₦airaland Forum

Thank God, those goats have crashed out. What do you expect from defenders that are busy looking for beauty queens to screw?

@ Rasputinn,

Word.

RUBBISH!!!

How come Cecilia Ibru's lawyer is now representing these so-called shareholders? It's time for Sanusi to seize the shares of Oceanic Bank.

@ Funkybaby (FS),

I was present at an event where I heard him say that NEXT obtained a 10.5 million dollar loan from First Bank. If you really know people at the newspaper, you can obtain their managing editor's contact details and confirm from her. Her name is Kadaria Ahmed.

I bet there is also nothing like "I". Did you check the meaning of "ridding" and observe that you used it out of context? Your English is atrocious. Perhaps you should write in Igbo.

Bialegend:
Lol, see this slowpoke nama pee brain trying hard to back off. Have you checked those words in western dictionary? I didn't mean boko haram dictionary. You should know that this forum is not www.kanoonline.com where illiterate alhmajiris converge. That is where you belong. By he way, how Igbos did you kill today in kano?

You are making a fool of yourself, you stupid idiot. Grammatical errors are not limited to spelling mistakes.

Let me help you out.

"i" should be "I"
"ridding should be "ridden"
"allah" should be "Allah"
"beggars" should be "beggar"
"nigeria" should be "Nigeria"

I know you feel like an idiot but it is shocking that you don't know how to spell "ridden".

Pick up those textbooks or enrol in an adult education class.

It appears that you are truly retarded.

Bialegend:
Cattle rearer[b], i[/b] wonder what you are doing in this forum. I guess gathering intelligence on how to kill more Igbos in your backward, illiterate, hunger ridding, disease, alhmajiri, stone age unfortunate religion, stupid allah worshipping, brainwashed, beggars infested northern nigeria. Ewu awusa nama brain.

I have highlighted some of your grammatical errors. You can pick up some textbooks on your way back from your stall. And please say hello to your mother. She's got amazing mammary glands.

Nonsense!!!

Another stupid rumour circulated by someone who didn't hear the newscaster right.

Biafra lost the war because people like your father were raping young girls instead of fighting. Go and vent your anger at your parents. Nobody has time for your ethnic bullshit.

And please stop using your mother's picture in your profile.

arrssholistic?

Is that a word?

Umuahia Community High School, I presume?

@Bialegend,

How dare you address me? You retarded, narrow minded bigot who can't write a decent sentence. You think you are smart because you can spell "insinuation". Can morons like you comprehend satire? I have read some of your posts and it is clear that you have no business on this forum. Go and learn how to shine shoes.


IMBECILIC NINCOMPOOP!!!

@hbrednic,

You are a genius!!! The bond market is the new scam.

Empress is a tramp and a petty thief. She's not worth the trouble unless she really stole his car keys.

There is nothing wrong with being labeled the junior sister of Sahara Reporters. Isn't it a compliment?

Why not just get a Standard Chartered account instead of routing money through several correspondent banks? I have a fixed deposit account with PHB but it's a quid pro quo (deposit for sex) arrangement. The chick is a lovely albino with faux hair extensions and gleaming skin.

@Dayo,

Are you still in charge of the Dangote Support Group?

I wish people on Nairaland could actually take out time to research before posting drivel.

@ Funkybaby,

You have got your facts wrong. Dele Olojede personally admitted that he got a billion naira "greenfields" loan from First Bank of Nigeria without any collateral. Having said that, this article originated from The Daily Independent, which is purportedly owned by James Ibori. It is obvious that this is a clear retaliation for NEXT's less than complimentary coverage of the ex governor in recent weeks.

It is also important to note that it was Jacobs Moyo Ajekigbe that approved the loan, not Sanusi.

This nonsense should not distract us from the fact that Sanusi has done the right thing much to the chagrin of Akingbola's supporters such as the clueless PapaBrowne.

No amount of bullshit from Xavier, PapaBrowne and other friends of those 5 banks will change anything. Sanusi has done the right thing.

Joe Igbokwe is a well known sycophant. His master Tinubu has questions to answer.

@Bombay,

Stop wasting your energy. Sanusi won't change his mind. I hope you read my other responses to your vacuous posts.

Why should the poor have sex when they haven't solved their basic problems of food, clothing and shelter? But no, they screw like rabbits and create ghettos and shantytowns everywhere.

I met a pretty girl during my National Youth Service misadventure. I lost interest when she spelt detergent as [b]"ditajent." [/b]Our schools have to buckle up.

Akamu?

Ha! Ha! Ha!



But we know that Farida is not serious about prosecuting these bank CEOs. In the end, they will all be freed.

@Jarus,

Omatek says that Fola Adeola resigned as a director when the company got listed.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=153069

by Simon Kolawole

Three issues are of immense interest to me in the latest banking shake-up. One is the recovery of nearly N45 billion after an unprecedented name-and-shame saga. Where did the money materialise from? Two is the “unintended” consequences of Sanusi’s actions. The “Sanusi Shocker” has produced both the good and the bad. Three is the charge of “Northern Agenda” against the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. There is a sinister plan, it is alleged, to compensate the North for “losing out” in the consolidation programme. Since the August 14 sacking of five CEOs and temporary take-over of the banks by the CBN, events have unfolded at such a ridiculous speed that you’re guaranteed to go dizzy keeping track.
When the CBN decided to name the biggest “non-performing” bank debtors, I was a bit uneasy. Not that my name was going to be on the list (don’t laugh) but I believed it was unnecessary for several reasons. To start with, the relationship between a bank and its customers is supposed to be confidential, so why go public with the list of debtors? Also, what purpose would it serve? If I owe and I’m not denying it, only that I don’t have the money to pay, what difference would publishing my name make? If you take me to court and I’m jailed, will it settle the debts? If you auction my assets to pay off the debts, who will buy? Is it not essentially the same persons whose names are on the list and who, it has now emerged, depend on bank loans? Who will lend to them in these times?
Furthermore, I was worried by the fact that some of the names on the list are Nigeria’s biggest business moguls who are engaged in international business. Many of them have foreign lines of credit with which they finance their transactions. By exposing them as bad debtors, the CBN was taking the risk of shutting them out of the all-important international credit. The impact on their businesses, and our economy, could be detrimental. Projects could be truncated. There is a risk of downsizing or outright closing down. Finally, I thought publishing the names of debtors could put Sanusi in trouble – we are talking about the biggest guys here, some guys who donate the biggest sums to the ruling party, and some guys who are business partners and fronts of the politicians. If you touch them, you’re guaranteed to be in trouble.
However, I had a change of mind when I started reading orchestrated media campaigns against Sanusi. Suddenly, it started looking as if not servicing your loans is right. We all know owing is not the problem; it is the impunity of failing to service the loans that should worry us. And this impunity has been on for ages, so why condemn Sanusi as if he manufactured the problem in the first place? Suddenly, it started looking as if the bank executives followed every rule in the book in granting the loans. Suddenly, the impression was being created that Sanusi had committed some crime and needed to be tied to the stakes and shot. At that point, I began to have second thoughts on the naming-and-shaming saga. I will explain myself in a minute.
I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that Nigeria has an “elite problem”. Perhaps every society has the problem in one form of the other, but the Nigerian case is chronic. When former Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Tafa Balogun, was arresting policemen for collecting N20 by the roadside, we hailed him. Everything he did was right. However, when Nuhu Ribadu-led EFCC grabbed Balogun for accumulating billions of naira in office, Ribadu came under attack for not “respecting” the office of the IG. Those who felt offended later worked hand-in-glove with the political-cum-power elite to deal with Ribadu under the guise of rule of law. If the bank debtors whose names were published were to be some small fries, Sanusi would not have come under attack the way he has. Rather, he would have been praised. However, because the affected persons are in the elite class, suddenly the media became bombarded with all kinds of sentiments and analyses that failed to address the fundamental question: why take a loan and live an extravagant life at the expense of depositors and shareholders? What impudence!
Ribadu had no problems when he was running after fuel smugglers and tax evaders. All was going well. But as soon as he touched the political elite, the whole story changed. If Ribadu had limited himself to council chairmen, councillors and Vaswani brothers, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua would not have kicked him out of EFCC. But because it was the “big guys”, we started hearing about rule of law and due process – as if those who framed our laws were out to protect impunity in public office in the first place. It can never be the intention of the framers of our laws to protect treasury looters who are openly displaying obscene affluence and popping champagne to celebrate their ill-gotten billions while the country is rotting away. When billions were being stolen and stashed away, the looters did not remember rule of law. But as soon as they were called to account for their actions in office, they began to respect the rule of law.
Now this is my point: Nigeria is the way it is today partly because the elite – political and business – always get away with murder. Any action that touches the elite always provokes an orchestrated public backlash that is aimed at twisting the arms of government institutions. In sane countries, the same laws apply to everybody – whether you’re a shoemaker or a banker. If you drive against one way, it doesn’t matter if your father is the chief of army staff or governor of a state. You will face the law. Here in Nigeria, if a law enforcement officer tries to do his job, he will be sacked. At the international airport in Lagos, for instance, the vehicles that park at “no parking” usually belong to governors and top government officials. If an ordinary person parks there, the car will be towed away and he will not get out until he has paid the last farthing.
Until we address this elite problem – which makes them think they are above rules and regulations, above the laws of the land, above rebuke, above being called to account for their deeds and misdeeds – there is no way we can have law and order in the society. We will continue to operate under two sets of laws: one for the elite, the other for the “others”. I find it quite amusing that after the naming and shaming, over N45 billion has been recovered. Where did the money come from? This has defeated my initial objection that publishing names of debtors would do no magic – it has actually done magic. People who think they could get away with anything in Nigeria have suddenly eaten the humble pie to settle parts of their debts. If this is not a positive development in Nigeria, then we need our heads examined. Impunity must be halted, no matter whose ox is gored.
My second take is on the unintended consequences. These include a run on the banks, a systemic crisis of confidence and a possible negative impact on the international branches of Nigerian banks. There is also the matter of reluctance on the part of banks to lend to genuine borrowers because of the fear of the risk management regime of the new CBN governor. The result is that the economy will not grow as expected because businesses will not have access to credit as they wish. Bank profits will also drop as they make full provision for non-performing loans. Moreover, international credit rating for Nigeria will be downgraded. All these, from all indications, are the negative effects of the CBN action which we cannot ignore or wish away. They are real and I don’t know if Sanusi did a full impact analysis before slamming the hammer. In fact, I am not too comfortable with the way and manner Sanusi has handled the whole affair. I believe that because of the sensitive nature of banking and finance, he could have been more discreet and tactical.
Whatever, we can only hope that as we seek to do things right and discover our real level, we would build from there. If we’ve been living a false life because of a faulty foundation, there is always a price to pay when we want to do things the right way. I never deceived myself that Sanusi’s action would not have short-term implications which might be unpalatable. However, one positive consequence I would like to see is that henceforth, banks will begin to respect the rules of financial management. That would be really nice. In organised societies, if you want to take a loan, there is an established process. Get out your feasibility, prepare a cash flow, provide your collateral. The bank puts a staff on your project team who monitors implementation, expenditure and revenue. Money is released in phases as the need arises. If a loan would go bad, you could smell it.
Obviously, basic procedures were bypassed in the granting and management of some of these loans that are non-performing today. There are reports of loans being granted after some heavy bribes have exchanged hands. Little wonder then that some debts are not performing. When you have compromised along the way, how can you put your customers on their toes? Also, there are massive cases of insider abuse – unsecured loans being granted to family members and fronts by bank executives. Is this right? How come we are allowing sentiments to becloud common sense? Indeed, some of these allegations are criminal in nature. We should allow the regulators to do their job. The banking system will be better for it at the end of the day.
Finally, there are murmurs of a “Northern agenda” being implemented by Sanusi. When Professor Chukwuma Soludo, as CBN governor, came up with consolidation in 2004, the North was said to have been short-changed. The marginal banks owned by Northerners did not survive and today, only Unity Bank has a Northern flavour. By removing the management teams of five banks and injecting government funds into the affected banks, Sanusi is planning to sell the banks to Northerners so that they too can own banks – according to the conspiracy theory. In fact, a Vanguard report published earlier in the year is being circulated to back up the claims. Presidential spokesman, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, has denied the allegation – but it sticks.
Let’s be honest: nothing sells like ethnic, sectional and religious sentiments in Nigeria. If you’re accused of committing a crime, just raise up your hand and say: “It is because I’m a Southerner, it is because I’m a Christian, it is because I’m Yoruba”. I bet you: you’ll get millions of sympathisers immediately. The main issue of mismanagement will fade into insignificance. When President Olusegun Obasanjo was in power, some Northerners made every effort to paint him as anti-North, even though no other Nigerian president had distributed political offices with such fair mindedness. This won a lot of enemies for Obasanjo in the North despite the facts on the ground. Sectional sentiments will sell any day, anytime in a pathetically underdeveloped country like Nigeria.
By the way, I am not dismissing claims that Sanusi is pursuing a Northern agenda. I cannot hold brief for him. Of course, I don’t want to believe the allegation on two grounds. One, all it takes to get a banking licence is N25 billion. I’d rather set up a fresh bank than inherit crazy liabilities of say N500 billion from a troubled bank, except of course the government will take over the toxic assets – but there is yet no indication to that effect. Two, where are the Northerners who would take over these banks? If they could not forge a front to own banks during consolidation, is it now that they would do so? Who are these Northerners by the way? Is it not the same persons whose names are on the CBN bad debtors’ list? Or are there some Northern billionaires hiding somewhere that we don’t know? Why didn’t Northern governors set up banks with their private wealth under Obasanjo?
Whatever the case, those who say Sanusi has a Northern agenda should continue to say so. At worst, they would be proved wrong. At best, they would succeed in checkmating Sanusi if indeed he has such a plan up his sleeves. For that reason only, I support the “Northern Agenda” movement. They should watch Sanusi step by step. They should form a “vigilante” group. It is a good development, as far as I’m concerned. Let everybody be on the alert and watch events as they unfold. But, meanwhile, let the debtors continue to pay up their debts; let bank executives who have broken the law face the music; let banks begin to do things the right way; and let campaigners against “Northern Agenda” not relent in their efforts. Fair deal, I think.

Dele momodu offers another rejoinder.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=152952

The Hunter and His Antelope
Pendulum By Dele Momodu,email:delemomodu@thisdayonline.com,

The hoopla generated by my column last week was not unexpected. It was not uncommon in this clime for motives to be read into everything. No one ever died in peace, or of natural ailments. He must have died of supernatural causes. It is unfortunate that we have not been able to cure some of our people of this malady of paranoia. Such is the dilemma of a writer. No matter what you do, some people must read motives to your action. Anyone who has followed my career would know how I have remained committed to writing with passion and conviction. In reality, how many Nigerians can criticize their friends or tell them the home truth when they are in control of power, wealth and influence, the way I have done these past 20 years? Is it not to my credit that I’m bold enough to risk my friendship and business for our nation by telling powerful rulers what they hate to hear?
As we grew up, I was always fascinated by the hunter’s tales. And those tales served a didactic purpose. The hunter was always depicted in many forms. He was a man of power. He was a man of magic. He was the fearless one who paraded the thick forests in search of animals to hunt down. On a bad day, and there were always many of such days, he may have returned home with nothing but wasted bullets, and bruises to his body. On other days, if he was lucky enough, he may have returned with some squirrels and grass-cutters. But on a special day, he may have shot down the antelope, the king of bush-meats. That’s when the whole village would come out to gossip about the big catch of the day. No one ever remembers what the hunter went through to get his antelope.
That is the story of the embattled Chief Executive Officers of some Nigerian banks who were summarily sacked by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi two weeks ago. Those who reacted against my article of last week, “The Rise and Fall of Man”, certainly missed the point. My opinion on the subject was simple and straight-forward. The job of an opinion writer is not to follow the crowd. It is to lead the crowd. Since I understand the temperament of our people, it was my duty to attempt to lower the temperature of the raging debate. And remind our people that we must always hold the rule of law sacrosanct in a matter where there was equal support and opposition. Expectedly, since we did not support the kill-and-go approach, I and others like Ijeoma Nwogwugwu must have been bought by our friends, the oppressors, according to their jejune theory.
Out of the five MDs that were guillotined, I knew only two, Dr Erastus Akingbola and Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, of Intercontinental Bank and Oceanic Bank, respectively. Intercontinental Bank never advertised in Ovation magazine in the over 13 years of our existence. As fate would have it, I had even called Akingbola on August 13 to complain about how his bank had failed to support our international magazine but was busy advertising on the walls of Heathrow Airport and on CNN. He was removed the following day. If I was a vindictive person, like some of those shouting “kill-them” now, this is the time to take a pound of flesh. But my faith has not taught me so. No one can deny the immense contributions of these embattled bankers to the development of banking in Africa despite the present hullabaloo. As for Mrs. Ibru, we only met once in her bank many years ago, and on three other occasions at public functions. No more. Unknown to our attackers, the rich and powerful mostly fear, and usually patronize, those publications that are capable of bringing them down. And we are not in that category.
I will defend the fundamental rights of anyone regardless of the alleged offence he may have committed. The reason is very simple. I have been a victim of success and rumour-mongering in my life. I also know what it is to build an institution. It is similar to the tale of the hunter and his antelope. No one ever saw me as I crawled through the bush of Cotonou to escape from Nigeria under General Sani Abacha. Not many people saw us when my wife and I slept by our son on a single six-by-four bed in London. There were not many to turn to at the time we had no money to buy ordinary duvet in wintery London. No one saw us as I dragged my wife who fell into labour at night, and our kid, into a taxi to get to a London hospital. Nobody saw us when bailiffs kicked us out of our offices for owing debts due to lack of funding. No one was there to see how our landlady came to evict us with the help of a Jamaican thug, and I cried like a baby. I can go on and on. No one could ever feel our pain the way we did. It was the pain of the hunter and his antelope.
But some of my staff almost went on riot when they heard I bought a house in London, and just imagine that it was bought on mortgage. And when I bought a second-hand Bentley at 42, for less than the price of a new Honda Accord, some friends grumbled that I was too flamboyant. Suddenly, I had joined the class of oppressors. No one remembered that some students I taught at A-level in 1982/83 were already Bank Directors. To them, I was not entitled to any such measure of comfort in life even if I had worked tediously and could afford it. Must we all look wretched to show that we love the poor? Our country can discourage anyone from doing good as I told Oby Ezekwesili days ago. Dr. Tai Solarin had been accused of selling out, just for wearing an unusual agbada at a People’s Bank function. Please, how did this constitute a problem to Nigeria?
Just imagine that I run a magazine that is largely pictorial. In the early days, some people had complained that we published a photo album. But when it became popular, the same people said we glorified some rogues by showing their events on our pages. I’m labeled a praise-singer for using our cameras to capture the reality of our existence as fun-loving people. I’m to blame if a man decides to marry his tenth wife. Or decides to bury his father in grand style. But the musicians, event-planners, comedians and MCs, caterers, aso ebi (uniforms’ sellers), make-up artists, ushers, security guards, officiating priests, tailors, television stations, photographers, newspapers and magazines, undertakers, jewelers, area boys and others were free to do business, except me. The price of success must indeed be heavy. I try to imagine what those bankers have gone through to climb to the top, which Sanusi has wiped out with one stroke of his pen.
As for my column last week, there was no where I suggested that the Bank MDs could not be sanctioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria. There was no where I said the MDs were not culpable in the acts that violated and compromised their positions as custodians of people’s money. There were mistakes made, like all humans. As analyzed by the great banker and entrepreneur, Atedo Peterside, in a text he sent to me last Saturday: “The sad truth is that, anywhere in the world, relying continuously on liquidity support from your regulator (Central Bank of Nigeria in this case) as a ‘lender of last resort’ is a dangerous game. If the ‘game’ continues for too long, your ‘liquidity’ problem will become synonymous with insolvency and as CEO of that institution you become very vulnerable because the regulator will inevitably wield his axe someday”. He is right.
But I insist that Sanusi, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, went overboard and certainly beyond his mandate. He apparently did not weigh his hasty actions against the general interest of our country as well as the historical dialectics of our nation. He would have realized the problems of Nigeria were far greater than that of those five bank executives. Scapegoatism has never worked in Nigeria. He should look back at the recent past when a few governors were being impeached in the middle of the night. And some Nigerians hailed the action. I will continue to say that we can’t set a whole village on fire just to catch a few rats. What have we gained in concrete terms? Nothing drastic has been done to investigate and prosecute the former President, the multitude of governors, ministers, legislators (States and Federal) special advisers, board members, and others who have served these past ten years. The same fate shall befall this crusade.
I have three reasons for my assertion. The present composition, and the very origin, of this administration, makes it impossible for any meaningful war to be fought and won. The second is that only a benevolent and visionary dictator, and clear-headed revolutionaries, can truly fight the cancer that corruption has become in Nigeria, because nearly everyone is guilty. Even the elder statesman, Alhaji Maitama Sule said that much last week. My third theory is that the likes of Nuhu Ribadu, Nasir el-Rufai, Oby Ezekwesili, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and company, would only be able to push their revolutionary ideas when they are able to acquire executive powers at the very top. The Nigerian State is run by a few oligarchs who are intricately intertwined, and too difficult to disentangle. Sanusi would soon be frustrated like Ribadu.
I believe Sanusi was too much in a haste to show his bite. If he was not in a hurry, he would have audited all the banks at once. And award penalties without favour or discrimination. The criminalization of a few people, when less than half of the banks have been audited is, to say the least, reckless and disastrous. There was no indication that he spent sufficient time with the indicted MDs to pursue the possibility of redemption. The same Sanusi who told us at home that he would give the banks back to their owners if they can meet some stringent conditions went abroad to gleefully announce that the banks were up for sale. He must have been encouraged by the applause he got from the kill-and-go choir.
What stopped Sanusi from publishing the complete list of all debtors in all the banks? Why didn’t he throw all these debtors into jail the same way he dealt with the Bank MDs? Why is the Federal Government diverting our attention from the lack of progress in the investigation and prosecution of so many members of its ruling party? And in truth, it is an established fact that the government is a pathological debtor, and one of the veritable sources of the huge debt portfolio of some of the banks and businesses. Why did we not adopt the less destructive measures of the Americans?
The global economic crisis was largely due to the subprime mortgage lending fiasco of the US economy, where banks greedily invested their deposits as loans to the mortgage sector. This was the same way our Nigerian banks made the terminal mistake of over-exposing themselves to the Stock Market. The higher the return in any business, the higher the risk. The crisis in America nearly wiped out the capital base of some of the biggest financial icons, such as Citibank, Bank of America, Goldman Sach. Also, top European Banks like UBS, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, and Barclays were affected.
Their home governments rose to the challenges by rolling out workable packages, under strict terms, but without our own theatre of the absurd. Foreigners were not invited to take over the banks, and their assets were not sold off, like it is being threatened in Nigeria. Those foreign banks have since recovered and are bouncing back to profitability, in an atmosphere devoid of rancor and gangsterism.
Finally, I'm not a lawyer, but I have a fair knowledge of Jurisprudence. There are three principles that we must consider. The first is NEMO JUDEX IN CAUSA SUA (A man shall not be a judge in his own cause). It is difficult to see Sanusi as a total and unbiased umpire. The second is NEMO DAT QUOD NON HABET (You can’t give out what you don’t own!), which is what Sanusi has done by sacking the MDs. And by dishing out their banks to outsiders of his choice, without making recommendations to their board, or giving them warnings and deadlines; by harassing them and their homes with forces of coercion, by freezing their personal accounts, by publishing confidential bank statements of clients etc, he has already convicted them!
The damage is total and almost irreversible in a country like ours, even if any of them is cleared tomorrow. In fact, what Sanusi has breached is the third principle of AUDI ALTERAN PARTEM RULE (The right to fair-hearing), and some of us are too forward-looking to allow such lawlessness to stick. Sanusi has combined the duties of a Complainant, Prosecutor, Advocate for the Prosecutor, Star witness, the Bailiff, and the Gaoler. It is very tragic

No wonder!!!




From DAVID WILLETTS
in LA

COPS found marijuana in Michael Jackson's bedroom, it was revealed yesterday.

They recovered the drug and cigarette papers during a search of his Los Angeles mansion.

And a wacky design on a golf buggy used by Jacko to travel round his Neverland ranch - featured in a new book - appeared to be drug-inspired.

Meanwhile the star's June death has OFFICIALLY been ruled a homicide by the LA County coroner.

He said the insomniac singer died of "acute intoxication" with Propofol, an anaesthetic usually used in surgical operations.

The report said Propofol and sedative Lorazepam were the "primary drugs" responsible for his death.

Jackson's physician Dr Conrad Murray has admitted administering both on the night he died.

The coroner's report also ruled Benzodiazepine anxiety drugs were a contributory factor. Cops will pass the case to prosecutors for possible criminal charges.

Officers from the LAPD sought a search warrant amid family fears that the 50-year-old superstar had a stash of tar heroin.

But their concerns were unconfirmed as cops found pot instead.

Last night it emerged Jacko's ex-wife Debbie Rowe has been formally invited to his funeral - the first time she will be with their children since his death.

The golf buggy, with the bizarre painting showing Jacko as Peter Pan on its bonnet, is pictured in a 400-page coffee-table book chronicling his life and career.

The Michael Jackson Opus, approved by the Jackson estate, includes hundreds of unseen photographs.