₦airaland Forum

I am surprised that alot of people are making comments about madonna university based on these phantom pictures posted by someone who obviously has an axe to grind with the school. To all those that have made comments on these pixs, how did you authenticate that the pictures are actually from madonna university? Which faculty, departments, hostel or area where these pixs taken from? Is it not funny that no pixs of student taking lectures, eating in cafeteria, milling around the admin building or congregating was taken? The only pixs of students shown was one taken from a long distance showing a muddy ground. How are we sure the location is in madonna? Where is the signage of the school etc,

Madonna has 3 campuses. One in Okija, Elele and Apugo in Enugu state. Which of them is this? The opening of the campus in Enugu was shown on NTA network news, was this what we saw? The NUC inspection was also televised, was this what we saw? Madonna has over the years, risen to enviable heights both structurally and otherwise. The graduate level of employment is very high and commendable vis-a-vis the posgraduate performance of the graduate at different universities around the world.

Madonna may have her issues, as with any other institution. But posting pictures that are not varifiable is sure not a sensible way of getting back at the authorities. The sad thing is that, people are busy making uninformed comments on these pictures. If most of the commentators have beign tru the four walls of a university, at least, u will knw hw student congregate in campuses, why are such congregations not shown in these pixs?

I finished  my masters in uk with the university of Liverpool and I had four other madonna students in the school. Two of them will be graduating with distinction and my humble self graduated with a merit. We had issues when we were all there, but these pixs are definately not a tru and fair reflection of madonna university. Believe what u want to believe, but I have just told u the fact. Kelly Handsome was my room mate back then in the university. Those of u who attended madonna will certainly knw who this is. 2005 set!! Enjoy my people.

But all the same they have disgusted themselves as leaders.

Professor G. Ugo Nwokeji was Thursday, November 17, 2011, unveiled as The 2011 Melville J. Herskovits Book Award winner in Washington, D.C.

Nwokeji, who is a professor of history and African American Studies at the famous University of California, Berkeley, won the award for his book, The Slave Trade and Culture in the Bight of Biafra: An African Society in the Atlantic World, published by Cambridge University Press in 2010, selected from more than 200 books nominated for the award this year.

Awarded by the African Studies Association (ASA), the Herskovits Award is considered the premier book prize for non-fiction in African Studies worldwide. The ASA was formed in 1957 and is the largest of all scholarly associations that focus primarily on Africa.

Given to the author of an outstanding original book published on Africa in the previous year, The Herskovits Award has been awarded continuously since 1965 in honor of preeminent American anthropologist, Melville J. Herskovits, who was instrumental to the emergence of both African studies and Afro-American studies as academic disciplines in the United States.

According to the book’s citation by the panel of experts that appears in the program of the 54th Annual Conference of the ASA, “Undoubtedly, the major strengths of The Slave Trade and Culture in the Bight of Biafra is Nwokeji’s ability to decompress the complexities surrounding an almost obscure history of the slave trade and to bring out one of the least discussed issues of the trade – women.” The citation praised Nwokeji’s introducing of innovative methodology to the study of the Atlantic slave trade, concluding, “The book points is several ways to the difficulty of providing a logically complete story using incomplete data and drawing on inferences. Nwokeji’s attempt to provide a comprehensive history of the Bight of Biafra and the slave trade will expand our understanding of the history of African enslavement, but it is also an excellent source material for researchers and the general public interested in studying the obscured dimensions of the Atlantic slave trade.”

After receiving the Award, from the incoming President of the ASA, Professor Aili Mari Tripp of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, during the 54th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Professor Nwokeji declared, “When you consider the great quality, breadth and depth of talents in all of African studies and the quality of books they produce every year, as well as the pantheon of past winners, you can understand why this occasion is a humbling experience.”

The professor thanked his colleagues for singling out his book for the highest honor. He also paid glowing tributes to his family as well as his alma maters – University of Port Harcourt, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the University of Toronto.

Although Nwokeji was trained as a historian, his publications have crisscrossed history, energy policy, politics, economics, and political economy, among others. Among his books and numerous publications in professional journals, his widely acclaimed The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Development of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry: History, Strategies, and Current Directions, published in 2007 by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, the leading energy think-tank in the U.S., has been described as a tour de force of the Nigerian hydrocarbons sector and was the first scholarly and independent analysis of the NNPC. He is also co-editor of Religion, History and Politics in Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Ogbu Uke Kalu, published by University Press of America in 2005.

Previous winners of the Herskovits Award have included some of the most eminent names in African studies from a variety of disciplines, including history, political science, economics, anthropology, sociology and philosophy. Nwokeji joins a highly exclusive group that includes such previous winners as Leo Kuper, Jan Vansina, Elliot Skinner, René Lemarchand, Ivor Wilks, Crawford Young, Margaret Strobel, Gavin Kitching, Frederick Cooper, J.D.Y. Peel, Sara Berry, Paul M. Lubeck, John Iliffe, Joseph C. Miller, Valentine Y. Mudimbe, Luise White, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Mahmood Mamdani, Karin Barber, Joseph Inikori, and J. Lorand Matory. This year’s joint winner is Professor Neil Kodesh of the University of Wisconsin, Madison for his book on Uganda.

Between these two illustrious sons of Ndigbo; Ikemba Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu and Owelle of Onitsha Rt. Hon Dr.Nnamdi Azikiwe, who among the two is (was) our greatest leader!

Please for non igbos.guide your comments and be straight to your point

Some people will come here now to tell us one CEO of Ibeto Enterprises Nig Ltd is richer than Dangote/Adenuga

By Kaltume Jauro

I read with utmost surprise the widespread media coverage given to the Minister of Aviation’s explanations regarding the recent appointments of Chief Executives of Aviation parastatals. While the Minister’s action was considered by some citizens, including members of national assembly, as a grand design that succeeded in bringing all her parastatals – NAMA, FAAN, NCAA, NIMET and AIB – under the leadership of the southerners, others supported the action in line with the merit criteria as emphasized by the Minister.

No one would doubt the fact that the parastatals are highly technical, requiring skilled hands to oversee their operations. But it is also a fact that in the present structure of Nigeria, merit and federal character principle must be married together to ensure justice and fairness in all affairs. That explains why the much outcry about how a federal ministry is headed by a minister from the south, and all the ministry’s five agencies are also headed by southerners. All the three geo-political zones from the north have been outsmarted in the name of merit.

The questions, however, remain: Does all the three geo-political zones from the north lack competent hands to merit heading any of the Aviation agencies? If yes, those northerners that had served at top positions in the Aviation previously are guilty of this offence. It shows the extent of blunder and blindness that shrouded them while at the realm of affairs. If the answer is no, then the Minister must be fooling the citizens and setting a dangerous trends in her ministry. For, any incoming minister can freely sack the head of Ministry’s agencies and replace them all from a given geo-political zone (s) and employ the services of town criers to defend his/her action.

Most disturbing in the recent Aviation policy is the Minister’s pronouncement that the replaced Chief Executives were sacked because their tenure expired. My aviation colleagues were amazed to hear this ministerial blunder, as the agencies have no clear cut policy on tenure of their Chief Executives. It’s unfortunate, the current acting national chairman of PDP, who was also the chairman of NAMA governing council when the minister made those changes, should have drawn her attention to this fact. But the man, who incidentally comes from Kwara state, supported the extermination policy. He cared not with implications of the minister’s action. Yet such a person could be sighted tomorrow in Kaduna singing the Arewa or Sardauna song.

It’s disheartening that a month after such appointments were made, the minister’s ploy has since manifesting its ugly head. In one of the agencies, the perceived loyal troops of the old regime have come under threats and intimidations. The new Chief Executives have commenced issuing them queries, a prelude to their sack or transfer from their present duty posts. Already, an emerging bunch of loyal constables are warming up to take over from those to be sacked or transferred.

In that same agency, staff have abandoned their duty, only queuing up daily to pay homage, distancing themselves from the old regime and express their loyalty to the Chief Executives, hoping also to get appointments or transfer to juicy offices or stations. It’s ridiculous! The minister had indeed satisfied the some sections of the country but equally had set a bad precedence on the appointments of the leadership of the Aviation agencies. Anyway, she has tried. For, she scored distinction where the likes of Yuguda and Bwalat woefully failed.

When George .W. Bush Jnr. was elected the 43rd president of the United States of America, it seems that the major reason that he contested for the presidency was to complete what his father George Bush Sr. started in Iraq with Saddam Hussein. So contrary to the advice of other world leaders and the UN, Bush marched into battle against Saddam Hussein. The reasons marshaled out by the Bush administration ranged from Saddam’s support of terrorism, to his annihilation of the Shi’ites. Since Saddam was tried for the killing of 148 Shi’ites, it logically follows that the war in Iraq was prompted by America’s decision to punish Saddam for committing genocide against the Shi’ites.

It later appears that Bush’s murder of Saddam through a clearly orchestrated trial is the last effective action of the administration (it was of course the only reason for his contesting the presidency). It seems to me that Saddam’s murder resembles Ikemefuna’s murder by Okonkwo in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Thus like Okonkwo whose affairs took a downward plunge after the murder of Ikemefuna , Bush’s affairs took a turn for the worse after the murder of Saddam.

But most important to us is the reason for Saddam’s murder: genocide against the Shi’ites. In order words, America , the bastion of democracy found herself unable to sleep after becoming aware of the evils perpetrated by Saddam to a class of people. That action of Saddam’s, America had perceived as violating the basic tenets of human rights.

In a similar vein, the U.N (conspicuously led by the United States) is at the moment pressing war crime charges against the former Liberian leader Charles Taylor. Taylor we are told supported and even ordered the killing of some Sierra Leoneans by a rebel group. Thus Taylor was declared wanted, and eventually arrested. It is clear that when Taylor ( as he must be) is found guilty, he would go the way of Saddam.

T[b]he examples of Saddam Hussein and Charles Taylor show the determination by the World to look into issues of the violation of human rights by powerful citizens of the world against weaker sections of the society, and the ultimate desire to ensure that a certain check is put in place to forestall further recurrences. That seems to be the only way that the weak are protected from the strong.

But the UN (and the U.S) seems to have deliberately overlooked a very important genocidal action. I am talking about the 1999 mass massacre of the people of Odi in Bayelsa State. Facts from that particular event show that the order by the Commander-in-chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces as at that time, Olusegun Obasanjo is tantamount to a direct order to annihilate the people of Odi.

Dubbed Operation Hakuri II, the purported aim of that military operation was to fish out the miscreants who had carried out the killing of six policemen deployed to the area. It should be recalled that the then president of the country had given orders to the people of Odi and the Bayelsa State government to produce the perpetrators of the act of killing the police officers, within fourteen days. Before the expiration of the fourteen days, Obasanjo, together with his Army commander T.Y Danjuma, had commenced full scale military actions against the tiny town of Odi with its estimated 60,000 people. It is disheartening to remember that artillery, tanks, and other sophisticated military weapons were deployed in this operation. More pathetic is the fact that the old, the young, children, the sick, the incapacitated were victims of that operation. There is no way that the operation can be justified as one aimed at finding the people who killed the six policemen. It was clearly an operation aimed at completely showing the Odi people their place in Nigeria . It was also an operation clearly aimed at protecting crude oil interests. T.Y Danjuma makes it clear: “This Operation Hakuri II was initiated with the mandate of protecting lives and property - particularly oil platforms flow stations, operating rig terminals and pipelines refineries and power installation in the Niger Delta." Thus in the process of protecting crude oil interests, the first aim which was to protect lives and property was jettisoned.

Once again we were back to Biafra . Once again, elephants in their frenzy were moved in to stamp out ants. And the elephants did that to perfection, putting the fear of the military in the minds of the few old and psychologically tortured survivors.

1999 was a long time away and many people would have forgotten that particular incident. But there are people who would always live in that nightmare. There is no way that the relatives of those who were victims will ever forget that incident. The wound may heal, but the scar will remain. And in their minds, they will continue to pray to God for justice. For who are they in this world of underhanded plans to stand up to the mighty one who occasioned their pains? Who are they to fight for justice in a world were justice is the toy of the highly placed?
[/b]
The interesting thing about the Cinderella story is that it gives hope to those who have nobody to fight for them when they are up against forces far stronger. In Igbo folklore, this story finds its equivalent in the tale of the “The orphan and his wicked step-mother.” The ultimate lesson that these stories give to mankind is that there is something called nemesis that takes care of all evils. More than that, it occasions in the mind of the weak the belief that there is a God who avenges their plight all in good time. But in our contemporary world, intelligent people of the world had come together to create avenues through which the weak would be protected against victimization from the strong. Laws, rules of engagements in military operations and so many other policies have been put in place to protect the weak and thus strike a certain balance in the society.

In a world with so many powerful and often times power obsessed leaders, the UN becomes the real life representation of Nemesis and God for the weak and the downtrodden. Thus when Saddam Hussein violated human rights rules, the U.S and her forces under the guise of the UN moved in and destroyed him (and his country). In a similar vein, Charles Taylor today faces charges too for the violation of certain human rights in Sierra Leone.

If the above is the case then, it follows that Obasanjo too should face trials for violating the human rights of the Odi people; for violating the rules of engagement; and for ordering a full scale military operation in a civilian territory when all that was needed was police investigation. Or is it possible that Obasanjo and his cohorts can prove that the Odi people had begun a military action against his government before the deployment of the troops? If that is his claim, can he also provide us with proof that he warned them to desist from the military action which they may have initiated against him and his government? I daresay that he cannot provide any proof. The reason is simply because that was not the case. It was Obasanjo’s sadistic desires that fueled that operation.

Annoyingly, even though the facts of that particular incident are well known the world over, no authority has deemed it fit to look into the action and initiate appropriate punitive measures. Which then raises the very important question: Was Obasanjo protecting the interests of the West as represented by Shell BP? There are too many questions with too many conjectured answers. Why a trial or inquiry cannot be put in place to provide answers to these questions remain a visible and indeed eloquent testimony to the fact that here, there is no “god” who oversees the affairs of the weak and gives them justice. If Saddam Hussein can be tried, why can’t a man who did almost the same thing as he did be tried?
There is no need believing that by merely keeping quiet on this issue that we would just wish it away, and consign it to the dustbin of our history. This can never be the issue. For come rain or shine, one day somebody must bear the responsibilities for his/her action.

Kaboooom!
End of invasion.
Your guys are wiped out

Destroying Nigeria was vital to world entropy, something only a select few know also. Even fewer know that Nigerian security is considered an area of “clear and present danger” to the United States, or to term it differently for others, an area of “vital national interest.”

As we speak, planeloads of bomb detection equipment is coming in from the same people who built the car bombs in the first place. War is being planned with the help of those who organized and armed the enemy.

Enough people were there who remember it all being laid out, how it would be done. Predicting this didn’t take genius, not hardly. I had seen it all before, so many times.

The plots spoken of as against Libya are very real but Egypt and Nigeria are the primary targets, taking the place of Iran, a nation that has been more resourceful than expected.

This happened in America, in a way at least. It is a plan long in motion.Nigerians are ripe for civil war, angry, divided, fed up with abuse.

One minor offshoot of the decision making and policy formulation we are seeing is the utter and total destruction of Nigeria’s economic and commercial viability.

It is being erased from the maps of boardrooms across the world as a potential place of business, of development, of wealth creation, from Beijing to Zurich and places beyond.

Christian Nigeria is being set up, not just to fight a “terror group” in the North but to take on all of Islamic Africa, to draw them into a war that will bring more players, America, for one, into another endless cesspool.

What we are seeing now in Nigeria is part of the same strategy, one that has included attacks on a physical scale, currency manipulation and now a staged move against Africa, which will be combined with attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities of the Arab Spring, new players, new governments and new greed.

In the process, side can be played against side, crooked politicians can keep the decision making apparatus paralyzed and the country can be turned into a terrorist battleground, leading to the long awaited civil war while being bled dry.

I laid the whole thing out.

Two foreign governments are involved, I named them.

I told my friends that Abuja would soon look like Islamabad, cameras, check points, troops, that was the first part of the destabilization plan. This is being done as we speak.

Real nation building is not in the cards, only rape and destruction, debt and more debt.

I saw it done, more carefully, to the United States. It isn’t the same crew, not entirely, but many of the same actors are involved.

First they began by blocking the new president from assuming real power, buying off key political and military leaders.

Then a phony terror campaign was begun, like the one the US saw with 9/11. Then “they” arrived with solutions.

The desire for a civil war, something so many want in Nigeria, have waited for, has allowed them, the government, the people, to become what they fear most, slaves in their own nation.

Nigeria isn’t Libya. It has a population 15 times that of Libya.

Nigeria is Africa. Saving Nigeria was vital to world stability, something only a select few know.

Our armies enjoy joint exercises yearly, Nigeria is the lynchpin of America’s African policy for the next 25 years.

The destabilzation of Nigeria is part and parcel to the destabilization of America’s position in the world, one more thing making Nigeria attractive.

America has spent decades making enemies and Nigeria is a way of helping bury America as is Afghanistan. Who would wish such a thing?

Get a map and figure it out.

“We can take down French AQIM without any problem to be honest but Boko Haram are tribes and clans, they are offered drugs, money etc… far far from Islam but at the origin it was an Islamic party infiltrated by the English, French and financed by the “narcos” linked to the CIA, DEA etc…

… who are landing their planes full of drugs in Niger, Mali, Mauritania, north of Nigeria, Chad in the desert… around 4 billions a year transit in this region…

…then up through Morocco, Polisario, Spain and then Europe and through Tunisia, Libya-Algeria border through Italy, or Greece depending which recipient networks… Ben Ali , king of Morocco, Polisario Front, Algerian zionists are deeply involved in this dirty business, same for migrants, exactly the same people… Boko Haram in charge of Nigeria up to Libya and south of Tunisia, with Touaregs…”

Nigeria is Africa, the most populace country, the most oil and gas wealth, the greatest economic potential, the biggest potential market. Thus, Nigeria is a target.

Nigeria is a tinderbox beyond imagination. Decades old hatreds and fears are closer to the surface here than even in the Balkans. This is a very dangerous game some have chosen to begin.

Were they available, and who is to say they aren’t, Nigerians would gleefully use nuclear weapons to settle domestic differences.

Nigeria, is, in itself, a construct that never should have existed. The North is Muslim, the South is Christian, each side having nearly 100 million people and neither half is united in any way.

This is all little but theatre. The US bought a ticket to a play staged in Afghanistan and has found themselves unable to find the exit. This one will be quieter as this is Africa, it will be black people killing black people. Few will notice, fewer will care. Those with a stake notice, they care, but their agenda has no room for human life.

The terror group, Boko Haram, is real but in its current formation, it is a proxy of outside powers who plan to Balkanize Nigeria, simply another domino to fall as have so many others

What we are seeing now in Nigeria is part of the same strategy, one that has included attacks on a physical scale, currency manipulation and now a staged move against Africa, which will be combined with attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities of the Arab Spring, new players, new governments and new greed.

1. The security of the presidency and the entire nation has been greatly compromised by the activities of certain individuals very close to the presidency.

2. It is common knowledge that the president of Nigeria is not protected at all and you can get at him at any time in or out of his residence.

3. The security around him is a joke to say the least, contrary to the views of certain individuals around the president.

4. The issues of government by settlement which had long plagued Nigeria are the orders of the day now where certain individuals are asking for colossal sums of money from certain security consultants to provide training and security equipment to the government.

5. One individual in particular has been known to collect huge sums of money from these outfits currently parading themselves as security consultants in Abuja

6. The level of cover and protection given the president and his family is simply laughable and nonexistent

Why has the country been compromised

It is widely known that certain foreign elements are providing security to the president and providing his current security details.

What a joke, you might say. These same foreign elements are the same who have sold outdated equipment to the government and are going around Abuja installing CCTV and bomb detection equipment around the capitol, technology decades old.

Huge sums of money have changed hands for second rate equipment

The government pays for a Rolls Royce car but gets a VW Beetle instead!!

Why is there so much fear and apprehension among Nigerians that the government can no longer protect its citizens?

Two Nigerian Policemen Caught Bringing In Truckload of Bombs

What are the costs expended so far on security equipment and the so called security consultants?

Why have certain individuals collected bribe money to award these security contracts at over inflated figures?

Now, this is one example of several of how corruption is endemic and goes to the heart of government.

You may wonder who stands to benefit from these contracts at the expense of the security of the president, the presidency and the nation.

The answers to these questions lies within the presidency itself because of the acts of these individuals in the last few weeks.

There are no real interests to control the activities of Boko Haram because of the vested interests of certain foreign governments in collusion with their agents in the present administration and the country.

To some in government, this is another tool to control certain individuals.

Most Nigerians are cowards, anyway. Kill a few “Nigerians,” “Christians” and make it look like christ6ianity against Islam to provoke a reaction from Nigerians.

If you get no reaction, kill a few more or go after prime targets to grab headlines.

Again, you may ask yourself, who stands to gain when there are terror scares in the country?

Nigerians are highly intelligent and resourceful people and can put an immediate end to all of these happenings when their own status is on the line and their livelihood is at stake or threatened.

Boko Haram - No Shortage of Unemployed Young Men

Nigeria has not gotten to that point yet but may soon reach the point of no return.

Sources within the Intel community have confirmed that Boko Haram is getting Intel assistance from senior Nigerian intelligence officials.

To these officials, this is a means to an end.

The danger here is that a monster has been created which sooner or later may go out of control of their political masters.

Certain people are benefiting financially from the current security situation in the country, from inflated security contracts.

One such individual from within the presidency recently placed orders fr4om a North American and Middle East country located near Tel Aviv.

What is the cost of a Nigerian life (Mr.) and how much is it worth to you sir?

A Nigerian immigrant stole the identities of 350 people to claim £1.3million in bogus tax credits in the largest benefit scam of its kind.

Olaide Taiwo, 35, hijacked the identities while working as a security guard for a number of large national companies.

He then used the names to claim tens of thousands in working tax credits.

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This week he was jailed for eight and a half years – the highest ever sentence for tax credit fraud.

Taiwo is understood to have arrived illegally in Britain in 2003 with his wife. Although three applications to stay in the UK failed, in 2005 he was granted discretionary leave to remain.

It was during this period that his scam began. The father-of-two submitted more than 300 fraudulent tax credit claims between June 2004 and July 2008 worth over £1million.

When he was arrested, investigators found an 'identity thieves' paradise', with stacks of fake passports and driving licences and £70,000 in cash lying around his council flat in Camberwell, South-East London.

The property was littered with paperwork detailing the names, addresses and national insurance numbers of hundreds of people which he had taken from employee payroll records at dozens of companies around London where he had worked as a security guard.

They also found templates for making false passports, birth certificates, NHS cards and driving licences.

Taiwo used the identities to open hundreds of bank accounts for the benefits to be paid into, but HM Revenue & Customs became suspicious about the multiple tax credit applications and arrested him in July 2008.

They believe he was the ringleader of an organised criminal network which included his sister-in-law who worked for a job centre.

But the rest of the gang are thought to have fled to Nigeria. Taiwo also tried to leave the country but he was arrested again on August 6 last year.

He was found guilty at Inner London Crown Court of fraudulently obtaining payments of tax credits, by using the names and addresses of individuals without their consent and acquiring criminal property.

Sentencing him, Judge Simon Davis ordered that he be deported at the end of his eight and a half year sentence.

He said: 'This is a fraud on a substantial scale.
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'You lied and sought to manipulate with ease and confidence and with an arrogance that was astonishing.

'You were intimately connected with every aspect of the fraud, stealing real details of real people to commit identity fraud on the large scale.'

Another member of the gang, Taiwo's sister-in-law Olajumoke Ademuyiwa, 42, a Jobcentre Plus employee, was also found guilty of fraudulently obtaining tax credit payments in an earlier hearing.

Ademuyiwa opened the bank accounts into which the benefits were paid, but she is not thought to have used her role as a job centre worker to make false claims.

Her husband, Oluyemi Amidu Taiwo – Taiwo's brother – is thought to have fled the country. She is due to be sentenced in April.

Richard Young, senior investigating officer for HMRC said: 'This pair blatantly hijacked the identities of over 350 innocent people and stole from British taxpayers by submitting over 300 fraudulent tax credit claims between June 2004 and July 2008.

'They deliberately attacked and abused a system designed to provide financial help to the most vulnerable people in our society.'

YORUBA crime wave sweeps through Britain
Jason Bennetto



The intelligence agencies MI6 and MI5 are being used to clamp down on fraud and drug-dealing by West African gangs. Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent, investigates a trend costing Britain billions of pounds a year.

The criminals, mainly Nigerians, have been discovered working inside government departments, the police and tax offices. The level of crime is so serious that the National Criminal Intelligence Service will tomorrow announce an expansion of its work against the gangs.

Agents and eavesdropping equipment from MI5, MI6 and the listening base at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham are being used to investigate Nigerian crime. The cost of the fraud alone is pounds 3.5bn a year, says the NCIS.

The fraudsters concentrate on con-tricks and benefit fraud, drug-trafficking, mainly cocaine, and illegal immigration. The intelligence agencies are assisting NCIS and British forces in some of the most serious cases. The secret services can provide expertise in infiltrating the gangs, bugging, covert surveillance and identifying targets.

The gangs, which have strongholds in the US and most European countries, form networks to siphon money and have proved difficult to break into. Activities by West African criminals that have been detected include:

At the Treasury Solicitor's office, the Government's lawyers, a worker was using the fax to work a scam involving advance fees. She was admonished and sacked.

An employee at the Department of Social Security was creating false National Insurance numbers and identifications which were being used to claim benefits such as education grants and child allowance. One individual was found with 100 separate identities.

A worker at one of the Inland Revenue's accounts offices was caught photocopying incoming company tax returns, cheques, and headed notepaper. These were sold to a contact who wrote to the banks and set up standing orders for small amounts to be paid into their accounts every month.

The Metropolitan Police had a problem with cleaners found looking for data and addresses in a West End police station.

An estimated 500,000 "advance-fee fraud" or "419" letters attempting to con people by promising risk-free cash are sent by West Africans, mainly from Lagos, around the world every year. The "419" scam is named after the section of the Nigerian penal code dealing with fraud. Thousands of individuals and companies in Britain are randomly written to and asked if they will help transfer millions of pounds of government money out of Nigeria in return for a cut of the cash.

All they supposedly have to do is provide bank details. But once hooked they are asked for an "advance" or have money removed from their accounts. Millions are stolen this way every year. Needless to say, the government money never existed.

Law enforcers have found it particularly difficult to crack Nigerian crime rings because they have a complicated language which hard to translate and infiltrate. The Nigerian criminals are good networkers and operate in loose-knit organisations. There are big Nigerian crime rings in Poland, Russia and Bangkok.

An NCIS spokesman confirmed that Nigerian fraudsters had been found working "from the Government to the private sector. They are not just trying to get money, they also want letterheads which can be used for further frauds."

A police source said that you can always tell if a law enforcer is dealing with organised Nigerian crime because "they have a broken marriage, a drink problem, and the largest card index in the office." A small number of the criminals also come from Ghana.

The NCIS, backed by law enforcers from the G8 group of countries, are to launch new anti-crime initiatives aimed at organised West African offenders. Detective Superintendent Bryan Drew, head of the NCIS's Strategic and Specialist Intelligence Branch, said: "West African organised crime is now in the big league - we recognise they now pose a significant threat." Commenting on contributions by the secret services, he said: "The UK intelligence agencies provide support and information that we could not get from anywhere else. They each have specialist skills which can be extremely useful in our investigations."

Another intelligence officer said: "It's by far the most insidious crime problem the UK has got.



Picture: (L-R) Babatunde Fafore of County Meath in Ireland, Ayodeji John Kareem of south east London and Vincent Alonge of Wimbledon

According to the Metropolitan Police, Ayodeji John Kareem, Vincent Alonge and Babatunde Fafore pleaded guilty to the attack that collected personal information such as online banking passwords and credit card numbers through online phishing websites. Those credit card details were then used fraudulently.

Enquiries revealed that through the course of their activity, the defendants compromised over 900 bank accounts and 10,000 credit cards, and over £599,000 was successfully stolen, although attempts were made to access up to £1.13 million. Fraud had been attempted on over 1,400 of the compromised credit cards, amounting to actual losses of over £570,000, while the precise amount is yet to be established.

The three men were arrested in August 2010 following a prolonged investigation by the Police e-crime unit (PCeU) and was codenamed Operation Dynamophone. The convictions are believed to be the first prosecutions in the UK involving such detailed evidence of an organised internet phishing operation.

David Levy, reviewing lawyer for the CPS Central Fraud Group, said: “These men profited enormously by taking advantage of the trust that many of us would place in an internet service that appeared genuine, but their enjoyment of their ill-gotten gains was short-lived. The bogus emails and websites that led victims into the scam also led the authorities to the scammers.

“Those who use the internet thinking they can phish with impunity should be warned by this case that you will be found out and you will be prosecuted.”

The three men were charged with conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to acquire and use criminal property, possession of a false identity document with the requisite intent and possession of articles for use in fraud.

Kareem pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to acquire and use criminal property and was sentenced to three and a half years and five years and five months respectively, both sentences to run concurrently.

Alonge pleaded guilty to possession of a false identity document with the requisite intent and possession of articles for use in fraud and was sentenced to six months and two years respectively with sentences to run consecutively. He pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to acquire and use criminal property, which were left to lie on file.

Fafore also pleaded guilty to possession of a false identity document with the requisite intent and possession of articles for use in fraud, and was sentenced to six months and two years respectively with sentences to run consecutively.

The recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Urban Development Bank of Nigeria (UDBN) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), for the importation of no fewer than 150 mass transit buses from China, has drawn the ire of stakeholders in the local automotive industry, some of whom have branded the deal an economic sabotage that should be halted immediately.



They argue that such a huge patronage which does not come very often, should have been channeled inwards to the benefit of the groaning vehicle manufacturers and the economy gnrally.

The N2.3 billion loan agreement which was signed last week at UDBN’s headquarters in Abuja, was part of a total tranche of about N5 billion approved for both the TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) by the bank from its Public Mass Transit Revolving Fund which commenced last year.

While the TUC, through its President, Peter Esele, had disclosed at the ceremony that the buses for intra- and inter-state transportation, were already being built in China by an un-named Chinese company, no indications have so far emerged on the brands or origins of the vehicles the NLC plans to procure for the its own scheme.
However, the deal has been causing ripples in the auto industry where the manufacturers’ association, the individual auto plants and other stakeholders, have decried the resort to importation, even when there are vehicle plants in the country with more than enough capacities to meet the nation’s bus needs, but are barely surviving due to lack of patronage.

Reacting to the development, the Nigerian Automotive Manufacturers Association, NAMA (a body of auto manufacturers in the country), said none of its member-companies were contacted for bids or quotations before the unions and the bank opted to import the vehicles from China. Disclosing that he was yet to recover from the shock the “very bad news” gave him, NAMA Executive Director, Arthur Madueke said the unjustifiable resort to importation by the TUC and NLC would have no impact on the economy. He added, however, that if local manufacturers had been challenged with the order, it would have gone a long way in revving up activities in their plants, with tremendous multiplier effects on employment, capacity utilization, reduction in youth restiveness and halt capital flight.

He, therefore, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene and ensure that the procurement is channeled inwards, in line with a Federal Government gazette issued in April this year which compels all government orders to be placed locally. Apart from the new Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Limited (IVM), Nnewi, Anambra State, which impressed President Goodluck Jonathan with its array of sundry buses (mini, midi, intra-city and inert-city) being produced when he commissioned the plant exactly one year ago (on Friday, October 15, 2010), there are other domestic auto plants that also make buses in the country.

However, due to lack of patronage, some of them produce only upon receiving specific orders which rarely come their way these days. Contacted on phone early in the week, the Chairman of Innoson Group, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, confirmed that no effort was made by the labour leaders or their representatives to contact his Nnewi plant to build the buses. “There is no type of bus, whether for city shuttles or longer distance transportation, that we cannot build at IVM. And individual transporters and state governments that have purchased our buses are satisfied with their performance. So, why go abroad?”

The Managing Director of National Trucks Manufacturers, Ibrahim Bayero, whose company displayed a wide range of buses at the 13th Abuja International Motor Fair that ends this weekend, told Daily Sun Motoring that the N5 billion would have made a lot of impact on Nigeria’s comatose auto industry and beyond, because of the possibility to revive several local parts manufacturing firms in the country which would have supplied the needed local content.

This explains why a media consultant and auto industry watcher, Alfred Nwosu, also argued that if allowed to succeed, the planned importation of buses by TUC and NLC, would amount to a lost opportunity to buoy up the ailing local auto industry and a huge boost to the economy of China where the vehicles will come from.
He recalled that the government of President Jonathan has always trumpeted the ‘Buy Made-in-Nigeria’ slogan, which was echoed when he opened Innoson plant in Nnewi, adding that this is the time to prove that he actually meant what he has been preaching.

Nwosu remarked: “It dose not matter if the procurement is not directly by government or any of its ministries or agencies. Urban Deveopment Bank is a government creation and the revolving fund is tax payers’. So, tax payers’ money should not be wasted abroad. Can you imagine what an order for 150 mass transit buses can do for a young plant like Innoson, which has produced similar rugged vehicles for some state governments with strong after-sales support?”

Nwosu and Madueke agreed with those who described the importation of the buses as an economic sabotage, and urged the Federal Government to treat it as such. But, Ibrahim Bayero, believes it is worse than sabotage: “Perhaps, I should say that it is like signing the death sentence for the vehicle assembly industry in the country…It is disappointing and disheartening to receive the news that the TUC is part of the unemployment situation we are facing in the country today”.

He said it is an irony that the trade unions which draw their affiliate components from the auto industry would take an action that would hurt some of their members. “At National Trucks Manufacturers, our workers are members of SEWUN (Steel & Engineering Workers Union), a part of the NLC.They pay their monthly dues to the Union and our company sponsors their executives yearly for seminars / conferences etc. Yet with all the ‘talk’ from the NLC & SEWUN leadership, the workers in NTM are ‘stabbed’ in the back”.
According to him, TUC and NLC exhibited high level of insensitivity by being fully aware of the capacities of the plants and the struggles that have been part of their existence over the years, “and yet they take 5 billion naira out of Nigeria to create jobs in another country”.

Bayero said though the Federal Government is not directly involved in the procurement, “my fear is that they would get the blame. So, I can say the development is not good for the image of the government”.
Madueke who hinted that the auto makers in the country would formally take their protests to the Presidency, Ministry of State for Industry, the National Automotive Council and the Bureau for Public Procurement, faulted the excuse by some labour leaders that workers in some plants in the country do not belong to affiliated unions, arguing “the plants where the buses are to be produced in China, do their workers belong to NLC or TUC in Nigeria?”

NLC and TUC were also advised remember what happened some years back when hundreds of Tata buses were imported into the country, but they quickly ended in the junk yards, due the not-to-high quality of the vehicles, lack of adequate after-sales support and unavailability of replacement parts.