₦airaland Forum

Little or nothing is known about a certain girl named Maame Afiba Bessa, who says she’s an aspiring cardiologist and a humanitarian until she tweeted a daring summation on her wall concerning relationship. As soon as her tweet came up, torrents of comments began to flood in with varying reactions and most were not so friendly.

“The way I get bored dating one man for long. I really can’t even see myself getting with a man who doesn’t keep me intrigued and makes me laugh till I cry. That’s how soon the way you breathe will even start pissing me off,” she had tweeted.

Most, in a fit of anger, said she would never get married. Others called her grim names not fit for publication.

However, we decided to dig into her background and found out that she has a medical condition that may be interfering with her show of affection, love and trust.

“A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with GAD. For those of you who don’t know, GAD is Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Upon speaking to someone, I found out my childhood memories of constant fear plays a massive part in it,” she had posted October of last year on her wall.

The Barcelona-base Ghanaian continued: “I did not have an easy childhood growing up and for people closest to me I have always opened up about that and also enduring sexual abuse as a child. I’ve always had this fear factor in life, so much so that when things were going right in my life, I was ready for bad things to happen because I always have this mental picture that whatever was going right in my life won’t last. I will worry daily about something I thought will happen, beat myself about it and cry over it.

“I will isolate myself from people who loved me sometimes and get angry at the least thing because behind closed doors, I was battling this thing that I knew existed but was too ashamed to admit or talk about. For many years, it had such a negative impact over my livelihood,” she added.

Tony Elumelu, chairman of Heir Holdings, is planning to buy two oil mining licenses operated by Shell Plc.

Bloomberg reports that the licenses might be sold for $2 billion.

Apart from oil mining licenses 11 and 17, Shell will also be selling a natural gas-fired power plant that would be managed by Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp).

Selling both assets would mean that Shell would focus on its deepwater operations. The company has been affected by militant activities in the Niger Delta and accusations of environmental pollution.

OML 17 falls within the NNPC/Shell joint venture. There are 15 oil and gas fields, six of which are producing.

OML 11 is one of the largest blocks in southeastern Niger Delta and has 33 oil and gas fields, out of which eight fields were producing as at 2017.

The federal government split the block into three parts in April, giving Shell one portion, after the company sought to renew its production license.

According to the report, discussions between both parties have reached advanced stages in the past and experienced hurdles because Elumelu is yet to secure financing.

No deal has been reached at present.

..call on Buhari to end senseless killing now to save Nigeria from collapse



The Governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Seriake Dickson has described the current spate of violence and senseless killings, particularly in the Northern part of the country as the biggest threat to the nation’s cooperate existence, since after the civil war.

He faulted the nation’s lopsided federal structure, over centralisation and politicisation of law and order as threats to contemporary governance in Nigeria.

A statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Deacon Francis Ottah Agbo, said Dickson spoke on Friday in Abuja while delivering a lecture entitled: “Cultural Values, National Security and Challenges of Contemporary Governance: Perspective From Bayelsa State Experience”, organised by Institute of Security Studies (ISS).

Dickson condemned the recent killings and warned that the country would cease to have a future if President Buhari fails to urgently mobilise the people of Nigeria to build a non-partisan consensus to avert the nationwide senseless killings.

He lamented that politicians were using the security structures of the country to torment innocent citizens for their selfish ends and by so doing, causing national insecurity and instability.

The governor maintained that the wind of insecurity blowing across the nation and particularly the killings of innocent Nigerians in the Northern part of the country were fuelled by the imbalance in the country’s security structure and the politicisation of security by members of the ruling party.

Dickson said: “It is very clear that Nigeria’s lopsided federal system and over centralisation of security powers and the politicisation of security by several agencies are a major clause of instability and poses a threat to National stability.

“I was talking the politics of insecurity and the insecurity of politics occasioned by the abuse of Nigeria’s federal system and the ease at which those who control powers at the federal level undermine law and order in parts of our country and make it difficult for our citizens to feel safe and to feel protected under the law.

“When you correct this abuse of federal system, the governor of Benue and Taraba will be in the position to mobilise the security resources of their States… I remember the governor of Zamfara said he didn’t want to be addressed as the Chief Security Officer of the state”.

The Bayelsa State Governor added that although the military has made appreciable progress in its fight against Book Haram, recent events in the country shows that the war against terrorism was far from over.

He, therefore, called on stakeholders irrespective of their political parties to unite in order to proffer a solution to the lingering insecurity in the country.

Dickson said when a nation come under under attack, the leaders, military, civil, Christians, Muslims, must come together to address it.

The governor said what was going on in Nigeria was more than the historical herdsmen and farmers clashes, saying the country has lost too many innocent souls to the killings.

He said: “Who are the farmers having clashes with herdsmen in Sokoto, Zamfara and other places. We must call a spade a spade for the good of our country. We are dealing with a calculated attack on our country. We are dealing with machinery of violence against innocent Nigerians.

“Yes we have historical incidence of herdsmen and farmers clash but what is going on is far more than that. All Nigerians and people of good will should show patriotism and let us interrogate this issues properly.”

He said a situation where a security officer diligently doing his work is unceremoniously transfered because someone who has access to power wanted him transferred was not healthy for the nation.

Dickson said: “Nigerians are right to demand for protection. They expect the security agencies to arise to the occasion and put an end to the killings that are moving from one state to the other.

“If the people are under attack by gunmen, that is the more reasons why the security forces and the President as the Commander-in-Chief-of -Armed-Forces should lead the security agencies to repel this attack. We have lost enough innocent lives. Instead of these killings abating, it continues to be spreading.

“That is why I said what is going on in the Middle Belt, North East, Niger Delta and other regions of the country is clearly the most potent National Security and essential threat our country has faced since the civil war.”

According to him, although the present administration has made remarkable achievements in addressing security challenge in the North East, Boko Haram is far from being defeated.

He said that to address insecurity in Nigeria, there was also need for government to invest more in education, stressing that the options are clear, it is either you build more schools or you build more prisons and commentaries.”

The governor added that addressing the situation and developing the country, there was need to recognise and respect ethics and cultural differences in the country.

Dickson, however, said that in spite of the contemporary security challenge facing Nigeria, the country has the potential of becoming country of great capability.

“In spite of these challenges, we believe that a new Nigeria of peace and stability, equal citizens and egalitarian Nigeria is still possible. From the north to the south, east to the west, God in His mercy and wisdom has given us everything to be great,” he stressed.

Chief Michael Obi, the father of professional footballer and Super Eagles Captain, John Mikel Obi, has opened up on the kind of relationship he shares with his celebrity son.

Pa Obi, 74, said that were it not for an opportunity created by the just concluded World Cup in Russia, it would have been five years since he last spoke to Mikel on phone.

According to him, the Super Eagles’ skipper once confided in one of his brothers that anytime he wants to call their dad, something tells him not to do so.

He said in an interview with Daily Trust newspaper: “My relationship with Mikel is an issue, but we don’t know what to do. It’s over five years now without a phone call from him to me. But he communicates with his mother.

“There is nothing I have not done to fix it. God has told me that I should not feel hurt. When we start to talk about it, I say, ‘Well, as long as I see him on TV, doing great, no problem’.

“During the just-concluded World Cup, one or two days to one of their matches, we spoke. He called his mum, and she told me that Nchekwube (Mikel) was on the phone and I told him that God will see him through. I prayed for him. That’s it.

“When he first joined Chelsea, my people in Anambra were very happy that God has blessed their son, and when he came to Abuja, they prepared very well with the hope that he will come to our hometown. They even made some magazines. It was grand. But he didn’t come. It was a shameful thing to me, as a father.

“He once told his brother that sometimes he picks his phone to call me, but something tells him not to.

“Sometime last year, he was to bring his twins so that I could name them, he said he would. But he didn’t. His other colleagues frequent home, so I don’t understand.”

FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange yesterday listed Dangote Cement Plc’s N50 billion commercial papers, CPs, the biggest CP programme so far on the Nigeria debt capital market on its platform.

The CP is a dual tenure issuance under the company’s N150 billion CP programme established in November, 2017. The CP comprises of N12.04 billion and N37.96 billion issuances and is series 1 & 2 under the N150 billion CP programme.

Speaking at the listing ceremony in Lagos, Bola Onadele Koko, Managing Director/Chief Executive, FMDQ, said the various efforts by the FMDQ to deepen the domestic debt capital market is yielding results, adding that the listing of Dangote Cement’s CP programme, the biggest CP programme in the market is an attestation to that success.

He said: “The listing couldn’t have been a better one because it is almost four years since I and some members of our staff travelled to Dangote Cement for the first time; then FMDQ was relatively unknown in the market and there was no CP market and we wanted to make CP market transparent and credible. In actual fact, this is now a CP market.”

He expressed optimism that Dangote Cement would up the ante by listing a dollar denominated CP on the FMDQ platform.

Also speaking, Engr. Joseph Makoju, Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Cement, commended FMDQ for organising the listing, saying that since inception, FMDQ has contributed significantly to the development of the domestic debt capital market in Nigeria.

“You have championed the development and reform of commercial paper issuance in the domestic market and has come to be recognised a leader in the area.

“In that process, you have been known to promote transparency, governance, integrity and efficiency in the commercial paper market and you succeeded in encouraging issuers like Dangote Cement to explore this alternative funding source in the Nigeria capital market for the first time,” he said.

A 37-year old church worker at the Winners’ Chapel, Mr. Leokere Kelechi has been arrested for allegedly absconding with another man’s pregnant wife, Mrs. Amaka Samson and her children.

The incident happened at Fatade Street, Kudeyibu Estate, Ijegun area of Lagos, where Mrs. Samson’s family resided alongside Mr. Kelechi.

We scooped that Mr. Kelechi had claimed that he was assisting Mrs. Amaka as a member of their church before she became pregnant. Recently, Amaka was delivered of a new baby and Kelechi claimed that the baby belonged to him after absconding with her and her children.

It was gathered that Amaka had met Kelechi shortly after they moved into the area and started attending the same church. He was always with Amaka both at her shop and in the church which gave rise to suspicion that they had something together and the husband was informed about what was happening at his back.

We gathered after Amaka was delivered of a new baby, the whole secret was exposed as Kelechi had secretly taken her away from her husband’s place to an unknown location. Amaka then called and informed her husband that the baby was dead and had been buried.

However, the husband did not believe her story and went to the village in the eastern part of Nigeria to see the wife and children. It was then that his mother-in-law informed him that Kelechi came and took them away claiming that both Amaka and the new born baby belonged to him.

The matter was reported to the Police at Isheri Oshun Division who acted promptly and arrested Kelechi while he was parking his belongings to escape from the area.
During interrogation, it was discovered that both Amaka’s husband and his family had no access to her except Kelechi who had refused to disclose where she was kept.
The police found him culpable and he was charged to court for abduction.
He pleaded not guilty.

The prosecutor, Rita Momah, did not oppose his being granted bail.
Thus, the Presiding Magistrate, Mrs. E. Kubenje granted him bail in the sum of N250,000 with two sureties in like sum.
He was remanded in prison custody pending when he will perfect his bail condition.
The matter was adjourned till 23rd July, 2018.

Amaka had sent the first child back to the husband, while the whereabouts of the new baby which Kelechi had claimed to have fathered remained unknown.

More winners have emerged in the DiamondXtra Season 10 scheme as the Bank recently unveiled 1,016 winners in the second quarterly draw held at its Asa – Afariogun, Ajao Estate, Lagos branch.

Addressing journalists after the draw, Osita Ede, Head Mass Market at the Bank said that DiamondXtra Season 10 promises bigger and better rewards for the esteemed customers of the Bank. He also stated that the DiamondXtra draws will reward a total of 1,016 customers each quarter -producing a star winner of a brand-new Hyundai car, one winner of an education grant for five years, two winners of a rent grant worth N1, 000,000 each and other prizes.

A targeted draw for customers in Isolo and Ajao environs preceded the quarterly draw and saw customers winning cash prizes ranging from N50,000 to N100,000 amongst other mouth-watering prizes.

“The DiamondXtra reward scheme is open to new and existing customers and all you need to do is to visit the nearest Diamond Bank branch, open a DiamondXtra account and fund it with N5,000. The more the multiples of N5,000 you save, the higher your chances of winning. The draws scheduled for this season reaffirms Diamond Bank’s commitment to financially empower more Nigerians by spreading the draws across the six geopolitical zones throughout the four business quarters of the year,” concluded Osita.

Buttressing Osita’s point, Karimot Tukur, Head, Consumer Banking Diamond Bank Plc said that DiamondXtra is an avenue through which the bank rewards her faithful customers and enable them to meet their obligations of paying rent, school fees and other personal goals.

Her words: “What we encourage is that you open a Diamond Extra saving account and grow your account to be able to take part in the promo.

“The number of customers keeps going and the beautiful thing about this is that every time we run a campaign like it creates more awareness and we have more people coming on board. We do experience a spike in that month”.

Kenneth Ukanwa, Manager, Technology Advisory, KPMG in his address said that KPMG is working with Diamond Bank to ensure that the procedure set out for the draw is transparent.

Head, Surveillance & Enforcement, Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mr, Anyanwu Camillus said that the CPC saddled with ensuring that the rights of the customers of the Bank who qualify for the draw are protected and that all winners are duly rewarded.
A past winner of salary for life, Mr kelechi Samuel, said he has been receiving N100, 000 every month and this has changed his life and make so many things easy for him.

“I am a past winner of salary for life and I must say I am delighted that every month I receive alert of N100,000 and I am always happy” Kelechi said.

The highlight of the event were the testimonials shared by past winners on how the reward scheme has changing their lives positively.

An employee of Herbert Wigwe-led financial institution, Access Bank, Arthur Ezindu has narrated how a former Account General Manager (RGM), Olayinka Sanni stole the sum of N1.2billion from several account belonging to customers of the bank.

Sanni was arraigned alongside one Oyebode Oteyebi by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on an 8 count charge bothering on stealing, forgery and uttering of forged document.

Ezindu, who gave his office address as Block 99C Damole, off Adeola Odeku, testified as prosecution witness before an Ikeja High Court, Lagos.

While being led in evidence by the EFCC Lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, Ezindu said that Sanni withdrew the said sum of money from different customers’ accounts without their consent and thereafter issued them a forged document of confirmation which he claimed emanated from the bank.

TheMomentNG learnt, the employee told the Special Offences Court that Olayinka, who was his boss at the time of the incident, was a regional Executive, Lagos Mainland North at Intercontinental bank, now Access Bank.

According to him, “The bank received several complaints from several customers whose accounts were debited without their consent.

“Some of these customers’ accounts include: the Falana Falana Chambers; Babington Junior Seminary; Viju Industries; Mechano Nigeria, PWU Nigeria; Elizade Nigeria; Murhi international Group.

“However, during the preliminary investigation, we noticed that all the complains were centered on our staff, Olayinka Sanni.

“We invited him to the head office for questioning but he claimed that everything was under control. He told us not to bother investigating the matter on the grounds that there was more behind what was happening.

“So since he was our senior officer, being the AGM at that time, we decided to petition his case to the EFCC for proper investigation.

When asked how much was involved as at the time the bank petitioned for EFCC, Ezindu replied, “The total sum was about N1.2billion.”

The prosecution thereafter tendered the petition dated September 2011 in evidence.

Meanwhile, the two defendants were also arraigned alongside a company, Sidaw Ventures Limited, which was allegedly used to transfer and cash out the stolen funds.

The employee further said: “During the preliminary investigation, the bank discovered that the company, Sidaw had Adamu as its signatory while Sanni indirectly manages the account.

“Some of the handwriting on the cheques belong to Sanni. He was the one indirectly signing and filling the cheques for Adamu.

Rivers State Government has challenged Mr Joe Igbokwe, Publicity Secretary of Lagos State APC to be bold enough to name the Supreme Court Justices he said that Governor Nyesom Wike bribed.

In a Facebook post Monday 16th July, 2018 Joe Igbokwe wrote”Wike Will Not Have The Audacity And The Temerity To Kill Again In Rivers State And Run To Supreme Court To Buy Justice. It Will Never Happen Again In Nigeria Where Buhari Is The President!”

However, in a swift reaction, Rivers State Government through the Commissioner for Information and Communications Emma Okah described Igbokwe’s comments as satanic and a product of a demented brain and is designed to ridicule the Supreme Court of Nigeria and desparage the entire judiciary.

“It takes a lunatic or one whose vision of reality is distorted to disgrace the Supreme Court and paint the Nation’s Judiciary black in a bid to bring down a sitting Governor whose only offence is that he has asked that things be done right in Nigeria” Okah said.

Certainly Joe Igbokwe belongs to the axis of evil that sees nothing wrong in the killing of fellow Nigerians especially his kinsmen and that is why he carelessly brands a governor as a killer even without any iota of evidence.

According to Okah, responding to Joe Igbokwe who talks before he thinks belittles our dignity as a government but reluctantly, we have taken this opportunity to berate him so that Nigerians will appreciate the devastation such ungodly comments bring to a revered national institution like the Supreme Court.

Joe Igbokwe and his sponsors in their hallucinations cannot come to terms that Gov Nyesom Wike has remained the conscience of Nigeria’s democracy and delivered more projects and dividends than any Governor since 2015.

It is for this reason that his base and malicious reference to Governor Nyesom Wike as a killer remains worthless and empty.

Irrespective of what happened in Ekiti State last Saturday, Joe Igbokwe has no moral justification to insult Governor Wike in the reckless manner that he did without provocation.

“In the event he fails within seven days to name the Supreme Court Justices he said Gov Wike gave money or the persons killed by the Governor, Joe Igbokwe will hear from us” Okah said.

Amid accusations by aggrieved shareholders of attempts to suppress the report of the ongoing forensic audit of its operation, Oando PLC Chief Executive, Wale Tinubu, and his deputy, Mofe Boyo, have been asked to pay Ansbury Investments Inc. about $680 million (about N207.9 billion @ N305.8/dollar).

Ansbury was incorporated in Panama as part of a family trust by an Italian-Nigerian businessman, Gabriele Volpi.

The three-member London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) presided by David Midon on July 6 gave the partial award against the two embattled top officials of Nigeria’s indigenous oil company.

In the ruling, affirmed by two other co-arbitrators, Marco Frigessi di Rattalma and Harry Matovu, the tribunal upheld Mr Volpi’s application that Ocean and Oil Development Partners (OODP) was indebted to Ansbury by about $600 million (about N183.5 billion).

OODP Limited, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, controls 55.96 per cent equity in Oando PLC through a holding company, Ocean and Oil Development Partners (OODP) Nigeria Ltd.

The company was established at a time Oando PLC was preparing to acquire ConocoPhillips’ upstream oil and gas assets in Nigeria.

According to a copy of the tribunal ruling sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday by counsel to Ansbury Investment, Andrea Moja, the court also held that Whitmore Asset Management Limited was liable for another debt of $80 million (N24.5 billion).

Whitmore, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands as a single purpose investment vehicle, belongs to Messrs Tinubu and Boyo.

Court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES showed initial agreement signed on June 17, 2013 gave 60 per cent equity in the venture to Ansbury and 40 per cent to Whitmore.

However, the source of dispute was whether there was a legally binding agreement for Ansbury to transfer 20 per cent share of its equity in the venture to Whitmore, such that OODP BVI equity would change to 60 per cent for Whitmore and 40 per cent for Ansbury.

Besides, the court was confronted with the decision whether the parties made a legally binding agreement to convert an outstanding loan of $150 million (plus interest) into shares in Oando E&P Holdings Limited.

In its ruling, the court said the draft amended loan agreement as well as the draft “Put and Call Option Agreements” never became effective.

“Whitmore is in breach of the repayment obligation in the First Loan Agreement,” the tribunal ruled. “The alleged oral agreement to switch the parties’ respective shareholdings in OODP BVI is not binding on the parties. The alleged oral agreement to extend the term of the loans to 1 January 2020 is not binding on the parties.”

Mr Moja said the final award was expected to follow in the next few days whereby the tribunal would make definite pronouncements on accrued interests on the debts owed and legal expenses.

He said the tribunal’s ruling is in respect of a debt Mr Tinubu is owing, and does not affect Mr Volpi’s status in Oando as its majority shareholder.

He said in line with the tribunal processes, details of the award have since been communicated to all the parties concerned since July 9. The ruling is, however, subject to appeal.

How Crisis Started

In 2012, Ansbury said it invested about $700 million in OODP BVI, by acquiring a 61.9 per cent stake in the firm, with Withmore Limited holding 38.10 per cent.

According to Mr. Volpi, Mr Tinubu approached him to invest in the company at a time Oando PLC was mobilising $1.5 billion to acquire assets in ConocoPhillips’ upstream oil and gas in Nigeria.

Similarly, OODP BVI, which controls 99.99 per cent equity in OODP Nigeria, holds 55.96 per cent of the stakes in Oando.

When the dispute broke out in 2017, Ansbury said it equally petitioned the Nigerian capital market regulatory authorities, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May accusing the management of Oando PLC of mismanagement, “insider dealings, manipulation of the company’s shareholding structure and huge indebtedness”.

The petition culminated in the forensic audit of Oando PLC operations ordered by SEC in October 18, 2017.

But, the exercise did not take off several months after following the suspension from the office of the former Director General of SEC, Mounir Gwarzo.

Although Abdul Zubair was appointed acting DG to succeed Mr Gwarzo, he was redeployed on April 13 and replaced by Mary Uduk, whom critics say was brought by the minister to do her bidding.

Months after the audit by KPMG commenced, aggrieved shareholders under the platform of Proactive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PROSAN) accused the management of the company, a fortnight ago, of working with the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun and Mrs Uduk, to frustrate the release of the audit report.

The shareholders blamed the long delay in releasing the audit report on Mrs Adeosun and Ms Uduk’s alleged clandestine activities “to shield Oando management from criminal prosecution”.

“We are calling on the Acting Director-General of SEC to immediately release the report of the forensic audit conducted on the company since last year although we believe the result will be compromised since they have failed to suspend the management of the company while the so-called forensic audit lasted,” National Coordinator of PROSAN, Taiwo Oderinde, said on Sunday in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.

Oando Speaks

When contacted, the spokesperson of Oando, Alero Balogun, said on Monday that she does not have the authority to react to the debt issue.

She, however, Oando or Mr Tinubu’s lawyers would do so at the appropriate time.

Ms Balogun denied the allegation by Oando shareholders that the management was sitting on the forensic audit report.

“We (Oando PLC) are not sitting on any audit report. We went to court to challenge the audit, because we said SEC would not be fair. We lost. Now the the audit has begun and they are saying it is taking too long. We are also waiting for the report of the audit like every other person,” she said.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted the minister for her response to the allegation she was frustrating the audit, her spokesperson, Oluyinka Akintunde, said his boss had no comment on the allegation.

Mr Akintunde directed this reporter to SEC, which he explained was the agency that ordered the forensic audit.

When this reporter contacted the acting director general of SEC for her response, the acting spokesperson of the commission, Efe Ebelo, assured that Ms Uduk would respond to PREMIUM TIMES’ enquiry.

About a day later, no response has been received from the regulator.

The firm conducting the audit, KPMG, also declined comment on the status.

A representative of the firm, who answered the telephone when the company’s official telephone was called, said KPMG is not obliged to speak to the media on any of its clients’ briefs.

At last, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state, Monday, declared that he has left the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and was considering pitching tent with another political party in due time to run for a second term in office.

He said his decision was premised on the fact the ruling party gave him “a red card” for standing and speaking the truth on matters that directly affected the people of the state promising to always stand for the truth and people.

The Governor who made this known during the inauguration of his new Special Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Jerome Torshimbe in Makurdi said “that is the more reason why we all need to come together as a people and not allow political party or ethnicity divide us.”

Continuing, the Governor said, “many people have been asking that after dedicating the state to God we are still facing challenges, but I know that the God that saw the Israelites pass through the wilderness, and took them to the promised land will also see us through our difficult times.

“I know one thing, all these challenges that we see today, we shall see them no more. All that we are required to do is not to begin to be wayward in our conduct but to move to the righteous side of God. Once we do that, things will work out for our good.

“Looking at what is happening to us, sometimes am tempted to think that we are dying like people who do not have God.

“But we must choose the path of working with God, obeying and serving him. If we do that and ensure that his values get into our hearts and we work with him, development will be inevitable. Let us work and encourage those things that can develop us.

“As for party, I have been given red card and I’m outside the pitch. So, if I have been given red card and I’m standing outside, I’m a free man.

“So I don’t know what will happen next but I’m waiting. If others approach me, then I will tell the Benue people that I’m joining another football club. I’m a child of destiny and it’s only God that will decide what I will be,” Governor Ortom added.

Recall, few weeks back reported plots by a powerful APC block in connivance with forces in Abuja to deny the Governor the ticket of the party over his stance and insistence on implementing and enforcing the Benue grazing law which came into effect in the state since November 1.

…angry staff obstructs operations for non-payment of entitlements

Following some internal management/staff crisis, scores of staff of Nnamdi Okonkwo-led financial institution, Fidelity Bank Plc, recently temporarily shut down and paralyzed other activities at the regional head office of the bank on Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos.

Their grouse was over the arbitrary policy change by the Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo.

The staffs were also protesting the non-payment of their entitlements by the bank’s administration after their un-ceremonial dismissal from the bank.

The angry staff-cum-protesters, with ‘No To Impunity at Fidelity Bank Plc’, ‘Pay Us Our Entitlements, Fidelity Bank’, ‘Enough To This Wicked Treatment by Fidelity Bank’, ‘Fidelity Bank, We Worked For This Money’, Pay Us Our Ex-Gratia, Fidelity Bank,’ placards, said the bank doesn’t care about their welfare and after service survival.

Speaking exclusively with an on-line medium, on behalf of the protesters, a Fidelity Bank staff, who identified himself as Eluwa Innocent, with staff number, F/1647, expressed that all they needed was their entitlements: “The protests came about over undue maltreatment in the system, the new Bank MD, in person of Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, brought in a new and draconian policy into the bank’s system and denied us our gratuity and entitlements, and not only did he deny us, he started laying off people unlawfully and indiscriminately without any regard or recourse to the number of years some of us had put in.”

He added: “We demanded that this is not how it’s being done, and even at all he has a new policy in place, all we want is our entitlements and nothing more..’’

Meanwhile, on inquiry, we gathered that the protesters complained bitterly on the new policy, and stressed that the standard policy on entitlements for the banking sector is N150, 000, but after nationwide protests by Fidelity Bank workers, the management then called for a reconciliation meeting.

After the reconciliation meeting, the management decided to pay N100, 000 per year depending on the number of years they have put in, which was a far cry from the initial and original standard policy on entitlements.

But it came to them as a surprise that after the nationwide protests, the bank surreptitiously called on selected affected staff and paid them their entitlements.

An aggrieved Nigerian businessman Dr. Ambrose Bryant Chukwueloka Orjiako and his Company Shebah Exploration and Production Company Limited have gone to court asking for the judgement of a Court of England and Wales which awarded $143.9 million to a group of three lenders to be set aside.

Mentioned as respondents in the petition filed before a federal high court in Lagos are the Africa Import Export Bank, Diamond Bank Plc and Skye Bank Plc. The petition was filed on behalf of the claimants by a Lagos-based lawyer Chief Anthony Idigbe SAN.

The three lenders had in July 2011 granted a $100million credit facility to Shebah Exploration; the facility was later amended and restated to $150 million in May 2012.

However, sometime in 2014, the lenders had sought summary judgement in the high court of England and Wales against the plaintiff in the grounds that Shebah Exploration defaulted in its quarterly repayment obligations.

The judge of the English Court Mr. Justice Phillips proceeded to give summary judgement in February 2016 to the tune of $143.9 million against the plaintiffs without recourse to the plaintiffs’ own counter-claim which was at that time still pending before a high court in England.

The applicant maintain that the move of the three lenders to register the summary judgement of Mr Justice Phillips with a federal high court is illegal because they were denied right of appeal against that summary judgement.

According to the petition, the right of appeal is an inalienable right of every Nigerian citizen under the constitution, therefore any legal process that denies this fundamental right does not carry weight under Nigerian law.

The applicants are therefore seeking the following reliefs from the court presided over by Justice Muslim Hassan:

An order to set aside the order of the court made on 21st day of February, 2018.granting leave to the respondents to register the summary judgement.

An order nullifying the certificate of judgement dated the 28th day of March 2018 issued by the Chief Registrar of the court.

An order staying the execution of the summary judgement of Mr. Justice Phillips of the court of Justice of the Queen Bench Division pending the determination of the Shebah Exploration and production Company Limited counter -Claim by the high court of England and Wales.

The presiding judge Justice Muslim Hassan has however fixed the October 23, 2018 for hearing on the case.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ebonyi State chapter has said that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, led federal government can’t win Ekiti governorship election scheduled to hold Saturday by influencing electorates with money.

The party made this known to journalists in Abakaliki through the State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Okulegu Bethran, who said that with what was happening in Ekiti, it seemed that the APC administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari was not ready for the 2019 general election.

He noted that the deployment of heavy security and alleged movement of cash to Ekiti by the federal government to influence the election, showed that APC was aware of the imminent defeat awaiting the party’s candidate.

Okulegu added that the happenings in Ekiti was an indication that the ruling APC knew that they had been rejected by the people and were afraid of conducting free, fair and credible elections.

“APC led federal government are deliberately impoverishing Nigerians through bad leadership and are now hiding under it to influence Ekiti governorship election through votes buying among other electoral malpractices,” he stated.

Okulegu who urged the people of Ekiti not to fall for the new antics of sharing money by the APC as it would amount to mortgaging their future for a pot of porridge, admonished them to vote for the PDP’s candidate for a secured future.

While calling on the people of Ekiti to protect their votes, he expressed confidence that PDP would win the election despite the frantic efforts of the APC to rig the election.

“I am very sure that PDP will take Ekiti state just like am sure in Osun. The people are ready, though the federal government may be planning to rig the elections. Nigeria has come of age where you don’t rig election,” he said.

He also condemned the action of police against the governor of Ekiti, Governor Ayodele Fayose, saying, “a situation where the federal government will order policemen to hit the governor, is condemnable. We condemn such attitude”.

“If the police that are supposed to protect the citizens are the one killing the citizens, it is unfortunate. Federal government and its agencies should allow Ekiti people to choose who will be their governor,” he said.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino thanked the Russian people and government on Friday for what he described as the “best World Cup” ever.

Sporting a FIFA volunteers’ jacket, Infantino told reporters in Moscow that Russia’s infrastructure and welcome allied to the quality of football and success of VAR (the video assistant referee system) had contributed to the success of the tournament.

“Since a couple of years I was saying this would be the best World Cup ever. Today I can say it with more conviction because I lived it and you lived it. It is the best World Cup ever,” said Infantino, two days ahead of the final between France and Croatia.

Infantino told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting at the Kremlin last week that the world “all fell in love with Russia,” over the past four weeks and repeated his praise for Putin’s government and the organisation put in place for the tournament.

More than one million foreign fans have visited Russia during the World Cup, according to FIFA figures, and Infantino said preconceived notions of the country had been changed by their positive experiences.

“I think the World Cup has changed the perception of the world towards Russia,” added Infantino.

“Everyone has discovered a beautiful country, a welcoming country, full of people keen to show to the world what maybe sometimes is said is not what happens here.”

On the field, Infantino hailed the standard of football, citing just one 0-0 in 62 games so far as an example of the exciting spectacle.

Controversies over the use of VAR threatened to overshadow the football on the pitch early on but Infantino strongly defended introducing the technology for the first time at a World Cup.

“VAR is not changing football, VAR is cleaning football, making football more honest, more transparent,” he said.

Just 16 decisions were overturned from 19 reviews by referees after receiving advice from other officials watching replays of incidents on television. The number of correct decisions rose using VAR from 95 percent to 99.32, according to Infantino.

“Now it is difficult to think about the World Cup without VAR,” he added. “It has certainly been a more just competition thanks to VAR. This is what we wanted to achieve and what we have achieved so far.”

Despite the dominance of European teams, with all four semi-finalists and six of the last eight coming from the UEFA confederation, Infantino claimed the presence of Croatia as the smallest nation since 1950 to reach the final should give hope to other countries around the world for 2022.

As things stand, the Qatar World Cup will be the final version of the tournament with 32 teams before expanding to 48 for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

However, Infantino said a decision on whether that expansion will be moved forward for the next World Cup will be discussed and taken “in the next few months”.

Staff of ExxonMobil, Eket in Akwa Ibom State, on Friday protested the sack of 860 spy police without entitlements.

The protesters, who began the protest at about 8 am, blocked Mobil Housing Estate at Marina road, Eket Local Government Area of the state.

The protesters were chanting solidarity songs, carried placards with different inscriptions such as “ExxonMobil sacked 860 Nigerian workers after over 22 years of slave labour’’, “ExxonMobil respect the rule of law’’, “Supreme Court of Nigeria is higher than ExxonMobil’’.

Other inscriptions read: “ExxonMobil comply with Supreme Court Judgement’’, “Calculated disobedience of Supreme Court judgment on its employees is an insult to the Federal Republic of Nigeria’’, “ExxonMobil masters of slave labour’’ among others.

Okon Johnson, the Chairman, Security Workforce ExxonMobil who spoke on behalf of the protesters, expressed displeasure over the attitude of the company.

According to him, ExxonMobil has been unjust to people that have entrusted their life and property to the company.

Mr Johnson urged ExxonMobil to as a matter of urgency comply with the Supreme Court Judgment of April 20, which ruled that the company should reabsorbed the 860 spy policemen as well as reward long serving personnel.

“The Management of ExxonMobil called us for a meeting at Eden Hotel today and told us that mails will be sent to us.

“In the meeting, the multinational company told us that the company has acknowledged us as staff, and it is working to implement the Supreme Court judgment.

“After the meeting, surprisingly as we were going back to our offices, we noticed that ExxonMobil have redrawn our access batch and we cannot have access to the premises of the company again,’’ he said.

Mr Johnson called on ExxonMobil to reabsorb the 860 staff of the company as well as pay their entitlements before they would end the protest.

He also expressed disappointment that ExxonMobil does not want to comply with the Supreme Court judgement.

“Our demand is for the company to fully comply with the judgment of the apex court.

“The apex court is law and it should be respected and if the company is doing this, that means it is disrespectful to the nation, the Supreme Court and Federal Republic of Nigeria,’’ Mr Johnson said.

Reacting to the development, Ogechukwu Udeagha, the Manager, Media and Communications of ExxonMobil confirmed the protest.

“Following the recent judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Mobil Producing Nigeria would provide compensation packages for affected personnel.

“And it is offering Human Resource, consulting services to assist with employment opportunities with third parties.

“MPN typically retains security services through third parties who are best positioned to provide these core competencies.

“We thank these individuals for their prior service in supporting the safety and security of our operations in Nigeria,’’ Mr Udeagha said.

*FG promises protection of intellectual property, investment

For two days, American investors and chieftains from the technology and entertainment sectors of the US and indeed global economies took turns to listen and actively interact with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, and the Nigerian delegation drawn from the public and private sectors.

They came in impressive numbers for two full days to listen and assess investment opportunities in Nigeria and also asked questions.

From the Silicon Valley for instance, well over twenty core American investors in technology spent hours on Monday afternoon interacting with the Nigerian delegation led by the Vice President alongside others including Industry, Trade & Investment Minister Dr Okey Enelamah, on how to invest in Nigeria.

Top among the US investors were Tim Kendall, a US investor who worked with Facebook monetization and has led Pinterest, headquartered in San Francisco and valued at about $12 billion.

Pinterest is a “web and mobile application company that operates a software system designed to discover information on the World Wide Web, mainly using images and on a shorter scale, GIFs and videos. Pinterest has reached 200 million monthly active users as of September 2017.”

Others who attended the investment summit in Silicon Valley included representatives of StreetEdge Capital, aBay Area, California multi-billion dollar family partnership with global footprints including holdings in the US, India and Africa.

There were also others including Chika Nwobi and Tom Terbell, partners from Rise Capital, “a private equity firm specializing in early venture and later stage investments.

“It seeks to invest in the internet enabled sector in emerging markets.” The multi-million dollar investment firm is also based in San Francisco, California.



In the same vein, Prof. Osinbajo also visited the headquarters of LinkedIn where he held a meeting with the Co-founder of LinkedIn, Allen Blue, and other senior executives of the company at its headquarters in California.

The Vice President later also featured as the Special Guest at the firm’s Fireside Chat with a packed full room of Nigerians in Diaspora, which was also streamed live to a global audience.

The next day in Los Angeles, right in Hollywood, the Vice President and his delegation, drawn mainly from the Advisory Group on Technology Innovation and Creativity, an arm of the National Industrial Competitiveness Council, also met with an impressive array of entertainment chieftains and investors in the US.

They included top Hollywood executives like Mark Viane of Paramount Pictures; Steven O’Dell of Sony Pictures; Kieran Breen, Karen Mbanefo and Bryan Song of 20th Century Fox; Betty Lee of Lions Gate; Craig Dehmel and Shehu Garba from IMAX Entertainment; Monique Esclavissat of Warner Bros; Mary Ann Hughes from Walt Disney, John Fithian from the National Association of Theater Owners, and Ryan Gibson of BET International, among others.

There were also representatives from Fox Network.

Also at the forum from the Nigerian delegation were renowned names in the film, music & entertainment industry, including Innocent Idibia, popularly known as Tuface; New York-based Nigerian visual artist, musician, singer/songwriter, Laolu Senbanjo; CEO, Ebony Life TV, Mo Abudu, Chocolate City CEO, Audu Maikori; founder/CEO Terra Kulture, Bolanle Austen-Peters; New York artist, Sesan Ogunro among others.

It would be recalled that the Vice President on Monday was received by Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other top Google executives at the global technology company’s corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley, California.

After the meeting in Silicon Valley, the Vice President also interacted with scores of Nigerians working with Google.
Speaking in Hollywood before he left the US early yesterday, Prof. Osinbajo noted that the Federal Government is determined to ensure needed regulations to stimulate the growth of the country’s entertainment and creative industries, including the protection of Intellectual Property and investment guarantees.

The VP stated this during the interactive investment forum on Nigeria’s creativity sector with US-based entertainment outlets, media & investors held in Waldorf Astoria, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, all day Tuesday.

According to the Vice President, “we understand how dynamic the environment is, both technology and creative arts. But we think that the way to go will be to work with those who are actually in the industry, those like yourselves who are putting in their money, their resources, time, and energy into this, and trying to do our regulations in such a way that we are competitive practically with anyone else in the world.

“So what we have done so far is that we’ve been looking at what the specific issues are, and there are quite a few. There are those who want to know about what we are doing in terms of Intellectual Property protection, investment guarantee, and all of that.

“But I think that the most important thing really, is that we have a government and a lot of those who work in our agencies, who are determined to work through this, day by day, piece by piece to make sure that we get our environment right, and we get the right type of investment environment.”

Prof. Osinbajo further said the Buhari administration will continue to make effort to improve the country’s infrastructure and technology to grow the country’s entertainment/creative sector and the digital economy.

He said, “we are also, of course, very interested in many ways, in deepening infrastructure, especially broadband, connectivity and all of that, because we think that mobile telephony is going to be one of the big ways, especially for the distribution of film and all of that.

“And we are convinced that with the size of our population, we must find ways of getting film and content unto mobile phones, and also working out payment systems around that because we think that that is the way this is going to go.

“We know that in the next couple of years, that really is where a lot of development is going to go to, and we are very anxious to get our regulations right, to get all of our laws in place and to ensure that we are able to attract all of you who want to do business with us, especially those of you who are coming from other countries.

“As for the Nigerians, we are, of course, actively engaged with the local industry, and that is one of the reasons why we have the advisory council which takes into account many of our local investors, local artistes and the local entertainment crowd generally.”

The interactive forum in Los Angeles was the last leg of the Vice President’s trip to the United States where he led a Public-Private sector collaborative investment road show, including meetings with global industry leaders in the technology, film, music & entertainment industry in San Francisco and Los Angeles respectively.

The investment road show led by the Vice President showcased the efforts of the Buhari administration in developing Nigeria’s technology, entertainment and creative sectors; and sought to deepen collaboration between Nigeria and the US in these areas.

Also on the Vice President’s delegation were representatives of tech firms, Nollywood and several relevant government agencies.

His earlier meetings with a series of key US technology investors, executives from US-based companies at the “Invest in Nigeria Summit”, was held at the Four Seasons Hotel, Palo Alto, San Francisco, California, while the meeting with Hollywood and US entertainment industry operatives was at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Los Angeles.

At the meetings which were well attended by US and Nigerian investors/industry chieftains, Prof. Osinbajo reiterated Government’s commitment to the growth of the country’s digital economy by creating the right environment for the technology, creative industries to thrive and unlocking the country’s potential.

The Vice President said, “One of the critical things for us also, is the fact that we are very open to ensuring that regulation is competitive, especially in the Tech space. All over the world, this is a very dynamic environment, and we recognise that, and we want to be able to work with players and investors, to get the regulations and environment right.”

Prof. Osinbajo also showcased opportunities for innovation and investment in Nigeria, while also highlighting the growth of Nigerian technology start-ups and young Nigerians taking the lead in innovation and creativity.

He noted that government was exploring more ways to leverage on technology to improve infrastructure and other areas of the economy, while also highlighting the impact of the Buhari administration Social Investment Programme such as the N-power scheme and how it leverages on technology to train and empower young Nigerian graduates. So far the N-Power scheme has 200,000 beneficiaries, with 300,000 more expected to be added soon.

Antonio Conte has been sacked by Chelsea, SunSport understands.

The Italian was told he was axed at a meeting today after two years in charge at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck drove to their Cobham training ground this morning to deliver the news to Conte, who won the Premier League title and the FA Cup during his two-year reign.

The first-team players were given the afternoon off from their pre-season training regime.

Buck was seen leaving the training ground at 2.10pm in his classic Porsche after delivering the news, which has been expected since the end of last season.

Conte was driven to training this morning by his assistant manager Carlo Cudicini, the former Chelsea and Spurs goalkeeper.

The 48-year-old had reported back for duty at the start of the week and began taking first team pre-season training as usual.

At the same time the Blues board had been busy trying to agree a deal which would see Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri take charge of the club.

Those talks have now reached a conclusion, with Napoli giving the green light for Sarri, 59, to move to the Premier League.

It is believed he will have Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola as part of his backroom staff.

One that deal was in place, the club moved quickly to finally bring to an end the ongoing uncertainty surrounding just who was in charge.

And SunSport understands the club have agreed to pay up the £9million due for the remaining year of Conte’s contract.

It brings to an end a relationship which started promisingly but ended with the manager at odds with his bosses over their transfer policy.

The former Juventus boss delivered the Premier League in his first season in charge, but the wheels began to fall off almost immediately after.

It emerged he had told star striker Diego Costa he was being axed in a curt text message – causing the player to go AWOL and forcing the Blues to take a hit on his transfer fee.

And with Conte continually undermining his squad by claiming he wanted better players, their title defence went down the pan completely as they eventually finished fifth.

Chelsea declined to comment.

Nollywood Actress, Juliet Mgborukwe and her estranged husband, Chima Ojukwu, have engaged themselves in a war of words on Instagram.

Trouble began after the actress announced on Instagram that she was filing for a divorce due to alleged domestic violence.

She also shared photos showing the bruises her husband allegedly inflicted on her on Instagram on July 6.

Her husband also took to Instagram to tell his own side of the story. He also shared a video of his famous wife allegedly attacking him at their home. He alleged that his wife had been engaging in extramarital affairs and was very violent.

The lengthy post on Tuesday, partly read, “For years this woman have been lying using domestic violence as a shade to her Nigerian bloggers well hear the truth now and nothing but the truth cause I’ve had it, not that I owe anyone an explanation but I want the truth out there and if I run out on this tittle please continue reading on the video itself, now carefully observe this video who’s the aggressor here.

“This woman claimed I beat her up everyday of her life, does the woman you see in this video look scared at all? Now this was everyday of my life, she wanted to go do her thing after she got a green card from me, she wanted to go get her own job place and live her life, I said so now you got a green card is time to leave so you never came for.”

Juliet met her U.S.-based husband in September 2011, and within a week, they were engaged. They had their introduction September 29 and were married traditionally by October 4of the same year.

A white wedding was scheduled to take place in January in the U.S. but it never held.

A few months later, Juliet changed her FB status from married to single. After months of keeping mum about what really happened, Juliet granted an interview revealing that her marriage ended a few months after it was contracted.

In 2014 the couple decided to give their marriage a second shot with Juliet moving to the U.S. to join her husband.

The couple welcomed their first child, a son, in 2015 and in 2017; they welcomed the second child, a daughter at a hospital in the U.S.

A Nollywood starlet, Juliet’s movie credits include “Baby”, “Ifunnaya” and “Priceless.

The headship of banking institutions is one job that comes with monstrous challenges, envisaged or unforeseen. Almost all of Nigerian banks’ managing directors/chief executive officers always take over from their predecessors amidst jubilation and cheery smiles.

But no soon had they taken their seat and settled to face the reality and enormity of the task before them than they began showing signs of rapid ageing. So when next you run into the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Sola Adeduntan, chances are there would be bags under his eyes.

The MD has finally burned through his euphoric spells of fantasy to chance on cold, brutal reality. Consequently, this has put the bank MD in a bind.

First Bank currently groans under the weight of huge debts portfolio by its A-list customers. The bank’s debtors, comprising Nigeria’s superrich, have failed to refund loans taken from the bank to the extent that some of the loans have to be written off as bad debt.
Consequently, Sola, the erstwhile sinewy and athletically-built MD is losing sleep over the huge debts. He has lost so much weight in the last couple of months, his eyes are sunken and his cheeks have lost their rosy glow. Although many of his business associates and subordinates initially passed his weight loss off as a deliberate effort by the MD to keep fit, now they know better.

The financial situation of Nigeria’s premier bank which he is overseeing is stealthily taking its toll on him. Perhaps, Adeduntan has been having worrying sleepless nights lately; no thanks to unpalatable state of things FBN-Holdings: a decline in the bank revenue in the first quarter of this year and a huge debt portfolio does not like melodious music to the ears.

No wonder First Bank which prides itself as “Truly The First Bank” is now the second bank, warning that the financial giant could collapse if nothing drastic is done to arrest the situation, which is bound to cause a stroke to Nigerian biggest elephant.

FBN posted N138.9 billion revenue in first quarter, representing 1.6 percent decline from N141 billion posted in the same period in 2017. While the debt portfolio of the bank can only be traced to a time when his predecessor was managing the bank, he has inherited the tough task of retrieving bad loans running into tens of billions of Naira. Generally, Nigerian banks’ principal exposure to the energy sector has hit an all-time high of $12 billion, and recovery of larger percentage of these debts have become a tough task for the lenders.

FBN is said to be one of those with very huge exposure which is fast proving to be unhealthy. Aside from the $500 million in principal exposure to the downstream sub-sector, Nigerian banks have reportedly staked over $11.6 billion into portfolios by local and international investors, who participated in the string of acquisitions in the oil and gas sector between 2010 and 2015 as well as the takeover of assets created from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

Information available to us suggests that Adeduntan might have adopted an iron fist approach to recover a substantial sum of these loans by resorting to collateral takeover. In fact, our source reveals that he has constituted a team charged with the recovery responsibility with periodic targets, and that the team is already making some progress, though with snail speed.

As the political landscape hots up, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and member representing Esan North East/Esan South East Federal Constituency of Edo State in the House of Representatives, Sergius Ogun, speaks about the chances of the PDP returning to power in 2019.

Ahead of 2019 elections, what is the PDP doing to recover back their base?

The PDP as a party is consulting, reaching out to members that have left and also reaching out to new blocs. There is a suggestion that some people would want the name changed and I know the leadership of the party is doing all that but hopefully by August clearly, we would know the direction of things.

Do you think the PDP would be able to guarantee what the people are looking for if it returns to power?

To a large extent, my pain is the way the APC has turned out because the beauty of democracy is that you cannot have a party in power forever if you are practicing democracy. In the western world, you have a party that has been there two terms, maximum, three terms. I am talking about the UK and the U.S. Because when a new party comes in, they tend to do things differently to benefit and impress the people that was what I thought APC was bringing despite that my party lost. Again, if we should go back to history, I think PDP worked for this country. I also think that it got to a time when maybe they took the people for a ride that it doesn’t matter, it can never happen.

Look, at all the projects that the present day government is commissioning, they were all done by the PDP. Why did we not complete them? I give you an example. They are planning to commission a water project in my village in Edo State, that project was finished since 2012, a N2.4b project but the present Minister of Water Resources that never gave a dime to that project is coming to commission it. We are talking about increase in power. How many NRPP projects has this government built? Zero! But they are talking about increase in megawatt. Everything they met on ground was built by the PDP. Like I said, the PDP took the people for a ride. We could have finished those projects on time, we could have delivered more but it is a good thing. I believe we have learnt our lessons. With the way they are handling our members now, I believe when we have opportunity to come back, we would want to pay Nigerians back for bringing us back to power.

Your party members have been portrayed as persons who dipped their hands in the till; is it that these people would not be brought to book even if the PDP returns to power?

I think it is a Nigerian thing, if I may digress a bit. 2006, I was discussing with

a friend in Kano, the then governor; Shekarau lost the Nasarawa local government in the elections. My friend called me and said they are never going to allow that to happen. The next day he told me they have reversed it. He said how can the governor lose his own local government? And I said to him, this is very dangerous. A friend of mine who doesn’t live in this country but has his business here was sympathetic to ACN in Lagos. When Obanikoro’s son won Eti-Osa local government, the same thing they told me. How can the PDP win the local government around where Tinubu’s house is, that they would not allow it to happen. Shortly after that Kano incident, I engaged Thisday Columnist, Simon Kolawole for a long time on text message. What was the conversation? That, that election result was very dangerous. There was no APC then, it was ACN. I said, look, we should use one broom to beat these politicians. I didn’t even know I was going to contest any elections then. If we say it is PDP today, by the time you so flog them, by the time you send PDP out, you have another party in power, you would start afresh but if you whip all of them as politicians and whip them into place, whichever party that comes, you have already told them what you expect of them and I think we failed to do that.

Today, we have those that stole money supposedly and they are not in the PDP alone. Those in PDP go to APC, they are now saints. My answer would be put a system in place because people are still stealing today. While we look for how to prosecute those ones but put a system in place today. I give you an example; you pay a permanent secretary N250, 000 a month as salary, that man is going to prepare the budget of the ministry, the MDA, then they stampede the legislators to pass the budget, the president assent. That budget goes back to the permanent secretary who works with the director of procurements with his directors to execute that contract that is about N200b. And at the end of the day, you are leaving a goat with a yam. What would happen to that yam? That is what is happening. You pay the civil servant little or nothing and they are the ones advising the politicians. They will tell them how to get the money and how to take it away. I think if we really want to fight corruption, we should go back to the basics, have a template and address these things. When we do that, we can stop this madness. There is a law that talks about auditing the system every quarter from the auditor general’s office reporting to the national assembly back and forth. It is a law but in actual practice, do we do that? No! If we were doing that, where would this madness happen that so much billions will leave the system? Because if they are auditing, whoever wants to take their money would know there will be an auditing in the next three months, so I think there should be a template. The present government came in talking about corruption but the corruption they are talking about is just in their head. They didn’t have anything in place to check it. I even think there is more corruption now than it was before they came in. My take is the system to try and curb and it and not to harass people.

Is the PDP really ready for the 2019 election, who are they looking at?

They are ready that is why they are consulting. If it were the PDP of before, they would just tell you that there is one man; everybody should queue behind the man. I think they have learnt their lessons. That is why they are consulting. Reaching out to people and whoever comes they are ready to say you have the ticket. Then you can go to the field and sell yourself.

For me personally, I would support Atiku Abubakar and I will give you reasons. He will be the Trump of Nigeria. Donald Trump was a businessman. In his business, I’m sure he stood before so many corporations, business people, negotiate and he will get deals and that is what he has brought into government today. Look at the U.S. economy? They are hiring like never before, the economy is booming and things are taking shape. People like Obama were okay, intelligent guys and have intelligent people around them but he is being in government. What did Obama do before coming into government? Community work. And most of the guys you are talking about in the PDP today have been in government forever. It is one thing to be in government, you serve in the House of Representatives, House of Assembly, local government chairman but have you managed the profit and loss account? Have you been awake thinking of how to pay workers salary? I came from the private sector. For me these things are very clear. People that have not managed these things, you say because they have been in government, they have experience, what experience? Experience of spending money and not even earning it; lets us try a businessman that has done business, suffered losses and knows how to make gains. Let us try such a person with this government.

Giving the APC congress that recently held and produced parallel factions in almost all of the states, what does it portend for the party?

You have called them a party, APC is not a party. This is their first term in government and they have not even finished it. It’s a bunch of people that came together to strive for relevance and supremacy and that is the fallout in their congress. I am very sure that by 2019, this party will disintegrate and then PDP will come back branded, with fresh ideas and ready to take Nigeria to any height.

Three years down the line, what have you done for your people?

I have done a lot. 2016 budget was a disaster because they claimed it was padded. Most of the things put in the budget outside the intervention fund did not come out but my intervention fund which we call constituency project was a farm settlement. We proposed 200 hectares of land but we were only able to do a 100. The 2017 again was a continuation of that project. We just did another 100 hectares. We have shared the land to 200 people. We planted, we have harvested, that is 2016 into 2017. We are going to be giving some money out soon as we are planting again. We are already doing the 2018 season now. I have taken some rural road project to that axis. That farm settlement in Esan south east is one of the local governments fortunately I am from. We have ward 10 which is my village, then ward 9 which is Ilushi by the river Niger bed and ward 8, Orhia, where the farm is. I am trying to take rural roads to build a farm settlement where we would have a lot of stuffs coming out. I have five 10 ton rice mill that I am going to give to those communities because all they do around Orhia, Ilushi is rice. You go there, there is rice everywhere but they don’t have any mill, they use the local mill. I got this five rice mill from the federal government, ministry of agriculture subsidised it. I’m going to set up co-operatives and give to them, so that they can build on the value chain.

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, has stormed the dreaded cells of the Federal Special Anti-robbery Squad, FEDSARS, at the Command Headquarters, Ikeja, and directed the immediate release of 40 suspects, while 30 other suspects, said to be involved in cultism, were ordered to be charged to court without delay.

Edgal, who embarked on an extensive surprise night patrol of some volatile police formations in the state, also directed that, henceforth, suspects must be treated with dignity and in humane condition, pending the conclusion of their cases.

The patrol, according to police sources, was necessitated by security reports about likely resurgence of militancy from the creeks and the smoldering cult activities in some parts of the state.

Already, police authorities in the state, last week, exposed plans by members of some unlawful societies such as the Aye, Eiye, , Buccaneers among others, to go round the town serving notices to rival cult gangs in the neighbourhood that they would be converging to settle scores with rival cult groups.

Suspecting that it will be a day of outright brigandage and anomie, the state police boss warned that any such gathering by members of the unlawful assembly with the intent to commit felony will be visited with the full weight of the law.

The sources said the Police boss swooped on no less than five Police divisions and other strategic formations on Saturday and Sunday nights with a view to ensuring that they were not just at alert, but ready for action.

Some of the formations and divisions visited included Federal Anti-Robbery Squad, FEDSARS; the State Criminal Investigative and Intelligence Department, SCIID, Panti, Yaba; Isokoko, Alausa, Pen cinema, Iju and Mancentre divisions, where he reportedly met their Divisional Police Officers.

Reports said he also interrogated all the suspects inside their cells after which he directed that those whose offences were minor should be released immediately, while those that have cases should be charged to court without delay.

Contacted on phone for comments on the development, the Lagos Police boss told Vanguard: “Patrols are a routine exercise in the force and we act according to directives from the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris that we should intensify efforts towards community and safety partnership.

“That is exactly what we are doing and efforts will be intensified in this regard and on all other challenges.”

The Action Peoples Party, APP, has filed a suit before the Federal High Court, Abuja, demanding the sack of the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun.

Listed as defendants in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/714/2018 were President Muhammadu Buhari; the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission.

The APP did not only pray for the removal of the minister, but also for an order directing her to refund the salaries she had received since 2015 when she was appointed as a minister and another order compelling the Federal Government to prosecute her.

The party, through its lawyer, Kingdom Okere, asked the court to, among others, declare that Adeosun “is not qualified to be appointed a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or into any other public office, having not participated in the compulsory one-year National Youth Service scheme, in view of the combined provisions of sections 11, 12,13 and 17 of the National Youth Service Act. ”

The political party also prayed the court to declare that Adeosun “is not a fit and proper person to continue to occupy the office she presently occupies having presented a fake NYSC exemption certificate and made a false, untrue and misleading statement /representation material to the National Youth Service Corps; and having breached her oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”

It, therefore, prayed for a consequential order directing President Buhari “who claims that his administration is fighting corruption to immediately sack or suspend Mrs Kemi Adeosun as the Minister of Finance pending investigation and her prosecution for forgery and perjury.”

The party also prayed for an order compelling “the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and the Independent
Corrupt Practices and other related Commission, to immediately arrest and investigate the allegation of fake National Youth Service Corps exemption certificate against Mrs Kemi Adeosun; and to immediately prefer a criminal charge against Mrs Kemi Adeosun for the offence of perjury, forgery, false , misleading and untrue information in relation to her fake National Youth Service certificate of exemption.”

Over 200 groups in Nigeria and the diaspora, on Sunday, rated the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari low in the area of insecurity.
In a communiqué issued after a meeting convened by Shettima Yerima, the president of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, in Lagos, the groups pleaded with religious, traditional and ethnic leaders to help rescue the country.
“We pronounce that the current dangerous situation which places the younger generation of Nigerians at the receiving end of all the violent incidences is unacceptable and must be halted.
“Clearly, the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed in the discharge of its primary responsibility of securing citizen’s lives and properties,” the group said while alleging that the government had proven it is ill-prepared and incompetent to bring the situation under control.
“We warn that Nigeria, Africa and indeed the entire world may not be able to cope with the consequences of a full blown religious or ethnic war in Nigeria which the current dangerous trend portends.
“The situation also portends the immediate danger of scuttling the nation’s democratic order with the dire consequences of a drift to anarchy.
“We call on Nigerian elders, leaders of thought, theological and cultural leaders and all our international friends to step in quickly and save the situation as any further delay could be dangerous.
“We have resolved to give a two-week ultimatum to all the stakeholders in the Nigeria project to act decisively to avoid the consequential backlash of overstressing citizen’s patience,” they said.
Apart from Yerima, others who signed the communiqué include Mazi Okechukwu Iziogosoro (National President, Ohanaeze Youth Council), Eric OlawOlawale (Yoruba Youth Council) and Barrister Pereotubo R. Oweilaemi (President, Ijaw Youth Council and leader of the Ethnic Nationalities of Niger Delta).
The groups pegged their arguments on recent reports from some international bodies showing the rising incidence of violence and killings across Nigeria.
For example, the group noted that the “Amnesty International, on June 27, 2018 quoted 1,813 violence-related deaths based on reported cases since January 2018 alone, with many more killings during the period which were either denied by the government, or were never reported at all.
“In a separate report, the United States Council on Foreign Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker says it has documented at least 19,890 deaths in Nigeria since June 2015, just after the current administration assumed office on May 29, 2015.
“The CFR, an independent body of experts dedicated to providing advice on policy options facing countries, put the cumulative deaths from May 2011 to May 2018 at 53,595 in violence that is both causal and symptomatic of weakness of Nigeria’s political institutions and citizen alienation.”

An up-and-coming artiste, Analike Okezie (Yoko B), has accused popular singer, 2baba (formerly known as 2face Idibia) of stealing his song, Amaka.

Recall that 2baba recently released a song titled, Amaka. On the track, the singer sang about a certain Amaka who disappointed him after promising him that she would come to his house. On the song featuring DMW’s Peruzzi, the singer narrated how he had made arrangements such as buying diesel and alcohol, only for the girl to fail to turn up.

Meanwhile, in Yoko B’s version, the singer also sang about how Amaka broke his heart after she claimed to love him. The beat of the two songs also sound similar.

In a chat, Yoko B said: “Right now, I am fed up with some of the top artistes in this country. Once they are up there, they can never help you grow. They prefer to rip you off and frustrate your hustle. The new song, Amaka, by 2baba featuring Peruzzi is my concept. The song was produced by Richie, who also did the chorus of the song.

“Shortly after producing my song, Richie was employed by Larry Gaga and he left FESTAC Town for Lekki where he worked with 2baba. My songs were still on his computer at that point. I was shocked when I discovered that they had ‘stolen’ the title, concept and message of my song. I released my version about five months ago and I have been trying to promote it with the little resources I have. I was already negotiating with Avalon Okpe to direct the video when 2baba released his version. I feel bad that they cheated me because I am an up-and-coming artiste. I want the world to know what has been done to me.”

On whether he had made his grievances known to Richie personally, Yoko B said, “Yes, I complained to him but he didn’t say anything reasonable. He said anybody can come up with the title, Amaka. But I wonder why the concept and instrumental of the songs are so similar if something isn’t fishy. I am sure that somehow, 2baba must have heard the song. To cover their tracks, 2baba’s version was produced by another producer, Sperochbeatz, but they all work in the same studio.”

However, when contacted Richie, who claimed to be his manager answered the call and threatened our correspondent not to publish the story.

He said: “The guy (Yoko B) is just looking for cheap fame. I am Richie’s manager and I know about the whole story. We really don’t have anything to say concerning the matter. He should go anywhere in the world concerning the issue. For your own good, I would advise you not to publish the story. I don’t know if Yoko B has the power to finish what he has started.”

When contacted, 2baba’s manager, Efe Omoregbe, stated that he was unaware of the allegation. He said, “This is the first time I’m hearing about that claim and I cannot comment on what I don’t know about.”

…as 1000 delegates take part in conference
APM Apapa Terminal has been accused of causing delays in cargo clearance and frustrating government’s Ease of Doing Business policy.

Speaking during an assessment visit by Nigeria Customs Headquarters Public Relations Unit to the command, stakeholders accused the terminal operator of delaying positioning of containers for examination and late opening of access gate into the ‘examination area’.

Musa Jibrin, Customs Area Controller, Apapa command, blamed the company for working with only one forklift at the ‘examination area’ where about 200 containers are supposed to be examined daily.

The Controller expressed shock over a recent report by a section of the media blaming Customs for slowing the pace of cargo clearance at the port, alleging that the company does not have adequate manpower on the ground to prosecute the volume of job in the terminal.

He said his command is ready to effect prompt release of cargo within four hours if all documentations are perfected within the ‘Traders’ Zone’.

Rufai Alao, Deputy Comptroller in-Charge of APM Apapa Terminal, lamented the delays in the terminal’ pointing accusing finger on the operator.

He blamed the company for not providing shuttle vehicles to convey Customs officers from the gate of the port to the scanner site where they are not allowed to drive through.

He also said that no canopy or make shift shelters for prevention of rain and sun was provided for Customs operatives at the terminal.

According to him, several letters the Customs wrote to the company to address the issues affecting smooth port operations at the terminal are yet to be acted upon by the company.

Hong Samuel Ikujare of Nigeria Agricultural Qurantine Service and Idris Inuwa Maikano of National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control, (NAFDAC) who arrived late for the assessmen,t blamed their lateness on the delays in opening access gate to the ‘examination area’.

David Ikeji, a freight forwarder also said his colleagues chose to stay back as coming on time had never translated to quick cargo clearance from APM Terminal.

Spokesman for Nigeria Customs Service, Joseph Attah, said the visit to the terminal was to have an on the spot assessment of happenings at the terminal as they concern ease of doing business.

An official of APMT, who declined comment said his company will work to improve on quality of service delivery.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Spokesman of the company, Mr. Austin Fitscher, was not successful after several calls to his phone, as at press time.

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja today 6 July 2018, directed the immediate release of two properties located in the United Kingdom belonging to African billionaire businessman and Aiteo boss Benedict Peters.

The properties have been the subject of an Interim Forfeiture Order obtained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2016, allegedly in the course of its investigation of allegations of corruption against the former Petroleum Minister, Mrs Dieziani Alison-Madueke.

By this decision, the court has upheld Peters’ case that the properties wholly belonged to him; was unconnected to any activities of the former minister and were unlawfully as well as unjustifiably included in a list of properties the Commission tried to seize.

The judge, Mrs Justice Nyarko found that a court of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) being competent and coordinate jurisdiction had, in a judgment in separate proceedings, made significant findings with respect to Peters’ means of livelihood.

The judge ruled that the same court had confirmed his legitimate acquisition of a number of London-based properties including the two properties at Flat 5, Parkview, 83-86 Prince Albert Road as well as Flat 58 Harley House, Marylebone Road, both in London 
and had declared that those assets were insusceptible to forfeiture under any circumstance.

Justice Nyarko directed that in that event, those properties could not continue to be restrained by the order EFCC had obtained and directed that the properties be released to Peters immediately.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has called on the Federal Government to take drastic and urgent actions on revenue leakages in the maritime, Oil and Gas industries so that the country will not grind to a standstill.

The Acting Chairman of ICPC, Dr. Musa Usman Abubakar made the call at the one-day workshop on ‘Dangers of Revenue leakages to the Nigeria Economy’ organised by the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) and chaired by the Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Anti Corruption Hon. Akinloye Babajide.

While lamenting the danger associated with revenue leakages occasioned by corruption, he stated that the agency would continue to welcome engagements to mull the malady.

According to him, lack of accountability and transparency among other vices have led to abject poverty, inadequate infrastructural and social amenities, poor standard of living and low per capital income.

Speaking further, the ICPC boss who was represented at the event by Akeem Lawal, Director Integration, ICPC, said that if the level of revenue leakages is allowed to continue, the economy of the country May bleed to death.

He therefore called on all stakeholders to devise a workable strategy to find a lasting solution to money laundering by public officers.

“The activities of all the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the various Ports, the Clearing Agents and other bodies that operate in the ports should be further scrutinised because all of them contributes in one way or the other to the revenue leakages.

“Some of them are known to cut corners, thereby under-paying or not paying at all the official tax or tariff which form substantial part of the leakages.”

Speaking on the efforts of the agency on the course so far, he said that in 2013, in furtherance to it’s statutory powers conducted Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA) in the ports sector in conjunction with a team of partners consisting TUGAR, BPP, UNDP, MACN and Shippers’ Council.

He stated that the effort culminated in the development of Standard Operational Procedures as well as Integrity Plan even as he said that legislature will have a role to play in the process.

Speaking earlier, Chairman House Committee on Anti Corruption, Hon. Akinloye Babajide said the Oil and Gas and Maritime Industries have strong nexus with interwoven features that can compliment each other in generating huge revenue for the Country, if leakages are prevented.

“As a ranking lawmaker, who has served in several committees and following developments in these two most critical areas of our national economy, I am convinced that Nigeria’s effort at economic diversification needs strong supports from these sectors, if we must break through.

“In addition to vast agricultural potentials and millions of productive workforce that can be improved on our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $405.10billion (USD), Nigeria took over from Angola as Africa’s number one oil producer last year.

He added that the National Assembly as an institution concerned about these unpalatable statistics about a rich, but poor country at the same time.

He also called on all stakeholders in the sector to rally round the government in paying their required taxes.

According to the Spokesman of AMCON, Jude Nwauzor, the agency is empowered by a provision in the amended law to trace any debtor accounts to banks.
He stated that the new law mandates the agency to go after the assets of the debtor until the debt is liquidated.
Mr. Nwauzo who spoke to Sunday Telegraph on phone on Wednesday, said: "The signing of the amended Act is with immediate effect. It has started immediately; there is no wasting of time. Before the Act we have been doing asset profiling of some of our obligors. A lot of them are concealing their assets from us. Both laws, the new one amended and the old one before the amendment gave us the power to seize asset, what we call asset striping, so you can strip both within and outside the country ".
He further said that the amended Act also allows AMCON to go after the debtors funds in banks. "Of course, they are all inclusive, if any of our obligor have assets, have huge sums of money in any bank, it is part of what we can trace. Of course with BVN you can trace such deposits in banks wherever they are".

Many hurdles to cross
Reacting to the new law, Constitutional Lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) on Friday said that giving AMCON access to fund in other accounts of debtors to offset loans owed is unconstitutional.
He said: "The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as altered, is the grundnorm of all other laws of Nigeria, including the said AMCON (Amendment) Act, 2019 and by implication, every law must find its origin in the Constitution.
"The Constitution is also the supreme law of the land as highlighted in section 1(1) which provides:
1. (1) This Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on the authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Sub-section 3 of the above mentioned section 1 also provides that:
(3) If any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.
"Important to note that many of the provisions of the AMCON (Amendment) Act, 2019, which empowers the agency to gain access into the personal accounts of individuals (debtors), access his\her personal details and even take possession of funds in those accounts autonomously are inconsistent and run at parallel with sections 37 and 44 of the Constitution which seeks to protect the privacy of citizens and deter compulsory acquisition of their movable and immovable property by any agency, without adequate compensation.
"It is against the rule of law and is also unconstitutional that an agency could be empowered to arbitrarily access and possess the funds in a debtor’s personal account without first securing an appropriate order of a Court of law.
"Section 50 (1) of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) Act, 2010, is certainly unconstitutional. The section provides that:
"Where the Corporation has reasonable cause to believe that a debtor or debtor company has funds in any account with any eligible financial institution, it may apply to the Court by motion ex-parte for an order freezing the debtor or Debtor Company’s account.
"The above section together with section 50(2) which provides that the Corporation shall commence debt recovery action against a debtor or debtor company whose account has been frozen by a Court order issued under subsection (1) of this section within 14 days from the date of the order, failing which the order shall lapse, appear self-contradictory and self-destructive.
"How do you first freeze a customer’s account and then proceed to recover your debt? The customer is placed at a grave disadvantage as he cannot reasonably fight his case and cause.”
He, however, said that the old AMCON Act of 2010 which was created for the purpose of effectively resolving non-performing loans, assets of banks and other institutions in Nigeria, was never the problem or the reason why the agency failed woefully in recovering the humongous debts of over N5 trillion. “Rather, it was the failure of the agency to act swiftly to commence the debt recovery after securing an interim order freezing the debtor’s accounts. They should now act with more speed.
"To continue on the path of the new AMCON (Amendment) Act, 2019, is to cause more chaos, especially when the fund in the account of the debtor happens to be subject of another court proceeding,” he stressed.
Also speaking, Principal Partner of Charlse Iroh and Associates, Chief Charlse Iro, said that the new cannot be applied in isolation. “It does render ultra vires other existing laws on business ownership and operation in the country. There are laws the guide banking in the country and the relationship of the bank and its customers. So I see this new law being tested in court soon, good as its intendments.”
He further warned that it will not be in the best interest of the country to use extra-judicial means in the name of enforcing the new law which its provision is in conflict with the Constitution.
Speaking, Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Eze Onyekpere , a lawyer with specialisation in development law, reforms, fiscal governance, human rights and constitutional reforms with tremendous experience in the area of public expenditure management reforms said that the contract entered by a client with bank is a confidential pact that must be respected , just as he said debtors have an obligation to settle debt owe.
"It is imperative to state that debtors should pay their debts. However, the agreement of a customer with one bank is a separate contract from another banking transaction with another bank. It is wrong and deposits in bank A should not be used to offset debts in bank B. This should only be the case when there is a court order,” he said.
Also speaking, Prof. Ken Ife, Lead Consultant on Private Sector Development to the ECOWAS Commission and Co-Chair of EU – AFRICA Business Task Force Summit Group cited the subsisting judgment of the Supreme Court, a judgment he said counters potency of revised AMCON Act.
"You know there is a Supreme Court judgment which is easily cited by different lawyers in the banking sector. The Supreme Court judgment says: If Mr. A has two accounts with you- account B and account C, and is owning you on one account, the Supreme Court judgment does not allow bank A to come and enter in to account B and pick money there because it owe in account C. That subsisting Supreme Court judgment is a case law which can only be vacated by only the Supreme Court itself.”

Enforcing the law
As the Spokesman of AMCON, Jude Nwauzor has insisted that the amended Act has come to stay and has taken effect, the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has vowed to assist AMCON to recover all the monies owed by individuals and business entities in Nigeria.
The acting spokesman of the EFCC, Tony Orilade in a statement quoted Magu as saying last Wednesday: “We are ready to work with you, and we will render assistance in terms of enforcement, in order to recover these loans, because they are affecting the economy of the country from flourishing.
“In order to recover these loans, there is the need for inter-agency collaboration, going beyond the EFCC to the police, the court, Central Bank of Nigeria, NDIC, because there is a need for AMCON to re-strategise and block loopholes.”
Taskforce on recovery of N5 trillion debt
On July 31, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo set up a task force with a mandate to devise a strategy to recover the N5 trillion owed to the corporation.
The agencies tasked to go after the debtors are the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the ministry of justice.
Muiz Banire, AMCON’s chairman, had said 20 individuals and companies owe 67 per cent of the N5 trillion debt.
Ita Enang, aide of the president on national assembly matters, said the signed law, empowers the corporation to access the financial details of any of its debtors.
He said the law mandates AMCON to: “Obtain access to any computer system component, electronic or mechanical device of any debtor with a view to establishing the location of funds belonging to the debtor, and to obtain information in respect of any private account together with all bank financial and commercial records of any debtor of any eligible financial institution, banking secrecy, and the protection of customer confidentiality is not a ground for the denial of the power of the corporation under this section.’’

Last line
However, as analysts have said the move to recover the N5 trillion debts, saying however that at the end of the day, matter will go to the court to seek legal redress and due to the country’s slow judicial process, the cases could be in court many years.
Interestingly, while the move to seize the AMCON debtors’ deposits in the banking system h

A rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has condemned comments credited to the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina asking Nigerians to stay alive by giving up their land for ranching.

Adesina had spoken in an interview against the backdrop of lingering clashes between herdsmen and villagers, reportedly encouraging indigenes in parts of the country to give up part of their land for the construction of ranches as proposed by the federal government.

He was also quoted as saying that it was better to donate land and stay alive than being killed because of persistent clashes involving herders.

But Intersociety, in a press statement signed by its Chairman Board of Trustees, Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi, and made available to us in Awka, said that such comment was legitimizing the killings being perpetuated by the rampaging herdsmen.

He said, “Instead of government de-escalating the violent attacks on Christians, such inflammable and complicit comments by the said presidential aide have escalated same.”

The group said that by making such comment, Adesina has made himself complicit in the killings going on around the country, while calling on those it described as apostles of justice not to forget to join him when suing those responsible for such killings.

“The apostles of justice and other campaigners of accountability for state and non-state atrocities around the world particularly in Nigeria’s old Middle Belt and Eastern Nigeria are hereby called upon to ensure that names of such presidential aides in Nigeria including Mr. Vice President and Mr. Femi Adesina are not omitted in any civil claimant or criminal suit to be initiated in any part of the world including before ICC at Hague.”

The group also condemned the comparison by Adesina over the level of killings in the present government and those of the past, saying that the comparisons were unnecessary.

“These days, if he (Adesina) is not caught on camera comparing between his boss’ regime and that of the immediate or long past which one ‘out-killed or out-supervised each other in national killing spree’; then he is caught on camera and in print ordering indigenous Nigerian Christians and other non Muslims to “give up their ancestral lands for ranching or die or become a land owner in dead”.

The group appealed to international community to come to the aid of vulnerable Nigerians, especially in the face of ineptitude on the part of the federal government.

Former Juventus CEO Luciano Moggi has claimed Cristiano Ronaldo has “already signed” for the Italian giants.

The 80-year-old tried to sign the Sporting Lisbon youth prospect when he was 18, but Ronaldo ended up going to Manchester United instead.

The Old Lady are in pole position to sign the Real Madrid superstar and are keen to do an £88million deal for the 33-year-old.

And Moggi has claimed Cristiano had a medical in Munich, where he agreed terms before heading off for a post-season break.

He told Tele7Gold: “In my opinion, he already signed and already did the medical tests in Munich.”

Reports in Italy claim Juventus “have approved” the sales of Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala in order to make room in their budget for Cristiano.

The attacking duo have been a key part of the club’s domestic success in recent years, but have not taken them to the top of Europe.

But they are both popular figures in Turin and the fanbase are likely to be sceptical over any sale of Dybala.

According to reports, Ronaldo has accepted a £500,000-a-week salary at Juventus, as his move from Real Madrid gathers momentum.

The Portuguese superstar is finally ready to leave the Bernabeu for £88million, after nine years at the club.

Dybala and Higuain are much loved in Turin
Italian journalist Tancredi Palmeri tweeted: “Cristiano Ronaldo-Juventus: Juve have approved the plan to sell Higuain and Dybala to make room in their budget.

“Pjanic could stay if Fiat sponsors Cristiano.

“TONIGHT meeting Florentino-Mendes.”

And the Italian giants are ready to pay the big bucks to land the player who scored one of the great Champions League goals against them last season.

…As Pinnick fails to upturn Giwa’s victory

Amaju Pinnick-led Nigeria Football Federation yesterday failed to get a Federal High Court in Jos to set aside an interim order that installed Chris Giwa as the NFF president.

Supreme Court had ruled that the judgment of the High Court that Giwa be installed until the final determination of the case be maintained. The apex arbiter however referred both parties to the lower court for continuation of the case.

The High Court in Jos, on Wednesday, heard arguments from both parties on the submission challenging the exparte order and the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case abinitio and adjourned to Tuesday, July 10 for ruling.

A source in Pinnick’s camp told our correspondent that they were so sure of victory but got a little bit disappointed that the ruling on the case was adjourned.

Our correspondent confirmed that they had fixed an emergency congress for Sunday and the executive board would meet on Monday in Abuja but the delay in the delivery of judgement appreaed to have put paid to that plan.

Nevertheless, Giwa’s camp is upbeat that the Tuesday’s ruling would favour them despite clandestine moves by their opponents to subvert justice.

We learnt on Tuesday’s reported that Giwa’s group would hold an executive committee meeting at the NFF’s secretariat on Friday when key decisions would be announced and there are indications the exercise will still go ahead as planned.

Meanwhile, there are strong indications that Pinnick’s days as the NFF boss are now over following reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had given approval to the order by the Supreme Court which now sees Giwa-led board running the nation’s footballing affairs administratively.

We gathered that President Buhari was briefed on the matter by Sports Minister Solomon Dalung in Wednesday Federal Executive Council’s meeting and the President gave a full blessing to the move.

Pinnick is currently on duty at the World Cup in Russia and he is banking on his close relationship with FIFA boss, Gianni Infantiino, to reclaim his position but as things stand, he has little or no chance to mount a comeback.

It was also scooped that the president is also aware of the consequence of the move which could see Nigeria placed under a worldwide ban by FIFA- football’s governing body.

“The minister ensured he got the approval of the President before he ordered the NFF to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.

“The President approved for the minister to get the Pinnick-led by executive committee to step aside in accordance with the court order even when he was told that the consequence would be a FIFA ban,”a top official told SCORENigeria.

However, efforts by this group to meet with top government officials at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday were futile after a presidential spokesman simply ordered them to revert to sports minister Solomon Dalung, who they have widely knocked for the latest crisis.

Rumours that the Chris Giwa group will not be in office yesterday because of “orders from above” turned out to be the usual lies as the group went about their business unhindered.