₦airaland Forum

Alhaji Idi Mukhtar, Managing Director, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), says the company will begin daily release of 2 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from Wednesday.

Mukhtar announced this on Tuesday while receiving the leadership of the state Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in his office.

He said the company would commence the supply to address the hardship faced by motorists and commuters due to the scarcity of the product.

“I want to announce that by tomorrow, Wednesday, Kaduna Refinery will begin operation with the release of 2 million litters of PMS to motorists in Kaduna and its environs.

“This will help reduce the hardship the citizens are facing due to the fuel scarcity in the state and other parts of the region.

“Sustainability of the product is another issue Nigerians will want to hear but I can tell you that with the available crude oil, we will be producing 2 million litres of PMS a day.

“I can assure you that all hands are on deck to ensure constant supply; we also hope Nigerians will continue to pray for it to be sustained,’’ Mukhtar said.

He blamed the scarcity of the product on some persons in the society whom he described as “bad elements’’.

“We have witnessed 13 infractions on our pipelines between Abuja to Kaduna from March to April.

“We are losing fuel due to activities of unpatriotic elements tampering with pipelines, and this is unfortunate,’’ he said.

Muktar, therefore appealed to the media to intensify campaigns against activities of vandals, stressing that it was time they (vandals) realised the harm done to the country through their unpatriotic behaviour.

He assured the NUJ of the company’s readiness to partner the media in public enlightenment to tackle the activities of those sabotaging government efforts to ensure steady supply of fuel.

Chairman of the council, Malam Muhammed Garba, congratulated Mukhtar on his elevation from Executive Director Services, to Managing Director of the KRPC.

Garba pledged the union’s support to the company through adequate publicity to ensure smooth supply of product.

If reports by The Whistle are anything to go by, then about N500m may have gone into the planned protest tagged #OccupyNASS against the National Assembly under the leadership by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki tomorrow, Tuesday, 26th of April, 2016.

According to the protest led by the Citizens United for Peace and Stability (CUPS ) Nigeria, about 50,000 Nigerians from across the country are expected to occupy “the National Assembly to reclaim Nigeria from the criminal Mafia cabal run by Bukola Saraki.”

The Whistle reports that a phone conversation between two of the major organizers of the protest revealed that the key principal actors behind the protests are former Lagos governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai.

Nasir El-rufai was said to have mobilized resources from some of his cooperating colleagues in the North West and have agreed to take responsibility for the welfare and logistics of about 3000 protesters who will converge in Abuja for the planned protest.

The organizer revealed that a handful number of protesters arrived Abuja yesterday from Lagos had been well “taken care of” by a political aide to the former Lagos governor.

The organizer estimated that a total of N500m will have gone down into this operation based on the budget estimates sent to the key stakeholders.

The organizer said that the monies were not paid into the organization’s account. According to the organizer, CUPS started a fundraising campaign using the internet to create a false impression that the protest was citizen sponsored but has only succeeded in raising just over one million Naira only which he said was for the feeding of just about 1000 people.

The organizer who is obviously distraught that the other party is concealing information on some of the support received from some other unnamed parties and the distribution reminded our reporter that the interests of both El-Rufai an Tinubu on the Saraki issue is long standing.

He said that the CCT Chairman, Justice Danladi Umar was El-Rufai’s boy on the account of working under the Kaduna state governor during his stint as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. He reportedly told The Whistle to recall that the prosecution lawyer in the case, Mr Rotimi Jacobs SAN, openly said in court that Governor El-Rufai provided all evidence that will be used against Saraki.

The Senate President, Mr Bukola Saraki in a letter released on Saturday, April 23, listed Tinubu as one of the kingpins behind his ordeal .

He noted that this was as a result of his vehement opposition and resistance to the idea of a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket by his party the APC being sponsored with Tinubu scheming to become the vice presidential candidate.

Saraki also allegedly suggested that his ascendancy to the Senate President position against Tinubu’s scheming has bruised the ego of the acclaimed political grandmaster.

The embattled Saraki who was is currently being tried by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for allegation of false declaration of assets.

Only recently, an investigation by Premium Times suggested that the embattled Senate President transferred a total of $3.47 million in 40 installments in four years with his credit card to the United States (US).

He carried out the transactions through Guarantee Trust Bank between 2009, when he served as Kwara state governor, and 2012 when he served as the senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial District, the report revealed.

Meanwhile there has been debates over who will step into Saraki’s shoes, if eventually he gets kicked out following the verdict of the CCT. In a latest development, Breaking Times have reported that about 10 senators who are members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have concluded a deal with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support its candidate for the Senate Presidency if Senator Bukola Saraki is forced to resign at the end of his on-going CCT trial.

lalasticlala

Two persons died early Sunday morning after a truck crushed a herdsman in Ogun state in an accident which occurred at Obada Oko area along the old Lagos-Abeokuta expressway, Abeokuta.

The accident involved two trucks, a green coloured Austin Tipper truck with registration number (LAGOS) KJA168 XP and a wine coloured DAF truck marked (OGUN) TRE 270 XA.

The accident occurred around 2:00 am on Sunday morning when a group of Fulani herdsmen were rearing their cattle along the expressway at Obada Oko in the Ewekoro local government area of the state.

Our correspondent gathered that the driver of the sand filled Austin tipper truck only sighted the herdsmen and their cattle on the expressway at the last minute and while attempting to apply his break he lost control.

The driver of the tipper truck and his motor-boy, whose identities could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report died on the spot after their truck had veered off the expressway and crashed into the bush.

Confirming the accident to PM News,the Public Relations Officer, PRO of the State’s Traffic Enforcement and Compliance Corp (TRACE), Babatunde Akinbiyi disclosed that the driver of the other DAF truck which was fast approaching the scene of the crash, also lost control of his vehicle, swerved off the road and eventually crashed into the nearby bush.

A cow that died as a result of the auto crash
Akinbiyi added that the two occupants of the DAF truck however, escaped the crash unhurt.

The two vehicles have been towed to the Corp’s garage in Abeokuta while the dead cow has been parked to the side of the road.

Meanwhile, the remains of the deceased have been deposited at the morgue at Ifo General Hospital.

Overwhelmed by opposition to his candidacy, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, yesterday met with the former Chairman of Northern Governors Forum, ex-Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu.

He urged Aliyu to prevail on some party leaders to take it easy on the opposition to his candidacy.

The embattled PDP leader was shocked that the opposition against his return to office is more pronounced in the North.
Sheriff arrived at Aliyu’s Mandara Close, Aso Drive Abuja home at about 6.01pm and left before 7pm.

He came in the company of a senator and three associates and thereafter entered into the inner recess of the mansion for a meeting with the ex-governor.

A top source, who was privy to the meeting, said: “Sheriff actually came to solicit for support from Aliyu and his group for his return as the PDP leader.

“He assured the former governor that he is seeking the mandate to reorganise the PDP before the next election in order to defeat the All Progressives Congress(APC).

“Sheriff is no doubt under pressure because of the gang-up against his desire to return to office on May 21. Most leaders of PDP from the North cannot understand why Sheriff will want to be National Chairman at a time the zone is seeking the party’s 2019 presidential ticket.

“They see his ambition to lead the party as a spoiler’s game which will not help the North.”

A member of the National Working Committee (NWC) said: “The fear of Sheriff’s candidacy is about his alleged presidential aspiration. Some PDP leaders are suspecting that Sheriff might transmute from party leadership to presidential candidacy.

“Others see his desire to retain his seat beyond May 21 as a gross violation of the PDP zoning formula. If Bamanga Tukur and Adamu Muazu from the Northeast have led PDP in the last three to four years, what is the rationale in giving the slot to another candidate from the Northeast?
“Going by our zoning policy, it is the turn of the South to produce the next national chairman of PDP. If Sheriff re-emerges, it might lead to the disintegration of PDP because many leaders will leave the party.”

Also yesterday, former presidential spokesman Dr. Doyin Okupe, said the zoning of the PDP national chairman position to the North is injurious to the interest of the Southwest.

He said the party has ignored the virtues of justice and equity, warning that the marginalisation of the zone might herald mass defection.

Okupe reflected on the zoning controversy, chiding some Southwest chieftains, who he described as charlatans, for collaborating with top party leaders to relegate the zone to the background.

In a statement titled: “PDP and the burden of justice and equity”, the former presidential aide alleged that the seed of misrepresentation was sowed by a group of political clowns and court jesters.”

He noted that the Southwest PDP elders, led by the former National Deputy Chairman Chief Olabode George, have condemned the “traitors” during their recent summit in Lagos.

He said the Southwest PDP has the intention of bidding for the position during the national convention.

Okupe said: “ I want to state categorically, without any fear of equivocation, that we, the Yoruba from the Southwest, desire and demand the post of the national chairman at the next convention of the party.

“The following are the past chairmen: Chief Solomon Lar, Chief Gemade, Audu ogbe, prince Ogbolafor, Dr Nwodo, Alhadji Baraje, dr Haliru Bello(Acting), Alhaji Bamangar Tukur, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, Prince Secondus(Acting),and Sen Sheriff.

“In the last 18 years, there have been 11 chairmen from five geo-political zones. Only the Yoruba from the Southwest have been precluded from this exalted office.

“In the interest of fairness, equity and justice, it is most compelling that the Yoruba of the Southwest zone must be allowed to contest for this post at this coming National convention.”

Okupe warned that any attempt to deny the Southwest the position could spell doom.

He said: “Any attempt to do anything to the contrary, no matter the reason advanced cannot be acceptable. Failure for a Yoruba man to emerge as the national chairman can only mean two things: that there is a pervasive and concealed hatred for the Southwest in the PDP, or the PDP has very little or no regard for Yoruba interest as shown by the obvious cheating of the Southwest from the position of the House of Representatives Speaker in 2011, which was neither rectified nor compensated for the whole of four years.”

Okupe added: “The sad implication of the above is that, regrettably, many of us from the southwest may have to reconsider our membership of this great party we have helped to nurture and supported through thick and thing, a party we have loved almost more than our very existence, and the party we have served with all our natural endowment, in victory and defeat.”

The embattled Senate President transferred a total of $3.47 million in 40 installments in four years with his credit card to the United States, a document obtained by PREMIUM TIMES revealed.

He carried out the transactions through Guarantee Trust Bank between 2009, when he served as Kwara State governor, and 2012 when he served as the senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial District.

Prosecutors say the beneficiary accounts in the U.S. were also owned by Mr. Saraki.
Some of the senator’s companies, during the same period, also transferred thousands of dollars to the U.S. accounts. The companies are Carlisle Properties and West Gate Ltd.

Mr. Saraki is currently facing a 13-count charge bordering on corruption and false asset declaration at the Code of Conduct Tribunal. He allegedly committed the offence when he served as governor between 2003 and 2011.

The politician has denied any wrongdoing and alleged political persecution.
Of the 13-count charges filed against the senate president, two are related to the transfer of the $3.47 million.

Count 11 of the charges filed against Mr. Saraki states: That you, DR. OLUBUKOLA ABUBAKAR SARAKI on or about 25th August, 2008 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Tribunal, while being a public officer as the Executive Governor of Kwara State did operate a bank account outside Nigeria when you transferred the sum of $73, 223.28 (Seventy Three Thousand, Two Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand Dollars, Twenty-Eight cents) from your Guaranty Trust Bank Plc domiciliary account No 441441953210 to the American Express Services Europe Limited No: 730580 for onward credit to your American Express Bank, New York card account No:374588216836009 and you thereby committed an offence contrary to paragraph 3 of Part I, Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Section 7 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act and punishable under paragraph 9 of the said Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and section 23 (2) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act.

Count 12 states: That you, DR. OLUBUKOLA ABUBAKAR SARAKI between August, 2009 and October 2012 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Tribunal, while being a public officer as the Executive Governor of Kwara State and Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria did operate a bank account outside Nigeria when you transferred the aggregate sum of $3, 400, 000.00 (Three Million, Four Hundred Thousand Dollars) from your Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. domiciliary account No 441441953210 to the American Express Services Europe Limited no: 730580 for onward credit to your American Express Bank, New York card account No:374588216836009 and you thereby committed an offence contrary to paragraph 3 of Part I, Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and section 7 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act and punishable under paragraph 9 of the said Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and section 23 (2) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act.

A prosecution witness had told the CCT that documents related to the transfer were destroyed in an inferno.

When being cross examined by the defence counsel, Paul Usoro, at the Tribunal last Tuesday, the prosecution witness, Michael Wetkas, said Guaranty Trust Bank, GTB, told the investigation team that the transaction documents had been burnt.

“There were also police reports and affidavit which they (the GTB) swore to show that some documents were burnt,” Mr. Wetkas stated.

The document, obtained exclusively by PREMIUM TIMES, shows that Mr. Saraki, on August 26, 2009, transferred the $72,223.25 to the American Express Services Europe Limited no: 730580 for onward credit to the American Express Bank, New York card account No:374588216836009.

Following the transfer, the bank charged him a commission of $732.23. It is not clear what the money transferred was meant for.
That same day (August 26) one of his companies, Carlisle Properties Investment, transferred another $49,969.00.

Between September 2009 and October 2012, Mr. Saraki transferred over $3 million.
According to the document, in 2009 the senate president transferred $127,174.05 on September 8; $85,543.88 on October 21; and $127,586.41 on November 11.

In 2010, he transferred $140,319 on January 4; $140,000 on March 15; $84,000 on April 16; $134,000 on May 18; $64,000 on June 21; $80,984 on July 29; $100,000 on August 31; $18,000 on September 2; $$48,900 on October 11; and $183,232.46 on December 8;

In 2011, Mr. Saraki transferred $32,687 on February 21; $30,656.74 on March 22; $111,444.79 on June 22; $43, 651 on July 19; $91,738 on August 16; $10,000 on August 26; $65,000 on August 29; $112,140 on September 27; $147,000 on November 17; and $86,872.10 on December 14.

The document also shows that in 2012, he transferred $50,000 on January 4; $145,000 on January 27; $7000 on January 27; $94,754.63 on February 10; $60,000 on April 12; $70,000 on May 11; $55,000 on May 17; $89,411.74 on June 12; $45,000 on September 6; and $45,308 on September 24; $130,000 on October 11; $77,000 on February 17; $77,000 on February 20; $70,648.44 on March 29; $70,000 on July 4; $138,000 on July 16; and $45,000 on September 5.

Just as Mr. Saraki was making the transactions, his companies were also transferring monies to the U.S. totalling $2,099,257.00.

For instance, apart from the August 26 transfer in 2009, Carlisle also transferred $59,964 on September 7; $99,961.30 on October 16; $109,000 on November 11; $50,000 on August 12; and $150,000 on December 31.

In 2010, the company transferred $40,000 on April 14; $44,000 on April 15; $134,000 on May 14; $64,000 on June 17; $40,000 on July 23; $90,000 on August 27; $10,000 on August 30; $9,974 on August 31; $6,900 on September 1; $7,974 on September 2; $42,600 on October 5; and $183,000 on December 6.

In 2011, it further transferred $32,000 on February 21; $30,700 on March 17; $40,730.35 on May 5; $111,400 on June 7; $43,660 on July 18; $48,800 on August 10; $43,000 on August 16; $25,750 on August 29; $40,250 on August 29; $112,800 on September 26; and $150,200 on November 17.

In 2012, $146,975 on January 26; $71,000 on May 11; $5,450 on June 7; and $5,000 on December 7 were also transferred by the company.

None of the companies is currently being prosecuted. Nigerian law, however, prevents some public officials including governors and senators from operating a foreign account; a law Mr. Saraki is accused of flouting.

By SIJIBOMI OYEDEPO-FATAYO

A MILD hilarious drama played out at the headquarters of the Special Armed Robbery Squad (SARS), Lagos State Police Command, Ike­ja, when a suspected armed robber, Fuwad Azeez, arrested by the police, who was said to have prepared protective charms for members of the gang against bullets and knives, vehemently refused to be used as a guinea pig to test the efficacy of the charms.

Azeez, son of a herbalist, was ar­rested on April 19, 2016 by police­men attached to Denton Divisional Police for carrying arms in public. His arrest came after the leader of the gang, Kareem Idris alias Aloma, led his team members, namely Ramon Sanusi alias Osharemon, Jinadu Mufta alias OmoBaale Okobaba, Damilola Small Poly, Muis Alaka, Gafari, Ganiu Garbazine, Ayeke, Azuri Kadri and Toyibu on a successful robbery operation at Moonshine Hotel, Obalende on April 8, 2016, where they carted away valuables and money from both workers and lodgers.

Following a tip-off, the police stormed the hotel and caught seven of them while three others escaped. In the course of interrogation, at the SARS office, Kareem Idris allegedly recounted how members of the gang met on a football field with Azeez.

They told him to prepare protection charms for each member of the gang. Fuwad, 22, a native of Iseyin, Oyo State, was said to have learnt the art of black magic from his father.

He promised to do a good job if they would allow him join the gang.

Having secured their approval, Fuwad made charms for protection for every one of them against cutlasses, bullets, bottles and
other dangerous weapons.

However, the drama played out when Sunday Sun asked which member of the gang would like to test the potency of the charm against a gunshot or a machete cut.

All seven of them, including Fuwad, who prepared the charm vehemently refused to be a guinea pig for the purpose of testing the efficacy of the charm.

Kareem also said they had been stealing items like phones, laptops and other valuables for a long time, which they later sold.

Meanwhile, Ramon Sanusi, who is a foot soldier of the Eiye Confraternity and an indigene of Ogun State who said that he start­ed stealing in 2012, revealed that through the money he got from robbery operations, he had purchased four guns.

As at the time of their arrest, the gang members were caught with one locally made pistol, two live cartridges and some of the charms made by the gang member.

However, investigations are ongoing while efforts have been doubled to track down the other members of the gang still at large.

John Alechenu

The All Progressives Congress has kept mum over allegations of political witch-hunting by Senate President Bukola Saraki.

Saraki, in an article published in a national daily on Saturday,had attributed his trial by the Code of Conduct Tribunal to political persecution for advising the party against fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the run-up to the 2015 presidential elections.

The article published by THISDAY newspaper, reads in part,”My concern was that it would not be politically smart for us to run with a Muslim-Muslim ticket. I doubt if we would have won the election if we had done this, especially after the PDP had successfully framed us as a Muslim party. This was my original sin.”

Attempts to get comments from the National Chairman APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun were futile as of 8:54pm.

Repeated calls to his mobile phone were neither picked nor returned. A total of nine calls were made to the APC chairman, the first being at 3:38pm and the last at 8:53 pm. A response to a text message sent to him was still being awaited when this report was filed.

Similar calls made to the party’s National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni, indicated that it was switched off. A response to a text message sent to him was still being awaited as of 9:02pm

Calls also made to the party’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Timi Frank, were neither picked nor returned and he did not respond to a text message sent to him.

When contacted, the zonal Publicity Secretary of the APC (South East), Osita Okechukwu, said, “No comment.”

Also, the party’s Deputy National Vice Chairman (South), Segun Oni, neither picked nor returned calls to his line. A response to a text message sent to him was still being awaited as of 9:26pm.

Kunle Falayi

The maternal instinct of any mother is to ensure that their toddlers do not leave their care at any time unless absolutely necessary. For such mothers, they cannot simply risk anything bad happening to their children when they leave their sight.

But for Busayo Oyeniyi, an Ogun State civil servant in her 30s, her worst nightmare became a reality when her estranged husband, Olugbenga, 37, forcibly took her 28-month-old daughter , Rachael, away from her on Monday, April 18, 2016, and within few hours after, she received the news that the child was dead.

But what could have happened within such a space of time?
This is the mystery that Busayo wants unravelled with diligence as she grieves; she also demands answers to what exactly happened to her daughter who was taken from her hale and hearty.

Busayo told our correspondent that she married Olugbenga legally about three years ago and that since their wedding day, his attitude to her changed.

He had reportedly told her that she must resign or get a transfer from where she worked in Abeokuta and come to Lagos but she said that the transfer had not been possible.

Busayo said, “I was at my apartment on Monday when I heard footsteps while bathing for my baby. I went to check who it was and I found out it was my husband. He put Rachael on his lap and told me to go and change her clothes. I told him that I did not have to do that since I just bathed for her and the clothe she was wearing at the time was okay.

“He said he was leaving with the baby. I was surprised. I thought he was playing. We had never agreed that it was time for the girl to go and live with him.

“Last September, we had a disagreement over his sick younger sister who had been living with me since 2013. He brought her to live with me after we got married. I was taking care of her. After a while, he came to take her back alleging that I was maltreating her when he got an apartment at Egbeda.

“After he got the apartment, he said he was no longer coming to visit me at Abeokuta anymore. He called my landlord and told him to throw me and the children out saying he had concluded with me to leave the house. I told the landlord that it was a lie and we stayed on.

“Since that September, he had been saying that when our daughter was to start school, she must be with him and I said no because I had not been able to do a transfer to Lagos.”

Busayo alleged that her husband never told her about his sister or the fact that she had any particular health challenge before he brought her to live with her after their marriage.

According to her, it was after she gave birth to their first child that the lady, who is about the same age with Busayo, was brought to live with her.

She said, “When he said he wanted to take my daughter to Lagos, I asked him who would take care of her and he said his sister. I told him I could not allow his sister, who was still battling with her health challenge to be in charge of my daughter while I was still alive.

“Meanwhile, I had enrolled my daughter in school since September. He never felt concerned about our upkeep. I paid school fees, clothed my children and paid rents but he never felt concerned.

“Yet, I took it upon myself to come to his place in Lagos every Friday and stay over till Monday. He never asked how I was coping with the children.

“I pleaded with him to change his decision about taking the girl away but he insisted he would not change his stand.

“When he came to forcibly pick the girl on Monday, I went to report at the social welfare office in Agege, Lagos. They said they could not handle the issue because I live in Ogun while my husband lives in Lagos. After that, I proceeded to Egbeda.

“I went inside and found my daughter inside. I told her to wear her slippers and follow me. As I made to go out, he pushed me and the head of the baby on my back hit the door. He said, ‘Are you okay at all?’”
Busayo told Saturday PUNCH that she begged her husband to let the girl go since she was still too young.

She said when he still would not bulge, she called his elder sister, who also tried to prevail on him to let the girl leave with her mother. But Olugbenga allegedly shouted the sister down too.
As the argument raged on, little Rachael was crying.

After a lot of argument, Busayo said she was forced to leave the house without her daughter.

She said she was supposed to go back to Abeokuta that night but it was too late and had to go sleep over at her parents’ house around Ajegunle.

“He came to pick my daughter around 9am in Abeokuta. I got to his place in Lagos and left around 2pm. By 8.30pm in the night, my father received a call,” Busayo said.
That call was one that would devastate Busayo beyond belief.

She said she did not believe her ears when her father started screaming that her daughter had fallen inside a well.

“I started hearing people crying in my parents’ house. My brother went to report at the Idimu Police Division. When they went to arrest him, he said he had also gone to the Gowon Police Division himself to lodge complaints,” Busayo said.

When Busayo eventually got to the station, she alleged that the divisional police officer of the station told her to forget about the issue.

“The DPO said after all, my husband had the right to take his baby away from me. He said it is the father of the child that has the first say over the baby.

“He said we should just go and give our baby a befitting burial and forget about the issue. I have become a mourning woman overnight. Please, help me ask my husband what he did to our child.”

Busayo told Saturday PUNCH that her husband said Rachael fell inside the well when he went out to buy bread.

“The police have asked no question on how true that is. The DPO was not concerned about finding out who brought the child out of the well. He did not make any attempt to bring the people in for questioning. Is it wrong for me to ask how my daughter died?” she said.

Olugbenga was neither detained when he was invited by the police, it was learnt.
When contacted, the police public relations officer in the state, Dolapo Badmus, who confirmed the case simply said investigation was still ongoing.

Meanwhile, many attempts to get Olugbenga to comment on his wife’s allegations have proved abortive.

When he picked one of the numerous calls placed to his phone by our correspondent, he said, “I am busy, I don’t have time to answer any question.”

When the Gowon Estate DPO, Mr. Festus Otabor, was contacted on the issue, he was effusive with explanation on what happened when the case was brought before him.

Walking our correspondent through a step-by-step details of the issue from his point of view, he said, “The father of the deceased girl, who is a lecturer, came to report the issue himself. A person that is a university lecturer cannot be a baby. He came in company with other people from the street.

“The man introduced himself and said his daughter fell in a well while they were playing. I asked how old the girl was he said two and half years. I asked about the mother and he said she went to Abeokuta.

“He said when he was called to the scene, he went to rescue the baby and rushed her to the hospital but that she was pronounced dead there. I immediately sent my crime officer to proceed to the street. They got there and saw that the well was well covered up.

“I actually suspected that the well was not well covered up. I thought it was due to the carelessness of the landlord. But the father of the child told me that the baby just mistakenly fell inside. The body of the child was inside the vehicle in the police station at the time.

“The Father of the deceased girl’s mother said the man had been giving his daughter problems before and wanted the marriage dissolved. I told him that in a situation like this, you don’t bring such matter to the station but that we should just ensure that the child is buried.

“The man agreed. I told him he should just allow the soul of the deceased girl to rest in peace. I told them it is not possible for a father to take his own daughter and throw her in a well.”

Otabor said that the family later came to ask for a police extract in order to be able to bury the child.

The DPO said he gave it to them because he wanted peace to reign.

“The father of the girl’s mother wanted us to prosecute the late girl’s father, but I told them we cannot do that because that was not the report that came in. I told them, the issue was about the late girl. I told them if they wanted to find out the cause of death, the police cannot do that. Only an autopsy can.

“The problem is that people usually want us to take action when there is no basis for that. We cannot just take action when there is no doctor’s report that shows there was a violence involved.”

A woman, who operates a restaurant at Iyana-Iba area of Lagos metropolis, has disowned her 16-year-old son, Ibeh, over robbery allegation. Police detectives in Lagos arrested Ibeh for being in possession of a toy gun. The teenager, however, insisted that he was not a robber.

The police accused Ibeh of using the toy gun to rob unsuspecting passengers in traffic at night at Iyana- Iba.

When his mum heard that her son had been arrested over allegation of robbery, she promptly disowned him.

According to Ibeh, his mum didn’t try to beg the police to leave him. Ibeh, who dropped out of school in primary three, used to wash buses and motorcycles at a carwash.

He said: “Before they took me to the police station, they took me to my mother.
But my mum and I had been having a strained relationship. She allowed the police to take me away.

She said I used to give her too much problems. She even said that whenever she asked me to wash used plates in her restaurant, I would run away. People told me that she had disowned me.”

Ibeh said that he was arrested with a toy gun at Iyana-Iba after he and his friend found the gun inside a bag.

He added: “I have not used the toy gun to rob anyone! I was walking with one of my friends at Iyana- Iba, when we saw a bag on the floor.
When we opened it, we found a black toy gun.

We found it around 9p.m. We were still there, discussing what to do with the gun when I was arrested by the police.
“The police didn’t want to listen to anything I had to say about the toy gun.

My friend first noticed the policemen and took to his heels. I also tried to run away but I was caught.

With our move to run away, they concluded that we were the ones robbing passengers in traffic at night.

I tried all I could to explain to them that I just found the gun in a bag by the roadside, but they wouldn’t listen.”

The suspect said that he dropped out of school after he discovered he could not cope.

He added: “My mother was not really interested in my schooling. But the way things are going for me now, I don’t like it at all. I’m really interested in going back to school.”

By Sebastine Obasi, Michael Eboh & Ediri Ejoh

There are uncertainties about the availability of petrol, as most depots are without stock, while marketers have reportedly not been importing due to scarcity of foreign exchange.

According to a major marketer, who chose to remain anonymous, “we cannot be talking about stock level because there is no stock at all. No depot has up to 5,000 metric tonnes of petrol, which is about 200 trucks. Once there is supply, it is distributed immediately.”

This was corroborated by sources at Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, who told Vanguard that the nation cannot boast of any stock level now, as products are sent to states the moment they are imported.

However, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, yesterday, stated that 1,120 truckloads, comprising 36.957 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS (petrol) had been distributed across the country.

DPR threatens sanctions
This was even as DPR read the riot act to petroleum products marketers across the country, warning that it would deal severely with any marketer found sabotaging efforts by Federal Government to address the fuel crisis currently witnessed across the country.

The DPR, in a statement by its Director, Petroleum Resources, Mr. Mordecai Ladan, maintained that marketers must ensure that petroleum products get across to Nigerians timely and at the regulated prices, especially as every effort is being made to ensure that petroleum products supply and distribution situation in the country is normalised.

According to him, the security agencies in collaboration with DPR will arrest and prosecute any errant marketer involved in sabotaging government’s commitment at making petroleum products readily available to Nigerians.

On the supply situation across the country, NNPC said six NNPC and marketers vessels are currently discharging at various depots/jetties nationwide, while seven NNPC import/shuttle vessels had been programmed to do Ship-to-Ship operation for onward discharge to inland depots.

Wednesday’s distribution
NNPC also stated that 20 import vessels laden with a total volume of 830.1 million litres had arrived in the month of April for NNPC.

Giving a breakdown of trucks dispatched to selected states on Wednesday, NNPC said 405 truckloads of petrol were dispatched to Lagos; 130 trucks, Abuja; Kano, 13; Port Harcourt, 54 and Kaduna, 21.

Anambra and Ondo received 13 trucks each, while Sokoto, Borno, Katsina, Plateau and Kogi received nine, six, 15, seven and 17 trucks, respectively.

Others are Ogun, 53; Kebbi, 34; Bauchi, 18; Delta, 34; Bayelsa, nine and Benue, 11.
NNPC had also stated that it had 17 days sufficiency, up from three to four days in March at the peak of petrol shortage.

We don't have products —Marketer
Meanwhile, when Vanguard visited depots at Apapa, there were little or no activities, as they complained of depleted stock.

A depot marketer, who spoke to
Vanguard on condition of anonymity, said: “Nigerians are being conned to believe scarcity will disappear. How is this possible when we have less to sell to marketers?
“How is it that NNPC distributes about 36.957 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, and yet we are still left with nothing at the depots? The mystery is far from our grasp.

“However, what we were asked to do is to help government with our trucks to ease the dispatching of petroleum product across the country.

“For now, we are practically out of business because there is no Forex to import and until there is Forex, we are practically rendered handicap.

“We are supposed to provide the balance of the 40 percent component, while NNPC handles 60 percent, but that will only end up becoming a dream due to Forex challenges.”

By Clara Nwachukwu and Michael Eboh

In line with its anti-corruption drive, the Federal Government has been challenged to recover over N7.1trillion, being all the outstanding sums trapped in among individuals and operators in Nigeria’s petroleum industry.

The charge comes as the President Muhammadu Bahari’s administration is desperately looking for ways and means, including borrowings from offshore to fund its N6.01 trillion National Budget for 2016.
The sum comprises misappropriated and unremitted funds withheld by the respective parties, which should have been paid into government coffers.

Sources of losses
· Illicit payments/withdrawals N2.5 trillion

· Foreign Exchange $1.03 million

· Marketers' violation N423 billion

· Unpaid Royalties $3.03 billion

· Domestic crude lifting N1.2 trillion

· Signature bonuses $755 million

· Differences from Swap N117 billion

· Concession payment $756 million

· Payments to 38 mktrs' 128 accounts N999 million

· NNPC's Kerosene subsidy claims N332 billion

· Subsidy double payments N848 billion

· PPPRA Admin charges N313 billion


The charge was made in Abuja, Wednesday, by the Nigerian Natural Resource Charter, NNRC, in collaboration with an international governance watchdog, Natural Resource Governance Institute, NRGI, during the review of the recommendations of various executive and legislative committees with regard to the outstanding sums.

The groups argued that if the recommendations of the various audit reports on the oil and gas industry are implemented, the Federal Government would recover all the N7.1 trillion from the repayments of illicit transactions, fines and refunds for overpayment.

Reasons for misappropriation
NNRC and the NRGI, in a report presented at a workshop, titled: ‘Policy Dialogue on the Implementation of Key Recommendations of Past Oil Sector Investigative Reports’, traced the sums to corruption; poor record keeping; and manual and analogue data storage in the petroleum sector.

The report stated that poor record keeping in the oil industry stems from record disparities, unverifiable data in the sector and inter-agency discrepancies. For instance, a one per cent error margin due to wrong data is equal to a loss of $700 million annually.

Future progress
To guard against future malfeasance the report advocated the provision of a centralised portal for collating and disseminating revenue inflows across the various government agencies.
They added that efforts should be made to institute automated system that would support the use of standardised formats such as cloud storage and other file types.

Commenting on the findings of the report, former Chairman, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Prof. Humphrey Asobie, accused past administrations of participating in corruption in the oil sector, saying that almost all the past leaders from 1973, had been indicted of one form of malfeasance or another in the petroleum sector by various reports.

He also accused political parties of complicity in the rot in the petroleum industry and other sectors of the economy, saying that over the years, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had been a source of funding for political parties.

He argued that although political parties included fight against corruption in their manifestoes, the truth of the matter is that they actually fund themselves through stealing public funds.

“And that is the major problem. In other words, if you look at the NNPC, it has been the source of funding for political parties all along, and where they are not getting from NNPC, they are getting from other sources,” he said.

Explaining further, he said: “in fighting corruption anywhere in the oil and gas sector, the assumption is that there are principals that are above corruption, and who, therefore, have an interest in implementing anti-corruption measures.

That theory is wrong in the Nigerian case, because historically, it has been found through ad-hoc committees’ reports and so on, that the very head of state, himself, is involved in the process, and that makes it even more difficult for the head of state himself to lead the fight.”

He maintained that for Nigeria to be able to address the fraud in the oil sector, it should address the conflict of laws, and conflict of policies in the sector, especially in the disparities between the laws guiding the activities of the NNPC, and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He further criticised that using ad-hoc committees to investigate malfeasance and malpractice in the oil and gas sector is not healthy, particularly as the committees are dissolved after the investigation is concluded and the report submitted, which ensures that in most cases, the reports are not implemented.

In his own view, Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim, Babcock University, noted that recommendations of most of the audit reports in the petroleum sector were not implemented because of political complicity, which involved people in power, who exploited the system for their own benefits.

He called on civil societies and organised labour to increase their citizen engagement, ensuring that issues raised in the various reports are understood by the generality of Nigerians, so that they can call for action and the implementation of the reports.

A Dutse Grade 1 Area Court in Abuja on Thursday admitted a 25-year old woman, Ngozi Ugwu, to bail in the sum of N50,000 for allegedly setting her ex-boyfriend’s shop on fire.

The presiding officer, Mr Ado Ahmed, ordered the defendant to produce one surety in like sum.

Ahmed said that the surety must reside within the court’s jurisdiction, and adjourned hearing of the case till May 12.
Ugwu, a resident of 16-16, Bwari, is facing a two-count charge of criminal intimidation and mischief by fire with intent to cause damage to property.

She pleaded not guilty.

The Prosecutor, Mrs Agnes Aluko-Adewumi, a senior state counsel, had told the court that the complainant, Ugwoke Nwabueze, reported the case in Bwari Police Station on Feb.7.

Aluko-Adewumi said that the defendant, the complainant's ex-girlfriend, had on Feb.6 threatened to kill him and burn his patent medicine store after a disagreement ensued between the two.

``The next day, Feb.7, at about 3 p.m., the defendant went to the shop which is located at Friendship Street along SCC Road in Bwari.

``She, then, allegedly set the store on fire with the intent to cause damage to his property, as a result, James Ayogu, sustained injuries.

``Also, part of the shop, 56 cartons of can malt drinks, 16 bags of sachet water as well as recharge cards, all items valued N200,000 were destroyed,’’ the prosecutor said.

She said the offences contravened Sections 396 and 336 of the Penal Code.

Four suspected cult members, belonging to Eiye Confraternity, yesterday said they used to fake street fights in order to attack hotels in Lagos State. According to the police, the suspects, Rahmon Sanusi (25), Muftau Jinadu (22), Kareem Idris (22) and Fuad Azeez (25), used to pose as guests in hotels before they swoop on genuine lodgers, to rob them.

Recovered from them were one locally-made pistol, two live cartridges, machetes and assorted charms. The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, said the suspects were also cultists who used to carry out series of fight at Oyingbo and its environs.

According to Owoseni, the suspects who belong to Eiye Confraternity, were arrested on Tuesday but confessed to have robbed and killed someone at Evans Square and also attacked One Point Hotel, Moonshine Hotel and Minister Excellence Hotel all in Ebute-Meta area.

Idris, who is the kingpin of the gang, said that they intentionally caused street fight in order to destabilise the peace of the community. The suspect said that once they had caused street fights, during the created panic and confusion, they would invade and rob hotels.

According to him, guests in such hotel were never spared as the gang would dispossess them of all their valuables. He added: “We used machetes and locally-made guns for operations. After robbing the hotels, we have buyers always ready to buy the items who took from guests in the hotels.

Normally, we don’t harm the guests, but when they don’t cooperate, we hit them. Today, as I stand here, I regret my actions. Given another chance, I will not go back to robbery.”

A middle-aged man in Ufuogene, Umudomi in Onicha Igboeze, Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Michael Okoro has burnt himself to death after a following a misunderstanding with his sister.

Okoro reportedly drenched his body with kerosene and then set himself on fire.
An eyewitness and resident of the area, Sylvester Eze said Okoro had misunderstanding with one of his sisters.

“Okoro had a serious misunderstanding with one of his sisters to the extent that he brought out a machete to kill her but the girl was very smart and she escaped the attack.

“In anger, the man came back, grabbed a keg of kerosene, emptied it on his body and instantly lit a match on himself and started burning,” he said.

Eze noted that alarm was raised but that before people could arrived the scene to assist in putting out the fire, Okoro had sustained high degree of burn.

He said Okoro was rushed to Onicha General Hospital in the area for treatment and was referred to the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki by the doctors but that as the family members were busy making arrangements on how to take him to the hospital, Okoro gave up the ghost.

lalasticlala

Legal luminary and owner of Afe Babalola University in Ekiti, Chief Afe Babalola, has teamed up with Governor Ayodele Fayose in shopping for a willing judge to grant a perpetual injunction to stop the federal government from prosecuting persons indicted in the rigging of the gubernatorial election that brought Fayose back to power in 2014.

The infamous rigging of that election, which came to be known as “Ekitigate” and also involved money laundering of over $50million, was exposed when a secret audio recording by a courageous army captain, Sagir Koli, was published by SaharaReporters.

Since the expose, the Nigerian army has undertaken a series of probes which indicted several military officers and some civilians who collaborated in the criminal rigging. Just a couple of weeks ago, the army purged its leading officer who was involved, Brigadier General Momoh.

SaharaReporters learnt that since he was kicked out of the army, the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and several security agencies have been working to arrest and prosecute those involved in the electoral heist.

The list includes a former junior Minister of Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, who handled transfers of huge sums of monies using his son’s business account.

Mr. Obanikoro is currently on the run. He resides in Georgia, in the United States, where he claims to be studying.

SaharaReporters learnt that Governor Fayose is panicked and worried that if all those involved are prosecuted, he could be taken down because the Supreme Court could be asked to review the judgement that claims his election into office was free and fair.

With that in mind, he ran to Chief Babalola, who deployed his contacts within the judiciary to help Fayose secure a permanent order to stop the federal government from carrying out related arrests and prosecution.

Already, one case has been filed before Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti, seeking such an order to stop the federal government.

Justice Taiwo is reportedly under intense pressure to grant the order on Wednesday this week.

The case was filed by the State’s Attorney General, Owoseni Ajayi, who last week wrote to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, asserting that the AGF has no right to try anyone involved in the electoral crime in the state.

lalasticlala

Eniola Akinkuotu, Abuja

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned an American businessman, Marco Ramirez, alongside his companies — Eagle Ford Instalodge Group LP and USA Now LLC — on eight counts bordering on obtaining money by false pretences to the tune of $2.3m.

Ramirez was arraigned before Justice Peter Affen of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, sitting in Maitama on Monday, according to a statement by the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren.

According to the complainants, Prince Ejikeme Mgbemena and Frank Egbon, the suspect allegedly promised them that he would invest the money under the Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Based Fifth Preference (EB-5).

The complainants further alleged that the suspect promised to provide American Green Card for members of their families below 18 years.

The charges read in part, “That you Marco Anthonio Ramirez, being the Manager of Eagle Ford Instalodge Group LP and USA NOW LLC and you EAGLE Ford Instalodge Group LP and USA Now LLC on or about May 21, 2013 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court with intent to defraud obtained through an account titled Eagle Ford Instalodge Group LP domiciled at Wells Fargo Bank USA the sum of $55,000 from one Ejikeme Mgbemena under the pretext of investing for him under the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) Regional Center Program with pretence you knew was false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(2) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.’’
The accused person pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In view of his plea, the prosecution counsel, Samuel A. Ugwuegbulam, asked the court for a date for trial.

Consequently, Justice Affen adjourned the case till May 21, 2016 for the hearing of bail application and ordered the accused to be remanded in the EFCC custody.

Six innocent people, including two children, escaped been shot as robbers by a police officer at Ogudu Ori-Oke, Ogudu, Lagos on Saturday following a false alarm by a woman.

Police Inspector, Christian Onawona, attached to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command reportedly hesitated in shooting occupants of a car said to have been snatched when he reasoned they didn’t look like robbers.

A statement by the police gave an account of how the shooting was averted.

” A woman, Lauretta Ehon, suddenly ran to inform RRS operatives patrolling the axis at about 17:30 hrs over the weekend, that some armed robbers just snatched her Toyota Camry car 2012. Immediately, the police officer followed her to give the supposed fleeing robbers a chase.

“On the trail of the robbers, there was a hectic traffic but in order to catch up with the thieves, the officer alighted from his official vehicle and mounted a motor bike to chase the acclaimed reported robbers.

However, the occupants of the car, which was being chased never had an inkling that they were on the verge of being mistook for robbery and that the police was trailing them.

“In order to prevent the robbers from taking the vehicle with registration number, EP 932 KRD away, the officer shot into air. Upon hearing the gunshot fired by the officer, the driver of the vehicle applied the brake instantly. Then, the police officer cautiously approached the supposedly stolen vehicle only to discover that the occupants were three female, one male and two children. At this point, the police officer got to know that the complainant raised a false alarm.

“The occupants of the vehicle were, Sekinat Sanni, Wasiu Balogun, Bisola Balogun and Rukayat Joseph. The little children were, Sameer Balogun and Motunrayo Joseph of one and two year old respectively, all family going on social outing.

“The story later turned out to be faraway from the truth. What really transpired between the woman that raised false alarm and the owner of the 2012 Camry car was a mere business transaction which occurred about six years ago.

“The husband to the woman who raised false alarm and the owner of the car transacted a business which had to do with clearing of Tokunbo car from oversea.

Unfortunately, the vehicle went into demurrage after the client (Mr Ehon) paid the clearing agent, (Mr Balogun). And between the duo, they have settled the matter amicably for both of them worked in the same company in Apapa.

“But to his paranoid wife, she had promised that she will collect the money from the clearing agent whenever she sets eyes on him. On the day of incident, the woman saw him and started threatening to snuff life out of him. But unknowingly to the woman, the man was not inside the car when she raised the false alarm but his family members were the occupants of the car.”

In her reaction, one of the lucky occupants of the car, Bisola Balogun, who was visibly elated said that she was full of praises to the officer who pursued them for not have misused his firearm.

“In fact, I am still at shock. If it were to be another police officer, it is possible that he might shoot our car and anything could have happened. We thank God and appreciate the officer for applying uncommon wisdom in handling the matter”, she added.

According to the Police PPRO, Dolapo Badmos, the police officer showed experience and bravery in handling the issue, if not for him, the entire event could have turned against the police.

The woman has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, for prosecution.

lalasticlala

Kunle Falayi

It was December 2013. When Nigerians were preparing to end the year on a high note, the family of 36-year old Dantala Da’u, was ending the year in a limbo; one caused by the mysterious disappearance of the young man, while on his way to Lagos to deliver cement.

That period, it was learnt, should have been a period of joy for Da’u, whom the family said was preparing for his wedding which would have taken place two weeks after the time he disappeared.

But he simply vanished without a trace. With no clue as to his fate, the family has held on to a waning hope that he might walk in some day.
But three years down the line, this has not happened.

From Da’u’s appointment letter, a copy of which was provided to Saturday PUNCH, he started work with Dangote Nigeria Limited (Transport Division), in October 2001.

His brother, who spoke with our correspondent through an interpreter since he can only communicate in Hausa, said that Da’ u was so honest at his job that he was given a commendation letter at a time for returning 40 bags of sugar, which was the excess merchandise loaded into his trailer.

For the family, what has further aggravated the sorrow is the fact that the police have offered them no explanation.

“We are uneducated, this is why the company too has not told us anything about what happened to him,” Da’u’s brother, Abdullahi, said.

According to Abdullahi, for their mother, Hassana Aliyu, who is 80 years old, life has become a daily dose of sorrow and sobbing in the last three years because Da’u was everything to her.

“She is feeling very sad and cries every time. She depended on my brother to feed because I don’t have a good job yet. Things have been hard since then. This is why I even plan to go to Port Harcourt in search of menial jobs,” Abdullahi said.

Abdullahi said their depressed elderly mother, had told him to simply go to Lagos in search of his elder brother.

He said when he got to the office of the Dangote transport division, an official, who attended to him simply explained that the trailer Da’u was driving was found intact but without him nor his motor-boy.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that when no word was heard from him several hours after he was supposed to deliver the goods in his trailer back in December 2013, officials were said to have pinpointed the location of the trailer through a vehicle tracker on board.

The trailer was later located in police custody. The company said the trailer was found in custody of the Alakuko Police Division in Lagos, but all the 900 bags of cement in it were gone.

The driver and the motor-boy, who brought the trailer there were nowhere to be found.
Unfortunately, they have remained so for the last three years.

Abdullahi said that when their mother heard nothing from Da’u, who usually did not stay away for long without contacting home, they became worried.

“I came to Lagos to look for my brother, but all I came back with were the papers of his employment. We knew he could not just go anywhere without us knowing because we were making preparation for his wedding.

What could have happened to him? The company at least owes us an explanation all this while,” he said.

According to him, when he got to the transport division office of Dangote, an official showed him the vehicle, which he said had been assigned to another driver.

“I was told the manager of the transport division was not around. Two high ranking officials attended to me and told me how the trailer he drove was found. The chairman of the drivers’ union later told me to go and see the current driver of the trailer. He said he would give me all the documents pertaining to my brother, which were found in the trailer,” he said.

It may never be known what actually happened to Da’u and his motor-boy.

But the family said an official explanation from the management of Dangote Industries Limited would go a long way in dousing their apprehension.

But in a reaction, the company has refutted allegations that the driver went missing.

Rather, the company said it was still looking for the driver, which it alleged, sold its goods and absconded.

Head of the company’s transport division, Mr. Mohammed Rabiu, alleged that the driver attached to the company’s cement subsidiary, was asked to deliver 900 bags of cement three years ago, adding that the trailer was found but that Da’u sold off the products and abandoned the trailer on the road.

Rabiu said, “In 2013, he loaded the cement from Ibeshe in Ogun State and was supposed to deliver it to a depot at Isolo, Lagos. At that time, nobody would have gone to look for a missing driver because around that period, I had more than 12 cases of diversion of goods from the company. There was a particular driver who loaded cement eight times, diverted the products and abandoned the trailer.

“Some of the drivers who have been disengaged in the company, form a band of robbers and waylay other drivers and steal the company’s goods, especially between Papalanto and Shagamu. This happens a lot around December every year.”

Rabiu told our correspondent that Da’u was employed in Lagos but later transferred to the company’s Ibeshe factory.

According to him, Da’u was employed in Lagos when the company still had a central transport division, but when the company became a public liability company, he was transferred to the Ibeshe factory.

He said, “As far as I am concerned, no relation of Da’u came to ask for him in the company. We are the one aggrieved in this case. We really need to see the family members of the man. Go to Ibeshe and find out the level of cheating perpetrated by drivers.

“We would have normally gone after the guarantor of any driver who diverts goods but most of them have fake guarantors.

“When we commissioned a company to verify our drivers, out of 1,000 drivers, 600 had real guarantors, 400 had fake guarantors. When the company explained the implication of guaranteeing drivers, about 100 of them withdrew. This is the kind of thing we are facing.”

by Oseheye Okwuofu, Ibadan,

A 17-year old Senior Secondary School (SSS) 2 student, Ruth Alabi narrowly escaped been killed for money ritual when her boy friend lured her to the herbalist residence at Olodo area of Ibadan before she was rescued by vigilante men .

Ruth Alabi who claimed that she was an SS2 student at an undisclosed school in Abuja said she came to spend the Easter holiday with her mother in Ibadan when the incident occurred.

Her boy friend, Chubuike Omigbo, 33 who used to sell building materials at the Iwo Road area of Ibadan was arrested and paraded alongside the herbalist, Oladimeji Babatunde Ajala, 37 by the state police Command on Friday.

The state Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr Leye Oyebade who briefed newsmen on the incident at the state Police headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan told journalists that the suspects had planned to use the girl for money making ritual before the evil planned was thwarted by the police.

The CP noted that the suspects were arrested following a tip-off by a strategic partner when the duo were planning to use the girl for money ritual.

He said ” the victim’s boyfriend, Chibuike, had lured her to the herbalist’s residence at No5, Galilee street, Olodo area of the state for the purpose of the ritual.

“Luck, however ran out on them when their evil plan was uncovered through their conversation which was overheard by an eavesdropper. The suspects confessed to being fraudsters and that they had defrauded many innocent victims in the past,” the CP said.

The police also recovered a black Nissan Altima with registration No. APP 627 CA, which the police said was bought with the proceeds from illegal business.

Other items recovered from the suspects were some criminal charms, one statute in the image of Jesus, two other statutes and broken bottles spread on a mat.

Answering questions from newsmen, the victim, Ruth Alabi who was accompanied by her mother said she had been going out with her boyfriend in the past four months until the incident occurred.

According to her, they usually meet in front of Tantalizer before they proceed to hotel where they have fun.

“But the day this incident happened, Easter day, my boyfriend came with two of his friends and he asked me to enter a vehicle which they brought and they took me to a hotel where I was asked what will I drink. I told him that I will take malt drink, but he insisted I should take stout. So, I took a small bottle of stout. At a point, one of his friends said I should come with him into a hotel room and there he told me he wants to have sex with me. I was uncomfortable with that, wondering how could that be. So, I had to lie that I was in my menstrual cycle.

After, my boyfriend said I should accompany him to another place, but I told him its already dark, that my mother has been calling my phone and that I will like to return home. He continued to pester me, until he took me to the place , and when we got to a place, he was calling some of his friends and I was afraid because it was already 10pm. That was all I know.”

The victim was said to have slumped on their way to the residence of the herbalist and this attracted vigilante men who later called the police.

When the police came, Ruth Alabi was rushed to a nearby hospital in an unconscious state, before she was revived.
While in the hospital, the girl said medical examination revealed that the stout she drank was laced with drugs.

Speaking with journalists, the two suspects denied the plan to use the girl for ritual .

by: Shola Adekola - Lagos

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, have discovered one hundred and ninety-three (193) wraps of cocaine inside a passenger sucks.

The drug which tested positive for cocaine with a total weight of 3.4kgs was detected during routine screening of passengers on an Emirates flight from Dubai.

The suspect who is a commercial bus driver in Lagos has also been arrested.

Following the development, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the Agency, Colonel Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (rtd,) has called for stringent monitoring of Dubai-Lagos route by officers.

According to Abdallah, "This is an interesting arrest and I commend the officers for the discovery. Dubai-Lagos route is gradually gaining notoriety and we are monitoring it closely. Let me assure members of the public that the NDLEA is working very hard in preventing illicit drug production, trafficking and abuse in the country"

NDLEA commander at the airport, Ahmadu Garba, who gave the name of the suspect as Maduewesi Ugochukwu Samuel, declared: "During screening of passengers at the arrival hall, officers noticed that he had some items attached to his legs. It was cleverly done but not good enough to escape our notice.

"When his sucks was pulled down, suspected wraps of narcotics found to be cocaine fell down on the floor. He was immediately arrested and taken for further investigation."

The suspect who is a commercial bus driver told narcotic investigators that he wanted to quit driving for supply of electrical appliances saying: "I am a commercial bus driver in Lagos. I am from Anambra State.

My friend who lives outside the country introduced me into drug trafficking.

"He promised to help me with capital to start my business but after sponsoring my trip to Dubai, he told me to smuggle drugs to Nigeria. I was instructed to conceal the drugs in my sucks and that it will not be detected."

A so called man of God identified as Pastor Attah, has been busted as he was forcefully having carnal knowledge of a female church member he was conducting a special deliverance for in his church.

The sordid act, according to a witness who sent in the report, happened in a town in Oron Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

Pastor Attah reportedly relocated from Cameroon, where he had spent many years to establish the church called The Salvation Light of the World Ministries, and has been performing signs and wonders, drawing members from far and near but no one knew he was hiding behind the church to perpetrate evil.

"When pastor Attah came back home and claimed to be a man of God, many did not take him serious because those who knew him as a young man, knew he was very stubborn with some criminal tendencies.

In fact, he left the community when he was caught stealing. So when he came back proclaiming to be a pastor, many did not believe him at first but with time, people started going to his church because he was performing miracles.

But everyone was shocked when some people paraded him almost naked in the village claiming that he was caught raping a married woman late at night."

"From what we gathered, he had given the woman a special delivery assignment which she was to carry out with dry fasting. After the seventh day, as the woman was sleeping in the church, Pastor Attah who was supposed to be praying with her, sneaked to the weak woman, and told her the holy spirit told him to have sex with her to complete her deliverance.

The shocked woman allegedly refused and he tore her clothes and forcefully raped her while she tried in vain to fight him off. She managed to scream and some neighbours who heard her rushed to the church to see Pastor Attah on top of her.

The people raised an alarm and other people went to the scene where the woman was rescued. The rapist pastor was given the beating of his life and taken to the chief's palace where he was kept till day break with people trooping to catch a sight of him.

At the moment, the church has been deserted while he has absconded from the village out of shame."

By Willy Eya

Ahead of the May 21 National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, indications have emerged that the party has zoned the positions of president and vice president to the North and South East, respectively.

By the zoning arrangement, while the North will retain the seat of the Senate President, the South South will produce the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the national chairman of the party.

Daily Sun gathered that in the proposal, the party has zoned the position of deputy Senate President, deputy National Secretary and National Organising Secretary to the South West.

In the document obtained by Daily Sun on Thursday, the South East, apart from producing the vice president, will also have the positions of national legal adviser, national treasurer and national youth Leader.

And, apart from the North producing the President and Senate President, the region will also produce the deputy Speaker, deputy National Chairman and the party’s national secretary.

Other offices zoned to the region include the national financial secretary, national publicity secretary, national auditor and national women leader.

The document proposed that further zoning to the South for the May 21 PDP convention be guided by so many factors.

One is that South West and South South had produced the country’s presidents and that the South East has not and should be given the opportunity for the highest office in the new dispensation.

Another factor is that the South West and South East had produced Speaker and President of the Senate, respectively, while the South South has not produced any of those.

The South West had also produced the national treasurer, national youth leader, national financial secretary as well as the national legal adviser, while the South East has produced national women leader.

Records also show that the South South has also produced national secretary and national organising secretary while the South South and North Central traditionally swap positions in the party’s zoning arrangement.

In the proposed 2016 zoning arrangement, the party stated that in order to give PDP a new lease of life, it was imperative that a clause in the guidelines for the 2016 National Convention be included, barring all those who had served the party, especially during the immediate past tenure of the outgoing National Working Committee (NWC) from contesting for any office in the incoming dispensation.

The zoning arrangement

1 President
North

2 Vice President
South East

3 Senate President
North

4 Speaker South South

5 Deputy Senate President
South West

6 Deputy Speaker
North

7 Chairman of PDP
South South

8 Dept National Chair of PDP
North

John Ameh and Sunday Aborisade, Abuja

The House of Representatives initiated moves on Wednesday to resolve the raging controversy surrounding the 2016 Appropriation Bill by delegating the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, to meet with Buhari.

The decision was taken at a two-hour closed-door session presided over by Dogara.

The Speaker spoke on the outcome of the executive session as members reverted to open plenary.

He disclosed that the lawmakers agreed that for the sake of “overriding national interest and the prevailing economic situation” in the country, the House should “re-examine the 2016 budget.”

He added that to achieve this, the House would engage the executive in discussions to ensure that a workable and “implementable” budget was given to Nigerians.

The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, confirmed that the House members indeed delegated the Speaker to meet with the President.

Namdas stated, “We delegated the Speaker to go ahead and engage the executive, identify the areas of concern and report back to the House.

“If the issues of concern are of national interest, we will look at them again by accommodating them in the budget.”

Namdas added that as of Wednesday, the House had yet to receive any official notification from Buhari that he would not sign the N6.06tn budget as already passed by the National Assembly.

He explained that as “a concerned and responsible” legislature, the House felt that it owed Nigerians the duty to state its own position by clarifying that it had not committed any grievous offence.

On the controversial Lagos-Calabar rail line project, Namdas restated the position of the House that the project was not in the corrected version of the budget sent to the National Assembly by Buhari.

He added, “For the Lagos-Calabar rail line, we insist that it was never in the budget. That is not to say that the project is not good.

“If the Minister (of Transportation) said he introduced it at the committee level after the National Assembly had accepted the proposals of Mr. President, we are saying we cannot take a project of such magnitude through the back door.

“That is why we said let Mr. Speaker go to the Presidency to meet with Mr. President so that he can tell us what the real issues are with the budget.”
Buhari is out of the country on an official visit to China.

However, The PUNCH was informed by senior House members that due to the urgency of the matter, Dogara was asked to meet with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who will stand in for Buhari.

One of the members said Osinbajo was in constant touch with Buhari and could easily reach out to him on the resolution of the House to have his position on the budget.
“Osinbajo is standing in for Mr. President.

The speaker can meet with him and he will reach out to Buhari. The executive must be having a list of issues it has with the budget by now. So, the speaker will meet with Osinbajo,” the source added.

The PUNCH further gathered that at the closed-door session, angry lawmakers grilled Jibrin, accusing him of hoarding information on the details of the budget from the majority of members.

Members were said to have sought to know why certain zones and states had more road projects than others.

A senior official told The PUNCH
that Jibrin spent close to one hour responding to a barrage of questions.

“There is the case of Kano and some North-West states, where funds up to N4bn were allocated to projects.

“Members are mostly unhappy with the handling of the details of the budget, especially his decision to keep them in the dark,” the official stated.

Findings showed that though some lawmakers had earlier canvassed the removal of the Kano State All Progressives Congress lawmaker as the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriation, the matter was not raised at the executive session.

However, it was learnt that Jibrin was barred from speaking to the public on House matters since he was not the designated spokesman for the House.

Investigations indicated that he was told to refrain from speaking in a manner which suggested that he was giving the official position of the House on the budget.

Namdas said while a chairman could comment on the activities of his committee, the decisions of his committee might not necessarily reflect the final position of the House on such issues.

“The person to give the official position of the House is the spokesperson, which is me, Abdulrazak Namdas,” he added.

lalasticlala

Residents of Modakeke in Ile-Ife, Osun State, were given a shock when a woman who carried a pregnancy for nine months, decide to abandon her new born baby » in a river in the town.

The dead baby, still with the umbilical cord attached to its body, was put in a carton and dumped in the river beside slaughter slab in the area.

According to residents, the elders of the community have commenced sacrifices to the goddess of the river to appease it for the desecration as well as revealing the woman who committed such a sacrilegious act.

Ade Adesomoju, Abuja

An employee of Access Bank Plc, Olubunmi Ojoko, on Wednesday, narrated how a former Head of Service, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, used the Federal Government’s N190m which he allegedly kept in a secret account in his capacity as the then Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Financial Action Task Force.

Ojoko was testifying as the second prosecution witness in Oronsaye’s ongoing trial before Justice Olasunbo Goodluck of a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama, Abuja.

The witness said she was the Access Bank’s officer in charge of the account, which the former Head of Service was said to have unilaterally opened in the name of the Presidential Committee on FATF without the approval of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
The account was also said to be unknown to other members of the committee.

The Economic and Financial Crimes had on March 15, 2016 arraigned Oronsaye on two counts of breach of trust which he allegedly committed between 2013 and 2014 by defrauding the Federal Government of N190m using his position as the then Chairman of the Presidential Committee on FATF.

Oronsaye was accused of converting the N190m to his personal use through the investment of the fund in Access Bank Plc’s Banker’s Acceptance for a tenor of 90 days at 9 and 12 per cents interest rates “in violation of the extant financial regulations”.

The defendant, while still serving as the Head of Service of the Federation, was appointed as chairman of the PCFATF, which was set up to ensure the passage of the anti-money laundering bill and countering financial terrorism, among other terms of reference.

Ojoko opened her testimony shortly after the first prosecution witness, Ngunnan Kakwagh, an EFCC investigator, was cross-examined by the defence team led by Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN) on Wednesday.

Kakwagh in her earlier testimony on March 15, had alleged that the ex-Head of Service unilaterally operated the Access Bank account in the name of the PCFATF and received a total of N240m from the CBN through the account.

She had said Oronsaye also made “five structured payments” of N9m each, making a total of N45m, into the account in one day in September 2013.

She said out of the total N285m, Oronsaye invested N190m in fixed deposit and converted it along with the accrued interest into personal use.

Ojoko, led in evidence by the EFCC’s lead prosecuting counsel, Mr. Ufom Uket, on Wednesday, narrated how Oronsaye opened the Access Bank account on behalf of the PCFATF in 2012, without obtaining an approval from the Accountant-General of the Federation.

She said, “He (Oronsaye) called me that he needed to open an account on behalf of the Presidential Committee on Financial Action Task Force.

“I met him at his residence in Asokoro, where I handed him the documents for the account, including the Access Bank account opening request of the committee signed by him, his passport photograph, copy of his passport and documents that set up the committee by the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

“I scrutinised the documents and discovered that the Accountant-General of the Federation’s approval was not included.

So I asked him for it and he said it was not necessary. I asked for the Accountant-General of the Federation’s approval because it is needed when opening a government account. Since he said that it wasn’t necessary, I took him by his word.
“I took the documents to the bank and the account was opened.”

She confirmed that she never met any other member of the committee, including Mr. Jalal Arabi, a counsel in the presidential Villa, who served as the secretary to the committee, throughout the period the account was operated.

She said there were a total of four lodgments into the account from the CBN and other cash deposits.

She said the lodgments totalled N285m, part of which were invested in fixed deposits with part of the interests that accrued re-invested.

She said as of the time the account was closed, Oronsaye had withdrawn from the account about N150m which was partly the accrued interests on the investments, through cheques which he allegedly issued in favour of himself and various beneficiaries.

She said besides “the direct withdrawals” by Oronsaye, “there were other various beneficiaries”.

Ojoko said, “The first transfer was N50m in October 2012. The second was in April 2012 was N90m from the CBN. In May 2013, there was cash lodgment of N45m . The fourth lodgment of N100m came in December 2014 from CBN.

“After the first lodgment (of N50m from CBN) several cheques were drawn by the defendant (Oronsaye). In favour various beneficiaries.

“The second inflow of N90m was invested in fixed deposit account. It was fixed in Banker’s Acceptance which is a form of investment, for 90 days at 9 per cent. On maturity, the N45m (the third inflow) had come and it was fixed for 90 days.

“Upon maturity, they (the investments) were usually rolled over on the instruction of Mr. Stephen Oronsaye and the interest were credited into his current account.

“The N100m (the fourth inflow) came in December 2014 and it was placed in fixed in Banker’s Acceptance for 90 days.
“The total ofinvestments and roll overs were about 28.

“About N150m interests accrued on all the investments.
“Now the account is at zero balance after the N163.5m in it was transferred to the Treasury Single Account.”

The witness was led to read from the statement of the account which was tendered and admitted by the court without any objection from the defence.

[b]Giving the breakdown of the cash withdrawals from the account, she said, ” On September 20, 2013 -there was a cheque withdrawal of N900,000 in favour of Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On October 31, 2013, there was a cheque withdrawal of N500,000 in favour of Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On December 12, 2013, there was a cash withdrawal of N3m in favour of Mr. Stepehen Oronsaye.
“On December 23, 2013, there was another withdrawal of N3m in favour of Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On January 29, 2014, there was another withdrawal of N3m in favour of Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On February 3, 2014, there was a withdrawal of N3m by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On February 17, 2014, there wa a withdrawal of N600,000 by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On April 8, 2014, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, withdrew N3m with cheque.
“On July 3, 2014, there was withdrawal of N3m by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On July 10, 2014, there was withdrawal of N3m by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On October 30, 2014, N900,000 was withdrawn by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On December, 17, 2014, there was N3m withdrawal by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On December 22, 2014, the sum of N950,000 was withdrawn by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On Decenber 24, 2014, there was withdrawal of N980,000 by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye
“On January 6, 2015, there was N2m withdrawal by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
“On March 16, 2015, the sum of N650,000 was withdrawn by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye
“On March 20, 2015, there was N3m withdrawal by Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.”[/b]

The account opening package, bank statements, mandate documents raised by Oronsaye and other documents relating to the account were admitted as exhibits.
The judge adjourned till Thursday for cross-examination of the witness.

A 16-year-old girl identified as Fati, who regained freedom after spending two years in Boko Haram’s captivity, has explained how teenage girls volunteer to go on suicide missions in order to escape molestation and other forms of hardship under the sect.

Fati, whose name was changed to protect her identity, said young girls fight to strap on a bomb, not because they were brainwashed by their captors but because the relentless hunger and sexual abuse became too much to bear.

“They came to us to pick us. They would ask, ‘Who wants to be a suicide bomber?’ The girls would shout, ‘me, me, me.’ They were fighting to do the suicide bombings,” Fati told CNN.

“It was just because they want to run away from Boko Haram. If they give them a suicide bomb, then maybe they would meet soldiers, tell them, ‘I have a bomb on me’ and they could remove the bomb. They can run away.”

The teenager who was kidnapped from her village by the insurgents shared her experience with CNN at a refugee camp in Cameroon.

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta has acceded to the request by Senate President, Bukola Saraki to direct one of the judges serving under him, Justice Abdul Kafarati to deliver judgment in his (Saraki’s) case.

Saraki, who is standing trial for alleged false assets declaration before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) had sued the Chairman of the CCT, Danladi Umar and others involved in his trial, before the Federal High Court.

Saraki is, in the suit filed for him by his lawyer, Ajibola Oluyede, contending that his trial before the CCT, as currently constituted was a violation of his right and that there was no way he could get justice.

It is also Saraki’s contention that, while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was currently investigating Umar for alleged bribery and at the same time prosecuting him (Saraki) before the tribunal he (Umar) heads, it was impossible for the CCT Chairman to do justice and act independently in his (Saraki’s) case.

Having taken arguments from parties in the case, Justice Kafarati had scheduled judgment for March 22, but when parties arrived court, he changed his mind at the last minutes and informed parties that he was withdrawing from the case and returning the case file to Justice Auta for reassignment to another judge.

Justice Kafarati hinged his decision on publications by some on-line media, which he (the judge) said had cast him in bad light and portrayed him as a compromised judge.

He said no matter in whose favour his judgment went, the losing party will habour the impression that he was influenced.
On March 23, Oluyede wrote Justice Auta, demanding that he prevailed on Justice Kafarati to deliver his withheld judgment, no matter who benefits.

Oluyede said: “It is our argument in the suit that the Code of Conduct Tribunal cannot act independently the way it is currently constituted because we believe It’s Chairman, Danladi Umar, who is currently under investigation by the EFCC, cannot be independent in deciding a case being prosecuted before him by the EFCC.

“We have also contended that the EFCC, by admitting that the investigation of the case against our client was done by a special task force, as against the requirement by the provision in Schedule 3 of the Constitution, has usurped the exclusive duties of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). It is on that basis we argued that our client cannot get justice under the current arrangement and asked the court to quash the charge,” Oluyede said.

Part of the letter he wrote to Justice Auta reads: “Although one cannot but sympathise with the hard-working judges, who are victims of these vicious attacks, nevertheless, we find ourselves in disagreement with his (Justice Kafarati) that the interest of justice would be served by his withholding of his judgment and returning the matter to your Lordship for reassignment.

“In our view, the abdication by Justice Kafarati not only fails to meet the end of justice, it also gives momentum to the growth of blackmail tactics and dishonourable conduct targeted at obstructing the administration of justice.

“It would therefore set a bad precedent if your Lordship accedes to Justice Kafarati’s request to allow him to withhold his prepared judgment in this action because of fear of ephemera public opinion.

“We write to seek your lordship’s most urgent intervention to prevail on honourable Justice Kafarati to have his judgment read, so that the very essence of such an important application under the fundamental rights (enforcement procedure) Rules 2009 may not be completely lost and the entire judicial process brought to avoidable ridicule.

“It is immaterial in whose favour the judgment goes so long as we can, through this resistance, defeat the on-line media terrorism being unleashed against the judicial system.

“If this precedent is set, there will be no end to this, as it would mean that all a litigant that wishes to frustrate the administration of justice for any reason, need to is to sponsor spurious allegations against the judge and that will terminate the proceedings and frustrate the timely delivery of justice,” it said.

It was however learnt yesterday that Justice Auta has acceded to Saraki’s request and directed Justice Kafarati to proceed and deliver his judgement.

The Nation learnt that Justice Auta’s decision was hinged on the fact that none of the parties in the suit complained about the conduct of Justice Kafarati and that the judge can not disqualify himself from further handling the case based on mere allegations made in the media.

Lawyers representing parties in the suit confirmed this development to The Nation Tuesday. Investigation by The Nation also revealed that Justice Kafarati has rescheduled the judgment for this Friday.

lalasticlala

Godwin Isenyo, Kaduna

The Kaduna State Government on Monday said that 347 corpses were given a mass burial at the Mando cemetery after a clash between soldiers and members of the Shiite’s sect in Kaduna last year.

The Secretary to the Kaduna State Government, Mallam Balarabe Lawal, who said this when he appeared before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry, said the corpses were given a mass burial in a grave on December 14, 2015 in a cemetery along Mando/ Zaria Road.

According to the SSG, a total of 191 unknown corpses were recovered from the Army Depot in Zaria and another batch of 156 corpses were recovered from the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika.

Corroborating the SSG, the Director-General of Interfaith, Muhammad Namadi Musa, who claimed he supervised the burial, said the corpses were interred between 12 midnight and 5am.

Musa said, “On December 13, 2015, I received a phone call from the SSG to come to the Government House after which I was directed to go to Zaria to find out the number of corpses and how they would be buried.

“I moved in company of the state Commissioner of Police straight to ABUTH, Zaria to ascertain the number of corpses. There we counted 156 corpses.

“At the Nigerian Depot, the SSG directed me to meet with one Maj. Ogundare regarding the corpses there. After introducing myself, he refused to let me know the number; but later on, the SSG called me and told me the number.

“He also confirmed the number while they were being buried; as he counted them one after the other as they were laid in one grave.

“We left the Nigerian Army Depot with three heavy-duty trucks and 60 young officers who escorted us to assist in offloading the corpses. From ABUTH, Zaria, five small trucks carried the 196 corpses. Most corpses were covered with black materials and they included women and children.”

On why the state government demolished the Gyelasu resident of the Shiite leader, the Hussainiyya Centre, Dembo centre, Jushi and two other buildings belonging to Alhaji Aminu Idris and Alhaji Tijjani Mohammed, the SSG said they were pulled down because they did not meet the safety standards set by the state government.

Lawal added that a report from a team of engineers who carried out inspection on the houses said the buildings were failed structures.

“So, they were demolished in the interest of safety,” he said.

Also, the General Manager of Kaduna State Public Works Agency, Tanimu Abubakar and the Deputy Director, Ministry of Works and Transport, Muhammad Lawal Magaji, said in the course of carrying out inspection on the structures, it was observed that the buildings had structural defects.

Also, the elder brother to the embattled leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, Mohammed Sani Yaqoob, told the panel that he was happy with what the soldiers did to the sect members.

He said the sect was being funded by the Iranian government.

Yaqoob, a step brother to the Shiite leader, said the soldiers would have been regarded as cowards if they had retreated from the spot where the members of the sect blocked the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai.

Muhammad, who spoke in Hausa, told the panel that as a child, El-Zakzaky, the fourth child in the family of 16, was “very sharp and intelligent.”

Yaqoob, who is also the Chairman of Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa’iqamatis Sunnah, JIBWIS Zaria chapter, insisted that the Shiite group were funded by Iran.

lalasticlala

Ramon Oladimeji

Wanted former Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemulopo, alias Tompolo, has commenced legal action against the Federal Government of Nigeria, challenging the N45.9bn fraud charges filed against him.

Tompolo, who approached the Federal High Court in Lagos through his lawyer, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, is seeking an order restraining the Federal Government and its agencies from further proceeding with the N45.9bn fraud charges filed against him.

The defendants in the suit are the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Inspector-General of Police, the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Naval Staff and the Chief of Air Staff.

Tompolo, through Adegboruwa, is contending that sections 221 and 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, which prohibits him from seeking a stay of proceedings in his trial, are infringing on his constitutional rights to fair hearing.

He is urging the court to nullify sections 221 and 306 of the ACJA and restrain the Federal Government, the EFCC and the IGP from deploying those sections of the law against him.

Adegboruwa argued that sections 221 and 306 are in conflict with Section 36 of the Constitution which guarantees his client’s right to fair hearing.

The suit followed an appeal filed by Tompolo against the dismissal of his application seeking to set aside the arrest warrant issued against him by Justice Ibrahim Buba on February 8, 2016.

Tompolo is urging the Court of Appeal to not only vacate the arrest warrant issued against him but also disqualify Justice Buba from presiding over his case.

Adegboruwa said Justice Buba must suspend all actions on the charges against his client pending the decision of the Court of Appeal.

He contended further in the suit he filed on Tompolo’s behalf that the Federal Government and its agencies were “not entitled to file, initiate, prosecute or in any other manner pursue any criminal charge or information, against the applicant, in any manner that will constitute a flagrant violation of the applicant’s fundamental right to fair hearing as guaranteed under Sections 36(1), (4) and (6) as well the inherent powers of a court of law under Section 6(6)(a)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”

He also sought an order “nullifying, voiding, striking down and expunging sections 221 and 306 from the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 to the extent of their inconsistency with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”

The EFCC had in January this year charged Tompolo alongside nine others before Justice Buba for an alleged N45.9bn since January.

But Tompolo had repeatedly spurned the summons issued on him by the court to appear to answer the charges.

Justice Buba had on two occasions, January 14 and February 8, issued a bench warrant against him and ordered his arrest.

The EFCC subsequently placed a newspaper advertorial declaring Tompolo wanted and also obtained a court order to seize all his known assets pending when he will submit himself to the court.

But efforts to arrest and produce him in court had proved abortive, a development which forced the EFCC to apply to the court to separate his trial from that of his co-accused persons.

A man in the Mutare region of Zimbabwe,Blessing Kambara, has dragged his ex-lover, Mary Kuteru, to the Mutare Civil Courts, to reveal that she has rendered his useless sexually, through the use of juju, since they parted ways two years ago.

The lady in question denied tying down Kambara, and stated that he had been disturbing her with incessant calls since they broke up.

But Kambara, however, told the court presided by Magistrate Yeukai Chigodora, that Kuretu had locked his manhood in December 2014 and that was the reason he called her countless times to try and get her to unlock him so that he would be able to perform on bed with another woman to no avail.

“Your Worship, when I left this woman, she consulted a traditional healer who helped her to lock my private parts. Since December 2014, my manhood has been malfunctioning. In fact, all I can do with it is to pass out urine.

I can no longer perform in bed since she locked me. I am now a useless rag in bed after what she did to me. All I ask is for the court to help me beg her to restore my ‘firing power’ in bed. Things should be back to where they were before we parted ways,” Kambara said.

But responding, Kuretu, laughed his assertion, describing them as lies.

“He has been living with the woman that he left me for since December 2014. I do not see why he claims that I locked him. What kind of a woman would stay for two years with a ‘useless’ man who cannot do anything in bed?

He is lying against me because when he left me, he only took my clothes. He went away with them, leaving his. The next thing was meeting his girlfriend putting on my clothes."

The magistrate however ordered both parties to live in peace with each other and find other non-violent means to solve their problems.