₦airaland Forum

LAGOS -THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is on the trail of several bankers who have perfected a foreign exchange racket.
Already, the anti-graft agency has arrested top managers of a new generation bank over their alleged involvement in the scam and has started full investigation into the activities of other banks' foreign exchange deals.
Confirming the development, spokesman of the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said the foreign exchange racket has been going on for long and the EFCC is investigating it.
With the discovery, it has shown that Nigerian banks are the culprits in the free fall of the nation's currency, the naira, due to fraudulent activities some of its top managers.
Investigation has shown that in a grand scheme designed to mop up foreign currencies from the official market only to be resold at huge profit in the open market, top bank managers forge documents including flight tickets, international passports and fake company registration document and use them to illegally apply for Business or Personal Traveling Allowance.
Two weeks ago, managers of one of the new generation banks ran out of luck, when EFCC agents raided the bank's Marina, Lagos branch and carted away thousands of fake travel documents and other supporting papers used in the racket. Two top managers were arrested over the scam.
The discovery of the foreign exchange syndicate in banks has pointed to the source of capital flight from the country.
The Nigerian economy has been facing financial haemorrhage as private Nigerians and corporate bodies aided by banks move funds massively out of the country, after converting from naira to dollar.
In the last three months of 2008, a total of $13.894 billion went out of the country. While about $757 million went out in the week ending 9th September, the amount of foreign exchange flowing out of the country rose to $1.359 billion for the week ending 19th September. It however dropped to $452million on the 3rd of October and rose astronomically to $3.290 billion on 17th October.
The foreign exchange outflow went further up to $3.356billion on the 31st of October and declined a little to $2.397billion on the 14th of November and $2.02 billion and $1.262billion for the weeks ending 21st of November and 28th respectively.
This resulted in the crash of the naira exchange rate which had remained stable in the last two years. The CBN had attributed the collapse of the naira at the interbank to currency speculators who buy and hold currency for them to sell at a future date to make some gain. The movement of funds out of the country comes by way of Nigeria residents buying up dollars with their naira and moving it offshore.
The trend became noticeable in October, last year, when in a matter of weeks, several billions of dollars were purchased through the banks and bureaux de change.
Mr Babafemi of the EFCC said the syndicate might be operating in other banks, but so far, no other bank has been found to be involved in the scam. He however does not rule out the possibility of other banks being implicated in the matter.
The EFCC was tipped off by a vigilant customer who noticed the unusual activity and confronted an employee of the bank who confessed and gave additional information to the customer who reported the case to EFCC.
A source at the EFCC credits the breakthrough in the case to the commission's new programme, ANCHOR, which is aimed at getting citizens involved in the fight against financial crimes.
"When we launched ANCHOR, the idea was to encourage citizens in taking responsibility in solving this problem of corruption in the country because EFCC or any other agency cannot do it alone. We are glad that results are trickling in." An EFCC source involved in the case said EFCC is investigating to ascertain the pervasiveness of the scam.
"We are investigating this to see if this was something that was restricted to the branch or if other branches of the bank are involved. Also, we would like to know the role of top managers in all of this. They will be charged to court very soon," the source said.
"We are certain that this scam is not restricted to one bank. Other banks may be doing the same and we are extending our dragnet."

UMUAHIA-THE Abia State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, has arrested a 29-year-old man, Domunachi Osu, for allegedly raping and infecting an 8-year-old girl, (names withheld) with HIV.
The Command's Public Relations Officer, Mr. Soji Alabi who briefed newsmen on behalf of the Commandant, Alhaji Dauda Mungadi, said the suspect, said to have been on the run since last year was arrested following a tip-off from the victim's mother.
Alabi said the suspect, a married man and trader from Delta State, was living in the same area with victim, who was staying with her grandmother in Ikwuano Local Government Area of the state.
Osu was said to have committed the offence when everybody in the compound had gone to the farm and threatened to kill the girl if she told anyone of the heinous act.
Alabi said that the suspect would be taken to court immediately investigations were concluded.
In her account, the victim's mother, Mrs. Amarachi Uche, said she had gone back to school in Abuja when her daughter's series of illnesses were reported to her and that it took the intervention of a family friend before her daughter could open up on what happened.
The victim who narrated her ordeal in Igbo language said she was raped. The suspect also admitted that he was guilty of the offence, saying he had been living with HIV for over three years.

UMUAHIA-THE Abia State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, has arrested a 29-year-old man, Domunachi Osu, for allegedly raping and infecting an 8-year-old girl, (names withheld) with HIV.
The Command's Public Relations Officer, Mr. Soji Alabi who briefed newsmen on behalf of the Commandant, Alhaji Dauda Mungadi, said the suspect, said to have been on the run since last year was arrested following a tip-off from the victim's mother.
Alabi said the suspect, a married man and trader from Delta State, was living in the same area with victim, who was staying with her grandmother in Ikwuano Local Government Area of the state.
Osu was said to have committed the offence when everybody in the compound had gone to the farm and threatened to kill the girl if she told anyone of the heinous act.
Alabi said that the suspect would be taken to court immediately investigations were concluded.
In her account, the victim's mother, Mrs. Amarachi Uche, said she had gone back to school in Abuja when her daughter's series of illnesses were reported to her and that it took the intervention of a family friend before her daughter could open up on what happened.
The victim who narrated her ordeal in Igbo language said she was raped. The suspect also admitted that he was guilty of the offence, saying he had been living with HIV for over three years.

Individuals and families go to church to worship on Sundays. But a mother of two, Kemi Owolabi, her 10-year-old daughter and a relation, a boy of about five years, do so for a totally different reason. They have devised the most ingenious way of pilfering worshippers' bags at the close of service.
Their operation had been successful until last Sunday when nemesis caught up with the thieving mother and her children at Word Base Assembly (WBA), a Pentecostal church in Okota, Lagos. Female members had reported cases of missing bags for three consecutive weeks until the church authorities decided to take action. Intent on catching the thief, the authorities set a trap, into which Kemi and her little accomplices fell headlong.
Modus operandi
Kemi, who drives a white BMW 7 Series, usually waits in the car while the kids are in the church sizing up beautiful bags to purloin.
Narrating their modus operandi that would shock the most imaginative of thieves, Kemi admitted to Sunday Sun after she was nabbed that she would sit in the car outside while the boy fetched, ostensibly, 'mummy's' bag from among others. After all, why would you suspect a five or six-year-old walking away with his mother's bag? If questioned, however, Titi quickly rose up to his rescue, telling the boy that that was the wrong one and that mummy had found her bag.
Trained and smart as the juvenile apprentices in Fagin's school for young pickpockets in Dicken's Oliver Twist, Titi and her sibling deceived unsuspecting church members week after week by stealing their bags right under their noses. And once the bags were in the kitty, in this case, Kemi's car, off she goes straight to Ifako-Bariga, where she resides, or to another church for more bags.
After cleaning out the contents, the bags are usually discarded in the next church they purloin. On one of the Sundays, they 'visited' three other churches in the area, stealing and exchanging bags at a church holding service at City Plaza along Ago Palace Way, the Latter House Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God nearby and the Good Shepherd Parish of the Anglican Church. For that week, some of their loot included cell phones, cash and lots of women things.
Arrest
Like most greedy thieves, Kemi stretched her luck too far. Perhaps, propelled by a force beyond her understanding, she returned again to Word Base Assembly on March 22 to carry out her nefarious act. Like other times, her daughter and relation were in tow. As before, they made their move after the service had ended. But it turned out this was not a day like others.
Unaware that church members were watching keenly over a bag - bait actually - the boy locked on it like a missile-seeking heat. Caught red-handed at last, he led members to his 'mother,' who was waiting in her car outside the church.
Confronted, the Ogun State-born woman, who said her husband is abroad, admitted sending the children to pilfer worshippers' bags. She later led our reporter, members of the church and others contacted through their recovered phones in her possession to the three other churches they had visited. On the whole, six bags were recovered, containing various sums of money, cell phones and other items.
"My name is Kemi Owolabi. I'm married; I'm from Ogun State and I live in Bariga," she responded when interviewed by Sunday Sun.
She, however, admitted remorsefully. "Yes, I asked the children to go into the church to steal bags. I don't know what pushed me into it," she further said, before she stopped talking as tears welled up in her eyes and lifting her hands to her head.
Confirming the development, a WBA member, Mr Emmanuel Bribena, said: "It was the first time something like that would be happening in the history of the church. We thought it was odd. So we decided to set a trap for the thief."
A few weeks ago, some under-10 children were also caught with cell phones of members in a popular Pentecostal church at Onikan, Lagos. Interrogated, the tykes admitted to stealing the phones on instructions from their parents.
Kemi was later handed over the police at the Ago Police Station. At the time of filing this report, she had been released on bail while her impounded car was seen parked at the premises of the station.[email][/email]

Individuals and families go to church to worship on Sundays. But a mother of two, Kemi Owolabi, her 10-year-old daughter and a relation, a boy of about five years, do so for a totally different reason. They have devised the most ingenious way of pilfering worshippers' bags at the close of service.
Their operation had been successful until last Sunday when nemesis caught up with the thieving mother and her children at Word Base Assembly (WBA), a Pentecostal church in Okota, Lagos. Female members had reported cases of missing bags for three consecutive weeks until the church authorities decided to take action. Intent on catching the thief, the authorities set a trap, into which Kemi and her little accomplices fell headlong.
Modus operandi
Kemi, who drives a white BMW 7 Series, usually waits in the car while the kids are in the church sizing up beautiful bags to purloin.
Narrating their modus operandi that would shock the most imaginative of thieves, Kemi admitted to Sunday Sun after she was nabbed that she would sit in the car outside while the boy fetched, ostensibly, 'mummy's' bag from among others. After all, why would you suspect a five or six-year-old walking away with his mother's bag? If questioned, however, Titi quickly rose up to his rescue, telling the boy that that was the wrong one and that mummy had found her bag.
Trained and smart as the juvenile apprentices in Fagin's school for young pickpockets in Dicken's Oliver Twist, Titi and her sibling deceived unsuspecting church members week after week by stealing their bags right under their noses. And once the bags were in the kitty, in this case, Kemi's car, off she goes straight to Ifako-Bariga, where she resides, or to another church for more bags.
After cleaning out the contents, the bags are usually discarded in the next church they purloin. On one of the Sundays, they 'visited' three other churches in the area, stealing and exchanging bags at a church holding service at City Plaza along Ago Palace Way, the Latter House Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God nearby and the Good Shepherd Parish of the Anglican Church. For that week, some of their loot included cell phones, cash and lots of women things.
Arrest
Like most greedy thieves, Kemi stretched her luck too far. Perhaps, propelled by a force beyond her understanding, she returned again to Word Base Assembly on March 22 to carry out her nefarious act. Like other times, her daughter and relation were in tow. As before, they made their move after the service had ended. But it turned out this was not a day like others.
Unaware that church members were watching keenly over a bag - bait actually - the boy locked on it like a missile-seeking heat. Caught red-handed at last, he led members to his 'mother,' who was waiting in her car outside the church.
Confronted, the Ogun State-born woman, who said her husband is abroad, admitted sending the children to pilfer worshippers' bags. She later led our reporter, members of the church and others contacted through their recovered phones in her possession to the three other churches they had visited. On the whole, six bags were recovered, containing various sums of money, cell phones and other items.
"My name is Kemi Owolabi. I'm married; I'm from Ogun State and I live in Bariga," she responded when interviewed by Sunday Sun.
She, however, admitted remorsefully. "Yes, I asked the children to go into the church to steal bags. I don't know what pushed me into it," she further said, before she stopped talking as tears welled up in her eyes and lifting her hands to her head.
Confirming the development, a WBA member, Mr Emmanuel Bribena, said: "It was the first time something like that would be happening in the history of the church. We thought it was odd. So we decided to set a trap for the thief."
A few weeks ago, some under-10 children were also caught with cell phones of members in a popular Pentecostal church at Onikan, Lagos. Interrogated, the tykes admitted to stealing the phones on instructions from their parents.
Kemi was later handed over the police at the Ago Police Station. At the time of filing this report, she had been released on bail while her impounded car was seen parked at the premises of the station.[email][/email]

It was a most gruesome end, and the sight will shock even the coldest of hearts. There she was on the hard floor, her badly battered body lying in a pool of her blood. Her entire face was coated with clotted blood, with a few bones irreverently sticking out of her broken remains.
Splattered here and there were streaks of blood and a gory mix of broken bits of flesh and greyish matter that escaped from her shattered brain. With parts of her head and body terribly pummelled as if she was bludgeoned in an evil mortar, you would be pardoned if you conclude that this woman was run over by an over-speeding truck.
But could a milder fate have befallen a woman that was reportedly flung headlong onto the ground from the uppermost floor of a three-storey building? Mrs. Elizabeth Yakubu, according to her relatives, friends and colleagues, was violently hurled down from the last floor of a three-storey building in Lagos by an evil-minded husband. To them, Elizabeth was the unfortunate victim of a love story that turned fatal.
Yusuf Yakubu is denying the charge, though. With tears constantly coursing down his dark cheeks, the 47-year old Senior Inspector with the Nigeria Customs Service swears that he had no hand in Elizabeth's death. According to him, his estranged wife took the fatal plunge herself following his refusal to allow her leave for her house shortly before midnight on the fateful day.
Currently, police detectives in Lagos are trying to unravel the mystery behind the violent death of the 38-year old Immigration officer. Already, Yakubu, the father of her only son, is being held at the State CID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos. Since he was the man who last saw the woman alive, it's only natural that Yusuf Yakubu tell the law officers all he knows about his former wife's fatal fall. The detectives are also on the trail of another Customs officer who Yakubu said was his guest on the night Elizabeth died.
Expectations
Yet when Elizabeth was leaving her apartment off the Lagos-Badagry expressway that Friday night, she was full of expectations. In the past few weeks, she had been confiding in some of her friends and colleagues at the Ikoyi Passport Office in Lagos that Yakubu, from whom she had finally separated about four years ago, had been pleading with her for a reconcilement. She told her friends and a few family members that Yakubu wanted her back, telling her that their 15-year old son needed both his parents. They were even planning a trip to Plateau State this Easter to see Elizabeth's aged dad.
Last supper
That evening, she hopped inside her Nissan car and drove to Yakubu's Block 7, Flat 14 apartment at the Customs block, Gowon Estate, Egbeda. Yakubu says there were no quarrels between him and Elizabeth. They reportedly went to an eatery where they had a meal, since, in Yakubu's words, there were no edibles in his house. That turned out, quite sadly, to be Elizabeth's last supper.
Trouble
According to Yakubu, trouble started when Elizabeth wanted to leave for her place at about 11.30 that night.
"I refused, because I was not comfortable with her leaving Egbeda for around Festac that late in the night. I was only being security conscious. If I had wanted to do anything to her, would I have invited her to my house? Would I be looking for reconciliation with her? God knows I never had any evil intention against Elizabeth. All I wanted was for us to get back together so that our son can have a good upbringing," the Nassarawa born Customs officer told the reporter at the state CID.
Suicide?
What happened thereafter could hardly have been imagined by an individual with a sane soul. Amidst sobs, sighs and a constant shake of his greying head, Yakubu narrated what allegedly transpired between him and Elizabeth in the woman's final moments. According to him, when Elizabeth insisted on not spending the night with him, he shut and locked the door to the main entrance. He informed the police and Elizabeth's relatives that after locking that door, he went and sat down on the couch. In his words, he never bothered to lock the other door which leads to the balcony since there was no way she could leave the flat from the balcony. And, according to him, he also did not hear any noise to alert him that his wife had plunged down from the building.
He claimed that he was still sitting on the couch watching television when someone from the flat downstairs rushed to his apartment to inform him that his wife was lying on the ground after falling from the balcony. Yakubu went there, calmly collected her remains inside his Honda Prelude, spread some sand on the spot and drove her to the Ikeja General Hospital, where he had her deposited in the mortuary. He then went back to Egbeda and reported to the police at Moshalasi some three and half hours after the incident happened. He waited three more hours before calling the family of the deceased, to tell them that Elizabeth had jumped down from his apartment and that her corpse had been deposited in the mortuary.
'Tissue of lies'
Not a few people are infuriated by his account, however. Elizabeth's sister, Roda, her brother, Yohanna and cousin, Ben Ayida, are dismissing Yakubu's claims as a tissue of lies.
"I have always suspected that this man would kill my sister one day," Roda told the reporter on Thursday, her voice broken intermittently by sobs. "I warned Elizabeth that this man was evil. But she wouldn't listen. Now see how my sister has lost her life in a most tragic manner."
"If something happens to your wife, were you not supposed to first lodge a report with the police before taking her to the mortuary," queried Yohanna. "You were so calm as to collect the corpse and take her to the mortuary before contacting the police. The incident happened at 11.30 pm, and you only reported to the police at 3.15am. You did not call the family until 6.00am. And you are claiming she jumped down herself. Are you making any sense?"
Tempestuous affair
Sunday Sun gathered that Elizabeth and Yakubu met in Abuja in late 1993 when they were both living in a barracks for paramilitary officers. They reportedly hit it off immediately, and before long, Elizabeth was spotting a protruding belly. In November 1994, she gave birth to a boy, Yusuf and the couple started living together after a very simple traditional wedlock involving only close family members. That boy, now 15, attends Towergate, a popular boarding school in Egbeda.
But right from the beginning, theirs had never been a blissful married life. On the contrary, the relationship had been a tempestuous one, rocking violently like a boat tossed about by the angry waves of a turbulent sea.
Punching bag
"She has left his house on five different occasions," Roda, a lawyer, told the reporter. "He is a drunk and he was always beating her. They started having problems from day one. Even when she was carrying the child's pregnancy, he was always beating her. There was a time when he was working as an orderly. That day, he beat her and brought out his pistol to shoot her. It was one man that knocked off the pistol. At that time, we went to his house to make a lot of trouble with him. There was also a time he packed all her clothes and burnt them. She used to work with one officer, one Mr. Adekunle, a director who is now retired. Yakubu called the man and accused him of sleeping with his wife for no reason. That was how they took her from the place and posted her to one redundant corner. Anytime he was drunk, he would turn her into a punching bag. She was always leaving him, but he would always go and beg her, saying he had changed.
My sister was going back to him because of their son who was living with the dad. But four years ago, when she could no longer cope with the violence, she separated from him finally. She got a place, a self-contained apartment on Old Ojo Road, off the Lagos-Badagry expressway. What Yakubu is saying makes no sense. Why should my sister jump down? Was she mad? This was a woman who went to work that day, who drove herself to the place. Yakubu said they went out together to eat. She never betrayed any traits of a mad woman. Suddenly she now jumped down from a three-storey building. When she was not mad? Haba! These past four years, I thought she had escaped from this man forever. She was the only one who saw anything good in that man. Everybody told her but she said she wanted to reconcile because of her son. Now see where it landed her."
Elizabeth's cousin, Ayida Ben, was the first family member called by Yakubu hours after Elizabeth had met her tragic fate. "He used Elizabeth's phone to call me," he recalled to Sunday Sun. "When I saw her number that early - it was about six am - I said Angel, what's wrong? I have always called Elizabeth Angel. Then Yakubu said, it's not Angel. I said, is there any problem? He said there was a problem, that I should come quickly. He said Elizabeth fell down from the staircase. I said, where is she? He said she is in the hospital. He said he was at Egbeda Police station and that I should come there. At the station, he told me that Elizabeth said she wanted to go to Festac and he didn't want her to go.
So he locked the door and sat in the room watching television. He said she went to the balcony through the back door. I've never been to the house and I had actually thought there was a staircase from that back door. I never knew that there was no staircase leading to the ground floor from the balcony. Then I said, where is she now? He said she was in the mortuary. So I went outside and called my uncle who was in Abuja and told him what happened. Later, members of the family sat down with Yakubu and the IPO. That was when I learnt that the balcony had no stair case. When he now said it was from the balcony that this lady fell, I said it was not possible. Somebody must have pushed her down."
Two weeks before her death, Elizabeth had just returned from a three-month training course at Ahoda in Rivers State. Her colleagues with whom she undertook the course as well as those who saw her in the office earlier that fateful Friday still find it a hard task coming to terms with the realization that Elizabeth, who they described as soft-spoken and amiable, had passed on.
"I cannot believe that my very good friend and colleague is no more," said a female immigration officer who pleaded that her name be spared, since she wasn't authorized to speak to the press. "We were colleagues right from her days at the Festac passport office. Elizabeth was an angel. She had no problem with anybody at the office. Everyone loved her."
She recalled an incident that happened when the deceased mother of one was serving at the Festac Passport office. "They posted her to work in the house of a controller. Ordinarily, a lot of officers would be very unhappy with that kind of posting and it would show in their character. But Elizabeth was not like that. She was so hardworking and dedicated to her duties that the controller's wife became very close to her. You will not believe that it was the controller's wife who ensured that Elizabeth was posted back to the passport office in Festac after she had spent just one month at the controller's place.
That's the kind of woman she was
Another colleague of hers said Elizabeth had been notifying some of her friends that Yakubu was pleading with her to come back to him. "Because of what she had gone through in the past in the hands of this man, some of us told her not to do anything in a hurry. That was why she never slept in his house. She would go there to check on her son, but she would always go back to her apartment. And I personally saw her in the office that Friday. She had no reason to want to commit suicide. Why would she commit suicide? The police should endeavour that justice is done in this case."
Ayida, who works in the administrative department of the Nigerian Law School, Victoria Island, said her cousin and Yakubu were in his house recently after her return from Ahoda. "On a Sunday, after my sister came back from her course, they were in my house and we ate dinner together with my family members. All of us sat on the table and ate together. I did not suspect that he was trying to kill my sister. The following Friday, we were in his office discussing how he would go and meet her father."
Ayida is convinced that the couple must have quarrelled that evening before the woman insisted she would leave the place by 11.30. In his opinion, her insistence on leaving Yakubu's apartment could not have been without a reason.
Asked to give his own side of the story, Yakubu promptly turned into a pitiable wreck. He shook his head intermittently and sighed. When he opened his mouth, the tears started cascading down her cheeks.
"I don't think I will destroy the good things I have made," he sobbed. "I love Elizabeth. If I have no love for her, I will not be looking for anything to reconcile me and her. If I have no love for her, I will not have a child with her. Between me and my God, I will not carry my hand to push her to ground. For what? For what? Have you ever seen somebody who will carry his hand to kill his wife? I will never do it. I am not crazy, neither am I mad. I don't have a history of madness. If this thing had happened, if I had allowed her to leave that night, the story would have been different. But I refused to let her go because I wanted to prevent something bad from happening to her. What I was running away from is what has happened even right at my backyard. To tell you the truth, I didn't kill her. Ah, Elizabeth surprised me. I have a son with her and there is no other woman that can keep her son like herself. That is why I wanted Elizabeth to come back. The grief is mine too. We have no extra eyes to see the mind, but God that created us knows. I believe that if Elizabeth's spirit is still here now, I swear to God that one day, one day, she will reveal the truth."
But why didn't he raise the alarm or contact the police instead of taking the woman to the mortuary? "I am not a medical doctor and I couldn't tell whether she was still alive or dead. I needed to take her to the hospital first. It was when it was confirmed that she was dead that I now went to report to the police," he said.
But even now, several questions have been bothering the minds of many. Why would Elizabeth, a woman of a sound mind with a good job and prospects, fling herself down from the balcony of a three-storey house? And what might be Yakubu's motive for throwing down his wife from that ungodly height, at an ungodly hour?
The police have assured all that they would get to the root of the matter and unravel the mystery. Police Public Relations Officer in Lagos, Mr. Frank Mbah, told Sunday Sun that the incident is receiving the attention of the law enforcement officers, with intelligent detectives working day and night to ensure that the riddle is solved quickly.
"Yes, I'm quite aware of the case," he told the newspaper. "What was reported initially was a case of suicide at the Gowon Estate. But after further investigations, we are treating the case as suspected murder. We are working hard on the case which has now been transferred to the State CID. We have taken statements from those concerned and we've done an autopsy. We are expecting the result of the autopsy very soon. For now, we are working with an open mind. We are not in a hurry to label anyone a murderer. We are working with so many hypotheses. We are taking our time. And I can assure that we will do everything humanly possible to ensure that justice is done."
Among those left mourning the deceased is her 67-year old father. To say the old man's life has been absolutely shattered since the incident is using mild words, according to Yohanna.
"We are putting our hope in God and the police, and we believe that the police will do their job very well," said the man who works with Globacom in Victoria Island. "We are hoping that when this case is concluded, some undesirable elements would have been taken away from among decent people and placed where they really belong."

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has accused the state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of collecting huge sums of money between November 12 and December 31 2008 without accounting for it.
The party alleged that the governor collected the sum of N911 million as security vote between the same period; construction of a swimming pool in the Government House for N200 million and painting of the Government House for N600 million.
The allegations were made by Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Mr. Zakawanu Garuba who was represented by Mr. Fred Omogberai, a member of the House at a meeting of the Edo North Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the weekend at Warrake in Owan East Local Government Area of the state.
But in his reaction to the allegations, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Affairs and Strategy, Mr. Eric Osagie described them as spurious, baseless and a storm in a tea cup.
According to him, "We view the allegations as an orchestrated attempt to blackmail the governor and distract him from his people-oriented policies. It is very curious that these allegations are coming at a time when issues are being raised on the House of Assembly's slashing of the 2009 budget."
"The allegations are baseless and unfounded. Oshiomhole's administration has been very prudent in the management of the state's scarce resources and it is very strange that no eyebrow was raised when the former administration of Professor Oserheimen Osunbor spent over N1 billion as security vote just for one month."
"In any case, they need to provide incontrovertible evidence that money was mismanaged or mis-spent. In the absence of that, the accusation is just another storm in a tea cup."
According to the Speaker, "Between November and December, 2008, the Comrade Governor of Edo State removed N911 million and put it in his pocket. He removed that money as security vote. In governance, you do not challenge how security vote is spent. He removed N911 million and the documents are with us."
The legislators observed that despite the huge amount on security, that "killings, kidnappings, cultism are on the increase every day.
What did he use the money for? Nothing. The swimming pool in Government House is being constructed at N200 million; the painting of government house alone is N600 million."
He alleged that no provision was made in the 2009 budget for compensation to owners of houses that were to be destroyed in the expansion of Airport and Ugbowo Roads, saying that the House only directed the governor to construct feeder roads to Ugbowo Road to remove the pressure on it.
According to him, when issues come up for canvassing on the floor of the Assembly, they are treated beyond partisan politics adding that the AC members do not vote against our intensions. The reason being that we lay matters on the table and they often see our superior arguments."

In life, there are times when silence is golden. At such times, a man is not required to talk much because under tension, he could be misread and what you say can be used against you!
This was exactly what played out on the floor of the Edo State House of Assembly on Thursday, March 19, when the Committee of the whole House considered and passed the State 2009 Appropriation Bill into law.
The provision for State Security in the budget generated much tension that at some point it looked like it was going to be impossible for the House to agree and pass the budget.
In the budget estimates, Governor Adams Oshiomhole had proposed the sum of N3 billion for State Security but when the House Appropriation Committee headed by Hon. Chris Umogbai (Etsako Central) turned in its report, it pruned the estimate down to N500 million.
In defending the recommendation of his committee, Hon. Umogbai said the amount was sufficient because it was meant for recurrent expenditure and that another sum of over N200 million has been provided in the budget for the purchase of security hardwares. He explained that the Governor had said in past that he would not need much money as Security vote.
Attempts by some Action Congress (AC) members such as Hon. Philip Shiabu (Etsako West), Hon. Peter Aliu (Etsako East) and Hon. Etinosa Ogbeiwi (Orhionmwon II) to convince the House to allow the Security Votes to remain N3 billion was rebuffed. Hon. Shiabu who particularly drew attention to the fact that the same House of Assembly earlier approved N4billion security votes for former Governor Oserheimen Osunbor, pleaded with his colleagues in vain to peg the amount at N2.5 billion.
The effort of the AC members was rubbished by another AC member, Hon. Bright Osayande (Ovia North-West II) who is Chairman, House Committee on Security. He showed ignorance about the existence of State Security Committee, saying that as chairman of House Committee on Security, he has never been invited to attend the meeting of the State Security Committee any day.
Member after member while debating the issue, gave reason why the money should be left at N500 million, but the final nail which sealed the argument was driven by the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Zakawanu Garuba, who while referring to Governor Oshiomhole's interview published in Daily Sun, quoted the Governor as saying that he did not need more than five percent of Osunbor's security votes as his security votes.
As if seeking a corroboration, he asked: "Is the Sum man here?"
Following tension over the date on the security votes, some AC members walked out of the House. Consequently, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Garuba threatened that any member that walks out would have his Constituency sub-head provision deleted from the budget.
He described those who walked out as "executive members in legislature".
After the speaker put the question to vote, those in support of N500 million security votes carried the day without a single vote against.
At this stage, AC members started moving around the Assembly Chambers apparently in protest, whilst also consulting themselves, but it was of no effect.
In the end, Governor Oshiomhole's earlier utterance that he would not require so much money as security votes, worked against him.

NATIVES of Edo State residing in Europe have urged the Federal Government to investigate the issue of the Nigerian diplomat in one of the European countries who allegedly infected a Nigerian lady with the dreaded HIV virus.
In an e-mail sent to Vanguard, they regretted that even after petitioning the Minister of Interior, Major General Godwin Abbe over the activities of the said diplomat (names withheld), nothing had been done to stop him from spreading the disease to innocent people.
It would be recalled that one Larry Ogbeide had petitioned the federal government over what he described as the unhealthy activities of the said diplomat whom he alleged infected his cousin with the dreaded HIV virus.
Ogbeide described the said diplomat as being in his mid-forties and had worked in other foreign missions before he was posted to his current destination as head of Consular Affairs at the Nigerian embassy.
He added that his position brought him in contact with "hapless ladies who were desperate to seek any of the services rendered by the embassy".
However, the statement stressed the " need for the federal government to investigate the matter because it bothers on the integrity of the country. It will be better for the federal government to fish out that diplomat and send him back home before the Europeans will find out about his wicked activities and that will embarrass the nation.
"Such a diplomat should be brought home and face prosecution because it is evil for one to know that he is infected with the HIV virus, yet he decided to spread it to innocent people.
"We now know that the ambassador and all the diplomats in the embassy are aware of this satanic act but deliberately refused to take any action because they were protecting him.
"We have started a systematic approach to make sure the ambassador is recalled back to Nigeria. We will also make sure that the credibility and career of other diplomats who are aware of this is brought into questioning.

"Oh my God, I have lost all I have laboured for in my life. My wife, two kids, all my property is gone. I came to Lagos empty and I am going back to my village empty. Oh, I am finished."
These were the agonising words of a middle-aged man, simply called Baba Junior, who lost his wife and two children in Tuesday's collapsed building in Idi-Araba, Lagos.
His five-year-old boy, however, escaped death as he was lucky to have stayed back in school that fateful day for extra-mural lesson.
But it was a case of different strokes for different folks.
A young lady, Glory Christ-opher from Akwa Ibom State, is among those who survived the incident.
Though her face was swollen and legs bandaged, her joy that she would live to count her losses was palpable.
By last night, the death toll from the collapsed building had risen to 11.
At least nine persons were also said to have survived.
"I came outside to sleep because of the heat. After a while, the next thing I heard was gbi, gboa. That is all I can remember. I did not know how I was rescued. I survived and I thank God for it," Christopher told THISDAY.
The four-storey building located at No. 38, Ojerinde Street, behind the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), had collapsed around 2pm last Tuesday.
All the occupants of the building were initially trapped.
It has also emerged that the collapsed building was converted from a one-storey structure to four storeys, although THISDAY could not confirm if it was done with official approval.
The owner of the building, one Mrs. Olufemi, who was also trapped, was later brought out and is currently receiving treatment at the female emergency ward of LUTH for the injuries she sustained.
When THISDAY visited yesterday, the landlady's ward was well secured by policemen from Area 'D', Mushin, while medical officials treating her barred anyone from moving close to the ward.
Police authorities confirmed 11 persons dead and nine others hospitalised following the injuries they sustained from the incident.
Unconfirmed estimates, however, said death toll could be as high as 20 since some of those trapped were residents of the house.
Though rescue work was still on as at press time, the police were hopeful that it might wind up by last night.
Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Frank Mba, told THISDAY that the number of people confirmed dead was 11 while nine others are still receiving medical attention at various hospitals in Lagos.
Mba, a Superintendent of Police (SP), said nobody could give the actual number of persons that were trapped by the time the building collapsed and as such could not say the number of those still trapped under the debris.
At the scene, a combined team of the Police, Red Cross officials, officials of the Lagos State Emergency Ambulance Service (LASEMBUS), and members of the Idi-Araba community were battling to evacuate those trapped.
But the rowdy situation was dragging them behind.
Policemen from the Command Headquarters, Ikeja, who were dispatched to the scene, were still battling to keep street urchins away from the place when THISDAY visited.
Some of the policemen said about four persons were still trapped under the collapsed structure.
It was revealed that as at the wee hours of yesterday morning some of the trapped persons were heard maintaining contact with members of their families.
When contacted over the telephone, the state Commissioner for Physical Planning, Abolaji Abosede, declined to give the actual number of people who lost their lives in the incident.
He said: "Immediately I heard of the incident, I personally went there and assisted in removing the injured from LUTH to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), and other government hospitals. I cannot give you the actual figure of causalities and those injured."
Asked if approval was given for the building or if the owner had been invited for questioning, Abosede said it was too early for that, explaining that at the appropriate time, the ministry's findings would be made known to the public.
"It is too early to ask all these questions. We are working towards unravelling the misery behind the collapse of the building. We are not arresting anyone yet, what we are doing is to provide information to the Police and they in turn, would make arrest if there is any need, after their investigations. We are on top of it all," he said.

Two top officials of the Nigerian Customs were yesterday arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged complicity with the Vaswani Brothers in the N3billion fraud allegation leveled against them.
The officials, Hanna Sulaima and Johnson Olufemi Taylor, are Controller of Customs, Apapa, Nigeria's busiest ports.
An EFCC source told THISDAY last night that both men were picked up yesterday and will be charged with conspiring with Sunil, Haresh, and Mahesh Vaswani to defraud the Federal Government of over N3billion in import duties.
Contacted last night, the spokesman of the EFCC, Femi Babafemi, confirmed the arrest. He said "the two senior customs officials who assisted in the economic sabotage of the country are in our custody and are undergoing interrogation right now."
The Indian brothers who control a vast empire of business in Nigeria are currently on the run and have been declared wanted by EFCC.
With the arrest of the accomplice custom officials, sources at EFCC said the case will be sent to court soon. Last week, the brothers issued a statement denying the charges of economic sabotageError
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Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Lagos, has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to stay all actions in its investigation of the Vaswani Brothers.
The stay also covers their company, Popular Foods Limited, pending determination of the request for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights.
In their application granted by Justice D.D.Abutu, of the Federal High Court, the Vaswanis had complained that the basic assumption that a person was innocent until guilt was established in a given investigation had been denied them by the EFCC.
According to them, EFCC had made an accusation and went ahead to declare them guilty without the benefit of fair hearing being extended to them.
The Vaswanis said, "EFCC had declared us guilty of economic sabotage at a press conference. In that address, our fundamental rights to be presumed innocent until proven guilty were mercilessly assaulted. Five of our staff were detained and not released until March 25, 2009.
"EFCC had also written to some banks not only to freeze the accounts of Popular Foods Ltd, but six other companies, which were not connected with the subject of investigation. EFCC did this without due process as provided under the law. Based on these actions of the EFCC, we strongly entertain fear of imminent infringement of our rights without due process."
Narrating their ordeal, the Vaswanis, in a press release, noted that "this last week had been a most harrowing and trying time for our company, our directors, staff, stakeholders and well wishers."
Our business reputation and integrity has been maligned and our family name disparaged unjustifiably and without regard for due process. "We deem it necessary without prejudice to the investigative powers of the EFCC to expatiate and restate our own side of the unfolding events in order to preserve our integrity and salvage our business commitments,
"We sincerely believe that all parties concerned will obey the Order of Court and allow due process and rule of law to prevail in the circumstance. We restate our unflinching confidence in the judiciary as a bastion of hope and pillar of support for all persons and entity.We repose our hope in the grace of God,that the truth will prevail."

The Oba of Benin, Omo N' Oba Erediauwa, has condemned the Edo State House of Assembly over its decision to slash the state budget presented to it by Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
He expressed shock and sadness over how the House slashed down the governor's vote for the repair of the bad roads and flooded areas in Benin City.
In the letter addressed to the Speaker of the House of Assembly, he said: "I have had access to see the breakdown of His Excellency's budget as approved by the Honourable House, and Mr. Speaker, I was shocked and saddened to see how the House slashed down the Governor's vote for the repair of the bad roads and flooded areas in Benin City.
"If the Honourable House does not respect Benin City, as the capital of Benin Kingdom, the Honourable House should respect Benin City as the state capital of Edo State, which deserves to be beautified. The poor state of the roads in the state capital is well known from previous state governments. And now that the present governor is determined to tackle the problems, he is being frustrated by the drastic reduction in the vote he proposed for it.
"When I heard he presented the budget to the House, I wrote to congratulate him and prayed that God would provide the wherewithal to enable him implement it. At the time I was writing that letter to him, I was having in mind what the condition of Benin City roads was like.
"I am using this medium to appeal to you, Hounorable speaker, to move the House to restore the amount slashed from the vote for roads. I would be most grateful if my appeal meets with favourable consideration."
Meanwhile, Oshiomhole and members of the Edo State House of Assembly appear to be headed for a collision course over the 2009 Appropriation Bill as the state governor declared yesterday that he would not assent to the budget as passed by the House.
The lawmakers had on February 19 passed a budget of N70.26billion which comprises N42.37billion capital expenditure and N27.89 billion recurrent expenditure as against the N75.54 billion comprising N35.66billion as capital project and N39.88 billion for recurrent expenditure.
Oshiomhole said that he would only assent to the budget if the amount deducted by the parliament is included in the budget.
He made his position known while playing host to the Executive of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) who paid him a courtesy visit.
Oshiomhole noted that if the budget proposal was allowed to remain as passed by the House of Assembly, government may fall into the temptation of executing projects that would not have any impact on the lives of the people of the state.
On the removal of the expansion of Ugbowo-Lagos and Airport Roads to six lanes from the budget by the lawmakers, Oshiomhole vowed that the state government would not rescind on its proposals, adding that his government would resist any attempt to draw the state back.
Said he: "If we do not fight today, the people will fight us tomorrow."
Oshiomhole lamented the conduct of engineers on the employ of the state government, stating that they do not reflect on the well thought-out modus operandi of the society's agenda, maintaining that their problems were "errors of the mind and not of the head".
He charged the society to revisit the body's code of conduct and bring their members who erred to justice when their members were discovered to have connived with contractors to over-value contracts.
According to him, "In most cases, you see government engineers defending what is not defendable and that is why we have said we will not rely on valuation of papers issued by ministries but will set-up projects verification team which will include surveyors to advise government on what is actually on ground."
Earlier in his speech, President of the society, Mr. Kayode Adeniji, advised the governor to revisit the comprehensive design sent to previous administrations for implementation in the state on ways to tackle problematic areas for effective flood and erosion control for implementation.

The House of Representatives has kicked against Wednesday's decision of the Federal Executive Council to withdraw the police orderlies of some categories of judges and political office-holders, including members of the National Assembly.The House expressed surprise that the FEC, largely made up officials holding appointed positions as against elective positions, would approve such a decision while retaining the orderlies of ministers.
It pointed out that President Umaru Yar'Adua and Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan were the only elected members of FEC.
The FEC had on Wednesday barred chairmen of political parties, secretaries to state governments, commissioners, presidential aides and businessmen from the use of police escorts.
Those in the national and state assemblies entitled to police personnel are the President of the Senate; the Deputy Presidentof the Senate; the Speaker, House of Representatives; Speakers of State Houses of Assembly; Deputy Speakers, State Houses of Assembly.
But the House, in a resolution on Thursday, mandated its leadership to "immediately meet Mr. President or the Vice-President" with a view to discussing the matter and rescinding the decision of FEC.
It was the Chairman of the House Committee on Gas Resources, Mr. Igo Aguma, who first raised the issue, describing it as "social security risk."
Aguma argued that judges in particular handled sensitive cases which exposed them to risks, hence their security should be a priority to the authorities.
Regarding political office-holders affected by the decision, especially members of the National Assembly, Aguma said that their opponents could cash in on the development to harm them.
He noted that while the House had never at any time requested that its 360 members should have police orderlies, there were particular situations where lawmakers would require the protection of policemen for their personal security.
Aguma complained that when orderlies were withdrawn as a matter of policy, it might become difficult for them to get police protection when their security was under threat.
He said, "We know that for those of us involved in electioneering, we are approaching mid-term.
"Mid-term for us is a time when the tempo of political activities will begin to rise; we must take this matter seriously."
The Minority Leader of the House, Alhaji Mohammed Ndume, told the House that the Executive was "playing with the lives" of the affected office-holders and judges.
Ndume argued that the timing of the decision was also wrong considering the precarious security situation in the country with "increasing cases of kidnappings."
He added, "People occupying sensitive positions can be easily kidnapped when their security is so exposed.
"With due apologies to some of our colleagues from the South-South, we know the security situg abandoned by their principals in Libya when they could not ferry them across to Europe.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday defe-nded himself against allegations of corruption, saying he was ready for more probes.
He said he remains the only Nigerian leader who has been investigated by the anti-corruption agencies in the country and given a clean bill of health.
Obasanjo spoke as a guest on a British Broadcasting Corp-oration (BBC) programme, HARDtalk, anchored by Stephen Sackur.
He was alleged to have engaged in corruption, mismanagement and high-handedness during his eight-year rule between 1999and 2007.
A committee of the House of Representatives which probed expenses in the power sector during his reign turned in a damning report on him over the management of the expenses.
Obasanjo who was visibly angry during the interview said if anybody had any allegation of corruption against him, it should be brought forward.
On the Halliburton scandal where some top Nigerians officials during his reign allegedly received bribes from the American company, Obasanjo asked if his name was mentioned in the scam.
Though he admitted that he could not say some of his government functionaries were not corrupt, the former president said his administration set up anti-graft agencies to fight the menace of corruption for which it received kudos from the Metropolitan Police.
But he spoke of former Vice-President Atiku Abu-bakar whom he said had some issues over the US Congressman William Jefferson case, though he said he was not sure if some guilt had been established against Atiku.
Obasanjo said during his tenure, two anti-corruption bodies were set up, two ministers were removed and one even died in the process.
When the BBC interviewer reminded him that he had allegedly been indicted by various committees of the National Assembly, the former president took umbrage at the remarks warning Sackur that he was accusing him of corruption.
"What you are doing now is that you are accusing me of corruption. And no one has accused me of corruption and I'm not going to take that from you. Why are you accusing me of corruption? Do you have evidence to back your claims up? Let anybody with corruption allegations against my name come out to present it," he said.
He said his regime created two anti-corruption bodies to tackle the hydra-headed problem of corruption in Nigeria and that the efforts of the anti-graft agencies were even applauded by the Scotland Yard.
When asked to assess the performance of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua whom he handed over to, the former president said it was too early for him to do that.
He, however, said he believes Yar'Adua is a good man but that he feels that the President knows that it takes more than being a good man to be an effective, successful and great President.
On his daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello's involvement in the alleged N300 million scam at the Federal Ministry of Health, Obasanjo said at 42, his daughter was old enough to defend herself on the allegation.
In another interview with Al Jazeera English, Obasanjo said the situation in the Niger Delta where militants are on the prowl was not a civil war thing but a criminal situation.
Responding to a question by Sir David Frost that with the violence going on in the Niger Delta, civil war was imminent, Obasanjo said: "No I wouldn't say civil war because the situation in the Niger Delta is not a situation, it's not really a political situation like Northern Ireland for instance.
"No, it's a criminal situation, people have got used to an easy way of making money by, what for, if you are financing by stealing crude oil or refined product they call it bunkering and then when they are prevented from doing that, they go into taking hostages and it's more of a criminal situation, which of course started with a bit of agitation, agitation of well we want more of the product from the god-given oil in our territory, "
The interview will be broadcast on Frost Over The World on Al Jazeera English today at 19 hours gmt.
Answering another question on the situation in Eastern Congo, Obasanjo said he shared the optimism of Rwandan President Paul Kagame who was quoted as saying he had never been hopeful on the future of Congo.
Obasanjo was recently appointed Special Envoy by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.
The former president said: "Well David, if that came from President Kagame, I will have no choice but to be delighted and to accept it gladly because on the 7th November when the Great Lake leaders gathered in Nairobi with the Secretary General of the United Nations, the Chairman of AU and the Chairman of the AU Commission, President Kagame and President Kabila will not even talk to themselves, let alone shake hands and if today the situation has changed to the extent that not only are they talking to themselves and they will shake hands, they will hug themselves, that they are planning and executing a joint operation together, then there is great hope for peace in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and along the borders of Congo/Burundi, Congo/Rwanda and Congo/Uganda. So I agree entirely with him."

Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu yesterday said he has strong faith in Nigeria's democratic process, stressing that he will not be distracted by campaign of calumny from those who do not want the progress of the nation.
He also called on Nigerians to come up with constructive criticisms and suggestion on how to improve the electoral system in the country as a means towards entrenching democratic values in the polity.
Speaking to newsmen during an interview in Sokoto yesterday, Iwu said the nation is on course on its pilgrimage to democracy, adding that he will not be deterred by smear campaigns from certain individuals who are bent on undermining the democratic process for selfish purposes.
"As far as I am concerned, Nigeria has a very serious national programme on democratisation and I don't want to trivialise issues. The recent smear campaigns are just mere distractions and we are not perturbed by such acts. So, if somebody wants to run his personal vendetta, it is up to him, it does not add anything to the nation's democratic process.
"In fact, it is very tempting for some people to undermine the system because of parochial interests but collectively it behoves on us to work collectively for the progress of the country by living it better that what we met on ground," he said. According to him, Nigeria's electoral system has been adjudged one of the best in the world by observers and independent assessors, lamenting that poor mindset has been the bane of elections in the country.
Iwu noted that the issues of gender equality, disproportionate use of money in politics and fear of violence are some of the problems the nation is grappling with and stressed the need for Nigerians to have a change of mindset towards election for the benefit of all.
The INEC chairman expressed confidence in the ability of the country to weather the storm despite myriads of problems bedeviling it in the last ten years of continous democratic process, saying that the dream of the nation's founding fathers for an egalitarian society should not be allowed to waste because of personal interest.
"I have absolute faith in Nigeria and I believe we will triumph in the end.We have a situation whereby our founding fathers dreamt of an egalitarian society where justice prevails and it behoves on us to fulfill that dream. It will indeed be a shame, if we abandon that dream because of personal pursuit", Iwu averred.

Flambouyant Nigerian pastor and apparently Ukraine's most prominent Pentecostal leader, Sunday Adelaja, has been indicted on fraud charges. Pastor Adelaja is the senior pastor of the largest church in the Ukraine, "The Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations, Kiev."
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry has accused him of defrauding citizens of money, the ministry's Department for Media Liaison and International Activity said. Sunday Champion gathered that the amount is over $100m.
"The investigator has brought charges against Nigerian citizen Sunday Adelaja, who permanently resides in Ukraine and is a senior pastor at the Embassy of God church. The charges were brought under Part 4, Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (the embezzlement of funds in very large amounts via fraud)," the ministry said.
Last month, several church members went to authorities saying they were unable to recover the money they invested, which left many of them bankrupt. Police later arrested one of King's Capital leaders, Aleksandr Bandurchenko, on suspicion of fraud.
Speculation about Adelaja's involvement with King's Capital grew after reports surfaced that he was part of a bank in Nigeria known as GS Microfinance Bank Limited. Some speculated that Adelaja, a native of Nigeria, invested funds from King's Capital in the African bank and planned to leave the country.
Adelaja, however, said those accusations are unfounded. He said he has never been involved with King's Capital but denied that it is a Ponzi scheme, which uses later investments to pay dividends to earlier investors.
He said King's Capital was a legitimate business that failed under the pressure of the global financial crisis. He said because the company poured most of the investment capital into real estate, which decreased in value, it has been unable to pay investors.
"When the economic crisis came, all the real estate is no more selling. The land is enough to pay back the money owed, The problem is, everything is stopped in the country--nothing is selling now in Ukraine,'' he said.
Adelaja said Interior Affairs Minister Yurii Lutsenko accused the church of involvement because he wants to undermine the evangelical movement in Ukraine. With several thousand members across the nation, God's Embassy is one of the most influential congregations in Ukraine.
"(Lutsenko) is in a very bad situation," Adelaja said. "He's got to prove now that (King's Capital) is a pyramid scheme, but he cannot."
Adelaja said he never encouraged his church members to invest in the company and cautioned them to invest in businesses that offer insurance. "Of course, if you invest with insurance you get less percentage," he said. "What happened was many people said they didn't need insurance because the (King's Capital leaders) were Christians."
He acknowledged being affiliated with GS Microfinance, but said he invested his name and influence in the bank, not millions of dollars. He said GS Microfinance was formed to give small loans to poor Nigerians as a way of lifting them out of poverty. "It's not about what you can get, but the vision of the program is to elevate and get as many people out of poverty as possible," Adelaja said. "That is one of my lifetime passions, because I grew up in poverty."
Although Adelaja has repeatedly denied any involvement in King's Capital, which has not officially been deemed a fraudulent business, Pentecostal and charismatic leaders across Ukraine are calling on him to repent, saying they heard him encourage church members to invest in the company on several occasions.
"He was not a president of this company, but he was the No. 1spiritual leader, and he told them what they have to do," said Bishop M. S.Panochko, leader of the All-Ukrainian Union of Pentecostal Churches of Evangelical Faith, which is comprised of 1,500 churches across the nation. "He can do everything to tell them that he is not involved, but all the leaders have a lot of facts, and we have a lot of video of when he was pushing people, and he encouraged people to invest in this business."
Panochko was one of 10 leaders who met with Adelaja last Tuesday to confront him about his alleged support of King's Capital and the negative impact some of his actions have had on the evangelical church in Ukraine.
The Pentecostal bishops, who together represent more than 2,500 congregations, listed seven items of concern and said Adelaja has a pattern of making exaggerated statements. They pointed particularly to his alleged claim that he led the 2004 Orange Revolution--when Ukrainian voters protested a presidential election many considered fraudulent--and his reports that God's Embassy has 100,000 members across the nation. The bishops say those and other statements are untrue.
After the meeting, Adelaja issued a statement saying he did not organize the Orange Revolution, though his congregation participated in the demonstrations. He also asked forgiveness for the negative impact the King's Capital scandal has had on Ukrainian churches, but he added that he did not personally have any involvement in the company.
Despite the statement, Panochko said the bishops would continue waiting for Adelaja to apologize for allegedly endorsing King's Capital. If he does not repent, Panochko said the bishops would issue a statement to Christians in Ukraine and abroad, and to the Ukrainian government, denouncing Adelaja and claiming no affiliation with him.
Moscow-based pastor Rick Renner, founder of the Good News Association of Churches and Ministries for Russia, Latvia and Ukraine, said Adelaja's claims are hurting Christians in the former Soviet Union.
If convicted, Adelaja may spend up to 12 years in imprisonment, according to Part 4, Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
News

The planned return of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, may be long in coming following the emergence of a plethora of competing interests stalling the project, Sunday Vanguard can now reveal. In fact, nothing is yet cast in stone on the return of Atiku to the PDP.
It was gathered that the much talked about Electoral Reforms is a key factor in determining whether or not the former vice-president would return to PDP, because unless President Yar'Adua demonstrates beyond doubt that he wants true reforms, a return to PDP remains doubtful,
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar
Sources close to the former Vice President said that he was still weighing his options as pressures on him from the pro and anti groups were such that meetings were being held on a daily basis on the issue.
Those within his political family who insist that he has nothing to achieve by rushing back to the PDP maintain that unless the Yar'Adua government engages a true reform agenda for Nigeria's electoral process, a return to PDP is meaningless.
His associates say unless the electoral process is reformed an Atiku return to PDP would do nothing but "present the former vice president as an individual without scruples and one who has a vaulting ambition".
But Sunday Vanguard was reliably informed that the bulk of those who are eager to welcome Atiku back to the PDP are most of the former governors on the platform of the party, as well as a sizeable number of the present crop of PDP governors.
The governors are already working with a view to welcoming Atiku back to the party.
"Atiku was one of the founding leaders of this party and a return of such a prominent and popular personality would inject more life to the party", one of the sources said,.
He said "Atiku's return to our party would pour cold water on the opposition which is more content in just using his name for their own mischief".
The governors and leaders of the party rooting for Atiku's return are also insisting that in the area of electoral reforms, the vice president stands a better chance of engendering a reform process from within as a member and leader of the party than staying outside.
Such a process of internal democracy, they maintain, could then be translated on a larger scale to the entire polity for the benefit of Nigerians.
But holes are quickly being punched into this line of argument by some others, in the same Atiku camp, that the former vice president had been a victim of grand betrayal twice by a crop of PDP governors -first, just before the 2003primaries of the PDP and, second, during Atiku's bid to contest the 2007 presidential elections.
Sunday Vanguard was told that whereas there are those who see the AC a springboard to oppose the Yar'Adua administration, while at the same time creating a platform of control and dominance in their own geo-political zone, "the thinking of Atiku is that a local champion can not affect the fortunes of the Nigerian public".
"In fact", the source continued, "what the AC can do at best of times is to capture five states in Nigeria, three possibly from the South West, and another two scattered in the north".
The source then asked: "How does that make an individual with a pan Nigerian world view president of this country?"
It would be recalled that the talk about a possible return of Atiku to PDP gained so much fervency immediately after he went to Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, to hold talks with his former boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Psychological trauma and agony nine-years-old Chioma passed through during and after the period James Akpan, 42, defiled her, on December 28, 2008, may have taken the shine out of the girl as she now appears uncoordinated in her actions making people to think she is mentally challenged.
Though an Apapa magistrate court had on January 15,2009sentenced Akpan, who could not control his libido, to 15 months imprisonment, the ripple effect of his action on the girl is better imagined.
Since after the convict forcefully had carnal knowledge of her in their residence in Muyibi Street, Olodi-Apapa Lagos, her behaviour has been flunctuating from normal to abnormal. Her father, Chris Ewuru told Daily Sun that the victim used to be one of the most brilliant pupils in her primary four-class at Ajeromi-Ifelodun Primary School, Olodi-Apapa, Lagos, but since after the incident, she had become a shadow of herself. Ewuru said her teachers had to invite him to inquire what had gone wrong because the girl defecates and urinates on her body, even in the classroom, which they observed to be strange.
Each period she was in the abnormal state, Ewuru said her daughter would not talk and instead be looking like a zombie.
In the class, the victim of defilement during the abnormal situation would not write when others were writing and if she answers questions, talks off points. Ewuru said her cotenant who defiled the girl did so to destroy her life and future.
The medical director of St. Mila's Hospital, Olodi-Apapa, Dr. Sunday Oshodi said it was a terrible situation because the victim is going through serious psychological trauma, which has affected her brain.
Dr. Oshodi said the brain is affected because of the pains, fear and shock the kid experienced in the hand of the convict, adding that it is a serious psychological trauma and not real madness.
He advised her parents to seek the services of psychologist to wow of herself. Ewuru said her teachers had to invite him to inquire what had gone wrong because the girl defecates and urinates on her body, even in the classroom, which they observed to be strange.
Each period she was in the abnormal state, Ewuru said her daughter would not talk and instead be looking like a zombie.
In the class, the victim of defilement during the abnormal situation would not write when others were writing and if she answers questions, talks off points. Ewuru said her cotenant who defiled the girl did so to destroy her life and future.
The medical director of St. Mila's Hospital, Olodi-Apapa, Dr. Sunday Oshodi said it was a terrible situation because the victim is going through serious psychological trauma, which has affected her brain.
Dr. Oshodi said the brain is affected because of the pains, fear and shock the kid experienced in the hand of the convict, adding that it is a serious psychological trauma and not real madness.
He advised her parents to seek the services of psychologist to work on her.
The medical director also confirmed that forceful penetration could lead to the tear of the roof of the virgina. The intestine could also protrude, depending on the size of his private part.
He explained that there is a ring in the anus and another in the urethra, and the brain controls and influences them. These rings help to withhold faeces and urine for a long time until you are willing to discharge them.
The doctor said the urethra carries urine from the bladder to the outside, adding that, "in a man, it is inside the penis, and above the virgina in a woman," he said.
The doctor said if there is a serious tear during forceful process of having carnal knowledge with a kid, it is possible the virgina could tear up to the anus urethra, so it could not be able to withhold urine because it has slacked.
Recalling what her daughter passed through, Ewuru said the convict covered her daughter's mouth while forcefully defiling her, adding that the kid sustained serious bruises and tears in her virgina. The clearing agent said the incident has affected the brain of the child.
After defiling the girl, the father noticed that the child could not walk and was falling
each time she tried to, after two days of the dastard act. He persuaded his daughter until she revealed the secret.
The sad father said he quickly rushed to Trinity Police Station and policemen came to arrest the convict.
Chioma was rushed to Ostard Medical Centre, Olodi Apapa, from there to Gateway Hospital, Olodi-Apapa and later transferred to Apapa General Hospital, Apapa.
Medical report showed that Chioma had tears in her virgina.
Daily Sun gathered that the inmate at Kirikiri Medium Prison, Akpan has been given quit notice by his landlord identified simply as Kayode. The landlord has told the convict's wife, Esther to leave the house with her four children before the end of March this year because Akpan is a disgrace.

Former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Dr Doyin Okupe, has warned that the Action Congress (AC) would take over Ogun State in 2011 if the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not restructured in the state before the general election.
Okupe, who spoke to newsmen in Lagos on behalf of the PDP Council of Elders in Ogun, said the state chapter of the party has been destroyed by the state governor, Gbenga Daniel.
Reading a text, which was signed by members of the group led by the former Minister of State for Finance, Senator Martins-Kuye, he called for an immediate dissolution of the executive of the party from the ward to the state levels.
The former presidential aide also cautioned that the PDP would lose Ogun in 2011 general election except the national hierarchy of the party sets up a Caretaker Committee to oversee its activities at all levels with a view to reorganizing and preparing it for future elections.
"There is a wind of change blowing across the South West geo-political zone and we do not want the AC to overrun us in Ogun," he said.
He condemned the arm-twisting tactics being adopted against members of the party by the state government, lamenting that many have lost their lives in the attempt to ensure the survival of internal democracy in the state chapter.
"PDP does not exist in Ogun State. It is only OGD (Otunba Gbenga Daniel) and once you do not belong to the group, you are regarded as an enemy. All semblances of internal democracy have been killed in the party to foster interest and ambition," he stated, adding, "the party is in a state of anarchy while numerous members of the party are now folding their hands and watching events helplessly."
He lamented that the situation has become so bad that the state House of Assembly cannot even sit because of threat to lives and property of members.
He recalled that on February 26 this year, the former Special Adviser to the Speaker of the State Assembly, Fatai Osolake, was mercilessly attacked with machetes at Egbeda in Obafemi Owode local government.
He also noted that the mother of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, was recently attacked by identified officials of Abeokuta South local government during an empowerment programme.
Okupe said that the entire state executive was imposed on members of the party with the result that many stakeholders were disenfranchised from running the party.
"Since the emergence of the handpicked executives, there have neither been any stakeholders or state caucus meeting," he said, regretting that the state Elders Council, which serves in an advisory capacity, was dissolved by the handpicked state executive.
He observed that the Council of Elders lacked the confidence in the ability of Daniel leading the PDP in the state to victory in 2011 and criticized the anti-party activities by those he called "handpicked state executives."

Benin-No fewer than eight million Nigerians have become blind as a result of their degenerative ocular malfunction (Glaucoma).
Disclosing this during the World Glaucoma Day celebration in Benin, Edo State, Commissioner for Health Dr. Moses Momoh, said that glaucoma has become the second major cause of blindness in the world as it affects about 70 million people worldwide.
Saying that about 16.3% of blindness in the country was traceable to glaucoma, he said the South-South states to which Edo belongs are not let out of the situation.
He called for awareness on the part of the people by having their eyes checked regularly.
"May I appeal to you to seize the opportunity offered by this exercise to get your eyes checked. This should not be an end in itself, but should be a regular exercise because good vision is essential for our daily living.
"Kindly pass this message to others who are 35 years of age and above and those with family history of glaucoma to visit our hospitals for regular check up.
"Glaucoma could lead to loss of sight if there is no medical intervention. The loss of sight is one of the most serious misfortune that can affect or befall a person as a result of functional ability or self esteem.
"It has a considerable economic implication that leads to loss of productivity, social dependency which requires rehabilitation and supportive measures."
The Commissioner thanked Oculus Pharmacare Limited for donating 30 Timoptol gel for the treatment of the first 30 identified glaucoma patients.
During the ceremony, over 200 patients with eye problems were screened and treated.

AKURE - A NEW twist was added to the controversy trailing the sack of the 18 local government chairmen and their councillors in Ondo State yesterday as those affected defied the dissolution order of Governor Olusegun Mimiko and resumed in their offices with full security back up, allegedly approved by the Presidency.
The state Commissioner of Police, Charles Dawodu, confirmed the Presidency's approval of additional security for the council chiefs, saying he had orders from above to provide Police protection for the embattled council chairmen.
However, the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) thwarted their resumption bid as they met their offices under lock and key following a stay-at-home order by the union to the council workers.
Also reacting to the development, Governor Mimiko appealed to the people of the state not to resort to violence over the matter.
The governor in a statement said:
"I, therefore, want to appeal to all stakeholders in the matter to resist the temptation to take laws into their hands and resort to self help and violence.
"The development for which we yearn in this state cannot take place in an atmosphere of violence and disorder. On our part, we shall continue to take all necessary steps to prevent and arrest the breakdown of law and order."
But, the chairman of the NULGE Caretaker Committee, Comrade Joshua Maigida Irapakob who ordered the workers to stay at home said in a statement that information reaching him showed that there may be a likely breakdown of law and order if the local government council bosses resume at the council secretariats.
Governor Mimiko had dissolved the councils about three weeks ago citing a pending court order which was ignored by the former governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, before the council election which produced the council chiefs in December last year.
Criticism had trailed the governor's action which was described as unconstitutional and a breach of the local government law which forbade the governor from dissolving the councils except with recourse to the state House of Assembly.
Police protection ordered from above
Vanguard gathered, and this was confirmed by the state chairman of ALGON (Association of Local Governments of Nigeria), Chief Adedayo Omolafe in Akure that the presidency has waded into the dissolution order and directed the Inspector-General of Police to ensure the protection of the council chairmen as they resumed for duties yesterday.
Some of the council chairmen who resumed in their offices and spoken with include Yejide Ogundipe of Ile Oluji/Oke Igbo; Afolabi Adesoji of Idanre and Ebenezer Alabi of Akure North council areas and they described the development as a victory for democracy.
They vowed not to surrender the mandate given them by their people.
Omolafe said that the I-G has directed the state Commissioner of Police, Charles Dawodu to deploy policemen in the councils in the state "to secure our protection as we resume for duties today".
He said that the local government chairmen would continue to be law abiding and would fight their cause constitutionally just as he denied that the chairmen had dragged the governor to court over the dissolution.
According to him, all the chairmen are ready to discharge their responsibilities to the electorate.
"The councils have not been dissolved. The only authority that has the power to dissolve the local governments is the State House of Assembly. They are yet to do anything in that regard. So, the councils stand as they were; no dissolution of local government anywhere in Ondo State as at now.
Omolafe said he was resuming for duty on the order of the State House of Assembly and the Presidency.
The Chairman pointed out that the council chiefs across the state would not force the doors open but would rather go home and wait for further directives from the Presidency.
He said "initially, the governor said the councils stand dissolved, but at a point, the Presidency ordered the IGP to get us back into our offices and that was sent through a message to the Commissioner of Police who sent it to the DPOs. They know that the action taken by the governor is illegal."
Gov Mimiko appeals for calm
Meanwhile, the governor has assured the people of the state that he would look into all areas of dispute and proffer solutions to them as soon as he settles down and put in place structures of governance.
Mimiko pointed out that "I earnestly plead with you to shun all forms of violence. Let us continue to be our brothers' keepers; there is work to be done. Let us roll our sleeves. We must be ready to work to raise ourselves out of the clutches of poverty and hopelessness. We will continue to provide the required leadership. We will be fair to all."
The tension that culminated in yesterday's action by the council chairmen heightened last Tuesday following a threat by them to resume in their offices, just as the House of Assembly complex was deserted by the lawmakers who were supposed to be in session after a two-week recess.
Armed policemen were then drafted in all the local government council secretariats across the state as a measure of preventing both the sacked chairmen and the council legislators from gaining entrance to their offices

ABUJA-National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, has commenced a legal move before a Federal high court sitting in Abuja, to jail the incumbent Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Maurice Iwu over alleged disobedience to its order.
A Federal high court judge, Justice Adamu Bello, had, on November 12, 2008, validated the emergence of Chief Victor Umeh as the authentic leader of the party.
That was after it held that the founding Chairman of the party, Chief Chekwas Okorie was properly expelled from the party.
The court had also nullified a letter written by Prof Iwu recognising Chief Okorie as the authentic leader of the party.
The judge had said that the letter was neither predicated on any court order nor any recent order of any court of competent jurisdiction as claimed, "hence, it is illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever."
By implication, INEC was supposed to recognise Chief Umeh as the party's chairman.
But up till now, the INEC boss has not given any recognition to Chief Umeh.
After waiting for about four months, Umeh instructed his team of lawyers to commence a committal proceedings against the INEC boss.
Already, Umeh had filed Form 48, warning Prof Iwu of the consequences of disobeying the court order.
Should Iwu remain adamant, Umeh is planning to file Form 49in another 72 hours, to command his physical appearance before the court to explain why he should not be jailed for contempt ex-facie curiae.
The form 48 has been personally served on Iwu as required by the rules of the court being a quasi-criminal case
The Form 48 is dated March 13, 2009 and signed by the Court Registrar, Samuel Ikpatt.
The Form reads: "take notice that unless you obey the directions and declarations contained in this order, you will be guilty of contempt of court and will be liable to be committed to prison.

Mine is 17th of March, in my birth certificatem her was no year.

P RESIDENT Umaru Musa Yar'Adua will sign the Federal budget today, albeit reluctantly, but he may thereafter head for the Supreme Court to challenge the powers of the National Assembly over budget in a presidential system.
The Guardian had on Friday exclusively reported on the grouse of the Presidency over the alleged bastardization of the budget to be signed today at the State House, Abuja.
In that report, The Guardian had said that President Yar'Adua had only bowed to pressure to sign the budget in the public interest even as he complained that the National Assembly (NASS) had bastardized the budget, an action the Presidency considered a violation of the original budget proposals as if they (NASS) were in opposition to the ruling party.
Trouble began for the budget last year when by December 19, the Senate allowed the budget to, as a critic put it, "take a bow", a parlance the Senate employs when it does not want to examine a subject in detail. But the House of Representatives critically examined the budget, practically, line-by-line, clause-by-clause. The job of the lower chamber is now the source of complaint of the Presidency.
Besides the figures the National Assembly allegedly reduced for key projects of the Yar'Adua administration especially in the areas of building critical infrastructure, the President is said to be considering going to court to challenge the following "objectionable clauses in the Bill":
S6: The Accountant-General of the Federation shall forward to the National Assembly full details of funds released to the Federal Government agencies immediately such funds are released;
S7: The Minister of Finance to ensure releases to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as and when due; and no funds for any quarter of the fiscal year shall be deferred without prior waiver first obtained from the National Assembly;
S9: All Accounting Officers of the MDAs shall furnish the National Assembly on quarterly basis with detailed information on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of any form whatsoever; and
S10: All Accounting Officers of MDAs shall furnish the National Assembly on quarterly basis with detailed information on all foreign and/or domestic assistance (grants) received from any source or in any form whatsoever.
The Guardian learnt yesterday that the presidency has obtained advice of the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and may head to court "soon" to seek judicial interpretation of the powers of the NASS to reduce budgets as proposed and increase theirs so arbitrarily.
The NASS members allegedly increased their votes from N64.517 billion to N111.38 billion but cut drastically votes for many of the projects the presidency is to implement.
It was not clear last night whether the presidency will this time summon up what Michael Beschloss calls "presidential courage" to tackle the NASS. Beschloss, author of The Conquerors also wrote a classic on Presidential courage: Brave leaders and how they changed America (1789 -1989).
Last year, there was a similar discontent on the same issues but it was later "politically" settled.
The NASS is alleged to have projected larger revenue than the executive by N174.33 billion, implying higher Federal budgetary revenue of N73.56 billion. Budget officers said last night that because of "faulty assumptions, projected higher revenue is not likely to materialize".
Disturbed members of the Yar'Adua cabinet told The Guardian on Friday that what the National Assembly did to the 2009 budget was "not far from sabotage."
The officials accused the Legislature of bastardising the budget by cutting down the allocations for critical sectors such as power, water and gas supply to "unimaginable and, if you like it, unbelievable levels."
Worse, the senior government officials said, the National Assembly chose to allocate funds to even non-existent agencies.
They accused the NASS of reducing allocations for power transmission by way of grid enhancement and reinforcement from N3.55 billion to N800 million, water sector from N5.1 billion to N2 billion, gas projects to drive power generation by 6,000megawatts by December this year were cut from N6.5 billion to N1.1 billion, and the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kano pipeline project vote was completely removed from the budget.
Continuing, a cabinet member complained that while the NASS did the cutting on critical sectors, even bodies that do not exist in the Constitution were budgeted for by the lawmakers.
According to the officials, the Legislature appropriated monies for bodies and councils unknown to the law, "including N250million for one anonymous council", while a non-existent Federal College of Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, which he described as strange to the Constitution, got N103 million.
"This is worse than what an opposition would have done or could have done. It appears the NASS is ready to shut down government," one of them said. And he added: "How can 109senators and the about 360 representatives appropriate more for themselves than all of the nation. Even defence and security for oil and gas installations, the nation's lifeline, got less."
In October last year, the Federal Government proposed a budget of N2.67 trillion for 2009.
The estimate is about N653billion lower than the N3.323trillion budget by government in 2008.
However, the President later presented a supplementary budget of N683.3 billion to the NASS, bringing the total budget to N3.323 trillion.
According to the draft budget, N1.523 trillion had been voted as recurrent expenditure and N552.2 billion as capital expenditure.
Last December, the House of Representatives warned committee chairmen and members against any attempt to hurriedly pass the 2009 budget.
The House said during their debate that the figures proposed by Yar'Adua could not be relied on to finance the budget.
While the Senate passed N3.049trillion, the House okayed N3.08trillion. At a joint sitting of both Houses, a harmonised budget of N3.1 trillion was eventually arrived at.

ABUJA-Pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday told the Code of Conduct Tribunal sitting in Abuja that he would not be available for trial until after September 30, 2011.
Ribadu was charged by the Federal Government before the Conduct Tribunal over his alleged failure to declare his assets while he was in public office.
He was scheduled to appear before the tribunal yesterday for arraignment or be declared wanted.
But the ex-EFCC boss who was absent yesterday at the tribunal sent words to the effect that he is presently undergoing a fellowship programme at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
Exhibiting his letter of admission dated August 12, 2008 before the tribunal, he said he would not conclude the programme until September 30, 2011.
By implication, Ribadu would not be available for trial until after completion of his programme at the Saint Anthony's College, Oxford University.
He could only be forced to face trial in Nigeria if he is extradited by virtue of taking advantage of the provisions in the Legal Mutual Assistance Treaty between Nigeria and UK.
His message to the tribunal was conveyed by his lead counsel and Lagos lawyer, Mr Femi Falana.
He said that even if he were within the jurisdiction of the tribunal, he said he was not properly served all the court processes in the case.
He said that the processes in the case were served on his wife.
But Falana said that his client still briefed him to appear before the tribunal out of respect it has for it.
The Lagos lawyer further argued yesterday that assuming his client was properly served all processes in the case, he said the tribunal, yet, lacked the jurisdiction to try him over the said offence, for two reasons.
He said, in the first place, the tribunal was not properly constituted since only two of the statutory three members were sitting on his case.
He also said that he was not a serving public officer who could be tried by the tribunal.
His counsel had already filed a preliminary objection seeking to quash the charge preferred against him.
The Tribunal Chairmam, Justice Constance Momoh who had, at the last adjourned date, threatened to order Ribadu's arrest if he was not physically present in court yesterday, had accepted the explanation for his absence in court.
She said that the acceptance of the explanation would not in any way stop the tribunal from ordering his physical presence before it, if need be.
The tribunal also adjourned hearing in the case till April 23.
Justice Momoh said the tribunal would sit on the said date in Kaduna on the issue of jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, Ribadu has gone before a Federal high court sitting in Abuja to stop his trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
He sued the Code of Conduct Tribunal trying him and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) prosecuting him.
In the suit, Ribadu is praying the court to declare that the tribunal is not competent to try him because he is no longer a public officer and that the tribunal is not properly constituted.
Besides, he is seeking an order of Perpetual Injunction restraining the defendants from trying him in any manner whatsoever and howsoever.
In the originating summons filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja Ribadu specifically wants the court to determine if by virtue of part II of the 5th schedule to the 1999 Constitution, the CCT is competent to try persons who have ceased to be public officers.
*If by virtue of paragraph 15 of part 1 of the 5th schedule to the 1999 constitution, the CC is properly constituted with Chairman and another member.
In an Affidavit filed in support of the Originating Summon, deposed to by Olusola Egbeyinka, he averred that that Ribadu is innocent of the charge as he declared his assets in line with the law.
But the A-GF has challenged the suit.
In a notice of Preliminary Objection, counsel to A-GF, Mrs. A.O Mbamali said the plaintiff's suit as formulated is incompetent, frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of judicial process.
She contends that the plaintiff has no locus standi to institute the action, and that the court lacks requisite jurisdiction to entertain the suit.

Nasamu street in the densely populated Ajegunle area of Lagos is again in the news. First, it was the protest of the residents over illegal parking of commercial buses along the street which were in turn used as haven for criminal activities.
Then, one of the conductors mistakenly started the ignition of one of the commercial buses, only for it to run over a bean cake seller and a primary school pupil who however, escaped death by the whiskers. The incident which sparked off violent protest against the commercial bus drivers eventually led to the evacuation of the buses from the street. That was two years ago.
Two weeks ago, there was an uproar at the end of the street following the death of a 27-year-old man, Anayo Egesimnba, who was allegedly stabbed to death by one of his acquaintances. The late Anayo, who owned a music shop was sent to an unprepared grave penultimate day, during a fight with his assailant, 20-year-old Afam Samuel, who is currently cooling his heels in the dreaded Lagos State Criminal Investigations Department(SCID) Panti.
In a chat with crime guard, Afam who wore a remorseful look all through, apparently never bargained for all that transpired within what he described as 'a twinkle of an eye'. If it were possible to turn back the hands of the clock, Afam would have wished he never insisted on collecting his money from the deceased during an argument that brought him to where he presently is.
He recalled with nostalgia, how he left his home town in Imo state for Lagos in search of greener pasture, about nine years ago. And with a promise to behave himself in a proper manner, he bid his folks goodbye,
On arriving Lagos, he stayed put with his uncle's in Ajegunle, where he was enrolled in one of the secondary schools in Tolu Village and after school hours, he helped his uncle to sell in his provisions store.
On how he got himself entangled in a murder case, he said, " Along the line, I made acquaintance with the deceased, Anayo. I was always going to spend time with him in his shop. So, during one of our stay, he suggested I should be contributing N1000 every month with him. He said by the time the money got to a reasonable amount, I could use it to set up any business of my choice, that I won't have to wait for anyone then.
"I actually started contributing the sum last year. I used to collect the money from my uncle's sales At times I will collect N200, at times N100 and at times less, depending on each day's sales, until the end of the month when it would have amounted to N1000. But at a point, I started getting fed up with the way I was stealing from my uncle because business was no longer the way it used to be. I started having a change of heart because the man in question has been good to me. It is not easy for one to go to the village and pick somebody, accommodate him and take him to school. Also, I started losing confidence in Anayo, as I reasoned he might not be keeping the money for me apteral.
"So, on 22nd of February, 2009, I made up my mind and walked up to him in the shop and told him I was no longer going to be contributing the sum with him. Immediately I said it, his looks changed. I noticed he was not happy. But rather than responding, he said I should get out of his shop calling me a small boy. I did not say anything because that was his way. I insisted he gave me time to come and collect my money.
At that point, he became serious and ordered me out, saying he would teach me a lesson I would live to remember all my life. But I remained on my standing position. I could not shout because of what my uncle would do to me if he got to know about my deed.
"He then brought out a knife and threatened to stab me to death since I was the one that came to his shop. Making good his threat, he attempted to stab me in the chest but I prevented it with my hand. You can see the bandage on my three fingers. They were the injuries I received when he attempted to stab me thrice. As he was doing that, he kept ordering me out. At a point, he stabbed me on the thigh and I fell. When I saw him charging forward, I knew he meant business and I thought I had to act fast by defending myself before he killed me.
"That was when I picked a bottle on the ground, broke it and stabbed him as he lifted his hand to stab me again. I noticed he fell down and could not stand up. I then decided to take to my heels before he would charge at me in a fury. As I made to leave, I noticed he was still on the ground. And just then he let out a shout which attracted people inside. I was later told he died before he could be rushed to the hospital. I swear to God,I never meant to kill him", he said with all sincerity.
The suspect, according to spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, Mr Frank Mba would soon be arraigned in court.