₦airaland Forum

Abuja — Notwithstanding Nigeria owing $86.39 billion (N32.9 trillion) to external creditors, the nation will continue to borrow to finance infrastructural development, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said yesterday.

She also stated that a supplementary budget for 2021 was being prepared for submission to the National Assembly for approval in March.

In addition, the federal government may soon compel Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to patronise locally-made vehicles.

Ahmed told reporters in Abuja that although the country has expanded its borrowing portfolio, it is still below 25 per cent of debt-to-GDP ratio and within borrowing limit.

She said: "The total borrowing of the country as of 31 of December (2020) is 21.6 per cent of the GDP. So, if we were not looking at adding the other category of loans that I mentioned, we don't even need to increase that at this time. As of 2019, the debt-to-GDP ratio was 19.2 per cent, so only two per cent was added."

According to her, though the loan issue is a touchy one, it is not out of place for government to borrow to stay afloat while striving to increase its revenue.

She explained: "There is a lot of sensitivity in Nigeria about the level of borrowing by the government and it is not misplaced. The level of borrowing is not unreasonable; it is not high. The problem we have is that of revenue. So, what we need to do is to increase revenue to be able to enhance our debt-to-GDP obligation capacity. If we say we will not borrow and, therefore, not build rails and major infrastructure until our revenue rises enough, then, we will regress as a country. We will be left behind, we won't be able to improve our business environment and our economy will not grow. So, it is a decision that every government has to take.

"Our assessment is that we need to borrow to build our major infrastructure. We just need to make sure that when we borrow, we are applying the borrowing to specific major infrastructure that will enhance the business environment in this country.

"Again, we all have to work not just the federal government but state governments to increase our revenue to enhance our debt service obligations."

She said care has to be taken to ensure that only projects that will enhance the business environment and yield more revenue into the treasuries of the country are embarked upon.

On the huge Chinese loans taken by the country and their effect on debt servicing, Ahmed said: "I think it's useful to look at the budget for each year; look at the revenues, look at the expenditure, if you take out the new borrowing, really, what will the size of the budget be? How much can the government spend?

"So, in terms of the pressure of debt service, by the time the revenue comes up, that should be lower. But there are some things you need to do now, to ensure that revenue comes up. So, we need to keep that in mind that if the economy grows and revenues improve, then debt service to revenue, in future, should be lower."

Ahmed stated that a supplementary budget will soon be presented to the National Assembly for COVID-19 palliatives while by June, there will be a mid-year review of the 2021 Appropriation Act.

According to her, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will soon come up with a policy mandating MDAs to buy locally-manufactured vehicles.

She also listed measures by the federal government to control inflation to include reducing duties on imported vehicles from 35 per cent to 5 per cent with a view to lessen the high cost of transportation, which in turn, impacts on inflation.She added that patronising locally-made vehicles will mitigate against dumping due to reduced duties.

She also expressed the federal government's commitment to purchasing locally-made goods and vehicles and to engage state governments in ensuring that they do the same so as to encourage local production.

On the new import duty policy, Ahmed said the Nigeria Customs Service had already directed all its outposts to commence its implementation.

"Nigerian Customs has reviewed these guidelines and has notified all its operational posts to start implementing the new rates. So, it has taken effect.

"The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment has just finished a review of automated policy, which has been running now for seven years. I must say that the policy has not been reviewed before. So, this is the first review that is being done and the essence of the review is to see whether it has achieved the designed targets," Ahmed stated.

Former accountant general of the federation, Jonah Otunla, reportedly returned N6.3billion to the federal government, following an agreement he allegedly reached with the suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.

Accused of money laundering, he decided to make a pact with the understanding that he would not be prosecuted anymore. But that seems not to be the case. The EFCC is prosecuting him on five counts of money laundering involving the diversion of about N2billion from the account of the office of the National Security Adviser.
   
He was to be arraigned on December 7, 2017, along with one Ade Adelakun, and seven other companies – Gold Reef Industries Limited; Lambster Nigeria Limited; G.C. Electronic Limited; Sinmilak Nigeria Limited; Wehsac Farms Limited; Shepherded Field Global Resources Limited and Stellavera Development Company Limited – but his absence stalled his arraignment. He has still not been arraigned. He is allegedly challenging his arraignment, having reached an understanding that he would not be arraigned on account of the money already returned.
   
Also, former Comptroller-General of Customs, Dikko Inde Abdullahi entered into an agreement with the Federal Government to refund $8 million, believed to have been misappropriated during his tenure. He reportedly did. However, the EFCC still went ahead to file charges against him. But he insisted that he could no longer be prosecuted, having returned the money.

Consequently, a Federal High Court in Abuja stopped the EFCC from prosecuting Dikko for financial infraction while in office. Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, in a judgment upheld Dikko’s argument that he can no longer be prosecuted by an agency of the Federal Government after an agreement he entered with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) to refund $8 million to the government.
   
Justice Dimgba held that since it was proved that such an agreement exists, and Dikko has kept his side of the bargain by paying N1.576 billion ($5.12 million) to the Federal Government through the EFCC funds recovery account in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it was wrong for the EFCC or any other agency of government to seek to prosecute him on the same crime.  
   
Justice Dimgba held that by virtue of the provisions of Section 174 of the Constitution, the AGF, being the chief law officer of the federation, was imbued with wide powers and discretion on prosecution matters.
   
The judge said the claim by the anti-graft agency that it acted on an anonymous petition to commence its investigations “cannot override the discretionary powers conferred on the Attorney-General of the Federation by virtue of Section 174 of the Constitution.” Justice Dimgba also noted that since Attorney-General did not oppose the suit by Dikko, the AGF had subscribed to Dikko’s case.
  
 These developments have once again resurrected the debate about the pros and cons of plea bargain and when the doctrine should apply in law.

For Bar Elias Offor, plea bargain introduces restitution in the criminal jurisprudence in a very awkward way. “Due to the way it is being practiced in Nigeria, it encourages graft even more. A case of gross misappropriation that warrants death penalty in some countries will be accorded remission by plea bargain where after, the culprit walks the road unperturbed. Plea bargain in the manner it is being practiced in Nigeria makes mockery of the country’s laws,” he declared.

The national welfare secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Bar Kunle Edu described plea bargain as a signed agreement between the prosecution and the defendants in a criminal trial. According to him, it is akin to filing terms of settlement in a civil case.

“The introduction of plea bargain into Nigeria’s criminal jurisprudence by the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and the domesticated versions in various States, is a welcome development,” he said, adding that it fast-tracks criminal trials and ensure that justice is done from a social obligation perspective.

His words: “It also reduces the cost of criminal prosecution. So, I see plea bargain as a win-win arrangement amongst the prosecutor, the defendant, the court and also the general public.” 

Edu however, pointed out that it is the court’s approval of the terms of the bargain that gives it legal effect before it is made judgment of the court. “The trial court still has the power to consider if the terms of the bargain are reasonable, not against any law and public policy. There must also be free will of the parties in making it. Therefore, fraud, misrepresentation and undue influence once proven may vitiate a plea bargain already made judgment of a court and can be challenged on those grounds,” he explained.

Lagos lawyer, Osita Enwe believes that to effectively use plea bargain as a shield against prosecution, the plea and the bargain must have to occur after an arraignment in court. He added that any of such agreement was acceptable to the court. This, he said, is consistent with the public interest dimension in every plea bargain.

Citing section 14(2) of the EFCC Act, Enwe argued that the section allows the Commission to enter into a plea bargain with only an accused person and not a mere suspect. “For Otunla to return N6.3billion after an agreement with Magu, does not seem to fulfill the conditions for a plea bargain. Neither does Dikko’s return of N1.9billion to the AGF upon an agreement without fulfilling the conditions of a plea bargain.

“In any case and in view of the commitment of the Federal Government to fight corruption, the State ought to respect such agreement and ratify it in court by way of plea bargain. To successfully prosecute them at this time, in view of their seeming mutual agreement, may amount to undue utilisation of tax payers’ funds,” he stated.

He added that the circumstances serve as material lesson for anyone who wants to enter into such agreement to seek proper legal advice and an occasion for the courts to affirm the conditions of a plea bargain in Nigeria. 

Describing plea bargain as a win-win situation, activist lawyer, Dr. George Uboh said it is a “dream come through from the prosecution’s end point and the delight of the criminal defendant, if the fellow is able to negotiate a good deal.”

Uboh explained that instead of spending years and years, the criminal defendant would be able to cut it down, citing the case of Lucky Igbinedion, who was only fined N5 million. Such deal, he said, would be fine for such defendant because the government cannot appeal the plea bargain decision.

“The bad thing is that regardless of the amount of time the criminal defendant spends, the criminal record remains. So, that is the bad news for any criminal defendant who hopes to plead guilty,” he stated.

He explained that when the Attorney General of the Federation engaged him to trace funds trapped in financial institutions, he handled that of the defunct Oceanic bank, whose erstwhile managing director, Cecilia Ibru pleaded guilty on such plea bargain arrangement. Uboh said as at that time, the government was not aware of the UK branch of the bank, but because the MD then pleaded guilty on a blanket basis to forfeit all Oceanic bank assets to the federal government, it was easy for him to fly to UK and recover those funds without any resistance. According to him, 23.4 million Pounds was recovered as at 2015.

Uboh said: “So, that is a loss for her because the guilty plea became a catch up, such that even if we find any of the bank’s assets today, it would be forfeited. And that is good for the government because having pleaded guilty, it doesn’t matter the number of years, any assets of the bank stands forfeited whenever one is found.”

With reference to the two cases at hand, the lawyer explained that if a criminal defendant enters into an agreement with the government any where in the world under a plea bargain, and the government reneges on any portion of that agreement, even if the fellow cannot appeal the conviction, he or she can appeal the failure of the government to comply with the agreement. That, he added, could be a basis to even annul the agreement.

“So, if a criminal defendant enters into a plea bargain to forfeit money in lieu of serving jail term, and they signed, crossed all the T’s and dot all the I’s and the government reneges on it, it can be the avenue to either annul the agreement in whole or have the court compel the government to fulfill its part of the agreement,” Uboh maintained.

When the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) was contacted for reaction through his Special Assistant, Media, Dr Umar Gwandu, they kept mum over the matter. Also, effort to get the EFCC to react was unsuccessful. Calls to its spokesman, Wilson Wujaren did not go through and text message sent to his mobile phone was not acknowledged or replied

I RECENTLY mentioned the widespread fury that is being generated by rogue Fulani herdsmen who rape, pillage, kidnap and kill; and I said that because some Fulanis have been extremely kind to me over the years, I cannot join those who have decided to hate all Fulanis…even though I am the product of Ogoni and Igbo “rebel” families that enthusiastically participated in the Biafran Civil War, in the hope of “liberating” themselves from the North once and for all.

Now, 50 years after my people lost the war, my social circle includes many Northerners. And, sure, there are Southerners who befriend Northerners purely or partly because they think that they might be useful (elite Northerners, Fulani Muslims especially, undoubtedly have clout and can often provide access to juicy business benefits).

Juicy business benefits

I, however, acquired my Northern pals sincerely, because I liked them. And I’m increasingly aware of the redemptive power of friendship…in the sense that it can be a force for good beyond the warm personal interactions that take place between individuals.

Many natives of the South and Middle Belt have never had an opportunity to meet a decent Fulani, never mind bond closely with one. And I don’t blame the unexposed sheltered villagers in remote rural hamlets in particular for viewing all Fulanis with intense suspicion whenever toxic “alien” herdsmen go on the rampage.

But the more exposed Southerners and Middle Belters who know from personal experience that not all Fulanis are evil have a duty to loudly say so at a time when an ethno-religious crisis is boiling.

Having said all this, the primary responsibility for conflict resolution lies with the Fulani leadership – which really needs to cut the crap.

President Muhammadu Buhari is the main culprit.This is whether he deliberately set out to encourage mis- behaviour or not, his body language has greatly emboldened the Fulanis who have bad intentions; and there is no doubt that the herdsmen palaver has escalated under his watch.

And it’s not just about today or herdsmen either. It’s also about Fulani leaders (and their cap-doffing non-Fulani sidekicks) cockily ignoring basic principles of fairness and carrying on like arrogant, greedy conquistadors since time immemorial.

Can anyone please explain to me why the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is dominated by Northerners or why so many Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and Presidential Amnesty Programme contracts go to Northern mandarins or their fronts when oil comes from the South and northerners are not more educated or commercially savvy?

Can anyone please explain to me why the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, are dominated by northerners when the North has no coastline?

I am not saying that northerners should not benefit from maritime or hydrocarbon resources. It is not their fault that there is no big water or big oil in their part of the country. And since Nigeria is a nation rather than a collection of autonomous regions, every geopolitical zone should gain from Nigerian resources, regardless of the origins of those resources.

But there is a huge difference between accepting a reasonable percentage of the booty and always trying to grab the lion’s share!

Niger Delta states already receive 13 per cent derivation, so I’m not really bellyaching about the money aspect per se. I just want to point out that the Fulani leadership needs to change its attitude, which is irritating at best and downright offensive at worst.

I think it was Machiavelli who said that it was better to be feared than loved. And this statement is true within certain contexts. But there are no absolutes within the context of the human condition.

It is sometimes better to be loved. It is also worth noting that victims cease to fear bullies when they realise that bullies can be overcome. Or when desperate victims decide that they have nothing more to lose and would rather die than keep tolerating nastiness.

Long story short: Many tribes in Nigeria (especially the three main tribes) are or have been problems, in one way or another.But for now, we are focusing on Fulanis because they are in the spotlight. And the bottom line is that the grasping, insensitive Fulani leadership may soon discover that there are some advantages associated with being loved rather than loathed!

My governor

I HAVE fulsomely praised Nyesom Wike on this page before because he can be professional and productive and compassionate. But I am extremely upset with him at the moment.

Firstly, why on earth did he have to spend $1 million on a flashy and totally unnecessary Maybach luxury car at a time when so many Rivers people and Nigerians are struggling to survive?

Secondly, why did he dash N500 million to his colleague, Governor Tambuwal, when a market in Sokoto State was destroyed by fire at a time when many impoverished elders and former Rivers State government employees have not received a dime of the severance payments and pensions to which they are entitled?

Meanwhile, the state secretariat is a mess that requires substantial investment. Electricity is a rare treat for those who work there. Recent photographs depict a septuagenarian VIP climbing endless stairs because the lifts were out of order. It’s a complete disgrace.

Why is Wike behaving like a Blingy Billionaire Big Boy at a time when he needs to be more prudent with funds that do not belong to him?

If Nigeria were a proper democracy – as opposed to a criminal conspiracy that is run by and for the ruling class – government officials would be more accountable to their constituents.

Fellow Nigerians, please, take note of the title of my column this week. I did not say Nigerians are dying. That is stale news, as well as an understatement. My focus is that the country called Nigeria is dying.

I do not know what sort of security briefing President Muhammadu Buhari, regularly or periodically, receives from his obviously reticent and incompetent security team. I doubt it includes the fact that Nigeria is speeding towards a monumental collapse, unless a miracle, or something drastic is done to stop this supersonic drift towards perdition.

It might even be that the President does not receive any or proper security details, either because he does not want to hear or worse still, he assumes all is well. Which- ever way one contemplates these last two scenarios, it is a calamity indeed.

Believe me, I’m not writing as a wailing wailer, or as a Prophet of doom. I am not writing as a clairvoyant or a seer. I merely write as a realist. The symptoms of a failed nation are just too palpable to be missed or ignored by a reasonable people. I am not talking about a State which has failed because of social and economic policies that even the authors and protagonists cannot decipher or fathom.

This nation is on the precipice because its leaders are playing Russian Roulette with the security of Africa’s biggest and most important country. It is all now a matter of guesswork, that the gun is loaded, but the way we are going it is looking like every chamber is now full and not just one. Whatever shot you fire is bound to be the killer shot. Our leaders clearly know this but are in such an inebriated state that they have become oblivious, impervious and immune to all the danger signals.

I know power makes people blind.It intoxicates, addles the mind and takes full possession of the powerful, especially if they want to play God. This is why I’m shocked that some Nigerians are already daydreaming about becoming President in 2023, when they have no guarantee that Nigeria will still be alive by then. Or maybe I should not be surprised because what better can one expect from this bungling class of crass elements.

The usual leading contenders, as typical of this confounding breed of persons, are pretending that all is well, although they know much better having been the contributors to, and cause, of the problem. They must not be seen to be criticizing the rudderless, directionless and visionless government of President Buhari lest they are marked down as enemies of the President.

They know that elections are never held here, stricto sensu. What we have is a selection process with the hapless people being trundled out to deceive the unsuspecting international observers who can’t believe that what they are seeing is possible even in a Banana Republic. Simply put, elections are largely controlled from the very top, where the omnipotent President holds sway, and the outcome of the selection process is dictated by his whims and caprices.

If nobody has yet told the President, then he must hear this somehow. Our security situation is more than dire and grim. It is now catastrophic. Nigerians are now being killed, kidnapped and raped in places that used to know only peace. The orgy of banditry has since moved from the core North and middle belt to Yorubaland, previously considered a safe haven. The tales are unbelievably horrid and terrible.

The situation in Ondo State is so critical that the Governor Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) has now cried out that the “Fulani bandits” must move out of his State within seven days. I salute him for having the courage to say it as it is, being a member of the same party as our most reluctant President who seems unabashedly unaware of the bloody forays and operations perpetrated by some of his kinsmen in far-flung territories and domains outside their traditional space.

The Governor obviously cried out in utter exasperation, frustration and, perhaps, fear. I knew him as a die-hard Buharist. But only a bastard would sit arms akimbo and watch his mother or daughter being raped by some monsters and say or do nothing! That is the situation in which Arakunrin Akeredolu has more or less found himself. As with the President, he has discovered, albeit tragically, that family comes first. Nobody will watch over yours, when theirs is also threatened by the same fate. As the Yorubas will say, “a ki so ori olori, ki awodi gbe t’eni lo”!

Osun State has virtually become a major theatre of war involving series of killings and kidnappings. I don’t know if the Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, has been as vociferous as Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), but I am sure he is slowly being driven to come to the same conclusion.

Akeredolu has nothing against the Fulani. There are many great and peaceful Fulani living in different parts of Nigeria. Some generations of Fulani people have fully integrated in those communities outside their sphere of influence without anyone raising eyebrows.

But these bloodthirsty wanderers and vagrants, who are said to have meandered their ways from outside Nigeria, must be flushed out and ruthlessly dealt with regardless of whether the current President of Nigeria is their godfather, avuncular mentor, swami or whatever he represents to them.

The situation in Oyo State is just as scary. I have read the account from no less a personage than the highly respected and revered Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, another die-hard Buharist who now appears ready to part ways with Buhari if necessary.

I have had the opportunity of sitting with Iku Baba Yeye, as we fondly call him, and I know how disappointed this esteemed traditional ruler is that the Federal Government has refused to act speedily and decisively on the matter of the gross insecurity ravaging and destroying the country.

I was not surprised to receive his lengthy letter to the President days ago which I hope Buhari found time to read, or someone found the opportunity to read to him. I won’t bother to talk about very reserved and highly respectable and regarded Northern Leaders led by the spiritual monarch, The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, a cosmopolitan and cerebral leader I have come to love and adulate so much for his simplicity & forthrightness. Virtually every part of the nation is haemorrhaging to death while the Federal Government is watching helplessly and hopelessly!

The Alaafin has done well by properly documenting some of the dastardly acts of these merciless bandits and his public missive to our President, Muhammadu Buhari excerpts of which are worth repeating on these pages because the letter is one for posterity whatever fate befalls the entity presently known as Nigeria and whichever way the country goes in the end:

“In recent times however, I am worried about the security situation in the country, especially in the South West geo-political zone, nay the entire Yoruba-speaking area of the country including KWARA, Kogi, and Edo States.

“This has to do with the incessant and increasing menace of Fulani herdsmen that have laid siege in almost all the highways of Yorubaland. Whether in Owo, AKURE, Ilesanmi/Ife-Ibadan Road or Ibarapa zone and Ijebu area of Ogun State, the story is the same.

“I have held series of consultations with opinion moulders and eminent Yoruba leaders across board about the menace of these cattle herdsmen with such assault like raping of our women and on some occasions in the presence of their husbands. That is apart from massive destruction of our agricultural lands; which ultimately points to imminent starvation…

“After due consultations with Yoruba leaders… we are worried by the audacity of these lawless people in effecting their illegal acts in broad daylight on our usually bushy highways without any arm of security being able to do anything…

“Now, we cannot even talk of parading suspects, when in actual sense, no major arrests have been made in this part of the country. Without arrests we cannot talk of their facing of the law.

“Unfortunately, and painfully indeed, in the face of the apparent helplessness of our security agencies, where do we go from here?”

It is at the wake of this manifest frustration of our people that our people have found it unavoidable, even though reluctantly to resort to alternative measures to safeguard their lives and property.

Today, it is not merely infraction in the course of doing business, but blatant and criminal violation of the constitutional right to life and liberty of innocent citizens of Yoruba land. A few publicly known instances will suffice.

Certain individuals were kidnapped along Erio-Aromoko Road, Ekiti State. They were tortured and exposed to danger in the forest for upward of two weeks.

These victims included the Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikole Branch, Adeola Adebayo, whose decomposing body was eventually found after a ransom price of four million Naira had been paid.

Two officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps, both Yoruba, were picked up along Ilesa-Akure highway. In the process of this kidnap, an unnamed individual died.

Musibau Adetumbi, a legal practitioner based in Ibadan, was going to attend an Appeal Court session in Akure when he was kidnapped along Ilesa-Akure highway. Professor Adegbehingbe, a surgeon at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife was abducted along Ibadan-Ile-Ife highway. Dr. Muslim Omoleke, the Administrative Secretary of the National Electoral Commission was kidnapped around Ilesa, Osun State.

Mr Ayo Oladele, an employee of Guinness Nigeria, and an Old Student of Christ School, Ado-Ekiti, was abducted and taken away and lately, Dayo Adewole, son of a member of your 2015-2019 executive council and Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole was kidnapped on his farm at Iroko, a village along Ibadan-Oyo Road…

As ugly as the picture above seems to be, the people of Yoruba land have remained generally peaceful and have resisted concerted efforts to push them into civil disobedience or adopting self-help mechanisms to protect themselves…

I am therefore writing to you, as a concerned stakeholder in your administration, to alert you and demonstrate to you, the urgency of the need to quickly respond to these and other issues concerning Yoruba land….

There is a general impression among opposition group that you are not known to take decisive and proactive steps in many matters of national interest and that you are not usually too disturbed about the gale of insecurity in Yoruba land…

As no major arrest of Fulani pseudo herdsmen has been made till date in Yoruba land, suspects cannot be paraded, let alone arraigned…

I am aware that members of the Odua People’s Congress scattered all over the world are already being mobilized to stand in the defence of their land and are ready, willing and able to raise an army of volunteers as was done in 1968 by the Agbekoya…”

These are pearly words of wisdom and advice from a monarch who is practically deified in Yoruba land. The President has been stridently admonished and strongly advised in forceful, resounding and vibrating language which is reverberating all over the polity. Effectively, Alaafin Adeyemi is saying that enough is enough and that things will get pretty unpleasant and nasty, pretty soon, unless the President wakes up from his deep, almost comatose, slumber and does the needful by a wholesale revamp and reshaping of our security architecture and thereby protect his fellow Nigerian citizens. The President swore to uphold our Constitution, it is about time that he started upholding that oath by acting like a patriotic Nigerian and safeguarding all his people and preserving their property.

On a similar note, I have been watching the videos of a militant Yoruba man, named Sunday Igboho, from Oyo State and what I see is raw determination to unleash mayhem, if need be, to protect his kinsmen from the brigands and mosstroopers trampling on them and their rights. The views Igboho expresses are symptomatic and reflective of the views of most of Yoruba land. He is the latest Yoruba hero for his fearlessness.

I hope and pray that President Buhari would appreciate this authentic security briefing from The Alaafin, one of Africa’s most important custodians of tradition and culture and resist the temptation of sending his trigger-happy military against the people of Oyo State.

They are obviously ready for a full-scale showdown and battle in order to redeem their manhood against the rampaging kidnappers, rapists, raiders and corsairs. I foresee a civil war and bloodbath if action is not taken soon.May this cup pass over us…

-The ICPC says Mr Obono-Obla and his co-defendants conspired to divert about N20 million.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) on Friday arraigned a former aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, Okoi Obono-Obla, and two others for fraud and certificate forgery.

This Day reports that Mr Obono-Obla, a former Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution and ex-Chairman of the disbanded Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), was arraigned alongside his co-defendants at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Apo, Abuja.

The former presidential aide was arraigned along with his former Senior Assistant, Special Duties (Protocol), Aliyu Ibrahim, and the Managing Director of ABR Global Petroleum Resources Ltd, Daniel Omughele.

Obono-Obla’s sacking

PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively reported how, in August 2019, the police sealed Mr Obono-Obla’s office, the police sealed Mr Obono-Obla’s office before he was finally sacked about a month later.

This newspaper reported how in September 2019 the President dissolved the SPIP and directed the ICPC to further investigate the allegations of fraud and certificate forgery levelled against Mr Obono-Obla as highlighted in the anti-corruption agency’s preliminary report.

Charges

The ICPC alleged in the 10 counts read to Mr Obono-Obla and his co-defendants on Friday that the defendants, in 2018, conspired with one another, to divert N19,994,185 meant for the furnishing of SPIP offices.

It alleged that the fund received from the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), was “diverted to the personal account of Aliyu Ibrahim, using proxy companies, without furnishing the said SPIP offices as proposed to the NDIC”.

The alleged offence was said to have contravened Section 26(1)(c) and punishable under Section 19 of Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.

In another count, the anti-corruption agency alleged that Mr Obono-Obla dishonestly used as genuine “a Mary Knoll College, Ogoja, General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level, May/June 1982 (GCE) Statement of Result for Ofem Okoi Ofem with candidate No: 09403/247 showing an O’Level credit (6) score for Literature in English”.

It also alleged that he used “part of the five O’Level credit requirement for you to study Law for the 1985/86 academic session in UNJOS (the University of Jos)”.

The agency alleged that Mr Obono-Obla used the result despite having “reason to believe that the document (GCE)” the basis upon which he was admitted to study Law in UNIJOS, “was forged” and he never sat for the English Literature examination for May/June 1982 GCE”.

He was also accused of making false document around November 1985, regarding the GCE certificate.The alleged offence was said to be contrary to sections 366 and 363 and punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code.

In another count, the ICPC alleged that Mr Obono-Obla, around July 2018 in Abuja, “failed to attend/honour an invitation” by ICPC for an investigation, contrary to Section 28(1)(a) and (6) and punishable under section 28(10) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.

Defendants plead not guilty, granted bail.The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.Their lawyers urged the court to grant bail to their clients on liberal terms.The prosecuting counsel, Samuel Ipinlaiye, who initially opposed the defendants’ bail application, later withdrew his objection.

He urged the court to grant them bail on conditions that would ensure they attend their trial.Ruling, the judge, Olukayode Adeniyi, granted them bail in the sum of N10milion with a surety each.

The surety to be produced by each of them must not be below the rank of director in the service of either the Federal Government, the FCT or any of their agencies, said the judge.

The judge also ordered Mr Ipinlaiye to retrieve the defendants’ passports already seized by the ICPC and hand them to the registrar of the court.He adjourned till March 17 for trial.

Mr Obono-Obla’s lawyer, Paul Erokoro, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who told journalists after the proceedings that his client was being victimised by the government, added that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), was planning to arraign him again on Monday before another FCT High Court in Kwali on similar charges.