Common sense is not common

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORK APR 12, 2017
Following the discovery of $50 million in a residential building located at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, by the Economic Financial Crime and Commission (EFCC), a source close to the anti-graft agency has told SaharaReporters that the building belongs to Ahmadu Adamu Mu'azu, a former National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Mu’azu was also the governor of Bauchi State in Nigeria between 1999 and 2007.

Sources close to Mu’azu have confirmed to SaharaReporters that the former PDP chairman owns the building.

While in Lagos, he lives on the penthouse on the building, a source said. Other residents of the house are former Chief of Air Staff, Adesola Amosu, Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, a former Managing Director at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Godwin Obla, a senior lawyer and former prosecutor to EFCC.

Obla was recently arrested and charged in connection with irregular payments to Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumugobia one of the judges also arrested and undergoing trial in the ongoing probe of corruption in the judicial sector, while Ogbue was one of the NNPC senior officials fired yesterday in connection with Ifeanyi Uba’s crude oil sale scandal.

Recently, Obla’s son got married to Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue’s daughter in Lagos.

The breakdown of the money found in the house is $43.4m, £27,800 and N23.2m.

The operation leading to the discovery was followed by a whistle blower's confidential alert received by the Commission this morning.

http://saharareporters.com/2017/04/12/house-where-over-50m-was-found-ikoyi-belongs-ex-pdp-chair-adamu-mu%E2%80%99azu

BY EFCC FEB 04, 2016
A witness in the ongoing trial of the National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Olisa Metuh and his company, Destra Investment Limitedon Thursday, February 4, 2016 told Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja that, he was paid a total sum of N25m out of the N400million arms fund linked to the PDP spokesperson.

Abba Dabo, while being led in evidence by counsel to EFCC, Sylvanus Tahir, told the court that, he was paid a total sum of N25m, through the second defendant’s company account, Destra Investment Limited on December 16, 2015.

Dabo, a retired public servant and special adviser on political matters in the office of the former Vice president, was a former Editor of Sunday New Nigeria, and Gaskia Tafi kwabo, and also one time Deputy National Chairman, PDP North.

According to him, the said money was for the purpose of media and publicity campaign for the PDP presidential election.

Explaining how the money was expended, Dabo told the court that, he created a media support system and a website called “WhatsApp Nigeria” to run media advocacy campaign for the party.

“I raised a team of facilitators and young internet experts were also employed to manage the website”, Dabo stated.

The witness further told the court that, he was shocked to hear through the media that, the money given to him by Metuh was part of the funds set aside to procure arms for fighting insurgency.

“Therefore, I decided to return the money to EFCC”, Dabo said.
Justice Abang, at the instance of counsel to the second defendant, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, adjourned to February 9, 2016 for further hearing.

Metuh is being tried for allegedly receiving N400million (four hundred million naira) from former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd), who is also being tried for laundering $2.1 billion.

Wilson Uwujaren
Head, Media & Publicity
4th February, 2016

http://saharareporters.com/2016/02/04/dasukigate-metuh-gave-me-n25-million-witness

Nigerian govt. recovers over $14million in unpaid oil royalty from Jide Omokore’s firm
February 3, 2016 Nicholas Ibekwe
The Nigerian government has succeeded in compelling the Chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited, Jide Omokore to cough out over $14m, being crude oil royalty which his company failed to remit to the federal treasury, administration insiders have told PREMIUM TIMES.
High ranking federal officials familiar with the development told this newspaper that the funds were supposed to have been paid between 2011 and 2012 by Atlantic Energy which was, in controversial circumstances, awarded oil assets by the Goodluck Jonathan government shortly after it was incorporated in 2010.
Our sources said the money was finally paid into the Federal Government’s account with JP Morgan Chase on January 29, after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission waded into the matter of recovering taxes due to the Federal Government.
“The investigation of tax defaulters in the dollar-soaked oil industry is continuing,” a source at the EFCC said Wednesday. “Those who failed to willingly pay up stand the risk of arrest and prosecution for tax fraud.”
Operatives of the EFCC had on January 27 questioned Mr. Omokore, an ally of former President Jonathan in connection with a series of multi-billion dollar crude export deals.
Mr. Omokore could not be reached for comments Wednesday. But his company recently issued a statement saying it was getting back on course after submitting its plan to settle outstanding financial commitments to the Nigerian authorities.
Incorporated as Atlantic Drilling Energy Concept Limited on July 19, 2010, it signed a Strategic Alliance Agreement with the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) shortly afterwards. The NPDC is the upstream production subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Under the agreement, Atlantic took charge of four oil blocks- OML 26 FHN, OML 30 Shoreline, OML 34 Niger-Delta Oil and OML 42 Neconde. It was to provide funds, technical services, drill and sell crude oil.
The company was later accused of lifting crude oil, but remitting only a fraction of its worth to government.
In 2012, according to NNPC insiders, Atlantic Energy paid $168m into the government’s account, but lifted about three million barrels – valued at over $350 million.
In 2013, it also lifted about two million barrels of crude valued at about $240million, but paid only $68million.
Similarly, in 2014, Atlantic Energy paid zero cash-call, but lifted about 500,000 barrels of crude oil, valued at $54 million.
The EFCC recently raided the business premises of Mr. Omokore, making away with documents and computers.
A source also said Mr. Omokore was later instructed by the presidency to reconcile his accounts with NPDC, and immediately pay up the several billions he is owing the Nigerian government for allegedly lifting crude without remitting the proceeds.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/197932-nigerian-govt-recovers-14million-unpaid-oil-royalty-jide-omokores-firm.html

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORK FEB 03, 2016
Barely two weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari signed a Mutual Legal Assistance agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to facilitate the repatriation of stolen funds and the extradition of indicted officials, the boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, on Wednesday called for the support of the international community.

The Acting Chairman of the EFCC made the remark during a visit to the UAE Ambassador to Nigeria, Mahmud Muhammad Al- Mahmud in his office in Abuja.

“The fight against graft requires the collaborative support of all and sundry, most especially the international community, for it to be won”, Magu said.

The EFCC boss called for the strengthening of the existing relationship between Nigeria and the UAE, with a view to effectively tackling corruption within the African continent.

According to the EFCC boss, the present administration in Nigeria is poised to recover the nation’s commonwealth that was looted and laundered in foreign countries by corrupt elements. He said the commission has intelligence that the UAE is considered a safe haven by corrupt politically exposed persons in Nigeria.

“I have come to seek your support and cooperation just as we had in the case of Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha, James Ibori, among others to get the mission accomplished”, Magu pleaded.

Responding, Mr. Al- Mahmud, pledged the support of his country to Nigeria’s anti-graft war.

“No country can be an island on its own without the support of others,” he noted.

http://saharareporters.com/2016/02/03/efcc-chair-magu-meets-uae-envoy-seeks-tighten-noose-around-money-launderers

Published on February 2, 2016 by
A prosecution witness, Uche Obilor in the ongoing trial of former Director-General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi and six others today told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos,south west Nigeria how his three companies were paid N905, 800,000 by Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for a contract he did not execute.
Obilor, who is the Managing Director of Ace Prosthesis Limited, Seabulk Offshore Limited and Southern Offshore Limited, told the court that the money was paid into the companies’ two bank accounts even though he did not tender any proposal or carry out any contract for NIMASA.
Akpobolokemi was arraigned before Justice Ibrahim Buba alongside three other accused persons – Captain Ezekiel Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche, Governor Juan – and three companies, namely Blockz and Stonz Limited, Kenzo Logistics Limited and Al-Kenzo Logistic Limited.
In a twenty- two count criminal charge filed before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), they were accused of converting a total of N2, 658,957,666 between December 23, 2013 and May 28 last year. The accused who pleaded not guilty to all the counts are currently on bail.
Led in evidence by EFCC prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, Obilor disclosed that the sum of N437million was paid to Ace Prosthesis Limited, while N402 million was paid to Seabulk Offshore Limited and N66.8 million was paid to Southern Offshore Limited respectively.
On how his companies got the contract, Obilor told the court that he was approached by Captain Ezekiel Agaba (second accused) that his companies have been awarded a contract to assist NIMASA meet the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code for 2014.
He also told the court that shortly after the money was paid, he was told by Captain Agaba to stay execution of the contract.
He also disclosed that Agaba later directed him to transfer the money into different accounts until N54 million was left in the accounts.
Under cross examination, by Dr. Joseph Nwobike SAN), lawyer to Akpobolokemi, Obilor told the court that he held several meetings with Agaba adding that the remaining N54million left in the account had been transferred to the coffers of the Federal Government.
He also admitted that he did not have any discussions with the Akpobolokemi neither did he receive any instruction from him.
When asked by lawyer to Agaba, whether he (Obilor) was aware that two of his staff issued and signed several invoices to NIMASA he said ‘’I am on top of the whole exercise and I am unaware that they signed any document’’.
Obilor also admitted that during the meetings he had with the Agaba, list of job schedule was brought to his attention some of which his companies lacked capacity to carry out.
Justice Buba has adjourned further hearing in the matter till February 5, 16 and 19 respectively.

http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2016/02/02/nimasa-paid-me-n905m-for-unexecuted-jobs-witness/

Posted By: Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado-Ekition: January 21, 2016
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has described the alarm raised by the House of Assembly on the Military Panel report as “a stunt by Governor Ayo Fayose to escape justice”.

The party also described the Assembly’s emergency sitting on Tuesday as an old gimmick by the governor to execute a predetermined plan.

The lawmakers condemned the report of the Military Panel that investigated the conduct of soldiers during the June 21, 2014 governorship election.

They alleged that they had uncovered a plot by the Federal Government to assassinate Fayose, if moves to remove him from power fail.

The lawmakers said President Muhammadu Buhari should be held responsible if anything sinister happens to the governor.

But in a statement yesterday by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the APC urged Nigerians not to be misled by Fayose’s subterfuge.

Olatunbosun called on the Department of State Services (DSS), the police and the National Security Adviser (NSA) to put Fayose and his men under surveillance.

The party spokesman maintained that Fayose should be held responsible for any case of assassination, kidnapping, arson or any form of attack on prominent opposition figures in the state henceforth.

“Just last year during the House of Assembly crisis, his media aide raised an alarm that APC members were planning to invade the Assembly and burn it down while in actual fact, it was Fayose who imported thugs from Ibadan in 12 vehicles to attack the Assembly to prevent the 19 APC lawmakers from sitting.

“Last week, Fayose drew attention to himself claiming that two men purportedly from the DSS came to him with a fake report of the army panel probing Ekitigate and ordered their arrest.

“Those who know Fayose well knows that he clothed the men and orchestrated the whole scenario to draw public sympathy. Where are the arrested men now and why is Fayose not interested in their prosecution? Creating make- believe scene is one of the governor’s old tricks but this is outdated as Ekiti people are wiser.

“We are aware that Fayose desperately needs international support to get away with his crimes.

“This cheap blackmail has failed because the international community has since retraced its steps after listening to Fayose and his gang planning the subversion of the constitution,” he said.

http://thenationonlineng.net/fayoses-assassination-alarm-a-gimmick-says-apc/

Posted By: Onyedi Ojiaboron: January 20, 2016
investor got N32 billion for vessels, which he never delivered, a minister said yesterday.

Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi said the unnamed investor fled after collecting the cash during the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration.

The money was paid from the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), which indigenous ship owners last month urged Amaechi and Acting Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Director-General Haruna Baba Jauro to speak on.

The CVFF was created by the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act, 2003 to promote ship acquisition by supporting ship owners.

Section 42, Part VIII of Section 44 of the Act empowers NIMASA to collect and administer the fund, under guidelines by the Minister of Transport, after approval by the National Assembly.

The fund was established to boost local content in the shipping industry.

Amaechi, who spoke yesterday in Abuja when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Marine Transport, did not name the investor.

Amaechi said about N300 billion was released to encourage investors in the maritime sector by the last administration but the many went down the drain.

He said: “In fact, there is a particular man who collected N32billion and left the country. I don’t think that the Federal Government needed to release N52bn to investors in the maritime industry.

“What we are considering is to facilitate a partnership arrangement between the operators and foreign investors in which case we can support Nigerians who had shown serious interest in the business with about 40 percent of the investment while their foreign partners bring 60 percent. That will assure us that we would recoup our investment.

“One of those who collected the aviation bailout who has done nothing with the money is walking freely on the streets of Nigeria; his airline is dead and he did not even deem it fit to inform the ministry.

“I am protecting the maritime funds and we could only disburse it after we have seen the President, the foreign investors who will partner with the Nigerian investors that meet our guidelines. We have the N52bn in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of NIMASA.”

He told the committee that as a result of massive fraud, NIMASA may be scrapped.

The minister said the Federal Government might be forced to approach the National Assembly to repeal the Act establishing NIMASA, if its management fails to justify the utilisation of the huge resources at its disposal.

Amaechi lamented that NIMASA had nothing to show for the N63billion revenue it generated in 2015.

He cited the instance of lack of equipment at the agency’s search and rescue unit meant to monitor movement of vessels and provide treatment for injured personnel.

He said: “Currently, the way NIMASA is, if you look at it very well, it was worse in the last administration. It was as if it was established just for the purpose of collecting money and nothing more. What we need to do is to ensure that NIMASA discharges its core responsibilities.

“If NIMASA outsources its core responsibility, then it has no business existing. If it is just to collect money from individuals, anybody can do that. We can hire a tax collector to collect money from maritime operators on behalf of Federal Ministry of transport.

“So, it is either NIMASA sits up and carries out its own responsibility or we come to the National Assembly to repeal the Act setting it up and allow the department of marine security in the ministry of transportation to discharge the responsibility currently being discharged by NIMASA.

“We are not going ahead with the university project proposed by NIMASA because we have an institution in Oron, we have Nigeria Institute of Transport Technology, Zaria, and we have the Nigerian College of Aviation in Zaria which we could upgrade to a University status and NIMASA is proposing to build a new one.

“Who will attend the University? How many parents will allow their children to go to such place where it proposes to site the University? What is the aim of the University that we cannot achieve in Oron where they have all the necessary infrastructure.

“I don’t think we are proceeding with the university being proposed by NIMASA because it is a waste of resources, and unfortunately a lot of money had already been released for the University project hence there is no structure on ground but just the feasibility study.

“Whoever that is holding on to the money should better return it. The Chinese company contracted confirmed that only the feasibility study was in place.”

Former President Goodluck Jonathan approved that the NIMASA University should be located at Okerenkoko, Warri South West Local Government.

Amaechi also explained that an arrangement had been put in place to ensure that the dollar revenue accruable to NIMASA was paid directly to the Federation Account to boost foreign exchange for the country.

http://thenationonlineng.net/investor-flees-nigeria-paid-n32b-vessels/

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORK OCT 05, 2015

An investigation by SaharaReporters has revealed some of the ways in which former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and her network of accomplices, family members, and shell companies sought to conceal and launder an astonishing amount of the former minister’s corruptly acquired wealth. The laundered funds are the focus of twin investigations by British and Nigerian anti-corruption agencies.

Last Friday, the International Corruption Unit of the British National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Mrs. Alison-Madueke and four other suspects in London.

SaharaReporters has exclusively obtained intelligence documents and briefing on financial information regarding Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s extensive acts of corruption and money laundering. Our investigation also involved interviews with several individuals in possession of highly sensitive information about the illicit flow of funds to the former minister’s front companies and individuals.

An intelligence analyst with intimate knowledge of the embattled ex-minister’s family and business network told SaharaReporters that UK investigators were focusing on several real estate properties in the United Kingdom. The source added that “[Diezani Alison-Madueke] was most likely aware that the Crown Prosecution [in the UK] was investigating her properties going back as early as 2013.”

SaharaReporters learned that British prosecutors decided to be low-key about their investigation of Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s suspicious ownership of real estate assets in the UK because the UK Foreign Office and security establishment did not want to unsettle UK-Nigerian ties by going after the former minister during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Sources in the Nigerian government and law enforcement told SaharaReporters that the National Crime Agency (NCA), which arrested Mrs. Alison-Madueke and four other suspects last Friday, did so unilaterally and without the cooperation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). However, once the EFCC read media reports about Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s arrest, their agents moved swiftly to search her residences in Abuja and elsewhere in Nigeria. The EFCC’s action led to media reports, now established to be misleading, that UK and Nigerian authorities were coordinating their investigations of the former minister.

Mrs. Alison-Madueke was the most powerful minister in the Jonathan administration, and had long been linked to shady deals and policies in Nigeria’s oil sector. She fled Nigeria in May, days before the official end of her tenure as Minister of Petroleum and the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Earlier in May, SaharaReporters reported that Mrs. Alison-Madueke booked herself a seat on the same flight in which then President-elect Buhari was traveling to London, and made awkward attempts to strike up a conversation with Mr. Buhari. A source on the flight told SaharaReporters that Mr. Buhari quietly ignored the former minister during the flight.

A Nigerian who met Mrs. Alison-Madueke in the UK said the former minister claimed she was receiving medical treatment.

How Alison-Madueke Looted Nigeria As Oil Minister:

Two of our sources said that the former Petroleum Minister acquired an astonishing sum of looted funds through shady dealings that included theft of kerosene subsidy payments, manipulation of fuel subsidy payments, so-called swap deals in which she used a number of personal and corporate fronts to sell Nigerian crude oil that was meant to be refined and brought back for local consumption, fraudulent acquisition of marginal oil fields and allocation of other lucrative oil field to fronts.

Our sources disclosed that Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s most daring fraudulent deals were her strategic partnership agreements with two respective companies officially owned by her most notorious fronts, Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko. The agreements were worth over $6 billion, according to one source. He added that another avenue of money laundering by the former minister was the controversial Malabu deal in which she, former Attorney General, Mohammed Adoke, and President Goodluck Jonathan may have pocketed close to $2 billion between them.

Our financial intelligence source said Mrs. Alison-Madueke was able to get away with her deals and schemes in the oil industry because she was “one of [former President] Jonathan’s money managers.” The same source pointed out that the Jonathan administration had designed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to give Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Alison-Madueke “sweeping discretionary powers to award contracts, licenses, and leases for the Nigerian petroleum industry.”

Accomplices and Companies in Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s Orbit:

SaharaReporters learned that several key individuals helped the former minister to hide her loot. Two separate intelligence reports identified one Donald Chidi Amamgbo as a key figure in Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s money laundering activities. Mr. Omokore, Mr. Aluko and Walter Wagbatsoma were also named as close collaborators in the former minister’s suspicious web of financial activities.

Mr. Aluko, who went to near-anonymity to become a flashy, high-flying and yacht-owning “entrepreneur,” was identified as a “money-launderer” for Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Alison-Madueke. Our source claimed that Mr. Aluko recently bought several real estate properties in Los Angeles and New York ranging between $8 million and $23 million. Recently, rap mogul, Jay Z, and his wife, Beyoncé, spent their vacation on a $50 million yacht owned by Mr. Aluko.

According to our source, Mr. Aluko’s flamboyant lifestyle led Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Alison-Madueke to decide to use more discreet fronts. Besides, the source added, Mr. Aluko also fell out with the former Petroleum Minister Diezani when he absconded with funds he was supposed to have laundered for her and the former president.

Mr. Aluko’s Atlantic Energy, formerly known as Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited (AEDCNL), was one of the major corporate entities used to stash away the former minister’s looted funds. Mr. Aluko established the company in Zug, Switzerland, along with Nigerian national Temidayo Adeoye Okusame and British national Oscar Seda Mbeche.

In July 2015, SaharaReporters had published an investigative report that revealed connections between Mrs. Alison-Madueke, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), and Atlantic Energy. This website reported, “on July 19, 2010, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited (AEDCNL) was incorporated as a portfolio company,” adding that this was barely three months after Mrs. Alison-Madueke assumed office as the Minister of Petroleum Resources. The report continued: “Atlantic Energy, even without prior record of successful experience in the oil and gas sector, announced that it had entered into a Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA) with the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in April 2011. That was exactly six months before AEDCNL was legally born.”

One oil industry expert told SaharaReporters that there was widespread shock when Mrs. Alison-Madueke awarded an unknown company like Atlantic Energy a strategic agreement with the NPDC “without following any process as stipulated in the government procurement laws and policy.” The stated that oil industry operators knew that the deal between Atlantic Energy and the NPDC “was an unholy arrangement” between the former minister, top NPDC officials, Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore. He identified Mr. Omokore as a “controversial business mogul” and political financier.

According to a report published by the Natural Resource Governance Institute, Atlantic Energy had entered into strategic alliance deals with the NPDC for at least five oil blocks or oil mining leases.

Walter Wagbatsoma, also listed as a “money manager” for the former Petroleum Minister, runs several companies that investigators found to be entangled in Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s financial activities. An intelligence report discussing Mr. Wagbatsoma’s business dealings found that “he holds a private plane, said to be bought by [Mrs. Alison-Madueke], probably in 2011, in trust for the Petroleum Minister.”

However, Mr. Wagbatsoma is associated with a shadowy energy company named Ontario Oil and Gas, which trades Nigerian crude on international markets and whose directors are currently facing money-laundering trial in Nigerian courts. According to the Berne Declaration, an independent watchdog organization, Ontario Oil and Gas continues to export Nigerian crude despite accusations by the Nigerian government that the company misappropriated more than 4.2 billion naira—and arrests of the firm’s executives by the EFCC. According to the company’s own website, it exports at least 2 million barrels of crude oil a month.

The Natural Resource Governance Institute reported that Ontario Oil and Gas, along with another company, Aiteo, saw “their shares of the Nigerian crude and products markets grow rapidly under the Jonathan government,” despite their very limited experience. The report also noted: “Ontario relied on a few foreign traders to take its [petroleum] allocation to market.”

Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s third accomplice, who was described as such in two separate intelligence reports leaked to SaharaReporters, is Donald Chidi Amamgbo. Mr. Amamgbo reportedly studied law at Howard University in Washington, DC at the same time Mrs. Alison-Madueke was studying there as a student of architecture. It is believed that they met each other in DC.

According to biographical information available in intelligence reports, in January 2012 Mr. Amamgbo was suspended from practicing law in California, where he relocated, for one year. However, his main focus seemed to have already turned to managing three companies under his ownership, specifically Tidax Energy, Mezcor SA, and Lynear SA.

Tradax, Mezcor, and Lynear are all based out of Geneva, Switzerland and all three are connected to a Portuguese national, Daniel Roy Joanes, and an American national, Richard Levinson. The Natural Resources Governance Institute characterized Tridax as an example of suspicious conduct because the firm’s “corporate structures stretch outside Nigeria.” The report found that Mr. Amamgbo owned 49% of Tridax with the remaining 51% of the ownership belonging to Tridax Oil domiciled in Switzerland. Further tracing the corporate structure of Tridax, it was revealed that 100% of it is owned by a sister company based in Malta, with 99% of that company owned by Calpenergy Fund in Gibraltar, with 67% of it owned in turn by Daniel Roy Joanes, with the remaining 33% owned by Turicum Private Bank also located in Gibraltar. This kind of circuitous ownership arrangement often typifies an attempt by a corporate entity’s real owners to hide their identities.

SaharaReporters obtained an intelligence report that stated, “Mezcor SA is clearly the lead company of the three run by Amamgbo.” Mr. Amamgbo also owns 49% of Mezcor, with the remaining 51% owned by Mr. Joanes and Mr. Levinson. Mr. Joanes, who previously worked as an asset manager for Clariden Leu, later worked for Bank Hapoalim. He also owns NFS Partners, which is co-located in the same office as Mezcor in Geneva.

Mr. Levinson is described in one report as having “a scandalous past” and has the dubious distinction of owning one of the first companies to be suspended by the US government for fraudulent activity during reconstruction after the Iraq War in 2003. According to the Wall Street Journal, “a [US] federal jury in Alexandria, VA found that Custer Battles [owned by Levinson] defrauded the US government of $3 million by filing faked invoices.”

US authorities later discovered that Mr. Levinson’s companies billed the American government $10 million for work estimated to actually cost only $4 million. In a curious corporate sleight of hand, Mr. Levinson sold Custer Battles to Danubia Global Inc., a company based in Bucharest, Romania, for one dollar. It turned out that he owned Danubia as well.

One intelligence investigation found that Mr. Levinson “acts as a director of the five companies [in which] Daniel Roy Joanes is also a director.”

According to another investigation, Tridax is a beneficiary of one of “38 contracts for 1,179,000 barrels per day crude lifting awarded by the [Nigerian] Federal Government last year.” The NNPC, which awards these contracts, also awarded a contract to Mezcor SA and two companies it worked with—India Oil Company and Fujairah Refinery.

These companies’ ties to Mrs. Alison-Madueke extend beyond questionable crude oil lifting contracts and her relationship with Mr. Donald Chidi Amamgbo. Investigators showed SaharaReporters documents that established that Timi John Agama, the former Petroleum Minister’s younger brother, has a financial stake and is a part owner of both Mezcor and Tridax.

The Madueke-Agama Family Business Network:

SaharaReporters has learned, from profiles of Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s sons, brothers, and nephews, that the family’s core businesses are suspiciously located at a single address: Unit 8, Quebec Buildings, Manchester M3 7DU in the United Kingdom. The main business is listed as Hadley Petroleum Solutions Ltd. But other corporate entities registered at the same location include Ryan and Bell Solutions Ltd., Callserv Ltd., Parrot Mobile Ltd., Mail Express Ltd., and Stone International Ltd.

All these companies are associated with close members of Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s family, including nephews Abu Fari, Abiye Agama, Somze Agama, and her son, Ugonna Madueke. According to one intelligence report, “key in the Diezani Alison-Madueke family business structure is her elder brother, Doye, who is a Pentecostal Archbishop based in Manchester, UK. SaharaReporters learned that in addition to his business activities with the Madueke-Agama family, Bishop Agama presides over the Apostolic Pastoral Congress located in Manchester, UK.

Before becoming part of the clergy in 1994, Mr. Doye Agama worked as a telecommunications consultant to the oil industry, central and local government and the emergency services.

Investigators told SaharaReporters that Mrs. Alison- Madueke owns a number of properties in the United Kingdom and the United States, under a variety of names, often those of her family. One property, located in London at 22 Parkwood, St. Edmunds Terrace, St John's Wood, London, NW8 7QQ is registered in the name of her mother, Beatrice Agama. Her younger brother, Timi John Agama, has a property registered under his name at 67, Wades Hill, Winchmore Hill, London, N21 1AU.

The former minister’s elder brother, Bishop Agama, has a property located at 27 Tavistock Square, Holburn, London, WC1H 9HH registered to his name.

Winihin Ayuli-Jemide, a younger sister to Mrs. Alison-Madueke, is active in organizing a series of conferences ostensibly to empower African women. Her seminars are called the Winihin Jemide Series. Curiously, her conferences and seminars are often held in cities like London and Vienna where her elder sister, Mrs. Alison-Madueke, is suspected to have business interests. The former minister was often invited to speak at the conferences.

In the United States, the former Petroleum Minister owns three properties that are registered under her maiden name, Diezani K. Agama. They include a posh apartment located at 1220 West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland, with the zip code of 20910. Her son, Ugonna Madueke, has at least three properties registered in his name, two in Virginia and one in Maryland. The former minister’s son’s properties in Virginia are located at 11711 Scooter Lane, Fairfax, VA 22030, and 4227 Summit Manor Ct, Fairfax, VA 22033. His property in Maryland is at 13116 Silver Maple Ct, Bowie, MD 20715.

The former minister’s husband, Admiral Alison Amaechina Madueke, was Nigeria’s former Chief of Naval Staff. On retiring, Mr. Madueke went into the maritime services business, serving as the chairman or director of numerous companies, including Radam Maritime Services Ltd.

http://saharareporters.com/2015/10/05/how-nigeria’s-ex-minister-petroleum-madueke-laundered-looted-money-her-accomplices

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Tinubu attacks military, says Jonathan planning to rig

FEBRUARY 10, 2015 BY ENIOLA AKINKUOTU 6 COMMENTS

A former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has lambasted the nation’s service chiefs for advising the Independent National Electoral Commission not to go ahead with the February 14 presidential elections.

The All Progressives Congress leader said it was suspicious that the military were planning an offensive against Boko Haram on the same day the elections were supposed to hold despite the fact that INEC had announced the date of the elections over a year ago.

Tinubu said in a statement on Monday that it was unlikely that the military would be able to defeat Boko Haram in six weeks as the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, had failed after boasting that the military would defeat Boko Haram in four months last April.

He said, “This postponement is a smokescreen because what the letter says is that they are advising a postponement of six weeks in the first instance subject to the amelioration of the security situation in the North-East. This is coming from a Chief of Defence Staff that vowed to crush the insurgents within four months early last year. A year later, nothing has changed. He is now asking Nigerians to believe this government can do in six weeks what it could not do in six years.

“This postponement has deeply wounded Nigerian democracy. While my party hoped to go into the election and win it that we may offer a new and honest deal to the people, this government continues to feed the people a raw deal.”

The former governor said the postponement was evidence that President Goodluck Jonathan was not ready to hold free and fair elections.

He warned the President to put the interest of Nigeria above his personal ambition so as not to plunge the nation into crisis.

He said, “What happened Saturday was actually not a postponement due to security or logistical reasons. What happened was the by-product of overt political interference undermining the independence of the election management body, INEC.

“The elections were postponed not because they could not safely be held. They were postponed because one man, President Jonathan, feared that an election held on February 14 would for him become an election lost.

“While the mouth was Jega, the words were Jonathan. He chose to place our democracy at risk than do what democracy demands by facing and risking the verdict of the people. That he would use our security agencies to provide his excuse only adds insult to injury.”


http://www.punchng.com/politics/tinubu-attacks-military-says-jonathan-planning-to-rig/

Posted by: Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado-Ekiti


The Ekiti State government has acknowledged the receipt of the N2billion Ecological Fund. Special Assistant to the Governor on Information, Youth and Sports, Lanre Ogunsuyi, confirmed receipt of the fund from the Federal Government.
The receipt of the money caused a row between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led administration and the All Progressives Congress (APC), with the opposition claiming that the governor received the ecological fund on December 31, which the government denied.
Hard times await Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as Governor Ayo Fayose has approved the reduction of their monthly running grants by as much as 60 per cent.
Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development Toyin Ojo said this yesterday while analysing the 2015 Budget passed into law by seven Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members of the House of Assembly.
Ojo said the reduction of running grants to MDAs was “part of the fiscal caution taken to reduce spending to save funds for capital projects”.
The commissioner said government reduced MDAs from 36 to 14 to cut spending and saving more money to carry out projects.
Ojo said the government would revive the Integrated Poultry Scheme at four designated centres.
Fayose, during his first stint in power, carried out a poultry project which became controversial as the governor was sued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for the N1.3 billion project.
Although the case is still in court, Fayose is covered by immunity in line with Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution.
The earlier poultry project was established in the 16 local governments and four special centres.
Ojo said the global economic recession that has cut down the oil proceeds in Nigeria has taken a toll on the state’s finances.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/ekiti-confirms-receipt-n2b-ecological-fund/

Nigeria set to lose $466m in arms deal

Posted by: Simeon Ebulu, Group Business Editor in Featured, News 13 hours ago

Whistleblowers in the defence industry are raising the alarm over a massive fraud of $466.5 million about to be executed at the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) with some arms dealers, using the United States’ refusal to grant export permit for military hardware to Nigeria as pretext.
A letter to the government aroused the suspicion. An arms procurement company wrote that in view of the refusal of the US to give export licence to Nigeria, it had reached an agreement with NAF to substitute the initial order for Cobra AH-IV with alternate attack platform which it claimed, has greater fire power.
The letter detailed the alternate equipment to include six upgraded armed Puma Helicopters with the equivalent attack capabilities of the Cobra; four SU-25KM upgraded ground support/ attack aircraft;2 EU 25 UB for the purpose of qualifying and training NAF pilots for specific mission.
To power the pitch further, it offer additional incentive by proposing to build a suitable purpose built storage and hanger for the Puma and SU25 helicopters to accommodate the ground support requirements.
Same day, the company initiated a second correspondence with the NAF from its representative office at 1c Barnes High Street, London SW 13 9LB, United Kingdom titled “ Additional Critical Armament Requirement for NAF”. The company put the cummulative charges for the various equipment, including shipping at $466.5million.
Whistleblowers were shocked that in a government parastatal known for slow moving mails and deliberations, the NAF recommended the pitch by the military hardware supply company to the higher echelon of government within 16 days of submitting the proposal.
In its recommendation, NAF wrote: “The NAF hereby confirms the letters from the firm (name withheld) regarding platform amendment and additional armament requirement for the NAF. This arrangement became necessary because the United States of America failed to endorse the sale of Cobra AH-IV attack helicopter to Nigeria.
Accordingly, NAF has agreed that the said firm (name withheld) replace the Cobra helicopter with six upgraded armed Puma helicopters, four upgraded SU-25KM and two upgraded SU-25UB attack aircraft”.
The NAF stated that the technical specifications and scopes of work for the aircraft types, required upgrade, training and support package as well as the additional armament requirements have been signed by both parties.
Stridently painting the urgent need for the supply, the NAF urged the approving authority to consent to the request immediately to address current national security challenges as the equipment were needed in the short term.
Curiously, the NAF letter admitted that the equipment being procured was not the appropriate hardware to meet the needs. It noted that the acquisition of new Mangusta 129-Attack Helicopters were actually needed to enhance the Force’s operational capabilities.
The contents of the correspondence soon became known to insiders in the Defence industry and led to serious petitions against the transaction on the grounds that it would amount to massive fraud if executed and that the NAF was guilty of negligence as it did not carry out the mandatory due diligence before endorsing the deal.
According to a petition by a military hardware supplier, “ the total cost of $345.05million, including freight in the attached invoice…does not differentiate between the Puma and SU-25. The unit cost for the SU-25 is mentioned as $11million for a new jet on the internet. While the offered SU-25 are not new, the Puma helicopters are heavily overloaded in price of at least $45 million each”.
Wondering why the NAF would prefer overloaded cost, the company said it quoted $25 million for the helicopter adding that the $39.45 million offered by the preferred firm for armament to NAF, far exceeded its quotation of $13million.
Its conclusion: “This proposed deal being supported by the approving authority is heavily overloaded and considering the probable age of the equipment, is not a fair deal for Nigeria at all”. It added that the proposed training for the pilots and the building of a new hanger are out of place since the pilots are adequately trained and there exisits a subsisting hanger.
Defence industry sources believe that the transaction is a smokescreen for massive fraud as the proposed equipment are no longer being produced and those being refurbished for supply under this transaction cannot deliver on their functions.
Efforts to obtain the reaction of the NAF at the time of going to press were not fruitful as the official lines of the media department were switched off.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/nigeria-set-lose-466m-arms-deal/

Jonathan On the Edge By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde

BY ALIYU U. TILDEFEB 05, 2015

For the first time, it is clear to the ruling People’s ‘Democratic’ Party, PDP, in Nigeria that it may have to leave the scene unwillingly. The indigestible mess it that the party accumulated over the past sixteen years has finally pushed it into the abyss of our collective rejection. For it, there is nowhere hide; no more games to play. Its previous reliance on rigging elections and divide and rule campaigns of religion and ethnicity is annihilated today by an unprecedented political awareness, IT technology and the landslide support that the opposition is enjoying across the nation’s geographical, ethnic and religious divides. Its spine is cold.

This severe political winter has pushed the President and his aides to contemplate all sorts of odds. The revelation from his Special Adviser on Publicity, Doyin Okupe, that this government would rather handover to the military than to the leading opposition figure depicts the desperation of the mafia than the strength of democrats. Treason at its worst! While that anomaly is kept in view by Jonathanians, attempts to postpone the elections beyond February are strongly pursued even after the acknowledged readiness of the umpire to conduct them on schedule. The catch here is finding additional time to contemplate the outmoded means of subverting popular will - regenerating religious and regional differences while escalating the Boko Haram crises to make the elections impossible altogether. But I think, today, even time has grown impatient with such elements. It has been ample to Jonathan but the President has dismissed its generosity in preference to immediate material gains, subversion and deliberate disability. Time is not likely to change the tide it has chosen for 2015. It is defiant already and daring it will only cause more danger for Mr. President.

The nation, gladly, remains resolute that a change in direction is necessary. [b]As I write this piece, thousands of Chadian soldiers are invading Nigeria to save it the ravages of the unholy alliance between Boko Haram and our widely believed complicit government. Ours neighbours have correctly read the danger in that complicity and have decidedly abandoned apathy in favour of confronting the advancing threat in the face of grudges of leaders of the victim nation. [/b]This is not the reading of Chad, Niger or Cameroon alone; it is that of Africa. Today, changing the direction of governance in Nigeria is a continental imperative as much as it is a consensus among its nations. This is the certainty that primitive-grade DNA, intelligence and sociology of Niger Delta militants and other chauvinists across the nation could not foresee when they allowed material gains to subvert national interest.

The National Council of State meeting due to hold today will end without the President succeeding in hoodwinking its members into accepting a postponement of the elections, once Jega remains resolute on his stand that INEC is ready. The poor National Security Adviser, Dasuki, that is shamelessly glad to toe the line of the clique that has brought the worse suffering to his people in their entire contemporary history is likely to face rejection. The advisory body will, most likely, advise the President to be bold and face Nigerians at the polls; that anything less will only strengthen the support for the opposition and reinforce the resolve of Nigerian voters against him.

My advice for Nigerians is continuous vigilance against the evil that chose to frustrate its growth and sabotage its existence for sixteen years now. They have resolved to defeat it and they must endure on that course to achieve the dream of a better Nigeria. Whichever way the PDP and the President decide, the polling day will come and the people will decide. No ‘doctrine of necessity’ or rigging will this time accord him a day beyond May 29 without the approval of Nigerians at the polls.
5 February 2015

http://saharareporters.com/2015/02/05/jonathan-edge-dr-aliyu-u-tilde

‘He just couldn’t stop doing good’
Posted by: Group in Uncategorized 21 hours ago

Dressed in the Holy Child College, Ikoyi, uniform, a young girl sat in a white chair on the balcony of the late business gaint’s Victoria Island home, sobbing.
She was consoled by a man. A woman on her left also wept, using her handkerchief to wipe her face.
The pupil, Precious Obiekwe, after regaining her composure, said she learnt of Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas’ death when her parents came to pick her from school.
Miss Obiekwe did not just lose her benefactor in Okoya-Thomas, she also lost a friend who “couldn’t just stop doing good”.
She told The Nation that the deceased, who was no relation of hers, saved her from leaving Holy Cross School in JSS1 and had since then taken up her education as his responsibility.
Her words: “In 2009, I met him with my family in church. Prior to that meeting, we did not know him at all. We went to church (Holy Cross Cathedral) and he just called on us to come.
“It was at a period I was about to leave Holy Cross College for another school. He asked me the school I attended and I told him Holy Child College but that my parents were making plans to move me to Reagan.
“He said he wanted me to continue in Holy Child, that he liked the school and that he would henceforth be responsible for my education.
“I am in SS 3 now and a boarder and he has been the one footing my bills. He has been providing for me and he even promised to send me to Canada for my university education because I said I want to study medical sciences.
“I called him on Christmas Day and he sounded weak and told me to pray for him that he was not feeling too well, which I did.
“I sent him a text on New Year’s Day and he replied. We also spoke on phone and he told me he was getting better but that I should keep praying for him.
“I am pained now because I did not speak with him again until my parents came to school this morning to tell me he had passed on.
“I cannot use words to describe him. I just know that he was a very good man. He couldn’t just stop helping. He was just very good.
“We did not know him from anywhere. He just saw us coming to church and he called and asked me for my school. I attend children mass regularly and I also answer questions in church. Maybe that was where he knew me.
“I just do not know what to say but I know that I will miss him greatly.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/just-couldnt-stop-good/

Buhari To Jonathan: Account For $20b Missing Oil Fund

Published on February 2, 2015 by admin

Kazeem Ugbodaga

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari has challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to account for the $20 billion missing oil fund and make available the audit report on the issue.
The APC candidate, who on Monday addressed members of the Organised Private Sector, OPS, at the State House, Marina, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, said the nation’s elite should take the blame for the collapse of the nation’s economy, adding that they were the ones profiting from the abandonment of the refineries.
He said some of the elite owned refineries outside the country, which was why the refineries at home could not be put into proper use.
On the $20 billion missing oil money, Buhari asked Jonathan to immediately account for it as it smacks of corruption.
“This current government is being challenged to account for an estimated $20 billion and the whole country is awaiting a report of a forensic audit. $20 billion at N210 to $1 is equal to N4.2 trillion, nearly a year’s federal budget.
“If it is true this sum cannot be accounted for, this is grossest form of corruption. Just think about it: at N5 million per vehicle, this money would have bought 840,000 patrol vehicles. At N13.5 million for a high capacity bus, this money would have bought 311,000 buses.
“From information at my disposal, Lekki Bridge in Lagos cost N29 billion to construct. N4.2 trillion would have built 145 Lekki bridges. If the average cost of generating one mega-watt of power is about US$1.5 million (excluding gas and distribution cost), $20 billion would have bought us over 13,333 mega-watts of power. What a difference that would make up and down the country,” he said.
He said if one also factored N2.2 trillion spent on subsidising fuel importation, which became a huge scandal, one might then understand why the APC’s manifesto focuses on the issues of security, corruption and the economy.
Buhari stated that “we are too vulnerable as a nation at this moment if we have to import fuel to move our planes, our tanks and our men. We are too vulnerable as you can see that we also have to import arms. We are vulnerable because our troops also depend on imported food.”
He further said from studies carried out by APC, the nation would require not less than 200,000 trained personnel to support the initiative to provide power and light up Nigeria, saying that apart from the inherent direct employment that it would generate, the reduction in cost of production, the savings from self-generation by Nigerians, who currently spend a lot of their income on purchase of diesel and petrol to generate their own electricity, would reduce the burden on their disposable income.
“These savings to Nigerians from reliable electricity will help the average Nigerian spend their money on other basic necessities of life and reduce poverty. There is already an initiative to build a refinery in Lagos.
“Our government will support this initiative because a local refinery means many things, such as jobs locally at a Nigerian refinery instead of refineries abroad, local fuel supply and national security and reduced importation, less demand for foreign exchange and strengthening of the naira,” he stated.

http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/02/02/buhari-to-jonathan-account-for-20b-missing-oil-fund/

SERAP to sue Okonjo-Iweala over ‘missing N30tn’

FEBRUARY 2, 2015 BY RAMON OLADIMEJI

A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, has asked the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to tell Nigerians the whereabouts of the N30tn alleged to have gone missing under her watch.

The group, in a letter to the minister on Monday, asked her to, within 14 days, account for the allegedly missing sum or face a legal action.

SERAP’s demand followed the allegation by a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, that not less than N30tn “had been missing or stolen or unaccounted for, or simply mismanaged” under Okonjo-Iweala’s watch as the Minister of Finance.

In the letter signed by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, SERAP said Nigerians had a right to know as the said money “represented some accrueable income to the Federal Government in the past four years.”

It said in line with the Freedom of Information Act, “your ministry has a legal duty to render account on the missing N30tn to the beneficiaries (Nigerians) of the trust, if and when called upon to do so.”

The group said the allegation levelled by Soludo called for concern because public stealing or mismanagement of public funds have been the reason for the economic hardship facing the Nigerian masses.

It added that as a key agency of the government, the Ministry of Finance had the duty to ensure that the country’s resources and wealth were only used to fulfil the basic economic and social rights of all Nigerians.

http://www.punchng.com/news/serap-to-sue-okonjo-iweala-over-missing-n30tn/

Waiver: Reps query Okonjo-Iweala over import duty losses

December 26, 2013 by John Ameh 112 Comments


The House of Representatives has directed the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to produce a detailed report on the exact amount of money Nigeria lost to import duty waivers between 2011 and 2013.

She was also mandated to provide the full names of the beneficiaries; what the waivers were used to import; and the justification for granting such duty exemptions.

The directive was contained in the 50 questions on ‘state of the economy’, which the House Committee on Finance handed over to the Coordinating Minister of the Economy during a session with the committee in Abuja on Thursday last week.

The details of the questions, which The PUNCH obtained on Wednesday, showed that the committee was worried over the Federal Government’s commitment towards the anti-corruption war and the dwindling non-oil revenues as a result of the duty waivers approved by the minister.

The question on waivers was number 15 on the list, where the committee asked, “How much exactly has been the amount of money lost in government revenue as a result of import duty waivers in 2011, 2012 and 2013?

“In your opinion as the Minister of Finance, who oversees the economy, what are the implications to the country’s economy? What efforts have you made to stop this waiver policy, which is distorting the economy?

“Our non-oil income has dropped in 2013, a case where increased tariffs on various items effectively reduced importation to zero in some sectors.

“However, those items now find their way into Nigeria through our borders.

“Does it make any sense to increase these tariffs when we have such porous borders? As an example, officially, Togo imported more rice this year than Nigeria.”

Under question number 16, the minister is to explain why the Federal Inland Revenue Service planned to engage foreign consultants to collect tax for the agency, beginning from 2014.

She was therefore asked thus, “Could the minister clarify this position and what Nigeria stands to gain? Has the FIRS not been working effectively?”

Question number 30 dealt with corruption, where the committee expressed doubts over the Federal Government’s commitment to fight corruption and querried why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should be starved of funds.

The committee asked, “Do you believe in the fight against corruption? If you do, why has EFCC not been properly funded? Without properly funding the commission, how should it be expected to carry out its duties effectively?”

The committee also queried the choice of Chevrolet cars for the SURE-P taxis as against Asian and European brands.

It noted that the vehicles were not fuel-efficient and not durable on Nigerian roads.

The document reads, “Who is in charge of the management of SURE-P and who takes responsibility for its success or failure?”

Okonjo-Iweala was also taken to task over the bloated recurrent component of successive national budgets in the country.

The committee recalled that she had boasted to reduce recurrent spending, but failed to keep the promise. For example, the 2014 budget of N4.6trn has a recurrent lion’s share of 72 per cent.

The committee observed, “Since your arrival as Minister of Finance in 2011, you have publicly announced the need to reduce the recurrent expenditure so that more money will be made available to capital spending, which is critical to growing and diversifying the country’s economy.

“How far has government succeeded in making these necessary cuts; and where exactly have these cuts been made in the effort to reduce recurrent expenditure?”

The minister is to respond to the questions within three weeks.

The December 19 session with the minister had ended abruptly after Okonjo-Iweala and the Chairman of the committee, Mr. Abdulmumini Jibrin, exchanged words.

She had complained of not being accorded respect as a minister after Jibrin shouted at her and later ordered the session closed.

http://www.punchng.com/news/waiver-reps-query-okonjo-iweala-over-import-duty-losses/

When are we going to get justice?

Don’t cover up Oduah, activists urge Jonathan

Posted by: Chioma Onyia, Abuja and Precious Dikewoha, Port Harcourt in New

Two groups, The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) and the Foundation for Human Rights and Advocacy (FHRA), yesterday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to avoid a coverup in the N225 million bulletproof vehicles the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) allegedly bought for the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah.

At a joint media briefing in Abuja, the ANEEJ Director, Rev David Ugolor, and a representative of the FHRA, Olafaju O. Emmanuel, asked President Jonathan not to trivialise the matter with a probe panel.

The groups advised the President to ensure that the nation’s anti-graft agencies probe the minister, instead of a panel.

Describing Ms Oduah as a close ally of the President, Ugolor raised some questions about the essence of the probe panel.

He said: “We say this because in a country where we have different anti-corruption agencies, which are saddled with the responsibility of trying cases such as this, what is the need for a panel?

“With the facts on ground, a clear case of corruption and misappropriation of public fund has been established. So, I see no reason why the President is setting up a panel of enquiry rather than suspending the minister at once and mandating the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to carry out its duties on her.”

A group, the Nigeria Democratic Awareness Forum (NIDAF), yesterday called for the sack of the Aviation Minister.

The group urged President Goodluck Jonathan to always monitor the activities of his ministers and their ministries.

It noted that Oduah was just one among several cases of alleged misuse of public funds by government officials.

The National President of the group, Comrade Prince Obiajunwo Dike, addressed reporters yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on the controversial N255 million armoured cars for the minister.

He said: “We decided to call on President Jonathan to immediately sack the Aviation Minister or suspend her while waiting for the outcome of an administrative panel of investigation.”

Another group, the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday joined several others calling for the sack of the minister.

In a statement in Lagos by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Officer, Ms. Zainab Yusuf, the group urged President Goodluck Jonathan to suspend the minister, pending the outcome of investigation into the matter.

It faulted the setting up of the Alhaji Sali Bello Isa–led presidential investigation committee on the N255 million armoured cars.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/dont-cover-oduah-activists-urge-jonathan/

We bought two limousines for N120m for Oduah, says FAAN

Posted by: Onyedi Ojiabor and Sanni Onogu, Abuja in Featured, News 15 hours ago

The Senate Committee on Aviation yesterday said the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has confirmed that it purchased 202 vehicles.

It said that FAAN also confirmed that two Lexus Limousines and two Toyota Prado Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) are part of the vehicles.

The Committee said FAAN claimed that two of the vehicles were bought for Aviation Minister Stella Oduah while another two were purchased for the FAAN Managing Director, Mr. George Uriesi.

It said some of the vehicles were bought for the use of directors of FAAN.

Uriesi told the committee that the limousines were bought for N60m each.

He however, said he did not have details of the cost of the Prado SUVs.

He told the committee the cars were in the custody of an unnamed bank which funded the purchase of the four top of the range vehicles.

The MD claimed that the Aviation Minister approved the purchase, while somebody whose name he did not disclose signed on his (Uriesi) behalf.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Hope Uzondinma, spoke on the car purchase at the continued Public Hearing on the crisis in the aviation sector.

Uzodinma said, ”Investigation is still ongoing and it will not be fair for me to preempt it. FAAN did confirm that among the operational vehicles they purchased, four of them are armoured vehicles, two for the MD and two for the minister.

“We told them (FAAN) to go back and put everything in writing and make a comprehensive statements on all vehicles purchased.

“FAAN said they bought a total number of 202 vehicles for different operations. So until they come back on Monday we cannot rush into conclusion. The MD FAAN said they did a funding arrangement with a commercial bank.”

He said his committee would do a thorough investigation of extra-budgetary spending by the agencies in the Aviation Ministry.

According to him,”This investigation will be a very deep one so that at the end of the day, we do a holistic approach and look at how the sector will be repositioned so that all anomalies will be corrected…”

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/bought-two-limousines-n120m-oduah-says-faan/

funnyx: No be Naija we dey? NOTHING GO HAPPEN

The more you steal the more untouchable you are in Nigeria.

Court frees monarch accused of raping corps member

Published on October 8, 2013 by

A Nigerian court has discharged and acquitted the traditional ruler of Ilowa Ijesa, in the western Nigerian state of Osun, over an allegation of raping a National Youth Service Corps member.

Justice Oyejide Falola of the Osun State High Court sitting in Ikirun on Tuesday gave the verdict today, putting an end to a three-year sexual case that has brought national attention on the traditional king, the Alowa of Ilowa-Ijesa, Oba Adebukola Alli, and his accuser, Helen Okpara.

Delivering judgment, Falola said that the plaintiff, Miss Helen Okpara, failed to tender enough exhibits to convince the court beyond reasonable doubt that she was raped by the monarch.

The judge also held that the plaintiff, who accused the monarch of raping her at his private residence in Osogbo, failed to prove that she was raped.



Oba Adebukola Alli, Alowa of Ilowa-Ijesa: acquitted
He said a case of rape could only be established with exhibits such as bed sheet, the victim’s pant and a medical report indicating forceful penetration, adding that the prosecutor failed to tender all these.

Falola said Okpara also failed to show the bruises on her private part as evidence that she was raped.

He further said the prosecutor failed to show to the court the plaintiff’s torn clothes as she had claimed in her submissions before the court.

While stressing that a case of rape must be proved with injuries sustained on the private part as well as other parts of the body, Falola said the court was not convinced that Okpara sustained any injury.

Falola said the court was able to establish the fact that Okpara and the monarch had been having regular sexual relationship before a misunderstanding ensued between them.

He, however, condemned such relationship involving a traditional ruler, saying his action had brought his stool into disrepute as well as disgrace to his family and community.

But Mr Femi Adedokun, the counsel to both Okpara and the state government, said he would seek advice from the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice before considering appealing the judgment.

On his part, the defence counsel, Mr Taofeeq Tewogbade, commended the judgment, describing it as “God’s judgment which came at the appointed time.’’

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/10/08/court-frees-monarch-accused-of-raping-corps-member/

subsidy fraudsters

Emeka Offor Versus His Oraifite People In Anambra State By Mike Ofiaeli

Posted: October 4, 2013 - 07:03


By Mike Ofiaeli
Many of us from Oraifite in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra, are amused by a recent statement credited to a controversial son of our community named Wilson Orakwue Offor but known everywhere around Nigeria as “Sir Emeka Offor.” It should be noted that none of this man’s registers with the church or the schools he attended has his name as Emeka. And Emeka could not have possibly been his name because he has a younger brother who bears the name of Emeka, a brother from the same parents. The authentic Emeka is alive, hale and hearty. It is, therefore, strange to a lot of Nigerians that Wilson Orakwue Offor should be parading himself as Emeka Offor whereas the real Emeka Offor is still around in flesh and blood. Those of us who know Wilson very well know why he had to change his real name. Offor was for many years desperate to change his identity. He was hiding and running away from the long arms of the law!

Against this background, the Nigerian people should understand why Offor's Oraifite people were amused and entertained to no end by the interview our son granted to Sunday Nation newspaper where he threatened to deal ruthlessly with any person who questions his "earned reputation". Of course, Nigerians generally know that it is only in a country where anything goes that Wilson Orakwue Offor can ever claim to have a modicum of respect. What brought him into national prominence should have sent him to jail if Nigeria were a bit disciplined. He came into prominence when the notorious Sani Abacha military dictatorship awarded his Chrome company the contract to carry out the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the Port Harcourt Refinery and Petrochemicals Company for about $100M. This contract was a rape of the Nigerian people. It was a conspiracy by Offor who is a former driver with Julius Berger construction firm; the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Gidado Idris; the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dan Etete, who was to be jailed in absentia in France for monumental corruption against Nigerians; and, of course, the Abacha family. These characters used a group of Romanians to perpetrate the heinous crime against our citizens.

Needless to say, the contract was never executed. All these characters in the sordid drama just shared the huge amount of money. Out of greed, they even swindled the Romanians they used as both a conduit pipe and a smokescreen to pass for international expertise. One person who did not like what was going on but just played along was the then chief executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the late Dalhatu Bayero. Carried away by how easily a fortune could be made through fraudulent collaboration with the irresponsible military regime, Offor launched into a mindless campaign for Abacha's transmutation. The most remembered of the endless adverts he placed daily in the media in support of Abacha's self-succession claimed that with General Abacha in power, Nigeria would be getting two presidents for the price of one! Mrs Mariam Abacha was regarded as a president in her own right. Even on the day Abacha died, Offor was sponsoring a seminar on Abacha's life presidency where Etete, a barely literate person, was billed to give a star lecture!

It is this Wilson Offor fellow who is today talking of honor and even threatening any person who has the temerity to ask questions about his reputation. Let us recall his exact words in the interview which Sunday Nation published on page 8 in its issue of September 22, 2013:


There is no part of this country that I have not been to. I’m not known as a criminal. I am not known as a poor man, but as a rich man and good man. I am going to deal with anyone, young or old, that tries to pull me down because it is time we start (sic) respecting ourselves, people tend to take my humble attitude as weakness and use it against me but I am out for any challenge now”.

Here a few facts unknown to most Nigerians but well known to the kinsfolk of Wilson Orakwue in Irefi and other parts of our sleepy Oraifite hometown. He lived in Kaduna between 1984 and 1986, and stole from a construction company in Makurdi, while pretending to be supplying bitumen to the same construction company. The accursed Orakwue lived at Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom State, Suleja in Niger State, and at Otokoto Hotel in Owerri, Imo State—all within a very short period. He was in hiding. He was hiding from law enforcement officers who were desperately looking for him for various criminal offences. On one occasion, Group Captain Benson Nnoruka (now retired), an indigene of Oraifite, smuggled Orakwue out of police custody in Benin to the Air Force Base in Makurdi, Benue State, where he was living in hiding. In appreciation of the huge risk Group Captain Nnoruka took to save his life which could have led to Nnoruka’s instant dismissal from the air force if the authorities had known what the senior officer did, Wilson Orakwue Offor asked Nnoruka to retire in 2002 so that he would make him governor of Anambra State in 2003, succeeding Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju. Nnoruka resigned, but Offor could not make him the governorship candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Typical of Offor, he has since dumped Nnoruka like a hot potato, and this fine officer is today in an emotional and financial mess. He regrets everyday of his life his decision to follow Wilson Offor.





The gods of Oraifite will not forgive Orakwue for declaring, “I’m not known as a criminal.” Those of us who know him well know that he is both a criminal and a rogue. He is an unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person, a scoundrel, a rascal, one who is playfully mischievous, in fact, a scamp. Within British Metropolitan Police, Emeka Offor is known as Mr. D, the money launderer. He has a case for laundering £750,000,000 which was confiscated by British Metropolitan police, and his passport was confiscated. This “good person” is wanted by British and American law enforcement officers. That is why he cannot now enter Great Britain or the United States of America.



This our “illustrious son,” who in the interview with Sunday Nation talked about respect and humility, insulted Chief Geoffrey Nsofor (Ichie Enyiamaoso) at Obi Nkalafia in 1997, when Geoffrey Nsofor, father of Humphrey Nsofor, a former legislator, was 82 years old. He also insulted and assaulted Chief Chuks Muoma, with policemen in 2007. Ichie Chuks Muoma is much older than Orakwue. He is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who obtained his Law degree in London in 1968. On April 28, 1998, Orakwue slapped Hon. Humphrey Nsofor at St Michael’s Primary School Ezumeri, Oraifite. Still, this man claims to be an epitome of respect and humility.



Wilson has been living a lie as far as the Anglican Church is concerned. He will never disclose to the church authorities that he is married to several wives. If he has told them that he is a polygamist, he would have long ceased to be a knight of the church because an Anglican Knight (or any good Christian for that matter) should have no more than one wife. Maybe, Orakwue plans to return to the African traditional religion which some of us have since embraced. Frankly, the traditional religion should serve as his natural constituency. Wilson is scandalously fetish.



The Oraifite kinsmen of Wilson Orakwue Offor will soon reveal the real reasons why Orakwue was rusticated from Merchants of Lights Secondary School, Oba in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State and why he was not allowed to live in the dormitory at Abbot Boys Secondary School, Ihiala, also in Anambra State—and why his West African School Certificate examination result was seized at Abbot Boys in 1977; and details about his stay at Orile-Igunmu, in Lagos. I truly hope that Orakwue is out, as he claimed, to “challenge” these revelations about himself.



Wilson Orakwue Offor, alias Sir Emeka Offor, is a veritable thorn in the skin of our hitherto peaceful community. The latest example of his numerous excesses is the use of police to arrest and illegally detain a well-known social crusader, Comrade Boniface Okonkwo, who is also an international businessman based in South Africa. Comrade Okonkwo was detained for three weeks in Abuja, away from Lagos where he was on July 13, 2013, arrested at an ungodly hour, put in the boot of a vehicle and driven all the way to Abuja by a team of the special armed robbery squad in the office of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar. Okonkwo’s offence was he dared advise Offor in an online publication for the Oraifite people that the $1.3m which the controversial government contractor donated to Rotary International for polio eradication should have been better used to ameliorate the condition of many indigent Oraifite people or paying the poorest of the poor who lost their life savings deposited with Offor’s Afex Bank when it collapsed in 2006 principally on account of insider abuses, with Offor alone owing as much as N3.85 billion. There are other examples of how Offor is dealing with his less privileged kinsmen and women like an emperor determined to annihilate recalcitrant subjects in a hated foreign land.





But not everyone is taking the matter lying low. For instance, Comrade Okonkwo has since sued Offor and the police for N100 million for illegal detention and abuse and denial of his basic human rights. The radical lawyer, Femi Falana, is handling the case for Okonkwo, and it will come up early next week in Abuja before Justice Okeke.



Oraifite people are once again advising Wilson Orakwue Offor, alias Sir Emeka Offor, to learn some manners and emulate the behaviors of other rich men from Oraifite, Ichi, Ozubulu and from our big brother, Nnewi. You can still be rich and not intimidate, harass and blackmail your people.


Ofiaeli is from Oraifite

http://saharareporters.com/article/emeka-offor-versus-his-oraifite-people-anambra-state-mike-ofiaeli

Nigeria’s economy shaky, says Amaechi

Posted by: Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt in Featured, News 14 hours ago

Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has disagreed with the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Delta State Governor Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan over the state of the economy and Southsouth’s support for President Goodluck Jonathan.

In Amaechi’s view, the economy is battling to survive, contrary to the rosy picture being painted by the minister.

According to him, the Federal Government is yet to pay fully the Rivers State allocation for July.

Amaechi spoke at a programme organised by the Rotary International, District 9140 for young future leaders at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, yesterday.

On Governor Uduaghan’s remarks that opposition to President Jonathan should not come from the Southsouth, Amaechi said he considered Nigeria’s national interest far and above any other (regional) interest.

He challenged youths to become interested in governance and demand responses from those in government.

The governor, who is also the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Chairman, bemoaned the fact that those fighting a just cause were being maligned on the altar of public criticism, adding that Nigerians do not ask relevant questions.

“When you are principled in Nigeria and you stand on your principles, what do they call you? “Stubborn”, the audience chorused. “They expect you to compromise at a point but when you refuse to compromise, you are a very stubborn man”.

“We(NGF) asked the Minister of Finance to resign if she is not able to manage the economy and she replied that ‘I dey kampe’. As at now, we are yet to receive complete, the federation allocation for July. How strong is an economy that cannot fund its statutory state government federal allocation? Our entitlement as Rivers State Government in July was N19 billion, they have paid us only N14 billion, you get the point? Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) published receipt of N1.05 trillion in July, so why do they say that there is no money? If we receive N1.05 trillion by July, why are they saying there is no money”? , he queried.

“Now, why am I saying this to you? I am saying it because as potential leaders, you must learn to ask questions. If you think that the youth spur me, you don’t, you don’t inspire me. Why don’t you inspire me? Because you are learning to be like us. Let me paint the image of us – corrupt, poor leadership, that’s what you are copying…”

“We produce oil and we are one of the poorest nations in the world, are we not? Which nation would allow a Commissioner of Police like (Joseph) Mbu to continue to be Commissioner of Police other than in Nigeria? ‘Iraq, Syria’, the crowd chorused. “Maybe, Syria. So, you see our peers: Syria, Iraq, Pakistan. I am sharing experiences with you before I talk about the issue of leadership.”

“Now, I read today’s newspapers and my friend (Governor Emmanuel) Uduaghan (of Delta State) says anybody who is from Southsouth should not oppose our President, should not have a different view from our president. Did you read it? I will reply him but let me start replying him from here. First, I am a Nigerian… The reason why you have Southsouth, Southwest, Southeast, South this, Northwest, North that, is because in Nigeria what you have in leadership is a wreck culture. I would have brought you a book titled ‘It’s our turn to eat’ in Kenya. In Nigeria, it should be what, ‘It’s our turn to chop’.

“Now the reason why you have this South-West, South-East, North-West, North this, North that and all that is because you have a wreck culture where all we care about is how to share the till… So, South-South has shared for four years, how many of you have benefitted from the sharing for four years, raise your hand, how many of you, ‘none’, “ the crowd again chorused. “So none. How many of you passed through East-West road, how was the road”. “Bad”, they again chorused. “And our President is from South-South, so you see why I should support the President? “No ooo”, the crowd chorused again.

“So, the basic rule is that none of us should oppose our President if you are from South-South, that is what the man(Uduaghan) tells us…”

He urged the youths to arm themselves with education to revive Nigeria which is comatose, expressing sadness that the country’s poverty rate has risen to an unbearable level where many Nigerians hardly get enough to eat.

“Now for you as young men and women, we present you a nation that is yearning for repair. For me, the nation does not only need repair, it requires change.”

“In 1970, the poverty rate in Nigeria was 30 per cent. How many of you know the poverty rate now? I was in a meeting where I said it was 70%, the Minister of Finance said it was 68%. What’s the difference between 68 and 70? So, we are giving you a nation that is in the state of comatose, that’s what we are handing over to you.”

“If it is a nation that is progressing, from 30% in 1970, we should be talking about 15% now. So you have work to do and the first step to that work is education”, Amaechi said.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/nigerias-economy-shaky-says-amaechi/

Tinubu expresses surprise over Opeyemi’s suspension from Ekiti Reps Caucus
Premium Times
Published: July 10,2013

Former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu

The former Lagos governor demands reversal of the decision to suspend Opeyemi Bamidele.

The national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Bola Tunubu, has expressed surprise over the suspension of Opeyemi Bamidele from the party’s caucus in the House of Representatives; and called for the reversal of the action.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Tinubu said though he has not received an official briefing on the purported suspension of the lawmaker over his plan to contest the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State, the action of the caucus could truncate ongoing efforts at reconciliation over the ambition.

Mr. Opeyemi had, last week, reportedly declared his intention to go ahead with his plan to contest the governorship election even though Mr. Tinubu and other leaders of the party resolved to allow the incumbent, Kayode Fayemi, to run for another four-year term.

However, his insistence to enter the race angered his five colleagues in the Ekiti State House of Representatives Caucus, who suspended him from their fold.

Those who took the action are Robison Ajiboye, Bamidele Faparusi, Bimbo Daramola, Ifeoluwa Arowosoge, and Oyetunde Ojo.

Mr. Tinubu said, “It has been reported that members of the Ekiti State Caucus in the House of Representatives suspended Hon. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, as their leader because of his alleged declaration to contest the governorship election next year.

“I have not seen an official word through the party machinery about this action. However, I feel compelled to speak to dispel rumor and false report from assuming the aspect of fact.

“The news of the purported removal of Opeyemi Bamidele came as a surprise. The decision of the members of the Ekiti House Caucus in this regard truncates ongoing efforts at reconciliation, notwithstanding the fact that the party leadership is working hard to reconcile all sides.

“What took some members of the leadership of the party to Ekiti State recently was a continuation of the process of appeal and reconciliation.

“The objective here is to first understand and iron out the issues that have resorted in a gulf between Opeyemi Bamidele and Governor Kayode Fayemi on one hand and the party towards building a formidable political house in Ekiti.”

The former Lagos State Governor, under whom Mr. Opeyemi served as a commissioner, said he does not believe that the caucus members could take such step, adding “I trust their democratic pedigree to highly believe that they would not be used to take this false step which would violate established party rules, processes and traditions.”

He stressed that if the National Chairman of the Party, Bisi Akande, was not informed about the plan to suspend Mr. Opeyemi, those who did it should retrace their steps to forestall unnecessary difficulty for themselves and the Ekiti State chapter of the party.

“For instance, decisions of this critical nature must be done with the consultation of the national leadership of the party. From what I can gather, our National Chairman and the party’s leadership were never consulted or notified about the pendency of such a stark action,” he said.

“For that reason alone, if such an action has been taken, those who did so should retrace their steps to avoid creating an unnecessary difficulty for themselves and the Ekiti chapter of the party.

“Beyond the issue of procedure and rules, there is the tiny matter of internal party democracy to consider. I have said before, any party member has a right to contest the governorship of Ekiti or any other state. Any other person, including Opeyemi Bamidele, has the right to.

“This right is so fundamental to internal democracy that I do not believe he should be sanctioned at this point where the most he has done is to make unofficial statements about contesting. Our party cannot join the club of other parties that punish members for expressing interests in an office.

Mr. Tinubu argued that while Mr. Opeyemi may not be popular among his lawmaker colleagues, he has a right to his beliefs.

“We must protect and smother unpopular and minority positions. If we don’t like it, we vote against it at the appropriate time but we do not punish people simply for thinking differently, this is how we must grow our democracy.”

“Thus, Opeyemi Bamidele was expressing his democratic rights. To unilaterally suspend him as leader of the House Caucus is a questionable one they should reconsider.

“It would appear to contravene the letter and best spirit of party democracy. While we have no problem in him pursuing his democratic ambition without intimidation and persecution, we will continue our efforts at persuading him not to rock the boat and play into the hands of our opponent particularly the PDP shenanigans.

“Political conflict, challenges and resolutions are the hallmarks of political association and leadership. Orderly means of all efforts at democratically resolving those conflicts are not endless in any way,” he said.

The ACN National Leader urged the members of the caucus to reverse themselves and embrace the process of amicable resolution already put in place by the party.

“To do otherwise is to give comfort to those who would seek to divide the Ekiti State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria,” Mr. Tinubu said.

“We appeal to those promoting these divisions to sheathe their swords in the interest of the party and its ardent followers. We cannot forget so soon the struggle and what it cost us to get to where we are today. We owe it to the Ekiti people and all democrats in the country to sustain and protect this hard won democracy.

“All true progressives must rise up in defence of individual freedom and promotion of democratic values. We shall overcome for the good of all,” he added.

http://premiumtimesng.com/regional/140690-tinubu-expresses-surprise-over-opeyemis-suspension-from-ekiti-reps-caucus.html

Tinubu expresses surprise over Opeyemi’s suspension from Ekiti Reps Caucus

Premium Times

Published: July 10,2013



The former Lagos governor demands reversal of the decision to suspend Opeyemi Bamidele.

The national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Bola Tunubu, has expressed surprise over the suspension of Opeyemi Bamidele from the party’s caucus in the House of Representatives; and called for the reversal of the action.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Tinubu said though he has not received an official briefing on the purported suspension of the lawmaker over his plan to contest the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State, the action of the caucus could truncate ongoing efforts at reconciliation over the ambition.

Mr. Opeyemi had, last week, reportedly declared his intention to go ahead with his plan to contest the governorship election even though Mr. Tinubu and other leaders of the party resolved to allow the incumbent, Kayode Fayemi, to run for another four-year term.

However, his insistence to enter the race angered his five colleagues in the Ekiti State House of Representatives Caucus, who suspended him from their fold.

Those who took the action are Robison Ajiboye, Bamidele Faparusi, Bimbo Daramola, Ifeoluwa Arowosoge, and Oyetunde Ojo.

Mr. Tinubu said, “It has been reported that members of the Ekiti State Caucus in the House of Representatives suspended Hon. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, as their leader because of his alleged declaration to contest the governorship election next year.

“I have not seen an official word through the party machinery about this action. However, I feel compelled to speak to dispel rumor and false report from assuming the aspect of fact.

“The news of the purported removal of Opeyemi Bamidele came as a surprise. The decision of the members of the Ekiti House Caucus in this regard truncates ongoing efforts at reconciliation, notwithstanding the fact that the party leadership is working hard to reconcile all sides.

“What took some members of the leadership of the party to Ekiti State recently was a continuation of the process of appeal and reconciliation.

“The objective here is to first understand and iron out the issues that have resorted in a gulf between Opeyemi Bamidele and Governor Kayode Fayemi on one hand and the party towards building a formidable political house in Ekiti.”

The former Lagos State Governor, under whom Mr. Opeyemi served as a commissioner, said he does not believe that the caucus members could take such step, adding “I trust their democratic pedigree to highly believe that they would not be used to take this false step which would violate established party rules, processes and traditions.”

He stressed that if the National Chairman of the Party, Bisi Akande, was not informed about the plan to suspend Mr. Opeyemi, those who did it should retrace their steps to forestall unnecessary difficulty for themselves and the Ekiti State chapter of the party.

“For instance, decisions of this critical nature must be done with the consultation of the national leadership of the party. From what I can gather, our National Chairman and the party’s leadership were never consulted or notified about the pendency of such a stark action,” he said.

“For that reason alone, if such an action has been taken, those who did so should retrace their steps to avoid creating an unnecessary difficulty for themselves and the Ekiti chapter of the party.

“Beyond the issue of procedure and rules, there is the tiny matter of internal party democracy to consider. I have said before, any party member has a right to contest the governorship of Ekiti or any other state. Any other person, including Opeyemi Bamidele, has the right to.

“This right is so fundamental to internal democracy that I do not believe he should be sanctioned at this point where the most he has done is to make unofficial statements about contesting. Our party cannot join the club of other parties that punish members for expressing interests in an office.

Mr. Tinubu argued that while Mr. Opeyemi may not be popular among his lawmaker colleagues, he has a right to his beliefs.

“We must protect and smother unpopular and minority positions. If we don’t like it, we vote against it at the appropriate time but we do not punish people simply for thinking differently, this is how we must grow our democracy.”

“Thus, Opeyemi Bamidele was expressing his democratic rights. To unilaterally suspend him as leader of the House Caucus is a questionable one they should reconsider.

“It would appear to contravene the letter and best spirit of party democracy. While we have no problem in him pursuing his democratic ambition without intimidation and persecution, we will continue our efforts at persuading him not to rock the boat and play into the hands of our opponent particularly the PDP shenanigans.

“Political conflict, challenges and resolutions are the hallmarks of political association and leadership. Orderly means of all efforts at democratically resolving those conflicts are not endless in any way,” he said.

The ACN National Leader urged the members of the caucus to reverse themselves and embrace the process of amicable resolution already put in place by the party.

“To do otherwise is to give comfort to those who would seek to divide the Ekiti State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria,” Mr. Tinubu said.

“We appeal to those promoting these divisions to sheathe their swords in the interest of the party and its ardent followers. We cannot forget so soon the struggle and what it cost us to get to where we are today. We owe it to the Ekiti people and all democrats in the country to sustain and protect this hard won democracy.

“All true progressives must rise up in defence of individual freedom and promotion of democratic values. We shall overcome for the good of all,” he added.

http://premiumtimesng.com/regional/140690-tinubu-expresses-surprise-over-opeyemis-suspension-from-ekiti-reps-caucus.html

JTF Soldiers, Armored Cars Withdrawn From Rivers Governor's Lodge

Posted: July 10, 2013 - 18:38

By SaharaReporters, New York
Some 30 soldiers guarding the Rivers State governor's lodge have been summarily withdrawn by the Brigade commander in charge of the Joint Task Force in Port harcourt. The action was carried out on the orders of President Goodluck Jonathan, who is currently on a state visit to China.

Saharareporters learnt that the soldiers also took with them two armored personnel cars usually stationed outside the government house.

A military source told Saharareporters that the removal of the soldiers was done because it was ordered from Abuja. He warned that things might get bloodier in the state capital with the Joint Task Force (JTF) gone from the government house leaving the security of the governor and his aides in the hands of a few police officers and State Security Services agents.

An eyewitness said a new detachment of soldiers came briefly to inspect a third APC that seems disabled.

Saharareporters could not confirm further reports that the soldiers that were removed are being detained and interrogated in the barracks.

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/jtf-soldiers-armored-cars-withdrawn-rivers-governors-lodge

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How ‘unforced errors’ dog democracy, by Soyinka.

Tuesday, 28 May 2013 00:00 By Kabir Alabi Garba, Yemi Ogunsola, Debo Oladimeji and Ajibola Amzat


AS Nigeria marks 14 years of democracy, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has described the nation’s democracy so far as one that has been hampered by “unforced errors”– that is, errors that are quite avoidable if more care had been taken.

He also alerted the public to terrorist cells long-established in the Southern parts of the country through insidious cattle routes.

However, he insisted that May 29 is in no way Democracy Day but a mere “ego day”. June 12, according to him, remains the authentic Democracy Day.

In an interview with The Guardian on Tuesday at his home in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the literary icon noted that in lawn tennis, from where he drew his analogy, unforced errors occur in moments of sloppy thinking and/or overconfidence.

“There are many promises, first of all, unfulfilled. One, of course, is power (electricity), which is so essential to the generation of the economy… The problem till now has not been solved. There are many other infrastructure examples of that. It is scandalous, for instance, that the major artery that links Lagos to the rest of the country, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, remains in such decrepit state. It is a disgrace to any regime. Whether you talk of Yar’Adua or about Olusegun Obasanjo; it is humiliating for the entire nation. Nowhere else in the world can that happen. I repeat, nowhere else in the world, either on this continent or Asia or Europe.”

According to Soyinka, such a disgraceful level of failure, in better climes, couldn’t have occurred without the culpable authorities “committing hara-kiri.”

The eminent scholar also cited what he called “high-handed actions” totally unexpected from a democratically elected president.

“I refer for instance to the action during the oil subsidy when suddenly armed police and the army were sent to take over a public square which does not even belong to the Federal Government but to a state where people were protesting a glaring deformity in governance…”

Soyinka noted that in instances where it becomes inevitable to insert any “minuses” into citizens’ lives, responsible and responsive governments look for ways of compensating for such by including some pluses by way of palliatives. But this, he lamented, was ignored when the Jonathan Administration removed fuel subsidy back in 2011.

“I said this confidently because I know that the president was advised at a time that ‘before you do this... do that and that and that. This wasn’t done. It was after the public rebellion broke out that things like transportation were introduced – buses were imported to be distributed all over the country. So that people like you and me will be quite happy to park our vehicle and take public transportation. This is what we are talking about the compensation pluses.”

Soyinka came down hard on the Nigerian Governors Forum over the controversy that trailed its recent election, describing it as a ‘disgraceful’ anti-democracy debacle.

“All of us must take a stand. For me, this issue is not a party matter, it is a national matter. This affects democracy. The governors, especially of the PDP have done great damage to the cause of democracy in this country. This is a disgraceful conduct. This in effect is their way of celebrating Children’s Day. In other words, this is their present for Nigerian children because there is no question that an election was held. To now suggest that a different result had been arrived at before the election is an insult to the intelligence, it is a sabotage of democracy and it is an act of contempt for the polity of this nation.

“What is unacceptable and treasonable in my view to the cause of democracy is when an election is held within an organisation of 35 members, the integrity of that election should be upheld as a service to democracy and as a lesson to the rest of the nation. In this case, what they have done has debased the meaning of democracy and set us back several years.

“They are giving an indication of what will happen in the next election. And the nation, all of us, must be on our guard to defend democracy with the last drop of our blood because this is a very bad example to set for children everywhere that we are teaching discipline, who are being lectured all over the place by various governors to live up to the principle of equity, to be good players in school sports. To have done this on Children’s Day is blasphemous.”

Declaring that true federalism is yet to be practised in the country, Soyinka urged governors to concentrate on developing their states in spite of whatever is happening in the centre: “That is why I say that the governors have the responsibility to push the envelope as far as they can. And to say sometimes to the centre: ‘go to hell. We are now concerned with our own salvation. We see you playing so much politics you have no time. Even to fulfill your responsibility to the state’.”

He added : “The governors should also learn that they are in a position to act far more autonomously than they are doing at the moment. My favourite word is decentralization. Even if the centre is under-developing the nation, the governors have the responsibility to develop their own area – and they can do this by independent action, by decentralizing the process of development. We have seen how Lagos has been transforming itself. We have seen this kind of action also being taken by certain governors in terms of education, health, public transportation where the Federal Government has been dragging its feet.”

While asserting that the emergency rule in force in three northern states of Adamawa, Yobe and Bornu, was long in coming, the professor of literature, citing discussions with the late National Security Adviser, Owoye Andrew Azazi, warned that insidious infiltration of the southern part of the country by terror groups, had been on for long through cattle routes that crisscross the region.

He declared: “During my lecture at the 100th anniversary of King’s College about two years ago, I warned that there are already Boko Haram cells in the South. I used the expression that ‘we are all here speaking grammar. Until they come over the wall and scatter all of us, before we get serious’. I said that there are cells already ... Azazi confirmed it when we met. We spoke for one and a half hours. Azazi revealed that we were being infiltrated via some of the cattle routes and this has been responsible for some of the clashes between the farmers that we have been witnessing and the ambushing of farmers in Oyo State in Ogbomosho even in Ogun State by Fulani herdsmen.

“When we met, he was coming from the United States, where he had gone to negotiate some surveillance helicopters, because through a number of these cattle routes, some of these Boko Haram people were already infiltrating into the South. The evidence is becoming quite open now and I don’t consider it a security matter any longer. People are waking up to the reality. When I go hunting, I move into the bush quite a lot. I see camps. I see cattle rearer settlements where they camp from time to time. It is some of those which have been, in many cases, converted to Boko Haram cells.”

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=123058:how-unforced-errors-dog-democracy-by-soyinka&catid=1:national&Itemid=559

"nothing dey happen"