₦airaland Forum

https://www.osundefender.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Oduah-and-Jonathan-360x225.jpgReport reaching us according to Olufamous from Israel where President Goodluck Jonathan has been on pilgrimage has it that the president has snubbed the Aviation minister, Stella Oduah when the embattled minister seek for the audience of the president in the holly land of Israel over the allegation of N226million bullet proof BMW cars.

Stella Oduah, having learnt that the president would be on pilgrimage to the holy land had traveled ahead the president with the aim of easy access to the president on the scandal, having tried all she coulf in Abuja to seek the good face of the president but was futile.

Read port according to olufamous
Information reaching OluFamous.Com from Israel are pretty sensational. A top source who is part of the team in Israel disclosed that the embattled minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, had thought that it was going to be a tea party between she and President Goodluck Jonathan in Israel.

However, she was disappointed when all her efforts to get a one-on-one meeting with President Jonathan is not granted as the president left a particular location while she was still outside waiting to see him. Stella Oduah is now using Governors Peter Obi and Godswill Akpabio to beg Jonathan in Israel…

The source told OluFamous.Com that the National Security Adviser has revealed told President Jonathan that she has a very bad case, especially after the revelations at the National Assembly on Thursday.

President Jonathan is said to have successfully escape all ‘traps’ set by Governor Akpabio for him to have any discussion with Stella Oduah and he intends to stay away from her until they return to Abuja.

The Source say President Jonathan is vangry at the level of allegations against Stella Oduah.

https://www.osundefender.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ALeqM5hUsbLmGPbVr95OrVm2Ha822_4_sg.jpgNigeria’s army said Friday it had killed 74 suspected Boko Haram fighters in a raid in northeastern Borno state, as gunmen from the Islamist group battled security forces in a neighbouring area.

The army, which is battling to crush a four-year Islamist uprising in Nigeria, said it deployed bombs and ground troops to destroy insurgent camps in Borno on Thursday.

Army spokesman Mohammed Dole said that “74 suspected militants” were killed in the assault outside the Borno capital Maiduguri, where Boko Haram was founded more than a decade ago.

The operation followed an assault Monday on Boko Haram camps in another part of Borno, which the military said left 37 Islamists dead.

In a separate outbreak of violence, suspected Islamist fighters stormed the city of Damaturu in coordinated raids on Thursday, burning at least four police buildings, said a senior police officer who requested anonymity.

The officer said there were casualties from the attack, which will be seen as a setback in the campaign to end the insurgency.

The military had claimed an offensive launched more than four months ago had put Boko Haram on the defensive and left it incapable of attacking major urban centres like Damaturu.

Figures released earlier this year said the conflict had cost more than 3,600 lives, including killings by the security forces. The current toll is certainly much higher.

Damaturu is the capital of Yobe state, another area repeatedly targeted by Boko Haram in an insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.

“They invaded the city in large numbers in vehicles and on foot from different directions,” the officer said.

They then opened fire “on police facilities with guns and explosives and engaged soldiers and policemen in a fierce gunfire exchange that continued deep into the night,” he added.

The officer said the insurgents torched the area police command and at least three other police facilities.

“There are indeed casualties, including a number of the insurgents, but it is difficult to say how many they are”, he said.

A resident, Haruna Sadi, said the attacks started around 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) and continued late into the night, forcing residents to stay indoors.

“We didn’t sleep last night due to fright and the deafening gun sounds and explosions coming from all over the city,” Sadi said.

“Everybody is still indoors because of a radio announcement of a 24-hour curfew by the military,” he added.

Boko Haram, thought to be a fragmented group, with a murky leadership structure, has attacked churches, mosques, the security forces and schools across northern and central Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and top oil producer.

The Islamists have killed hundreds of people across the northeast since late June, including scores of students.

Last month, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the country’s top military leaders to redouble their efforts following a spate of brutal attacks on civilians.

Jonathan imposed a state of emergency across the northeast in mid-May when the offensive was launched.

The phone network was switched off in the region when the emergency measures were declared. Mobile service remains down in Borno, making the military’s accounts of fighting difficult to check with local leaders and residents.

https://www.osundefender.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/MAN-WHO-KILLED-WIFE-WITH-ACID.jpgThis is Mr Sunday Eze, the 33 year old man who allegedly bathed his estranged wife with acid in Nnewi on Friday 11th October 2013 along Oraifite/Ichi axis of Ekwusigo LGA of Anambra State.

Sunday Eze is on the run after bathing his late pregnant wife with acid and forcing some down her throat. 23 year old Ebere Eze was rushed to the hospital where she died. (Read the story HERE)

Sunday is still at large and according to the relatives of the deceased, he usually calls them claiming that he was manipulated to murder Ebere and would also beg for forgiveness. Meanwhile angry youths of Edoji Uruagu Nnewi of Anambra state which is the native community of the deceased have burnt down the house of Sunday Eze. Sunday hails from Obiofia Nnewichi Nnewi of Anambra State.

For some reasons not too hard to conjecture, Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, and his Rivers State has remained in the news following alleged ‘political’ squabbles between the prominent member of the ‘G7 rebel governors’ forum’ and the Presidency regarding, among other issues, the call to redeploy the State Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu.

But the Presidency and the opposition APC, yesterday, disagreed sharply on allegations of impunity in handling the political situation in the state.

While the presidency, through the Special Adviser to the President (Media &Publicity), Reuben Abati, denied meddling in the “domestic affairs” of Rivers, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the interim national publicity secretary of the APC, said that 2015 elections would face some challenges unless the political situation in Rivers State is checked.

Accusing The Presidency of impunity, Mohammed wondered why President Jonathan would retain Mbu in Rivers despite the fact that both chambers of the National Assembly passed resolutions recommending his redeployment.

“Even the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)”, the APC scribe said, “gave an ultimatum that was, as well, ignored.” According to him, there is the danger of replicating the Rivers incident(s) in other states. “…If this madness goes on, it will be replicated in other states come 2015. What happened in the Delta Central Senatorial by-election the previous Saturday was just a sample of what we have been crying about. In a situation where we have commissioners of police, who are untouchable and above the law like Mr. Mbu, in any state, then the result of the election of the state will be a forgone conclusion.

Describing Jonathan as a fascist, Mohammed said: “Let us concede, not admit, that the problem in the state is between the first family and Governor Amaechi. As long as he (Amaechi) remains the governor of Rivers State, he has constitutional roles to play. It is either you remove him or he resigns. But as long as he has not been removed and has not resigned, he remains the governor of the state. You (therefore) cannot continue to treat him the way he is being treated.”

But Abati, who described the opposition as being “good at thinking the worst of the best situation,” disagreed with the APC scribe and, instead, referred to Mr. President as a democrat. “No. I disagree. President Jonathan runs a democratic administration. He has been consistent in demonstrating that this is a free, democratic country under the rule of law, and that both the leaders and the governed have an obligation to conduct themselves within the bounds of the law,” said Abati

“His commitment to free and fair elections, his assenting to the Freedom of Information Law, his promotion of a culture of openness and dialogue: these provide clear evidence that he is truly a democratic leader. He took an oath of office to defend and promote a Constitution that is anchored on democratic principles, and he has been very faithful to that. Why fascism? Where did you get that word? That must have been invented in the present circumstance by someone trapped in a time warp,” he said.

On the Rivers crisis, Abati said: “When there was a scuffle in the Rivers State House of Assembly, the National Assembly, which has the constitutional responsibility to do so, waded into the matter, and as it happened, it decided to take over the functions of the State Assembly in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. Even if the Presidency is concerned, it has no powers to overrule.”

take dat: EFCC is already in a state of comatose, a tamed bulldog who neither barks nor bite. How many of the lawyers have been able to prosecute the corruption cases they handle to their logical end? Some EFCC cases have been in court for years now with no end in sight. The same lawyers who file 100's of count of charges without being able to nail anyone with just one. And who the Judges often refer back to amend their charge sheets because they did a shoddy job!

Brimmie: E.o.D!!

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We Miss Ribadu.. Yh Real Attack Dog!!

donclark: Mods front page material please https://www.nairaland.com/1480175/efcc-gone-broke-cant-pay

homesteady: EFCC is dead! Just waiting for the burial date

https://edge.punchng.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/EFCC-360x270.jpgEFCC Boss, Ibrahim Lamorde

The Federal Government’s anti-graft war, which many have dismissed as below average, may collapse as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, one of the agencies saddled with the responsibility of prosecuting the campaign, is said to be broke.

Investigations by our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday revealed that the EFCC had been finding it difficult to meet its obligations to the lawyers handling cases on its behalf.

The most affected are senior lawyers in charge of cases against influential politicians/ suspects who are either involved in high profile money laundering or outright stealing.

One of the lawyers, who disclosed this to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said he and some of his colleagues, were not happy with the turn of events.

He said that some of them had not been paid their professional fees for long, adding that this was capable of affecting their performance in court.

The lawyer said, “It may interest you to know that we have not been paid for long. I believe that the commission is broke.”

It was also gathered that the cash crunch had seriously affected the commission to the extent that its enlightenment programmes on radio and television stations had been suspended.

The programmes called Zero Tolerance, is used to educate Nigerians on the evils of corruption in the society.

Apart from that, the commission needed for also uses the programmes to inform Nigerians about its activities and ongoing cases in court.

The presenters of the programmes, especially those on television, interview notable people in the society on the evils of corruption.

But the inability of the commission to pay the affected stations, our correspondent gathered, made it to suspend the programmes.

A top source in the commission said, “It is painful that we could be in this mess. Imagine an agency fighting corruption to be financially incapacitated? It is bad.

“The programmes we suspended were designed to project the commission and also keep Nigerians abreast of the activities of the commission.

“But now, they are dead because we can’t pay the affected stations. We could have suspended the publication of our in-house magazine as well, but the Chairman resisted it and vowed to make sure that it is not suspended.”

In the last edition of the magazine, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had berated those running the commission, saying there were areas they were not doing well.

He said because of this, they should be ashamed of themselves.
Obasanjo said in the interview, which was published in the magazine, “I feel concerned about Nigeria and I will never stop feeling concerned and that’s why occasionally, I speak up.

“Even now, I am speaking up to say that all of you in EFCC, there are areas where you should be ashamed of yourselves.

“If you take an organisation which took Nigeria from level 2 to level 43 and then it starts coming down to level 34, then, something is wrong.”

The Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, had while addressing the House of Representatives earlier this year said,“It is important to note that for 2012, we requested N21.8bn from the Budget Office of the Federation out of which only N10.9bn was allocated, representing 51 per cent of our requirement.”

He further revealed that of the N300m and N700m for Legal Services and Staff/Office Equipment Insurance Premium respectively for 2012, not a kobo was allocated.

Also, the total budget estimate of N10, 97bn for 2012 represents a decrease of N2.87bn from that of 2011 appropriation figure of N13 85bn or 21 per cent thereof.

Of the N10bn acquired for the construction of the Head office in the 2012 budget, only N3bn was appropriated and as of November 21, 2012, only N1.39bn was released.

Attempts to get an official response from the Spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, were unsuccessful as he did not pick calls to his mobile telephone.
Uwujaren also did not respond to a text message sent to him on the subject as of 9pm on Tuesday.

Amnesty International has said that hundreds of people have died in Nigerian military detention centres from mistreatment or neglect this year. The group said the detainees were usually suspected of being associated with Boko Haram, a militant group that has been terrorising northern Nigeria for nearly four years.

Last May, Nigeria began its largest-ever assault on Boko Haram after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three north eastern states.

Officials say Nigeria is at war with Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group blamed for thousands of deaths since 2009.

Amnesty International researcher, Makmid Kamara, said Nigeria’s prisons were full and that crowds of Boko Haram suspects were being packed into rooms meant to accommodate 20 or 30 people.

“When mass arrests are conducted, the suspects are put in those small rooms,” he said. “Up to 100, 150 people at one time and most of these people are not fed well.”

Worse than bad food, he said, is that the rooms have no beds or toilets and sometimes no ventilation. He further said that in northern Nigerian heat, former detainees said some people literally suffocated from the poor conditions.

“During interrogations, we were told that some suspects are shot in the leg and they are left to bleed to death and they are brought back into the cells without any medical care,” he said.

The Nigerian military has repeatedly denied accusations from both international and Nigerian rights groups that soldiers are responsible for killing some suspects and arresting others without charges.

Some analysts said these amnesty accusations are unfounded because soldiers are often the targets of the insurgency and they constantly have to defend themselves.

Military officials have also said they do investigate occasional individual cases of excessive force.
However, Amnesty International has said a wider investigation is needed.

Kamara said, “we think that these allegations of people that died in detention must be investigated as a matter of urgency and those who are found as suspected perpetrators must be brought to justice in a fair trial.”

Boko Haram has attacked churches, schools, markets, communications networks, government buildings and the local UN headquarters.

The former detainees that spoke to Amnesty International were mostly in Borno and Yobe states, the heart of the insurgency. But Kamara said many reported that although they were locked up, they were not formally charged with a crime.

Governors on the platform of the All Progressive Congress have warned the Federal Government against dictatorial acts capable of adding more pains to the suffering of Nigerians.

The governors, under the aegis of The Progressive Governors Forum, PGF, said that Nigerians had already borne a lot of pains and agony arising from government failure to meet their basic needs despite being asked to be patient and make sacrifices over the years.

The governors said this in their Eid-el-Kabir message, signed by PGF Director General, Salihu Mohammed Lukman.

“We also wish to call on the federal government to imbibe the spirit of tolerance and shun all dictatorial tendencies such as the arbitrary sealing of the Adamawa State Government lodge in Abuja,” the PGF said.

“The PGF not only finds this attitude condemnable but also demands the immediate opening of the lodge to enable it conduct its normal business.

“Similarly, the PGF notes with concern, several acts of intimidation of opposition parties by the state government and the PDP in Delta State in the recent run-off election.

“This is a very dangerous trend that cannot be allowed to continue because it has grave consequences on our democracy. Freedom of choice and right of association, which are enshrined in our Constitution and must therefore be allowed to flourish, and not sacrificed for undue electoral advantage.

“We call on the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to allow Nigerians to freely and fairly elect candidates of their choice in every part of the country.

“One of the most important lessons of Eid-el-Kabir is the need for patience and sacrifice. However, it is the view of the PGF that Nigerians have been asked to make painful sacrifices too often without anything to show for their patience.

“For that reason, it is time for Nigerians to demand better service, accountability and recompense for years of patience. It is our position that any government that fails to be accountable to the electorates has lost its legitimacy.

“Sadly, Nigerians have been compelled to deal with lack of services, which has made life unbearable for all Nigerians and the resultant worsening security, poverty and unemployment situations in the country.

“Without question, any form of celebrations at this time should be marked by thoughts about our fellow countrymen and women that have lost their lives or livelihoods to one form of avoidable conflicts or disasters.

“The PGF appreciates that times are particularly difficult, and calls on Nigerians not to despair; hope is around the corner. We pledge to work with Nigerians towards finding and implementing policies that promote security of lives and property, employment generation and stimulation of economic activity so that all Nigerians would benefit from our human and materials resources and convert potentials to real benefits.

“Finally, the PGF assures Nigerians that we feel your pain and suffering and pledge to do everything we can within our powers to promote open and transparent governance at all levels, and work to develop our country based on policies and programmes that would promote security, end poverty, create jobs, guarantee the rights of every Nigerian as contained in the laws of the land.”

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed as reckless, baseless and completely unfounded the report published by a local newspaper Monday that the party has zoned its vice presidential slot to the South-west instead of South-East.

DON’T MISS: 2015: APC zones vice presidency to South-West; Aregbesola, Fashola, others disqualified
In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the report was orchestrated by those who are threatened by the high profile and prospects of the party’s candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra.

”Having realized that their attempt to milk the so-called deportation issue has fallen flat on its face, these desperate politicians have now resorted to outright lies and wild imagination. They figure that if they played the South-West against the South-East, by saying the APC has zoned the VP slot to the former over the latter, some people may just fall for it. This is cheap politics,” it said.

APC assured Nigerians that the party has, at no time, discussed the issue of its presidential and vice presidential slots, hence could not have zoned any of the posts.

”Our party is an inclusive national party which will definitely accommodate the interest of all Nigerians in all its actions. We are therefore urging all the good people of Nigeria to ignore this fabricated story. There is no iota of truth in it,” the party said
APC expressed concern that a newspaper with a good pedigree will lend itself to be used to push such a dangerous and irresponsible agenda by reporting fiction as fact.

”One would have expected a media organization that is worth its salt to be circumspect in reporting such fiction. It is particularly interesting that all the media organization had – as a basis for the story – was a ”strong indication” that the party will zone its vice presidential slot to the South-West.

”Not once was a single source quoted by name, for such an important story. This is the height of irresponsible reporting that runs against the grain of responsibility, fairness and accuracy in journalism,” the party said.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has alleged that its leaders across the country are being watched by security agencies. It said the union leaders’ lives were under threat.

ASUU said security forces were secretly investigating its leaders’ sources of finance.

https://www.osundefender.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ASUU-President-Fagge.jpg
ASUU President – Fagge

Chairman of the University of Ibadan chapter of the union, Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye, in a release titled “ASUU strike: Union leaders go underground,” said he had received calls warning him about his role in the strike. He however said the union would not bow to pressure from security agencies over its action.

Members of ASUU have been on strike since July 1 thus paralyzing academics in public universities for over three months now.

“The position of ASUU is that Nigeria is a democratic country and citizens are guaranteed freedom of association. Members of the union are apprehensive for the lives of their leaders. We urge the government to leave our leaders alone. Our leaders are our servants, we are their principals, they report to us on all matters. Rather than chasing shadow, government is once again called upon to implement the 2009 agreement with ASUU. Only this will bring members to their classrooms,” he said.

According to him, the recent security threat has forced many ASUU leaders to go underground, alleging that many of their phone numbers have been bugged.

“Apart from the issue of finance, ASUU leaders are now being trailed all over the place. Majority of our union leaders have now gone underground while many have their telephone lines bugged. Some are now living in fear for their lives,” Ajiboye said.

The Akwa Ibom State governor, Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio, may have been barred from the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, over what insiders refer to as his “poor comportment and misbehaviour” inside the seat of the Nigerian federal government.

During a recent visit to the Aso Rock Villa, the governor of the oil-rich state and Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum was said to have distributed large sums of dollars to security men and presidential aides who were on duty inside the Villa, which got to the knowledge of the President.

The seemingly corrupt influences of Gov. Akpabio may have prompted the decision of the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to bar him from the villa as Akpabio is said to be in the corrupt habit of sharing thousands of dollars to staff of the presidential villa during his visits so much so that staff of the villa always look forward to his visit and sometimes, hang around the premises even when they would have completed their shift in anticipation of Akpabio’s dollar rain!

Unaware of the President’s stance over his reckless behaviour, Akpabio recently paid another unscheduled visit to Aso Rock and was expecting the usual red carpet reception from the staff, but to his shock was denied entry and had to turn back with his entourage in shame.

The security details acting on “orders from above” refused to open the gate for him and asked him instead to go back to avoid further embarrassment .

The governor’s attempt to speak with the Nigerian First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, over the issue resulted in further rebuff as the first Lady in her characteristic bluntness told Akpabio who has made Abuja his second home to go back to Uyo and exercise his mandate of governing Akwa Ibom state instead of turning himself into a nuisance in Abuja.

Lately, Godswill Akpabio has acquired the reputation of an “unserious governor” who is always giving away hefty sums of state resources for flimsy reasons. His sponsorship of singer Tuface Idibia’s marriage to Annie Macauley, an indigene of Akwa Ibom state in faraway Dubai also earned him the nickname of “Donatus”.

Recently also, Akpabio’s gift of N50 million to the country movie industry, known as Nollywood, among several other donations seems not to have gone down well with some indigenes of the state who are wallowing in poverty over unpaid salary.

Residents of Uyo have also accused Akpabio of abandoning Akwa Ibom state, a state he fought so hard to govern especially during his campaign for re-election for Abuja, where he is said to be operating from.

“Our Governor now lives in Abuja and does not seem to care about whatever happens here. He only parachutes in to commission projects or declare open seminars and workshops and thereafter goes back to Abuja”, volunteered a senior party official who would not want his name in print.

His very frequent visits to the Presidential villa and his unruly behaviour were said to be giving President Goodluck Jonathan some serious concerns, and may have informed Jonathan’s decision to restrict his visit to the Villa. For now, Akpabio, a PDP poster boy is at some crossroads over the turn of events.