By Samson Adenekan February 26, 2021

Nigeria’s leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been thrown into disarray following a memo released by the party’s audit department accusing its leadership of financial impropriety.

In the memo leaked late Wednesday, the department revealed how the Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party mismanaged billions of naira generated in the last three years.

In his account of the mismanagement, contained in the memo sent to party leaders, the National Auditor, Adamu Mustapha, said his department was denied access to all the party’s financial transactions since 2017.

“The purpose of this alarm is to bring to the notice of this NWC the inability of the Audit Department to perform its functions as enshrined by the constitution and the extant laws, to illustrate as example, the Audit Department was incapacitated by lack of access to the necessary inputs that will enable it to discharge its duties.

“For whatever reasons, there is no access to all financial transactions (cash inflows and outflows) documents of the party like cashbooks, receipts. vouchers, registers cheques and bank statements etc, all of which are necessary input or pre-audit, due process, internal control, reconciliation as well as to draw up our Final Accounts, and all these necessary inputs are not available to the Audit Department.

“In order for the Audit to function there should be constant interaction and information flow between the Audit Department and all the arms of the party, unfortunately this has not been the practice,” he alleged in the memo seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

To check undue monetisation of the election process, the Electoral Act mandates political parties to submit their financial reports to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at specified intervals, a mandate many political parties have violated on different occasions.

Mr Mustapha highlighted the cause of the violation in the leaked memo.

The national auditor was called by the party to address journalists on Thursday to recant the financial issues he raised in the memo.

Rather than outright retract, he confirmed the authenticity of the memo but added that “all issues raised in the memo have been enumerated in the NWC meeting.”

The media misrepresented us – PDP
In a separate interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Friday, the party’s spokesperson, Kola Ologbodiyan, said that all issues raised by the national auditor in the memo have been addressed by both the PDP NWC and NEC.

“What he said clearly and also in a statement he read on the issues that he raised is that approvals are sought and granted by both the National Working Committee (NWC) and the National Executive Council of the party. He stated that clearly in meetings. So, I don’t know what the issues are,” Mr Ologbondiyan said.

“If a man brought out a memo saying something and came out issuing another statement countering what he earlier said, am I going to be held accountable for it?

“Let me tell you the fact, he brought a memo to the National Working Committee and the issues were taken into consideration one after the other at the meeting. He himself, Adamu, said approvals were sought.

“The media misrepresented us. He didn’t make any allegations of financial impropriety against the chairman or any member of the NWC.”

Concerns raised
Against Mr Ologbodiyan’s claim, Mr Mustapha, in the controversial memo, said he raised the predicaments of the audit department several times in various NWC meetings, but to no avail.

Chief among the issues raised were the N500 million taken by the party without approval and the unaccounted billions of naira made from sale of forms for the party’s last congress and membership registration.


“From the inception of this NWC to date over NI0 billion was generated and unaccounted for.


“Non-competitive contract was assigned to print congress documents at the cost of N630 million. While it is believed that the actual cost is much less than N150 million if competitively decided by the NWC,” he also highlighted in the memo.

The national auditor said he raised the alarm of the financial impropriety because of the embarrassment it may cause the party if the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) gets wind of it.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/445417-pdp-in-disarray-as-fraud-allegations-rock-nigerias-main-opposition-party.html

December 9, 2019
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Monday said he would have inherited an empty treasury if the account of the state government had not been frozen on the eve of his inauguration.

He recalled that only the N4.8bn tax refund seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was inherited from the past administration.

“That N4.8bn is in our cash reserve. We have not touched it. It will be used to balance the budget for next year. It will be invested in our schools, road infrastructure, among others,” AbdulRazaq said at the International Anti Corruption Day Rally organised by the EFCC Ilorin Zonal Office in Ilorin, the state capital.

“We thank the Ilorin Zonal Office of EFCC for the recoveries they’ve made. When we came into power, there would have been nothing to inherit. The past government told us that they left a debt of N30bn but so far we are looking at the debt of almost N100bn.

“We don’t see this march as that of the law enforcement agency (alone). It is a march for everybody and the important message for all of us is, if we don’t kill corruption, it will kill all of us.”

AbdulRazaq said corruption is detrimental to socio-economic development of any society as it reduces government’s capacity to deliver on campaign promises.

“Corruption is killing us in our schools and hospitals; it hinders infrastructural development. It is therefore important that we work hand in hand with the anti-corruption agencies and be part of the processes to develop our society,” he said.

AbdulRazaq also thanked the EFCC for the recent recovery of N111m from some past government officials.

He also said whatever recoveries made from the ongoing probe of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KW-IRS) would be invested to secure the future of Kwarans, especially through the upcoming Social Investment Programme, assuring the anti-graft body of maximum support for its operations in the state.

AbdulRazaq urged Kwarans to continue to support the anti-corruption drive of the Muhammadu Buhari administration as part of the overall strategy to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Zonal Head of EFCC in Ilorin Isyaku Sharu said the body has recovered over 10 properties and cash worth over N3.6bn from “treasury looters” in Kwara State since February when it began operation in the state.

“These properties include two in Ikoyi, one in Lekki and the recent one is over one billion naira worth houses in GRA, Ilorin,” according to Sharu.

“It is pertinent to know that at the eve of the last handover, the commission saved the Kwara State Government over N4bn of tax refund. Currently, ongoing investigation into the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service led to the recovery of about N50m while efforts are in top gear to recover the remaining of about N4bn from some notable individuals fingered in the KWIRS saga.”

Sharu said the rally was an advocacy to further create awareness for the world to unite against corruption.

Kwara State House of Assembly Speaker Salihu Yakubu Danladi commended the anti-graft body for its advocacy against corruption, adding: “It is important for all of us to partner with the EFCC to kill corruption and save our state and Nigeria in general.”

The rally was attended by hundreds of people, including top public servants like the Deputy Governor, Kayode Alabi; and the Secretary to the Kwara State Government, Professor Mamman Saba Jibri.

https://thenationonlineng.net/efcc-saved-us-from-inheriting-empty-treasury-kwara-gov/

Published November 8, 2019 Kamarudeen Ogundele, Abuja
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, has accused the Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, of wasting almost N100bn on the construction of runway for the state airport.

Oshiomhole spoke on Thursday in Abuja after a meeting with governors Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Mohammed Badaru (Jigawa), as well as a former Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri.

The former Edo State governor said Dickson should blame himself and not President Muhammadu Buhari for the flooded runway which had not opened for business.

According to Oshiomhole, the governor lied by saying the Federal Government shut the airport to rob him of the glory ahead of the November 16 governorship election in Bayelsa.

Oshiomhole said, “You know the fact that Bayelsa airport has been flooded. Is it Buhari that flooded the airport? It is flooded because the runway is below the ground level. They ought to have carried out proper survey. So, the runway is flooded because it was not built properly.

“We challenge Dickson to use his own plane for a test and land on that airport. We challenge Dickson to prove that, when the airport was flooded, the flood was caused by Buhari. We challenge him to show the kind of control tower he has built.”

Oshiomhole accused the governor of building the most expensive runway in the world and yet could not serve the people.

He said, “Was it Buhari that asked him to inflate the contract because there are different versions of the actual cost. I put it to my dear friend and brother, Dickson, that that contract has entered the Guinness Book of Record as the most expensive runway ever built anywhere in the world.

“So, the truth is, he’s in trouble. He cannot tell his people why he would spend close to N100bn for a facility such as that. Yet, he himself cannot land on it.”

Lokpobiri promised to work for the APC candidate, David Lyon, in the election.

He urged all his supporters to vote for the APC.

Speaking earlier, Badaru said the APC had gained the ground in Bayelsa and would win the election convincingly.

https://punchng.com/dickson-wasted-n100bn-on-bayelsa-airport-runway-oshiomhole/

Published November 7, 2019
The Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed December 5 to take arguments on whether or not two Ikoyi houses belonging to ex-Senate President, Bukola Saraki, should be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

Justice Mohammed Liman had on October 21 ordered the temporary forfeiture of the houses, “lying and known as No. 17A McDonald Road, Ikoyi,” to the Federal Government.

The judge had ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to publish the temporary forfeiture order in a national newspaper.

He adjourned till Thursday for anyone interested in the houses to appear before him to show cause why they should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

At the resumed proceedings on Thursday, EFCC lawyer, Abdullahi Idris, told the judge that the order was published in The Nation newspaper as ordered by the judge.

The judge fixed December 5 to hear from Saraki and any other interested party on why the properties should not be permanently forfeited.

The EFCC had told the judge it reasonably suspected that the properties were acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities.

It alleged in a supporting affidavit that Saraki, who served two terms as Kwara State Governor between 2003 and 2011, “withdrew over N12bn cash from the account of the Kwara State Government and paid same into his accounts domiciled in Access and Zenith Banks through one of his personal assistants, Abdul Adama, at different intervals.”

https://punchng.com/court-takes-arguments-on-sarakis-forfeited-houses-december-5/

by Jamilah Nasir
Cairo Ojougboh, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) acting executive director of projects, says a sitting Nigerian senator is handling 300 of the commission’s project.

Ojougboh, who did not name the senator, said 120 of the contracts have been fully paid for, saying that the contracts are being investigated.

Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja, he said the commission is owing N3 trillion in contract sum and that the ongoing forensic audit would help uncover how the debt was accrued.

The federal government had inaugurated a three-man committee to oversee the operations of the NDDC.

President Muhammadu Buhari recently ordered a forensic audit of the operations of the commission from 2001 to 2019.

The president said the directive became imperative in view of the persistent criticisms of the operations of the commission.

Ojougboh accused the unnamed senator of sabotaging the efforts of the interim committee.

“Somebody who is particularly interested in a major contract of the NDDC, who is a member of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he alone has 300 jobs in the NDDC. Of the 300 contracts, 120 has been fully paid and he has not mobilised to site for these 120,” Ojougboh said.

“It is obvious that the reason he is behaving the way he is behaving is that he wants the system, the looting in the NDDC to continue, and this is what the Interim Management Committee will not support. It is as simple as that.

“The NDDC Interim Payment Certificates that are pending are worth over N3 trillion. That is what the NDDC owes these phantom contractors. It is these phantom contractors that are preaching and making noise to stop the probe. All they want is for the stealing to continue.

“Therefore, when given the opportunity that we have just been given, our job is to make sure that we avail the auditors all the necessary documents and information, all the necessary help they need because we are not protecting any interest but to help the auditors do their job as it is required.”

He said the commission is owing some of its workers 15 years salary arrears.

“All they want is to bring puppets to manage the forensic audit because they know that the members of the IMC will not compromise. If you look at the records at the NDDC, you will cry,” he said.

“Some genuine people that have done jobs for the board have not been paid for over 15 years and their families are suffering. Many of those who were paid are these phantom contractors.

“I appeal to Nigerians to support the position of Mr President, to support the IMC, to support the people of the Niger Delta and the forensic audit.”

https://www.thecable.ng/.XcALqYsjOQY.twitter

Abiodun Nejo, Ado Ekiti

Lady Deborah Jibowu, reputed for being the first Nigerian female science graduate, having graduated from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom in 1947, is dead.

Ekiti State Government has consequently opened a condolence register for the deceased, who died at the age of 95, at the Jibowu Hall, Government House, Ado-Ekiti

The Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, on Saturday mourned the death of Jibowu, who he described as “an illustrious daughter of the Land of Honour and a patriot who served her fatherland diligently and made Ekiti proud through numerous achievements”.

Fayemi, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, hailed the contributions of the late Jibowu to national development, noting that “as National Commissioner, Girls’ Guide (1960-1980) and later Chief Commissioner (1991-1997), the deceased invested her time and resources in moulding the lives of many young females across the country in addition to coordinating many professional and civil society groups, including the Red Cross Society, National Council of Women Secretaries, National Youth Council and Education for All NGO Network among others.

“Despite her royal and privileged background, mama Jibowu invested her time, energy and resources on many laudable initiatives that impacted positively on the people, especially the girl child,” the governor stated.

Fayemi commiserated with members of the immediate family of the late Lady Deborah Jibowu and the Fasanmade family of Ido-Ile Ekiti on the passing of their matriarch, Lady Jibowu, who was a recipient of Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1962 and Officer of the Order of Niger (OON) in 1965.

The late Jibowu was a member, Local Government Service Commission, Western Region (1959-1971); Commissioner at the National Population Commission (1981-1983) and Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Council, University of Calabar (1993-1997).

The governor described her as a frontline educationist, seasoned administrator and impactful community leader who lived a life of service to God and humanity.

He stated, “For us in Ekiti, this is a huge loss. Mama Jibowu was an exemplar. She made great impact in almost every aspect of life after setting the record as the first Nigerian female University graduate in the sciences in 1947. She remained a source of pride and inspiration to generations after her.

“Though we shall miss her wise counsel and positive disposition, but we are comforted by the fact this great nationalist lived a good life and left behind a legacy of honour. She remains our pride in Ekiti.

“Our prayer is that God will grant her eternal rest and comfort the family”, the governor said.

https://punchng.com/ekiti-mourns-as-first-nigerian-female-science-graduate-lady-jibowu-dies-at-95/

October 26, 2019 Abdulaziz Abdulaziz
The police in Anambra have announced the rescue of two kids after smashing a suspected trafficking syndicate in Awka, the state capital.

A statement at the weekend by Anambra police spokesperson, Haruna Mohammed, a superintendent of police, said three women were arrested in connection to the crime.

Two weeks ago, Kano police command announced the recovery of nine children after bursting a syndicate which specialised in abducting children from Kano to be sold in Anambra.

The news caused an uproar with President Muhammadu Buhari giving an order for investigation.

Kano State government on Friday announced the constitution of a panel of investigation over the scandal as more than 47 other children are suspected to be abducted in a similar fashion.

The Anambra police’s statement said the rescue operation was carried out on Tuesday following an intelligence tip-off.

The suspects, according to the police, were arrested at Nkpor market/Tarzan junction in Idemili North LGA of Anambra State.

“Suspects were arrested with two kids all males whose age ranges between 2 and 4 years respectively.

“They could neither give satisfactory explanation about the children nor where they got them.”

The police said they would charge the suspects to court after concluding investigation.

“Consequently, the Commissioner of Police CP John B.Abang, urges parents whose children got missing and fall within the above age bracket to report at the PPRO office State Command headquarters Awka for proper identification and collect their children.”

It is unclear if the two rescued children are part of the kids reportedly abducted from Kano.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-east/359585-again-police-rescue-two-children-from-traffickers-in-anambra.html

Published October 25, 2019 Eniola Akinkuotu & Samson Folarin

The Lagos State Police Command has invited a lecturer of European Languages at the University of Lagos, Dr. Boniface Igbeneghu, who is at the centre of the sex-for-grades scandal.

In a letter of invitation sighted by The PUNCH on Friday, the lecturer, who was also a pastor at Foursquare Gospel Church, was asked to report at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, on October 23, 2019.

In the letter, signed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the SCIID, Yetunde Alonge, Igbeneghu was asked to report at D10 section.

Alonge told The PUNCH on Friday that the invitation was sent through the varsity management.

She noted that the Police were awaiting a response, adding that the lecturer had yet to show up.

“We are still waiting,” she said.

Igbeneghu was exposed earlier in the month following an undercover documentary by the BBC showing how he and a few other lecturers in West African universities have been having inappropriate relationships with students.

He was caught on video admitting to the existence of a “cold room” where male lecturers at UNILAG had sexual relations with female students in exchange for good grades.

UNILAG and Foursquare have since suspended Igbeneghu pending outcomes of the investigations.

https://punchng.com/sex-for-grades-police-invite-suspended-unilag-don-igbeneghu/

October 22, 2014 Nicholas Ibekwe
A legal bid by a former governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion, to recover N3.3 billion he lost to Venezuelan fraudsters in a weird oil deal, has been quashed by a United States District Court.

The 2006 transaction, facilitated by former Venezuelan Ambassador, Enrique Arrundell, was enmeshed in a pile of intrigues so deep that the court ruled that the deal might not even have happened in the first place.

According to the court, beyond evidence of money transfers to New York and Swiss bank accounts, very little about the deal can be “established with any certainty.”

Part of the messy details surrounding the deal was the less-than-wholesome involvement of Nigerian oil and gas heavyweight, MRS Oil and Gas Limited, at a time when it had not even commenced business.

MRS is owned by Sayyu Dantata, cousin of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, who is also believed to own up to 20 percent of the company.

In 2006, through his now defunct company, Skanga Energy and Marine Limited, Mr. Igbinedion, while still a sitting governor, tried to make a killing from the lucrative but fraud-tainted oil importation business. Mr. Igbinedion instructed his old secondary school friend and front, Chris Imoukhuede, to approach Mr. Arrundell to help pave way for the company to procure diesel and PMS from Venezuela.

Mr. Imoukhuede was the chief executive officer of Skanga at the time.

Mr. Arrundell on his part introduced Mr. Imoukhuede to a suspected Venezuelan conman, Francisco Gonzalez, who claimed that his fraudulent company, Arevenca, was a registered agent for Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos De Venezuela S.A (PDVSA).

After several months of scheming that involved exchange of emails in broken English, dodgy shipping documents, and trips to Caracas, Mr. Igbinedion thought he was getting a deal made in heaven.

In fact, during one of such trips to Caracas in January 2007, the mustachios politician was ostensibly handed the key to the city of Caracas and announced as the “Alcaldía de Libertador”, the honorary Mayor of the central Caracas borough of Libertador in an elaborate event garnished with lavish dinner and expensive wine and attended by powerful Venezuelans.

The breakdown of the deal looked as glamorous: Averenca would initially send 35,000 metric tons of AGO to Skanga and later up it to three cargoes monthly. All that was required was for Skanga to pay for the freight and make partial payment for the consignment. It was only required to make full payment after three months of taking delivery of the full shipment.

Mr. Igbinedion authorised the transfer of about $22 million to Averenca’s Swiss and New York accounts. The consignments were supposed to be delivered in two ships – Digniti and Ventur. The shipments never arrived. The Nigerian Port Authority said it does not have any record of “Digniti” or “Ventur” entering Nigerian waters at the time it was billed to arrive.

PREMIUM TIMES investigation also revealed that there are no vessels named “Dignitii” or “Ventur”. Searches on Lloyds directories and other ship directories showed that the ships never existed anywhere in the world.

After it dawned on him that he had been duped, Mr. Igbinedion instituted a $600 million lawsuit against PDVSA arguing that Arevenca was its agent and thus PDVSA was liable for the actions of its agent.

Strangely, for a company that was duped such a huge amount of money, Skanga approached the suit in a near comical manner. Its lawyers put forward mediocre arguments. At one point, it even provided evidence that indicated that it might have forged its audit report.

Two reputable American law firms it initially contacted to handle the case left after being owed retainer. One of them, Robert Dunne LLC, quit because of the inability of Mr. Igbinedion’s Skanga to pay fees as low as $3,800.00 (N627, 000).

David Burger, a lawyer with the law firm of Robinson Brog, which was Skanga’s original law firm in the suit, said in a an affidavit before ditching the case that his firm had to withdraw following “the continued inability of my firm to have any adequate direct communication with Skanga, with delayed and inadequate communications only relayed through a two lawyer firm Located in Mississippi”.

Strangely, despite Skanga’s tenacious legal action against PDVSA, for some reasons only Mr. Igbinedion and Mr. Imoukuede can answer, it did not serve Arevenca or Mr. Gonzalez notice of the lawsuit, despite listing them as defendants.

Mr. Imoukuede told PREMIUM TIMES to contact the company’s lawyer for comment.

Neither Mr. Igbinedion nor his counsels, Olufemi Salu, a personal injury and car accident expert of a two lawyer firm Salu and Salu based in Mississippi-Tennessee, responded to phone calls, emails and text messages asking for their side of the story.

Oral Agreement
Denise Cote, the US District Court Judge, dismissed the lawsuit primarily because Skanga could not present any document that it actually entered a deal with Arevenca.

In fact, the freight documents Skanga claimed it received from Arevenca were so amateurishly forged that it would beat the most gullible mind why Skanga didn’t become suspicious when it was presented to it.

Mr. Imoukuede told the court that the multi-million dollar deal was not documented but sealed orally after a meeting with Mr. Arrundell and Mr. Gonzalez in his Caracas hotel room.

The wieldy oil deal may not be a complete charade, as it seems. In fact, Skanga displayed strong intentions that it really wanted to buy petroleum products from PDVSA legitimately from the onset.

Court documents revealed that Mr. Imoukhuede approached the corporation and indeed held a meeting with PDVSA’s and Venezuelan Ministry of Energy and Mines officials on October 30, 2006 at PDVSA headquarters in Venezuela.

Mr Imoukhuede told Virginia Montilla of the Ministry of Energy and Mines and an analyst from PDVSA, Beatriz Dam, who were at the meeting with him that his “mission” for the trip was “to solicit petroleum products from PDVSA.”

Mr. Imoukuede was advised at the meeting to write a letter to the supply and commerce director of PDVSA if he wanted to do business with the corporation.

Neither fraudsters, Mr Gonzalez nor the diplomat, Mr. Arrundell, attended this meeting.

The next day. Mr. Imoukuede sent a letter to Asdrubal Chavez, an official of the corporation stating Skanga’s desire to “purchase Petroleum products from Venezuela to Lagos, Nigeria.”

PDVSA did not respond to the letter. The Judge observed that Mr. Imoukuede did not make reference to either Mr Gonzalez or Mr. Arrundell in the application.

Apparently unnerved by the lack of feedback from PDVSA, Mr. Imoukhuede arranged a quick meeting with Mr. Arrundell and Mr. Gonzalez in a Venezuelan hotel where Mr. Arrundell repeated his claim that for Skanga to do business with PDVSA, it has to do it through an agent and Arevenca was an approved PDVSA agent.

It was at this meeting that a multi-million dollar oil deal was sealed by words of mouth.

Not our agent
Ms. Cote ruled that as a holding company, PDVSA does not directly engage in the sale of Petroleum products. This function is handled by its subsidiaries, which deals with clients directly and not through an agent like Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Arrundell told Mr Igbinedion and Mr. Imoukhuede.

In fact, PDVSA lawyers provided a screenshot of the corporation’s website of 2006 and 2007, the years the deal was struck, which reads: “Product sales take effect between the provider and the client directly, with no intermediaries (third parties, representatives, etc.).”

“A PDVSA official states in his affidavit that PDVSA neither had nor currently has any business relationship or relationship of any other kind with any legal entity called Arevenca S.A., Arevenca, or Arenera Venezolana C.A. all names of Mr Gonzalez’s spurious companies.

The official also asserted that PDVSA does not directly carry out commercial activities related to the purchase and sale or petroleum or refined hydrocarbons, and that such sales and purchases are performed by other subsidiaries authorised to do so, with the primary marketer being PDVSA Petróleo, S.A. The official further stated that “at no time since [he] began working at PDVSA has it or its subsidiaries marketed products through independent commercial agents.” He also added that ‘Venezuelan diplomats [are not] empowered in any way to speak on behalf of PDVSA or its affiliates.’

The judge said Skanga did not contest any of these claims.

A shell company and a curious “loan”
The judge also ruled that as at the time the deal was supposedly made, Skanga was basically a shell company with no history of transacting in any business.

“Imoukhuede became Chief Executive in ‘June or July’ of 2006. Prior to Imoukhuede’s arrival as Chief Executive, Skanga’s ‘business hadn’t started,’ and the company was ‘inactive.’ Skanga made annual filings with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria for the years 2006, 2007, and 2008, i.e., the years in which the alleged transactions occurred and the year in which Skanga instigated this lawsuit in New York Supreme Court. Each of those filings contains a statement from Skanga’s ‘Chartered Accountants’ ‘Dynamic Premier & Co.’ that Skanga ‘has not done any business, and as a result no profit or loss account has been annexed thereto’,” part of the judgment reads.

“Imoukhuede admits that Skanga had not engaged in any commercial transactions with any entity before the alleged transactions that led to this litigation.”

PREMIUM TIMES investigation also revealed that at different times between 2006 and 2007, Skanga used three different addresses all around the Ajose Adeogun axis of highbrow Victoria Island, Lagos.

One of the addresses, 206B, Muri Okunola Street, is abandoned with a takeover notice from the Lagos State government pasted on its gate. The other two are occupied by a hotel and a bank. A security guard, who claimed to have been working in one of the addresses for “years” told this reporter that he has never heard of the name Skanga Energy and Marine before.

When it seemed one had heard it all, the intrigues surrounding the deal spiralled into utter absurdity with the involvement of Mr. Dantata’s company, MRS Oil and Gas Limited.

During trial, Mr. Imoukhuede testified that Skanga couldn’t raise some of the money it needed to pay for the freight charges as agreed with Arevenca, so in December 2006 he took a “loan” of $2.8 million from MRS Oil and Gas Limited to make the payment.

However, annual corporate fillings of MRS in 2006 and 2007 presented by PDVSA’s counsels revealed that MRS had not even commenced business during the period and had total assets worth less than $12,000.

Ms. Cote wondered how a company with an asset of $12,000 could lend $2.8 million to another company.

Despite several attempts, including a visit to its Apapa headquarters and numerous telephone calls to its external affair department, MRS declined to comment. An employee of the company who identified herself as Chinwe, promised this reporter over the phone that the company would come out with a response the next day. That was two weeks ago and nothing has been heard from the company.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/169899-igbinedion-loses-lawsuit-to-reclaim-n3-3-billion-lost-to-venezuelan-fraudsters.html

October 20, 2019 5:45 am
Concerned by threat to national security and the cost of doing business at the country’s seaport, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has notified the Nigerian Navy of its decision to dismantle the Secure Anchorage Area (SAA), operated on behalf of the Navy by a private company, OMSL Limited. NPA insisted that the security of the country’s waterways was the statutory responsibility of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Marine Police, and Nigerian Navy, which must all ensure a safe and secure Nigeria territorial waters.

The move by NPA has been hailed by stakeholders in the maritime sector, who claimed the initiative was timely to stave off a financial burden that the consulting company had brought on them.

A Secure Anchorage Area is an area outside the Lagos port that the Nigerian Navy, with a private company, has defined as a secure place where vessels can anchor safely from the threat of pirate attack.

THISDAY investigation reveals that vessels are charged $2,500 for the first day at the anchorage and $1,500 for subsequent days.

Numbers obtained by THISDAY also reveals that it takes between 28 and 30 days for a vessel to exit the anchorage.
According to vessel traffic numbers obtained from the NPA, 1,666 vessels called at the Lagos ports alone in a quarter and a minimum of 55 per cent of vessels that call at the Lagos port stays at the SAA.

This means that OMSL Limited, allegedly, owned by a prominent politician penciled to challenge Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket in 2020, on behalf of the Nigerian Navy, collects, averagely, $133.28 million (N47.98 billion) annually. It has been collecting this fee since 2014.

Worried by this, the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, had directed the NPA to write a letter to the Chief of Naval Staff to request that the Navy stopped the operation of the facility. The NPA, in the letter, stated that the revenue generated from the operation at a charge of $1,500 per vessel per day from 2014 to date was neither remitted to it nor the federal government.

NPA argued that the patrol boat, NNS Dorina P101, as mother vessel, and the interceptor vessels, NNS Agede P258 and NNS Torie P259, were all purchased by it for the Nigerian Navy to patrol the anchorage and not to be designated for use at a facility that has no relationship with it.

In the letter dated October 9, 2019, which was obtained by THISDAY, NPA stated, “Sequel to your letter ref: NHQ/CNS/015/54/00/Vol.X111/695 of January 2018 to the Honourable Minister of Transportation giving the background to your involvement with the creation and operation of the Secure Anchorage for vessels by OMSL, the Honourable Minister had directed that a letter be written to your service to request that you stop the operation of this facility for the following reasons listed below:

“One, by virtue of Port Act (1954), an Anchorage Area is an integral part of NPA statutory responsibility while NIMASA, Marine Police and Nigerian Navy ensure a safe and secure Nigeria territorial waters. Two, the Secure Anchorage Area (SAA) (Centre Point 06 17’30N/003 12’00E) established by OMSL is located within the port limit, which should be strictly under the management and control of the NPA.

“Three, it is established that vessels are directed and regulated to this facility by OMSL, who NPA does not have contractual agreement or other with. However, the Navy has a Memorandum of Understanding with OMSL and is providing security to the anchorage. Four, the continued operation of this facility by a private entity could pose security threat to the nation.”

NPA further stated that the operations of SAA added up to high cost for vessels coming to Nigeria through the charge of $1,500 per vessel per day.

It said in the letter to the Navy, “To this end, you are graciously requested to stop the operation of the SAA while a new framework – nearing conclusion – is being put in place to be managed by NPA in collaboration with your service and other government agencies that are critical to the operation of the anchorage.

“Please note that the authority will issue a notice to Mariners for the discontinuance of the SAA operation and a consequent amendment of the British Admiralty Chart-1381.”

When contacted for comments, Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, confirmed the development. She stressed, however, that she was worried entrenched interests might fuel insecurity to give an impression that the SAA had to stay.

Usman stated, “We have also notified the Nigerian Navy that, that arrangement cannot continue anymore, and we anticipate a pushback from the operators of these safe anchorage areas. But we are going to sustain our position that vessels should not be charged for safe anchorage area.

“The Nigeria government, Nigerian Navy, should provide that. And to the extent that the Nigerian Navy requires an additional support, we would provide that support. But, already, our vessels that we procured to secure that anchorage are part of the vessels that they are using to secure the safe anchorage area.”

The NPA managing director added, “I would like to say that any increase in insecurity in the Lagos waters, as relates to this, we are going to hold some people responsible, because once you remove, for example, a safe anchorage, they would try to intentionally create insecurity. I just needed to sound that as a point of reference.

“This safe anchorage has been removed, and we would work with the Nigerian Navy and NIMASA to secure the anchorage. Any attempt to create any insecurity, to justify the establishment of the safe anchorage area, would not be accepted, because our anchorage in the Lagos area has been very safe. We do not have any incidence or activities of militants in the waterways in this part.”

In their reaction, officials of many shipping companies applauded the NPA for the bold move, adding that this would go a long way in reducing port cost. The officials, who did not want their names in print, disclosed that NIMASA already collected security fees, saying the multiple fees are a major barrier to the growth of the shipping industry in Nigeria.

https://twitter.com/jeffphilips1/status/1185944150270717952
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/10/20/citing-security-npa-cancels-133-28m-saa-fees/

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has filed an application at the court for the forfeiture of 29 additional assets, worth N1.054 billion, traced to Abdulrasheed Maina.

Maina, the fugitive former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), was arrested in an Abuja hotel in September, when he sneaked into the country from his United Arab Emirates (UAE) base.

He was picked up with his son, Faisal, who pulled a pistol to prevent his father’s arrest.

Since his arrest, Maina has been undergoing interrogation at the EFCC.

Some foreign assets believed to belong to Maina have also been located in the UAE and other jurisdictions.

The government is set to invoke the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) to seize Maina’s choice properties in the UAE.

Sources close to the investigators said other items retrieved from Maina and his son, included about 31 SIM cards of UAE, MTN, 9Mobile and Airtel. Also, between him and his son, “they were in possession of 19 handsets and each of the handset either has one SIM card or two/ three cards”.

Other items recovered are one iPad and two laptops.

Also recovered are: 13 flash drives and Kentucky U.S. ID card in the name of Maina Abdulrasheed Abdull; a UAE Certificate of Naturalisation for Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina; a UAE ID card in the name of Abdulrasheed Maina.

The rest are a Nigerian passport and a UAE passport for Faisal Abdulrasheed Maina; ATM cards/ cheque books both for Nigerian and UAE banks being used by Maina and charms, including a traditional jacket (top) with charms and in their luggage.”

The source gave an insight into Maina’s offshore investments and assets. He said there is documentary evidence linking Maina to companies in the UAE and Nigeria through his son. The father’s name does not appear in the profile of these companies but the son’s name does.

A luxury and car rental company Northridge Rent A Car in Dubai, have been undercovered a cleaning service firm – Spotless and Flawless International, also in Dubai.

Maina has also admitted the ownership of Ostrich Oil and Gas Company, the source said.

The source added that EFCC detectives have “located many accounts operated by Maina but opened in different names.

“For example, he got the Bank Verification Number (BVN) of his sister, Fatima Abdullahi, and opened an account with it. But it is Maina that is signing the cheque, to withdraw money from the account. The sister was not aware of the existence of the account until Maina was arrested.

“He used the names of many of his relatives to open accounts between 2014 and 2017. In some accounts operated by one of his suspected firms, there were deposits of about N183 million and $323, 396 between 2014 and 2017.

According to sources, the list of the properties was discovered during the search on one of his relatives in possession of the titles.

The source said: “Maina has filled the asset declaration form and he did not declare these properties which he brought in different names.

“Our investigations showed that many of these properties were paid for in cash. For instance, he paid N100 million for a property on 16A Katuru Road, Kaduna.

“EFCC detectives succeeded in linking the assets to Maina from the Deeds of Sale and other documents. We were able to compute the cost of 29 properties at over N1billion. ”With his denial of ownership of these assets, we have already filed an application in a High Court for their forfeiture to the Federal Government,” the source said

Sections 28 and 34 of the EFCC (Establishment Act) 2004 and Section 13(1) of the Federal High Court Act, 2004 empower the anti-graft agency to invoke Interim Assets Forfeiture Clause.

Section 28 of the EFCC Act reads: “Where a person is arrested for an offence under this Act, the Commission shall immediately trace and attach all the assets and properties of the person acquired as a result of such economic or financial crime and shall thereafter cause to be obtained an interim attachment order from the court.

Section 13 of the Federal High Court Act reads in part: “The court may grant an injunction or appoint a receiver by an interlocutory order in all cases in which it appears to the court to be just or convenient so to do.

“Any such order may be made either unconditionally or on such terms and conditions as the Court thinks just.”

Besides the 29 assets newly discovered, on December 9, 2017, the Acting EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Magu, said seven properties had been seized from Maina.

The properties are a two- storey commercial building located on Ibrahim Taiwo Road, a bungalow located on Katuru Road and four separate properties located on Kano Road in Kawo New Extension, all in Kaduna. The other property which is still under construction is a set of four one-storey block of flats located at No. 5, Sokoto Road adjacent to the Zamfara State Governor’s Lodge, Kaduna.

Other properties linked to Maina include No. 12, 11th Road, Kado Estate, Abuja; No. A5 Omenai H.O (B Close) Kado Estate; No. 9, Eneli TCM Close, (A Close) Kado Estate; No. 8, Kolo S Close (A Close) Kado Estate; Luxury apartments (eight blocks of flats; six units of three bedrooms; two units of two bedrooms) located at Plot 965, Cadastral C2, Life Camp, Abuja and a sprawling edifice located at No. 10 Hamisu Musa Road, Jabi, Abuja.

He said: “Maina had a total inflow of over N2.7 billion between 2010 and 2013, with 95 per cent of the deposits being in cash. It was discovered that Faizal Abdullahi’s Account (his son), had a turnover of over N1.5 billion in less than a year.”

https://thenationonlineng.net/mainas-n1b-assets-seized/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Published September 27, 2019
Ade Adesomoju, Abuja

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday ordered the permanent forfeiture of some assets returned by a suspect linked to the suspended Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita.

Details of the case were not read out in the open court when Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa made the order of final forfeiture of the monetary assets to the Federal Government.

Oyo-Ita was placed on an indefinite suspension over corruption allegations launched against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Moving the application on Thursday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s lawyer, M. S. Abubakar, said the funds were voluntarily returned to the commission as proceeds of crime.

Abubakar reminded the court that it had on June 28, 2019 granted an ex parte application ordering the interim forfeiture of the assets.

Abubakar said as of Thursday, no one had filed an application to challenge the interim order despite that it had been served on the suspect.

He therefore urged the court to grant a permanent order of forfeiture of the assets. He informed the judge that the money had been paid into an account with the Central Bank account as soon as it was returned by the suspect.

The judge went on to make the order of final forfeiture of the assets.

Copyright PUNCH.

https://punchng.com/court-orders-permanent-forfeiture-of-assets-linked-to-oyo-ita/

BY SAHARA REPORTERS, NEW YORK SEP 16, 2019

A group made up of ex-Niger Delta agitators, Coast Guard of the Federation, has expressed readiness to storm South Africa to defend and protect Nigerians still trapped in the former apartheid country.

Commandant-General of the group, Bibi Oduku, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja in a statement.

He said that over 2,000 Coast Guard officers and 10,000 ex-militants were on standby to invade South Africa if the situation degenerated to war.

He stated that the group was only waiting for an order from President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, to act.

Oduku said, “At least 2,000 Coast Guard officers are waiting for President Buhari and the Chief of Army Staff to give the nod and they will be in South Africa to ensure that no Nigerian is further harassed, molested or killed.

“Over 10,000 ex-militants have also pledged their readiness to go to South Africa as foot soldiers if the situation degenerates to war.

“We know that our army is more than ready to tackle any aggression from any country, our service is only to compliment that.”

http://saharareporters.com/2019/09/16/xenophobia-ex-niger-delta-militants-vow-storm-south-africa

By Kehinde Akintola - Abuja On Sep 16, 2019
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila is under intense pressure to stop an ongoing investigation into the abandoned developmental projects across Niger Delta geopolitical zone, Tribune Online gathered on Monday.

Sources close to the Speaker’s office but do not want their names in print, affirmed the lobbyists urged the Speaker to dissolve the Ad-hoc Committee with the view to shield the identities of the promoters of companies involved in the multi-billion naira contracts.

“I can confirm to you that the work of this committee has sent jitters to most of the contractors and companies that either collected payments without going to site or those who collected and later abandoned the sites and they are running helter-skelter trying to use some people in the House to influence the House leadership to dissolve the Ad-hoc Committee.

“We have heard rumours like this. But I know who the Hon. Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila is; he will not listen to anybody that comes with such a complain.

“So we are not bothered. We are doing our job and we have told the Chairman not to be shaken but to remain resolute and I can assure you, we will get to the root of this rot.

“It is a shame that a commission that was established to redress the injustice done to the Niger Delta region is being turned into a bazaar for sharing contracts and not executing them.

“All Niger Delta indigenes involved in this shameful and criminal acts should bow their heads in shame,” the lawmaker who spoke under condition of anonymity stressed.

According to an audit report conducted by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) obtained by our correspondent, showed that 1,723 contractors who collected a whooping sum of N70.496 billion between 2000 and 2019 failed to mobilize to sites.

The report further revealed that “90 per cent of these contracts were awarded between 2011 and 2012.

“It need to be strengthened that some of these contractors have three to four jobs with their mobilization payments without reporting to site.

“One can, therefore, imagine why the region is not developed, when a developmental programme is being awarded as contract to be completed within six months and the contractor would collect mobilization without reporting to site.

“The report above excluded those contractors that collected mobilization and reported to the site but with insignificant achievement before abandoning the projects. This equally excluded those in which the commission has declared their projects as stalled.

“It is a common practice for the commission’s contractors to collect mobilization and refuse to move to site. The blame for this should not only go to the contractors but equally to the management of NDDC, who awarded contracts that were not in existence, that is contracts without identification of the site, resulting to non-reporting to site by the contractor.

“Beside the above, it was also observed that about 50 per cent of the contractors who claimed they have executed their various contracts specifications and completed with supporting engineers valuation certificate were later found out by the team that some merely collected money for work not executed,” the Accountant General’s report stated.

The Accountant General also recommended that: “the unearned payment of N458,821,440 over and above the value of work done before the contract was completely abandoned/terminated should be recovered from the contractors which the banks that guarantee the unreceived element of the mobilization in respect of the contract should be held responsible and the contractor blacklisted.”

Details of the N61.468 billion abandoned contracts located in the 9 oil-producing states showed: Projects worth N2.027 billion mobilization fee was paid for 32 projects in Abia State out of N17.641 billion contract.

In Akwa Ibom state, the sum of N4.229 billion was paid as mobilisation fee out of N31.681 billion contract for 64 projects.

In Bayelsa state, the sum of N4.970 billion was paid as mobilisation fee out of N27.647 billion contracts for 80 projects.

In the same vein, in Cross River state, the sum of N2.065 billion mobilisation fee was paid out of N13.451 billion for 29 projects.

The NDDC management also paid the sum of N7.836 billion as mobilisation fee out of N31.765 billion for 99 projects in Delta State.

In Edo state, N2.065 billion was paid as mobilisation fee out of N13.927 billion for 51 projects.

The Commission also paid the sum of N1.859 billion as mobilisation fee out N13.184 billion for 33 projects in Imo State.

The sum of N6.173 billion was paid as mobilisation fee out of N29.977 billion for 50 projects in Ondo State.

Within the period under review, the Commission paid N13.146 billion as mobilisation fee out of N56.717 billion for 106 projects in Rivers State.

In its findings, the office of the Accountant General of the Federation “observed that so many contractors were paid the mobilization fees to enable them to commence the execution of the projects awarded to them.

“Contrary to the contract terms and the agreements, some of the contractors bolted away after the collection of the mobilization fees.

“The surprising aspect of it was that this practice involved 626 contractors in which the sum of N61,468,160,743.03 was lost to this fraudulent practices,” the report read in part.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele is expected to appear before Ad-hoc Committee chaired by Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai on Thursday.

Other stakeholders summoned by the Ad-hoc during the opening of the investigative hearing including former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, and past Managing Director and Director of NDDC are expected to appear before Ad-hoc Committee this week.

https://tribuneonlineng.com/n70bn-abandoned-projects-accountant-generals-report-indict-626-contractors/

Malabu Scandal: Etete discussed planned payments to Jonathan’s ministers, senators with me – Witness
July 23, 2019 Oladeinde Olawoyin
A witness in the OPL 245 trial in Italy on Monday told the court that former oil minister, Dan Etete, was fine paying hundreds of millions of dollars to the “political sponsors” of the controversial Malabu deal.

The witness, Vincenzo Armanna, former Eni manager and defendant in the corruption trial, alleged that “several ministers and senators were discussed” as beneficiaries while negotiating the deal.

The witness, however, said he could not remember anyone specifically being named as a recipient.

Mr Armanna also said that a presidential bodyguard showed him photos of a trolley with $50 million in cash, “like one used by the military for weapons, more than 1.5m high”. The money was allegedly put on a plane but he did not know where the plane went, he said.

The former Eni chief said that the bodyguard, Victor Nwafor, told him the money was for Nigerian officials.

The Malabu deal, struck during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, has become a subject of long-running trials and investigations across different jurisdictions.

Mr Armanna had last week appeared before the court and alleged that Eni officials knew that the controversial payment made in the deal would go to Malabu oil company, controlled by Mr Etete.

He also provided details of how Mr Jonathan’s ministers negotiated the controversial deal.

Speaking at the resumption of the trial on Monday, the former ENI chief said that he does not know who actually got money among those who negotiated the deal.

In June 2013, Mr Etete had told a British High Court that he was not the sole beneficiary of the $1.1 billion (N173 billion) transferred to the company.

The former minister told the court that he only made N37.5 billion ($250 million) working as a consultant for Malabu. He also did not name the other beneficiaries.

The Malabu Scandal
The Malabu OPL 245 scandal involved the transfer of about $1.1 billion by Shell and ENI through the Nigerian government to accounts controlled by a former Nigerian petroleum minister, Mr Etete.

From accounts controlled by Mr Etete, about half the money ($520 million) went to accounts of companies controlled by Aliyu Abubakar, popularly known in Nigeria as the owner of AA oil.

Anti-corruption investigators and activists suspect he fronted for top officials of the Jonathan administration as well of officials of Shell and ENI.

The transaction was authorised in 2011 by Mr Jonathan through some of his cabinet ministers and the money was payment for OPL 245, one of Nigeria’s richest oil blocks.

Although Shell and ENI initially claimed they did not know the money would end up with Mr Etete and his cronies, evidence has shown that claim to be false.

Shell, Eni, Mr Etete, Mr Aliyu and several officials of the oil firms are being prosecuted in Italy for their roles in the scandal.

On Monday at the resumed hearing, Mr Armanna was asked about the attempted transfer of the $1.1billion through Switzerland and a company controlled by Italian businessman and a former envoy.

He claimed that he warned that transferring the money through Falcioni and an Italian connected bank (BSI Lugano) was risky.

According to Barnaby Pace of Bristish anti-corruption group Global Witness who attended the trial, Mr Armanna said he discussed at a meeting in June 2011 with Mr Descalzi and other Eni executives about a private jet flying cash from Nigeria to Europe.

The prosecutor said the money did not get to Nigeria until August but Mr Armanna said his memory for dates may be faulty.

He alleged further that Eni’s current CEO, Claudio Descalzi, proposed using a different bank for the transfer and said that Nigerians should be in charge of the transfers of the money, not Italians.

While speaking about his relationship with former Nigerian Attorney General, Bayo Ojo, Mr Armanna was asked if the money he received from him was for helping Mr Ojo get paid by Mr Etete. The witness said he was in no position to help anyone because he had no power over who got what money and Mr Ojo was not involved in the deal.

Mr Armanna has last week claimed that the money he received from Mr Ojo was ‘inheritance’.

When asked if there is a connection between Mr Ojo receiving $10 million from the deal and then him sending Mr Armanna over $1 million just five months later, Mr Armanna denied that there was a connection. He said this came from separate business.

He added that he did not know Messrs Ojo and Falcioni were working together on the OPL 245 money transfer.

When the prosecutor countered by saying that his (Mr Armanna’s) emails showed Mr Ojo was advising on the attempted transfer of money to a Lebanese bank, the witness said he got the emails later “and didn’t read them”.

He also claimed to have known Mr Ojo since 2012 and had business with him in Nigeria, unconnected to Eni or Malabu deal.

Getting emotional
The witness, however, became emotional when asked to recap how he was fired from Eni.

He started by saying that it was a hard time for him, explaining how his wife was pregnant at the time. He broke into tears and halted his testimony. Mr Armanna alleged further that former Eni CEO Scaroni had wanted him fired.

Speaking further, Mr Armanna said he thought Piero Amara was the person to help build bridges with Eni. In 2016, he said, Mr Amara then told him to quieten his criticism of Eni in exchange for getting him work in Nigeria.

In exchange, he said he was not offered money but was offered work at Eni, “some business in Dubai and more business in Nigeria”.

He claimed further that he thought Mr Amara represented Mr Descalzi. He said when they met in Rome, Mr Armanna said he was asked to change his testimony about “political sponsors” in OPL 245 and was given a sheet of paper with what he should say.

Mr Armanna then copied this into his new statement.

Jonathan-Diezani relationship
The witness also alleged that former President Goodluck Jonathan never stopped his petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, from ‘doing anything’ when she was in office.

He said this while giving details of what he was allegedly told about the relationship between the former president and the oil minister by Mr Nwafor, Mr Jonathan’s bodyguard.

He explained further that Mr Nwafor talked about the relationship between Mr Jonathan and Mrs Alison-Madueke and said the former president “never stopped her (from) doing anything”.

Mrs Alison-Madueke was considered very powerful within Nigeria’s power circle when she held sway as the nation’s oil minister. Apart from Malabu, she is facing trial on other alleged cases of corruption in Nigeria.

Mr Jonathan is not facing any trial over the Malabu case and has consistently denied wrongdoing over the case.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that Mr Armanna’s examination and cross-examination will continue later this week.

The trial will continue with other defence witnesses appearing from September after Italy’s summer break.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/342431-malabu-scandal-etete-discussed-planned-payments-to-jonathans-ministers-senators-with-me-witness.html

July 11, 2019 Kunle Sanni
The Special Presidential Investigation Panel on Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), on Wednesday, said it has recovered over N3 billion from two senior officials by the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF).

The panel named the officials as Goody Nnadi, who is the General Manager, Corporate Services at the Fund, and Aisha Usman, the General Manager, Operations.

This was disclosed in a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja by the chairman of the panel, Okio Obono-Obla. Details of the press conference was published by Daily Trust newspapers.

Mr Obono-Obla said the agency received a petition that Mr Nnadi operated a corporate account with a hotel named Galbani and Greatwood in Owerri, Imo State.

He said the amount that went into the accounts of Mr Nnadi from 2011 to 2019 “totals N2.2billion, $302,964, €11,000 Euro and £2,000 pounds sterling.”

He also said: “two documents of landed property, $1,000 and €200 Euros were recovered” from the civil servant.

He said Mr Nnadi was quizzed but has been released on bail.
”He is presently undergoing Senior Executive Course (SEC 41, 2019) at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State.

On Ms Usman, the chairman said findings revealed that she operates nine accounts with one bank alone with a total inflow of N1.4billion.

He said it was discovered that some corporate organisations paid the money into her account.

He noted that the panel has extended invitations to other management staff of PEF as the two await charges against them.

Mr Obono-Obla noted that the suspects admitted helping some of the oil companies to get an allocation from NNPC and paid money into their personal and corporate accounts alleged to be graft.

The SPIP was set up in August 2017 by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The panel’s operations in the past have been enmeshed in controversy with Mr Osinbajo once ordering the panel to suspend its operations.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/340329-okio-obono-obla-announces-recovery-of-n3-billion-from-two-civil-servants.html

Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt June 29, 2019
The Secretary-General of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Anthony Porole, has been kidnapped.

Porole was kidnapped around 8.30 p.m. on Friday in his compound at Biara-Ogoni hometown in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, with the criminals shooting sporadically before escaping with him to an unknown destination.

MOSOP, this morning, through its Publicity Secretary, Sunny Zorvah, stated that members of the umbrella organisation of Ogoni people were saddened over the kidnap, while calling for the scribe’s immediate and unconditional release unhurt.

Zorvah said: ‘MOSOP also calls on the security agencies to be on the trail of the kidnappers and ensure their immediate arrest.

“It is callous and undeserving that a man who has committed his life in serving his people will be treated in this manner.

“Enough is enough of this criminal, uncivilised, barbaric and retrogressive act.”

Four crude oil and gas-rich Ogoni LGAs of Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme have gained notoriety for kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, pipeline vandalism and other criminal activities, leading to loss of lives and valuable property of mostly innocent persons, despite efforts of the personnel of the various security agencies.

https://thenationonlineng.net/breaking-mosops-secretary-general-abducted/

Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin by Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin June 18, 2019
The Kwara State House of Assembly on Tuesday recommended the suspension of 16 local government chairmen for alleged misappropriation of N33billion.

The recommendation is based on a resolution of the House after it considered a petition written by one Seidu Aliyu and presented at the plenary.

The House Leader, Mogaji Abubakar Olawoyin, tabled the petition and it was unanimously considered after a debate.

After the debate, the lawmakers recommended the suspension of the local government council chairs.

The petitioner alleged the council chairmen had mismanaged and misappropriated a total sum of N33billion received from the federation accounts in the last two years.

The House leader called for a thorough investigation of the council chairmen in view of their alleged misconduct that caused the petition against them.

A member representing Ipaye/Malete/Oloru, Babatunde Abdulkareem Paku, said the House had been inundated with reports over alleged fraudulent activities in the third tier of government in the last two years.

His counterpart from Afon Constituency, Abdulwahab Opakunle, urged the House to look into the matter critically since the lawmakers represent the interest of the people.

A member representing Ojomu/Balogun constituency of Offa local government area, Prince Saheed Popoola, said there was need to properly investigate the alleged financial impropriety against the council authorities, adding that local government chairmen are public officer, and thus accountable to the people.

A member representing Omupo constituency Salaudeen Ganiy moved a motion for the suspension of the council chairmen pending the outcome of the investigation and was seconded by Awolola Olumide of Isin Constituency.

Reading the resolution, the Speaker Salihu Yakubu Danladi, urged Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to suspend all the local government chairmen in the state to allow proper investigation of their alleged mismanagement of council funds in the last two years.

He referred the petition to the joint House Committees on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and Ethics, Privileges and Judiciary, asking the committees to report back in the next two weeks. The house also announced the composition of its various standing committees.

Hon Danladi said the committees would be formally inaugurated in due course.

He challenged the committees to exhibit dedication and commitment while carrying out their assignments.

https://thenationonlineng.net/kwara-assembly-recommends-chairmen-for-suspension-over-alleged-n33b-fraud/

May 31, 2019 Premium Times
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission says it has secured a 12-year jail term for both Saad Alanamu, a former Chairman of the Governing Council of Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, and Salman Sulaiman, the Chief Executive Director of Namylas Nig. Ltd, for collecting and giving a bribe respectively.

The convicts had earlier been arraigned before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of Kwara State High Court 9 sitting in Ilorin on an 8-count charge for bribery.

They had pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought against them, according to the ICPC.

Mr Alanamu, who was nominated into the Board of ICPC in 2017 but was later dropped on an allegation of corruption which the Commission was investigating, was charged for collecting N5 million bribe from a contractor friend as kickback for the award of a contract.

Mr Sulaiman, on the other hand, was accused of bribing a government official when he paid the said sum of money into Mr Alanamu’s Guaranty Trust Bank account as a reward for the award of contract to his company.

Counsel to ICPC had averred that Namylas Nig. Ltd had submitted falsified and doctored documents during the bidding process.

The court was also informed of how Mr Alanamu ensured that the contract for the construction and furnishing of an auditorium in Kwara State Polytechnic, at the cost of N182.3 million was awarded to a company belonging to his friend when it was not qualified to execute the contract.

The prosecution, having established very strong evidence of collusion, bid rigging and corrupt practices against the accused, urged the court to mete out appropriate sanctions to them.

The judge found Mr Alanamu guilty and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on counts 2 and 3, and five years with hard labour on counts 1, 4, and 5, without an option of fine.

He was also ordered to pay the sum of N25 million pursuant to Section 20 of the ICPC law which states: “Without prejudice to any sentence of imprisonment imposed under this Act, a Public Officer or other person found guilty of soliciting, offering or receiving gratification shall forfeit the gratification and pay a fine of not less than five times the sum of the value of the gratification which is the subject-matter of the offence…”

Justice Abdulgafar further found Mr Sulaiman guilty on counts 5 and 6, and sentenced him to five and seven years imprisonment respectively. The third defendant which is the company has been ordered to pay a fine of N1 million.

All the sentences are to run concurrently.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/332683-ex-icpc-board-nominee-jailed-five-years-with-hard-labour-for-bribery.html

Published May 19, 2019
A former Governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye, continues to receive the N750, 000 salary and N13.5m monthly running cost from the National Assembly, 11 months after his conviction by a Federal Capital Territory High Court, SUNDAY PUNCH can report.

This implies that his total earnings have risen from N85.5m in November last year to N171.1m in May.

The sum is separate from a severance package he is supposed to receive as an outgoing member of the National Assembly.

The payment to the account of the convicted lawmaker has continued despite a lawsuit filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project before a Federal High Court in Lagos to “stop the Senate President Bukola Saraki from paying former Plateau State governor, Senator Joshua Dariye, N14.2 million monthly allowances while he serves out a 10-year prison sentence for corruption because such payment violates Nigerian law and international obligations.”

Investigations by SUNDAY PUNCH showed that Dariye, who represents Plateau Central Senatorial District, still received the allowances because his seat had yet to be declared vacant by the leadership of the National Assembly.

The senator, who served as governor of Plateau from 1999 to 2007, was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and convicted by Justice Adebukola Banjoko of a FCT High Court for embezzling N1.162bn.

He was subsequently sentenced to 14 years in prison, but his sentence was reduced to 10 years by the Court of Appeal which upheld his conviction last month.

The Director of Information at the National Assembly, Mr Agada Rawlings, in an interview with our correspondent, explained that constitutionally, Dariye could not be denied the payments.

Rawlings said, “The point there is that his seat has not been declared vacant. You’re looking at the moral side of it but we are looking at the constitutional side. There are two issues that are at stake. Dariye, as of today, is still a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has not been recalled.

“Secondly, INEC has not declared his seat vacant. As the management of the National Assembly, we do not have such powers to do anything otherwise until the law speaks otherwise.

“So, it’s not for us as the management to decide who stays and who does not stay. The law on that is clear. The only constitutional provision to declare a seat vacant is on the basis of recall or death of a member.”

He noted that some courts had given judgment, saying, even upon suspension by the rules of the house, if certain procedures were not met, such actions were deemed to be void.

“But in this particular instance, there is a moral burden, but if there is no law that states that he has been barred as a result of the judgement and the court in this judgement did not say his position at the Senate of the Federal Republic (had) lapsed,” Rawlings added.

https://punchng.com/dariyes-pay-rises-to-n171m-in-prison/

April 30, 2019 Kemi Busari
Nigerian lawmakers have allocated N23.7 billion as severance gratuity for outgoing lawmakers of the National Assembly.

The sum will also cover allowances for incoming legislators, their aides, funds for National Assembly induction and inauguration of the 9th Senate.

The benefit was captured as a separate line item in the 2019 appropriation bill passed by the lawmakers on Tuesday.

The amount was broken down to N23, 678, 770, 079 in the bill.

Details of the disbursement were not made available.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, had on April 12 released details of the 2018 National Assembly budget in a tweet.

In the summary page, the 45-page document showed that N139.5 billion was budgeted for the National Assembly in 2018.

Of this sum, N35 billion was allocated to the Senate, while the House of Representatives got N57 billion.

About N10 billion was budgeted for legislative aides, the National Assembly Office got N15 billion and the National Assembly Commission received N2 billion.

About N4.4 billion was allocated to the National Assembly Legislative Institute and N1 billion was appropriated for the service-wide vote of the legislature.

The disclosure came amidst pressure from Nigerians for the National Assembly to make its spending public.

Despite this, however, the National Assembly failed to release figures of line items in its 2018 budget.

‘Reasons for huge severance package’

The chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje gave reasons for the increment.

Presenting the committee’s report on Tuesday, Mr Goje said such package only comes up once in every four years.

“There is a slight increase in the budget deficit. This is as a result of the provision for severance benefits of the outgoing legislators and legislative aides, the induction/orientation and inauguration of new legislators, all of which occur once in four years, but were inadvertently not captured in the 2019 budget proposal.

“There was also the need to provide more fund for the security and intelligence agencies to deal with additional, emerging, unforeseen challenges in the country,” he said.

The 2019 budget proposal was passed with an increase from N8.83 trillion proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari to N8.916.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/327711-nigerian-senators-reps-to-pocket-n23-7-billion-as-gratuity-allowances.html

By Yusuf Alli April 21, 2019
The South-south governors may have resolved to intervene in the resignation saga of the embattled Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen.

The governors intend to meet President Muhammadu Buhari with a view to persuading him to accept Onnoghen’s resignation letter.

Buhari is yet to act on the April 4, 2019, letter or the recommendation of the National Judicial Council (NJC) that the CJN be compulsorily retired.

Onnoghen turned in his letter 24 hours after the NJC met and decided that he had to go having lost the moral authority to continue as CJN with the litany of allegations bordering on misconduct against him.

The Nation gathered that the majority of the South-South governors have bought the idea of intervening in the Onnoghen matter.

It was also learnt that Onnoghen actually attempted to negotiate his exit with three conditions before the NJC advised the President to retire him.

The presidency rejected the Onnoghen exit conditions and opted to see his trial through at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

One of the conditions was for the federal government to enter a nolle prosequi at the tribunal.

He also asked that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should discontinue his investigation/trial, and that his suspension be lifted to allow him to return to office after which he would voluntarily resign within four weeks.

On Thursday however, the tribunal convicted him for failing to declare his assets as required by law, and ordered his immediate removal from office as CJN.

Investigation revealed that the South-South governors, some of whom have no personal relationship with Onnoghen, have requested audience with Buhari.

The meeting was expected to be held last Thursday but the conviction of Onnoghen same day by the CCT caused a delay as one of the issues was overtaken by the judgment.

Sources said the governors are keen on getting a dignified exit for Onnoghen, who is from the geopolitical zone.

They were said to have consented to a ‘political solution’ to the CJN matter.

A source familiar with the development said: “The South-South governors want the presidency to close the chapter on Onnoghen by accepting his voluntary resignation/ retirement. This is why they believe a political solution is better than this messy affair.

“They have sought audience with the President on how to find an amicable solution to the travails of Onnoghen.

“They are buying into the recommendation of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to allow Onnoghen to retire with full benefits and retain his membership of the Council of State.

“They do not want the CCT matter to drag on for more months. They also do not want Onnoghen subjected to a separate trial by the EFCC on other allegations against him.”

It was unclear when the governors will meet the President again.

Before the conviction of the CJN on Thursday, he had resigned or retired after much pressure and following the decision of the NJC advising Buhari to retire him.

“The NJC decision shocked Onnoghen and he lost the last straws he was clinging to. At this point, he offered to resign/ retire accordingly,” another source added.

The Presidency, in rejecting Onnoghen’s conditions for stepping down, believed that the law be allowed to run its course.

A government source said: “The conditions were untenable and the presidency told the intermediary that investigative reports on Onnoghen were awesome for three separate trials.

“This was how the negotiation deal collapsed and Onnoghen was left to bear his cross at the CCT. If the CJN had made some concessions, maybe his case would not have reached this level.”

https://thenationonlineng.net/south-south-govs-seek-dignified-exit-for-onnoghen/

When the results of the senatorial elections began to appear, three weeks ago, and it became obvious that Bukola Saraki had been utterly defeated by his old nemesis, Dr. Ibrahim Oloriegbe, many of his social media rats, as well as even editors of mainstream Nigerian media establishments, launched a pre-planned offensive. Their approach was a systematic dis-information project that was desperate, even at that late hour, to convince the Nigerian public, that their “walking-bank-balance”, was winning the elections.

As usual with Bukola Saraki and his hangers-on, the situation of our people in Ilorin and Kwara state, was merely an inconvenient backdrop to his over-arching political ambitions. But this time, their plot had taken a dead-on-arrival trip to the morgue of Nigerian politics! Bukola Saraki had literally been skinned alive by the people of Ilorin Emirate (Kwara Central Senatorial District). Dr. Ibrahim Oloriegbe won by 123, 808 votes, to Bukola Saraki’s 68, 994!

The jubilation that followed the announcement of the results (and at a point everyone was apprehensive that it was not going to come, because the results for Ilorin West and Ilorin South took a frighteningly long time to be returned!), was as deafening as it was most liberating. Arguably, the most unpopular individual in contemporary Nigerian politics, had finally gotten his comeuppance! Nigerians rejoiced all over our country and thanked the people of the Ilorin Emirate for exorcising the political monster, that had used a dubious Senate Presidency, to hamstring the programs of the Buhari Administration, from the time he constructed a coup in June 2015, which earned him the poisoned chalice that the eminent seat became, in his hands. Not only did Bukola Saraki lose the seat, the people of our state ensured that the other two senatorial seats in Kwara North and South respectively, were also won by the APC, as well as the six House of Representatives positions. Last weekend, the final nail was knocked into the casket of the Saraki Hegemony in Kwara State. Bukola Saraki’s PDP lost the governorship as well as the 24 seats in the Kwara State House of Assembly. It was a rout; a whitewash and the definitive end of a dubious, monstrous and incredibly arrogant hegemony, that systematically underdeveloped Kwara State; which was built as an elaborate fraud and a platform of heist that had no parallel in Nigeria’s political history.

The roots of the Saraki hegemony effectively went back to 1979, when their patriarch, Dr. Olushola Saraki entered Senate and was Senate leader (but we might even date the roots to a few years earlier, with the indirect elections into the Constituent Assembly, and his active participation in the National Movement that eventually transformed into the NPN in the Second Republic). The Saraki Hegemony was instrumental in the emergence and removal of six Kwara state governors: Adamu Attah; C.O. Adebayo; Sha’aba Lafiagi; Muhammed Lawal; Bukola Saraki and Abdulfatai Ahmed. They hamstrung each governor; imposed controls and generally made life difficult for each one of these governors, except for only one. And that one, was Bukola Saraki, who ran the state, at the height of the powers of the hegemony, with an uncommon arrogance; disrespect for people and the values of our people and state, and who eventually imposed a long-term sidekick, Fatai Ahmed as governor. Bukola Saraki had actually checkmated, for personal reasons of sibling rivalry and the need to protect his controversial 8-year tenure, the temerity to attempt to impose Gbemisola Saraki as governor, after serving for 12 years in the National Assembly as representative and then Senator, representing a people she literally knew nothing about. And for the eight years that Fatai Ahmed was governor, 2011-2019, Bukola Saraki was effectively the Governor-General of Kwara State!

The period from 2003 to 2019, is arguably the WORST in the history of Kwara state. And central to these years was the arrogant presence of Bukola Saraki. It was the period that Kwara State received the highest levels of allocation in our history since it was created in 1967, yet, it was the period which witnessed the execution of projects that impacted very little in terms of value, on the lives of Kwarans.

The sixteen local governments, between 2003 and 2018, got a total of N298, 434, 186, 870. 78. From the Federation Account. Yet, for the past few years, they have been unable to pay salaries of staff. The local administration is dead and most, if not all the local secretariats, exist only in name. When Bukola Saraki took over in 2003, he dissolved the elected councils from the previous Muhammed Lawal administration; and for the next two years, Bukola Saraki was effectively the Sole Administrator, till 2005.

There is no account of their funds till today! The suffering of local government workers; the ruination of the administrative structures as well as the utter destruction of the ability of local government administration to impact upon the lives of people at the local level, was actually one of the greatest crimes of the Saraki Hegemony in our state. That led to the massive drift of young rural folks into the main urban centers of the state, but especially Ilorin, the state capital. These survive as urban lumpens, who live marginally, as OKADA riders; recharge cards sellers, and are involved in sundry petty crimes, to make ends meet. Many are on drugs and a lot had been recruited into gangs, cults and political thugs that the Saraki Hegemony used to terrorise the state for the last sixteen years.

Any visitor to Ilorin, would see how dysfunctional the city has become. There is no development control and the hegemony has parcelled out every available piece of land and sold, in a lunatic and desperate search for funds, after the state and local government allocations have gone down the drain on projects deliberately cooked up to take away money from our state. As for the State Government, it has taken over N600 billion from the Federation Account, yet, there is no aspect of our lives that the Saraki Hegemony has not devalued, destroyed or sold. An elder of the community, Alhaji LAK JImoh, used the Agricultural Nursery by Oyun River Bridge, as an example, in a discussion last year. He reminded that it was one of the best nurseries in Nigeria. They created new species of fruits and plants and at a point, they even developed a hybrid mango that came from using stock from Burkina Faso. People came from all over Nigeria to buy these. Similarly, Military Adminstrator, Peter Ogar, encouraged development of a new variety of pineapples at the nursery. But what did the Saraki Hegemony do? They sold the nursery; dismantled and sold the entire Ministry of Agriculture and related institutions, which dated back to colonial times and the Northern Regional Government, and a place where, under the late Governor David Bamgboye, Eagle Rice; Chicken and so many other food products were sold at reasonable prices. Alhaji LAK Jimoh said the years of the Bukola Saraki Hegemony, 2003-2019, resemble an invasions of a community by Barbarian hordes of Antiquity! Scam was practically central to every project conceived from 2003-2019; none more so, than the Zimbabwe Farm, which is a large scale heist. Huge sums of money were expended; and when he imported cows for the farm, Bukola Saraki even arrogantly ordered all our First Class traditional rulers to the Ilorin Airport, to await arrival of his cows! Not a single product of that controversial farm enters the markets or homes of Kwarans, in whose name billions of Naira were expended. The local people lost their land to so-called Zimbabwean farmers, who entered our state with only suitcases! Yet, the farm served the purpose of taking away our resources, and no one talks about them any longer.

Similarly, loans were taken in our name to build a SHOPRITE outlet on the land of the Kwara State Civil Service College. Today, it does not belong to our state. Another side of the Hegemony, was bringing in people from other states to head vital insitutions; so Tope Daramola, who was said to be Bukola Saraki’s Account Officer at Intercontinental Bank, was compensated with the position of Director of Bureau of Land in Kwara State; but following an outcry, the Bukola Saraki hegemony appointed the Ondo State indigene MD of the cash cow called Harmony Holdings; the omnibus vehicle through which Kwara funds are done as they wished. And for years, whenever a minister was appointed from Kwara State, the SA was either Koye Sogbola or Kola Alagbada. These are sidekicks from Bukola’s days at the Societe Generale Bank! It is also part of the legacy of the Saraki Hegemony, it took down three banks: Societe Generale Bank; Trade Bank and Intercontinental Bank. This is a unique record in Nigeria’s political economy! The obsession was money that belonged to Kwara State and how much can be alienated as the personal resources of the Saraki Hegemony.

There is a well-known story, that Kwara state is the only inheritance that Dr. Olushola Saraki bequeathed to the family. Bukola Saraki therefore carried on with a sense of entitlement, which explained the indefensible pension scheme that he crefted for himself. He was built a house, half of a street in the GRA; and there are stories around the house. He was said to have rejected the house, preferring to be paid the huge sum it was built for. Then a few years later, the house was handed out to his family as a birthday present. A classic case of head I win, tail you lose! That is a well-known story in Kwara, but the truth will come to light only with the new administration. Similarly, there are the ALIMI LODGES, located behind the Government House in Ilorin. In 2010, Bukola Saraki was said to have “renovated” them at a princely sum of One Billion Naira; and a year later in 2011, they were “monetized” for him, so the story goes, at only one hundred million Naira. But, because, it was further alleged, that the state government owed him some money, the one hundred million was allegedly then deducted to cover the cost! And to rub salt unto injury, Bukola Saraki got his sidekicks in the State House of Assembly to move a motion that the State University, built by his father-in-law’s construction company, be named after his father, Olushola Saraki!

I had wondered at the height of that controversy, just why Bukola Saraki won’t show love for his father, by taking out of the huge sums he made from Kwara, to build a private university in Ilorin, and named after his father. It would have been social responsibility of the highest order. This is because the Saraki Hegemony has NO ECONOMIC INVESTMENT worth the name, whatsoever in Kwara State. They only ever TAKE OUT of the state!

Kwarans actually wizened to the rapacious nature of the Saraki Hegemony since 2011. Walahi, Bukola Saraki had been defeated even in the 2011 senate elections by Dr. Ibrahim Oloriegbe, but dubious numbers were added from the Asa Local Government. In 2015, he benefitted from the President Muhammadu Buhari effect, to return to senate. That is obvious, because President Buhari got more votes in Ilorin than Bukola Saraki. It meant that President Buhari won in our community, in spite of Bukola, NOT because of him! So when he began to arrogantly claim that he was going to teach the president politics, he probably did not add up the numbers, even in the constituency that he was supposedly representing in senate! In the long run, he was the one that was taught the most bitter political lesson; not by President Muhammadu Buhari directly, but by the people of the Kwara Central Senatorial District, who saw through his arrogance; the 16-year systematic underdevelopment of the state, under his watch, and the manner he behaved, as if he was doing us a favour, sitting atop our resources. He imposed individuals, often from other states to run strategic institutions; they knew they were not deserving of those positions, so did only Bukola Saraki’s biddings, to the detriment of the best interests of the state. They sold houses and institutions; devalued whatever they could not sell and in sixteen years, instituted a culture of violence, drugs, cults killings, open and clandestine prostitution as their economic activities destroyed the fabric of family life in our state!

It was clear to Kwarans, that Bukola Saraki was actually a paper tiger, and one that could and would be defeated, in a free and fair electoral process. People from other parts of Nigeria were often fixated in their assessment of our situation, seeing Bukola Saraki, and by extension, the Saraki Hegemony, as infallible. And who can blame them; they have seen the Saraki, PERE ET FILS, anoint and remove governors, senators, representatives, as well as local politicians and potentates, for over a generation, effectively from 1979 to 2019. But nothing lasts forever! The period from 2003 especially has seen a steady evolution of the demography of Nigeria in general, and Kwara State in particular. Dr. Olushola Saraki, had a common touch; he was the classic master of Nigerian prebendalist Nigerian politics; securing political prebends, and serving personal or family interest, in manners that made people think that he cared for them. He was also generous with money, and had a sensitive nature that made people see kindness more than ruthlessness. Not for Bukola Saraki. His start and end points were his self, and that insatiable appetite for power, as an end to alienating financial resources for himself. Ruthlessness was and is first nature, and even a smile that the Prophet once described as charity, was and always is for him, a political weapon. He disrespects everybody and respects none; not our elders; not our Emirs; not our values and not our institutions. He calls people as old as his father by first name; and people in his presence, were expected to kneel down. He would fiddle with his phone or pretend to be sleeping, when people talked to him. These for a chap who has no royal lineage of any sort, and is just a second generation nouveau riche! Riches, which unfortunately have not come from hard work, but from being at the controlling levers of governance!

As I said, demography was going to be his undoing. While his father could ensure a steady flow of old women to his residence, those who infamously ate EBA and were given WASO (Twenty Naira notes) regularly and would always vote for Saraki’s candidates. The trend from 2011, was that younger people were becoming the most important factor in our politics. They had been educated, often badly, in the schools that Bukola Saraki and his successor allowed to run down; they increasingly had access to modern communication gadgets and were no longer content to be children of the 21st Century form of slavery that Bukola Saraki was presiding over. They also had the advantage of access to information about strides in development in neighbouring and distant states in the country, which social media platforms allowed them to share around. The growth of private radio stations broke communication monopoly in the state, and the leading lights of the opposition, such as Iyiola Oyedepo, Rex Olaoye, Alhaji Alajagusi, as well courageous clerics like Dr Abubakar Aliagan and Dr Olohun Oyin, reached homes around the state, with analyses of how Kwara state was systematically ruined by the Saraki Hegemony. The final, and I think most important factor, were the people themselves. They have lived through the indignities of the past 16 years and decided they have had enough. The first show of strength was in the November 2017 Local Government elections. The then opposition PDP defeated the ruling APC all over the state. Bukola Saraki and his hangers-on panicked; they forcibly changed results in a most untidy manner, but that emboldened people that change was indeed possible and achievable! A new set of unlikely heroes emerged, the standard bearer of which was Musbau Eshinrogunjo. He won the chairmanship of Ilorin West local council, which the Saraki clan claims as home. Refusal to allow him take the chairmaship seat deepened resentment and spiked the radical resolve to end the Saraki Hegemony!

The final piece in the elaborate jigsaw was Bukola Saraki’s decision to leave the ruling APC, for the PDP. He arrogantly sealed his own fate. He forgot the lesson of his family’s longevity in politics: never abandon the party of power in the center. It is that crucial control of state power, and ability to influence the electoral body as well as security men deployed during elections, supplemented with their own thugs, that has been central to the Saraki mythology of political control in Kwara state. So when his fight against the center led to the arrest of a lot of his thugs and cultists, the space opened for the opposition to organize with little molestation. And by the time he abandoned the APC, the old opposition moved in. The death knell of the Saraki Hegemony was just a matter of time. Last year, his PDP lost a by-election in Kwara South, and the state knew that we had him where we wanted him, trapped! The results of the Presidential, National Assembly, Governorship and State House of Assembly elections underlined just how totally the Saraki Hegemony has been routed by our people. I spent the past twelve years exposing the rapacity of the Saraki Hegemony, at points when they seemed at the zenith of their power. It was a lonely effort, which was misunderstood even by the victims of the underdevelopment that the Saraki Hegemony was foisting on our state. Today our people have buried forever the Saraki Hegemony! It is absolutely unacceptable that a single family should ever be allowed to determine the fate of millions of people. It can only be a recipe for disaster. Democracy must remain the right to dissent as well as the power of the people to dismantle the likes of the Saraki Hegemony, as the people of Kwara state did so heroically! Nothing lasts forever; not oppressive use of power, not a hegemony!

http://saharareporters.com/2019/03/15/final-meltdown-saraki-hegemony-’haq-modibbo-kawu-0

March 4, 2019 Agency Report
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says All Progressives Congress (APC) will win the Saturday’s Governorship and State Assembly elections in Kwara State with higher margin than the Presidential and National Assembly polls.

The minister, who is the leader of APC in the state, said this on Monday after a meeting with the party leaders from the 16 local government areas in the state.

He said the meeting reviewed the past elections and strategised on how to garner more votes in the Saturday’s governorship and state assembly polls.

Mr Mohammed told voters in the state to ignore the threat by the opposition to disrupt the Saturday’s poll, assuring them that the government would provide adequate security to protect them.

He said he got the information that the opposition was planning to unleash political thugs to attack and intimidate voters during the Saturday’s polls.

“We have been hearing a lot of things that they have imported a lot of thugs to Kwara to disrupt the Saturday’s elections.

“If anyone does so, he or she will be risking his or her life.

“We are appealing to our people that the Federal Government is going to provide adequate security for all,” he said.

The APC won the Presidential, all the three senatorial and six House of Representatives seats in Kwara in the February 23 elections.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, lost his bid for re-election into the Senate from Kwara Central on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Mr Saraki lost to Ibrahim Oloriegbe of the All Progressives Congress, in the senatorial election.

Mr Oloriegbe polled 123,808 votes to defeat the Mr Saraki, who scored 68,994 votes in the four local governments of Kwara Central Senatorial District.

(NAN)

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/north-central/317478-lai-mohammed-to-thugs-disrupt-saturdays-election-in-kwara-and-risk-your-lives.html

Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin February 28, 2019
Governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Thursday promised to repeal the law granting pensions to former governors and their deputies.

This according to him would free up resources for the masses if elected into office.

He urged the people to vote for him and all the APC candidates for the House of Assembly in the March 9 elections in Kwara.

“We need to change some terrible laws. We’ll repeal that obnoxious pension law when we get to office,” AbdulRazaq said during his campaign stop at Omu Aran in Kwara South and again in Pategi in Kwara North.

“It’s a privilege to become a governor of a state. It is dubious for anyone to become governor and then earn a pension more than people who served the state for their entire lives. We can’t take that anymore. But we need enough lawmakers to push through the repeal of the offensive law.”

The Kwara state pension law for former governors and their deputies has continued to raise eyebrows, with the masses and civil servants often decrying it as unjust and a rip off to the state.

Speaking at the rally, AbdulRazaq also said his administration will invest in security, local economy and youth empowerment in a bid to stamp out thuggery and bring government closer to the grassroots.

“We need to work seriously. We need to revamp the economy of Kwara State. We need to bring jobs to our people. We need to address security issues. Instead of funding police, they arm thugs. We will help the police by offering assistance they need to secure our communities,” he added.

He also vowed to join the efforts to grant full autonomy to the local government areas, insisting that is the only way to grow the local economy and halt the unhealthy exodus of people to the cities.

AbdulRazaq is on a fresh round of campaign tours of all the senatorial districts of the state, beginning with the Kwara South on Tuesday and Wednesday and Pategi in the northern axis of the state.

http://thenationonlineng.net/abdulrazaq-to-repeal-law-granting-pensions-to-ex-governors-deputies/

Published February 26, 2019
The Elebute Family has announced the death of their father and grandfather, Prof Emmanuel Adeyemo Elebute (CON). According to the family, he died in the early hours of Saturday, February 23, 2019.

Born on September 15, 1932 in Lagos, Elebute is survived by his wife, Prof Oyinade Elebute; four children: Adekunle Elebute, Modupe Odunsi, Adebimpe Nkontchou and Folasade Laoye, as well as many grandchildren.

Elebute was educated at the CMS Grammar School in Lagos between 1941 and 1948, from where he went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated with a BA, MB, BC.h., BAO in 1956.

He was later conferred with MA and MD (by thesis).

At Trinity College, he won the Cunningham Medal for Anatomy, Acquilla Smyth Prize for Pathology, Bacteriology and Material Media, and Fitzpatrick Scholarship for best performance in all professional examinations.

He held Fellowships in Surgery and was appointed Professor of Surgery at the University of Lagos in 1969; Provost of the institution’s College of Medicine between 1977 and 1980; and the Chief Medical Director of LUTH from 1978 to 1980.

He was Secretary of the Association of Surgeons of West Africa, which was later converted to the West African College of Surgeons, a position he held from 1967 to 1971.

Elebute was also the President of the Nigerian Medical Association (1968-1970); member of Executive Committee of the International Federation of Surgical Colleges (1970-1976); member of Executive Council of Societe International de Chirugie (1979-1983); member of the Council of the UK-based Association for the Study of Medical Education; member of the National Universities Commission; and of the Nigeria Medical Council.

He was Chairman of the World Health Organisation’s Task Force on the Development of Appropriate Technology for Health in the field of Laboratory Equipment, and of WHO’s Committee of Heads of Medical Schools in Africa.

The deceased was also a former President of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, which later conferred on him the Distinguished Fellow in appreciation of his services to the institution.

In 1997, he chaired the Health Group of Vision 2010 Committee set up by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group. He was a Member of the Governing Board of the Pan-Atlantic (formerly Pan African) University.

In 1985, Elebute and his wife, co-promoted a healthcare company, Hygeia Nigeria Limited and Hygeia HMO Limited, a Health Maintenance Organisation providing healthcare cover for Nigerians as well as the enrollees of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

Elebute’s research activities yielded contributions to medical knowledge which produced improvement in the care of critically-ill patients.

He has co-authored books in the field of Surgery, published articles in academic journals, made presentations to scientific conferences and delivered public lectures. In 2011, he assisted his wife to author the book, A New Face of Private Healthcare: The Hygeia Nigeria Story, telling the story of their adventure in private healthcare.

Recently, he published a book about The Life of James Pinson Labulo Davies, A Colossus of Victoria, Lagos and another book titled, Worthy in Character and Learning, a collection of lectures and addresses on social issues pertaining to education and health.

Elebute was also appointed the Chairman of Glaxo Group of Companies in Nigeria in 1981 and remained in that position till 1993, when the company was split into Evans Medical Plc (which retained Glaxo’s local pharmaceutical manufacturing facility) and Glaxo Nigeria Limited and was appointed the chairman of both companies. He continued as the chairman of GlaxoSmithKline (Pharma) Nigeria Ltd. and of Evans Medical Plc until he retired in 2001 and 2004, respectively.

In 2005, the Federal Government appointed Elebute as the Chairman of the Board of Management of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, and consequent upon this appointment, he was elected the Chairman of the Committee of Chairmen of the Federal Government’s 53 tertiary hospitals. He held this appointment till 2007.

Elebute was a member of the Metropolitan Club, Lagos, the Lagos Motor Boat Club and the Yoruba Tennis Club.

https://punchng.com/former-luth-cmd-prof-elebute-dies-at-87/

The Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress has said it is illogical for the Peoples Democratic Party to reject results of the presidential poll that is still being collated.

The council in a statement by its Spokesperson, Festus Keyamo (SAN), expressed surprise at the statement of the National Chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus, rejecting the results as being announced presently by INEC in Abuja.

The statement read, “How come the PDP is rejecting results that have not been fully and completely announced? How can one reject the result of an uncompleted game? The process of an election does not end until the final collation and announcement of results.

“Is the PDP rejecting the totality of the results nationwide? If yes, does it mean they also reject the results that would be announced later by INEC which may indicate that they have won in certain areas? Are they also rejecting the results already announced that indicate they won in some areas? For instance, are they rejecting the results of the FCT already announced in which they won?

“If indeed they are only rejecting areas where they lost, are they implying that it is only in areas where they won that can be adjudged free and fair and all areas where they lost must be adjudged rigged? Is that the mentality of true democrats?”

Keyamo said it was curious that the PDP rejected the results as being announced, yet claimed they were coasting to victory.

“What kind of logic is that? What kind of confusion is now reigning in the minds of the top hierarchy of the PDP that they can spew such illogicality?

“It is now obvious that the top hierarchy of the PDP is hysterical and nervous. We urge them to calm down. Obviously, this is the first time they are sensing a massive loss of an election as opposition party. It is a new experience for them. They are confused and disoriented. For many years, they were used to manipulating the instruments of State to just write results and announce themselves as winners. As such they have a sense of entitlement to these instruments of State that they could not fully manipulate this time because President Muhammadu Buhari insisted on a level plain field for all.

“We advise the PDP that as opposition party for many years, we have been down this road before. This is not the time to sacrifice the country for personal ambition. If they feel they have lost (as their statement clearly indicates), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must pick up his phone to make that famous call to President Muhammadu Buhari. The world is watching him and so are Nigerians.”

The council urged INEC, Nigerians and our international friends not to be swayed by the “infantile” antics of the PDP.

https://punchng.com/it-is-illogical-for-pdp-to-reject-results-keyamo/

February 25, 2019 Agency Report
Senate Leader Ahmad Lawan, has said that the February 23 elections would usher in a robust executive and legislative relationship to end the bickering between the two arms of government.

Mr Lawan, who stated this while speaking with journalists on Monday in Damaturu, the state capital, said the new APC victory in the two chambers would be people friendly.

“The time for unnecessary bickering and opposition has come to an end; we cannot afford to waste more time on unnecessary politics and denying the people of Nigeria the much needed development.

“The National Assembly will support and cooperate with the president to effectively serve the interest of Nigerians,” he said.

He regretted that the National Assembly in the last four years, had not been cooperative with the laudable programmes and projects of President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC administration.

“This time around, the APC will have at least two third majority and in control of the Senate and House of Representatives with legislators who are patriotic and willing to identify with the programmes of the president.

“This time, it will not be the kind of National Assembly that will betray the trust of Nigerians; the National Assembly will support Mr President to meet the needs of Nigerians,” he assured.

He added that those who took the integrity of the president and Nigerians for granted in the last four years have paid for it.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Lawan retained his seat with 144,099 votes to defeat Sheriff Abdullahi of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 53,443 votes.

(NAN)

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/316209-senate-leader-promises-robust-legislature-executive-relationship.html

February 25, 2019 Lois Ugbede
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed its appreciation to the people of Kwara State for their support in the presidential and National Assembly elections.

The party made this known in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, on Monday.

“The All Progressives Congress (APC) expresses profound appreciation to the good people of Kwara State for the tremendous and overwhelming support shown to President Muhammadu Buhari and all candidates of the party in the Presidential and National Assembly elections that held last Saturday.”

The APC has won all the Senate seats announced in Kwara, defeating PDP candidates including Senate President Bukola Saraki.

The APC said for it and Kwarans, this victory is special in so many ways.

It said residents showed uncommon resilience and determination against all odds to kick out a man (Mr Saraki) it believes stagnated development and held the fortunes of the state hostage for the past 16 years.

“The people of Kwara have shown clearly that they will no longer fraternize with their oppressors neither will the state representation continue to be a signpost for thuggery, embezzlement, feudal lords, misuse of power and opportunism” the statement read.

The party also said the people of Kwara have shown commitment to the kind of change that will empower the people while reclaiming the lost glory of Kwarans.

“It is, indeed, a new dawn for our dear Kwara State.”

The APC said it will not take this victory for granted.

The party urged Kwara residents to repeat such support for APC governorship and House of Assembly candidates on March 9.

“We want to remind our people that the work is not done yet.

“Come Saturday, we humbly ask every eligible voter in the state to come out en masse and vote for our governorship candidate, AbdulRahman Abdulrazak and all our candidates for the House of Assembly polls.”

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-west/316079-election-apc-speaks-on-kwara-elections.html

Abeyjide:
sai baba. apc leading in omu aran. any update from offa .kindly update

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/315380-nigeriadecides2019-official-results-from-polling-units.html

36 MINUTES AGO
PREMIUMTIMES

PU 007; Balogun Ward, Offa LGA, Kwara South
Presidential
APC 297
PDP 55

Senatorial
APC 301
PDP 49

Representative
APC 285
PDP 62


---------------------------------


AN HOUR AGO
PREMIUMTIMES

PU 009; Kere Aje Ward, Offa LGA, Kwara South
Presidential
APC 116
PDP 23

Senatorial
APC 122
PDP 22

Representative
APC 112
PDP 22

-------------------------------------

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/315380-nigeriadecides2019-official-results-from-polling-units.html

Abeyjide:


respect to you.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/315380-nigeriadecides2019-official-results-from-polling-units.html

36 MINUTES AGO
PREMIUMTIMES

PU 007; Balogun Ward, Offa LGA, Kwara South
Presidential
APC 297
PDP 55

Senatorial
APC 301
PDP 49

Representative
APC 285
PDP 62


---------------------------------


AN HOUR AGO
PREMIUMTIMES

PU 009; Kere Aje Ward, Offa LGA, Kwara South
Presidential
APC 116
PDP 23

Senatorial
APC 122
PDP 22

Representative
APC 112
PDP 22

-------------------------------------

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/315380-nigeriadecides2019-official-results-from-polling-units.html