₦airaland Forum

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission today arraigned the Taraba State Accountant – General, Joel Joseph Lenbang, before Justice Donatus Nwabueze Okorowo of the Federal High Court Jalingo for defrauding Taraba State Government to the tune of N1.56 billion. He was docked on an 8-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretense, offenses contrary to and punishable under the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006.
When the charges were read to him, the accused person pleaded not guilty. The malfeasance came to light following a petition received from a concerned Taraba State indigene, sometime in February 2014, alleging massive looting of Taraba state funds. The petition triggered investigation of the lifestyle of some of the officers mentioned in the petition and who were believed to be living above their means.
The investigation uncovered systematic withdrawal of state funds through a scheme mastermind by the accountant - general of the State, Joel Lengbang. Withdrawals were allegedly made under the guise that such monies were used for sundry payments on behalf of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), as well as payment of Bank Commissions on Turn over (COT) and Value Added Tax (VAT) which became a monthly affair. A total sum of N1,567,226,557.081 (one billion, five hundred and sixty seven million, two hundred and twenty six thousand, five hundred and fifty seven naira, eighty one kobo) was discovered to have been looted from the state treasury between January 2012 and December 2013.
In view of the plea of the accused, prosecuting counsel, Al Qasim Ja’afar applied for a date to commence trial. Counsel to accused, Abayomi Akamode, however, informed the court that he had filed a motion for bail this morning and urged the court hear it. But Al Qasim told the court that he was just served the motion on notice in court and would need time to peruse and respond appropriately.
Justice Okorowo adjourned the case till July 11, 2014 for hearing of the bail application and remanded the accused in prison custody.
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President Goodluck Jonathan Wednesday swore in four new ministers. Former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, is the new Minister of Education, Dr. Stephen Oritse Oru is to oversee Ministry of Niger Delta.
Dr. Abdu Gulama is the Minister of Science and Technology, while Prince Adebayo Adeyeye is the Minister of State for Works.
Jonathan also deployed the Minister of State for Works, Alhaji Bashir Yuguda to the Ministry of Finance as Minister of State for Finance.
Yuguda is currently overseeing the Ministry of National Planning.
At the swearing in ceremony held at the Presidential Villa, Jonathan congratulated his new cabinet members for their appointment.
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Moyesha Boudong is a beautiful Ghanaian actress and model with a few movies and TV shows to her credit. The 24 year old fast rising actress shows off her hot body in these sexy new photos.
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Scientists believe they may have accidentally found the key in the human brain that, when turned or tweaked the right way, seems to switch our consciousness on and off.
A team led by Mohamad Koubeissi at the George Washington University was working with a patient with epilepsy, placing electrodes deep in her brain in an attempt to determine where seizures were originating.
According to the New Scientist, high-frequency electrical impulses were delivered to a region of the patient’s brain next to the claustrum, an area that had never been stimulated before. What happened next was a little bizarre.
The woman remained awake, but lost consciousness. She stopped the reading she was in the midst of and stared blankly as her breathing slowed and she failed to respond to visual or audio cues. Quite simply, she had been “shut off” like so many androids in bad science fiction and seemed to be sleeping with her eyes open. Once the electrical stimulation of the woman’s claustrum ceased, she immediately “woke up” with no memory of the period. The researchers were able to replicate the same effect every time they stimulated the area during two days of experiments. The results were published last week in the journal Epilepsy and Behavior.
“I would liken it to a car,” Koubeissi told New Scientist. “A car on the road has many parts that facilitate its movement… but there’s only one spot where you turn the key and it all switches on and works together… we may have found the key.”
But this single case, which involved a patient who had already had part of her brain’s hippocampus removed to treat her epilepsy, can hardly be considered conclusive proof of anything just yet.
Nonetheless, the research is undeniably intriguing and Koubeissi plans to investigate further into the claustrum’s potential to be the key to treating epileptic seizures.
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Mike Ezuruonye shares pics of Son to Clears the air over claims that he bleached his skin.
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Multiple Grammy-winning legend and one of the most highly acclaimed and successful solo artists of all time, Elton John has said he believes he knows where Jesus would have stood on the same-s*x marriage debate.According to him, if Jesus was alive, he would have supported it because he all about love and bringing people together.Watch the video below
[url]=http://360topsgist..com/2014/07/elton-john-says-jesus-would-support.html#.U7MbdN5THIU[b]=SEE VIDEO[/b][/url]

Federal Government Tuesday pegged the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB) cut-off marks for 2014 admissions into Universities at 180, while Polytechnics and Colleges of Education(COE)were placed at 150 respectively.

The cut off points were arrived at on Tuesday, after the 5th Combined Policy meeting on admissions to tertiary institutions held at the National Universities Commission.

Supervising Minister of Education,Nyesom Wike who declared the meeting open frowned at the inability of most tertiary institutions to utilise their admission quota.

Wike however said in view of efforts to boost access, institutions which fail to utilise their admission quota for 2014 will be sanctioned.

He reiterated Federal Government’s commitment to the development of ICT training, which he said has already been inculcated as part of the standard curriculum at the secondary school level.

“I have been brief that despite the rising demand for higher education vis-a-vis the availability of a large number of qualified candidates,some institutions did not fully utilise the admissions quota approved for them by relevant regulatory agencies in 2013.

“This disservice to the Nigeria child is totally unacceptable,in line with efforts of the federal government to improve access,let me urge you all to with effect from today,work assiduously to ensure that all admission spaces in your institutions for the current year are fully utilized within the approved time frame,”he stated.

Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB,Dibu Ojerinde in his presentation gave a statistical run down of candidates preference for tertiary education.

He said after the conduct of the 2014 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination(UTME) candidates who applied for degree awarding institutions or universities totalled 1,584,348 representing 97.070, NCE applicants totalled 25,767 representing 1.579, ND a paltry 22,072 representing 1.349 while NID had just 46 representing 0.003.

Ojerinde wondered while Nigeria’s educational system has consistently failed to embrace technical education in its quest for industrialization, saying the British which Nigeria copied the polytechnic education from now award degree in all its polytechnics.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/national-news/168872-jamb-pegs-varsities-cut-off-marks-at-180-poly-coes-at-150

Kokomaster decided to end his relationship with sexy Jennifer Obayuwana, daughter of Founder/Managing Director of Polo Luxury, John Obayuwana, due to her arrogance and lack of respect for her man, the babe is now singing a different tune all together.
After a long silence, Jennifer has finally broken her silence, confirming that her relationship with D'banj is indeed over but she claimed that she was the one who dumped him. Below is what she said:
“For the record, I am no longer dating D’Banj. It’s true we dated about four years ago and we have since called it quit... I left him (D’Banj) because he is a womanizer, you know now.
[url]=http://360topsgist..com/2014/06/i-have-dumped-dbanj-hes-womanizer.html#.U7F_RhCTgqE[b]=SEE SOURCE[/b][/url]

Portuguese reports claim Manchester United have sent a delegation to negotiate a fee for Sporting Lisbon midfielder William Carvalho. The 22-year-old has been an on-off target for United over recent months with concerns that he is over-priced at £37.5million - his buy-out clause.
Monaco and Chelsea have also shown an interest with the affluent French league side in particular tipped to land the Portugal international having already offered £27million
Big spending Monaco have already offered £27million for Carvalho United target Carvalho takes out two players in one tackle
Real Madrid and Juventus have also looked at Carvalho who is considered an alternative to Paul Pogba and is managed by superagent Jorge Mendes. The 6ft 2ins powerhouse has six caps for his country and started against Ghana in their final World Cup group game. United have a good relationship with Sporting having signed Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo in the past.
They need a defensive midfielder and have been offered a deal for Nigel de Jong at AC Milan with the Italians keen to raise money.
Real Madrid are also willing to sell Sami Khedira who has attracted enquiries and offers from United, Chelsea and Arsenal in the past 12 months.
[url]=http://360topsgist..com/2014/06/manchester-united-move-to-complete.html#.U7F0RhCTgqE[b]=SEE SOURCE[/b][/url]

An 87-year-old woman, Mrs. Sanusi Adebisi, has locked horns with the Union Bank Plc over the N253,000 withdrawn from her account in the bank via the Internet sometime in October 2013.The claimant told the Magistrates Court sitting at the Ojokoro, Agbado area of Lagos that she just got N200,000 of the sum from her cooperatives to operate the tumour in her eye.She told the court that the tumour had worsened since the scam took place because no longer had money to get rid of it.
Adebisi, who sells drinks in Orile-Agege, said she had been the sole signatory to her account since 1970s before her only daughter, Sanusi Ifedayo, was included as a joint signatory due to a health problem.
Ifedayo claimed she did not know anything about Internet transaction and told the court that she had rejected the use of an ATM card for the account, but an official of the bank insisted that she applied for it, saying some amount could not be cashed across the counter.
I had withdrawn N40, 000 for Mama (mother) that day before the scam. It was my husband who went to greet her that very day that noticed the debit alerts on her phone.
I wrote a letter of complaint to the bank and its officials promised to investigate the matter. After a week, I was told that the money was withdrawn online by an unknown person. I dont even know how to operate a Facebook account not to talk of using Internet for transaction. The bank is in best position to tell us what transpired, she said.
She also claimed that she had never revealed the ATM pin to anyone.
The claimants counsel, Mr. Gbenga Julius, presented before the court, a signed and stamped printout of his clients statement of account reportedly accessed from the Union Bank an exhibit the defence counsel, Mr. Seyi Solaja, refuted.
Solaja maintained that the exhibit was not the same as the one the bank issues to its customers, adding that it was null and void under Section 84 of Evidence Act.
The magistrate, Mrs. T. Akani adjourned the case to July 27, 2014 for further hearing.
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