Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on Monday disclosed that the federal government will any moment from now be in possession of the the sum of £2.4 million recovered from associates of former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori.
The expected funds have brought the Delta State Government in conflict with the federal government which had already decided the funds would be spent on three of its priority projects.
Delta State Government and people have been clamouring that the funds be given the state since it was stolen from the state or at best be expended on projects in Delta State that would be of benefit to Deltans.
The federal government and the Government of United Kingdom had on March 9, this year announced that modalities were being perfected to repatriate the funds to Nigeria within two weeks.
However, Malami, in a statement on Monday while hinting that the funds would soon hit the accounts of the federal government blamed the delay on some documentations relating to international financial transactions.
The statement signed by his media aide, Dr Umar Gwandu, said, “sometimes when a country transfers funds, it may take a little bit time more than expected due to some documentations”.
He however assured that the general public will be informed once the money is received and confirmed.
“Documentations with the banks in different countries often take longer than anticipated. We anticipated two weeks but we are not in control of the banks,” he said, adding that the federal government is working assiduously to make sure that the transfer goes through successfully.
“There is neither complacency nor any delay as efforts are being made to ensure successful transfer of the looted funds,” he said.
The funds would be the first of seized assets to be returned by the UK under the UK-Nigeria MOU entered in 2016.
Ibori, had in 2012 pleaded guilty to money laundering and other charges in a UK court and was consequently sentenced to 13 years imprisonment.
Some of his family members and associates were convicted and also sentenced to prison over similar charges.
However, the federal government in the 2016 MOU has been pursuing the return of the monies and others in the UK to Nigeria.
The AGF had described the signing of the MoU as “another major milestone in our determined quest as a nation to attain full recovery of all looted assets, prevent abuse of recovered assets and also to ensure optimal utilization of such recovered assets for the benefit of our deserving citizens”.
This is why I hate Nigerian leaders, God punish them and their children and their children's children. Wicked souls. Demons. Blood suckers.
BBC Africa Eye goes undercover to expose an ineffective and corrupt pension system in Nigeria, which leaves some elderly people sick and penniless, yet grants some politicians outrageous retirement packages.
Reporter Yemisi Adagoke travels to Cross River State to meet ‘Ghost Pensioners’ – elderly people whom the state declared dead and deprived of their pensions.
Some of whom are forced to rely on financial support from their relatives and are subjected to dehumanising treatment from the state officials for petitioning for their pensions to be reinstated.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Robert Clarke, has said Nigeria might not survive the problem of insecurity for another six months.
Clarke, who was speaking on Channels Television's Programme, Sunday Politics, noted that the country was on the verge of collapse, stressing that the prevailing security situation now was worse than the situation during the Shehu Shagari-led government in 1982. He said, “The problem in Nigeria is that people who should know don't want to know and do not know. The security section is talking and talking and talking, what are they doing? The security situation in this country today is so bad that I, Robert Clarke, cannot guarantee Nigeria another six months.
“The problems are so overwhelming and they have been created by these same politicians since 1999 constitution came in to be and this crop of politicians, young boys then, who were swimming in Sani Abacha's loot and trying to form as many political parties for him, got into money and came into politics, Nigeria has never been the same.
“Nigeria is worse than it was in 1982. 1982 when Shehu Shagari was the president of the country is a better Nigeria than today, 2021. What is the cause? The cause is the leadership we have.
“Now, I want to propose about security, I may be right or wrong. Now, there is no gainsaying that Nigeria is on the brink of collapse. I had, seven years ago, 70% interest in this government, today I don't have 10% in this government again.
“Something has to be done and these are my solutions: Nigeria has to be changed from what it is today and the only way to change it is to create a state (of emergency) that will make the 1999 constitution ungovernable. We want a state of emergency to be created in Nigeria today.
“How do we do it? Under the Nigerian constitution, the President, who is the commander-in-chief has all the power to delegate all his chief powers to the chief of defence staff. Let him now talk to the president of the Senate, let him now talk to the Speaker of the house and all the governors that a state of emergency is now going to be declared in Nigeria, which means all governors must go, all legislators must go.
“The military will now set up six geographical zones that we believe in our hearts, still exists but let's start on that. Allow military governance over those states. I can assure you, the day Nigeria is released to six states, and there is a state of emergency, 80% of the money being spent on governance will be returned to the treasury. Then, we can sit and rejig Nigeria, let all the states control their internal resources."
Marigold2rock: U're damn so stupid with dis comment of urs.Is dis the only thing ur empty skull cud come up with? Knowing so well dat crime knows no clime
Someone's loved one is gone for no reason of hers, instead of u to show the least of Sympathy or empathy, U're here talking trash
I have deep sympathy for her family and sorry for her loss. But some of the crimes committed in those areas are very gruesome, why ?
owobokiri: Why not bring alqaeda and isis headquarters to Nigeria too.. It will bring in "more money" and more "job opportunities" too.. Do you even understand the policy thrust of that military agency? Buhari and his platoon of headless chickens...
They are shameless people , don’t mind them. Inferiority complex.
Ghanaian journalist Kwesi Pratt Jr says it was “disgraceful” to hear President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired Major General, urge the United States to support Nigeria in combatting security challenges across the country.
In a virtual meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken on Tuesday, Mr Buhari said AFRICOM should be relocated to Africa to strengthen ongoing efforts to check the security situation, with likely effect on other nations.
“The security challenges in Nigeria remain of great concern to us and impacted more negatively, by existing complex negative pressures in the Sahel, Central and West Africa, as well as the Lake Chad Region.
“Compounded as the situation remains, Nigeria and her security forces remain resolutely committed to containing them and addressing their root causes. The support of important and strategic partners like United States cannot be overstated as the consequences of insecurity will affect all nations hence the imperative for concerted cooperation and collaboration of all nations to overcome these challenges,” the president had said.
Speaking with Pan African Television, Mr Pratt expressed his disappointment at Mr Buhari, saying it is embarrassing for the president to have made such call, despite his promise of combatting insecurity during his campaign in 2015.
“I was so embarrassed, I was so disgraced by the Nigerian head of state in the counts of things he said, I am embarrassed by Buhari,” the journalist said while recounting Mr Buhari’s campaign against former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
“When Buhari was campaigning to replace Goodluck Jonathan, what did he tell Nigerians? That he was a former general and still a general, that he would be able to stop the operations of Boko Haram, is that not the promise he made,” he queried.
“Now the same Buhari is telling us ‘I raise my hand we can’t fight Boko Haram, come and fight Boko Haram for us’”, Mr Pratt said asking Mr Buhari to resign over failure to combat insecurity.
He should be leaving office; he has not fulfilled his promise to the Nigerian people. In any case, if Nigeria, a giant in Africa cannot deal with Boko Haram and have to go and beg Antony Blinken to bring soldiers into Lagos, Abuja, and other places to fight Boko Haram, then what would other countries like the Gambia do?” he said.
According to the experienced journalist, Africa is gradually “walking back into the embrace of our slave masters, we’re walking back into the embrace of our colonial oppressors, that is what they’re doing and these African leaders are doing that without blinking an eye, without any shame. What an embarrassment!”
Since his assumption of office, Mr Buhari has faced heavy criticisms over his failure to fulfill his campaign promises.
During his campaign in 2015, the president made over 30 campaign promises, some of which are: sustaining the anti-insurgency war and curb insecurity, rebuilding the economy, to fight corruption as well as include persons of integrity in the cabinet.
However, the president has been criticised over the years for failing to fulfill these promises, as security challenges and corruption in public offices have become more alarming.
NEW YORK – The Nigerian people have always been victims of violence by those purporting to be their leaders. Long before the colonial era, the fragment of tribes and regions were beleaguered in violence, courtesy of the feigned leaders. They were the royals, the political class, the aristocrats, and the crème de la crème of the society that were often referred to as ‘clan leaders’ including the Chiefs, the Obas, the Sarkis, or the Shugabas.
A brief history of tumoil
Over the past centuries, foreign occupiers exploited these tendencies by conjoining, rivaling, and competing tribes into one giant land mine. Firstly, the Arab slavers began in the 8th century as traders then, as slave merchants. When they developed an insatiable appetite for human labour, they moved westward. Their sole motive was human labour acquired through trickery, force, or primarily making dubious deals with the rulers at their arrival in northern Nigeria. The elites in the north often strike bargains with these Arabs, allowing the enslavement of their fellows.
This barbarism lasted about eight centuries.
While the Arabs traded in humans, they also spread their religion to justify their savagery, replacing traditional beliefs and renaming clan leaders. Sarki and Shugaba was swapped for fancy religious titles like Sultan and Emir after a duly conversion.
Then came the 1500s. The West, borrowing from the exploits of the Arabs, teamed up with the elites in southern Nigeria to continue the same violence. Their gambit was a resemblance of the Arabs. The culprits in this scheme were mainly merchants from Britain, Portugal, and France who came armed with their religion. They’ll usually hide behind the pages of the Christian Bible to elicit compliance from the savage chiefs to trade their non-disabled men and women to a distant land as plantation slaves.
Note that the Chiefs and local leaders needed little convincing. Their maniacal obsession with violence speaks louder than any iota of humanity that they may have. Like their northern brothers, the southern elites sold off their people for mere “30 pieces of silver.” Of course, the Europeans, when not conspiring with the malicious local Chiefs, were also stealing humans like goats unto awaiting ships in the Atlantic. From snatching young girls on their way to the stream to taking able-bodied youth at gunpoint when they play at the river banks, the duo of the slave merchants and the tribal leaders of Nigeria inflicted the people with unspeakable violence, human pains, and sufferings – for centuries.
Colonialism and religious manipulation
When the violence of slavery became antiquated, primarily when it became known that both religions, Christianity and Islam, preached against slavery, the European domineers met in Berlin, Germany (now infamously known as the Berlin conference 1884), where they divided Africa amongst themselves like pizza.
The conference architect, the British, took the luscious slice for itself, which included Nigeria, then embarked on 76 years of oppression, plundering, and total ravage. Their feat was made possible mainly with the help of the willing local collaborators – the elites. For short-term benefits, the Nigerian leaders colluded with foreigners to persecute and hegemonize their people.
In addition to brute rule, they challenged the people’s worldview, way of life, and the idea of worship in favour of alien customs, beliefs, and religion. The Nigerian elites continued unashamedly to help in the plundering of both individual and the country’s wealth, allowing the despoilers to cart them off to Europe for the benefits of their crown. Even some locals were used as watchmen to keep an eye on rebellious tribes.
While Nigeria roasted in violence, its Chiefs, Kings, and political class reaped the rewards occasioned in bribery, off-hand deals, and promises of security and political positions by the imperialist.
Soon enough, in the 20th century, the waves of independence swept the entire world, particularly in Africa, the practice of domination became uncomfortable for the colonialists. Under a surreptitious yet illicit arrangement, the British expectedly handed power to their pals, the crooked and privileged political class and elites; a move meant to continue the western domination through a pseudo-independence in October 1960.
Unbeknownst to unsuspecting citizens, they were expecting more from their own, many of whom have now claimed power. But in utter disappointment, they quickly realized that their people continued the predatory and exploitative behavior of the colonial masters. Only this time, their new masters looked and bore the same names as them.
Within a short period of tasting power, the leaders in competing regions turned on each other; the result was a bloody civil war that lasted almost three years, from 1967 to 1970, killing close to 2 million innocent Nigerians and displacing many more.
The era of corruption and violence in Nigeria
As we can see, the Nigerian nation has always been a society roasted in violence and predatory leadership, perpetrated by external and internal forces. The average Nigerian has not seen a hiatus of tears and anguish for over 13 centuries, even until this day.
The pinnacle of the violence came in the form of corruption. Corruption appears to be the most sinister and depraved violent crime the political class ever inflicted on the Nigerian people; a crime which ensures that nothing will function in the country.
Today, no institution of government necessary for the support of civil society is operable; from infrastructure, healthcare, electricity, judiciary, to facilitating free and fair elections, and yes, security. All are in chaos and deplorable states.
Hunger, poverty, and immeasurable deaths devastate the land. Deaths from preventable institutional and infrastructural failures. From the incalculable vehicular deaths emanating from the nation’s hazardous roadways to the avoidable ones; from the rickety hospitals, due to underfunding and epileptic power supply, to the brazen killings from armed robberies, kidnappings, cattle herders, terrorists, I can go on and on and on.
The dashing of hopes and futures
Having lost all hope, the helpless citizens results in violence engendered by the elites and the political power hoarders who failed to think beyond self. Their action now is no different than when they were aligning their pockets while in bed with the slavers and imperialists. Only this time, they peculate public money meant for infrastructures and other institutions. They are human monsters, hope killers, wreckers of joy, and destroyers of dreams without remorse.
Now Nigeria is in flames. By denying the people access to the bare essentials necessary for life, the political class has preempted life, assaulted liberty, and shattered the people’s joy.The dividends from their traitorous action is Boko-Haram insurgencies, banditry-terrorism, marauders parading as cattle herders, kidnappings, abductions, jihadist, armed robberies, etc.
Their willful negligence, disregard, and apathetic approach right from the president, the National Assembly to the governors and ministers amid a rupturing country is breathtakingly jarring. Perhaps, they’ll prefer to be called “leaders of the ashes.”
No Nigerian has never been this unsafe within the country’s borders. From Goronyo to Ikot Ekpene, Makurdi to Abeokuta, virtually all roadways connecting the 36 states in the federation harbors criminality, and mayhem lurks. Expectedly, the West has now warned its citizens against traveling to Nigeria as the country is now deemed unsafe.
The Nigerian elites and political class must however know that “no condition is permanent.”
The families and children of the men and women they’ve allowed to perish in violence due to their neglect and profiteering will soon rise and demand accountability for decadesof misrule. When they do, it may not be the historical round table discussion.
Some elements who have taken control of the government are using terrorists to fight a proxy war with the South. My fear is when they finally engage Boko Haram to go South because those Boko boys have latest sophisticated weapons that have been "gifted" them via various ambushes and raids.
You are highly intelligent. Many intellectual idiots don’t get it.
ygowon: U mentioned Umahi, how about the newly launched airport in Anambra? I just hate the fact that you BMC guys fail to understand that we all are in this mess. If the government and the security does not live up to their task, people will start defending themselves. Nnewi just launched their community security outfit. That means the Fulani government that was elected for providing security and welfare has failed. Go to Niger state, they prefer to pay the bandits than to be slaughtered. That can not happen in the SE. So, just go and read good books to improve in your reasoning because everyone is in the mess
A partnership deal has been struck between outsourcing service provider BLS International and data and digital enrolment services firm Files Solutions Limited to help Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) offer biometric enrollment services to Nigerians residing in the United Kingdom, BLS said in a press release.
There are an estimated 205,000 Nigerians in the UK, with about 97,000 of them living in London.
Per the three-year deal, BLS will enable NIMC to enroll the biometrics and biographical data of the Nigerians for the issuance of national identification numbers (NINs) as part of a digital identity database enrolment program which is also ongoing back home.
According to the BLS announcement, its center in London will soon begin handing out NINs, as well as the General Multi-purpose Cards (GMPCs) which will be used by Nigerians abroad for various purposes including passport issuance, voter registration, and the opening of a bank account, among others.
The biometrics-backed NIN is also mandatory for certain services in Nigeria such as for delivery of driver’s licenses and registration for entrance into public universities.
Shikhar Aggarwal, joint managing director for BLS International, expressed delight after the deal was concluded, saying the company looks forward to offering streamlined services for NIMC.
“We are delighted to support the initiative by National Identity Management Commission, Nigeria by assisting them to streamline their identity management services for Nigerian citizens. Our domain expertise and tech-enabled services will help in seamless roll out of the project and making it successful. We are delighted by strengthening our footprint with newer partnerships serving global as well as local client governments,” said Aggarwal.
As part of this ID services management process, helplines, an email contact address and a website will be put at the disposal of users in the days ahead, the announcement says.
This activity is not new to BLS International, as it has executed identity management and verification projects for the governments of Canada, Afghanistan and Egypt.
Gov. David Umahi of Ebonyi has declared his intention to negotiate with bandits to ascertain their grievances and the way forward.
Umahi made the declaration on Friday in Abakaliki at the presentation of 40 Toyota Sienna vehicles and 20 Hilux vans to security agencies for enhanced operations in the state.
The governor directed local government chairmen and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to identify the bandits and present them for debriefing.
“I won't talk to the bandits and empower them as we cannot continue to kill ourselves and destroy public infrastructure. “The bandits are our children and I am pained when they or the security agencies are killed.
“I want to ascertain their grievances against the Ebonyi or federal government, collate the facts for discussions to commence,” he said.
He expressed disappointment over the announcement of guidelines for the 2023 elections, noting that the nation was at a crossroads for such engagement.
“Let us forget about the 2023 elections with the leaders taking responsibility for the situation and discussing a way forward. “No one takes money to the grave and when we hear a gunshot, we will run and abandon the money we amassed.
“This is not a period to discuss political parties but ensure that the resources of this nation which can truly transform it is judiciously utilised,” he said.
Umahi debunked the insinuation that members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) or Eastern Security Network (ESN) were after him, insisting that he has discharged his duties to the people.
Dr Kenneth Ugbala, Secretary to the State Government said that the presentation was the first batch of the 100 sienna vehicles and 40 utility vehicles to be procured for security agencies.
“The governor has fully paid for the 40 sienna vehicles and 20 Hilux vans being presented as the recipients are charged to judiciously utilise the vehicles.
“I want to thank the governor for this feat despite the prevailing economic challenges as he had earlier distributed 70 utility vehicles to security agencies in 2019,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the heads of various security agencies, top government officials, youth groups among other stakeholders, witnessed the presentation ceremony.
Some farmers in Ogoni land, Rivers State, have raised the alarm over the invasion of their farmlands by herdsmen, saying they allowed their livestock to feed on their crops.
The farmers, all women said they have suffered huge losses due to the destruction of their farmlands, pointing out that they were unable to access their farms for fear of being attacked.
The women who spoke during a one-day sensitisation programme on security, organised by Lokiaka Community Development Centre in Port Harcourt lamented that they now find it difficult to feed their families as their source of livelihood was under threat.
Some of the affected women are Mary Amanikpo, a native of Lueku community in Nyo-Khana, Mercy Glory of Sogho community Khana and Yeye Nkani, a native of Eleme, all in Ogoni land, Rivers State.
Glory said, “When the herdsmen came into my community since last year they have been destroying our cassava to the extent that we could not bear it again.
“Sometimes ago, my son approached them and pursued them out from the farmland but they threatened my son with their daggers and matchets. He narrowly escaped being killed.
“We went to the community and reported to the youth leader and went back to the farm the following day, I personally asked one of the herdsmen what happened to my cassava that they have destroyed and I don’t have anyone to harvest for food or to sell for my children upkeep, he told me that my community chief has collected money from them and they will stay till their money is exhausted.”
She further said all efforts to make their government representatives intervene in the matter and to enable them to return to their farms had proved unsuccessful.
Glory said, “Our local government chairman and our representative at the State House of Assembly are aware of this but have not done anything to help us. We the Ogoni women are all farmers and it is what we profit from farming that we use in training our children and doing all we want to do as a livelihood.”
“The government should send all these herdsmen away from our land and empower our women to return back to active farming.”
Earlier, Executive Director of Lokiaka, Martha Agbani, explained that the meeting was to sensitise them on how to be vigilant and security conscious while in their farms.
Politics › Re: Nigeria To Receive £2.4m James Ibori Loot ( Former Delta State Governor ) by Winnerforever(op): 6:37pm On May 03, 2021
