.

Public finances would be healthier if the government raised the price of fuel, which is imported by the state oil company and sold on at a loss. Last year this subsidy was worth at least 0.5% of GDP—as much as the government spent on health care. Politicians are scared to end the subsidy. An attempt to do so in 2012 led to massive protests. Although the government has expanded school-feeding programmes and is working on a safety net for the poor, most citizens get few benefits from the state. Oxfam, a charity, ranks 157 countries on their commitment to reducing inequality, based on social spending, taxes and labour laws: Nigeria comes last.

For Nigeria to prosper, the state could harness the vim of its 200m citizens. Instead it ignores them, except when politicians need votes. People have come to expect nothing from government, says Chika Okeke, who owns a small stationery shop in Lagos: “you struggle yourself.”

Shola Oyeyipo in Abuja



President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday went down memory lane, reviewing his career in the military and said it was hellish even as he recounted that he lived through the momentous events, particularly in 1966, which witnessed coups, counter-coups and later a civil war.

The president spoke during a pre-recorded interview aired by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) last night and commented on various issues of national interest, including his second term priorities, shape of his next cabinet, the nation’s worsening insecurity and relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government among others.

Buhari, who in his assessment of institutions of government rated the National Assembly and the Police low in performance, said he expected a higher level of efficiency from military service chiefs, refraining from blaming them for the escalating insecurity situation in the country.

Responding to a question: ‘Who is Buhari?’ from the show anchor, the president said: “I think I went through hell throughout my career in the military. I was a lieutenant in Lagos during the first coup, January 15, 1966. If you bother about Nigerian history, you read about coup and counter coup, civil war, coup, counter coup. I was all in it, including in detention for three and a quarter years. So, I am fully qualified, you know, [to be called] as a suffering Nigerian.”

But he thanked Nigerians for showing him love, noting that after been rejected thrice in the presidential elections, they found him worthy of leadership in the fourth and fifth runs.

Speaking on his impending second term, he appealed to Nigerians to trust him to make a good judgment on the choice of his next set of ministers.

He said if no one has had any cause so far to accuse any of his first term ministers of corruption or any act of misdemeanour, Nigerians should then be confident that he would again make the best choice for his second term in office.

Disclosing that he was yet to discuss any issue relating to the next choice of his ministers with anybody and would not start the discussion with the interviewer, Buhari reiterated that Nigerians should trust him to decide on who among the ministers he will retain and those he will bid the final goodbye.


“I have said goodbye to them for the fours years. I haven’t discussed it with anybody. You won’t be the first person I will discuss it with. And anybody who hasn’t got any evidence against any minister should trust me – which of the minister I will retain; which one I will say goodbye and very sincerely to. I won’t go beyond that because I haven’t discussed it with anybody yet,” he said.

Buhari also lamented the strained relationship he had with the National Assembly, saying he confronted Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, on their decisions to delay budget passage for seven months.

The president who said he rated the two leaders low on the issue of patriotism, said he told them that their action was harmful to the economy but his hands were tied by the constitution which orders him to pass through them.

He said: “I spoke personally to the Senate President Bukola Saraki and the leader of the House, Dogara. They could not deny it. I told them how do they feel to hold the country to ransom for seven months without passing a budget? I said for seven months they were hurting the country. So really, in terms of patriotism, I think I rated them very low indeed.

“Going by the provisions of the constitution, there are things that must pass through the National Assembly but to hold a budget for seven months cannot be justified.”

Asked how he felt on the rampant cases of kidnap and other forms of insecurity threatening the country, Buhari said he felt very bad, blaming the menace on people in the neighbourhood whom he said failed to expose the criminals living among them.

He also took a swipe at the police and traditional rulers, saying they ought to be at the forefront of the battle against criminal activities in various communities where they operate, but have failed.

While promising to reverse the trend, he said the police were not given uniforms and guns to impress people but rather to distinguish them and empower them to fight criminals.

He said: “I feel very bad indeed because there are failures of neighbourhood security in the sense that those who are perpetrating these atrocities against communities, state and the country, they come from somewhere in Nigeria.

“Their neighbourhoods know them. And we have the traditional rulers, then of course, the police at the frontline, the police in every major town and city in this country. As I said, they were not given the uniforms and the riffles to impress anybody but to secure the people. In this, I think the community leaderships and the police have failed this country.”


While alluding to his efficiency in his days as a military officer, Buhari said he was the only military personnel in his own time, who commanded three out of the four divisions at the time.

According to him, something went wrong with the military particularly between 1999 and 2014, which he said affected the sense of efficiency and accountability of military personnel.

He said: “You see, I was the only officer that commanded three out of the four divisions – the first division was in Lagos; the second division in Ibadan, the third division in Jos

“I am still expecting more but I am thinking of what happened between 1999 to 2014. I suspect that a lot of things went wrong, including accountability and efficiency of the military and other law enforcement agencies.”

Buhari also spoke on his frustrations and concerns in the last four years, pointing out that though some progress had been made in the anti-graft war, he is frustrated by the slow pace of the fight.

According to him, “In the process of going through the police, investigations and later prosecution, the process is slowed down and is frustrating.

“My frustration is that we cannot move faster in the prosecution and punishing the real big graft. We made some progress. We recovered a number of assets – fixed assets and money in banks, including in Europe and America, but under this system, you can’t be too much in a hurry, even including using whistle blowers.

“You have to go to the police to go through the rigmarole of full investigations before prosecution. That is my biggest frustration really.”

by Chinedu Asadu



Ahmad Lawan, majority leader of the senate, says the N13.5 million running cost for senators is justified as a result of the nature of their works.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Saturday, the Yobe north senator said the money is seen as “jumpo pay” because many people do not understand the lawmakers’ functions.

Nigerian lawmakers are said to be among the highest paid among their colleagues in the world.

TheCable had reported how the 109 senators earned over N70 billion as running cost — apart from their basic salaries.

Lawan, however, said such funds are needed for the lawmakers to have a “conducive” environment to carry out their work.

“Let me say right from the onset that there is nothing like jumbo pay for lawmakers. As a senator, my take-home is N750,000. The gross is about N1 million but a senator pays a tax of N250,000 every month,” he said.

“But as a senator who has to work for the people, we have the funds that people call our own or allowances. These funds are for us to operate. Sometimes your oversight or other functions take you outside the country.

“I believe that what is paid to members of the national assembly and the senate, the N13 million per month is not given to the senator to put into his pocket and use to buy cars. It’s for that senator to perform his functions.

“Today as a senator, I have five aides. In fact in most cases if a senator is going to move a motion, he writes it himself. In the US, a senator may have maybe a long list of professors on every sector who may be a consultant or a staff.

“And that is why the quality of legislation will naturally be higher where such climate exists. We want to have high quality legislation, so we have to pay for that.”

Lawan also said rather than question the lawmakers’ earnings, Nigerians should be more concerned on their performance.

“I think what should matter to us is to continuously keep our eyes on the performances of members of the national assembly. Where they are not performing, criticise us and ask for value for money,” he added.

“When Nigerians pay that kind of money for a legislator, they should get the best quality of legislation. But I don’t think many people understand the functions of the members of the national assembly or the so called debate. We need to educate Nigerians ourselves on what we do. The money going to the national assembly is always a contentious issue.”

The lawmaker had on Saturday said the national assembly will not become President Muhammadu Buhari’s “rubber stamp” if he is elected senate president.

By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor



A final push by the National Assembly to oust the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, has virtually been consummated with a bill to that effect already passed by the House of Representatives pending concurrence by the Senate this week.

Competent NASS sources said Sunday night that the bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives two weeks ago, deliberately jerks the qualification for the office of the chairman of the anti-crime agency from Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP, to Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, aims to replace Magu with a superior police officer before the 9th NASS takes off on June 11, 2019.

But Presidency sources hinted the President might not assent to the bill even if the Senate concurred with the House of Representatives before the end of the current 8th NASS.

Magu, who was recently promoted to the rank of a Commissioner of Police, CP, has had a running battle with the NASS having been rejected twice and having been represented the same number of times by President Muhammadu Buhari for the same post. Vanguard gathered that the bill was spearheaded by some arrowheads in the House immediately the Senate rejected Magu’s confirmation for the second time and the refusal of the Presidency to replace him as demanded by the lawmakers.

But it was not clear last night how the lawmakers hoped to get the bill passed and assented to by the Presidency before the expiration of the current NASS, which does not have more than a few days to wind up and pave the way for the 9th NASS on June 11.

Incidentally, the Senate has few days to go as the lawmakers will only sit on Tuesday, May 28 (tomorrow) as there is a public holiday on May 29 (Inauguration day). The current National Assembly is expected to be dissolved on June 7 while the 9th NASS will be inaugurated on June 11.

Details of the new bill sighted last night by Vanguard, effectively seeks to amend certain sections of the EFCC Establishment Act of 2004 and raises the bar for the appointment of the head of the agency. To give effect to that, four House bills seeking to amend the EFCC Act had been harmonised into one and it passed the third reading on Tuesday.

The passage followed the adoption of the report by the House Committee on Financial Crimes. In the series of amendments to the Act, the lawmakers amended Section 2 of the EFCC Act relating to the composition of the commission.

Before the amendment, Section 2 read, “(1) the commission shall consist of the following members: (a) a chairman, who shall (i) be the Chief Executive and Financial Officer of the commission; (ii) be a serving or retired member of any government security or law enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police or equivalent; and (iii) possess not less than 15 years cognate experience.”

After the amendment, it reads, “(a) A Chairman, who shall (i) be a retired or serving member of any government security or law enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) of Police or an equivalent and possessing not less than 20 years cognate experience; (ii) a legal practitioner with at least 20 years post-call experience.”

The Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, is a commissioner of police. The House also removed the Secretary of the EFCC from tenured offices in the leadership of the commission. On the qualifications to be considered in the appointment of the EFCC Secretary, a paragraph “e” was added to Section 8(1), which reads, “A person who is qualified to practise as a legal practitioner in Nigeria and has been so qualified for not less than 10 years.”

An amendment was also made to Section 27(4), making it compulsory for the EFCC to obtain ex-parte order from court before seizing suspected assets. Also, the House deleted Section 1(2) relating to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, which has now been domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria as demanded by the EGMONT Group, from the EFCC Act.

By Chukwu David Abuja



There is anxiety within the ranks of the two major contenders to the 9th Senate Presidency, Senators Ahmad Lawan and Ali Ndume, over the unusual calmness of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators-elect and Senator Danjuma Goje (APC, Gombe), New Telegraph has learnt

It was also learnt that the Thursday’s Supreme Court judgement, which voided all the votes cast for the APC in Zamfara State, while declaring the opposition PDP winner in virtually all the elective positions in the last general election, has sent jitters to the camp of Lawan and Ndume.

Senators, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said that the decision of the apex court, which now weakens the numerical strength of the ruling party in the National Assembly, has further put the camps of the two contenders in a more precarious situation.

On why the silence of the PDP senators-elect is a source of concern to Lawan and Ndume, one of the senators noted that Lawan’s camp in particular is worried because of the rumour that the opposition party is backing Goje, who has refused to make any public utterance to confirm whether or not he is contesting.

“Lawan’s camp is very apprehensive as a result of the silence maintained by the PDP senators. The camp is also worried that Goje has decided to keep everybody in the dark as to whether or not he is vying for the office of the Senate President.

“You know that if you have an enemy you are fighting and he makes some statements about his strategy and tactics, you know how to prepare and face him better. But in this case, there have been serious speculation that Goje is going to contest. We even heard that he was going to declare his interest publicly three weeks ago, but as we speak, he has not uttered a word publicly in that regard.

“So, to respond to your question, I am certain that there is a level of apprehension in the camp of Lawan. For Ndume, he may not be as worried as Lawan because Nigerians, particularly political analysts, don’t believe that he will be in the race to the end,” the source said.
However, another source hinted that Ndume was not joking over his publicly declared ambition to become the next President of the Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly, stressing that his camp was as concerned as the Lawan’s.

“The little I know about Senator Ndume is different from what people think. The Ndume I know is a dogged fighter. I can tell you that he is not joking, and he has been reaching out to his colleagues for support. So, he may spring surprises on the day of the election,” the source stated.

On how the Supreme Court judgement on Zamfara will affect the election of the leadership of the 9th Senate, sources close to the apex legislative chamber, told our correspondent that politics is a game of number, and that one number can make a lot of difference, particularly in an election where only a simple majority is required, such as the election of National Assembly leadership.

They are of the opinion that the appreciation of PDP’s numerical strength in both chambers of the National Assembly while the APC diminished would make a lot of impact in the election of the presiding officers of the apex parliament in the next two weeks.

One of them said: “You know that before the judgement of the Supreme Court on Zamfara last Thursday, the APC had 65 senators-elect while the PDP had 41. The Young Progressives Party (YPP) produced one senator. But now, after the judgement, APC went down by three, which the PDP gained and now has 44 members while the APC has 62.

“So, if the PDP is going to field a candidate for the Senate Presidency, they need to get only 11 members of the APC to have 55 out of 109 members of the Senate to secure victory. If APC has two candidates, it further makes it easier for the PDP.

“In case the PDP as a party decides to support Danjuma Goje as being insinuated, it means that Goje’s victory will be made easy because the rumour is that the PDP will give him block votes, in addition to his own APC supporters.

“So, with this scenario playing out, it is only natural that Ndume and Lawan will be jittery because politics is a game of number. And in a situation where only a simple majority is required for victory, one is definitely a great number,” the source said.

There is a time-honoured saying among the Igbo that a man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body. APC chieftain and acclaimed leader of the party in Kwara State, Alhaji Lai Muhammed must be wondering just where the rain of disaffection among party faithful began to beat him. At the current rate, he is in danger of totally losing his hold on the state and turning into a ceremonial figurehead with little loyalty and love and less power.

This was borne out during the annual Ramadan Lecture organized by the Minister of Information and Culture in his native Oro, Kwara. On the D-day of the event which was advertised and proclaimed beforehand with so much fanfare, Lai Muhammed was struck with a deadly political blow that resonated throughout the state and beyond. The top party faithful in the state who were expected to grace the occasion by default were conspicuously absent. Rows of empty seats earmarked for them gave the whole thing a funereal ambience.

And Lai? Terrible was his anger at the public display of spite and grievance. His ire towered to the skies and came crashing down on his associates who had the unenviable task of trying to pour water to douse the flames of intra-party conflict that only blazed brighter after the episode. The rebellion against what many perceive as Lai’s high handedness seems to be well and truly afoot.

Even the state chairman of the party Hon. Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa and his wife merely paid him surface courtesy on the matter: they arrived very late just as the event was wrapping up. They were not the only ones. The list of those who failed to show up at all, some throwing flippant excuses into the bargain. This is despite the invitation letters being dispatched a month before the event.

The genesis of the disaffection with the man known to be a close associate of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a knot with many tangles but one important thread is the rumour he has been picked to return as the sole minister from Kwara in the next dispensation. This development didn’t go down well with party stalwarts, many of whom still regard him as an usurper who rode on the backs of the powers that be to assume the mantle of party leadership in the state.

Insiders revealed that Lai in a bid to spare himself the coming embarrassment frantically made calls and pleas to the APC leading lights in Kwara including the incoming governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasak. The latter allegedly promised to show up but did not honour that promise.

Others like Arch Lola Ashiru, Senator Ajadi, Ajibola ,Yahaya Oloriegbe, Moshood Mustapha, Cook Gani Olododo, Yinka Aluko and others also left the minister high and dry with their absence. The show managed to go on, but it was just like a blockbuster movie that turned out to be a D-grade flick. No wonder the minister is angry.

ABUJA – The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has formally declared Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Bello Mohammed Matawalle, his deputy, Mahdi Aliyu Gusau as the duly elected governor and deputy governor of Zamfara State.

Aside the governor and his deputy, the PDP also swept the three senatorial seats, 7 federal constituency seats in the state and 23 out of the 24 State Assemby seats.

The latest development may have altered the calculations and permutations being made over the configuration of principal officers of both chambers of the National Assembly.

Already, sources in opposition party are said to have now begun to fancy itself in good position to produce the Deputy Senate President, if not the Senate President, if it plays its cards well with a total of 49 senators in the soon to be inaugurated 9th senate.

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the commission, who made the declaration on Saturday after INEC reviewed results of the Zamfara polls in two emergency sessions, said the decision followed the court judgment that nullified votes cast for the APC .

The apex court had in a unanimous decision Friday, declared the votes cast for the ruling party for governor, National and State Assembly elections in Zamfara State as wasted votes, having failed to conduct valid primaries as required by law. It also held that the party with the right spread be declared winner.

Those declared winners of the senatorial seats include Alhaji Ya’u Sahabi (Zamfara North),Mohammed Hassan ( Zamfara Central) and Lawali Hassan Anka(Zamfara West).

For the House of representatives seat, the following were returned for PDP: Umar Sani Dan-Galadima ( Kauran Namoda/Birnin Magaji ), Bello Hassan Shinkafi (Shinkafi/Zurmi), Kabiru Amadu (Gusau/ Tsafe), Shehu Ahmed ( Bungudu/Maru), Kabiru Yahaya( Anka/ Galata Marafa), Ahmed Muhammad Bakura ( Bakura )/ Maradun) and Sulaiman Abubakar Gumi (Gumi/ Bukkuyum) federal constituencies.

The result declared by INEC shows that only Kabiru Hashimu of the National Rescue Movement(NRM) was able to taint the massive sweep of the Zamfara State Assembly by the PDP.

Prof Yakubu who gave a background to the failure of the ruling APC to conduct valid primaries in Zamfara said, “You may all recall that the Commission issued the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2019 general elections on 9th January 2018, over one year in advance. Among other activities, the conduct of party primaries was scheduled to take place between 18th August and 7th October 2018.

“Unfortunately, the APC did not conduct its primaries in Zamfara State within this stipulated time and the commission duly informed the party that it would not be in a position to present candidates for elections in the state. Subsequently, various interested parties, including the APC itself, approached the court over the decision of the Commission. Just before the election, the subsisting court judgment at the time ordered the commission to include the APC on the ballot for the Governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly elections, which the Commission complied with.

“Following the judgment of the Supreme Court, the Commission has met in two emergency sessions and taken briefings from our lawyers and staff on the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment.”

Explaining the reason why INEC tarried in declaring the winners on Friday, he observed that while the legislative elections (Senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly elections) are straight forward, it was not SO in the case of the governor where the spread of the votes must be taken into account.

The INEC announced that the governor-elect, deputy governor -elect senators elect and House of Reps members- elect will be issued with certificate of returns this Monday, in Abuja, by the commission, while the state assembly winners will receive their certificates from the State’s Resident Electoral Commissioner Friday next week at INEC state office in Zamfara.

John Alechenu


The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has instituted a probe into the activities of a syndicate ripping Nigerians off under the guise of safeguarding their nomination for President Muhammadu Buhari’s next cabinet.

SUNDAY PUNCH learnt in Abuja on Saturday that the syndicate had successfully fleeced a number of Nigerians across all walks of life of millions of naira in the name of “processing fees.”

The anti-graft agency’s action was triggered by a petition, dated May 17, 2019, sent by one of the victims.

It was learnt that the syndicate forged a letterhead and created email addresses of the office of the Vice-President, National Security Adviser as well as the State House Protocol Department for this purpose.

SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the syndicate targets former and serving heads of federal and state government establishments.

A petition to the EFCC by one of the victims (name withheld), who is a prominent academic from one of Nigeria’s leading second generation federal universities, gave an insight into the syndicate’s mode of operation.

A member of the syndicate normally contacts a potential victim by telephone to confirm their identity after which the victim is told that they had been nominated for a cabinet position and is informed the information must be kept secret.

The potential victim is then asked to send their Curriculum Vitae, and is then sent a nomination form bearing a letterhead and seal of the ‘Presidency’.

A day or two after the form is signed and returned via email, the victim receives an email supposedly from the State House Protocol Office acknowledging receipt of the completed form.

APC leaders back Lai Mohammed’s reappointment
The potential victim is then informed in the same letter that their file had moved to the office of the National Security Adviser, having been approved by the protocol office.

He is then given the name and telephone number of a member of the syndicate who is said to be the Chairman of the Security Clearance team for further directives.

At this point, the victim is advised to comply with the directives given by the said chairman within 48 hours or risk being dropped from the list.

An excerpt of the letter entitled: ‘Request To Reach the National Security Adviser’s Office (sic) for Clearance’, obtained by SUNDAY PUNCH, reads, “This is to officially acknowledge the receipt of your completed nomination form and to also inform you that your file has moved to the office of the National Security Adviser for security clearance having being approved by my office.

“Besides, you are being screened for a position among the portfolios of the federal executive council on the directive of the President. This is an official process to verify nominees for the prospective unity government.

“I crave your indulgence to kindly contact the Chairman, Security Clearance Committee Team whose name and contact appear below for directives bearing in mind that you have 48 hours to be cleared or declined. Mr. Sunday Iduh (Chairman) — 08104021735.”

The letter was signed by Senator Lawal Abdullahi Kazaure, State Chief Protocol to the President.

Once the victim contacts the so-called chairman, the fleecing begins. The victim is then asked to provide funds to obtain clearance from security agencies as well as the Senate.

While narrating his ordeal, a victim, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of his safety as well as not to jeopardise EFCC’s investigations, said he was contacted on Wednesday, May 8, 2019 by one Mrs Blessing Agbana, purporting to work for the Chief of Protocol to the President.

He gave her phone number as 0810442229.

“She then said she would forward an email address to which I should urgently forward my CV. My true caller check confirmed that name. These are the emails:

or

Dr. (Mrs) Blessing Agbana. I forwarded my CV, which was acknowledged. A nomination form was forwarded to me. I completed the form as above.

“I was asked to check my email for a message indicating that my nomination had been approved. I contacted Mr. Sunday Iduh as indicated on 08104021735.

“He (Iduh) said I needed to pay N30,000 per security agency as administrative charge. I said that was impossible since that was a Friday. He offered to facilitate if I could quickly pay the N150, 000 into the account of Jude Philips, the secretary of the screening committee at FCMB 5706723016.

“I paid and he acknowledged receipt and that he had deployed his men immediately. Later, I received an email that I had been cleared with the document below.”

He added, “Mr. Roland Aga, with phone number 08155884850, called that he had to go to the Senate to get the time for appearance. He called back after the 10am appointment to request that we on the list were requested to express appreciation before screening.

“He said he was going to come up with an average of suggestions from the 20 nominees. He came up with N200, 000 to be paid to this account: David U. Benardin, UBA 2121106931”

A retired official of the Bureau for Public Service Reforms, who was also approached by the syndicate, was saved by his instincts.

A source familiar with the case said, “When they called him with information about his purported nomination and he needed to follow their instructions, he told them he didn’t ask to be nominated, and that to ask him for money for processing was inappropriate. The conversation ended there. Only God knows how many others have fallen victim and are unwilling to take the matter up because they are too embarrassed.”

When SUNDAY PUNCH called Mrs. Agbana’s telephone, a voice message said the number did not exist.

The same response was received when our correspondent called the telephone numbers of other members of the syndicate.

A security official told SUNDAY PUNCH in confidence that the “appointment scam is the biggest scam in town at the moment.”

He however promised that “we will get to the bottom of it.”

Spokesman for the EFCC, Tony Orilade, said, “We don’t discuss ongoing investigation on the pages of newspapers.”

Many have stealthily and surreptitiously moved their luggage shortly after the election results were announced to avoid disgrace and embarrassment

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It was a sober reflection on the premises of National Assembly complex Abuja on friday as lawmakers who lost elections in their various constituencies evacuated their personal belongings from their offices .

Some of the aides to the lawmakers were seeing removing property from their offices into the waiting trucks . Some of the items include: refrigerators, plasma TV, water dispensers, printers , portraits photographs, rugs, flags and many other things .

Many have stealthily and surreptitiously moved their luggage shortly after the election results were announced to avoid disgrace and embarrassment.
Some of the staff were seen in group discussing the inglorious exit of the senators and members of House of Representatives while others were making jest of them and gloating over their misfortune.

When Saharareporters prodded the staff to disclose the reason behind their excitement. Many of them described the exit of the lawmakers as lesson of life adding that power is transient .

One of the staff who pleaded not to be named said many of them were so much intoxicated with power, while it lasted, in such a way that they saw themselves as tin-gods with the positions they occupied.

He added that many of them did not deserve re-election judging by their hostile and aggressive treatment of Nigerians particularly those from their constituencies.

He admonished the new lawmakers not to be carried away with the allure of power or trappings of public office but to put citizens who elected them into the position of authority first.

Recall that many federal lawmakers including senate President, Bukola Saraki lost their seats during the Presidential and National Assembly election on 23rd February 2019.

Chika Amanze-Nwachuku and Emma Okonji



Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday raided the head office of MTN Nigeria Communications Plc in Falomo, Lagos over the scandal rocking the company’s recent listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Top management personnel of the company were said to have been interrogated by the operatives, who stormed the telco’s corporate headquarters at about 4pm.

THISDAY gathered that the EFCC team had demanded for documents in connection with the share listing which were promptly provided to them.

Although no official of the EFCC and MTN could provide official statements on the matter, a source familiar with the deal, said the visit of the team from the anti-graft agency was sequel to the barrage of complaints from “several unnamed brokers that the shares of MTN are not available for the public to buy despite the recent listing that was greeted by huge excitement.”

A stockbroker, who spoke on the matter last night said the astronomical rise in the MTN shares few days after the listing, was a clear indication that some underhand deals must be in the offing.

There are also growing concern among the top players in the Nigerian bourse that if MTN shares continue to climb at such astronomic rate, they stand the risk of being displaced from their vantage positions as market leaders.

When contacted, the Senior Manager, External Relations at MTN Nigeria, Mr. Funso Aina said the company would issue an official statement on the issue.

“We will issue a statement very soon”, Aina said in an SMS to THISDAY last night.

But as at the time of filing this report, the company was yet to release any official statement on the issue.

Also, acting spokesman of the EFCC, Tony Oriade, told THISDAY last night he would get in touch with the Lagos office to be able to give accurate account of what transpired. As at press time, he was yet to get back.

MTN had on May 16, listed its shares on the NSE by way of an introductory listing. The listing by introduction meant that the shares of existing MTN Nigeria shareholders were listed without an additional public sale of shares. By this development, all MTN Nigeria shareholders are free to trade their shares on the NSE.

But investors and stakeholders have been expressing worries about the free float accommodation MTN Nigeria Communications Plc was granted by the capital market regulators to pave the way for its listing. Their concerns stemmed from the fact that the price of MTN shares would be sold at high premium and those waiting to buy the shares through an Initial Public Offering (IPO), would be forced to buy them at very high cost, whenever the telecoms company decides to float the IPO.

The investors feared that the shares of MTN Nigeria have been manipulated to drive the price of the stock very high before any share offering through an IPO.

However despite the alleged manipulation of the MTN shares, the telecoms industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has declared confidence in the shares listing.

The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, while speaking at the valedictory service organised for the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu in Abuja recently, said through the MTN’s listing on the NSE, the Commission had translated into action, an important function of the Commission, which is to promote local investment and ownership in the telecom sector.

“With MTN shares available in the capital market, Nigerians will buy shares and by purchasing the shares of MTN, they will be financially empowered and be socially transformed. We consider this a very important milestone in translating the function of the NCC into reality, as enshrined in the Nigerian Communications Act 2003,” Danbatta said.

Oyetunji Abioye, John Alechenu, Sunday Aborisade and Ade Adesomoju, Abuja



The Code of Conduct Bureau has said President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, governors and other public officers whose tenure ends on May 29 must submit their end-of-tenure asset declaration forms on May 28, 2019.

However, other public officers, mainly members of the outgoing 8th National Assembly, who were inaugurated on June 9, 2015 have up till June 8, 2019, a few hours to the expiration of their tenure to declare their assets, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.

Paragraphs 1 to 16 of the Part II of the Fifth Schedule of the Nigerian Constitution list the categories of public officers who must periodically declare their assets to the CCB.

But those affected with the wind-down of the 2015 – 2019 political dispensation by virtue of the constitutional provision are the President, Vice-President, President and Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Speakers and Deputy Speakers of state Houses of Assembly and all members of legislative houses.

The rest are Governors and Deputy Governors, the Attorney General of the Federation and Attorney General of each state, ministers, commissioners and Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

Paragraph 11 of the Part 1 to the Fifth Schedule to the constitution compels public officers to declare their assets to the CCB “immediately after taking office and thereafter:

“(a) at the end of every four years; and

“(b) at the end of his term of office, submit to the Code of Conduct Bureau a written declaration of all his properties, assets, and liabilities and those of his unmarried children under the age of eighteen years.”

The “guidelines” for assets declaration accessed on the website of the bureau on Friday says a declarant must declare their assets within 30 days of being issued the assets declaration form.

Paragraph 2, of the guidelines reads, “Every declarant is required by law to declare his/her assets/liability including that of his spouse(s) who is not a public officer and children under 18 years, honestly, sincerely and submit same to the bureau within 30 days of the receipt of the forms.”

Paragraph 7 of the guidelines added, “Every public officer is to note that it is the requirement of the law to declare his/her assets/liabilities on:

“(a) assumption of office;

“(b) At the end of his term of office,

“(c) At interval of four years for public officers on continuous employment of government whether federal, state or local government:

“(d) and at such other intervals as the Bureau may determine from time to time.”


Speaking with one of our correspondents on Thursday, the Chief Press Officer of the CCB, Mrs Charity Utok, said the incoming political office holders were given up to three months to make their declarations to the CCB, while the outgoing ones must do so as soon as they “step out” of office.

She said the implications of not making the declaration or not making it at the appropriate time would be filing charges against such defaulters at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Utok said, “They can be sworn in, and within three months they have to declare their assets, otherwise the bureau will drag them to the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

“It is applicable to all public officers, both political appointees and elected officers – from the councillors to local government chairmen, commissioners, members of the state Houses of Assembly, governors, members of the National Assembly, ministers, Vice-President and President.

“For those who are finishing their tenure, they must declare as soon as they step out.”

She explained that the first tenure of President Buhari and that of Vice-President Osinbajo would end on Tuesday, May 28, 2019, hence the Tuesday deadline for the two of them to submit their asset forms for the end of their first tenure.

He added, “Anyone who fails to declare their assets will be taken before the tribunal.

“Those in the asset declaration section of the tribunal will compile their names and they will be charged before the tribunal for trial.”


CCB state directors insist no going back on deadline

Following the directive, state directors of the CCB in various states, who spoke with Saturday PUNCH, stated that the Bureau had said there was no going back on Tuesday, May 28, 2019 deadline set for the submission of asset forms.

The Director of the CCB in Bauchi State, Ibraheem Mahmood, said, “The headquarters of the Bureau has set aside Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th May as the last date they want all forms of the elected officials to be submitted to them.”

He said, “The outgoing governor and the deputy also assured me that they will submit their own today (Friday) because they have collected the forms and sent their people for guidance on how to go about it. We have guided them and they said they will submit it today.”

Also reacting on Friday, the Director of CCB in Gombe State, Panyi Baira, said, “Although the deadline is yet to pass, they are complying with the bureau. They will comply before the May 28 deadline.

However, sources within the bureau in the state were complaining that the level of total compliance was minimal.


CCB demands bank statements, title documents

Meanwhile, findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that governors, ministers and other political office holders were expected to submit their six-month bank statement alongside their asset declaration forms.

They will be required to appear later before CCB team in their states to present title documents of some of the assets they claim belong to them in the asset forms.


Governors rush to meet submission deadline

Outgoing and returning governors have intensified their efforts to meet Tuesday deadline for submission of their asset declaration forms.

While Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Mark Longyen, said he would meet the deadline in response to an inquiry by one of our correspondents in Jos on Friday, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, who spoke through his media aide, Anayo Chukwu, said he would do the needful before leaving office.

Ogbonnaya Ikokwu, the Chief Press Secretary to Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Mr Enyinnaya Appolos, said the governor would summit his form to the CCB before the expiration on Tuesday.

He said, “The governor is a law-abiding citizen, he has no problems with compiling with what the law says regarding the declaration of his assets. We will surely summit the form before his second term inauguration.”

Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom said he had complied with the constitutional provision on asset declaration.

The Special Adviser to the governor on Media, Tahav Agerzua, disclosed this on Friday.


Senators, Reps, rush to meet deadline

Findings by Saturday Punch showed that elected senators and House of Representatives members had started making frantic efforts to fill and submit their assets declaration forms to the Code of Conduct Bureau before the June 11 inauguration day for the Ninth Assembly.

Investigations by our correspondents during the week revealed that many of the incoming and returning federal legislators were already complying with the mandatory constitutional requirement.

Some of the new lawmakers who spoke with Saturday PUNCH said they would do everything possible to submit the documents before the day of inauguration.

It was learnt that the management of the nation’s apex legislative institution even made it easier for the incoming federal parliamentarians by procuring the forms from the CCB and distributing to them during their orientation programme held in April.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, the Chairman, Forum of House of Representatives First-Time Members, Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said newly-elected lawmakers had started complying with the constitutional guidelines.

He told our correspondents on Friday that his members were doing everything possible to ensure they meet up with the constitutional requirements before the day of inauguration.

Tunji-Ojo said, “We are all bound by the rules and regulations of this country as law-abiding citizens. Nobody is above the law. If anybody has nothing to hide, then he or she could come clean.

“We have to declare what we have as assets and let the government have the records. It is part of fighting corruption. We must fight corruption in a pro-active manner.”

Also reacting to the issue on behalf of the National Assembly management, the Director of Information, Rawlings Agada, said, “It is part of the decision that we took during the orientation by making the forms as part of the requirements for their registration.

“As a matter of fact, the management was proactive by going to the Code of Conduct Bureau to collect the forms and make them available to the elected lawmakers during the orientation in April.”


Anti-graft agency to invite those with established cases after May 29

Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit have intensified surveillance on financial transactions by outgoing government officials, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.

Towards this end, operatives of the EFCC and their counterparts in the NFIU have been asked to be on the lookout for evidence of looting of public funds/any suspicious financial activity by outgoing government officials, especially state governors.

An operative in one of the agencies, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the anti-graft agencies had gathered evidence against a number of outgoing governors and were on the lookout for last minute transactions “which could serve as icing on the cake on some of these cases.”

A source in the NFIU, who explained the situation to Saturday PUNCH, in Abuja, on Friday, noted that the unit was not leaving anything to chance as it was working with sister agencies at “home and abroad” to halt money laundering and terrorism financing.

“All transactions which fall into certain categories are reported to us. On our part, we analyse the information and forward same to the appropriate security agency for further action.”

When asked if there was a special attention on governors, he said, “It doesn’t matter whether the person is a governor or an ordinary person on the street who is being used as a front within or outside this country, provided the transaction goes through the financial system, it will be flagged and we will get those involved.”

An EFCC operative who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue said, “We have outgoing governors who are unaware we have built cases around their illegal activities while they were in government.


“Making the names of such people public at this point is like asking them to go into hiding.”

Attempts to get a reaction from the spokesperson for the NFIU, Sani Tukur, were futile. Calls to his mobile telephone number indicated that it was switched off; a response to a text message sent to him was still being awaited as of the time of filing this report.

However, the acting Media Head of the EFCC, Tony Orilade, while responding to enquiries from Saturday PUNCH as to whether the commission was going to arrest any of the outgoing governors and how many of them were involved, said, “We don’t discuss ongoing investigations on the pages of the newspapers.

“If we have done our investigations and we have a prima facie case on anyone, of course, we will go after them at the expiration of their immunity on May 29th.

“Whoever has a case based on our discreet investigations, we will wait till when they no longer have immunity before inviting them for questioning.”

Speaking on the issue, the Executive Director, Civil Societies Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Auwual Musa, said, “We will expect a lot of activity from the EFCC as soon as the handover process is completed.

“Some of these outgoing governors don’t deserve to walk free with the amount of public funds they converted to private use.

“It will be an opportunity for this administration which has made the fight against corruption one of its campaign promises to prove to Nigerians that belonging to the ruling party is not equal to immunity from prosecution.”


CCB ignores request for Acting CJN Tanko Muhammad’s assets declaration form

Meanwhile, the CCB has shunned the request by Saturday PUNCH for the assets declaration form submitted by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad.

The bureau had, as of Friday, yet to respond to the newspaper’s letter which was received by the office of the Chairman of CCB, Prof. Muhammed Isah, on April 25.

The request by the newspaper was anchored on the provision of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, which makes it mandatory for the bureau to respond to a request made on the strenght of the Act within seven days.

A public institution such as the CCB, from which information is sought under the FoI Act, must either provide the requested information or give the reasons on why such request cannot be granted, within seven days.

But 30 days after the SATURDAY PUNCH’s letter was received by the CCB chairman, no response has been given to the request.

In its letter dated February 24, 2019 and received by the CCB chairman the next day, the newspaper, had said of the request for the Acting CJN’s assets declaration form, “We respectfully ask you to make this available as this would deepen transparency and accountability, which are what the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari preaches”.

By Juliana Francis



Forty-seven-year old Rashidi, living in Sango-Ota, Ogun State could easily be described as a good looking man.
This means that getting a woman to warm his bed wouldn’t be a lot of headache. But Rashidi, for some years now, had been having sexual intercourse with four of his daughters. A situation many people who got wind of described as bizarre.

But the most bizarre is that his wife, who is the mother of the four girls, was aware of the situation and appeared handicapped to do anything about it.
The incestuous affairs were blown open after a crack team of police detectives from Sango-Ota Area Command, Ogun State, went undercover to investigate the crime and returned with mind-boggling discoveries. Although the illegal affairs had been going on for years, daughters, father and mother had preferred to let it remain within the family circle.

According to them, they were still trying to seek out solution for their father’s inexplicable sexual yearnings for his biological daughters, when police stormed their home to arrest the man. One would have expected the daughters to have fought the sexual onslaught from their dad, especially since two are adults, but they didn’t.

They said: “Our father is sick. He doesn’t know what he is doing. We know what is wrong with him. We just need money to make him well. To arrest him and take him to court for the whole world to see and read about him and us is not the solution. We need spiritual help, not publicity.”

The first of the girls is 26 years old, second is 23, third is 19 and the last is 14. Ordinarily, these ladies could have decided to report him to police or family members.
But they didn’t, rather they said: “Our father is a victim, not a criminal.”

Our reporter left Lagos State as early as possible to seek out the father and hear this strange story and occurrences from the horse’s mouth.

A few minutes after our reporter introduced herself, Rashidi burst into heart-breaking tears. It was gathered that when Rashidi was arrested and presented with his alleged crime, he had vehemently denied it.
On Tuesday, however, speaking with our reporter, he had a sinking look on his face. Tears gathered in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. He sniffed and used his T-shirt to wipe his tears.

He whispered: “Please help me! I need help! Yes, I have been having sexual intercourse with my four daughters. Something used to come upon me and take control of me. I’ll lose my senses and about two or three hours after having intercourse with any of my daughters, I will come back to my senses. This had been going on for years. I even married a second wife and visited a herbalist in order to check this malady, but all efforts failed. But it’s not every day I have sex with them. It is whenever that evil spirit comes upon me.”

Investigators had earlier discovered that the last sexual intercourse with his third and fourth daughters occurred on May 11, 12 and 13.
The arrest of Rashidi wouldn’t have been possible, but for the diligence of the policemen and women, who painstaking kept digging into the case after receiving information about the father that had been sexually preying on his daughters.

A police source said: “The police team launched investigation after receiving credible information that Rashidi was having sex with four of his daughters. The police team was determined to rescue the girls. They went into the community and put surveillance on the family, but found it difficult to penetrate. They knew they couldn’t make an arrest without first verifying the information they had received. They decided to go after one of the girls. They pretended to be preachers, speaking about God and salvation. They went to the place where one of the girls works and preached to her and then prayed for her.

“They then tactfully delved into issues that had to do with incest. They told her that God was willing and ready to deliver anyone caught up in that sort of situation. They gently asked her more questions about incest and whether she was experiencing it. It was at that point she opened up. The police team told her about her fundamental rights and human rights activists. They left.

“The following day, the police team returned to her work place in their uniforms. They introduced themselves as police. They had to pet her before she agreed to follow them to make statement. After her statement, the police went to the house and arrested the father.

The mother and other siblings were there. The father, right then and there, denied the allegation.
“When the mother got to the station, she admitted knowing about it. The three other daughters also confessed that their father had being having sex with them. Police carried out preliminary investigations and discovered that Rashidi used to have sex in his room with his daughters, while his wife is fast asleep or when the wife is not around. He also used to have sex with them outside the house.

“When police asked the daughters why they didn’t react against their dad, they said they too were under a spell. They said once he tells them to UnCloth, they would simply obey. Whenever their mother catches them, she would shout on her husband. But the woman has a medical condition, which if she shouts too much, could lead to her losing consciousness, for about three days.”

Speaking amidst tears, Rashidi said that he had been hearing voices in the past 13 years. The voices used to order him around. According to him, he hears the voices, but had never seen the speaker. He claimed that it was the voice that ordered him to be having sex with his daughters.

Rashidi, who introduced himself as a mechanic, security guard and commercial motorcyclist, said: “The first time the voice spoke to me was about 13 years ago. The voice ordered me on that fateful day to place three seats on each other. It asked me to go into the store and take a rope. It further instructed me to tie it to the ceiling fan, climb the mounted seats and placed the noose around my neck. I had already done all these, when my wife suddenly woke up.

“I don’t know what is wrong with me. I have no quarrel with anyone and I’m not indebted to anyone. Four years ago, I was riding motorcycle when the voice ordered me to park, and enter the river, but someone saved me. Whenever the voice comes, I lose my senses. After about three hours, my senses will return. I couldn’t tell anyone what I was going through.

I decided to go and tell a herbalist, who is close to me. He did some things for me, including spiritual bath, but it didn’t work. I continued to have sex with my daughters. I have spent a lot of money on this, trying to find a lasting solution. Just three weeks ago, the voice came while I was riding motorcycle. I stopped right in the middle of the road; vehicles could have crushed me. People shouted and called me a mad man.”

It was also discovered that Rashidi had attempted suicide several times, but often saved in the nick of time. Our reporter heard that his last attempt was mixture of chemicals, which he wanted to drink, but he was caught.

He cried: “I just want to take the chemicals and die. I even took a second wife because I thought it would check my sexual predilection towards my daughters, but it didn’t work. I still continue to leave my second wife’s house to my first, to have sex with my daughters.”

Rashidi is said to be the breadwinner of his family, daughters, wives and aged father. The father, who is about 90 years old, was said to have rushed down to Lagos after hearing that his son had been arrested. Since the old man got to Lagos to hear the story, he had been stooling nonstop.

The police station had been flooded with tears from Rashidi, his wife and daughters. One of his daughters, since his arrest, had embarked on a hunger strike. Others laid siege to the station.

Another of his daughters, who cried throughout her interview with our reporter, said that she had already made efforts to seek for solution. She had gone to Christian and Muslim clerics. She has also visited a herbalist. The verdict had always remained the same, unchanged.

Asked what the verdict was, she said: “They all said that my father is under a curse. The curse was placed on him by a woman, who he had offended. They all said that a spiritual work needed to be carried out. I guess that it was in the course of trying to find solution by visiting these men that policemen heard about our predicament.

“Whenever it comes upon him, he will start acting abnormally, insane. You will know that he was no longer in his right senses. And then he will come to us and order any of us to strip. Whatever spell is disturbing him, affects us too. When he orders me to strip, I wouldn’t know what I was doing.

I wouldn’t be able to refuse. We wouldn’t be able to fight or stop him. We just obey like we’re under a strong force. There was a midnight he called me outside our apartment. He ordered me to remove my panties and lay on the chair there. I simply obeyed him. He had sex with me right there. We were both no longer in our senses. About two to three hours after the act, we both came back to our senses and started crying.

“When I went out and discovered that someone cursed my father, I had to alert my mother. She told me that she too had made her findings and it was the same response. We were both trying to raise the money for the spiritual works before everything came out in the open.”

She added: “The pastor said that the spiritual work will cost us N30,000, the Alfa said N35,000, while herbalist said N20,000 plus. My father has a mental problem. We don’t want a court case.”

The herbalist that Rashidi ran to, seeking help, also came to pay him a visit in police custody. The herbalist told the police that Rashidi truly came to him for help and that he assisted him. The herbalist said that he didn’t know that what plagued Rashidi continued even after the work he did for him. He wished Rashidi had returned to tell that he was still having intercourse with his daughters.

By Balarabe Alkassim, Bauchi


https://cdn.dailytrust.com.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/The-conjoined-twin-girls-768x477.jpg

A house wife in Ningi local government area of Bauchi State has given birth to conjoined twin girls. The twins were delivered through a Caesarean Section at the General Hospital Ningi a week ago.

Speaking on the birth of the conjoined twins, the doctor who performed the operation to remove the twins, Dr Sama’ila Mato Jahun, said that the decision to perform the ceasarean section to remove the twins followed a scan that revealed they were in an awkward position.

“When a scan was conducted, it showed that they were lying in a position that will not allow their passage through the birth canal so we recommended a CS to remove them.

“In the course of the operation we discovered that they are conjoined twins. They are healthy but they have only one stomach, four arms, and three legs.

So their physiology is very delicate,” he said. Speaking, the father of the twins, Suleiman Usman, said that, his wife, Habiba showed slight signs of labour for about five days so he took her to the hospital where she was attending ante natal clinic.

“When we went to the hospital we were told to go for a scan and after the scan the doctors told us that she had to be operated upon after which they were delivered with the unusual twins.

“Since their birth, people have been trooping to the hospital to catch a glimpse and the thing is becoming unbearable because we have to call security to control people. We don’t know how we can cope when we are discharged from the hospital,” he said.

Usman said he got married to Habiba two years ago and she had a miscarriage a year ago after which she became pregnant again and gave birth to the conjoined twins.

According to him, although the mother and the children are healthy, she lacks breast milk to feed them so they are being fed with baby fomula. He said the emir of Ningi has given some money to assist them buy baby feeds.

The father, who was visibly agitated, said he was concerned about the future of his conjoined children. “I have been seeing pictures of conjoined twins on the internet and on television, but I have never thought of how their families cope until now.

Alhamdulillahi, their birth is a trial from Allah and only He knows how their live s will be. I thank him for his mercies,” he said.

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru ABUJA



VICE President Yemi Osinbajo has advised outgoing governors to make good use of the experiences and opportunity they had while in office, and not see their exit from power as an opportunity to run personal businesses or sleep for long hours, in the interest of common people.

Osinbajo, who gave the advice in his remarks at the valedictory session of the National Economic Council, at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, told the governors to deploy the opportunity of the period to further serve the country in various capacities, using their influence as former governors to contribute to healthcare and education.

According to him, donor agencies will be glad to work with ex-governors, especially those with track records of healthcare provision and other humanitarian needs. He said: “I advise that you should use your influence and reach to the advantage of Nigerian people. You have seen and heard for yourselves the enormity of our national problems.

Very few people have the advantage to see closely as we do on the issues that concern our country, the issues that even concern our different states. “We, here, have that unique advantage. So I think that we can help in one way or the other; we can do something in our states and other states in a way of advocacy or action on education and healthcare in particular and jobs.

“I think it is important for those of us who have had the benefit of all of these experience and leadership not to now settle down to a life of business or perhaps of enjoyment or sleeping for eight hours. I need this time for action.”


The privilege to serve

The vice-president, who thanked the governors for the encomiums showered on him by various speakers at the meeting, noted that of Nigeria’s huge population of about 200 million, only 74 persons, including the president, vice-president, 36 governors and their deputies, were given the responsibilities of formulating policies and executing projects meant to serve the huge populace.

While canvassing more commitment of the governors to better the lots of the citizenry, the vice-president noted that in a matter of years, the population of Nigeria would double, pointing out that the country depended heavily on the elite for survival.

He said having led their various states for some years, the governors do not need anyone to advise them any longer on the imperative of unity or security of lives and property, emphasising that the main priority of citizens was availability of food and water on their tables.

However, the vice-president lamented that most people dissipate energy to stoke the embers of disunity and ethnicity, advising the governors to openly condemn those who engage in such acts and resist them because the country does not belong to them alone.

He reiterated the need for the outgoing governors to be challenged by the enormity of problems at stake and consequently use their influence as former governors to contribute to continued efforts to address such problems. Osinbajo added: “In the next few years, our population will double, with the attendant challenges of jobs, education, health care, security and infrastructure.

Every nation that has moved its people from misery to prosperity has depended heavily, in fact, almost completely on the political elite.

‘’Our people have nowhere else to look or to go, it is as they say, at the collective table that the bulk stops.


Govs react

Speaking at the meeting, outgoing chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, commended the vice-president for his sterling leadership in the last four years.

While advising the council on the need to work hard, block leakages in the system and take proactive measures to expand the size of the economy, Yari commended the federal government which he said had done well in the agricultural sector, with N200 billion spent since 2015.

He, however, said if N2 trillion can be spent on oil development every year, much more needed to be spent to shore up growth in agriculture, warning that if Nigeria failed to plan for the future, the country would be sitting on a time bomb and that the aftermath would be catastrophic in the next few years.

He said: “I will say, yes government has done tremendously well in terms of expanding the economy through agriculture by spending over N200 billion through the anchor borrowers programme, but we need to do more because we all agree that agriculture is the mainstay of this economy.

“It provides over 80 per cent of the employment. So, if N2 trillion can be spent yearly on oil development we need to increase our spending on agriculture too. With what we are seeing as governors, especially from the zone where I come from, the rate of population growth, if nothing is done to address it, I am afraid Mr. Chairman, we are sitting on a time bomb. And that’s the truth.’’

Speaking on behalf of South-West governors, Lagos State governor, Akinwumi Ambode, who recalled the challenges facing the states when NEC came into being in 2015, narrated how 27 states could not pay workers’ salaries. According to him, this led to the decision to seek bailout funds for states from the federal government, which was promptly approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Describing the vice-president as tolerant, friendly, accommodating and a stickler for good governance and accountability, Ambode advised the next NEC to address the issue of power and steel, saying doing so will go a long way to reflate the economy.

Also speaking on behalf of South-East governors, Imo State governor and Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, suggested the need to set target as performance benchmark.

He said where there was no target, most people would not feel motivated to perform, noting that the trend among governors over the years had always been that some performed well, another over-performed, while others under-performed.

While speaking on behalf of North-West governors, Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, commended the vice-president for providing the right direction to the council.

P/Harcourt – The Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal has dismissed the petition filed by the Labour Party candidate in the last governorship election in the state, Chief Isaac Wonwu, against the victory of Governor Nyesom Wike.

Chairman of the tribunal, Justice O.K. Kaigama, dismissed the petition following a motion for withdrawal moved by counsel to Chief Wonwu, Uche Ulemene.

Justice Kaigama also stated that the Labour Party governorship candidate withdrew the petition on his own volition and that there were no illegal agreements that necessitated the withdrawal.

Counsel to Chief Wonwu sought the leave of the tribunal to withdraw the petition and strike out same.

He informed the tribunal that his application to withdraw the petition was accompanied by a notice of consent to withdraw, marked as Exhibit A.

He added that also annexed was an affidavit against illegal terms of withdrawal.

Counsel to Governor Wike, M.S. Agwu, said they were not opposed to the withdrawal.

He announced that he filed an affidavit against any illegal terms of withdrawal, noting that the petitioner withdrew the petition on his own volition.

The tribunal dismissed the Labour Party petition, EPT/RS/GOV/O4/2019, saying the Labour Party governorship candidate stated that he withdrew the petition in the interest of Rivers State.

Counsel to INEC, Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN), informed the tribunal that INEC filed a preliminary objection to the petition.

He stated that INEC was not opposing the application for withdrawal.

He announced that INEC filed a preliminary objection because the petition lacked merit. He urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition.

Governor Wike emerged victorious at the 2019 governorship election where he polled 886,264 votes. The AAC candidate scored 173,859 votes to emerge second.

By Paschal Njoku


Abuja – Philip Undie, a Nigerian taxpayer, has filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking the removal of Femi Gbajabiamila from the House of Representatives over his alleged conviction in the United States of America over fraud-related offences.

Undie is praying the court to restrain the House of Representatives, the Attorney General of the Federation, and the All Progressives Congress, who are the first to fourth defendants in the matter, from recognising Gbajabiamila as a member of the House of Representatives and as an aspirant for the office of the Speaker of the House.

The plaintiff submits that under section 66(1) (C) and (D) of the 1999 constitution and the verdict of the Supreme Court of Georgia, “the mood of our nation today will not warrant placing the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the hands of any individual that has a tainted or questionable character”.


In an originating summons before the court, Philip Undie is contending that Gbajabiamila, who was allegedly convicted over $25, 000 fraud by the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia, USA, is not a fit and proper person to be elected as a member of the House of Representatives and/or as the speaker of the House of Representatives of the 9th National Assembly.

The summons dated May 20, 2019 was filed on May 21, 2019, by Undie’s counsel, Ayodele Justice.

Undie stated in an affidavit attached to the motion that due to the political wind in the country, he conducted background checks on Gbajabiamila, who is contesting for the speakership of the House, and found out that he was on February 26, 2007 convicted over fraud and dishonesty in the sum of $25, 000 belonging to a client in the USA as a settlement of the client’s personal injury claims deposited in the Attorney Trust Account in January, 2003.

He stated that Gbajabiamila violated Rule 1-15(1) of Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct set forth in Bar Rule 4-102(d), which is punishable with disbarment and was suspended from Law practice in the USA for 36 months (three years) even though he refunded the client’s money in 2006, and “his lawyers filed a certification of compliance of the Supreme Court ruling as of March 2007”.

The affidavit further averred that, “It is in the interest of justice to grant the plaintiff’s prayers as no single person’s ambition is worth the diminishing of our collective patrimony in good governance and social justice.”

Undie added that the certified true copy of the judgment of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Atlanta, USA, in suit No. S06Y0829, in the disciplinary matter of Femi Gbaja Per Curiam, in a concurrent judgment led by Chief Justice of the State of Georgia, Justice Hugh Thompson, and six others, was issued on June 12, 2015 by the clerk of the court, Theresa Barnes.

The name, Femi Gbaja, being the name he was being referred to in the case file, accepted payment of $25, 000 as personal injury claims and deposited those funds in his attorney trust account in January 2003.

“He failed to disburse the funds to his client; instead he withdrew the funds, closed his practice and left for Nigeria where he ran for elections to represent Surulere I Federal Constituency in the Federal House of Representatives under the banner of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 2003.

“Upon arrival in Nigeria, curiously, Mr. Gbaja added another name to avoid detection, he is known in Nigeria with a compound name ‘Femi Gbaja-Biamila’,” papers attached to the affidavit read.

No date has been fixed for the hearing.

By Onwuka Nzeshi and Chukwu DavidAbuja


There are indications that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will field a candidate for the 9th Senate Presidency contest, if Senator Danjuma Goje (APC, Gombe Central) eventually fails to participate in the race.

Sources close to the Senate told New Telegraph at the weekend that the PDP has been monitoring direction of events, to see what would happen in the APC, with respect to who would contest as candidates of the ruling party before deciding on whether or not to participate in the race.

According to one of the sources, since Goje appears to be reluctant to publicly declare his interest in the Senate Presidency race for the next Assembly, the opposition party is waiting for the right time to take appropriate decision on the matter.

The source hinted that the PDP had not been definitive on whether or not it would field a candidate because the party’s intention has been to support Goje to emerge the next President of the Senate by giving him block vote.

“Don’t rule out the possibility of PDP fielding a candidate to contest with the APC candidate. However, everything is dependent on who is coming out from the APC. If Goje fails to contest, I can tell you that the PDP will field a candidate because it is Goje that the opposition party is backing.

“As it stands now, the picture is not very clear as to whether or not Danjuma Goje is going to contest because it is expected that he should have declared his intention by now. But I know that he is interested, but at the same time he is afraid that if he declares intention to run, the anti-graft agencies may come after him because he is having a pending case with the EFCC.

“The PDP can spring surprises. If Goje finally backs out, the PDP is likely going to field somebody to contest that office, and their chances are bright. I think they secured about 40 seats in the Senate during the last general election. And, as you know, it is only simple majority that is required to elect a Senate President. If the opposition works very hard, they can get 13 or so members of the APC to support their candidate, and that will give them victory,” the source said.

It will be recalled that the PDP won 43 seats out of the 109 senatorial seats in the Senate while the APC has 64, YPP has one, while one seat for Imo North is yet to be declared as the matter is pending in court.

Sources say that the PDP is more comfortable with Goje because he is perceived to be more independent minded than Lawan.

New Telegraph learnt that, just as Lawan has been lobbying the PDP senators-elect for support, the PDP chieftains are also working hard to get support from the APC senators-elect, with which to give their preferred candidate victory during June inauguration.

It was further learnt that the chances of the PDP to produce the next President of the Senate would be brighter, if Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) refuses to step down for Lawan.

“If Ndume contests, it means that he will split the votes of the ruling party, and therefore make it an easy ride for the opposition candidate to emerge victorious because the PDP senators-elect will cast their votes in block for their candidate,” a source said.

Meanwhile, the Ahmad Lawan for Senate Presidency Campaign has debunked insinuations that the ambition of the Senate Leader to become the next Senate President was the product of some godfathers and puppet masters in the Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) whose desire is to emasculate the National Assembly.

Chairman of the campaign, Dr. Yahaya Abdullahi, who made the clarification at a media interaction in Abuja, said that contrary to the insinuations in certain quarters, Lawan was not imposed as a candidate, but a choice of his colleagues who believe in his leadership capacity.

Abdullahi, who led other members of his campaign team to the interaction, disclosed that they chose to support Lawan’s candidature because of his educational background, leadership qualities and cognate experience in the legislature.

According to him, the key motivation for their support was borne out of the need to have a leader who will work in harmony with the Executive arm of the government in the overall interest of Nigeria.

“We want you to know that Ahmad Lawan is our choice. It’s not a choice that was imposed on us either by the party or by the Presidency. What happened was that there was a concurrence of interests and a concurrence of vision.

“They must have done their homework like we did and found out that we need somebody with experience, somebody that is level headed and somebody who understands the independence of the legislature, but willing to work with the Executive to realise the dreams of Nigerians,” he said.

According to Abdullahi, the move to draft Lawan into the Senate Presidency race started with a meeting of some senators-elect a few days after the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

The nucleus of the campaign team, he said, met with the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to intimate him about their desire to draft Lawan into the race.

According to him, the move was made because they were convinced that Lawan was the most qualified candidate for the position based on his education, competence and long years of service at the National Assembly.

“The first one is that he is the leader of the current Senate and normally in all democratic dispensations, after an election, if you don’t want too much rancour, you normally allow the leader of the caucus of the majority party to become the President of the Senate. It is actually a parliamentary tradition.

“The second reason is that when we look at the legislative experience of members of the National Assembly, the only person who could match Ahmad Lawan’s experience is David Mark and Mark is leaving the Senate. So, by the time we get into the next National Assembly, Ahmad Lawan will simply be the most experienced Senator in the National Assembly. I will say that given the instability of our democracy, the most experienced in legislature should lead us. He is simply the most experienced legislator now.

“The third plank of our support is the nature and character of the candidate.”

Abdulahi stated that it was after his group had started reaching out to other senators-elect that the leadership of the APC and the Presidency bought into the project.

Eric Dumo, Demola Olonilua and Timileyin Akinkahunsi



As Nigeria’s economy continues to sluggishly recover from the last recession, many small hotels are finding ways to change their story.

While lodging used to contribute to the larger chunk of the revenue of many small hotels in the past in some parts of Lagos, these days, the situation is changing, and very fast, too.

In the Ojota, Ikeja, Pamlgroove, Ketu, Ikorodu and Ogudu areas of Lagos, Saturday PUNCH observed that many hotels now make more money from ‘short-time’ service than actual lodging. With ‘short-time’ service, hotel rooms can be hired by the hour by amorous couples.

During a visit to a handful of small hotels in these places, one of our correspondents observed how male customers seeking to ‘relax’ with their female friends awaited their turns to use one of the rooms, which usually goes for between N1,000 and N2,000 per hour depending on the quality and standard of the hotel.

In the process of such waits, the drama that ensues, can best be imagined.

For example, in one of the hotels visited in the Palmgroove area of the city, one of our correspondents observed how some of the male customers eager to ‘spend time’ with their female friends, gave the bartender in charge of the rooms N200 tips to jump the ‘queue’. And soon after receiving the tips, the bartender sigalled to such customers and their partners to go through another entrance from where they would be taken to available rooms.

For the others still waiting for their turns to be ushered into a room, alcoholic beverages, fried meat, pepper soup are usually their companions during such periods. It was almost a similar scenario at hotels visited in the other neighbourhoods.

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Manager of one of the hotels in Ogudu, Tobi Adedotun, told Saturday PUNCH that it was indeed through ‘short-time’ or ‘short rest’ service that they were making the bulk of their daily and weekly revenue.

“Any small hotel that does not offer ‘short-time’ service will only be killing their own business because it is what brings money the most. How many people have money to lodge overnight in hotels now? Not so many.

“But with ‘short-rest’, we record more than N50, 000 in a day. This is aside from the drinks, pepper soup and other things that those waiting to use the rooms will buy.

“This is what has been keeping our business going, otherwise maybe by now, we would have closed down,” he said.

Similarly, around 8pm on a Thursday evening around Wilson Street in Ogba, Lagos, one of our correspondents posed as a potential customer who had come to book a room in a hotel for ‘short-time’ service with her partner who would later join her. The hotel reception was filled with men and a few women who were there for the same purpose. According to the receptionist, who identified herself as Sarah Filani, two rooms were dedicated for that purpose alone.

“Most of the people you see here are waiting to get the rooms ready for their use for ‘short-time’ service with their partners,” she said.

The price of a standard room in Snxk hotel (not real name) is N8, 500. However, it is cheaper when people only want ‘short-time’ service which according to Filani, is the highest request they get from guests who come to visit their hotel in the evenings.

“We hardly receive guests who are ready to stay the night, so that was why we decided to use most of the standard rooms for ‘short-time’ service,” she added.

Asked why they usually had more guests for ‘short-time’ service, she noted that it was due to the fact that most of the guests coming for the service were usually there with their mistresses and wouldn’t want to be caught in a “hotel” because of the stigma attached to it.

“You would hardly see any genuine couple coming for ‘short-time’ service, they are usually people who have mistresses. In fact, there is a man we have a deal with who visits the hotel at least twice a week with different women,” she told Saturday PUNCH.

Also in Ojuelegba, Chinedu Obi and his colleague who work in Bnx hotel (not real name) in the area, said they often turn to ‘emergency counsellors’ because of the many quarrels they have to settle between lovers after the use of their facility.

“We have had to settle several quarrels between women and men, especially after some men refused to pay the women as agreed. We don’t have a choice because these are the kind of people who still keep our business afloat. Due to the poor state of infrastructure in our hotel, we don’t record a high number of guests who are ready to stay the night. We have tried to rebrand the hotel the little way we can, but we are still stuck with these ‘short-time’ guests,” he told Saturday PUNCH.

Obi explained to our correspondent that he and his colleagues get paid based on commission.

“Our monthly pay is determined by the number of guests we get every month so we cannot even discourage the guests that come for ‘short-time’ service. If we do, then how are we going to be able to raise enough money to earn our pay,” he noted.

During the day, if one goes to Ayo Elegbede Street, Surulere, it is usually deserted. However, by 7 pm, it takes on a new look and there is an intimate, crowded feel to the place. A hotel around there becomes a beehive of activities. During one of our correspondents visit to the hotel, it appeared that virtually every man that walked out of its gate had a smile on their face.

Shortly after the correspondent settled on chair to watch a football match that was showing on TV, a man approached with a smile, saying, ‘Oga, good evening. I sell chicken, fish, and chips and I am sure you would like it.” Declining his offer, the unhappy young man retreated to his spot and continued to grill his fish.

While the match was going on, it was observed that after about every 15 minutes, once a batch of ladies and men exited from the rooms in the hotel, which were quite visible to one of our correspondents, another batch of couples would finish their drinks and head for the available rooms.

The correspondent later beckoned to the guy selling grilled fish to bring some. The young man later introduced himself as Segun. While interviewing Segun, he said, “This hotel has been around for a while and we offer the standard services that other big hotels offer but I would not lie to you, what really helps us is the ‘short-time’ service that we offer. If you look around, it is mostly young girls that are from tertiary institutions around Yaba that are here with their sugar daddies.

“The men just want to ‘blow off steam’ before they go home so it pays them to pay for a room of N1,000 or N2,000 depending on the standard. Once they are done, they either drop the girls off or get them a cab.”

Segun further explained that aside from how the ‘short-time’ service helps to improve the hotel’s revenue, it helps his business. “Most of these men hardly stay for the night so while they are waiting for their turn, they would definitely buy drinks and chicken and chips. Even when the men do not want to buy, I make sure I advertise them to the women who will always urge the men to buy from me. That is my marketing strategy,” he said.

A female receptionist in the hotel, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said anyone who wished to spend the night would pay at least N6,000 for a room while the ‘short-time’ service only cost between N1,000 and N2,000.

After pretending that the correspondent’s date had disappointed him, the lady assured that it was no problem as such things sometimes happened and that they were also there to help out.

“If your babe no dey come, we fit help you arrange for one but you go settle us after o (if your babe fails to show up, we can get you a babe but you will also give us some money for the service),” she said as she beckoned to a male colleague who apparently had some sex workers he could call.

Even the popular posh Omole Estate Phase 1 in Lagos also has at least one of such hotels used for ‘quickies’. One could easily pass the building without noticing that it is a hotel as it has a small signboard on which the name of the hotel is written.

Located around Adeyemo Akapo Street, like most hotels of its kind, activities hardly begin till about 8:30pm. Saturday PUNCH learnt that the hotel has been operating for over a decade with a reputation for keeping everything that happens within the facility in the facility.

One of the hotel workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the facility was built for overnight lodging but business was not good for a long time. He, however, noted that since they started offering ‘short-time’ service to customers, the hotel’s fortunes had drastically improved.

“If the hotel had not started offering ‘short-term’ service, it would have been closed down by now, but after more than ten years we are still here. We have girls that come to lodge here just to meet patrons while we also have some people who bring their women here.

“For ‘short-time’ or ‘short rest’, we charge about N2,000 and we expect that the occupants would be done with their business in two hours because we have other guests waiting to use the rooms. And if you don’t have a babe, we can get one for you that you will like,” the worker said.

The worker later revealed that the ‘short-time’ service does not only benefit the owners of the facility but the receptionists too.

He said, “When someone comes to spend the night, proper documentation has to be taken seriously, most especially for auditing sake; but when it comes to the short rests, to be honest, we can pocket some of the money without the knowledge of management,” he revealed.

For over a decade, a hotel situated around Ajao Road, Ikeja, Lagos, has been in existence, providing accommodation, restaurant and bar services. But while it announces that it provides these services, one thing it always leaves out is that for N1,500, it also offers ‘short-time’ services for interested lovers for about two hours.

One of its workers told one of our correspondents, “’Short-time’ service is not something any hotel can announce but many small hotels offer it. It helps to augment our revenue and it is only the big hotels that don’t offer the service.

“Even if the managements of some small hotels tell you that they don’t offer the service, they may be lying or not be aware that the workers are doing it and putting the money in their pockets,” the worker said.

By Mathias Okwe,




As Two Perm. Secs Jostle To Step In
Tension is brewing at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja, over plans by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed to hand over the reins to one of the permanent secretaries, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, considered a political appointee, instead of Dr. Mohammed Kyari Dikwa, a career civil servant and bureaucrat.

A valedictory Federal Executive Council (FEC) Meeting is billed to hold tomorrow, following which President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to appreciate the ministers for their contributions to national development, and thereafter dissolve the cabinet after which the ministers would handover to the permanent secretaries in their respective ministries.

Isa-Dutse, believed to be close to the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, was appointed outside the civil service from the African Export Import Bank (AFRIEXIM Bank) in November 2015, while Dikwa a career civil servant and former Acting Accountant General of the Federation was appointed in November 2018, and assigned to the ministry as Permanent Secretary, Special Duties.

He resumed in that capacity in February this year. But prior to that he has been the engine room of reform initiatives in the ministry, heading the Presidential Continuous Audit of Ministries Departments and Agencies (PICA), which saved over N500b for the Federal Government’s payroll.

A staff of the ministry, who asked not to be named told The Guardian that of the ministry’s 12 schedules, Dikwa oversees eight, while Isa-Dutse oversees the remaining four and wonders why it is someone overseeing fewer schedules that should be handed over to.

The development is already causing ripples particularly among the top echelon of the ministry, who see the plan not only as an abuse of power, but an erosion of ethics and values in the civil service. Accordingly, the staff have communicated their grievances to President Buhari. In the copy of the complaint sighted by The Guardian yesterday, they urged the President to stop the plan because “for the first time, the National Assembly scored capital budget implementation under Isa-Dutse’s supervision zero repeatedly, he is above 60 years, which is the limit of service in line with Civil Service Rules, which means he ought to have been retired.

“As an appointee civil servant, his tenure is supposed to terminate latest May 29, 2019 being not a career civil servant; during his tenure, several protests were held by the staff union over his penchant for abandoning treatment of files for one overseas trip or the other, thereby impeding the smooth implementation of the economic policies of the Federal Government through the Ministry of Finance.”

Attempts by The Guardian, yesterday to get the reaction of the Minister of Finance were not successful just as calls put across to the ministry’s Director of Information, Mr. Dodo Hassan, as well as the minister’s Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Mr. Paul Ella Abechi were unsuccessful.

Barely nine days to President Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration for a second term on May 29, ministers have intensified lobby to retain their appointments in the federal cabinet, LEADERSHIP Sunday has learnt.

This comes as the president is expected to convene the last meeting of the current Federal Executive Council (FEC) and officially dissolve its membership this week.

A special FEC will hold on Monday for the ministers to attend to last- minute memos and projects, while the valedictory FEC meeting is slated for Wednesday.

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that about 70 percent of the current ministers are desperately lobbying to serve in the next cabinet.

Some top government and party sources told our correspondents in confidence that some of the minister seeking to return to the cabinet have abandoned their tasks and are busy chasing after close associates of the president to help them into the anticipated federal council.

Another source in the All Progressives Congress (APC) revealed that President Buhari has weighed his options for a new cabinet that would help him deliver on his campaign promises, stressing that he had already compiled a list of such ministers.

The source said, “There is intense lobbying. This is because they have realised that unlike in 2015 when it took about six months for the president to show up with his list of ministers, he is determined to hit the ground running this time around. “From all indications, Mr. President is going to set the ball rolling. He is bent on sending his list of ministers to the Senate almost immediately it is convened in June.”

According to him, the president intends to do a clean sweep of the cabinet and gather a new team that would help him deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians. “They have held talks with the members of the National Working Committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and other close associates of Mr President.”

Another reliable source disclosed that APC members who lost their governorship and senatorial elections are also lobbying to make the cabinet. It was learnt that some of them would be compensated with ministerial and other federal appointments.

A source said President Buhari will have an extended cabinet this time around, disclosing that apart from the mandatory 36 ministers from each state of the federation, the president is likely pick six extra ministers, one from each geopolitical zone. He said: “Remember the president mooted the idea of an expanded cabinet in 2017 but had to shelve the idea because of various political interests. But, definitely, this time we are going to have an expanded cabinet.

“This time around the Power, Works and Housing Ministry will be unbundled into three different ministries for efficient service delivery. The Aviation ministry will be promoted to a full ministry and will no longer be under the ministry of transportation.

“The President is also likely to relinquish the petroleum ministry while the minister of state for petroleum portfolio will be abolished,” the source said. Another top source, who spoke in confidence, said: “No one knows the mindset of the President on how he will constitute the next Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The situation is so dicey that those rated as closer to the President in the cabinet cannot authoritatively say whether or not they will be retained.”

President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to dissolve his cabinet ahead of his inauguration for the second term on May 29, just as the last meeting of the current Federal Executive Council (FEC) has been slated for Monday.

Already, the valedictory session of the cabinet has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 22.
The foregoing was disclosed at the end of the Thursday extraordinary FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the absence of the President, who is in Saudi Arabia for the lesser hajj.

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting which went into the night, the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, accompanied by his colleague Ministers of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Muhammed Bello, said that the council approved N1.8 billion for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the buildings of the Railway village in Agbo, Delta State.

He also revealed that the sum of N743 million was approved for the procurement of security and safety deficiencies as well as incidence laboratory for Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

He said the total sum for the procurement included taxes with a completion period of 12 months.

Sirika also said that the contract for the procurement of pavement marking machines was also approved by the council at the cost of N391.8 million.

“This is a visual aid for pilots for safe operations around our airports,” he said.
Another approval granted by the council, according to the minister, is the sum of €1.1 million, for the purchase of a total radar coverage track on system reconditioning.

He said: “This contract went to the manufacturer of the equipment for 1,187,960,000 Euros, equivalent to N414,543,760.23 excluding taxes and it is for seven months completion.”

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who also briefed newsmen said that the council approved six contracts worth N2.6 billion for the FCT.

“The FCT got approval for the award of contract for the construction and equipping of materials testing laboratory in Abuja and that contract is in the sum of N616, 278, 844.19 with a completion period of five months.

“That laboratory already is under construction, so basically it is just to equip the laboratory and is going to test all the items that go into the construction of roads and buildings,” he said.

Bello further said cabinet approved another contract for a temporary access road in the central area of the territory.

“The second contract was for the provision of an access road to link very key anterior roads in the Central Business District, that is Ahmadu Bello Way and Sani Abacha Way, all in the FCT, in the sum of N670,347,909 with a completion period of six months.

“The third memo was for the award of contract for the design of engineering and solid waste treatment plant and transfer stations in the FCT, and it is a consultancy project awarded in the sum of N473,798,934, to be completed in 12 months.

“These transfer stations are meant to serve the waste management value chain so that before you get to the final dump site, solid waste is separated according to the various grades, and that makes it easier for recycling.

“As you know, now we have what is called waste to wealth, and that will create a very important economic system for people who will invest in it,” he said.

He said another contract awarded for the FCT was that of engineering design of expandable main sewage treatment plant at Kango and Associated Trunk lines at the cost of N511,528,689.

The FCT also got approval for the final design of engineering infrastructure and production of tender documents at the cost of N202,410,378.45.

He stated that another N143.7 million was approved for the final engineering design of infrastructure and production of another tender document for Sector Centres E and F in Phase 111 of FCC, Abuja.

By Musa Abdullahi Krishi


The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was in the news again recently on its latest moves to probe Senate President Bukola Saraki’s tenure as the governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011. This is not the first time the commission is visiting cases directly affecting the former Kwara State governor in the last four years, since his assumption of office as the number three citizen on June 9, 2015.

It was part of the investigation conducted by the commission that led to his prosecution at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for over two years until he was discharged last year by the Supreme Court. The commission made its intention known on the latest probe through a letter to the Kwara State government dated April 26 where it demanded for the earnings of the former governor within the eight years he served the state.

Part of the investigation was to uncover how a N17 billion bond of the state was expended as well as the federal allocations to the state during Saraki’s tenure. Also at stake were some suspicious transactions by the state government under Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed. Many believe that the EFCC’s latest probe of Saraki is a continuation of the political persecution that he was subjected to from 2015.

For those in this category, apart from external forces that may want to see Saraki frustrated politically to the point of no-recovery, the failure of the 8th Senate to confirm the acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, twice after being duly nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari may be part of the problem. Saraki, apart from being the first senate president to be docked in the history of Nigerian democracy, was roundly defeated during the last presidential and National Assembly elections by Yahaya Ibrahim Oloriegbe, who clinched the seat for Kwara Central Senatorial District. Not only was Saraki defeated as an individual, all the people he chose to occupy other elective positions in the state lost their bids.

Saraki, who hitherto determined who became what in Kwara, did not succeed in installing anybody during the last elections as all the Senate and House of Representatives as well as governorship and state assembly seats went to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Some believe that those behind Saraki’s current travails do not want him to bounce back politically in the near future, hence the move to probe him. However, others believe that Saraki indeed has a case to answer in view of the revelations and discoveries made by the EFCC.

They believe that if Saraki is clean, as he claimed, he would once again be set free by the judiciary, the way he was set free during his prosecution on false assets declaration at the CCT. Saraki himself said the latest EFCC action was nothing but a witch-hunt intended to nail him at all costs. The senate president said through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, that the commission had relied on his tenure as governor as part of the probe that led to his prosecution at the CCT.

“At this point, we need to remind members of the public that Dr. Saraki’s tenure as Kwara State governor has been investigated several times since his last months in office in 2010 till date. “In fact, at a point, as incumbent governor, he voluntarily waived his immunity and submitted to investigation and yet nothing was found against him.

“Also, members of the public should be reminded that during the proceedings of his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) between 2015 and 2018, it became clear that the evidence relied upon was from investigations conducted by the EFCC on his tenure as governor and that is why the lead witness for the prosecution was an EFCC agent, Michael Wetkas. “Yet, the CCT in its judgement dismissed the 16 charges filed against Dr. Saraki and that verdict was upheld by the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court. However, we need to remind the commission that Dr. Saraki is not an outgoing governor.

“Since 2011, tens of governors have been in and out of our various state houses. Likewise, hundreds of senators and Representatives have been in and out of the National Assembly. “To single out one individual for persistent investigation can only be logically and plausibly interpreted to be a witch-hunt. This is definitely no fight against corruption. It is a battle waged against a ‘political enemy’. It is a ‘label to damage’ plot,” he said.

But the EFCC in its reaction said there was nothing like witch-hunt in its latest investigation of Saraki as it was only carrying out its mandate as an anti-graft agency, and that there was no going back. Reacting through its acting head of media and publicity, Mr Tony Orilade, EFCC said it had taken note of the reactions of Saraki to the commission’s inquiries regarding his earnings as Kwara State governor as well as on the quality of his financial stewardship in the senate. “While it is his prerogative to ventilate his views on the matter as he deems fit, the commission takes great exception at the desperate attempt to cast a slur on its investigative activities by portraying Saraki as a victim of persecution.

“Furthermore, the agency finds the attempt by the senate president to tie our inquest to his International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) appointment and his approaching life out of power as misleading, knowing too well that the background to our current inquiries reaches several years back. “For the avoidance of doubt, the EFCC is obligated by law to enthrone probity and accountability in the governance space and has supremely pursued this duty without ill-will or malice against anyone. It is in the interest of the public, and for Saraki’s personal good that he is not only above board, but be seen at all times to be so,” the commission said.

As part of the first phase of the investigation, the commission last week sealed off five houses in Lagos allegedly belonging to the Saraki. The houses were located at numbers 15, 15A, 17 and 17A McDonald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, which EFCC alleged that Saraki acquired using Kwara State funds without declaring same in his assets declaration.

Allow the Senate President be-Senator Meanwhile, a senator has said that the senate president should be left alone as the ongoing investigation was nothing but a witch-hunt. The senator, a member of the APC who does not want to be named, said probing Saraki at this time would certainly send a wrong signal, as the last time they prosecuted him.

“I don’t see any reason why they should go after the man at this time. Remember, they made him to go through a lot as senate president. He was docked, and he never enjoyed his tenure as senate president. “I feel this is a wrong move. We shouldn’t be seen to be doing this as a party or government. It was part of the frustration last time that made the man to leave the APC.

“They have succeeded in dismantling the man politically in Kwara, let them allow him to lick his wounds. If you look at the ongoing probe, what is it about? Saraki was a bank director and even headed his family’s bank. Are they saying he can’t own houses in Lagos or even in Manhattan?” the senator said.

By Ejikeme Omenazu



LAGOS – As lobbyists continue to throng the office and residence of Babajide Sanwo-Olu for appointments as commissioners and other offices, indications have emerged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) governor-elect in Lagos State may in his first term make do with ex-commissioners who served under former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his cabinet.

Informed party sources confided in DAILY INDEPENDENT on Thursday that Asiwaju Tinubu, the APC National Leader and godfather of Lagos politics, might have enlisted several of his former commissioners, when he held sway as the state governor, who had wanted to succeed him, but were dropped in the last minute in favour of Babatunde Fashola, his then Chief of Staff.

The sources stated that some of the former commissioners had thought that they were in good books of Tinubu to succeed him then and were preparing grounds for the party’s primary and had even printed posters as well as made few public appearances as aspirants under the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) platform.

However, at the dying minute, according to our sources, they were individually called and told in clear terms that the Alausa seat of power was not vacant and were advised to indicate in whatever capacity they could serve the state apart from the governorship.

Some of the then commissioners who managed to stay till the end of Tinubu’s tenure, however, became inactive, though they remained in the party, while others defected to other parties, where they could not make much impact.

Although some of the former commissioners also left to their states of origin to contest for offices, few others bagged federal appointments, while others who left the party, returned and had been very active in the APC and helped the party win the 2015 and 2019 general elections.

Our source maintained that now that the election had been won and people were being penciled down for appointments by the in-coming governor, the party’s leadership in the state felt that the time had come to reward the ex-commissioners and aspirants, whose dreams of governing Lagos were cut short by the special privilege granted to Fashola then.

This, the party leaders felt, would assuage any bitter feelings among the ex-commissioners and pay them back for their loyalty to the platform right over the years from the days of Alliance for Democracy (AD) to ACN and APC.

The source, who pleaded anonymity, stressed, “In fact, Sanwo-Olu will make do with these ex-commissioners as his cabinet members. Many of them will be rewarded this time around. One of them, a very powerful lady in the party who returned from the PDP with her full structures, has been tipped as Secretary of the State Government (SSG).

by MIKE ODIEGWU



Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information and Orientation Daniel Iworiso-Markson is encouraging talents in the oil-rich state as a strategy to curb crime among the youth, MIKE ODIEGWU reports

Amabebe Richard, a talented Bayelsa State-born youth, never anticipated an official visit by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson.


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The struggling Richard, whose craft is said to be unique, was only a caller in a live programme anchored by a radio station in Yenagoa.

Iworiso-Markson was a guest on the programme. Richard called and appealed to the state government to support the talents of those indigenous to the state.

Richard uses sawdust to fabricate fanciful lamp holders. He also uses it to screed walls. During the phone-in programme, the young entrepreneur pleaded with government to assist in developing budding talents.

The young man was surprised when the commissioner paid him a visit at his workplace in Yenagoa. The commissioner was accompanied by another aide of the state governor, Osaanya B. Osaanya. He never expected that the commissioner would locate his workshop to see things for himself. The 31-year-old entrepreneur was elated to receive his stately visitor.


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But it was not the first time the commissioner was paying such unscheduled visit to progressive people in the state. Some weeks ago, Iworiso-Markson followed a seven-year-old girl, Miss Ebiladei Mike home to see her mother and discuss the future of the young talent.

The commissioner had visited a venue of a skill acquisition programme organised by Girl Preneur 9ja (GP9ja) and saw the child among adults learning skills. He engaged the young girl and later stunned her mother with a visit accompanied by the girl. It was a morale booster for the humble family.

Therefore, encouraging the youth to grow and develop their potential has become part of the commissioner viewed by many people as a passionate apostle of the Restoration Government and the most outstanding aide of Governor Seriake Dickson.

Iworiso-Markson told Richard that the Governor Seriake Dickson-led administration would continue to support young people who are interested in entrepreneurship by creating the right environment for them and also providing seed capital to grow their businesses.

Assessing the work of Richard, the commissioner was stunned that the young man could use sawdust to fabricate lamp holders and screed walls. He promised the entrepreneur that the government, through the relevant agencies, would give him the opportunity to be more established; a situation that will enable him to export his products.

Iworiso-Markson, who was filled with excitement, said Bayelsa has abundant talents ready to rule their world if given the opportunity. He called on some individuals who have the penchants for criminality to emulate serious-minded people such as Amabebe so that they will be useful to themselves and the society.

He said: “Skill acquisition and entrepreneurship are often acquired through mentorship or training but I am surprised that this is not the case for this young man. He didn’t have any formal or informal training on this. That shows the raw talent deposited in him.

“I am overwhelmed, especially with the fact that he is a Bayelsan who hails from Southern Ijaw Local Government Area. Personally, I will patronise him and the Restoration Government of His Excellency will do everything to make sure he succeeds in his chosen field. We will not relent in providing the needed environment and funding for him and others.

“Let me use this opportunity to call on our young people who are engaged in petty and violent crimes to desist from them. Everyone has a talent and if you discover yours, you will be the next big thing. Crime does not pay in anyway but with your talent, be rest assured that you will never go hungry,” he said.

Responding, Amabebe said he invented the products after many years of practice.

“I have been practising to fine-tune my invention. I discovered many ways of making many products using sawdust. I reasoned that apart from the use of piles and wood, sawdust could also be useful”, he said.

He said his handiwork had demonstrated to the world that sawdust could be used to produce fittings, wall brackets, chandelier, lamp holders, plastering, flower vase, ceiling boards, doors and other items.

by Nduka Chiejina


State governments will soon smile to the banks as the federal government has concluded plans to commence the final phase of the Paris Club debt refunds.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday on the state of the economy, Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed disclosed: “The total sum of N649.434 billion was verified by the Ministry as the outstanding balance to be refunded to the State Governments.”

She also revealed the payments made by the Central Bank of Nigeria as at March 2019 stands at N691.560 billion.

“The increase in CBN payments partly arose from exchange rate differential at the point of payment,” she said.

Ahmed, while not divulging the status of the states with regards to the Paris Club disbursements noted “some states still have outstanding balances, which will be refunded, in due course.”

The finance minister also stated that a total sum of N4.8 trillion was distributed to the three-tiers of government between September 2018 and April 2019 from the Federation Account noting “the sum of N784.7 billion realized from value added tax (VAT) for the same period was also shared.”

Speaking on Nigeria’s growing debt profile, the finance minister stated “the debt increase from N12.2 trillion to N23.0 trillion is by design.”

The Federal Government, she said “designed the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) to reflate the economy to take us out of recession when we came on board and we made an assessment, it was clear that our country was going into recession.

“When we did a research on the best way to reverse the recession was to reflate the economy and that means putting resources in the economy so that consumption will increase.”

Based on government’s findings, she said they “designed the ERGP to borrow in the first, second and third years and in the fourth year the borrowing was supposed to start reducing. That is exactly what we have done.”

Defending the borrowing, Zainab Ahmed said government “made sure that we borrowed to finance capital projects.

“At the same time we went into recession there were other countries similar to Nigeria that went into recession. Some of them are still not out of recession but because of the method we adopted.

“But the consequence of course is the increase in debt and that is why the ministry of finance and all its agencies are working to make sure that we increase revenues.”

She reiterated “at 19.09% Debt to GDP ratio we still are the lowest comparative to countries like Brazil, South Africa that all have an average of 56% debt to GDP ratio.

“If you look at our budget the debt service to GDP ratio is 30% but because revenues underperformed it went as high as 50% to 55% and in some months up to 60%. So if our revenues perform optimally we are in a good place as far as revenues are concerned.”

The finance minister said the country’s External Reserves grew from $28.3 billion in 2015 to US $44.69 billion as at May 13, 2019.

“This represents a significant improvement that has helped to stabilize the economy, including stabilizing our exchange rates,” she stated.

Also the Foreign Exchange (FX) market, she said, “remains relatively stable because from 2017 to now there is a significant convergence of the NIFEX and NAFEX windows and they have in fact merged by the end of November 2018.

Samuel Ogidan, Abuja



Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday reacted to allegation against him by the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration, alleging that he has made treasonable statements.

In his reaction, Atiku said that it is not surprising that such a despicable lie is emanating from Lai Mohammed, who President Buhari aptly named Minister of Information.

Atiku, in a statement by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe said that those who employed Lai Mohammed know that he’s a liar, who will even lie during the holy month of Ramadan.

The former Vice President, who said that only the guilty are afraid, added that Lai Mohammed is so associated with lies that even Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said, on Monday, May 13, 2019, that “people like Lai Mohammed, Abba Kyari, Adamu Adamu they are usually very well behaved during the Ramadan. But I’m not even sure that that is true anymore.”

“When we have a situation where even those who employed him know that Lai Mohammed is a liar, who will even lie during the holy month of Ramadan, then why should Nigerians be surprised at this latest lie?

“Mr Lai Mohammed is only being clever by half when he says ‘It beggars belief that a candidate who prides himself as a democrat can so allow desperation to becloud his sense of propriety to such an extent that he will be associating with anti-democratic forces or making inflammatory statements.’

“Atiku Abubakar is a man of peace and a thoroughbred democrat. It is preposterous that those who threatened to ‘soak the dog and the baboon in blood’ are now audacious enough to point the finger at lifelong democrats. Truly, if the farmer does not raise the alarm on time, the thief will accuse him of being a thief.

“How can a man who wined and dined with Nigeria’s most brutal dictator, how can a man who overthrew a democratically elected President and held a grudge against him even in death (as evidenced by the empty condolence register he left in Sokoto, last year) accuse a man who has never been as much as associated with such tendencies, of being an anti-democrat?” he said.

Asking why Buhari’s government is so desperate to implicate him, Atiku said, “we want to know why the desperation on the part of the Muhammadu Buhari government to rope in the Peoples Democratic Party and its Presidential candidate in phantom plots? Obviously, President Buhari wants to replay the Phantom plot saga of his now deceased mentor, who threw former President Olusegun Obasanjo in jail after falsely accusing him of treason in order to perpetuate himself in power.

“Could it be that they are now aware that the electoral fraud they perpetrated during the last Presidential election is about to be exposed beyond a shadow of a doubt?

“If anybody is ‘beating the drums of war’, it is precisely those who have issued statements threatening Nigerians and foreigners alike with ‘body bags.’

“For the avoidance of doubt, let me inform the minister of disinformation that Atiku Abubakar resisted the Abacha dictatorship, of which President Muhammadu Buhari was a prominent member, and it is his resistance and the sacrifice of his co-travellers, like chief MKO Abiola and Alex Ekwueme, amongst others, that gave rise to the democracy that the current government is now trampling on.”

The former Vice President, however, advised Lai Mohammed to face the alleged cesspool of corruption that has been exposed in his ministry.

By Samson Akintaro


Dominant telecom operator in the country, MTN, lost 2.09 million subscribers between January and March this year, New Telegraph has learnt.

The telco, which had 67.1 million active subscribers at the end of 2018, ended March 2019 with 65 million active customers, according to statistics released by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

However, the decline in number of subscribers could not stop the company from generating N282 billion from voice and data services in the first three months of the year, as revealed in its recently released Q1 result.

As at the end of March, MTN still remained the largest telecom operator by subscriber in the country with 37 per cent share of the market.

The telecom industry’s data for March released yesterday by NCC showed that total active subscriptions across the mobile networks rose marginally by 156,335 to reach 173.4 million as against 173.2 million recorded in February.

While MTN lost 531,283 million active subscriptions in the month, other GSM operators, Globacom, Airtel and 9mobile gained more subscriptions.

Analysis of the statistics showed that Globacom retained its second position with 46.2 million subscriptions as it gained 199,186 subscriptions in the month.

Airtel emerged as highest gainer for the month as it added 262,803 new users to achieve 45.2 million active subscriptions in the month.

9mobile also maintained its steady return to subscription growth as it gained 107,822 subscriptions, which brought its total active customers to 16.8 million.

Despite the marginal rise in the number of active subscriptions, the country’s teledensity declined from 124.05 per cent in February to 91 per cent.

Teledensity refers to the number of telephone connections for every 100 individuals living within an area and it varies widely across the country.

NCC noted that from March 2019, teledensity is now being calculated based on a population estimate of 190 million as against 140 million being used over the years.

Meanwhile, the figure of active Internet subscribers over the mobile networks rose by 1.2 million to hit 115.9 million by the end of March.

The data showed that MTN also maintained the lead in data customers with 46.5 million users, while Airtel came second in data subscriptions with 31.2 million active users. Globacom had 28.4 million Internet subscriptions as at March while 9mobile had 9.6 million.

Deji Elumoye in Abuja


Five out of the 64 senators-elect of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have signified their intention to run for the position of Deputy Senate President (DSP) of the ninth National Assembly ahead of its inauguration in June.

This is coming just as Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, directed all his legislative aides to prepare their handover notes before the 8th Senate winds down in June.

Those angling to take over as DSP from Senator Ike Ekweremadu include ranking Senators Kabiru Gaya (North-west), Francis Alimikhena (South-south), Ovie Omo-Agege (South-south), Ajayi Boroffice (South-west) and first term Senator-elect Orji Uzor-Kalu (South-east).

The aspirants have since commenced consultations and campaigns among both returning and fresh Senators about their ambition.

Sources told THISDAY that the aspirants have intensified their campaigns by meeting with both APC and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senators-elect and stressing the need for their colleagues to vote for them.

One of the aspirants, Senator Boroffice (Ondo North) on his part, has written formally to all the senators-elect seeking their endorsement as DSP.

He stated that he was seeking the support of the senators-elect across party lines based on his proven experience having been in the upper legislative chamber since 2011 and currently serving as Chairman of the Senate Committeee on Science and Technology

Boroffice’s letters of intent which he personally signed were sent to the offices of returning senators at the National Assembly complex on Monday while that of fresh Senators were dispatched same day by courier.

Gaya (Kano South), the first to officially declare his interest shortly after his re-election in March has been in the Senate since 2007 and is the Chairman of Senate Committee on Works.

Alimikhena (Edo North), who is Vice Chairman of Senate Committee on Housing and is returning for a second time, has been discreetly canvassing for votes from his colleagues.

On his part, Omo-Agege, who won election into the Senate in 2015 on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) before defecting to APC in 2016, was last week formally endorsed by the South-south APC chairpersons.

In a letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari and signed by all the six APC Chairmen, they said Omo-Agege was being endorsed because of his loyalty to President Buhari as well as the federal government.

Kalu (Abia Central), a former two-time governor of Abia state and a fresh Senator said he believed the APC will zone the position of DSP to the South East.

Kalu, who made his intention known at the orientation programme held for federal legislators-elect in Abuja last month, has continued to impress it upon his colleagues why he should be elected DSP having served as a member of the House of Representatives during the Third Republic.

Although the national leadership of the APC had only officially zoned the Senate Presidency to the North-east, there are indications that the DSP may be zoned to the South-south

Meanwhile, the Senate President has mandated his legislative aides to prepare their handover note ahead of the termination of the Eighth Senate in June.

In a one-page memo titled ‘Handover Notes’ and signed by his Chief of Staff, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Saraki directed his legislative aides to prepare their handover notes “that should include name, rank/designation, basic responsibilities, key achievements under your mandate/responsibilities, assignments you are currently engaged in and any other matter you may wish to place on record that will assist the new Senate.”

Saraki further reminded the legislative aides that “the Ninth Senate will benefit from a comprehensive document detailing records of our individual mandates and assignments, major activities undertaken as well as advise on consolidating achievements of the Office of the President of the Eighth Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki.”.

Chineme Okafor in Oxford, UK

Countries in Africa that have adopted Information Technology (IT) in their electoral processes now have to deal with a new challenge, systems hacking, which now threatens the practice of democracy in the continent, a former President of Ghana, Mr. John Mahama, has said.

Mahama’s disclosure came at a time Nigeria’s 2019 presidential election is blemished with claims of alleged hacking of the electoral commission’s IT system by both leading parties in the election – the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mahama, who was the President of Ghana from 2012 to 2017, and now the presidential candidate of Ghana’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 2020 presidential election, said at the Saïd Business School in the University of Oxford that hacking of IT-based electoral systems in Africa is real.

The former president delivered a lecture and equally answered questions on democracy and elections in Africa at the weekend.

The session was organised by the African Studies Centre (ASC) and Oxford Africa Business Alliance.

The Director of ASC, Prof. Wale Adebanwi, moderated the session.

Mahama said that stakeholders and political players in the continent recently met at the Obasanjo Presidential Library in Ogun State where the realities of electoral hacking was revealed to them with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) subsequently opting to take up the challenge.

According to him, ethnic bigotry and rising insecurity were threats to democracy in the continent but, “other areas of challenges in electoral systems exist and we need to look at that.”

“The increased use of IT in elections has become topical. The use of IT in results cancellations and the possibilities of hacking have created new fears about the manipulation of results. Examples of this can be found in the recent elections in Ghana, Kenya and Sierra Leone,” Mahama, explained.

He noted: “During the last presidential election in Ghana, the electoral commission directed its staff to stop using the electronic transmission system to communicate results to the tallying centre because the system had been compromised.

“The results had to therefore be tallied manually, leading to attendant tensions and delay of announcements of the final results. I am not aware the electoral commission had carried out any investigation into what compromised their electoral system, and even if they have, we the stakeholders have not been briefed.

“We huddled recently in Abeokuta at the Obasanjo Presidential Library with political leaders, electoral officers, IT experts and of course, hackers, to discuss the use of IT systems in elections and how to avoid electoral disputes arising out of their use. Happily, I am pleased to announce that ECOWAS has taken up the challenge from then and accepted to organise an in-depth discussion with all stakeholders in West Africa on the use of IT in elections.

“They showed how IT systems could be compromised. But it is real. They are able to hack into a system and bring it down and bring out whatever they wanted. It was eye opening and President Obasanjo spoke to the ECOWAS.”

He said further: “Activities of specialised organisations offering election manipulation services have become commonplace in Africa too. As new media overtakes the traditional mainstream media as the main source of choice for information that influences voters’ decisions, the role of such organisations is going to become even more crucial.”

Emphasising that democracy must go hand-in-hand with empowering local communities and people, Mahama stated that the spread of terrorism may undermine Africa’s democracy. “Democracy cannot thrive in insecurity,” he added.

On how much of impact democratic governance has had on African countries, Mahama, noted that there was still a lot of ground to be covered on this because according to him, democracy in the continent was still fragile, with many vulnerable groups losing out, while citizens increasingly question the need to participate in elections if their lives are not impacted.

Seven years after the federal government commenced the gradual implementation of the Single Treasury Account (TSA) in 2012, the legislature and the judiciary are yet to comply with the policy.

Even without the participation of the two arms of government in the scheme, transactions in the TSA have reached an all-time high of N30 trillion, the executive arm of government has said.

TSA is a unified structure of government bank accounts where revenue accruing to Ministries, Departments and Agencies are paid into one account before disbursement. The policy enhances the consolidation and optimal use of public funds.

Surprisingly, the legislature and the judiciary are yet to key into almost four years after the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari made it mandatory for all MDAs and all arms of government.

The refusal of the judiciary and legislature to join the platform which also seeks to entrench transparency, accountability and ease of transactions across government establishments was announced yesterday in Abuja by the director in charge of TSA in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), Mr. Sylva Okolieaboh.

He told journalists that the refusal of both the judiciary and the legislature to join the platform was simply “political”.

Okolieaboh said: “In terms of coverage, everybody is in apart from the judiciary and the National Assembly. But their non-involvement is something that is a little bit political. It’s something we intend to look into in the coming months.”

The director, who said the policy enjoys 100 per cent support from the executive, quickly remarked that “the coverage is not 100 per cent. The inability of the judiciary and the National Assembly to join is political. But I believe it’s something that can be sorted out…”

He also disclosed that the TSA policy has recorded about N30 trillion transactions, with about N10 trillion passing through the account in terms of cash remittance and withdrawals.

According to him, “if you are looking at transactions in terms of turnover, we should be talking of about N20trillion and N30 trillion. Remember money is in and out of the TSA.”

Okolieaboh spoke on the sideline of a visit by a delegation from The Gambia to Nigeria on a European Union (EU)-funded visit to understudy the implementation of TSA in the country.

The Gambian team led by the permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Ada Gaya and the country’s accountant-general, Momodou Lamin Bah, met with some government officials, including the minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, the accountant-general of the federation, who was represented by the director of Funds in OAGF, Muhammad Usman, in Abuja.

Okolieaboh, however, did not disclose the current balance in the TSA.

In her welcome address, Ahmed said that the coming of government officials from The Gambia to understudy the successful implementation of TSA in Nigeria reaffirmed the fact that what Nigeria had done with the policy was a good example.

Ahmed said: “TSA has helped us to enforce our liquidity management. We have been able to track transactions that are coming in or going out. And every agency of government has an account in the TSA. Because the funds are pooled, it has helped us to enhance liquidity management.

“Without TSA, you have a lot of challenges with accounting preparations and liquidity management,” she added and advised the visitors to also understudy the implementation of the TSA in some states of the federation that have differences in operation with the federal government.

Ahmed further charged the delegation to learn from the Nigerian experience and improve on management of their country’s funds.

The Gambia’s accountant-general said that the aim of the trip is to “make a big impact, a big outcome from this visit. We want to make sure all areas are covered using technology. We want to know how Nigeria has done it. We want to enhance the payment system with EFG. We want to do away with manual payment. We want to know how you are handling revenue management,” he stated.

The Gambian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Amadou Sheikh Taal, expressed optimism that the delegation would learn a lot from Nigeria’s TSA policy. “That is the way it should be because we are members of one community,” he said, adding that if the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is able to achieve a single currency, “it will help us in terms of trade, and there is free movement of people; trade will be facilitated.”


Reps Decry Reckless Spending By MDAs

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has expressed worry over the reckless spending of public funds by MDAs.

The chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Kinsley Chinda, stated this yesterday during an interaction with newsmen in Abuja on the activities of the committee.

Chinday said that nothing has really changed from the reckless system of public spending by MDAs.

He said: “Not much has changed. Public spending is still not very responsible and so we need to begin to change. One of the problems we have is that our institutions are very weak, the government is not making efforts to strengthen the institutions and, therefore, when you talk about the fight against corruption, you find out that it might not be sustained because the institutions that ought to fight corruption are not strengthened.”

He stated that unless the Audit Commission Bill is assented to by the president, reckless spending would continue to derail the fight against corruption.

The lawmaker revealed that the committee has cleared the auditor-general report from 2010 to 2014 and also laid the 2010 report before the National Assembly.

Chinda disclosed that 552 MDAs were queried by the office of the auditor-general between 2010 and 2014, adding that of that number, the committee was able to consider 512 of the queries.

He said: “During the exercise, the committee was also able to, in 2010, recovered or mapped out the recovery sum of N1. 967billion. And then, we also referred to the relevant authorities; that is, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Nigeria Police, the sum of N72. 567 billion and $1. 819 million for recovery.

“Among the fixed assets, two Peugeot 504 cars, one Peugeot 406 valued N1.46million, and then one berretta pistol and 13 round live ammunition were also returned to the federal government,” he stated.

By Sunday Ejike – Abuja

Former governor of Akwa Ibom state on Tuesday told a Federal High Court, Abuja that he moved to the All Progressive Party (APC) because the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) expelled him from the party.

While urging the court to dismiss the suit filed last year by the Legal Defense and Assistant Project (LEDAP) seeking to declare the seat of Akpabio and 54 other national lawmakers vacant over their defection from one political party to the other in 2018, the former governor said the PDP in his ward suspended him, after which he was expelled from the party at the local government level.

Speaking through his counsel, Sunday Ameh (SAN), the Senator representing Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District at the Senate said the date of the two incidences, in exhibits A and B, was July and August 2019.

“When juxtaposed with the calendar for the primary elections as issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the intention of the PDP then, was to render him fait accompli and to deny him a platform to contest the election, as his nomination must come from the ward up”, Ameh told the court.
The senior counsel said Akpabio, who is the 3rd defendant in the suit filed by LEDAP was thrown out of the PDP at a very crucial moment in a political arrangement towards 2019 general election.

“In order not to fall prey of the gang-up, calculated at turning him into political orphan and preventing him from participating in the 2019 general, “He has to take advantage of his constitutional right under Section 40 of the constitution to join the APC that was willing to accept him after his party has thrown him out”.
Ameh told the court what the PDP did to Akpabio was an uncommon situation and that is why he seeks a constitutional remedy.

He said if Akpabio’s action was not correct, the PDP would have applied to be joined in the matter to say that the 3rd defendant willingly left the party and urged the court to dismiss the suit for being incompetent and lacking in merit.

Earlier in his oral submission, counsel to the plaintiff, Jibrin Okutepa (SAN) insisted that there was no division to warrant the defendants’ defection, adding also that the further counter affidavit deposed to personally shows that defendants have admitted that there was no division in their parties.

Okutepa, while urging the court to discountenance the arguments of Akpabio’s counsel said, “When you have a petty local quarrel within your political party at the ward level, it does not give you an unbridled license to join another political party.

“What they put as expulsion from his local branch, does not constitute a division known to law to bring the case of the 3rd defendant under Section 58(1)(g) of the 1999 constitution, as amended”, Okutepa added.

He urged the court to hold that the defence raised in the further counter affidavit cannot avail the 3rd defendant the ground to stop the court from making an order sacking the defendants from their seat at the National Assembly Counsel to Senate President Bukola Saraki and other defendants in the suit, Mahmud Magaji (SAN) in his submission, urged the court to dismiss the suit as filed by the plaintiff for constituting an abuse of court process.

“If a person is suspended, expelled or removed from a political party, he can move to another political party of his choice. The 3rd defendant only exercised his freedom of association and urged the court to dismiss the suit without cost.

The trial Judge, in a bench ruling, said judgment in the suit will be delivered on May 17, 2019, subject to availability of judicial time.
LEDAP had last year approached the Court with a suit seeking to declare the seat of the affected national lawmakers vacant over their defection to the two major political parties in 2018.