₦airaland Forum

February 23, 2019 Alfred Olufemi
Some supporters of Senate President Bukola Saraki held him hostage for about 15 minutes on Saturday after he cast his vote.

Mr Saraki voted at about 10:30 a.m. amidst praises from scores of his supporters.

He voted at his PU 003 Agbaji ward of Ilorin West Local Government Area.

After he voted at about 10:35 a.m., Mr Saraki was barred by his supporters from leaving his polling unit. They demanded money from him.

He was later allowed to exit the polling unit at about 10:50 a.m.

The supporters who demanded money from him were asked to follow the convoy as it is an offence to distribute money at the polling centres.

Mr Saraki seeks to return to the Senate on the PDP platform. He is widely known to share money to his supporters and residents of Ilorin.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/315183-elections-supporters-hold-saraki-hostage-demand-money.html

By Abba Kyari February 14, 2019 in Open Forum
President Muhammadu Buhari has campaigned in this election exactly as he has governed since 2015, true to the values in which he has believed all his adult life: our security, a diversified economy and an administration free from the scourge of corruption and the sleazy mediocrity it fuels.

Buhari has not changed, and with good reason. Without these attributes, Nigeria will not know peace, prosperity or the rule of law: the only real foundations on which free and fair elections and genuine democracy can thrive. He is stubborn and resolute in defence of these values. This irritates quite a number in the elite, and especially those who, four years ago, thought that they could play the President and use his popularity to continue to steal and cheat the people.

These players have failed. They are angry but they have not yet given up. They have some unlikely allies. Our traditional friends in the US and Europe say they want nothing from Nigeria except free and fair elections. But if you look at what their representatives here actually do rather than what they say, the unmistakeable signs of a quite different agenda are plain to see.

It’s easy to forget where we were, a country falling apart, unable even to protect school girls and where corruption defined every aspect of so much of our public life and private business. Today our media ignore the revelations in a Milan court of how oil companies and fixers stuffed cash in suitcases and the nine-figure bank accounts of former PDP justice ministers and spy chiefs and Presidents. This failure goes beyond individuals or particular political parties, although it is true that our decline accelerated under the PDP after the end of military rule in 1999, a betrayal that Atiku Abubakar and many of his allies hope forlornly to revive and celebrate.

Our young people see only the devastation that has been visited upon them, too young to remember the vibrant rural economy that once gave us the wealth for the schools and hospitals we are only now beginning to revive.

They cannot imagine the rubber plantations where for decades Dunlop and Michelin made tyres for Nigeria and the world. The factories are long since closed. Our palm oil was once a world leader but it is only now, under this government, that we are reviving an industry on life support. We have timber, we have hardworking people – and yet we came to be importing even simple school desks and bedframes. We have so much of what we need for fertilisers, yet government after government preferred to let the plants we had already built go to waste for easy commissions on second-rate imports. Textiles used to employ thousands, and will do again, when we allow our talent fairly to compete on the international stage.

A major crude producer with four refineries that once delivered petroleum products for home consumption and export, Nigeria was reduced to importing petroleum products as if we were Burkina Faso or Bangladesh, not a leading member of OPEC. Our golden goose was starved. The military and the PDP took all the money, they didn’t pay oil partners what we owed and only now, after this government’s efforts, speaking plainly and finding real solutions, can we begin to grow exports that have stagnated for 30 years.

When our private banks collapsed (again) in 2009, the outstanding liabilities were N5.7 trillion. It is hard to imagine a sum of money, so vast, owed by so few, to so many. The list of decay is long. And yet this was the inherited culture of government – ‘to those that have, give more’ – that we have challenged, a culture where every declared reform was in fact a disguise to privatise profit and leave the rest of us with all the risk.

Nigeria has almost as many problems as we have people. But it also has all the resources to meet our needs, if they are properly managed and honestly marshalled. Think where we would be today, but for all the time wasted, the prosperity we would enjoy and the better partner we might have been to our friends in the region and further afield! Buhari is not a populist but he is popular because he is delivering on our most basic needs first.

Do our foreign friends simply not understand what is at stake, or do they actually want us to fail? We know we are not equal partners, and do not pretend to be so. In our own time in government, the US, the UK and the EU let us know subtly, and often not so subtly, what we should be doing on everything from currency reform to fuel deregulation and the import of toothpicks.

They have their own subsidies to protect key strategic interests, their farmers and steel plants, but condemn our own efforts to protect the poorest and most vulnerable from an unregulated market for food, transport and housing, or to create and protect space for new opportunities and innovation to flourish. This is not so much a question of policy, but integrity: we, at least, mean what we say. So many past governments in Nigeria did not.

Our transition has been difficult because Nigeria needs radical change, which we have been delivering, despite ingenious and often disingenuous resistance from vested interests and the business-as-usual brigade. Which begs the question: is there a difference between what suits Nigeria’s real national interest and what suits the interests of the Great Powers? The years of failure were characterised by hypocrisy and betrayal by our leaders, who were in turn easy targets for manipulation – much easier for foreign powers to manage than a government genuinely looking to repair and revive today so that we can build tomorrow. And tomorrow never dies.

I always knew that business-as-usual had a powerful self-interest in resisting CHANGE. I had hoped their tentacles did not stretch so far or so easily beyond our borders, that a good case, well made, would receive a fair hearing. In three and a half years in government, I have learned that decent argument and hard facts face stiff competition from vested interests that seem so easily to sway people who should know better. A convenient lie is not better than an uncomfortable truth.

Nowhere is this more clear than the contrived debate on the conduct of elections. Buhari’s commitment to the democratic process is a matter of record, time and again. All of the work to rebuild our public institutions, restore our values and recalibrate our future prospects can succeed only in a democracy in which the integrity of elections is sacrosanct.

Instead of judging Nigeria by our actions, it seems altogether too easy for foreign partners to be swayed by the expensive words of lobbyists. Riva Levinson has been hired by Bukola Saraki. She was trained by Paul Manafort and Roger Stone (both caught up in the probe into interference by foreign powers in the US elections in 2016) and guide earlier in her career to dictators like Siad Barre, unprincipled warlords like Jonas Savimbi, or frauds like Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi, the man who neo-conned the Bush White House. We are meant to be believe that Ms Levinson, like the others who are paid by one of the contestants, wants only to promote a free and fair race. And that it is only a coincidence that this language for hire is identical to what we hear from accredited diplomats!

By omission or commission, it appears it may actually suit our friends, deep down, below the pious words, to see Nigeria a basket case, begging bowl in hand, than the partner we could, should and will prove to be. And we have been here before. At the end of 1984, British diplomats predicted a coup against the then Buhari government, with whom London was quarrelling over everything from apartheid to economic policy (as we knew then, and as it turned out, Buhari was right). Glowing profiles of Ibrahim Babangida were prepared and telegrams of congratulation were drafted. Mrs Thatcher put the project on ice, at least for a few months, but it was not long before foreign powers concluded that their best interests would be served by people who told them everything they wanted to hear on democratisation and reform, but, as they could and should have known, meant precisely none of it. Nigeria lived through the consequences of this systemic deception. We lost so much in the 30 years after 1985, but nothing so precious as the loss of confidence in our values and what we as a nation could be.

In the 19th century, Lord Palmerston, Britain’s Prime Minister and one of the country’s most celebrated diplomats, observed that “nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.” We have been delivering on a programme to restore the rule of law, to build democracy and strengthen security, to deal with corruption and to create opportunity in a new meritocracy. It is a platform that helps tackle violent extremism, illegal migration, trafficking and financial crime. These are the very issues that are central to the interests of our foreign friends, and we are producing results.

Nigeria will make its choice on Saturday. It has never before had a government that has more clearly demonstrated through words and actions its commitment to transparency and the rule of law, protecting good judges and decent public office-holders from the corruption of their peers. Voters are free to move forwards to a better future or back to the desperate past from which we are now beginning to emerge. Our election commission is independent and has all resources it needs to do its job. We should all be wise to the risks, including partial and premature announcements of unofficial results from unverifiable sources, especially when one party has already declared well in advance that it cannot lose unless there is rigging. There should be no interference from any quarter, including foreign powers who say one thing but do another – exactly the formula that their friends here have employed for years to bring us so close to despair.


Abba Kyari is Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari

http://thenationonlineng.net/tomorrow-never-dies/

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BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORKFEB 11, 2019

Dele Belgore, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has debunked the allegation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he laundered the sum of N450million in 2015.

The EFCC is prosecuting him before the Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly benefiting N450million from the sum of $115.01million, which Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, allegedly doled out to influence the 2015 elections.

The EFCC said Belgore, alongside a former Minister of National Planning, Professor Abubakar Sulaiman, went to a branch of Fidelity Bank in Ilorin on March 26, 2015, to sign for and collect the N450million cash.

However, while testifying in his defence on Monday, Belgore admitted being invited by the bank manager on March 26, 2015, to take delivery of the N450million cash, but said he left the bank without the money.

The SAN, who said he was the Kwara State Coordinator of then President Goodluck Jonathan reelection campaign, said he did not collect the N450million because on getting to the bank, he realised that the money was too huge for his Toyota Prado jeep.

Belgore said: “I indicated to PW1 (bank manager) that I could not collect the money and I gave two reasons. First, I said this money was coming two days before the election; all the stakeholders and party members were aware of the arrival of the money and therefore, I did not consider it safe to move such a huge amount of money out of the bank in the middle of the night.

“The second reason was that I did not come prepared to receive and take away such a large amount of money, as I came only in my vehicle, a Toyota Prado jeep.

“As I said earlier, the heap of cash that I saw in the bank’s loading bay was at least three to four feet high. So, I told PW1 that if it took a bullion van to transport the cash from the Central Bank of Nigeria to Fidelity Bank, there was no way I would be able to evacuate those funds with my Toyota Prado.”

Belgore said following a long argument between him, Suleiman and the bank manager, the bank manager told them to sign for the money and agreed to keep the money in the bank’s vault.

“After signing the document, I left the bank without the money. I did not take a penny out of the bank; I left the bank empty-handed,” he said.

Justice Rilwan Aikawa adjourned further proceedings till February 28, 2019, at the instance of Ebun Shofunde (SAN), Belgore’s lawyer, who said he needed time to preview the CCTV footage of the events that took place within the banking hall on March 26, 2015, when Belgore and Suleiman visited.

In the charges against them, the EFCC insisted that Belgore and Suleiman received N450million from Diezani and laundered same.

The anti-graft agency said they ought to have “reasonably known” that the N450million was part of proceeds of unlawful activities, adding that they handled the money without going through any financial institution, contrary to the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.

The duo pleaded not guilty to the charges.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/02/11/i-couldnt-take-diezanis-n450m-because-it-was-too-huge-my-jeep-says-belgore#disqus_thread

Agency Reporter by Agency Reporter February 8, 2019 in News, News Update
The Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos on Friday came alive as ex-workers of Nigeria Airways Limited staged a mega rally to support the reelection of President Muhammadu Buhari in the Feb. 16 Presidential Election.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the pensioners and ex-workers of the defunct national carrier declared their support for the president for paying N22. 6 billion as part payment of their entitlements in October 2018.

The pensioners, who turned out in their numbers, moved from the premises of the Skypower Catering Services through the airport environment chanting “Sai Baba” and “Next Level”, to publicly show their support for Buhari.

Speaking on behalf of the Nigeria Airways ex-workers, Mr Lukman Animashaun said the rally was to show appreciation to the president who came to their rescue after many years of neglect by previous administrations.

He said : “Words are not enough to express the profound gratitude of the over 6,000 pensioners and ex-workers of Nigeria Airways to Buhari for his timely intervention in the payment of our benefits.

“For 14 years, we were abandoned, humiliated and frustrated in our demand to be paid what was due to us by successive governments, whose stock in trade was tissues of lies designed to hoodwink the public.

In the process, about 800 of our members lost their lives.

“But today, PMB has wiped out our tears, put smiles on our faces and restored hope to our members and their families with the part payment of our benefits.”

According to him, the ex-workers of Nigeria Airways are optimistic that Buhari will pay the outstanding balance soon as promised.

Also, Mr Sam Nzene, National Chairman, Nigeria Airways Pensioners, told NAN that the former staff and their families would cast their vote for Buhari because it was the right thing to do.

“This is a man who saved us, who brought smiles to our faces, who rescued our families when others refused to show concern.

“He did promise that he will do it and he actually did it by paying part payment of our benefits that have not been paid for over 14 years.

“So we decided to show gratitude to him by organising this rally because one good turn deserves another.

“We have decided that we and our families will vote for him. We want to tell Nigerians to vote for him because he is a man with a kind heart,” Nzene said.

He said the outstanding payment of their entitlements was already captured in the 2019 budget, which was a clear demonstration that the money would soon be disbursed to the beneficiaries.

NAN reports that the former national carrier was liquidated in 2004 by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, but the workers were not paid their severance packages as stipulated in extant labour laws.

The workers were paid a fraction of their entitlements by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s regime in 2008 before Buhari approved the part payment of N22. 6 billion to them.

The government has also promised to pay the other half of the money to them as soon as funds are available.

http://thenationonlineng.net/nigeria-airways-ex-workers-stage-rally-for-buharis-reelection/

By Kolade Adeyemi February 1, 2019
IF the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, has his ways, former vice president Atiku Abubakar will sue his erstwhile boss President Olusegun Obasanjo for defamation of character.

Oshiomhole said it was not enough for the former president to recant on the scathing remarks he had made about the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate at fora and in written documents.

Speaking yesterday at the APC presidential campaign at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano, urged Atiku to sue Obasanjo, who had at various times, querying his credibility, for libel.

Oshiomhole insisted that until Atiku was able to redeem his image through a law court, he will remain unfit to seek the support of Nigerians to be president.

He said: “If Obasanjo says that Atiku is corrupt, but because of his hatred against President Buhari, he is ready to forgive Atiku, does that cleanse Atiku from corruption? No!

“The only way Atiku can clean his name is to go to court. If Atiku did not sue Obasanjo for libel, that means everything that was said about him was correct. And if it is correct, then, he is not the right candidate to rule Nigeria.”

“Again, Mr. President, you said you are going to lift 50,000 persons from poverty and you are doing it but they say you are slow, but when Atiku promised to empower seven million people, they have already thrown 14 million people out of their jobs.

“All the textile companies in Sharada and Bompai in Kano, Gaskiya Textile is dead, all the factories in these areas, who killed them? It is PDP, Obasanjo as vice president. How can he now say he is going to give our jobs when presided over Industrial obituaries in Kano, Lagos and every other place in Nigeria.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/atiku-sue-obasanjo-oshiomhole/

ByBrendan Umoren -January 22, 2019
Ex-workers of the defunct Nigerian Airways will stage a rally for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari by first week of February, Mr. Lookman Animashaun, President the union has disclosed.

Animashaun gave the hint at programme tagged ‘Testimonies Of Change’, organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture, in Abuja.

The programme, which started with a documentary film of testifiers shown where several people attested to how they benefitted from some of the policies initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari administration, according to the organizers, was organised to showcase its achievements from the perspective of Nigerians themselves.

Animashaun said over 5,000 were being mobilised for solidarity rally for Buhari’s re-election in appreciation for their entitlements which the President cleared after 14 years of waiting.

He maintained that successive governments had refused to pay them, while Buhari came to their rescue, adding that group would work for his re-election.

“We are coming out with a bang over 5,000 of our members and we are urging members to come with their people,” he said.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, who unveiled the programme, said the personal testimonies from the lips of Nigerians was to complement the different platforms created by his ministry to communicate the various achievements of the Buhari administration.

He said the testimony series was borne out of the experiences of Nigerians who had benefitted from the various programmes of government and were ready to relate such experiences to fellow Nigerians.

“We have used many platforms to communicate the numerous achievements of the administration to Nigerians. These include Town Hall Meetings, which we have now held 16 times across the country; media tour of infrastructural projects; regular visits to media organisations, press conferences and media interviews, and the FGN/iAPP,” he added.

https://www.today.ng/news/politics/election-nigeria-airways-workers-stage-rally-president-buhari-189070

Onyedi Ojiabor, Abuja by Onyedi Ojiabor, Abuja January 22, 2019
The Senate on Tuesday was forced to adjourn plenary due to lack of quorum.

This is the second time since June 9, 2015, when the National Assembly was inaugurated that the upper chamber failed to sit due to lack of quorum.

On November 13, 2018, the Senate was also forced to adjourn sitting following poor attendance.

Only 10 out of 109 senators attended Tuesday’s aborted sitting.

The standing rule of the Senate states that not less than 37 senators, (1/3 of the Senate), must be in the chamber to form quorum before the legislative business of the day can commence.

This provision has however been observed in the breach more often than not since the inauguration of the National Assembly as the issue of quorum is seldom raised.

After prayer on Tuesday, the Votes and Proceedings of Thursday 17th January 2019 were adopted.

Around 10:33am, Senate Chief Whip, Senator Olusola Adeyeye, raised a Point of Order and cited lack of quorum to continue proceedings and legislative business.

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who presided, agreed with Adeyeye that the Senate lacked quorum to continue proceedings.

Adeyeye who stood in for the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, moved for adjournment.

The motion was seconded by the Minority Whip, Senator Philip Aduda.

Saraki put the motion for adjournment to a voice vote and it was carried.

The Senate President promptly adjourned sitting to Wednesday, January 23, 2019.

The Senators who came into the chamber around 10.30am spent less than five minutes before they adjourned.

Some of the lawmakers were overheard expressing disappointment for the lack of quorum.

One of them, however, said that the poor attendance of senators may not be unconnected with the February 16th, 2019 presidential and National Assembly election.

Apart from Saraki, Adeyeye, Aduda, other senators in the chamber included Andrew Uchendu, Gbenga Ashafa and Shaaba Lafiagi.

Others were Emmanuel Bwacha, Francis Alimikhena, Suleiman Adokwe and Gbolahon Dada.

The Order Paper for Tuesday’s legislative business slated confirmation of three career ambassadors, introduction of a bill on mental health and substance abuse, reports of the committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.

Conference reports were also scheduled to be submitted.


http://thenationonlineng.net/lack-of-quorum-forces-senate-to-adjourn-plenary/

January 21, 2019Press Release
Hosting his former staff who worked with him during his tenure as military head of state (January 1984-August 1985) on Sunday night at the State House, Abuja, the President added that recourse to the smokescreen of religion and ethnicity “is just corruption, pure and simple.”

To justify his thesis, President Buhari went down memory lane, drawing lessons from his electoral battles at the courts in 2003, 2007, and 2011, where those who ruled against him were Muslims from the North, but those who defended him were Christians from the South. His words:

“I was recently forced to talk to somebody I respect a lot about Nigeria. I said in 2003, when I started out, complaints about presidential election used to start from the Court of Appeal. The president of the court then was my classmate in secondary school for six years. Himself, myself and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, were classmates. My lawyer, Mike Ahamba, was Roman Catholic and an Ibo man. My first witness was in the box. Ahamba said he needed the register of voters in certain constituencies and states to prove that votes were just allocated, and not true reflection of what existed in the constituencies. He asked them to record his request and sign. They did so.

“When they came to give judgment later, the matter was not mentioned at all. In the panel was another Roman Catholic and Ibo, who raised his hand and said, this is what Buhari’s lawyer had said. Did we write to those constituencies and states to submit the register? If so, why is it not in the judgment? They just shut him up. He had to write a minority judgment. Of course, he’s now our Ambassador in United States of America.

“I petitioned the Supreme Court. Who was the Chief Justice? A Muslim, probably a Fulani, from Zaria. After 27 months, we went. Ahamba addressed the court for 2 hours and 45 minutes. They went in, came out after about 45 minutes, and said they were proceeding on vacation the next day. They were away for three months, making it 30 months in all. When they came back, they dismissed the case within 45 minutes.

“In 2007, they repeated the same thing. Who was the Chief Justice? A northerner and Muslim. After 18 months, they dismissed the case.

“The third time, who was CJ? A Muslim, Fulani man from Jigawa. After 8 months, he dismissed the case. This bloody nonsense about Nigeria on ethnicity and religion is just corruption, pure and simple. Wherever we find ourselves, let’s pray to God that we maintain our faith. That’s all we have.

“I try to do my best, and pray to God to help me. May God Almighty give us the ways and means to continue to do our best for the country. Whatever religion we follow, let’s do it seriously, as finally, we would appear before God. Whether we believe it or not, it will happen. So, we better continue to behave ourselves.”

President Buhari described the reunion and interactive meeting as an “emotional one” for him, as he had not seen some of the people since 1985, when the military regime he headed was toppled.

Commending his former Aide-de-Camp, Alhaji Mustapha Jokolo, who used his initiative to put the parley together, the President equally commended his former Number 2 man, Major General Tunde Idiagbon (now deceased), whom he said, showed uncommon loyalty and courage. His words:

“He was in Saudi Arabia, performing the hajj, when we were removed. The Saudi king said the coup was not just against us, but also against him, since Idiagbon was praying with him.

“He asked him to send for his family to join him in Saudi until it was clear where I was. Idiagbon said no, I want to go back, Your Majesty. If they kill him, let them kill me also.

“He joined the next flight and came back. I think there’s no way you can describe such loyalty, such courage. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”

Alhaji Jokolo said though the departure of the former staff from government was “unexpected and disappointing, if not regrettable,” the affected people recall the ugly experiences today, “not with bitterness because individually, they had since moved on with their lives, though painfully aware that they were victims of misplaced aggression.”

He added: “The fact that among us today are highly respected Royal Fathers, businessmen, captains of industry, lawyers and other specialists in the professions, and a university professor, speaks volumes that God is good and that values of discipline and perseverance that we imbibed under Your Excellency’s tutelage had not been in vain.”

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/306886-how-fellow-muslims-opposed-me-while-christians-stood-by-me-buhari.html

Published January 16, 2019
The Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday ordered a former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu (retd.), to permanently forfeit to the Federal Government a sum of N2.2bn found by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in his possession.

A former NAF’s Director of Finance and Budget, Air Commodore Olugbenga Gbadebo, was equally ordered to permanently forfeit a sum of N190,828,978.15 recovered from him to the Federal Government.

Also forfeited was a sum of N101m recovered from Solomon Enterprises, a company linked to Amosu.

Justice Mojisola Olatoregun ordered that the forfeited funds should be paid into the Federal Government’s Treasury
Single Account, adding that the order must be complied with within 14 days and the EFCC must file an affidavit to show compliance.

The judge said having looked at the application brought before her for the forfeiture of the sums, she saw no reason why Amosu, Gbadebo and Solomon Enterprises should not be ordered to permanently forfeit the money to the Federal Government.

She said she agreed with the EFCC that the funds were proceeds of criminal activities, holding that, “They (the defendants) failed to provide any facts as to the level of probability to ascertain if the funds were obtained unlawfully.”

The EFCC had last year secure an interim order temporarily forfeiting the funds to the Federal Government.

The anti-graft agency after publishing the interim forfeiture orders in the newspapers, subsequently applied to the court for the final forfeiture of the rules.

Ruling on the application on Wednesday, Justice Olatoregun held, “Upon examination of the two applications asking that the interim orders be set aside, dated July 28, 2018, from the first respondent and the interested party, I found no reason to set aside the orders. The applications are hereby dismissed.

“The only conclusion I can reach is that the funds are proceeds of unlawful activity.

“The affidavits disclose no reason why the order of final forfeiture should not be made.”

In ordering the permanent forfeiture of the funds to the Federal Government, Justice Olatoregun rejected the argument of the defence counsel that the N22.8bn fraud charges against Amosu and others were still pending before the court and that the forfeiture order would foist a fait accompli on their clients should they not be found guilty.

Justice Olatoregun said the forfeiture proceedings were an “action in rem” and a non-conviction based forfeiture.
“The requirements for the two proceedings are different and distinct,” she held.

She emphasised that in a forfeiture proceedings, evidential burden shifts to the respondents to prove that they obtained the money lawfully, which she said they failed to do.

“The case (forfeiture) can go in the face of the criminal proceedings,” she said.

https://punchng.com/ex-naf-chief-amosu-forfeits-n2-2bn-to-fg/

Published January 16, 2019
An activist, Kayode Bello, has accused the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, Mr Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, of assault.

He also said that he was detained for about four hours by policemen attached to the National Assembly.

Bello, who petitioned the National Assembly over alleged extortion and indiscriminate refusal by the United States embassy to grant visas to Nigerians, told our correspondent that since his release on bail, he had been in and out of the hospital.

The 35-year-old claimed that Nkem-Abonta’s grouse with him was that a summons to the US Ambassador to Nigeria over his petition was published by The PUNCH.

The lawmaker allegedly said the publication embarrassed the National Assembly.

However, when our correspondent contacted Nkem-Abonta, he denied the allegations.

Our correspondent had reported that many Nigerian students, who applied for visas at the US embassy, had their applications turned down, thereby losing the fees paid to their prospective schools.

Bello, a Law graduate, had said he was also unjustly denied a visa to the US, where he was to present a paper on climate change at the University of California.

He had petitioned the National Assembly through a member representing the Ede and Ejigbo Federal Constituency of Osun State, Prof. Mojeed Alabi.

He claimed that when he petitioned the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Consular General of the United States Embassy in Nigeria, he did not get any response.

The researcher had asked the government to investigate the alleged extortion of Nigerians by the embassy through non-refundable visa fees.

Two summonses were reportedly sent to the US embassy by the House committee, as hearing was slated for December 4, 2018.

However, Bello said when the embassy’s representatives did not show up, the hearing was shifted to December 18, 2018, as it was announced that the Minister of Foreign Affairs would also be invited.

Due to the strike action embarked upon by the National Assembly workers, the hearing was stalled.

An affidavit that Bello swore to at the Federal High Court, Abuja, read in part, “Earlier, Mr Omale Adoyi (clerk of the committee) called me that I should bring a copy of The PUNCH that reported the summons by the National Assembly to the American ambassador.

“On January 10, 2019, I went to the National Assembly for a follow-up on the petition, but on getting there, Mr Adoyi asked me to follow him to the office of the Chairman of the Committee on Public Petitions and I followed him.

“Upon arrival at the chairman’s office, the man accused me of reporting about the summons to the US ambassador. I told him that the summons was reported by The PUNCH, The Guardian and ThisDay, and that I only gave them the information needed for their reports and that The PUNCH contacted the clerk before publishing the story.

“The chairman said I was a daft person and that I should have known that the House committee could not summon the US Ambassador to Nigeria. He shouted at me and asked me to leave his office and said the committee would not handle my petition anymore. He said he would deal with me if I reported what transpired in his office that day.

“The chairman then opened the door via a remote control, but as I was making my exit out of his office, he dragged me back and punched me in the face. He said he had all the money to deal with me.”

Bello said when he became dizzy due to the assault, the chairman called security personnel to take him away.

He said his health condition, which was unstable before the assault, had worsened.

The activist claimed that he was detained at the police post attached to the National Assembly, where he made a statement, adding that his phone was seized.

“I was released on the grounds that the chairman, who asked that I should be arrested, did not make a formal complaint to the police or write any statement, and the witness, Mr Omale Adoyi, could not substantiate any allegation against me. I am presently receiving medical treatment at the General Hospital, Maitama,” he added.

Our correspondent was told that the National Assembly had withdrawn the summons to the US ambassador.

Nkem-Abonta, in a telephone chat with our correspondent, denied the allegations, saying he was not aware of the summons to the ambassador.

He also said he was on vacation when Bello barged into his office to demand a written address.

Nkem-Abonta stated, “He walked into my office; I did not invite him; and he said I should give him a written address. I told him that I was on vacation and I asked him to leave my office and invited the sergeant-at-arms to take him away.

“No story can embarrass me. He embarrassed himself. Is it not common knowledge that no assembly anywhere can summon an ambassador? I did not issue any summons. Was my signature forged or what? I don’t know. I constituted a panel to find out who summoned the ambassador. I am so experienced to know my limits. I don’t know him and nobody attacked him.

“The clerk was relieved of his duty because of that matter. He is no longer the clerk; are you not aware? I did not sign any summons and I don’t know who did. I only read in the paper and I asked to find out and I reported to the authorities.

“Does he have the right to barge into my office? Does he have the right to demand a written address on why the petition was not heard? I said no; when he refused to leave my office, I called the sergeant-at-arms to take him away.”

However, a policeman involved in the case said Bello was blameless in the matter, adding that the committee chairman only vented his anger on him.

The cop explained, “He (Bello) went there to get feedback when the honourable chairman picked offence and said he had come to embarrass him in his office. Unknown to him, the clerk was really at fault. He (Nkem-Abonta) picked offence and transferred his aggression to the man.

“He referred Bello and the clerk to us. After listening to the clerk and Bello, we did not see any reason to detain him, so we decided to release him. We asked him to return the following day so we could thrash out the matter.”

He said Bello’s telephone was seized in order to ensure that he returned the following day since he had no one to take him on bail.

The policeman added that the activist had, however, refused to return to the station since he was released.

When our correspondent contacted the clerk, he asked him to come to Abuja.

https://punchng.com/us-visa-reps-panel-chair-punched-me-over-punchs-report-says-activist/


Uzoma Nkem-Abonta

Published May 22, 2017
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, on Sunday told Nigerians to report corrupt and other unprofessional conduct of judges to the National Judicial Council.

Justice Onnogehen said Nigerians should take advantage of the existence of the relevant institutions by reporting corrupt judges to them instead of smearing the image of the judiciary through making unsubstantiated allegations in the mass media.

A statement by his Senior Special Assistant (Media), Mr. Awassam Bassey, said the CJN made this call in reaction to a newspaper publication in which a former senator, Uche Ekwunife, “accused the judiciary of robbing her of her mandate in the 2015 Anambra Central Senatorial Election through nullification.”

The statement read, “Justice Onnoghen says Nigerians should learn to take advantage of institutions that have been established to handle allegations of corruption and unprofessional conduct by judicial officers, including cases of judicial fraud which the senator cited as the reason for the loss of her mandate in the law courts.

“The Honourable Chief Justice advises against individuals dragging the name of the Judiciary in the mud through unsubstantiated allegations in the mass media and advises such individuals to employ well-established institutions and avenues to petition any judicial officer who engages in corruption and unprofessional conduct.

“”Therefore, in the interest of the generality of Nigerians, and the ongoing war against corruption, the Chief Justice of Nigeria calls on Senator Ekwunife to petition the judges she accuses of corruption and unprofessional conduct.

“The Honourable CJN assures Nigerians that if anyone has evidence against any corrupt judicial officer, and such a person brings forward the necessary documents before the National Judicial Council, the concerned judicial officer or officers will be investigated and where found liable, dealt with in accordance with the law.”

According to Bassey, the CJN also warned politicians to desist from smearing the image of the judiciary in the media, while also assuring law-abiding and hardworking judges that they had nothing to fear.

Bassey stated, “At the same time, the Chief Justice of Nigeria wishes to use this medium to warn politicians to desist from using the mass media to smear the good image of the nation’s Judiciary in general, and the hardworking and honest judicial officers in particular.

“His Lordship the Chief Justice calls on all law-abiding and hardworking judicial officers to go about discharging their duties without fear or favour.”

In a related development on Sunday, the CJN said the nation’s judiciary was under threat.

He spoke at a thanksgiving service held at the Methodist Church Nigeria, Abuja Diocese, Zone 3, Abuja.

At the church where he also mentioned the Uche Ekwunife’s case, the CJN thanked God for seeing him through his delayed emergence as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria.

He called on Nigerians to pray for the survival of the Judiciary, while lamenting that judicial officers in the country were being accused of corrupt practices without any evidence.

Justice Onnoghen was joined in the service by his family members, other Justices of the Supreme Court, politicians and lawyers.

He said, “I did not set out to be a Judge, but today I am a judge by divine intervention. It’s the Lord’s doing, mine is to follow. My prayer is that God should help me and should not let me down.”

https://punchng.com/write-petitions-against-corrupt-judges-cjn-tells-nigerians-2/

Published January 12, 2019
The Nigerian Army says it has inaugurated four solar-powered water projects in different settlements in Obetitu autonomous community in Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State.

Col. Sagir Musa, Deputy Director of 82 Division of Nigerian Army, said in a statement on Saturday in Enugu that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.- Gen. Tukur Buratai, was represented by the General Officer Commanding of the Division, Maj.-Gen. Abubakar Maikobi, at the inauguration, which was done on Friday.

The COAS expressed appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari for providing the resources to the Nigerian Army to carry out its constitutional role.

He said that the projects were meant to strengthen the existing civil-military relations and turn the minds of Nigerians towards the positive actions of the Nigerian Army meant to provide security and development in the country.

“I want to believe that these water projects will serve the needs of this community and environs.

“I wish to also appeal to us to see the projects as symbols of unity.

“Let these projects serve as symbols of peace, unity, tolerance and love to this community and the state at large.

“I, therefore, wish to thank the Commander in Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari for providing the resources as well as the minister for defence and Chief of Defence Staff for their support,’’ the COAS said.

Responding, the Traditional ruler of the Community, Eze Amadi Obo, who received the representative of the COAS to formally inaugurate the projects in his palace, thanked the Nigerian Army for the wonderful gesture.

Obo noted that the four solar-powered water projects would solve the shortage of water problem being experienced in the community for decades.

“The entire community, which include our children, youths, women and elders are very happy about the project coming from the Nigerian Army,’’ he noted.

The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that the civil-military relations projects are in line with the COAS vision for the Nigerian Army.

Over 95 per cent of the COAS’ Special Intervention Projects has been successfully executed and inaugurated across the six geopolitical zones so far.

The projects include renovation and construction of primary schools, primary health care centres, medical facilities, donation of farming implements and water projects among others.

(NAN)

https://punchng.com/army-inaugurates-four-solar-powered-water-projects-in-imo-community/

SARAKI, THE FACE OF CORRUPTION

Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa January 4, 2019

Ijaw youths on Friday declared support for the reelection of President Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming general elections.

The youths under the auspices of Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide insisted Buhari deserves a second term.

They said they were excited by Buhari’s plans to allocate oil blocks to Niger Delta oil-producing states to facilitate development in the region.

The youths said the only way they could reciprocate the Buhari’s good intentions through his programmes and projects in the region is to reward him with a second term.

In a statement by spokesman of IYC, Daniel Dasimaka, the youths said they were backing the call by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Prof. Charles Dokubo, to vote for the President.

Dasimaka said Buhari won their admirations when he resisted pressure mounted on him by haters of the region to scrap the amnesty programme in 2015.

Besides, he said the President deserves a second term to enable him consolidate his agenda in the region.

“The President deserves mass support from Niger Delta on his second term bid in order to consolidate on his agenda for the region and the nation,” he said.

Specifically, he said Buhari’s second term would take the Ogoni cleanup, construction of the Bonny-Bodo road and the Nigerian Maritime University in Okerenkoko among others to the next level.

Dasimaka, who is the Coordinator of the Niger Deltans for Accountability and Good Governance (NDAGG), noted Buhari’s intervention led National University Commission (NUC) to grant approval to the arithmetic university to commence undergraduate degree programmes.

He said Buhari’s administration gave approvals for the establishment of modular refineries across the nine states of the Niger-Delta.

According to him 38 licences have been issued, covering high-scale refineries of 50,000 to 250,000 barrels per day.

He explained the administration completed six cassava processing plants in most of the states in the region.

He added that 130 youths in the Niger Delta were trained on poultry, Aquaculture, crop production and were given N1million each by the Buhari-led administration.

He said: “In the Niger-Delta region, 214 women who specialize in poultry and snail production were given between N350,000 to N500,00 each.

“198 women and youths in the Niger-Delta region were trained on ICT & business hub, poultry & fish production.

“Under President Buhari’s administration, 60 youths from the Niger-Delta region were also trained on assemblage and repair of phones.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/ijaw-youths-endorse-buhari-second-term/

Residents pledge to vote APC in general elections

RASAQ IBRAHIM, ADO-EKITI by RASAQ IBRAHIM, ADO-EKITI January 4, 2019
After being in darkness for four years, public power supply has been restored to three communities in Ekiti West Local Government Area to the relief and excitement of the residents.

The towns, known locally as Ekameta, are Erijiyan, Ipole Iloro and Ikogosi, the site of the famous Warm Spring resort which had received tourists from all over the world.

Electricity was restored to the communities on Christmas eve as Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) engineers who had been working round the clock to meet the target given by Governor Kayode Fayemi.

Unable to hide their joy, residents of the communities are hailing Fayemi for keeping his promise.

The excited residents who spoke with our reporter on Friday promised to vote for the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming general elections.

Fayemi, as APC candidate in the last governorship election, had promised to do everything possible to restore power to the communities if elected at the poll.

The governor also charged BEDC to work out modalities for the restoration of light to the communities while playing host to the company’s management who paid him a courtesy visit few weeks ago.

A youth leader in Erijiyan, Mr. Akinkunmi Abimbola, commended Fayemi for championing the restoration of power supply to his community which he said would bring businesses back to life.

Abimbola said: “Infrastructural development and especially electricity is the catalyst of development, and for us in Ekameta its being horrible living without electricity supply in the last four years.

“Several small-scale industries were abandoned and some had to relocate which negatively affected the economy of the environment.

“Ikogosi warm spring resort centre naturally deserted and became a shadow of itself, the total blackout even affected sons and daughters not wanting to stay at home when they visited.

“The news and joy witnessed by the communities really show how important electricity supply is to us. We are very grateful to the government of Dr. John Kayode Fayemi that made it a priority to get this done for us immediately he assumed office.”

A member of the royal family in Ikogosi, Prince Tayo Olajubu said: “Congratulations! Electricity has been restored back to Ikogosi after four years of total darkness.

“We bless God that Ikogosi is witnessing a new dawn after four years
of total neglect.”

Another resident of Ikogosi, Mr. Tobi Oyeleye said: “My heart is thankful to Governor Fayemi and I must thank him for he has restored our lights.

“Electricity restored within two months in office, Ikogosi, Erijiyan and Ipole say many thanks JKF. For that’s but a step to the beginning; Gossy Waters and the Warm Springs Resorts are still groaning.”

A resident of Ipole Iloro, Mrs. Yemisi Adewumi, described the return of electricity as a “special gift Christmas and New Year gift from Governor Fayemi which has brought joy to our town.”

“We thank Governor Fayemi for fulfilling his promise to end darkness in Ipole Iloro and the entire Ekameta communities.

“During the campaign, he promised to ensure that light returns within two months of being sworn it. We thought it was one of the gimmicks of these politicians but it has now become a reality.

“With this gift of light, we will pay back with votes for his party in the general elections in 2019. We will not go back to a party that neglected us for four years,” she said.

http://thenationonlineng.net/ekiti-communities-hail-fayemi-for-ending-blackout/

SARAKI, THE FACE OF CORRUPTION

BY PUNCH NEWSPAPER DEC 14, 2018
The Federal Government, through its Special Presidential Investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Property, has started investigation into the ownership of some offshore companies allegedly linked to a former President of the Senate, Senator David Mark.

The PUNCH learnt on Thursday that this followed a prior investigation conducted by the National Intelligence Agency in collaboration with the SPIPRPP.

It was gathered that the investigation was informed by the revelation in Panama Papers linking Mark and other top Nigerian former and serving public office holders as well as prominent business and political leaders around the world to some companies and other assets held offshore.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the Panama Papers containing details of financial and lawyer-client information for hundreds of thousands of offshore entities in May 2016.

A source familiar with Mark’s case told our correspondent that “the former Senate President was invited for questioning by the SPIPRPP in respect of 20 companies in British Virgin Island and other tax havens.”

It was learnt that Mark was originally invited to appear before the panel for questioning on December 11.

The ex-Senate President wrote a letter dated December 11, 2018 to the panel indicating his readiness to appear for the planned probe.

Our correspondent sighted a copy of the letter by a law firm, Kenetch C. Ikonne & Associates, sent on Mark’s behalf to the Chairman of SPIPRPP and Special Assistant to the President on Prosecutions, Mr Okoi Obono-Obla, pleading for the rescheduling of the questioning to December 21.

The letter signed by Mr Ken Ikonne stated that although the invitation letter addressed to the clerk of the National Assembly for onward transmission to Mark, a serving Senator, was dated November 29, 2018, it was only brought to his attention at about 4pm of the same day, December 11, 2018.

The letter dated December 11, 2018, the day he was expected to appear for the interrogation, read in part, “Our client wishes to reiterate his readiness to honour your invitation and make the necessary clarification due to the utmost regard in which he holds your panel.

“However, our client is presently ill and undergoing treatment and has accordingly requested us to apply for a new date to enable him to appear.

“Accordingly, we are, subject, of course, to your overriding convenience, suggesting the December 21 as the new interview date at the suggested venue to enable our client to fully recover from his illness.”

The SPIPRPP is also seeking to recover from the official residence of the Senate President which the panel alleges was acquired in violation of the laws and regulations.

Mark had approached the Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the planned recovery, insisting that due process was followed in his acquisition of the property located in the Apo Legislative Quarters in Apo, Abuja.

https://punchng.com/fg-panel-probes-david-marks-offshore-assets/

Published December 11, 2018
The Emir of Ilorin and Chairman, Kwara State Traditional Council, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, on Monday said there was no truth in a claim credited to the Kwara State Signage and Advertising Agency that he complained about the content of campaign billboards erected by the All Progressives Congress in the state.

Sulu-Gambari’s position was contained in a statement by the National Secretary of Shehu Alimi Foundation for Peace and Development, Abdulazeez Arowona.

The statement read, “KWASAA in a letter dated November 6, 2018 claimed that it received a complaint from the palace of the Emir of Ilorin on the campaign advertisements of the APC causing incitement in the state among others.

“It is worrisome that the name of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, is being mentioned to cause disaffection among political gladiators in the state.

“The Emir is neither a card-carrying member of any political party nor staff of any advertising agency.

“His Royal Highness is always passionate about a united Ilorin Emirate, a united Kwara State as well as a united Nigeria. He is a father to all citizens of Kwara State irrespective of their political platforms.

“It is expected that the advertising agency will demonstrate a high level of professionalism and competence in its operations without necessarily dragging the palace into its affairs in order to achieve compliance.

“There should be codes and ethics guiding every business. Such rules and regulations should always be leveraged in order to achieve the desired goals.”

https://punchng.com/emir-denies-kwara-signage-agencys-claim-on-apc-billboards/

Published December 7, 2018
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission says the president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Paul Usoro (SAN), told detectives during interrogation that the N1.4bn which was paid into his account by the Akwa Ibom State Government was for the tribunal case which Governor Udom Emmanuel won.

The EFCC said this in a statement by its acting spokesman, Mr. Tony Orilade, while reacting to a speech delivered by Usoro at the NBA’s National Executive Committee meeting, which held on Thursday.

Usoro, who is set to be arraigned by the EFCC, was said to have received “questionable funds” from the Akwa Ibom State Government.

The EFCC said, “Indeed, the EFCC had invited Usoro in June this year, to explain his role regarding the inflow of N300m from the Akwa Ibom State Government’s account into the account of Paul Usoro Chambers.

“Usoro was also questioned on the aggregate inflow of N1.1bn from the state government’s account into the bank account of his company.

“Under interrogation, Usoro had claimed that the various sums of money received from the Akwa Ibom State Government under the administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel, were payments for legal fees to him and other eminent members of the Inner Bar and a host of other members of the Outer Bar that he had engaged to work with him in respect of the election petition matter involving the governor.”

The commission said Usoro further stated that the payments were independent transactions and that the Akwa Ibom State Government’s payments-on-account were “in respect of my firm’s professional services to the state, while the payments to the senior counsel were made by me for and on behalf of Governor Udom Emmanuel, at his request.”

The anti-graft agency said rather than explain why he received such huge sums of money, Usoro raised the issue of “client-lawyer privilege,” arguing that “judicially and historically,” the “issues of fees, as between a lawyer and his client, is a matter of privilege.”

The commission said, contrary to Usoro’s claim that it was playing the role of auditor and regulator of legal fees, the EFCC has special powers to investigate suspicious financial transactions by virtue of Section 18 (d) of the EFCC Establishment Act 2004.

“From all intent and purposes, payment of over N1.4bn to Usoro from the accounts of Akwa Ibom State Government for unofficial transactions is nothing short of criminal diversion of public funds,” EFCC said.

https://punchng.com/nba-president-says-gov-udom-paid-him-n1-4bn-for-legal-services-efcc/

November 23, 2018Lois Ugbede
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned moves by the senate to investigate the situation surrounding the recent Kwara State by-election.

The party, in a statement on Friday by its publicity secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu said this is an abuse of power, as the senate is not an election tribunal.

The senate on Wednesday directed its Committee on Police Affairs to investigate the alleged harassment, intimidation and molestation by security, before, during and after the Kwara House of Representatives by-election, last Saturday.

This directive came after the senator representing Kwara South Senatorial District, Rafiu Ibrahim, drew the senate’s attention to the roles allegedly played by the police in the poll.

According to Mr Ibrahim, “The harassment, intimidation, and arrest of prominent members of the People’s Democratic Party before, during and after the election created tension and fears in the minds of the electorate.

“Majority of the eligible voters decided to stay away when the harassment was too much. That is why only about 40, 000 out of the over 168, 000 registered voters, participated in the election.”

The senate president, Bukola Saraki, in reaction to this, gave the directive, noting that it is the responsibility of the senate to ensure the electorate is not harassed and intimidated before, during and after the next year’s general election.

“Any attempt to involve the police actively in elections is an invitation to anarchy and violence,” he said.

The APC who won the election, however, questioned this move as it believes the investigation was to focus on how the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lost the election, since it is the home town of the senate president.

“The questionable decision by the senate to “investigate” the circumstances leading to the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) loss in last Saturday’s House of Representatives’ by-election in Kwara State must be seen for what it is – an abuse of the powers of the legislative arm of government to pursue selfish political ends.

“While the All Progressives Congress (APC) condemns this curious Senate investigation of the by-election which took place in the home state of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, we also find it curious that other by-election conducted in Katsina and Bauchi States have not received similar attention from the Senate.”

The APC said it is clear that the “the sweet victory” by its House of Representatives candidate, Raheem Olawuyi-Ajuloopin, has hit the “overrated” federal lawmakers from Kwara State, badly.

According to the statement, the PDP is not pretending to have learnt any lessons from its past anti-democratic practices and those occupying the Senate leadership seat have no other intentions other than to manipulate state institutions in pursuit of personal interests and massage battered ego.

“When has it become the responsibility of the legislative arm of government to constitute itself into an election tribunal?” The party questioned.

“Turning the Senate into an electoral tribunal only shows Nigerians that the PDP has not changed from its odious practice of compromising the system to promote illusionary ambitions.”

The party believes Kwara State and the rest of the country has seen enough of impunity and misrule represented by the “self-serving” leaders of the PDP.

The APC therefore advised leaders of PDP in Kwara State and elsewhere in the country to get used to losing elections as the Nigerian electorate have tasted the benefits of good governance in the last three and half years of the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government and would not go back to PDP’s 16 years of waste and misrule.

“Elections have been won and lost. A new and progressive Kwara State beckons.

“Through their votes, the Kwara electorate have spoken clearly on the new political direction in the State. Kwara State has suffered enough of the selfish machinations of a self-appointed leader.

The will and wishes of the good people of the state must prevail now, in the 2019 elections and beyond.”

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/north-central/297198-senate-probe-of-kwara-by-election-abuse-of-power-apc.html

Published November 21, 2018
Former Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State has urged Igbo to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari “in their own interest.”

Chime told journalists in Enugu on Wednesday that Buhari had done a lot for the people to warrant their support.

According to him, “Buhari does not need to campaign, but we are the people that need to convince the people to vote for him because he has done well.”

“Igbo have enjoyed all the plum positions under the Peoples Democratic Party.

“We have been President, Senate President several times, deputy senate president, juicy ministerial positions and there is nothing to show for it.

“Let the PDP explain to us why they did not implement all their promises to Ndigbo.

Buhari never experienced Igbo support, yet he improved on electricity, road projects and others.

“If I have a president from Cameroun who will provide the zone with infrastructure, I will vote for him because politics is all about performance and not plum positions that amount to nothing.

“We should be interested in what we get as a people and not about appointments. Igbo do not like one another.

“You see, APC inherited a lot of problems in governance. You do not expect the government to perform magic. There is no magic.

“South East Governors, then, complained in all the meetings we had with the PDP Federal Government on poor infrastructure in the zone, but nothing happened.

“PDP has not changed. The same people that killed PDP are still in charge.

“Atiku promised to serve one term, but he came out with a policy document that stretched over six years. This is not the time to deceive our people,’’ he said.

On restructuring, Chime, a constitutional lawyer, said it was part of the confusion PDP was bringing about, adding that restructuring could not happen without amending the constitution.

“You cannot do restructuring without amending the constitution. The major step is to amend the constitution and make provision for referendum.

“Nobody has come up with the way to implement it. There is no provision for referendum in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,’’ he said.

The former governor, however, expressed dismay that “present day politicians no longer have sense of contentment.”

“In politics, we do not have sense of contentment. We go into politics and want to die in politics.

“Great Zik, Awolowo, Okpara and others, how many years did they spend in politics?

“When people see politics as a career, they do anything to change the system to suit them,’’ he said.

(NAN)

https://punchng.com/buhari-has-done-much-for-ndigbo-says-ex-gov-chime/

Published November 21, 2018
The immediate past Governor of Abia State, Senator Theodore Orji, is currently being interrogated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, The PUNCH can exclusively report.

It was learnt that Orji, who was governor from 2007 to 2015, arrived at the EFCC office in Abuja, along with his lawyer, in a cream long-sleeve Niger Delta outfit popularly referred to as ‘senator.’

Orji, who represents Abia-Central senatorial district at the National Assembly, was invited over allegations that he mismanaged about N27bn.

The invitation, it was learnt, was sequel to a series of petitions written against the former governor shortly after he left office in 2015.

The EFCC was said to have commenced investigation soon after, but was waiting for enough evidence before inviting him.

Among the allegations levelled against the former governor was that he diverted billions of naira disbursed to Abia State by the Central Bank of Nigeria for Small and Medium Enterprise.

The lawmaker was also alleged to have diverted money from the Ecological Fund account, which should have been used in tackling erosion and other disasters peculiar to the state.

The ex-governor allegedly diverted money from the Abia State Oil Producing Development Area Commission, an agency of government set up for the development of the oil producing areas in Abia State

Orji allegedly used the funds to buy properties in Abia, Port Harcourt and Abuja, some of which the EFCC is planning to seize.

It was learnt that officials from the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Central Bank of Nigeria, commercial banks and other agencies had been invited by the EFCC to make statements on the governor’s case.

As of the time of filing this report, he was still said to be at the Commission making statements.

When contacted on the telephone, the acting spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Tony Orilade, did not respond to calls.

In a text message, however, he said, “Yes. It is true that we have the former Abia governor with us.

“But I cannot say more than that. When it is time to press charges, we shall do that and the story will be in the media.”

https://punchng.com/efcc-grills-ex-abia-gov-theodore-orji-over-alleged-n27bn-fraud/

November 20, 2018 Agency Report
Borno South Senator, Ali Ndume, on Tuesday described the 8th Senate as the worst he had seen in terms of attendance at plenary.

Speaking as special guest on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja, Mr Ndume blamed the situation on “bad leadership’’ in the upper legislative chamber.

Legislative activities in the National Assembly have been at a low ebb since the different political parties held their primaries in October.

This is so, according to political watchers, because many of the lawmakers failed to secure their parties’ tickets either for re-election or for other public offices.

Since resumption from the extended annual recess on October 9, the Senate has adjourned plenary twice: first for two weeks on October 24 to pave way for “oversight duties”.

On November 13, the senators adjourned plenary for one week after failing to form quorum, a situation they blamed on continuation of oversight duties by most of the absentees.

The tempo is expected to take a further dip with the commencement of the campaigns ahead of the 2019 presidential and National Assembly elections billed for February.

However, President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, assured Nigerians on Monday that the campaigns would not affect the passage of bills and other legislative duties in the Assembly.

In a statement his Special Assistant on Print Media, Chuks Okocha, in Abuja, Mr Saraki said the lawmakers were concerned and would through on the key bills.

Mr Ndume said although it was normal for attendance to drop during election periods, it had never been that bad since he joined the National Assembly as a House of Representatives member in 2003.

“The 8th Senate is the worst I have seen in terms of attendance, and it is because of the bad leadership of Saraki.

“This is the first time we had to adjourn the Senate for lack of quorum.

“Since I came to the National Assembly, two terms in the House of Representatives, and two terms now in the Senate, it had never been like this.

“So, I was shocked that day (November 13). I came a bit late, and when I entered the chambers, I was told we had adjourned because there was no quorum, and that only 14 people or thereabout turned up.

“It’s just terrible,’’ lamented the All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker, who is seeking a third term in the Senate.

(NAN)

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/296726-8th-senate-worst-in-attendance-ndume.html

Posted By: Joseph Jibueze On: November 20, 2018
A prosecution witness yesterday told the Federal High Court in Lagos how three aircraft flew N1.2billion from Lagos to Ekiti State for delivery to former Governor Ayo Fayose.

Danmola Otuyena, a banker, was testifying in Fayose’s trial for allegedly receiving and keeping N1.2billion and $5million said to have been stolen from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), contrary to the Money Laundering Act. Otuyena, who headed his bank’s Cash in Transit Services Unit when the transaction occurred, said he accompanied the bullion van that took the cash to the airport.

He was the fourth prosecution witness and was led in evidence by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) lawyer, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN).

The witness gave evidence on the bank account of Sylvan Mcnamara Limited and how cash was withdrawn from it on the instructions of former Minister of Defence (State) Musiliu Obanikoro on June 16 and 17, 2014. The witness also revealed that although Obanikoro operated the account and was the known holder, he was not the official signatory to it nor was he a director to the company in whose name the account was opened.

Otuyena said he got instructions from his boss to get the cash ready for movement to Ekiti.

“My director gave further instructions that we should move the cash to the airport. We contacted the cash in transit company that renders bullion services – Bankers Warehouse Ltd – and the cash was moved to the private wing of Murtala Mohammed Airport.

“We could not get access when we got there, so we waited outside. My director said someone would be there to attend to us.

“He spoke to a certain Gbolahan Obanikoro through my phone. He helped to process a pass and we were able to enter the airport – the bullion van and myself.

“Later, Musiliu Obanikoro came. My boss called me and spoke to him through my phone and said we should give him the cash. The cash was given to him.

“We loaded the bags of cash into the aircraft. About two or three aircraft were used to load the cash.

“My director, Premier Oyiwo, having identified Obanikoro, said I should release the cash to him. When we pay cash to beneficiaries, they sign off for collection. Obanikoro signed off for collection,” the witness said.

Asked how the cash was packed, Otuyena said: “We have bags designed in a standard way in the banking industry. We used them to package the money. We call them jumbo bags. We used the biggest sizes to pack the money. We used jumbo bags for the N1.2billion.”

Otuyena said he also got a call from his boss on June 17, 2014 to pay N200million to Malik Bauchi from the same account operated by Obanikoro. He said he was asked to waive the identification process.

“But we contacted the account holder. Rather than pay Bauchi, the amount was paid to the account holder. We used Ghana Must Go bags for the N200million,” the witness said.

Under cross examination by defence counsel Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN) and Mr Olalekan Ojo (SAN), the witness said there was an initial instruction that the N1.2billion be paid to six persons, but that they were not available to collect the cash before it was given to Obanikoro. He insisted that Obanikoro was the account holder and ran the company account even though his name was not stated in the account opening documents that he was the sole signatory.

The witness read a board resolution appointing Olalekan Ogunseye as the sole signatory to the account.

“I’ve not come across any other resolution appointing another signatory to the account or Obanikoro as the signatory,” he said.

Ojo asked the witness if there was evidence that Obanikoro personally withdrew the cash from the bank in view of the fact that there was no instruction to that effect in his name.

The witness said: “The narration we have in the bank statement is fund transfer. There was no entry that Obanikoro received the N1.2billion.”

On why that is so, the witness explained: “The instruction to release the cash first went to the Treasury Department, which debited Sylvan Mcnamara’s account and moved the cash to a transit account. So the entry is a default narration for the debit.”

The witness said Obanikoro was not a director to the company, and that he did not know what happened to the cash after he handed it over to the former minister.

Three other witnesses testified earlier for the prosecution: Zonal Heads, Southwest 1 and 2 of a new generation bank, Lawrance Akande and Abiodun Oshodi, and the Head of Financial Operations of another new generation bank, Olaitan Fajuyitan.

Akande said he was informed that money would be brought from the Akure airport to be paid into the accounts of Spotless Nigeria Limited (Fayose’s company and co-accused) and De Privateer Limited.

He said Fayose’s associate Abiodun Agbele called him in June 2014, saying he had a lodgment of N1.2billion to make. He said he also got a call from Fayose to that effect.

Akande said he asked Oshodi to follow the transaction, adding that they had solicited for deposits from Fayose.

“I had no reason to regard the funds as proceeds of crime. I didn’t observe any anomalies in the operation of the accounts,” he said under cross examination.

Oshodi testified that he got a bullion van that took the money from Akure airport to the bank for lodgment.

“Biodun Agbele came with a security escort, including police and soldiers, and we went to the Akure airport with the branch manager and the bullion van.

“We moved the bullion van close to the plane, and then evacuated the cash. The former minister was there also.

“Agbele supplied the accounts where the money would be lodged – De Privateer, Spotless and the personal account of Fayose,” he said.

The witness also narrated how the cash was deposited. For instance, he said a driver, Taofik, came to the bank 21 times to make some cash deposits in one day. He said Taofik deposited N9.9million 10 times, N9.5million 10 times, and N5.5million once. Other deposits were also made at various dates, he said.

“Taofik happens to be the driver of Abiodun Agbele. The teller was filled by our former cash officer. Taofik couldn’t write,” he said.

Oshodi testified that the deposits were normal, and that he associated with Agbele because he considered him a man of good character.

“I didn’t know the source of the money. I was glad to receive the money. Until I was called by the EFCC, I didn’t find any anomaly with the money,” he said under cross examination.

Oshodi said Fayose also did not personally visit the bank to make any lodgments.

Fajuyitan said he received instruction to make the N1.2billion available, as well as the N200million, which he moved into a transit account He said since the money came from the ONSA account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it must be legitimate.

“My bank will not knowingly receive proceeds of crime. The bank does not regard the money as proceed of crime,” the witness said.

Fayose had pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned on an 11-count charge. He was charged with his company, Spotless Limited.

EFCC said Fayose and Agbele, who is facing a different charge, allegedly took possession of N1, 219, 000, 000 on June 17, 2014 to fund the former governor’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign.

The commission said Fayose “reasonably ought to have known” that the money “formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: criminal breach of trust/stealing.” The alleged offence is contrary to Section 15 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 15 (3) and (4).

EFCC said Fayose, on the same day, received cash payment of $5million from Obanikoro, without going through a financial institution, the sum having exceeded the amount authorised by law. The alleged offence, EFCC said, contravenes Sections 1 and 16 (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011.

The commission said Fayose benefitted from N4.65billion slush funds allocated by the ONSA under Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) during the Goodluck Jonathan administration. EFCC listed Obanikoro as one of 22 witnesses who will testify in the trial. Justice Mojisola Olatoregun adjourned until January 21 and 28 for continuation of trial.

http://thenationonlineng.net/fayoses-trial-moved-n1-2b-cash-three-planes-says-witness/

Posted By: Tony Akowe On: November 20, 2018
National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole accused the police in those states of aiding such actions.

Oshiomhole, who spoke with reporters at the end of a meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC), said six committees to visit the six geopolitical zones had been set up with a view to resolving some of the crisis in those states.

Oshiomhole said the APC chairman in Enugu State narrowly escaped an assassination, his police orderly was hospitalised and one of the leaders of the party kidnapped in Rivers state was found dead, saying “this is very disturbing to us”.

He accused the Akwa Ibom state police Commissioner of colluding with the governor to eject six members of the APC from the House of Assembly against the rule of law.

Oshiomhole said: “The other issue is a very disturbing issue from a couple of states where the PDP is using state instruments even though they are the loudest to talk about the police. They are using the police as they like to undermine the basic fundamental rights of members of the APC in their states.

“A typical example is what happened today in Akwa Ibom state where the commissioner of police colluded with the governor to forcibly eject APC members from the House of Assembly.

“The Commissioner went beyond his bound of duty to aid and abate what is clearly wrong. It is not the business of the police to assist political authority to impose their own biases with regard to the composition of the house. We have a judicial as well as law and order and the police are to obey court order and not to go beyond that. We are also witnessing some very sad developments.

“As we approach the election, we should talk on issues and people should market themselves and tell us why we should vote them particularly when there are no new players on parade.

“You said you will create 10 million jobs. You should tell us what happened when you were in government that textile factories closed down and we lost a number of industries. These are the issues we want to engage and it will be an interesting season for the media.”

Oshiomhole added: “We are even happy that given the size of our party, we have issues in a few places, much of which have already been resolved. Compare that what is happening in a small party like the SDP who are in court over who is the appropriate Presidential candidate or compare that to PDP who have about two governorship candidates in some states. I believe we are still ahead in terms of internal peace.

“We reviewed the recent elections and we are proud to say that since the NWC was elected in June, we have not lost any major election. We have done rerun elections twice in Katsina and Bauchi and won. Even more outstanding for me and the APC is the humiliating defeat that Senator Bukola Saraki suffered in the hands of Kwara people who are determined to dismantle his failed attempt to install his own variance of a political culture in which he is the only constant decimal.

“Consider that he is the proclaimed leader of PDP and he has had to lead election in another state, here is a native doctor who was unable to heal his own people. For us, that defeat in Kwara was very key, particularly through a candidate that was put in place not by anybody close to Saraki and he won.

“I have said that society is held together by peace and progress in a democracy “not only through the rule of law, but also through strong ethical commitments and strong nomadic values. Of course, complete adherence to core values and principles of democracy preaches that majority rule.

“So, we are not going to accept a Nigeria variance where a minority party presides over the affairs of the National Assembly whether represented by Saraki or Yakubu Dogara. They just must vacate their seats because it is not right.

“For me, this was simply an issue of principle and he went on to say that I have no moral right to talk about morality and that I should resign from politics. What the people of Kwara have done is that they will not give him the opportunity of resigning.

“They are going to politically bury him and he has seen the first warning signals. By February next year, Senator Saraki will be politically retired by the good people of Kwara state. He has mismanaged their political life, economy and society over the past years. We think this is something worth celebrating.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/apc-members-threatened-pdp-states-says-oshiomhole/

Prof. Nwabueze, Chidoka, FFK, Peter Obi, et.al. Are “Hausa Fulani Slaves” By Churchill Okonkwo
BY CHURCHILL OKONKWO NOV 15, 2018

Hausa Fulani Slave! Hausa Fulani Slave! Hausa Fulani Slave! Hausa Fulani Slave! That and so much more vileness was the backlash that some of us had to contend with for supporting Buhari is 2015. Now that those who supported Buhari and those currently supporting Atiku Abubakar are all “Hausa-Fulani Slaves”, I welcome my brothers Prof. Ben Nwabueze, Peter Obi, Osita Chidoka, Ike Ekweremadu FFK, et.al and my sisters Chidimma, Ifeoma, Chisom, et.al to the world of Hausa Fulani slavery, with love.

To open this love letter to my Igbo brothers (including FFK) and sisters with this words that I have was not done in haste. It was not easy and I gave a serious thought to whether I should open with such a repulsive derogatory epithet “Hausa-Fulani Slave.” Why give power even inadvertently, to the demeaning words and its destructive discourse? The answer is simple; truth must be told and political hypocrites must be exposed and ridiculed.

So, my aim here is certainly not to give power to the destructive discourse but to lay bare the ugliness of the politics of bigotry and hypocrisy. If you like, you can call me a truth teller or someone who dares to hold a disagreeable mirror up to my brothers and sisters and ask that they take a long and hard look without fleeing, running away or threatening to expel nonconforming voices from closed WhatsApp groups.

The truth can hurt, stun, unsettle, and unnerve. And yet, the truth must be told. For years, we complained about the dangers of embracing IPOB, a group that is anchored on bigotry, fear-mongering and promotion of hate speech. Osita Chidoka and FFK called us names and labeled “Hausa Fulani slaves”; Ekweremadu whipped up ethnic sentiments to remain relevant; Peter Obi courted Nnamdi Kanu and lied with sincerity as he positioned himself for the VP slot. Now that we are all “Hausa-Fulani Slaves”, the truth is emerging that these deceitful political hypocrites were waiting for an opportunity to swallow their vomit.

After years of derogating everything “North”, imagine Osita Chidoka opening his campaign speech for Atiku by first telling Ndigbo that, “I, too, am a Hausa Fulani Slave”. Imagine Senator Ike Ekweremadu, telling Ndigbo that he cries at night for not being selected to serve his Hausa Fulani master, Atiku. Imagine Peter Obi telling Ndigbo that he is very happy to have been the chosen one from the Jewish tribe of Africa to serve a descendant of Usman dan Fodio. Imagine FFK apologizing to his IPOB fan base for deceiving them. I imagine these new Hausa-Fulani slaves having the decency to tell the parents of Igbo youths that died for in the streets of Aba and Onitsha that they are sorry.

If someone you hate has a rash, you call it leprosy, forgetting that all grapes are sour. After years of propagation of hate-filled message stuffed with fear against Hausas and Fulanis, a person of, Atiku, a Hausa-Fulani shows up and the hate and curses disappeared. The professional politicians that used IPOB and the “messiah” Nnamdi Kanu have suddenly abandoned him and his “Biafra or death” nonsense and started following a new god residing at the foot of Adamawa Highlands.

Sure, the fly follows the person who is carrying a smelly stuff. For months, Chidoka rode on the back of IPOB and Kanu en route his disastrous run for Anambra State governorship election. He appeared in courts, with FFK on a red cap, a disrespect to one of the most valued Igbo cultural identity. But when a fly with smelly stuff Atiku surfaced, FFK and Chidoka not only transformed to Atiku’s Otimkpu (megaphones), they now laugh at IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu when they say that Biafra will not partake in any election in Nigeria.

A woodpecker says that after his parents die he will break off the trunk of the apü tree, but after they have died, a boil grows in his mouth. For years, the supporters of Southeast PDP bragged that they will stop the descendants of Usman dan Fodio from completing their march down south to the Atlantic coast of Lagos. They used hate-filled comments on social media to malign the poor man from Daura who is content with life in his small hut in the village. However, when faced with the crucial challenge of choosing between a humble versus greedy Usman dan Fodio descendant, they embraced the greedy Atiku with a record of land-grabbing in parts of Lagos Ports. What an irony.

When the baby wren is growing, it looks like it would be bigger than its mother. When the latest entrants to political slavery in Nigeria were basking under the illusion stopping Usman dan Fodio descendants, they forgot that a noisy show does not imply knowledge. Ndigbo have a saying that a wise man in Aba is a fool in Abba. A wise man who spent 4 years derogating a descendant of Usman dan Fodio in Daura over an ancient Fulani war of 1809 only to embrace a descendant of Usman dan Fodio that has already reached the coast of Lagos is the real slave.

Osita Chidoka, FKK, Peter Obi, Ekweremadu et.al are political hypocrites whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of greed that they are ruthless in their use of deceit to attain power. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the looted money simultaneously, they may keep us the common citizens in eternal subjection. These men and their co-hypocrites and bigots are like the fowl that refused to eat praying mantis because they do not want to die. Yet, they won’t let praying mantis be, because they don’t want to starve to death.

I opened this article, with that ugliest taunt to let prof Nwabueze, Osita Chidoka, Peter Obi, FFK, Ike Ekweremadu and the rest of my brothers and sisters know, with love, that we are now all “Hausa Fulani Slaves”. The moral of this piece is that if we cannot stand together in brotherhood while disagreeing on personal political alignment as Ndigbo in Nigeria, we can, at least respect one another as “Hausa-Fulani slaves”.

On a final note, the Hausa-Fulani slaves worshiping an aggressive, greedy and dangerously corrupt descendant of Usman Dan Fodio in the person of Atiku have eaten their vomit and should bury their heads in shame. Like a onye ite, a clay-pot retailer, they will soon realize that they are not in business. But, should they ever embrace the leprous IPOB after losing the 2019 election, my good Lord and their Chukwu Okike Abiama will whip them mercilessly. Until then, let us enjoy our “slavery”, together in brotherhood and love.

http://saharareporters.com/2018/11/15/prof-nwabueze-chidoka-ffk-peter-obi-etal-are-%E2%80%9Chausa-fulani-slaves%E2%80%9D-churchill-okonkwo

BY PETER CLAVER OPARAH NOV 12, 2018
Since he emerged from a heavily monetized PDP primary election, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar had been trying to fend off a noxious image of a super corrupt and shady politician that symbolizes Nigeria’s rotten past. His emergence itself was a huge rebuke to PDP’s recent mien as a repentant group that is truly sorry for its sordid past, for which it recently offered a tenuous apology, which most Nigerians saw as insincere and opportunistic. Before the primary itself, PDP had been waxing noisome of its resolve to break from its putrefying past and offer a rehabilitative balm to the horrific damage it inflicted on the country in its 16 years that were marked by egregious and byzantine corruption, bizarre impunity, avarice and incompetence. This repentant mien, which though looked insincere, was aimed at warming itself back to the hearts of Nigerians who were so riled by the sins of the party, especially as it pertains to a wholesome plundering of the wealth of the country, that they threw it out with one heavy thud n March 2015 despite the huge efforts and resources the party committed into securing an additional term.

In electing to put forward Atiku as its presidential candidate, PDP must have decided to give up the daunting struggle to pretend to be what it is not. The party, still weighed down by its notorious past, must have shed all pretenses that it had reformed itself and was ready to give what it woefully failed to give in its long 16 years in power. Added to the huge monetary bait Atiku unleashed in the race to secure the party’s presidential ticket, PDP must have forcefully decided to spurn all pretenses to be a reformed and penitent party that wants to do right all what it did wrong for a hefty 16 years. In putting forth Atiku as its standard bearer, PDP must have been ruled by the urge to adopt a practical stance on its fate and end all pretenses to be anything different from the money-loving cartel of power hustlers who desire power for the monetary leverage it gives its members. Yes, Atiku and PDP’s other presidential aspirants made it a dollar bazaar where the huge loot that wrecked and laid bare the country for the 16 woeful years of PDP’s reign were brought into full use. Trust PDP members, money will always have its way and it was just natural that Atiku, with all his elephantine baggage and hunches, carried the day; having outspent other equally-questionable alternatives at the PDP primary.

Having emerged from the PDP primary, the biggest challenge for Atiku is to waltz through his many smelly records and wrench the presidency from an austere and frugal President Buhari who stands as a direct opposite to what Atiku is. Knowing his heavy baggage, his supporters and those of PDP tried to wrap his emergence as PDP candidate in one noisome euphoria that will substitute the ensuing campaigns and allow Atiku walk away with his many scruples. Atikulate and such other warped coinages became their sing-song meant to evade the critical and important questions about Atiku and most importantly, his worm-ridden conduct in public service as Vice President for eight years. They told us how the Atiku we know has become one instant talisman to solve the many problems he ironically contributed so much in creating, how he is coming with a magical wand to fling away the many problems of statehood he superintended as Vice President for eight whole years. He was garbed in the dubious cloth of an instant performer, a job creator of unmatched expertise with ludicrous claims of employing as many as 300,000 Nigerians without even a single industry! On yes, Atiku suddenly became Nigeria’s biggest employer, credited to have employed more Nigerians than all the major industrialists in Nigeria combined! He has become a born-again Muslim, a born-again Fulani, a born-again old man, a born-again ruler; in contrast to all his promoters have ranted and invested their energies to discredit before his quixotic emergence as PDP presidential candidate. What is even curious is that most of Atiku’s employees remain anonymous and the work they do remain huge mystery to a country that knows very well the sham that clothes Atiku as well as his many indiscretions.

But even in these borrowed clothes, Atiku and his supporters know there is no way he will escape the inquest about his personality, the probe of the many corruption and sleaze cases dogging him at every corner, the question of how Atiku, whose known designation before he went into politics, was a retired senior customs officer, happened on his fabled wealth. They all know that Atiku has so much questions to answer Nigerians who have come to associate him with every giant corruption case since 1999; be it the Halliburton scam, the Malabu con, the Siemens fraud, the power sector scam, the privatization scandal, among so many high profile cases of sleaze that bear his indelible imprimatur. Atiku’s corruption indictment goes even beyond Nigeria as he was indicted in a United States money laundering case that is weaved around his purchase of franchise for his American University of Nigeria Yola. For this case, an American congressman was jailed but it was enough to keep Atiku a fugitive from the United States since he left power in 2007! With these and many other gargantuan scruples, those that put forward Atiku as an alternative to President Buhari knew they had an unwinnable war in their hands trying to sell a moth-ridden candidate to Nigerians who are still reeling from the debilitating aftermath of the corrupt acts of Atiku. They know Atiku’s liabilities are far too weighty to be ignored by Nigerians in choosing who leads them from 2019 but they were simply overwhelmed with the scent of his dollars to believe they will bluff their way through with Nigerians.

It was this pathetic mindset that made a human rights lawyer who had very close affinity to PDP, Olisa Agbakoba, to be recently quoted as saying that he would not mind if Atiku is a thief but that he would vote for him! It is as bad as that. This lawyer knows that to sell the jaded ware that is Atiku, he has to first murder his own conscience and pretense to moral unction. He knows he needed such self-indictment as he made on himself by that damning statement, to sell the bad market that is Atiku, who, for understandable reasons, we know he feels compelled to sell. You cannot sell Atiku without deprecating yourself so badly as Agbakoba did by that self-indicting statement. That is as corrosive as Atiku is. So this was the type of cocoon those that are marketing Atiku have weaved for themselves but Nigerians would not be fooled by their antics. Atiku must conveniently come clean of his dirty past to be entrusted with our present. Pretending to care less of the moral gird of his present ambition is a cheeky tactic he and his supporters will not be allowed to exploit. If Jacob Zuma could be hounded off office in neighboring South Africa for a corruption case that could pass a case of pick pocket when compared to Atiku’s egregious corruption scandal, I see those trying to blunt our senses and morality by selling Atiku as indulging in an exercise in futility.

Good enough, Atiku’s putrid history is well documented in the book, My Watch, written by no less a person than his principal and newfound marketer; an equally compromised, Olusegun Obasanjo who served as President when Atiku was Vice President. Curiously, Atiku side-stepped the weighty indictments contained in the book to recently go and beg Obasanjo so as to secure his endorsement (as worthless as it is) for his present presidential ambition. But even when Obasanjo forgave him and hoisted him as his candidate for the coming 2019 presidential election, the huge indictments contained in his book still remain un-retracted and stands as an indelible patch of shame that will hunt Atiku for the rest of his sordid life.

So, for his queer presidential dream, Atiku Abubakar must offer clear, concise and impregnable defense of the many allegations stalking him like a malignant shadow. He must explain where he suddenly happened upon his much-vaunted wealth, which has formed the corpus of his campaign. He must explain to Nigerians where and when he suddenly met Midas who invested him with the magic wealth he is indecently flaunting around. Till he does this, Atiku remains another benevolent armed robber; a moral cripple, an ethical tragedy and a light-fingered crook who should not be allowed anywhere near our treasury again. Recently, his party ‘warned’ the opposition to stop calling him a thief. Yet, the same party pretends not to care that more damning names for Atiku still exist in Obasanjo’s My Watch! In embarking in such flight of folly, PDP thinks that Nigerians are dolts whose minds and senses could be remote-controlled by its filthy mandarins and its ruined sense of propriety. They haven’t seen nothing yet as Atiku, and indeed PDP, cannot run away from their shadows as the election approaches.

So let PDP and Atiku provide clear and convincing evidence that the moral destitute they are promoting to take over Nigeria’s leadership is not who we know him to be. Until they do that, they should be content to live with the liabilities of the rotten choice they have put forth for the 2019 election.

http://saharareporters.com/2018/11/12/atiku-abubakar%E2%80%99s-huge-moral-burden-and-coming-election

October 23, 2018 Bassey Udo
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Monday prevaricated when asked a question on possible cut in lawmakers’ jumbo budget to reduce the high cost of governance in the country.

Mr Saraki, who was a special guest at the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable dinner organised as part of the ongoing 24th Nigeria Economic Summit in Abuja, however admitted that over the years the National Assembly has not been Nigeria’s best ambassadors.

The National Assembly and the Executive appear to have allowed selfish political interests to override national duty, as important bills needed to create the enabling environment for investment and economic development have stalled, amid frosty relations between both arms, he said.

In his introductory remarks, Mr Saraki spoke about Nigeria as a blessed country full of great opportunities and talented people in private and public sectors as well as young ones coming behind.

For long, he said, he has always been part of the search for the way forward for the country, urging Nigerians not to give up, as the country was closer to its set target.

“For us to get there, we (government) and private sector must work together. The challenges before government today in fighting poverty can only be achieved through serious collaboration and cooperation with private sector. Government alone cannot do it,” he noted.

Restating his commitment to continue championing the call for collaboration, the senate president said “loans, buildings, debts, regulation and infrastructure alone cannot take us there.”

During the plenary session, Channels TV’s Boason Omofaye who anchored the programme, asked Mr Saraki about the seeming lack of collaboration and cooperation between the legislature and executive.

The Senate President described the development as unfortunate, noting that “over the years, the executive and legislative arms of government did not see themselves as part of the same team.”

He said the frosty relationship accounted for why a lot of achievements the administration could have recorded were hindered, although he alluded to the legislature performing better than the executive.

According to him, out of about 450 bills between the two chambers of the National Assembly, about 90 per cent were private member bills, with the executive accounting for about 10 per cent or less.

Although he said all important things the lawmakers under his leadership in the 8th National Assembly set out to enable private sector work were realised, Mr Saraki said more could have been achieved if there was a closer collaboration with the executive.

He cited the example of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), which he said should have been an executive bill, but was taken over by the legislature.

“When we started, the price of crude oil was in the $50s. Now, it is in the $80s. There are problems in Venezuela and Iran driving the price. This is a golden opportunity Nigeria could take advantage of.

“I don’t think two, three paragraphs or one coma or semi-colon in a draft law should prevent this level of investment or opportunity for investment. If we (lawmakers) did not get it right, I think the way to go is to lock ourselves up in a room and iron out those issues,” Mr Saraki said.

His response was an indirect criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari who withheld assent to the PIGB on ground of some errors in the draft petroleum law.

On anti-corruption, which the anchor described as the “big elephant in the room”, Mr Saraki was asked the National Assembly stance on transparency, accountability and reduction in the cost of governance and why the executive seems to be the only arm talking about them.

Although the Senate President acknowledged the cost of government was large, he blamed the problem on the leakages in the system, saying the expenditure as a percentage of revenue was high.

“I think there are wastages we can reduce. But, where the real damage is being done is in leakages on the revenue side to check corruption and inefficiencies,” he noted.

However, he was quick to deny that the executive was the only arm talking about anti-corruption, noting that most of the laws, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and others enacted to fight against corruption, were from the National Assembly.

Besides, he criticised the current fight against corruption as “sensational and selective”, saying it must not only be transparent and credible, but must follow a transparent process.

On cutting cost of governance, Mr Saraki was asked: “Should we reduce the number of MDAs, cut the cost of running the National Assembly or Aso Villa, or the 36 State Houses of Assembly, the various governors’ lodges or reduce the number of aircrafts?”

In his response, Mr Saraki prevaricated, agreeing that apart from reducing all that, government must be able to increase its revenues.

Not satisfied by the Senate President’s response, Mr Omofaye wanted to know what percentage or amount he would want the National Assembly to cut in its budget starting from 2019.

His response was unclear, eliciting loud grumbling from the audience: “If I tell you what should happen, I am not sure I will be allowed to have dinner here tonight. The problem we have (on the cost of governance in National Assembly) is a perception problem, not the actual cost itself.

“If you want to run a proper legislative arm of government, it’s less than three per cent of the total revenue. Yet, they are responsible for oversighting 97 per cent of the revenue. Don’t get me wrong here. Over the years, we have not been our best ambassadors.

“And that is why, if you say curse to the National Assembly, everybody will be happy to say yes. The point is, we want a productive government. We want to ensure the 97 per cent is efficiently utilised.

“The political answer would be to say we will cut the cost by 10 or 15 per cent. But, what we need to do is, as we cut those costs and overheads, we must create an enabling environment that ensures as a country we are getting more revenues to invest in our education or health sector or primary healthcare,” he said.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/291948-saraki-prevaricates-when-asked-about-slashing-nass-budget.html#disqus_thread

Tunde Idiagbon - An Officer & A Gentleman

October 22, 2018Agency Report
The police said they have completed investigation into the multiple Offa robbery incidents and sent the case file to the Kwara State Attorney-General, Kamaldeen Ajibade, as instructed by the Attorney-General of the Federation.

The police gave an update on the shocking robberies in which 31 people were killed, a police station sacked and six banks robbed on April 5.

“Investigation into the matter has been concluded by the police and the case file sent to Attorney General of the Federation who directed that the case file be sent to the Kwara State Attorney General for prosecution which the lolice has complied with since August, 2018.

“The Force has been waiting on the Kwara State Attorney General to take over the suspects from the police for prosecution,” police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said today.

Mr Ajibade, the Kwara State attorney-general is also a senior advocate of Nigeria.

Mr Moshood gave the update in a reaction to an accusation by a member of the Kwara House of Assembly, Abdulrafiu Abdulrahman, that the police were about to treat the case of recently arrested suspects said to be dealing in human parts, the same way the Offa robbery suspects were treated.

The police arrested Offa robbery suspects in Kwara State and took them to Abuja, where they made public confessions about their role and also implicated some politicians in the state, including Senate President Bukola Saraki.

Mr Abdulrahman, who is Chairman of House Committee on Information, alleged that there was a plot by the police to use the eight suspected human parts dealers, when transferred from the state to the Force Headquarters, Abuja, as instrument of political victimisation.

He alleged further that “the police were working to force some of the suspects to implicate prominent clerics and top politicians in the state in the matter.”

But Mr Moshood debunked the allegations.

He said investigation into the case is still ongoing and the police will definitely make the outcome public.

“Any individual or group found to be connected with this heinous crime will be arrested and prosecuted. The Force has no any plan to implicate any personality in the matter and there is no any cause for any innocent person(s) to be afraid of the law. The Force will not allow itself to be cowed, or obstructed from ensuring that the dictate of the law prevails in all matters,” Mr Moshood said.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/291712-offa-robbery-kwara-attorney-general-delaying-trial-of-suspects-police.html