obum042:
N5b Corruption Trial: Enugu govt tampered
with seized properties of companies
associated with Nnamani - EFCC
WorldStage Newsonline-- The Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), today complained to a
Federal High Court sitting in Lagos that the Enugu
State Government had tampered with the assets of
companies associated with the former governor of
the state, Chimaroke Nnmana.
The four companies which had on May 19, 2015
pleaded guilty to a 10-count amended charge
brought against them by the EFCC are Rainbownet
Nigeria Limited, Cosmos FM, Capital City Automobile
Nigeria Limited and Renaissance University Teaching
Hospital. The companies are alleged to have failed to
comply with lawful inquiry made by the Commission.
Their assets are central to the review of facts of the
four companies linked to the ex-governor which was
fixed for today, June 11, 2015 by Justice Mohammed
Yinusa. But the trial judge had to adjourn the review
to July 7 after counsel to the EFCC, Kelvin Uzozie told
the court that he was still working to get a schedule
of all the assets and properties of the companies. He
told the court that in the course of preparing the
schedule it was discovered that some of the assets
and properties have been taken over or tampered
with by the immediate past government of Enugu
State. “We discovered that most of the properties
have been allocated to their friends, family members
or political office holders. We are interested in
getting all the assets as there was an interim
forfeiture order by the court on the assets and
properties. We believe it is not right for anybody no
matter how highly placed the person may be to
tamper with properties that are before the court. We
want the properties to be harmonised,” he said.
According to the EFCC counsel, 21 properties in Gulf
Estate on which there was an interim forfeiture order,
were discovered to be sold.
Also, Ebeano Tunnel which had 22 Duplexes when an
interim forfeiture order was made has been taken
over by the state government and renamed Fidelity
Estate and sold to various individuals.
In addition, Block of 15 Residential Houses at Ebeano
Housing has been taken over by the state
government and sold to Hospitality Company which
has now built an event centre on the land.
Chimaroke Nnamani was first arraigned before
Justice Tijani Abubakar in 2007. The ex-governor
was docked alongside Sunday Anyaogu, his then aide
and six firms linked to them: Rainbownet Nigeria
Limited, Hillgate Nigeria Limited, Cosmos FM, Capital
City Automobile Nigeria Limited, Renaissance
University Teaching Hospital and Mea Mater
Elizabeth High School.
The case was re-assigned to Justice Charles
Archibong following the transfer of Justice Abubakar,
now of the Appeal Court, out of the Lagos division of
the Federal High Court. Again, the case was re-
assigned to Justice Yinusa, after Justice Archibong
(now retired) was also transferred out of the Lagos
division of the court.
According to the charge, Nnamani conspired with
other accused persons to launder funds from the
state treasury, especially monies meant for the local
government areas of Enugu state.

centje:
I am not interested in all those crap they wrote there. My annoyance is, how can EFCC and Court ground companies built with state fund for over a decade, for what!! I refuse to accept that as fighting corruption. It's retrogressive. They should presucute and sentence who ever is found guilt, and either hand over the properties to the state or auction them. It's serious economic loss to the state closing down those companies for years! It's too annoying...another governor has finished his first term, second term and you're still prosecuting the previous governor. Rainbownet could have employed a sizable number of people by now, same with Cosmo fm and their planned Tv station.

centje:
I am not interested in all those crap they wrote there. My annoyance is, how can EFCC and Court ground companies built with state fund for over a decade, for what!! I refuse to accept that as fighting corruption. It's retrogressive. They should presucute and sentence who ever is found guilt, and either hand over the properties to the state or auction them. It's serious economic loss to the state closing down those companies for years! It's too annoying...another governor has finished his first term, second term and you're still prosecuting the previous governor. Rainbownet could have employed a sizable number of people by now, same with Cosmo fm and their planned Tv station.

biafrandream:




They are using the case as a smokescreen to destroy the businesses in Igboland. In as much as I detest corruption in public offices, I am not deceived into thinking that EFCC is fighting corruption, nay, they are fighting Igbo businesses. How come they are not closing businesses built through corrupt enrichment in other regions. How many Nigerians made money by personal effort, if not embezzlement of public funds and government patronage. Talk of Atiku and co. Tinubu owns the entire Lagos yet no one is talking about it. This should teach a very big lesson to every Igbo sons and daughters, that united we stand divided we fall. I remember that Chimaroke organised a party to celebrate the closure of Jim's Savanna Bank by Obasanjo. He forgot then that every Igbo person has a common enemy in Nigeria and once they are done with your brother, they are coming after you.

The overall objective is to make sure no big business survives in Igboland so that all of you will migrate to Lagos, Kano Abuja and Maiduguri. It will then be easier for them to control your destiny, kill you whenever they want and take over your land.

cjrane:
We need to work on tourist attracting activities and structures in Enugu.We need to make sure that is easy for people to visit from far places and there are activities or places to visit and the city will be safe for them to enjoy. So that they can go back and bring their friends.
Tourism and agriculture with agro-allied factories are the two pronged strategies to develop the economy of Enugu state.Building decent markets for the city residents will also have some limited impact in the state or city's development. However, the bottomline is that we need people coming into the state to spend money which will generate jobs and economic activities more than merely circulating the money in the state in the form of local markets.

I am glad oakland has been set up. We need more amusement parks and fun things in the city. Someone talked about building water parks behind hotel presidential and Igbo history museum beside the international conference center. A hotel with many fun amenities such as Grand Hotel Asaba complimented with the type of water park at Tinapa (Calabar) is needed in Enugu. These things should be pursued seriously.

biafrandream:

They are using the case as a smokescreen to destroy the businesses in Igboland. In as much as I detest corruption in public offices, I am not deceived into thinking that EFCC is fighting corruption, nay, they are fighting Igbo businesses. How come they are not closing businesses built through corrupt enrichment in other regions. How many Nigerians made money by personal effort, if not embezzlement of public funds and government patronage. Talk of Atiku and co. Tinubu owns the entire Lagos yet no one is talking about it. This should teach a very big lesson to every Igbo sons and daughters, that united we stand divided we fall. I remember that Chimaroke organised a party to celebrate the closure of Jim's Savanna Bank by Obasanjo. He forgot then that every Igbo person has a common enemy in Nigeria and once they are done with your brother, they are coming after you. The overall objective is to make sure no big business survives in Igboland so that all of you will migrate to Lagos, Kano Abuja and Maiduguri. It will then be easier for them to control your destiny, kill you whenever they want and take over your land.

Kcinho:

The government has not really considered developing tourist sites like the Ngwo pine forest, ezeagu water falls , akwuke beach etc. I love visiting these sites but the road to the beach was so bad I considered turning around the last time I went there. I bet there are other interesting sites out there to tap into if the right people manage the tourism board coupled with adequate government support. Some cultural festivals and carnivals can be promoted too. With adequate investment and management,those villagers who harass individuals that visit these sites can be employed while revenue from these sites and festivals increase our IGR.

cjrane:


I very much like your contribution. i just like to add to your contribution a little more.
One thing i have gained by traveling to some few tourist sites abroad myself is that if the site isn't a true wonder of the world, such as Niagra falls or Zambezi/ victoria falls, it would be almost impossible for anyone to leave their country of origin in Europe or America to head to Ogbunike cave or Ngwo pine forest. However, you can attract them to Enugu first by a proven partnership between (International Airline to Enugu + Hotels where they would lodge and to pick them up from the airport and the travel agency in their home countries).This is the tripod for successful tourism in any country doing it. Thus, working with fine hotels here and Ethiopian airline to package a subsidized vacation. Once they know one week vacation will cost $2,000 dollars including airfares and hotel, then they are likely to pay for the package. Ofcourse when they are here, the participating hotel can take them to local tourist sites like Ngwo pine forest, Ogbunike cave, ezeagu waterfall etc, if those were developed. They will typically buy souvenirs in Nigeria, they will pay for the transportation of using the hotel's air-conditioned mini-buses to travel around, food, local clothing, local art work etc. These will then add to funds coming into the economy.

Kenya and South Africa are able to maintain a reasonably high amount of tourists visits from western countries in spite of fear about terrorism and crime in those countries because they organize packaged vacations through travel agencies in the West, Japan and China.
Coming to Nigeria isn't an easy task at all, even for Nigerian citizens living abroad with their spouse and children. If you go to our embassies for your children visa because they are born abroad, they will be dribbling you from pillar to post, until you pay someone bribe. For foreigners who aren't used to that type of "settlement" behavior from government offices, they simply skip going to Nigeria and choose Kenya, Tanzania or South Africa. That is why i always laugh when our Nigerian tourism ministers naively say building up a cultural carnival or festival is just enough to bring anyone to come to Nigeria without fixing the massive hurdles involved in actually coming to Nigeria.If we fix the hurdles involved in coming to Nigeria, even without ministry of tourism, tourists from all parts of the world will flood Nigeria.

Think about it and put yourself in a tourist's position. If there were a travel agency at the Shoprite Mall, Enugu who is speaking Igbo or English and promoting a packaged one week vacation trip to Brazil for $2,000 or $3,000 dollars (airfare, hotels,visa), if you have money, you may want to pay and the travel agency will sort out everything. If you had to seek out Brazil embassy yourself and find airlines flying to Rio de janeiro, and also to find hotels in Rio where you will stay for 1 week, to learn how to communicate in Portuguese or learn the language so that you can take taxis there and move around, it will be too daunting and you will probably never visit there. Unless, we simplify these and make the tourist just pay a lump-some specified amount upfront and everything else involved is taken care of, they will never come here.

cjrane:


I very much like your contribution. i just like to add to your contribution a little more.
One thing i have gained by traveling to some few tourist sites abroad myself is that if the site isn't a true wonder of the world, such as Niagra falls or Zambezi/ victoria falls, it would be almost impossible for anyone to leave their country of origin in Europe or America to head to Ogbunike cave or Ngwo pine forest. However, you can attract them to Enugu first by a proven partnership between (International Airline to Enugu + Hotels where they would lodge and to pick them up from the airport and the travel agency in their home countries).This is the tripod for successful tourism in any country doing it. Thus, working with fine hotels here and Ethiopian airline to package a subsidized vacation. Once they know one week vacation will cost $2,000 dollars including airfares and hotel, then they are likely to pay for the package. Ofcourse when they are here, the participating hotel can take them to local tourist sites like Ngwo pine forest, Ogbunike cave, ezeagu waterfall etc, if those were developed. They will typically buy souvenirs in Nigeria, they will pay for the transportation of using the hotel's air-conditioned mini-buses to travel around, food, local clothing, local art work etc. These will then add to funds coming into the economy.

Kenya and South Africa are able to maintain a reasonably high amount of tourists visits from western countries in spite of fear about terrorism and crime in those countries because they organize packaged vacations through travel agencies in the West, Japan and China.
Coming to Nigeria isn't an easy task at all, even for Nigerian citizens living abroad with their spouse and children. If you go to our embassies for your children visa because they are born abroad, they will be dribbling you from pillar to post, until you pay someone bribe. For foreigners who aren't used to that type of "settlement" behavior from government offices, they simply skip going to Nigeria and choose Kenya, Tanzania or South Africa. That is why i always laugh when our Nigerian tourism ministers naively say building up a cultural carnival or festival is just enough to bring anyone to come to Nigeria without fixing the massive hurdles involved in actually coming to Nigeria.If we fix the hurdles involved in coming to Nigeria, even without ministry of tourism, tourists from all parts of the world will flood Nigeria.

Think about it and put yourself in a tourist's position. If there were a travel agency at the Shoprite Mall, Enugu who is speaking Igbo or English and promoting a packaged one week vacation trip to Brazil for $2,000 or $3,000 dollars (airfare, hotels,visa), if you have money, you may want to pay and the travel agency will sort out everything. If you had to seek out Brazil embassy yourself and find airlines flying to Rio de janeiro, and also to find hotels in Rio where you will stay for 1 week, to learn how to communicate in Portuguese or learn the language so that you can take taxis there and move around, it will be too daunting and you will probably never visit there. Unless, we simplify these and make the tourist just pay a lump-some specified amount upfront and everything else involved is taken care of, they will never come here.

spyder880:
This is among the fastest developing parts of Enugu, if we are to consider housing delivery and the number of ongoing buildings, usually multi storey buildings....... Presenting to you, Achara layout, as seen from a nearby hill.

Abagworo:


Typical Igbotic buildings clustered like South American slum. Look to your left on the 2nd picture and see something decent. Government needs to give designs for both structure and roofing to stop this kind of nasty housing.

FKO81:

I'm now convinced you smoke Igbotic weed

FKO81:

I'm now convinced you smoke Igbotic weed

ChimaAdeoye:


I have come to disregard the jealousy inspired comments of Igbo haters.
Just as i disregard many so called oily people's comments because i know they are coming from a default position of unjustified Igbo jealousy and hatred. It burns their heart to see progress in the SE. So they will naturally insult,oppose, deride, or underplay the significance of anything positive in SE.

The very same buildings here are "obodo oyibo" buildings once it's not built in Igboland,
but once our people copy the design and build it on our land, they attempt to deride or give it scornful names to belittle it.

Abagworo:


Typical Igbotic buildings clustered like South American slum. Look to your left on the 2nd picture and see something decent. Government needs to give designs for both structure and roofing to stop this kind of nasty housing.

cjrane:


As a matter of fact, once we have stable electricity to enable use of elevators, we can actually begin making our apartment buildings to reach 11 or 12 floors as in the picture.It will save land and enable people have decent cheap housing.

Bishop42:


Elevators can be powered by high capacity inventers(or electric car batteries). I guess we should outsource the design to the Chinese since we refused to think outside the box

Bishop42:


Elevators can be powered by high capacity inventers(or electric car batteries). I guess we should outsource the design to the Chinese since we refused to think outside the box

cjrane:
We need to work on tourist attracting activities and structures in Enugu.We need to make sure that is easy for people to visit from far places and there are activities or places to visit and the city will be safe for them to enjoy. So that they can go back and bring their friends.
Tourism and agriculture with agro-allied factories are the two pronged strategies to develop the economy of Enugu state.Building decent markets for the city residents will also have some limited impact in the state or city's development. However, the bottomline is that we need people coming into the state to spend money which will generate jobs and economic activities more than merely circulating the money in the state in the form of local markets.

I am glad oakland has been set up. We need more amusement parks and fun things in the city. Someone talked about building water parks behind hotel presidential and Igbo history museum beside the international conference center. A hotel with many fun amenities such as Grand Hotel Asaba complimented with the type of water park at Tinapa (Calabar) is needed in Enugu. These things should be pursued seriously.

InyinyaAgbaOku:


And why should people climb elevators to get to their room? That guy is on his own.
Ask him whether the two kano skyscrapers are the residential homes of kano indigenes or corporate buildings .
Why some of you give considerations to his irate thoughts is beyond me.

kettykings:


The truth is that some well designed high rise can have both offices and residential lettings in one high rise.

kettykings:


The truth is that some well designed high rise can have both offices and residential lettings in one high rise.

InyinyaAgbaOku:


Residential areas should be separate from corporate zones, not to talk of a building seIrving both functions.
Though I get your part of the argument, but I expect the iniatiator of this issue to stop comparing apples to oranges. Pix of skyscrappers seeving as residential abodes in other parts of Nigeria or he should quit using igbotic to denigrate our residential houses