Tony Spike:

Is this a joke or what? 6 million as compensation for a demolishing building in Abuja? What can 6 million do at an expensive city like Abuja? This is gross fraud and cheating...

By the way, I personally know of someone who was repaid at least 30 million by LASG for his demolished building. LASG repays you handsomely provided you have valid documents with respect your property.

taharqa: Unlike d DESPICABLE way d Lagos State Govt went about its own demolitions (where d Poor were chased away from their demolished home, and the space given to Rich friends of d Govt to build luxury houses with d Money Fashola borrowed from d World Bank after 'Lying' that he wud used it to helping d very poor people his Govt chased away, GEJ paid bw 5.5-6million as Compensation to these set of Poor people BEFORE his Govt demolished their houses. Plus, d demolished space wud be used for the laying of tracks of d Standard Rail Guage GEJ is presently constructing in Abuja and Environs. See the Difference?? If not, I wud hv joined in condemning it, as d apparent 'war' been waged on Poor people by various Govts in Nigeria (FG, State, LG) by demolishing Houses, markets, businesscentres, stopping Bikes and Kekes etc, without adequate Compensation or thought HAVE TO STOP

N750m scam: EFCC detains Soludo

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday interrogated and detained the immediate past Governor of Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo in Abuja.

Commission’s media unit confirmed his presence at the commission.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for 2010 governorship election in Anambra State was reportedly invited by the commission over the alleged bribery case involving the printing of N5, N10, and N20 during his tenure at the bank.

A very top source within the commission told the Nigerian Tribune that Soludo honoured the commission’s invitation and was quizzed for several hours.

He was said to have arrived the commission’s office at about 2 pm and when the Nigerian Tribune called the media unit of the commission a few minutes to 7.00 p.m., he was reportedly still under interrogation.

When the top source was asked if he would be released on administrative bail yesterday night, our correspondent was told that “you can be rest assured that by the time your story is out tomorrow, he would still be here. So if you wrote that he was released on administrative bail last night, then you would be feeding the reading public with incorrect information.”

A media unit source further stated that “he was invited and he appeared today. He is still with us and we are together. He is undergoing interrogation. If you check the time now (6.41 p.m.), you can guess how long he has been with us because he came in the afternoon during the working hours.”

“We asked him to come and explain his roles in the activities surrounding the bribery allegations on the printing of those notes. The case for which he was invited is about the Australian currency mint company, Securency, that handled polymer banknotes and what transpired in the course of printing those notes.”

It was gathered that a couple of former and serving CBN officials were also being interrogated over the alleged bribery deal.

When contacted, EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren was said to be in a crucial meeting.

A group, HEDA Resource Centre had petitioned the commission, demanding an investigation into the alleged currency scandal between 2006 and 2008.

The group’s chairman, Akaninyeme Enzina was invited by the commission on August 22, 2012 to defend the petition which was dated May 23, 2012.

HEDA’s petition had demanded the investigation and prosecution of serving and retired government officials indicted in the alleged scandal which stemmed from the printing of polymer Naira notes during the tenure of Professor Soludo at the Central Bank of Nigeria between 2006 and 2008.

The petition charged both the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to undertake this investigation and prosecution as empowered by laws establishing both institutions.

The petition was predicated on the printing of the notes which were allegedly printed in Australia in a fraudulent deal, following which The Age, a local newspaper, reported that former workers at Securency, The Reserve Bank of Australia’s currency firm, had told the police the firm produced millions of partly made Nigerian bank notes without authorisation from the Nigerian authorities.

In effect, the former staff said that was counterfeiting. The newspaper reported that the Australian Federal Police had subsequently investigated Securency over alleged bribery of foreign officials, including Nigerian and Vietnamese officials, to win contracts in these countries.

HEDA’s petition, according to Mr. Suraju, drew attention to the fact that The Age reported that Securency paid some N750 million in bribes to some officials of the CBN between 2006 and 2008 in order to secure the contract to make polymer notes for Nigeria, channeling the bribes through Benoy Berry and Michael Harvey, two British businessmen.

HEDA chairman further claimed that ,“The petition reminded the anti corruption institutions of a publication of Sydney Herald that on September 29, 2009, a day before the launching of the N5, N10 and N20 polymer notes, Benoy Berry, one of the British businessmen sent a letter to Myles Curtis (then Managing Director of Securency International Pty Limited, an Australian company) alleging a breach of contract and accusing the bank note company of bribing top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria to secure contract for Securency. He also accused Securency of breaching polymer-based mint planned to be established in Nigeria as part of principled objectives of transferring technology to developing nations.”

Adm. Yamamoto:
I am curious: if this man has such a long resume in economics, he is better off as a technocrat, adviser, etc and in an executive position, he will only be speaking big English. Do people really want a lecture or someone who will get things done?

N750m scam: EFCC detains Soludo

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday interrogated and detained the immediate past Governor of Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo in Abuja.

Commission’s media unit confirmed his presence at the commission.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for 2010 governorship election in Anambra State was reportedly invited by the commission over the alleged bribery case involving the printing of N5, N10, and N20 during his tenure at the bank.

A very top source within the commission told the Nigerian Tribune that Soludo honoured the commission’s invitation and was quizzed for several hours.

He was said to have arrived the commission’s office at about 2 pm and when the Nigerian Tribune called the media unit of the commission a few minutes to 7.00 p.m., he was reportedly still under interrogation.

When the top source was asked if he would be released on administrative bail yesterday night, our correspondent was told that “you can be rest assured that by the time your story is out tomorrow, he would still be here. So if you wrote that he was released on administrative bail last night, then you would be feeding the reading public with incorrect information.”

A media unit source further stated that “he was invited and he appeared today. He is still with us and we are together. He is undergoing interrogation. If you check the time now (6.41 p.m.), you can guess how long he has been with us because he came in the afternoon during the working hours.”

“We asked him to come and explain his roles in the activities surrounding the bribery allegations on the printing of those notes. The case for which he was invited is about the Australian currency mint company, Securency, that handled polymer banknotes and what transpired in the course of printing those notes.”

It was gathered that a couple of former and serving CBN officials were also being interrogated over the alleged bribery deal.

When contacted, EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren was said to be in a crucial meeting.

A group, HEDA Resource Centre had petitioned the commission, demanding an investigation into the alleged currency scandal between 2006 and 2008.

The group’s chairman, Akaninyeme Enzina was invited by the commission on August 22, 2012 to defend the petition which was dated May 23, 2012.

HEDA’s petition had demanded the investigation and prosecution of serving and retired government officials indicted in the alleged scandal which stemmed from the printing of polymer Naira notes during the tenure of Professor Soludo at the Central Bank of Nigeria between 2006 and 2008.

The petition charged both the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to undertake this investigation and prosecution as empowered by laws establishing both institutions.

The petition was predicated on the printing of the notes which were allegedly printed in Australia in a fraudulent deal, following which The Age, a local newspaper, reported that former workers at Securency, The Reserve Bank of Australia’s currency firm, had told the police the firm produced millions of partly made Nigerian bank notes without authorisation from the Nigerian authorities.

In effect, the former staff said that was counterfeiting. The newspaper reported that the Australian Federal Police had subsequently investigated Securency over alleged bribery of foreign officials, including Nigerian and Vietnamese officials, to win contracts in these countries.

HEDA’s petition, according to Mr. Suraju, drew attention to the fact that The Age reported that Securency paid some N750 million in bribes to some officials of the CBN between 2006 and 2008 in order to secure the contract to make polymer notes for Nigeria, channeling the bribes through Benoy Berry and Michael Harvey, two British businessmen.

HEDA chairman further claimed that ,“The petition reminded the anti corruption institutions of a publication of Sydney Herald that on September 29, 2009, a day before the launching of the N5, N10 and N20 polymer notes, Benoy Berry, one of the British businessmen sent a letter to Myles Curtis (then Managing Director of Securency International Pty Limited, an Australian company) alleging a breach of contract and accusing the bank note company of bribing top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria to secure contract for Securency. He also accused Securency of breaching polymer-based mint planned to be established in Nigeria as part of principled objectives of transferring technology to developing nations.”

ba7man: This your post has a new found maturity to it......Considering your past, I'd still approach with caution for now.

You subsequent posts from now on will judge.

t-something:


So anyone who now says anything negative about saint Fashola is an Ibo man. Look how myopic and tribalistic you are.

For your information, am from Akwa Ibom state and proudly resident in uyo. It's known everywhere that you can't compare quality of roads is Akwa Ibom to anywhere in your village . Even my street has better roads and street lights compared to the road leading to your government house (K-Line , Ewet Housing Estate , uyo). The address is for you to confirm what I just stated.

If I brag about my government, its because I personally can enjoy its dividends. I don't need to go about looking for beautiful pictures to use and brag on the internet . I still challenge Eko Ile (or whatever the buttlicker chooses to answer ) if he can proudly post pictures of his street so that we can appreciate how Fashola has performed there!

FreeGlobe:
my brother Peter Obi stole Anambra State dry, the state today is like it was 8 years ago or even worse. The man has stuffed enough cash in his fidelity bank that he does not know what to do with, that's why he has embarked on "money dashing" spree. I heard he paid off Victor Umeh with 8 billion naira to settle APGA.

t-something:


Can you sincerely say the road to your house looks anything like what you have posted? Can't you see how foolish you are?

You go about taking beautiful pictures so as to praise your master and force people to see him as the best governor on earth , yet you can't post the pictures of your own street where you live because you are ashamed of it. You go about posting pictures of water works , yet you depend on mei-ruwa for water. Bloody shameless hypocrite.

Someone who is suffering from bad road is putting up this article , so as to attract the attention of your elitist governor , and your here barking him down! Are you this shallow? Don't you have conscience?

babadem2much: the carpenter is only teaching d prof how 2 min his biznez, na d prof teach Azikiwe abi hin carry library 4 head ni? its only d prof side of story d xpressed wella 4gettin dat of d poor man. if u no go school u no get power ni?

Ngwakwe: Fashola is only better than T. A. Orji marginally when compared with 35 State governors in Nigeria.

N750m scam: EFCC detains Soludo

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday interrogated and detained the immediate past Governor of Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo in Abuja.

Commission’s media unit confirmed his presence at the commission.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for 2010 governorship election in Anambra State was reportedly invited by the commission over the alleged bribery case involving the printing of N5, N10, and N20 during his tenure at the bank.

A very top source within the commission told the Nigerian Tribune that Soludo honoured the commission’s invitation and was quizzed for several hours.

He was said to have arrived the commission’s office at about 2 pm and when the Nigerian Tribune called the media unit of the commission a few minutes to 7.00 p.m., he was reportedly still under interrogation.

When the top source was asked if he would be released on administrative bail yesterday night, our correspondent was told that “you can be rest assured that by the time your story is out tomorrow, he would still be here. So if you wrote that he was released on administrative bail last night, then you would be feeding the reading public with incorrect information.”

A media unit source further stated that “he was invited and he appeared today. He is still with us and we are together. He is undergoing interrogation. If you check the time now (6.41 p.m.), you can guess how long he has been with us because he came in the afternoon during the working hours.”

“We asked him to come and explain his roles in the activities surrounding the bribery allegations on the printing of those notes. The case for which he was invited is about the Australian currency mint company, Securency, that handled polymer banknotes and what transpired in the course of printing those notes.”

It was gathered that a couple of former and serving CBN officials were also being interrogated over the alleged bribery deal.

When contacted, EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren was said to be in a crucial meeting.

A group, HEDA Resource Centre had petitioned the commission, demanding an investigation into the alleged currency scandal between 2006 and 2008.

The group’s chairman, Akaninyeme Enzina was invited by the commission on August 22, 2012 to defend the petition which was dated May 23, 2012.

HEDA’s petition had demanded the investigation and prosecution of serving and retired government officials indicted in the alleged scandal which stemmed from the printing of polymer Naira notes during the tenure of Professor Soludo at the Central Bank of Nigeria between 2006 and 2008.

The petition charged both the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to undertake this investigation and prosecution as empowered by laws establishing both institutions.

The petition was predicated on the printing of the notes which were allegedly printed in Australia in a fraudulent deal, following which The Age, a local newspaper, reported that former workers at Securency, The Reserve Bank of Australia’s currency firm, had told the police the firm produced millions of partly made Nigerian bank notes without authorisation from the Nigerian authorities.

In effect, the former staff said that was counterfeiting. The newspaper reported that the Australian Federal Police had subsequently investigated Securency over alleged bribery of foreign officials, including Nigerian and Vietnamese officials, to win contracts in these countries.

HEDA’s petition, according to Mr. Suraju, drew attention to the fact that The Age reported that Securency paid some N750 million in bribes to some officials of the CBN between 2006 and 2008 in order to secure the contract to make polymer notes for Nigeria, channeling the bribes through Benoy Berry and Michael Harvey, two British businessmen.

HEDA chairman further claimed that ,“The petition reminded the anti corruption institutions of a publication of Sydney Herald that on September 29, 2009, a day before the launching of the N5, N10 and N20 polymer notes, Benoy Berry, one of the British businessmen sent a letter to Myles Curtis (then Managing Director of Securency International Pty Limited, an Australian company) alleging a breach of contract and accusing the bank note company of bribing top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria to secure contract for Securency. He also accused Securency of breaching polymer-based mint planned to be established in Nigeria as part of principled objectives of transferring technology to developing nations.”

Standing5: Is he suppose to fix all roads simultaneauosly? I challenge anyone here criticizing him to mention their state lets zoom in on it a lil bit.

Of Hope and Decorum lost

Yesterday someone said aloud during lunch that democracy is not for Africans. I know I have some of the world's most intelligent friends so let me peg the tide of high profile arguments by saying that I agree with him but will not go into the reasons why. Often times it has become clear that the black person finds a way to circumvent and rubbish the best systems in the world. Western immigrations and customs, banking systems and processes, political structures....everything that binds the white man who by nature recognizes and respects boundaries clearly does nothing for the black man. The military is not any help in terms of leadership and dictators often forget how they got to power and become tyrannical but I digress.

The papers are full of politics. Everyday in the news is one new political stone being thrown or dodged. It is tiring. Every single action has political undertones, political alliances are broken and formed, monies are changing hands, psycophants are in business. All the while, no one takes a moment to assess the impact of governance on the governed, or take a scientific study of unemployment or measure infrastructure development or long term strategies. Nothing. It's still the base student union type of politics where some old governor who did nothing but loot his state blind calls a sitting governor a tyrant or some other fancy nomenclature. Where crowds of women are paid and transported into Abuja to sing the praises of the president and so on. You get the picture.

I have often said that the only way to rule Nigeria is to keep the poverty levels just right. Never liberate the people by giving them what they require, never give them economic independence. Buy them motorbikes and grinding machines as part of yet another "youth and women empowerment program" and then move on. They will remain hungry enough to be bought when next you need them to curse their mothers for a loaf of bread. It sickens me.

The part that irks me the most is me. The fact that in spite of all, I still had hope. I had hope that with the entry into the fray of respected folk like Pat Utomi, Tunde Bakare, and the much acknowledged focus of governor Fashola of Lagos state, the time had come for the country to take a different path finally towards retracing its leadership missteps and replicating some of the good leadership principles evident everywhere else in the world. how stupid could i be. as we head to 2015, the semi-senile, regurgitated old men have returned. taking party leadership everywhere and sealing our fate to another four years of doom. younger people have decided to leave the political playing field altogether and focus on saturating the music industry and arranging sham marriages to Eastern Europeans at ikeja registry just to leave the country and never return. Do I blame them? No. Do I wonder if we will ever have a dynamic president who comes to serve this country as a duty to his conscience? All the time. Do I have hope for 2015? Not with the loss of decorum that the Presidents wife is displaying incrementally on a daily basis.

I was going to write about something completely different. I guess politics has a way of seeping into your soul and refusing to leave. Maybe tomorrow. See y'all around peeps

software man:
Yes. I also salute you guys doggedness. I have never believed in that mod sense of fair play.

Afam4eva:
Fashola may well be the best governor in Nigeria but he's not without flaws like some of you will have us believe.

ayswags: why are ibos uncouth and always rude,cant u refute my claim without insulting,seems ur flat is compressing ur brain from thinking properly

ochukoccna:
By their fruits,you shall know them
How can satan cast out satan
Kalu's true persona gets revealed daily