₦airaland Forum

Sources at the University of Nigeria (Nsukka), Nigeria’s first indigenous university, have disclosed to SaharaReporters that some members of the university’s governing council have resumed their plot to punish a lecturer, Ugochukwu Uche, who exposed fraudulent academic claims made by Mrs. Uche Modum, a professor of accounting at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) and a former Commissioner with the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). Uche Modum is a professor of Accounting at the University of Nigeria Nsukka

One source told SaharaReporters that Mrs. Modum and her allies on the governing council were determined to move urgently against the whistleblowing professor, Ugochukwu Uche. “The woman’s [Professor Modum’s] supporters on the council feel that, once [President-elect Muhammadu] Buhari takes over, the atmosphere may no longer be conducive to carry out their reprisals,” the source said.

On December 13, 2012 and July 23, 2014, SaharaReporters published documentary evidence that showed that Mrs. Modum has been involved in multiple academic forgeries. One of the key forgeries was an acceptance letter from a top American journal, Management Accounting (now Strategic Finance), which purportedly accepted two of her papers for publication. The editor of the journal has since disavowed this shoddily forged letter in writing by the editor of the journal. Yet, the purported acceptance letter was part of the documents Mrs. Modum submitted in support of her application for promotion to the rank of full professor.

In her 2008 CV published on the UNN official website, Mrs. Modum also falsely claimed that she had authored 17 journal articles. Our investigation revealed that many of the so-called “published articles” she listed do not exist. Yet, the distortions on the CV became the basis of her false claim to the School of Postgraduate Studies UNN that she had published 8 journal articles on accounting and/ or in accounting journals. The essence of this false claim was to enable her to gain approval for PhD supervision in accounting.

Mrs. Modum also falsely claimed in her 2009 official CV, which was circulated to the entire members of the UNN Senate when she unsuccessfully contested for the Office of Deputy Vice Chancellor, that she had published more than 25 journal articles. She also claimed, incorrectly, in both her 2008 and 2009 official CVs that she worked in a nonexistent “Jones and Jones Inc.”, a certified public accounting firm purportedly based in Dayton, Ohio, in the US. In another apparent misrepresentation, Mrs. Modum filed more than one date of birth, enabling her to remain on the staff of the university past what should have been her mandatory retirement age.

For our previous reports on the controversy, see: http://saharareporters.com/2014/07/23/fresh-investigations-confirm-academic-fraud-uche-modum-accounting-professor-university and: http://saharareporters.com/2012/12/13/former-icpc-commissioner-uche-modum-embroiled-academic-fraud-unn.

One source at UNN told SaharaReporters, “While I consider Professor Modum’s reported misrepresentations to be grave, the brazen nature of the impunity with which very influential and high-ranking UNN officials have tried to muzzle Professor Uche and other voices of protest in the past is by far more troubling.”

Shortly after we first broke the story, the then Vice Chancellor of UNN, Bartho N. Okolo, publicly stated in writing that it was too late to punish Mrs. Modum. Mr. Okolo wrote: “UNN will be making a public statement on this and other attacks on a great institution. Prof. (Mrs.) Modum might have made a mistake, but does not deserve all the insults. It is already too late to do anything since she has been educating students in the most excellent manner. What she did not have in publications, she now has in experience.”

According to one source at UNN, Mr. Okolo’s main response to the controversy was to appoint a committee consisting of his friends and beneficiaries. The source then said the committee commenced the process of “silencing Professor Uche, the former Dean of the Faculty of Business for the crime of using due diligence during a routine credentialing exercise to discover and report discrepancies in the credentials of a senior colleague.”

The committee’s first move was to indict the former Dean for daring to embarrass Mrs. Modum. Mr. Ugochukwu Uche was reportedly verbally admonished. The whistleblower was ordered to apologize to Mrs. Modum, and then to accept an official reprimand that would remain in his academic record. If he refused the instructions, he was reportedly made to understand that he would lose his job.

Mr. Uche’s appeal that he was merely doing his job, and that he was prepared to leave the matter to “the collective conscience of the school authorities” was reportedly rebuffed by the powerful powerbrokers backing Mrs. Modum. According to our sources, that powerful bloc included the VC of UNN as well as several council members. “They are insisting that the professor [Mr. Uche] should recant or face serious punishment, including termination of his appointment.”

SaharaReporters learnt that at least one lecturer, identified as a female professor of ophthalmology who was a deputy Vice Chancellor under Professor Okolo, refused to sign the questionable report that cleared Mrs. Modum and indicted her accuser, defying extensive pressure.

A senior lecturer at UNN told SaharaReporters that, while he was not sure about the specifics of the case between Mrs. Modum and Mr. Uche, he was well aware of a chilling culture of “don’t ask, don’t tell” prevailing at the university and enforced by perceived “power brokers” in dealing with issues of academic fraud. “Any lecturer who steps on big toes here is dealt with,” he said, adding that there were some charlatans at the university “willing to do whatever is needed to protect their own.”

Another lecturer told SaharaReporters that he had been victimized for raising questions about another colleague’s credentials, specifically related to claims about publications. “The truth is that what obtains here is not different from what obtains in other Nigerian institutions of higher learning and even larger society. People can get away with anything because there is a culture of impunity in this country. The hunter is easily turned into the hunted,” said the source.

The most recent investigation by SaharaReporters revealed that some of the major players in the unfolding drama are connected in interesting ways, and some of them appear to be playing out scripts based on personal relationships and ties. UNN’s current pro-chancellor and chairman of the university’s governing council, Emmanuel Ukala, is a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who is reportedly close to Mrs. Modum and her husband, E.P. Modum, a retired professor of French at UNN and a former commissioner in the old Anambra State.

According to highly reliable sources, Mr. Ukala is the personal lawyer to Mr. Nyesom Wike, the governor-elect of Rivers State. Mr. Wike, who once served as acting Minister for Education, appointed Mr. Emmanuel Ukala, who is also his kinsman, as pro-chancellor of UNN.

“In order to clear the way for the appointment of Mr. Emmanuel Ukala (SAN) as pro-chancellor, Chief Wike dismissed the former occupant of the office, Mr. Emeka Enejere,” a senior academic staff at UNN said. He added: “This was after Mr. Enejere had submitted a probe report on the administration of Prof. Bartho Okolo which documented numerous financial irregularities. The first assignment of Mr. Ukala as UNN Pro Chancellor was to quash the numerous findings of corruption against Mr. Okolo.”

SaharaReporters had earlier reported that the UNN’s former VC, Mr. Okolo, was involved in large scale contract splitting and award of contracts to nonexistent companies. See: http://saharareporters.com/2011/08/22/contract-splitting-fraud-and-cover-university-nigeria-nsukka. See also: http://saharareporters.com/2011/10/01/contract-splitting-fraud-and-cover-university-nigeria-nsukka.

One source at the university told SaharaReporters that, since our first report on Mrs. Modum’s credentials controversy, several stakeholders at the university “have expressed concern about the implications of sacrificing the institutional reputation of UNN in order to shield a single person, namely Professor Modum.” The source showed our correspondent copies of letters written by some UNN stakeholders to the pro-chancellor expressing concern about the implications of his complicity and/ or inaction in the matter involving Mrs. Modum. One of the letters was written by a first class honors graduate of UNN who is currently a vice chancellor in one of the universities in southwest Nigeria while a second one was written by another illustrious alumnus, a managing director of a commercial bank in Nigeria.

According to our source, “the pro-chancellor has, in his characteristic style, ignored all such letters.”

A professor at UNN who is familiar with this case told SaharaReporters wondered why the authorities at UNN would order Mr. Uche to apologize to Mrs. Modum “for character assassination even though they never informed him which of his assertions were false.”

SaharaReporters learned that Mr. Uche’s request to get a copy of the “character assassination judgment” was denied by the UNN Council in writing. The university also denied him legal representation.

The perceived breaches to Mr. Uche’s fundamental right to fair hearing reportedly led him to petition the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). He urged the NHRC to compel UNN to respect his basic human right by at least informing him of the specific aspects of his assertions about Mrs. Modum’s credentials the university had found to be false. He also asked the human rights body to ensure that UNN allowed him legal representation as a defendant and the right to cross- examine his accusers before the university could pronounce judgment.

A source at the NHRC in Abuja told our correspondent that UNN authorities simply ignored the inquiries the commission made in writing on the matter.

SaharaReporters learned that the lecturer who questioned Mrs. Modum’s credentials then petitioned the National Assembly claiming that the UNN Council was desperately trying to shield a serial forger and fraudster. The National Assembly reacted through a firmly worded letter captioned, PETITION TO INTERVENE IN THE ATTEMPT TO SUBVERT JUSTICE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA NSUKKA: INVITATION TO INVESTIGATIVE HEARING. The said letter directed UNN authorities to maintain the status quo and to settle the matter administratively within one month failing which the National Assembly would conduct a public hearing on the matter.

A source within the university’s council informed SaharaReporters that the prospects of a public hearing on the issue rattled Mr. Emmanuel Ukala, the council’s chairman. He reportedly told a few council members close to him that the best solution would be for Mrs. Modum to quietly retire. “The idea was that, once she retired, Council could then claim that the numerous allegations of forgeries against her would be deemed beyond its capacity to adjudicate.”

Our source stated that Mr. Ukala later changed his mind, and decided that the “best approach would be for the university to pretend to be looking into the matter until members of the National Assembly preoccupied themselves with the election season which was then fast approaching.” Our source added: “The logic was that, once every member of the [legislature] got into election mode, it would be impossible for the National Assembly to hold a public hearing.” SaharaReporters learned that, in line with this plan, Mr. Ukala “directed the management of the university to write the National Assembly to request for more time to enable the university to look into the matter.”

Convinced that the National Assembly was now effectively neutralized, the council of the university held a meeting a few days before the March 28, 2015 presidential and national legislative elections. The council once again raised the issue of forcing Mr. Uche to apologize to Mrs. Modum. According to one source, “during the meeting, Mr. Ukala feigned neutrality while his supporters canvassed that Council should ignore the National Assembly (as it ignored the NHRC) and sanction Professor Uche who reported the fraud for refusing to apologize to Professor Modum.”

Even so, one or two participants at the meeting reportedly advised caution, arguing that the most important duty of Council “is to ensure that justice is done in this matter,” said one source.

He said those who opposed rushing to penalize Mrs. Modum’s accuser felt that the documentary evidence against the accused professor was “very weighty.” He added: “It would be a shame if the UNN Council is found to be proactively aiding and abetting forgery. And unless Council has something to hide, the proper thing would be for it to cooperate fully with statutory organs that have oversight powers over its operations.”

Unable to agree, the UNN Council adjourned a decision on this matter to its next meeting, SaharaReporters learned. “This decision was very frustrating for Mr. Ukala,” said one source.

An Abuja-based lawyer told SaharaReporters that he believes the matter “should be the subject of a thorough public hearing once the next set of National Assembly members are sworn in.” He added: “The belief that the oversight intervention of the National Assembly, on matters of abuse of office and aiding and abetting of forgery like this one, will expire with the end of the tenure of the current National Assembly, is pedestrian and uninformed.” Referring to Mr. Ukala, the UNN’s chairman of council, the lawyer said he and other members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) would be “greatly embarrassed if it turns out that a man clad in the prestigious silk robe is involved in covering fraud and undermining statutory organs of government empowered to prevent such fraud and its cover up. In any civilized or less corrupt part of the world, such a senior member of the bar would be debarred and jailed if he is found to have played a role in covering fraud.”

Several UNN lecturers alleged that some of the Council members who appear most anxious to foreclose a thorough scrutiny of the allegations Mrs. Modum are people who had in the past been saved by the same corrupt system. One of them cited the example of Ernest Onwasigwe who was reportedly shielded when an external professor formally exposed the malpractice he committed in his desperation to become a professor. “An external evaluator wrote to the authorities here [UNN] and accused Professor Onwasigwe of attempting to bribe him to write a favorable report in support of his promotion to professorship,” said the source.

A lecturer at UNN said the question on many lips was what should be the fate of a Governing Council suspected of hounding a whistleblower, shielding a lecturer accused of making false claims about her credentials, and undermining statutory organs of the government empowered to oversee Federal institutions. “Unless the Council can convince its critics that they acted in accord with justice and ethics in this matter, they should be swept away as soon as possible by the incoming president [Muhammadu Buhari],” he said.

“As a stakeholder in UNN, I believe that the main victim in this shameful episode is the reputation of UNN,” said an Abuja-based lawyer who graduated from the university.
http://saharareporters.com/2015/05/05/university-nigeria-nsukka-governing-council-plotting-afresh-punish-professor-who-exposed

Below is the full transcript of the video clip released by “killed” Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau. He spoke in Hausa but his speech was translated to English by our reporter, Ola Audu.

“Without wasting time, we hereby send a message to the tyrants of Nigeria and other infidels as well as their world tyrants as a whole in Hausa language.

“You people should understand that we only obey Allah, we tread the path of the Prophet. We hope to die on this path and get eternal rest in our graves, rise up in bliss before our Lord and enter Paradise (quotes from the Koran). Our goal is the Garden of Eternal Bliss. May Allah protect us.

“Oh you followers of constitution, have you forgotten your laws? Since the time we were preaching in Maiduguri, in your constitution in Section 8, verse (paragraph) 2 to 3, in your accursed book called Constitution, which became law for those who are not fair to themselves on earth.

“You shamelessly declared in your radio and newspapers that you were fighting those determined to establish an Islamic state.

“Because of that constitution that barred us from preaching in Maiduguri, we moved out and migrated as Allah ordained (quoting from the Koran).

“Have you forgotten that? And it is you today claiming we made truce with you? In what way did we make truce? Which kind of negotiation, with whom? That your Danladi, the infidel like you, who we will not spare and will decapitate if he falls into our hands today?

“Where do we know him, not to talk of him representing us? Who is Danladi on this earth?

“Allah knows everything. Allah is witness (quoting from the Koran).

“Therefore I tell you (that) we have not made ceasefire with anyone. Only battle, hitting, striking and killing with gun which we long for like tasty meal. This what we believe in and fight for.

“Our goal is to see only Koran being followed on earth. This is our focus.

“It is said Chadian President, Nigerian ambassador, the people of Cameroon and us met and agreed on a truce. How? Don’t you know we are still holding your German hostage, always crying. If we wish we hack him or slaughter him or shoot him. We fear no one but Allah. This is our job.

“When did we release Chibok schoolgirls that we seized, those that Shekau who is now talking, seized, brought them and kept them in the place he chose for more than six months now.

“Allah has proved too difficult for the infidel, Allah has proved too difficult for the tyrant, Allah has proved too difficult for the United States, Allah has proved too difficult for a plane called drone, bastard. Allah has proved too difficult for everyone. Allah is mightier than everyone.

“Surprisingly, if the women of Chibok, I mean the mothers of the Chibok schoolgirls and their fathers, if you know the condition your daughters are in today it could lead some to convert to Islam and some to die from grief.

“Don’t you know the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls have converted to Islam? They have now memorised two chapters of the Koran. They have seen themselves in the Books of Luke and John that Christians have corrupted the Bible. Girls from Chibok confessing Islam is the true religion! A six-grader, liars.

“We married them off. They are in their marital homes. (Laughter)

“Fury upon fury. Shekau can infuriate. It is said Shekau is leadership position. Which leadership? Do you think we are practising traditional monarchy? (Laughter). It is the same Shekau whose father is Muhammadu, his son is Muhammadu, his name is Abubakar. It is the same Shekau, he is still the one. Shekau, eat the heart of infidels since infidels want to disobey Allah.

“We did not negotiate with anyone. We did not negotiate with anyone. We did not negotiate with Chad. We did not negotiate with Cameroon. We did not negotiate with Nigeria. We did not negotiate with the Chadian ambassador. We did not negotiate with Africa. We did not negotiate with Asia. We did not negotiate with Europe. We did not negotiate with America. We did not negotiate with the United Nations.

“What is negotiation? We did not negotiate with anyone. It is a lie. It is a lie. We will not negotiate. What is our business with negotiation? Allah said we should not (quoting from the Koran).

“We follow the Koran. We will not be teased by any infidel. Now you don’t know what to do, you want to convince your leaders that are tired of you, that have realised your lies, including your Solomon Dalung, your Abdullahi Wase, your Senator Ndume.

“They are tired of you, they have realised you are deceiving them, you are playing with their intelligence, you just want to protect your own interests. It is bad for you.

“I’m only making this speech for those people who want to convert to Islam. I don’t care whatever you say. What is my business with you? Allah is my focus. I left my parents’ home. I left my mother and my father, I left my relations and joined those who want to practise Islam (quoting from the Koran). And you are trying to deceive people with negotiation.

“I thank Allah. I started with knife and today I have seized more than 20 of our armoured vehicles, they are in my possession.

“It is said Shekau is a position. Bravo to you Orator. Well done to you who studied in Israel. Well done to you the expert in Psychology, well done you expert in Biology, well done you believer in ‘I pledge to Nigeria my country’. This is what you said.

“You pledge to Nigeria your country. Right? Me, me Shekau I pledge to Allah my God. If you don’t know, today you will know.

“I pledge to Allah my God, to be faithful. This is Shekau. Idiot like you!

“This is just my speech in brief.

“You should repent and turn to Allah and follow the Koran. You should follow the Koran. You should follow the Koran. You are so unfortunate as to be preventing those who follow the Koran obeying Allah. “It is a lie. It is a lie. Whoever refuses to listen will be dealt with by Allah.”
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/170441-full-transcript-of-shekaus-latest-video-on-ceasefire-deal-chibok-girls.html

nuclearboy:
Let us be sincere - the 2.8billion Dollar case was in 1977. Nigeria's budget was 1.1 billion - how does one "minister" steal 3 years budget?

I that year, Saudi Arabia did not earn 2 billion dollars so how does Nigeria have such. Even 1984 (6+ years AFTER), Nigeria paid just 50 Million Dollars as TOTAL ANNUAL debt.

Let us stop ridiculing ourselves by behaving as if our brains are leaking with these daft stories

just as 48(20)billion Dollar is more than our 2 years Nigeria's budget. similarly the case is dismissed as no money is missing by the senate.

Ekiti State Gover-nor, Mr Ayo Fayose yesterday stunned the people of the state when he swore in as a judge of the state the man who in 2006 headed his impeachment panel.

Fayose equally announced the promotion of an official of the state Ministry of Justice,Mr Lawrence Ojo who signed his warrant of arrest papers at Ikoyi Prisons during his murder case to position of Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry.Ayodele-Fayose

Speaking during the official swearing in ceremony of Justice Bamidele Omotoso, the governor said he went against some of his supporters who felt he should take his pound of flesh.

Omotoso,an Ado Ekiti based legal practitioner, was cleared by the National Judicial Council (NJC) to be made a judge in the state but was refused to be sworn in by the regime of Dr. Kayode Fayemi led government.

Fayose said the inauguration of Omotosho as a judge after two years of being cleared for the post by the National Judicial Council, was a demonstration of a forgiving spirit.

“Few days after my inauguration, some people came to me and reminded me of the role played by Omotoso during my impeachment saga. They said I should not swear him in as a judge of the state High Court

“I am not here to revenge,vengeance belongs to God.

“If you want to report anybody to me bring the person here,otherwise I will invite the two of you.”

At the ceremony which was attended by the state Chief Judge,Justice Ayodeji Daramola and the Speaker of the state House of Assembly,Fayose stretched hands of friendship to the legislator and judiciary.

“I plead with the other two arms of government that Ekiti should come first. You may not like my face and I may not like yours, but Ekiti should be number one.”

“I am ready to work with the Assembly. I am a man of uncommon history, coming back to office after eight years is divine. I have a stern warning from God, do not avenge.

There is nothing personal I have against the judiciary.

People would want to be where you are and life is about struggles. We need more judges and we will help in making them comfortable in the discharge of their duties.

There is need for fair hearing. I want the other arms of government to give my administration a fair hearing and the chance to perform,” he said.

Omotosho, in his remarks, promised to abide by his oath of office and thanked the governor for the appointment.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/fayose-swears-judge-headed-impeachment-panel/#sthash.t2dy2p33.dpuf

Some unscrupulous officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, have been supplying passports in hundreds to criminals, including drug traffickers, visa racketeers and fraudsters trying to escape the long arm of the law, using the names of prominent Nigerians and their family members, a long running investigation by the icirnigeria.org has revealed.

While in one case, some unpatriotic officers were found to have supplied drug couriers with hundreds of passports, visa racketeers and other criminals have also been issued with multiple Nigerian passports, sometimes up to three, including diplomatic and official passports, in order to travel or escape from the law.

In 2013, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, arrested some men at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, who were attempting to traffic large quantities of cocaine.

Investigations showed that they were using passports issued in the name of family members of some prominent Nigerians. Searches in the homes of the arrested drug traffickers and their sponsors yielded even more passports.

In all, several hundreds of passports were found and seized, many of them in the names of the children of prominent Nigerians, including a member of the leadership of the Senate, ministers, heads of government agencies, icons of industry, notable businessmen and, ironically, the head of one of the anti-corruption agencies in the country.

When it realised that the case was beyond mere drug offences, the NDLEA transferred the case to the EFCC so that the anti-graft agency could properly investigate the sabotage of the process of issuing travel passports.

It appears that the EFCC investigation into the matter may have been stalled for some reasons as there are no indications that any Immigration officer involved in the racket has been prosecuted.

Over the last 15 months or so, several officers of the NIS from different states who were found to have been involved in issuing the passports have been invited to the commission’s head office in Abuja and interrogated.

However, none of them is yet to be prosecuted in spite of the overwhelming evidence against them.

The case of Immigration officers issuing passports to visa racketeers and other criminals appears to be even more scandalous as the most unscrupulous characters were issued with prized diplomatic passports without any concerns for what the beneficiaries would use the travel document.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, was commenced an investigation into allegations of production of multiple passports to visa racketeers by the Immigration Service over a year ago after repeated complaints by several embassies in Nigeria.

The embassies complained that apart from applicants presenting fake or forged travel documents, it was also discovered that they could produce passports in multiple names. Each time a visa application was denied, the applicant just went and got another passport in another name.

What the ICPC found was mindboggling. Apart from discovering several syndicates that specialise in forging all kinds of travel documents, investigators also found out that unpatriotic Immigrations officer had been supplying visa applicants with multiple passports. While even foreigners with criminal intentions easily got Nigerian passports, anybody who could pay the price could also get diplomatic and official passports meant for highly placed government officials.

The case of Faith Chinyere Okeke and Macellina Nwamaka Maduabuchukwu, two smart Nigerian ladies who beat all odds, including the law, to fulfil their dream of travelling abroad to seek greener pastures, is particularly interesting.

Okeke

For reasons best known to them, the two friends chose India as their preferred destination. However, there was a snag; they did not possess the documents to apply for a visa to India. That is no problem, a friend told them. The friend said all they needed to do was consult some specialists in travel documents who would produce all that they needed to present to the Indian High Commission.

That is how Okeke and Maduabuchukwu got introduced to Johnbosco Okonkwo Temple, an experienced and master forger. For a fee, Johnbosco in no time produced the forged or fake supporting documents the ladies needed to obtain a visa. These include forged bank account statements, forged letter of introduction from a fake employer, forged invitation letter of invitation from an Indian hospital indicating that the ladies had a health challenge that required surgery, as well as a forged letter of referral from a Nigerian hospital.

Okeke and Maduabuchukwu presented these documents along with their passports, both issued on August 16, 2013 and expiring in August15, 2018 to the High Commission. Discovering the documents to be forged, the embassy alerted the ICPC whose operatives stormed the High Commission’s offices in the Central Business District, Abuja and arrested the two ladies.

Investigations soon led to the arrest of Johnbosco, the visa racketeer who procured the documents for both of them. Both agreed to stand as prosecution witnesses in the trial of Johnbosco. On that basis they were both released on bail. A Deputy Comptroller of Prisons (names withheld) signed the bail bond for both of them.

However, investigations by the icirnigeria.org show that both ladies, desperate to travel to India, went to obtain different sets of passports in new names which they still presented to the Indian High Commission with a new set of forged documents.

This time, they got lucky and obtained a visa to travel to India. Both are now in that country living with two Nigerian men. When our reporter called one of the men, Chibuzo Akwueku (Phone no: +918826971496), he pretended to be an Indian on the line. However, when our reporter greeted him in his native language, he responded but eventually denied knowing the two ladies. The other man, Ogochukwu Okafor Goodman’s phone number (+019926064288) repeatedly failed to connect.

Maduabuchukwu

Okeke and Maduabuchukwu have both been declared wanted by the ICPC for jumping bail and the Nigerian government, it was learnt, is in the process of officially requesting for their extradition by the Indian government.

The story of Bartholomew Tumbu Formanka is even more telling of how corrupt Immigration officials are. Formanka, like Johnbosco, was arrested by officials of the ICPC for procuring fake and forged documents for visa applicants. He ran a well organised visa racket and is said to have serviced most of the embassies in Abuja.

Formanka is a Cameroonian but he holds a Nigerian passport in that name. Obviously a criminally minded man, he also posed to be a Nigerian to register a company with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC in Abuja.

The Cameroonian was sentenced to a 12 month jail term on September 25 by Justice D. Senchi of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court on a two count charge of making a false statement and conspiracy to make a false statement to obtain a Nigerian Passport.

He was first arrested in Lagos in 2013 after he had evaded the law for months and had been in custody since November 2013.

He was arraigned, along with Kaka Dada Zackary and Sunday Week, on October 22, 2013 before the FCT High Court on a five count charge of forgery and conspiracy to make false statement.

But, apart from the case for which he has been convicted, Formanca is also facing another court case for illegally obtaining a Nigerian passport. Curiously, nobody was charged with the accused for producing or procuring the passport.

As his sentence is to run concurrently since the day of his detention, the convict will be out of jail in a couple of months.

A third case investigated by the icirnigeria.org involves a businessman with three different kinds of Nigerian passports. Jacob Chukwuneku Ibudeh is a Nigerian with business interests in the construction and interior décor industries. However, he was married to a woman who was a specialist in visa racketeering. When Ibudeh lost his wife, he took over her racketeering business and started processing visas for others using forged documents.

Apart from processing visa applications for his clients, the smart businessman added value to the services he provided by adding the procurement of the Nigerian passports for them. So, from the passport to all the support documents you need to present for a visa, Ibudeh was the man to go to.

As a mark of his mastery of and success at the visa and passport racketeering business, Ibudeh himself possessed three different types of Nigerian passports – diplomatic, official and ordinary passports.

Ibudeh

While the ordinary green passport is issued to every Nigerian citizen, the official passport is given only to top government officials of a certain seniority or civil servants going abroad on specific official assignments and involves a tedious process which includes an official letter from the office of the Secretary to the Federation to the Immigration Service confirming that the applicant is, indeed, a top government functionary.

As for the diplomatic passport, only certain categories of persons, including elected officials and diplomats can have it.

The three passports were recovered from Ibudeh when he was arrested during a raid on touts and visa racketeers at the Indian High Commission by operatives of the ICPC last year.

He had not satisfactorily explained how he came about possessing three Nigerian passports when he jumped bail and disappeared about six months ago. He has since been declared wanted by the ICPC.

Investigations by icirnigeria.org revealed that most of the abuse in the issuance of the Nigerian passports occur at the headquarters of the Immigration Service in Abuja, where passport racketeering is lucrative.

And, part of the reason why this is so is that the headquarters still handles the issuance of all categories of passports, most of which should be done by passport offices in the state commands.

Ideally, the NIS should handle the issuing of special passports such as the diplomatic and official passports as well as handle cases of citizens by naturalisation or registration. However, it still deals with cases of expired passports. Also, the reissue of lost, stolen or damaged passports or change of data can only be done in Abuja.

Our investigations show that one of the reasons for the deep corruption at the NIS headquarters arose from political influence in the recruitment of personnel into the Service.

It was learnt that not only do political office holders and senior administration officials influence their wards’ recruitment into the Service; they also dictate where such people are posted. And, the passport office at the NIS headquarters is regarded as one of the most rewarding postings.

So, there is a lot of pressure on the leadership to post those sponsored by influential Nigerians there. Such privileged officers who enter Service with only the aim of making money do everything to manipulate the system to do just that.

Ordinarily, it should be difficult for anybody to manipulate the passport issuance process as there is in place a very good system aimed at preventing abuse.

First, the process is rigorous and has in build methods of preventing abuse. An application must come with a birth certificate and indigeneship certificate and go through security verification, document fraud screening, approval system, background check and address verification. But unscrupulous officers sabotage all these processes.

Immigration runs an Automatic Face Identification System, AFIS, which detects and automatically rejects any duplication of data or biometrics. So if a person with a passport applies for another one using another name, address and other data, the system will reject the application, providing the previous data as reason for the rejection.

However, the database used by the system is not managed or controlled by the Immigration but by a technical partner and consultant named IRIS Technology Limited. The company was brought in to help the country migrate from the Machine Readable passport, MRP to the e – passport and produces the Nigerian passport and thus keeps the database of all passport holders.

Our investigations show that unscrupulous Immigration officers collude with personnel of AFIS Technology to sabotage the process by manipulating the data management system to illegally issue passports to underserving persons.

What happens, it was gathered, is that corrupt Immigration officers collect money from persons desperate to own a Nigerian passport and then approach database managers at IRIS Technology to remove the existing data about an applicant from the database. The application is then made with new data which is used in issuing a new passport to the applicant. In this manner, one person can acquire as many passports as he/she can afford.

Another way by which the process is sabotaged, it was discovered, is that applicants are allowed, during the fingerprint and biometrics acquisition process, to use the wrong fingers to register.

Usually, an applicant is required to register his/her thumb and index finger. However, some Immigration officials allegedly allow applicants to use a different set of fingers. So, one person can use this method to obtain up to three or four passports.

The spokesman of the Immigration Service, Chukwuemeka Obua, acknowledged that dealing with corrupt officials is a major challenge faced by the NIS but asserted that the new administration is dealing with the issue. He said that the current passport reform embarked upon by the Service was partly to address the issue of corruption in the issuance of passports.

“Since he took over, the Comptroller General has made it clear that any officer caught in any fraudulent act will be dismissed. One of the first places that he fixed as CG was the passport offices. As I speak to you, over 200 officers are facing orderly room trial. So if out of 22,000 men of the NIS we find a few officers corrupt in a place like this it is not unusual. But the CG has made it clear that if we catch you it is summary dismissal,” Obua stated.

He, however, pointed that the Service is not entirely to blame because many applicants present forged documents such as birth certificates and indigene’s certificate which the authenticity of which the NIS cannot disprove.

This website was later able to get the Comptroller General of Immigration, CGI, to grant an interview and respond to many of the issues. In the exclusive interview (Read full text in Interviews section) with theicirnigeria.org, the CGI confirmed that some of his men were under investigation in connection to the issuance of the passports to drug couriers.

The Immigration chief said that the officers who issued all the passports had been traced and that at different times they had being invited to Abuja from the states where they serve to answer questions from EFCC investigators.

“We found out the people that acquired them, authorised their acquisition and we called them state by state and one after the other…If they were cleared fine but if they were found to have colluded to beat the system, they would have to face the consequences of their actions,” the Immigration Comptroller General stated.

He said that the investigation was still going on and that any officer found guilty would be dismissed and prosecuted in line with the Passport (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act.

On passport racketeering, the CGI too conceded that there are bad eggs in the Service, but assured that they are being flushed out of the system as they are discovered.

“I can never sit down here and tell you that Immigration officers are 100 per cent clean. There must be some who collude but whenever I hear of case, I will investigate it,’ he said, adding, “I cannot tell you that manipulating the system does not happen but we are dealing with it. We have dismissed several officers for passport malpractices.”

He pointed out, however, that many of the problems with the passport issuance processes are out of the hands of the Immigration Service, arguing that it has to work with documents issued by other agencies, which it cannot verify.

“There are many things that are out of our hands. We do not have any fool-proof birth registry. So, if you tell me you were born in Ogbomosho, I will take it because if I go to Ogbomosho to check the record from all the clinics, I may not see it,” he said.

Parradang also said that he had started the process of ensuring that all passport databases are domiciled and managed by the Immigration Service as he had asked all consultants, including IRIS Technology to open data centres at the NIS headquarters in Abuja. Immigration officials, according to him, would be trained to handle such data in the future.

The EFCC did not respond to queries on the matter as the commission’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said that he did not have any facts about it. He said he would confirm from the chairman of the agency, Ibrahim Lamorde, but lamented that he was not in the country. A week later, as at the time of filing this report the EFCC boss was still out of the country.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/168937-how-immigration-officers-aid-drug-couriers-visa-racketeers-other-criminals.html

Thank God for hitler

Okorocha na real hustler

But take, for example, the current Governor of Imo State. He must hold some kind of Nigerian record for carpet-crossing. Okorocha was in PDP before he was not. In 1999, he contested for governor of Imo under the PDP. In 2003, he ran for the ANPP presidential ticket. When that came to grief, he returned to the PDP as President Obasanjo’s Special Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs. In 2005, he was a founding-member of the Action Alliance. By 2007, he was back in the PDP. In 2010, he defected to APGA and ran for governor of Imo State. Having become governor, he decamped to the APC in 2013.

By Femi Aribisala
The PDP and the APC are not even yin and yang. They are Siamese twins. They are children of the same ugly mother.

If you have not noticed it already, a new season has dawned in Nigerian politics. That season is one of carpet-crossing back to the PDP. About a year ago, there was a rash of defections from the PDP to the APC. Nearly 40 legislators left the ruling party for the opposition. Five PDP governors also followed suit. But now the movement is a one-way trajectory in the opposite direction. APC members are having buyers’ remorse and are making their way back as prodigal sons to the PDP.

There are two basic reasons behind this. One year ago, the APC was the new party on the block. A simplistic political calculus led some to the hasty conclusion we finally have the party that would dislodge the PDP after 15 years of one-party rule in Nigeria. So some people quickly joined the APC bandwagon. But the more cynical reason was that the defections were designed to discourage Goodluck Jonathan from seeking re-election as president. The vain hope and expectation was that Jonathan would see the colossus ranged against him and throw in the towel.

New realpolitik

One year is a lifetime in politics and these prognoses have become bankrupt. A new harsh reality has set in. The APC is now a shadow of its hype. Since the initial excitement, it lost Ekiti by a landslide and scraped through in Osun; two states presumed to be APC strongholds. In spite of considerable arm-twisting, including the nuisance value of APC Trojan horse Sule Lamido’s candidacy, Goodluck Jonathan is going to run on the PDP’s 2015 presidential ticket.

Short of the shenanigans of Attahiru Jega and his fictitious 30,000 new polling units, the APC does not stand a chance of defeating the PDP in the coming presidential election. The combination of these two realities is provoking a no-holds-barred migration back to the PDP.

As a matter of fact, once Jonathan finally declares his candidacy and is endorsed by the PDP, there will be a mass exodus from the APC to the PDP. Even before then, those who lose out in the APC choice of its presidential candidate will not waste time before making their way to the PDP. The movement will be massive all in one direction because in Nigerian politics the winner takes all. The one thing politicians are very good at is in reading the signs of the times.

Timber and caliber

What has happened over the last few months is that a procession of APC who-is-who has defected to the PDP. This includes Attahiru Bafawara, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (rtd.), Ibrahim Shekarau, Femi Fani-Kayode, Ali Modu Sherriff, Jimi Agbaje, Nuhu Ribadu and Tom Ikimi. These people have read the writing on the wall and have discovered that, by hook or crook, the PDP is not going to lose the coming presidential election. Don’t be surprised if by next year, even Atiku applies to be re-admitted to the PDP, after he would have been shut out of the APC.

There were a lot of raised eyebrows at Nuhu Ribadu’s defection to the PDP. But what exactly was he supposed to do? There is no future in the APC for him. Ribadu served for eight years under the “hateful” PDP. As EFCC Chairman, he indicted Tinubu of corruption and called him a looter of public funds “of international dimension.” But then he ended up in Tinubu’s ACN where he was even comically paraded as the party’s 2011 presidential candidate; only to be traded off shamefully in a despicable act of political treachery.

Clearly, Ribadu cannot be APC’s presidential or vice-presidential candidate. Neither can the APC make him governor of Adamawa State. Since he recognizes that the APC is headed for defeat in 2015, that means the offer of a ministerial position in Abuja is out of the question. Neither can the APC make him the Nigerian High Commissioner to the Court of St. James as a consolation prize.

However, the PDP can offer him all but one of these juicy posts. So what would be the point of staying in the APC? None whatsoever! This kind of cold hard calculus will become increasingly evident to other APC politicians; the closer we get to the 2015 election. Just you wait; they will soon be jumping ship to the PDP in droves.

One-party rule

There is still only one political party in Nigeria at the federal level and that one party is the party in power. What is the difference between the PDP and the APC? Only one; PDP is in power at the centre: APC is not. Besides that, there is no difference whatsoever! They are not even yin and yang. They are Siamese twins. They are children of the same ugly mother. They are Jekyll and Hyde. They are two peas in a pod.

When the APC first emerged, some were excited that we would finally have a two-party system. No such luck! For the longest time, Nigeria will remain a one-party state. When you truly have a two-party system, you have two parties with different world-views. They have two contrasting and competing ideologies. Not so in Nigeria. Like people, like priest! The people are uneducated and so are the polithiefcians. They have no ideology, no policies and no vision. It is all about getting into power to get a piece of the national cake.

The APC touts Buhari as an anti-corruption icon. It says PDP is a party of thieves and robbers. But when did you hear the APC require those PDP governors and legislators it welcomed into its ranks to account for the money they stole while in the PDP? Never! It relies on them to bring the money. Murtala Nyako was impeached for corruption. Did anybody hear APC members say anything against his corrupt practices?

Boko Haram politicians

Suddenly, the APC is making a lot of song and dance about PDP’s Bunu Sheriff being labeled by Stephen Davis as a sponsor of the Boko Haram. But the same Bunu Sheriff was in APC for over a year until recently. Even as APC member, he was fingered as a possible Boko Harram sponsor, and the party took no action against him. Bunu Sheriff was not kicked out of the APC: he resigned.

At a meeting in the British parliament, chaired by John Glen, a close adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron, allegations were raised that key members of the APC in Nigeria are supporters and financiers of Boko Haram “for ideological and political means.” Early this year, British MP Andrew Rosindell questioned Foreign Secretary William Hague in parliament specifically on the question of the United Kingdom’s engagement with the APC over the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria.

No ideologies

Nigerian political parties are much of a muchness. If you did not know this, the rash of defections to and fro is eloquent testimony. That is why Obasanjo can be the so-called Baba of the PDP yesterday, and today be invited by a high-powered delegation to become the Navigator of the APC. Kwankwaso can be elected governor of Kano on the platform of the PDP in 2011. But midstream in his tenure in 2013, he switches to the APC without any change in policy or ideology.

How many prominent members of the Labour Party in Britain have we ever heard defecting to the Conservatives? How many prominent members of the Democratic Party in the United States do we ever hear crossing the carpet suddenly to the Republican Party? Virtually none! The reason is that those parties stand for something and their members believe in what they stand for. However, Nigerian political parties stand for nothing. They believe in nothing. All they seek is to feather their nests while in office.

The PDP makes few principled pretensions. It is a party of thieves and robbers. It is a party of “come and chop!” That actually makes it endearing in a way. What you see is what you get. But lately, it has been trying to reform itself. There is now more internal democracy in the PDP, making for fewer spats.

The APC, on the other hand is a party of dissemblers. It calls itself a progressive party. But how do you have a progressive party that makes a point of collecting the “non-progressives” rejects of the PDP? How do you have a progressive party led by certificate forgers and insatiable land-grabbers with dubious unexplained wealth?

Political prostitutes

Nigeria political parties are Twedledee and Twedledum. They may go by the acronym ECN, or NEPA or PHCN; but the one constant is lack of electricity. As for Nigerian politicians, they are nothing but high-class prostitutes. The principled and upright ones, like Senator Udo Udoma of Akwa Ibom, are few and far between. Neither do they survive for long in politics. After eight years, Senator Udoma voluntarily called it quits. “The beautiful ones are not yet born.”

[b]But take, for example, the current Governor of Imo State. He must hold some kind of Nigerian record for carpet-crossing. Okorocha was in PDP before he was not. In 1999, he contested for governor of Imo under the PDP. In 2003, he ran for the ANPP presidential ticket. When that came to grief, he returned to the PDP as President Obasanjo’s Special Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs. In 2005, he was a founding-member of the Action Alliance. By 2007, he was back in the PDP. In 2010, he defected to APGA and ran for governor of Imo State. Having become governor, he decamped to the APC in 2013.

Men like Okorocha who cannot stay in one place need to be placed under arrest. Okorocha’s jumps from pillar to post have one unchanging purpose: his unending search for politically greener pastures. If he does not secure the vice-presidential ticket of the APC at their coming convention, your guess is as good as mine if he will remain one day longer in the party. In short, at this stage of Nigerian politics, virtually all our politicians are self-serving. Far more than the people they misrule, they are the ones always looking for stomach infrastructure.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/season-carpet-crossing-apc-back-pdp/#sthash.nhJ0pQej.dpuf

the authority that pastor talk with is frightening.

I thought it is only in Nigeria that pastors are taking members for granted. I think people suppose to start using their brain in search of salvation.


Diaris God ooo pator no eat grass.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uME80LjNuI

Hundreds of doctors, yesterday, took to major streets in Lagos, Ibadan, Akure in Ondo State, to protest against the purported sack of 16,000 resident doctors.

In Lagos, the doctors staged a peaceful march around the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, in their white laboratory coats as they handed a letter of outright rejection of the sack of 16,000 resident doctors to the Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Professor Akin Osibogun for onward delivery to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu.

The doctors, who claimed that the protest was part of the efforts to register their displeasure and also make the government to reverse the sack, were carrying placards with inscriptions such as: Chukwu must go, Das All,’

‘No more overseas checkup with tax payers’ money,’ ‘We say no to Chukwu and Jonathan,’ ‘Sack of 16,000 resident doctors, death sentence for Nigerians!’ ‘Sack Ebola, not Doctors,’ ‘Sack Boko Haram not Doctors’, ‘Sack Chukwu not Doctors” and ‘No to casualisation of doctors,’ among others.

Taking turns to address the gathering, the protesting doctors declared that the sack of 16,000 doctors were not acceptable to them.

According to them, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN, as at this year registered 26,000 medical doctors and if 16,000 are sacked only 10,000 will be serving 170 million Nigerians.

Addressing the protesters which include medical students and friends of the doctors, State Chairman of the association, Dr. Tope Ojo, who addressed journalist at the premises of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, said that the sack of resident doctors in all Federal Teaching Hospitals in the country would lead to imminent collapse of the health sector.

In Ibadan, the doctors started the protest around 12noon from the association’s office at Total Garden and passed through the main entrance of the University College Hospital, Ibadan where the State NMA Chairman, Dr. Muideen Babatunde Olatunji and the National Association of Resident Doctors, UCH chapter, Dr. Franklin Anor addressed newsmen.

The doctors dressed in their laboratory coats displayed placards with various inscriptions such as “Sack Ebola, not doctors”, “No, to oppression of doctors”, “Is this our reward for saving lives?”

In Akure, led by the Chairman of the association in the state, Dr. Bamidele Betiku, they said the decision of the Federal Government would make the country lack specialised doctors and make adequate health care delivery elusive to the masses.

The protesting doctors matched from their office on Igbatoro road to the governor’s office in Alagbaka, Akure singing solidarity songs

Some of the placards displayed read “Sack Onyibuchi now”, “Nigerian Doctors Say No to Exploitation”, “ MOH, Why Kill Residency Training”.

The Chairman said the doctors were protesting to make government correct the mistake of sacking the resident doctors across the country.

Meanwhile, NLC in a statement by its President, Mr. Abdulwaheed Omar, said “The recent mass dismissal of resident medical doctors in federal hospitals across the country by the Federal Government is ill-advised, and therefore should be re-considered and reversed given prevailing health challenges.

Similarly, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, implored the Federal Government to reverse its decision to sack the striking doctors, warning that the nation could not afford any calamity such sack might cause.

Bobboi Kaigama and Musa Lawal, respectively, said “while we understand the plight of the Government in having to simultaneously contain both the threat of Boko Haram to national security and the challenge of the ebola disease, we consider it very precarious for it to insist on sacking the doctors at this time. On the other hand, we charge all the doctors to listen to the voice of reason and the cries of Nigerians and end (or at least suspend) the strike and return to work, if only to resolve the ebola mystery on our hands. Even enemies strike a truce and unite when faced by a more dangerous mutual adversary.”
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/doctors-protest-sack-lagos-ibadan-akure/#sthash.qNmoPEwa.dpuf

THIS IS VERY MOVING:

In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful...

For 40 years, or was it longer, I can't remember, I did all I could to give people houses, hospitals, schools, and when they were hungry, I gave them food. I even made Benghazi into farmland from the desert, I stood up to attacks from that cowboy Ronald Reagan, when he killed my adopted orphaned daughter, he was trying to kill me, instead he killed that poor innocent child. Then I helped my brothers and sisters from Africa with money for the African Union.

I did all I could to help people Understand the concept of real democracy, where people's committees ran our country. But that was never enough, as some told me, even people who had 10 room homes, new suits and furniture, were never satisfied, as selfish as they were they wanted more. They told Americans and other visitors, that they needed "democracy" and "freedom" never realizing it was a cut throat system, where the biggest dog eats the rest, but they were enchanted with those words, never realizing that in America, there was no free medicine, no free hospitals, no free housing, no free education and no free food, except when people had to beg or go to long lines to get soup.

No, no matter what I did, it was never enough for some, but for others, they knew I was the son of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the only true Arab and Muslim leader we've had since Salah-al-Deen, when he claimed the Suez Canal for his people, as I claimed Libya, for my people, it was his footsteps I tried to follow, to keep my people free from colonial domination - from thieves who would steal from us.

Now, I am under attack by the biggest force in military history, my little African son, Obama wants to kill me, to take away the freedom of our country, to take away our free housing, our free medicine, our free education, our free food, and replace it with American style thievery, called "capitalism" ,but all of us in the Third World know what that means, it means corporations run the countries, run the world, and the people suffer.

So, there is no alternative for me, I must make my stand, and if Allah wishes, I shall die by following His path, the path that has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even allowed us to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters.

I do not wish to die, but if it comes to that, to save this land, my people, all the thousands who are all my children, then so be it.

Let this testament be my voice to the world, that I stood up to crusader attacks of NATO, stood up to cruelty, stoop up to betrayal, stood up to the West and its colonialist ambitions, and that I stood with my African brothers, my true Arab and Muslim brothers, as a beacon of light.

When others were building castles, I lived in a modest house, and in a tent. I never forgot my youth in Sirte, I did not spend our national treasury foolishly, and like Salah-al-Deen, our great Muslim leader, who rescued Jerusalem for Islam, I took little for myself...

In the West, some have called me "mad", "crazy", but they know the truth yet continue to lie, they know that our land is independent and free, not in the colonial grip, that my vision, my path, is, and has been clear and for my people and that I will fight to my last breath to keep us free, may Allah almighty help us to remain faithful and free.

-- Mu'ummar Qaddafi.

Multiple award winning TV journalist, and one of the nation’s most talented broadcast journalists, Deji Bademosi, has resigned his appointment with Channels Television over what sources described as “irreconcilable differences” with the Chairman of the station, John Momoh.

Mr. Bademosi, who was Head of the television’s Political Desk, tweeted on Friday that he had quit his position at the station.

“My time with Channels Television has now ended. Looking to new challenges,” Mr. Bademosi, a Mass Communication graduate from the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, tweeted on Friday evening.

Both Mr. Bademosi and CHANNELS are reluctant to speak on the resignation of a reporter who won several laurels for self and station.

When contacted on the phone Saturday, Mr. Bademosi, who was also Channels TV’s Head of Reportorial Team, said he’d rather not talk about the matter.

“I can only confirm that I resigned on Friday,” he said. “I don’t want to say anything more because I remain grateful to CHANNELS for providing me the platform to showcase my skills.”

Mr. Momoh too confirmed the reporter’s departure. ”What’s wrong with someone resigning? Mr. Momoh told PREMIUM TIMES. “He’s tired of working here and has gone on to something else. It’s okay.”

Sources, however, say that the relationship between Mr. Bademosi, who had spent almost a decade at the organization, and Mr. Momoh has strained lately.

It was gathered that the last straw was when the management issued a directive, earlier in the week, that editors must get approval from Mr. Momoh, before assigning reporters to any assignment.

“The management ruled that editors must contact the chairman wherever he is in the world before assigning reporters to any assignment,” a highly placed official told PREMIUM TIMES Saturday.

“Things haven’t been rosy between him and the Channels management,” another source said.

“Before then, what led to the memo was a clash between the chairman and Deji.

“Deji had assigned a reporter to go and cover a PDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) press conference in Ogun State,” the source added.

The press briefing was organized by the Bayo Dayo faction of the PDP, who are at loggerheads with the group led by former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

“While at the assignment, the personal assistant to the chairman called the reporter and asked him to leave the assignment and return to the office.

“The reporter refused,” the source said.

However, after the story, which had been approved by Mr. Bademosi and the controller of news, had been lined up in the bulletin for broadcast; the chairman’s assistant showed up again.

“The PA said that the chairman directed that the tape of the assignment be handed over to him, but they (Mr. Bademosi and the controller of news) refused.

“The chairman then personally came down and ordered that the tape be given to him. He confiscated the tape.

“Deji said that he could not work in an environment where editors do not have powers and must get approval from the chairman before any event is covered,” said the source, who added that Mr. Momoh attends editorial meeting and talks to editors “like babies.”

Mr. Momoh declined to comment on his directive that editors must seek his approval before detailing reporters to cover events.

“I think you should contact the director of news on that,” he said. ”I am the chairman of the company. I think you need to talk to the controller of news on that.”

But when one of the station’s two controller of news, Ambrose Okoh, was contacted, he denied knowledge of Mr. Bademosi’s resignation and the controversial directive by Mr. Momoh.

“I don’t have details of what you are talking about,” he said. “Come to the office on Monday so we can talk about it.”

Before his resignation, Mr. Bademosi anchored one of the most popular programmes on the station, ‘Politics Today’.
http://premiumtimesng.com/business/97650-channels-deji-bademosi-quits-after-clash-with-chairman-john-momoh.html

why 21rst and not wait till 25 must we be celebrating every year or the governor want to use the opportunity to commission some land mark project

@poster. please what fone model will i pick for the download. i tried picking twogo but the whole stuff dissappear once i do that. pls ur reply will be higly appreciated

please send ur test server to the Email or fone number. rabiusanusi01@yahoo.com or 07038643909. can i also use this in katsina. there is no MTN 3g network here

Every thing that happens have the will of God.its just that we have to braze up to the challenges.the nplf failed to coerce us and have lost relevance. i hope that these people will stop living on Nigeria cos the have only benefited from Nigeria and want to play boss on us