The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, arraigned Bala Tangalu before Justice A. B. Mohammed of the Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Jabi, Abuja on a 2-count charge of conspiracy and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N2.5 million.
Mr. Tangalu, a self-styled native doctor, also known as Babalawo, was arrested following a petition by one Dozie Ugonna, who alleged that he was scammed of over N2.5 million by the accused and his cohorts.
According to the petitioner, the money was meant for the purchase of materials to neutralize some harmful charms purportedly contained in a carton filled with United States dollars.
The offence is contrary to Section 8 (a) and punishable under Section 8 (C) and 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act No. 14, 2006.
The accused person pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Upon his plea, counsel to the EFCC, Elizabeth Alabi, asked the court to fix a date for trial and remand the accused in prison custody pending trial.
She urged the court to consider the weight of the offence, which according to her carries a minimum of seven year jail term.
However, counsel to the accused, Yusuf Abdullahi, told the court he had a pending bail application before the court. He added that the accused had been granted administrative bail by the EFCC which he had not breached and urged the court to adopt same bail condition.
Justice Mohammed granted bail to the accused in the sum of N2 million with two sureties in like sum. The sureties must be a civil servant or a community leader.
The case has been adjourned to March 20, 2017 for trial.
Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode on Monday, asked the Federal High Court Abuja, to adjourn his case to allow him explore other options of settlement aside from going to trial.
Counsel to Fani-Kayode, Mr Ahmed Raji (SAN), who made the application on his behalf said that since the sum of money involved was only N26 million, he believed that there were other options of settlement.
Raji added that moreover, he was new on the case and would need some time to go over the facts of the case to enable him defend his client effectively.
“My Lord, I am just coming into the case and so I crave your indulgence to enable me familiarize myself with the case.
“Secondly, looking at the facts of the case and the money involved, I believe that there are other options we can explore.
“The case involves the sum of N26 million and the law allows you to explore the option of plea bargain and so many other options rather than go through trial,” Raji said.
He said that if the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was amenable to plea bargain, the defence would take the option. The prosecuting counsel, Mr Johnson Ojogbane, said he was not opposing the application.
Ojogbane, however, asked the court to take cognizance of the fact this was the second adjournment at the instance of the defence and asked for a definite date to commence trial.
The judge, Justice John Tsoho adjourned the matter till March 14 for commencement of trial.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Fani-Kayode was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Tsoho on a fresh five-count charge bordering on money laundering.
The ex-aviation minister was accused of allegedly collecting N26 million from the Office of the Former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki and using same for media campaign.
Count two of the charge read that;” You Femi Fani-Kayode, converted N26 million cash paid from the office of the National Security Adviser for the purpose of media campaign when you ought to have reasonably known that the said funds formed part of an unlawful act contrary to section 15 (2) (b) of the Money Laundering Act.”
Following the argument of his bail application by the counsel who represented him on that day, Mr Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), he was admitted to bail in the sum of N50 million and one surety in like sum.
NAN also reports that Fani-Kayode is facing another 17 -count charge of money laundering before the Lagos division of the court.
The Federal High Court, Abuja, has fixed February 7 for continuation of cross-examination of prosecution witness, Tabugn Sylvanus, in the on-going trial of former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, and three others over recruitment fraud.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba adjourned the matter to enable the prosecution produce a letter allegedly written by Drexel Nigeria Ltd, one of the defendants.
The said letter was written to the Board of the Nigeria Immigration Service for conduct of the botch 2014 recruitment.
The defence counsel, Paul Erokoro, requested the letter to enable him carry out a proper cross-examination on the witness.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that the NIS conducted recruitment on March 15, 2014, that led to the death of 15 applicants, while several others were wounded.
The Federal Government docked Mr. Moro over alleged N676 million recruitment fraud.
Others charged along with him are the former Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Anastacia Nwobia and a Deputy Director in the ministry, F.O. Alayabami.
At the last adjourned date, a former Controller-General of the Service, David Paradang, told the court that he was not aware of the 2014 recruitment.
Mr. Paradang was Controller-General between June 2013 and August 2015.
The Nigerian Army has said recruitment into the army is free and no one is expected to pay for it.
The Army said this in a statement by its spokesperson, Sani Usman.
Read Mr. Usman’s full statement below:
The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to activities of fraudsters demanding money from applicants of the 76 Regular Recruits Intake for trades/non trades men and women. The fraudsters posing as army officers with the names, Lieutenant Femi and Lieutenant Gbenga Danjuma respectively, operate with the GSM number 08165007425.
The Army wishes to state that the processing of application forms into the Army is free of charge. Applicants are advised to log on towww.narecruitment.org to process their application forms or if in doubts, call the following phone numbers: 08038575725 or 08061541440.
While effort is ongoing to track and apprehend the fraudulent syndicates, the general public should note that the NA does not charge applicants money or gratification for whatever reasons. The public is therefore encouraged to report any person or group parading himself or herself as an agent of the NA for the ongoing recruitment exercise.
The general public is also advised to be wary of dubious offers of recruitment especially through the internet and report such offers or person to the nearest Nigerian Army unit or formation and police stations.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Monday arraigned one Akintunde Vincent Abiodun begore at a Lagos State High court sitting in Ikeja for alleged love scam.
The accused, a student of the Federal Polytechnic Auchi, Edo state was said to have defrauded his victim, D. Bonnici of $267,000 online by claiming to be Christopher Williams from the United Kingdom.
According to the complainant, she met the 37-year-old man on a dating site on the internet and allegedly fell in love with him.
She said the accused started collecting money from her after he claimed he was in possession of gemstone worth $18,050,000 (Eighteen Million and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars), which he purportedly inherited from his father.
The complainant also added that Akintunde hoodwinked her into believing that he was coming to New Zealand to settle down with her, alleging that the money she sent to the suspect were received in Malaysia and Nigeria by persons bearing Norisha, Jalan Klan, and Mohammed Haizam Bin Fauzin.
She said all of them claimed to be friends of Akintunde.
The accused, who is facing a 14-count charge bordering on forgery and obtaining money by false pretence, pleaded not guilty.
In view of the plea, the prosecuting counsel, Sesan Ola prayed the court to remand the defendant in prison custody and also for a trial date to be given.
But counsel to the defendant, O.P. Daramola prayed the court to grant the defendant bail.
The prosecution, however, opposed the bail application on the grounds that the defendant had attempted to travel to the United States while on administrative bail and was similarly denied a Canadian visa.
In his ruling, Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye dismissed the bail application.
He ordered that the defendant be remanded in Kirikiri prison and adjourned to 7 and 8 of March, 2017 for trial.
Mohammed Adoke, former attorney-general of the federation (AGF), says he will defend himself against the allegations of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over his alleged role in the Malabu oil scam.
Adoke is accused of receiving over $800 million from the federation account as his benefit from the deal.
But in a statement, Adoke said the money laundering charge preferred against him by the EFCC was an attempt to “bring me to public disrepute in order to satisfy the whims and caprices of some powerful interests on revenge mission”.
He said he acted on the authority of former President Goodluck Jonathan to broker a settlement between Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited.
“My attention has been drawn to the charges filed by the EFCC against me and other named individuals and companies in respect of OPL 245 Settlement Agreement involving Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited,” he said.
“I wish to reiterate that I acted within the actual and ostensible authority of the office I occupied to broker a settlement between Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited in order to ward off the over US$2 Billion Dollars liability in damages for breach of contract which the country would have been exposed to in the likely event of the success of Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited’s claim before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
“The terms of settlement ensured that the interests of the federal government of Nigeria, Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited were duly acknowledged and provided for in the settlement agreement.
“The federal government of Nigeria was entitled to the signature bonus which was duly paid; Malabu Oil & Gas Limited surrendered its title to OPL 245 for a consideration and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited was re-allocated OPL 245 which its had previously substantially de-risked in consideration for withdrawing their over US$ 2 billion dollars claim for breach of contract against the federal government of Nigeria.
“Since the parties aforementioned, faithfully discharged their respective obligations under the settlement agreement, one cannot comprehend how the office of the attorney-general of the federation which brokered the settlement was expected to renege from the agreement by denying Malabu Oil & Gas Limited the benefits associated with the relinquishing of their title to OPL 245 already warehoused in a joint FGN/Shell Escrow account, or to prevent the subsequent re-allocation of the relinquished OPL 245 to Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited when the company had already furnished consideration for it to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
He denied benefiting from the settlement agreement between Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited in OPL 245.
“I did not take any benefit from it, I had requisite approvals from the president and commander in chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to broker the settlement and execute the OPL 245 settlement agreement,” he said.
“I am therefore unable to rationalise the charge of aiding the commission of money laundering offences preferred against me by the EFCC. But be that as it may, I hope to at the appropriate time make myself available to defend the charge for what whatever its worth.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has secured the conviction of a notorious fraudster, Abiodun Edward, a member of a syndicate which specialises in impersonating staff of the agency, to defraud unsuspecting victims.
EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren said in a statement that Edward was arraigned on Wednesday, October 14, 2015 and prosecuted on a 3-count charge of impersonation and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N10million before Justice Beatrice Iliya of the State High Court, Gombe.
“The convict and his accomplices, Murtala Bello and Esther Momoh, who are still at large, had allegedly claimed to be staff of EFCC Abuja Office, in order to defraud one Umar Bello.
“The complainant alleged that Bello had, on March 13, 2015 phoned him, assuring him that the convict could “kill” a petition purportedly written against him, if he could part with a sum of N10million.
“Consequently, Bello was said to have sent the phone number of Momoh who claimed to be a principal detective superintendent, PDS, with EFCC to the victim for further discussion on how the money could be paid to them.
“The complainant later alleged that after negotiation, the convict agreed to collect N300,000.00 (three hundred thousand naira) from him when he could not raise the initial N10million,” the EFCC explained.
The statement further noted that the complaint further said one ‘Laolu Adegbite’ who claimed to be the officer handling his purported case, sent an SMS to him to appear before the Commission on March 23, 2015.
According to him, owing to the persistent threat by the convict, he paid the sum of N50,000.00 (fifty thousand naira) into the convict’s Diamond Bank account number, 0044213102, which was sent to him by Momoh on March 25, 2015.
Worried by the persistent threat by the convict over the balance of N250, 000.00 (two hundred and fifty thousand naira), the victim petitioned EFCC, which led to convict’s arrest and subsequent prosecution.
Justice Iliya found Edward guilty of two counts and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on each of the count without option of fine.
The sentences are to run concurrently from the date of the convict’s arraignment.
Justice Iliya also ordered the convict to pay N50, 000.00 (fifty thousand naira) as restitution to the victim.
A 47-year-old Nigerian man, Chigozie Valentine Agu, has been arrested in Vermillion Parish, Louisiana, US, on charges of ‘Felony Theft’ in excess of $5,000, Bank Fraud, Money Laundering, and Racketeering. Agu was nabbed after he scammed an elderly woman to the tune of nearly $9,000.
The suspect was deported to Louisiana and booked into the Vermillion Parish Correctional Center and was arrested at the weekend by the Metro Washington Airport Authority at Dulles Airport, following an investigation by General Landry’s Louisiana Bureau of Investigation (LBI) as he re-entered the United States.
Attorney General Landry of the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, told Daily Mail that, “In May 2016, Agu contacted an elderly Vermillion Parish resident, telling her he was a Department of Homeland Security official and found a piece of luggage containing money he would return to her for a fee.
“The LBI found proof that Agu received the money and that he attempted to conceal his crime through bank wire transfers and a third party.
“Overall, Agu scammed the elderly woman out of $8,890.
“Our office is on the front lines investigating, arresting, and educating to help stop the awful occurrence of seniors being targeted and preyed upon by scammers.
“We want to help Louisiana’s people avoid falling victim to mortgage, contractor, charity and other types of frauds commonly perpetrated on senior citizens.”
“It is an absolutely despicable crime to take advantage of our elderly family, friends, and neighbors.
“No matter the great lengths these shameless criminals take, my office will do all we can to get justice for their victims,” General Landry was quoted as saying.
When Maria Grette first discovered that the 58-year-old Danish man with whom she had fallen in love was actually a 24-year-old Nigerian 419 internet scammer, the 62-year-old Swede was distraught. But, soon, her feelings changed.
“The most terrible thing was not that he had cheated me, but that he had lost his innocence,” she said.
She became consumed with what she describes as “a profound need to make a difference to the people of Nigeria”.
Ms Grette’s relationship with Johnny (not his real name) began after an evening of fun and games with her girlfriends, during which they playfully created a profile for her on an online dating website. A few years before, she had gone through a traumatic divorce, and her friends teased her about finally starting a new relationship.
But when the fun of creating her profile was over, Ms Grette, who works as an arts teacher, painter and arts therapist, didn’t give much further thought to the website.
“I received messages telling me that people had contacted me, but I never looked at them,” she said.
Then, one day, she did.
“I still don’t know why,” she said. “It was like a sudden impulse happening before I could stop it.”
That particular message was from a man who described himself as a Dane raised in South Carolina, USA; a civil engineer working on a contract in England; a widower with a son in a Manchester university.
“I was caught up by the atmosphere and by something in his words,” she said.
The pre-amble
Johnny: “I wish I could see through your eyes and see what you like to see”
Maria: “I like to see the truth, and often the truth is more beautiful and greater than people dare to realize”
Johnny: “You talk in parable´s. I can´t wait to see you”
Maria: “I cant understand how you can think so dedicated of me, when you have never met me. That scares me.”
“We spent some time writing, then he called from a UK number.”
Ms Grette, who had lived in different countries across Europe, was surprised that she could not place the man’s accent. She mentioned this to him but didn’t give it too much thought.
He told her that he was planning for his retirement; had Sweden in mind for a place to settle; owned a house in Denmark inherited from his parents; wanted to leave that to his son, Nick, who was very attached to it, while he looked for a new home for himself in Sweden.
“I wanted to meet him because I liked him,” she said. “He had a way and a sweetness I had never known in a man before. And he was innocent in a way that puzzled me.”
Ms Grette put all these qualities down to “an old fashioned upbringing and an isolated life – living in hotels and spending his free time on golf courses owing to much travelling”.
After three months of communicating, the man agreed to come over and visit her in Sweden. But before that, he and his son needed to make a quick trip to Nigeria for a job interview, he said.
Johnny called to let her know that he was at Heathrow Airport. And to say that he had landed in Nigeria. He also got her to speak with Nick. The next phone call was to tell her that he was in a Lagos hospital.
They had been mugged, his son shot in the head, and they were without money and papers.
Unfortunately, his bank did not have a branch in Africa, he added, so it would take time to transfer money from his UK account. Meanwhile, the hospital management was requesting €1000 to proceed with treatment.
The request
“Honey, I am in the hospital right now using the doctor´s laptop to send you this message so you can know my situation. Honey, if Nick dies I will also die with him, I have been crying, I wish I could call you, I wish I never came here, I will never forgive myself for bringing Nick along with me. I will call you with the doctor´s phone and send you an email later if I have the chanse.
“Honey, I am happy to hear from you and I am still at the hospital. The doctor said we where lucky we where not kidnapped. The bank does not have a location in Africa, so it will take time to get money and the management are requesting 1000 euros to proceed with treatment. Nick is all I have got and I will not forgive myself if anything happens to him. I am confused, and I do not know where to turn at the moment……”
“I will never forget how I rushed to the Western Union office, trembling while I did the transfer,” Ms Grette said.
“All I could think of was to get the two persons in Nigeria out of danger.”
The plot developed after that initial transfer. Medical complications called for more money. The doctors demanded more advance fees.
Several thousands of euro later, in what she describes as “coming to her senses”, Maria realised that something was amiss.
She stopped responding to his messages
Three weeks after her silence, he called her and confessed. He told her that he was not who she thought he was.
“I said I already knew that. I asked him to tell me his true identity and he did.”
He was a 24-year-old Nigerian 419 scammer. He had finished university two years earlier but had no job.
He further described himself as a “devil” who had wronged “a lovely woman”.
“He said he had never met anyone like me before, that he had been fighting his feelings for me for a long time. He said his scamming mates had warned him about falling in love with a ‘client’, that he had ignored them because he trusted me and did not want to lose contact with me.”
The reveal
From this point on, their communication took a new turn. There were no further requests for cash.
“The attraction I started feeling was to the person who was revealing himself to me… It was still him, but with a new name and different age and circumstances,” she said.
Johnny sent her a photograph of himself, but Maria was not satisfied with that.
“I wanted to meet him,” she said. “I could not live with this relationship unless it was adjusted to reality in all senses.”
Unable to get him a visa to travel to Sweden, she made up her mind to go to Nigeria.
In October 2009, Ms Grette travelled to Africa for the first time in her life.
“When I saw him at the airport in Abuja, tears fell over his face, and I knew I had known him all my life.”
Ms Grette described her two weeks in Nigeria as blissful, a period during which she and Johnny succeeded in transforming their romantic feelings for each other into a good friendship.
She met his friends, many of whom were also scammers. It was while enjoying their company one night in a local bar that she began to wonder how she could make a difference.
“I asked myself what I could do to prevent a situation where healthy, good young men fall into this trap,” she said.
An idea came to her two years later, in 2011, after she saw an article on a Nigerian news website about an arts exhibition.
Over the past six years, Ms Grette has arranged for a number of African artists to visit Europe for arts exhibitions, workshops, conferences and competitions.
She has assisted them to source international grants and other funding to advance their work.
She has also visited Uganda to give talks on art, and is looking forward to another visit to Nigeria scheduled for later this year.
Ms Grette, now 69 and living in Norway, is elated at the opportunity to improve the lives of these young artists.
“Johnny has given me more than he took,” she said, “Without him, I would not have met Africa.”
When she’d visited him in Abuja, Johnny promised Ms Grette that he would give up scamming.
With her assistance, he left Nigeria shortly afterwards, to study in America.
Although they have not met each other again since, she continued to provide him with financial assistance until he completed his degree a few years ago and got a job in the American oil sector.
They still communicate frequently, updating themselves on each other’s lives; and last year, he bought one of her paintings which she shipped over to him in America.
“He is very dear to me,” she said.
“He has asked me so many times to forgive him and I told him that the most important thing is to forgive himself.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has reopened investigations into alleged N10.9 billion 2011 subsidy scam, Daily Trust reports.
Reports have it that the anti-graft body has already been grilling some top officials of the IPMAN Investment Company Limited, a company incorporated by some independent marketers to participate in the importation of refined products into the country in 2011.
This has helped in giving a direction to the probe with invaluable leads currently being gathered to prosecute the case which has questioned the anti-graft war of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Vice Chairman of IPMAN Investment Company Ltd, who is also the president of IPMAN, Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo, confirmed that he received a letter from the Police Special Fraud Unit, Department of Criminal Investigations, requesting him to release some of his members including the former president, Alhaji Aminu Abdulkadir, and Obasi Lawson for scrutiny.
He a reporter that: “We at the IPMAN secretariat are happy that the authorities are re-opening this case, because as a vice chairman of this company, we are kept in the dark.
“We don’t know when and how the IPMAN Investment Company Ltd imported any product, but all we saw was the release of N10.9 billion as subsidy reimbursement, that is why we started asking questions.
“Let’s keep IPMAN politics aside, this is national issue, let them provide the information and details of how much product was imported, who lifted it, which bank account the marketers paid the money to lift such product, and which bank opened the LC for them to import such product for which they deserved N10.9 billion reimbursement.
“These are the questions we asked Aminu and co but they rather tried to shift attention to another issue,” Okoronkwo said.
The controversial Save Mayowa Campaign has added a new twist after the Founder of Lifestake Foundation, Aramide Kasumu, who was involved in the fundraising, alleged that the family of the ailing Mayowa Ahmed lied that only N30m had been raised while the correct amount was N85m.
The campaign was initiated to raise funds for surgery in a foreign hospital for Mayowa, who is suffering from ovarian cancer, but there have been allegations that the patient’s family was using her condition to defraud members of the public.
Kasumu, in a video posted online on Friday, appeared to have confirmed the allegations when she accused Mayowa’s family members of lying about the amount that had been raised for the patient.
She also accused the family members of attempting to shut out people involved in the fundraising and giving conflicting information about Mayowa’s situation and the hospital they intend to take her for treatment.
“The brother came to the public to say they raised N30m when in actual fact, they raised N85m,” she said in the footage.
“They came and said they had a visa when they didn’t have a visa; they solicited for funds to go to America but now they are saying they are going to Dubai. A lot of things were not adding up and they were not being straightforward. We were saying ‘why are you guys not being straightforward?’ What is our plan?
“And I was like, some things are not adding up here. I need to know what is going on and my concern is: I need to know if they are actually going to get Mayowa treated, that they are not just trying to take advantage of her situation which is my fight because you got me involved.
“People are asking me questions, I cannot answer. I sent Mayowa messages, she wasn’t responding. I called her phones; nobody was explaining anything to me. I said I need answers so that when people ask me, I can answer.”
Kasumu said that the police had taken over the matter to ensure transparency.
In a related development, the Lagos State Police Command has frozen the controversial bank account opened to raise money for Mayowa pending when investigation into allegations of fraud is concluded.
A statement from the Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos, on Friday said the state police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, “directed full investigation into the report that the ‘Save Mayowa Campaign’ is a fraud” and that the report of the investigation will be made public.
The statement said that Kasumu, and two members of Ahmed family – Mr. Iwaloye Seun and Mrs. Zaneen Ahmed – had earlier been invited to the command’s headquarters for questioning.
It said in part, “…subsequently, the command has placed a red alert on the bank account opened in the name of Mayowa as it has been frozen while effort is ongoing to contact the managers of Gofundme online account so as to ensure funds raised through that platform is not fraudulently diverted.
“Investigation will be extended to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, where the patient is currently undergoing treatment.
The allegations surrounding the case are that doctors at LUTH had told the Ahmed family that Mayowa’s ailment had reached a terminal stage and therefore could not be treated, but that the family had continued to raise money in spite of that.
There has been several many sides to the alleged scam perpetrated through the #SaveMayowa campaign, a campaign which was launched with the aim of raising money for Mayowa who needs surgery to treat her Stage 4 Ovarian cancer.
However, the founder of Lifestake Foundation, Aramide Kasumu has explained what led to the accusations leading the public to believe the #SaveMayowa campaign was a scam.
Aramide also apologized to everyone, adding that she never meant to hurt anyone.
Four undergraduates of the Federal University of Technology Akure, (FUTA) and another student from Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, (AAUA) have been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
A statement released by Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesman, said the alleged scammers carried out N16 million worth of internet fraud.
The quartet were arrested at an off- campus residence located at Anuoluwapo Close, Stateline Hotel Road, off FUTA South Gate, Akure, Ondo.
“The fraudsters who are between 20 and 23 years of age include: Adeleke Paul (21), Adebiyi Tayo Abudu (22) , Akinsanmi Olusola Adeniyi (21), Ogundile Ademola James (23) and Okali Ugochukwu (21).
“The commission got wind of their activities through series of intelligence. Paul and his co-travelers, who go about with the name Tsunnami Gang and Young Pablo Money allegedly swindled unsuspecting foreigners and others to the tune of N16 million recently.
“The suspected fraudsters engaged in fraudulent activities of obtaining money by false pretences through scam mails. Paul is a penultimate final year’s student of Building Technology while James and Olusola are both 400 level students of Agricultural Resources and Mathematics respectively.
“Okali is a 200 level student of Urban and Regional Planning, while Adebiyi Tayo is a 300 level Student of Mathematics of the Adekunle Ajasin University. Akungba, Ondo State.
“At the point of arrest, EFCC operatives recovered a 2006, black Toyota highlander with registration number(Lagos) LND 112 EG, 2010 light- green Toyota Camry (Muscle) registration number (Lagos) AAA 850 EF, laptops, three Apple iphone6 and three Blackberry phones from them.
“Some implicating documents were also found and downloaded from their laptops. They are to be arraigned in court as soon as investigation is completed.”
No fewer than 9000 employees in the Akwa Ibom civil service were to be prosecuted for alleged fraudulent drawing of salaries from more than one pay point in the state.
Governor Udom Emmanuel who disclosed this to newsmen on Monday in Uyo said the massive fraud was uncovered in the preliminary bio-metric exercise recently conducted by the office of the state Accountant-General.
“It is shocking to know that a section of the employees in the state are drawing salaries from more than a pay point.
“We have given the affected employees and those yet to be uncovered, the option to refund the salaries they have fraudulently taken or be prosecuted,’’ he said.
The governor directed the Permanent Secretaries in Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) in the state to commence finger print verification of all employees.
He said that employees who failed to participate in the verification exercise would have their names deleted from the automated salary paying system and nominal roll.
The governor noted that more than 1,000 employees were yet to comply with the directive.
He reiterated his administration’s commitment to making discipline and zero tolerance for corruption its watchwords.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned an American businessman, Marco Ramirez, alongside his companies — Eagle Ford Instalodge Group LP and USA Now LLC — on eight counts bordering on obtaining money by false pretences to the tune of $2.3m.
Ramirez was arraigned before Justice Peter Affen of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, sitting in Maitama on Monday, according to a statement by the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren.
According to the complainants, Prince Ejikeme Mgbemena and Frank Egbon, the suspect allegedly promised them that he would invest the money under the Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Based Fifth Preference (EB-5).
The complainants further alleged that the suspect promised to provide American Green Card for members of their families below 18 years.
The charges read in part, “That you Marco Anthonio Ramirez, being the Manager of Eagle Ford Instalodge Group LP and USA NOW LLC and you EAGLE Ford Instalodge Group LP and USA Now LLC on or about May 21, 2013 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court with intent to defraud obtained through an account titled Eagle Ford Instalodge Group LP domiciled at Wells Fargo Bank USA the sum of $55,000 from one Ejikeme Mgbemena under the pretext of investing for him under the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) Regional Center Program with pretence you knew was false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(2) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.’’
The accused person pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Justice Kudirat Jose of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja yesterday convicted and sentenced a 25 year old man, Ibobo Frank alias James Simmons to two years imprisonment for defrauding two American women of various sums of money by posing as their white lover.
Frank, who was arraigned before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a two-count charge of possession of documents containing false pretence, pleaded guilty to the charge.
The EFCC counsel, Ade Adebayo had told the judge that the commission received a petition from “a concerned Nigerian”, who refused to disclose his identity, that a group of small boys living at different apartments located at Westwood Estate, Lekki, Ajah, Badore in Lagos, were living far beyond their means of livelihood.”
Adebayo also stated that after carrying out preliminary investigation, some EFCC operatives swooped on Westwood Estate on January 7, and arrested Frank.
The lawyer further disclosed that at the time of the arrest Frank had in his possession, with intent to defraud, email conversations sent between September 24 and December 18, 2014, containing false information wherein he represented himself as a white man to one Nancy Rooley.
He said Frank was also found in possession of email conversations sent between December 15 and 27 “containing a false pretence wherein he represented himself as James Simmons, a white man purportedly in love with one Shirley Davis.”
President Buhari has reportedly ordered the redeployment of 184 top budget officials to other parastatals that have little or nothing to do with budget, as a punishment for their roles in padding the 2016 budget sent to the National Assembly.
According to a report by Vanguard, a top official in the Budget office confirmed that 22 top officers from the Budget Office of the Federation were affected in the mass deployment.
The rest were moved away from budget-related duties in other Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs. Out of the 22 top officials deployed in the budget office, four were directors on Level 17, six were deputy directors while 12 were Assistant directors.
The ordered for their redeployment was reportedly conveyed in a statement by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation. Media Adviser to the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Akpadem James, confirmed the development but declined to give further details.
A retired pastor from Maine 77 year old Joseph Bryon Martin, was arrested by the Apanish police last year for carrying $450,00 worth of cocaine and has been sentenced to six years in a Spanish prison after he allegedly fell victim to a “romance scam” that targets senior citizens in the United States.
Martin had no idea he was moving drugs. He thought he was only doing a favour for the woman he met online in 2009 by helping her move real estate documents she asked him to help her with.
His son, Andy Martin, told Fox News Latino that he is bringing his dad’s plight to the public because
“I’d like to get the word out about this,””so other lonely seniors don’t fall prey.”
“Seniors get trapped, and they send money, and, once they do that, these people sell their information to other scammers. I want people to know what’s happening.”
He testified in February before the US Senate Special Committee on Aging, which is looking into catfishing schemes that target seniors.
He said:
“At the age of 77 and in poor health, this likely is a life sentence,” Martin told the committee about his father. “The idea that my dad is now a convicted international drug smuggler is surreal, as he had no prior criminal history. Before this conviction, my dad had never been charged with even a misdemeanor. I don’t recall him ever getting so much as a speeding ticket or parking ticket in his entire life.”
According to Andy, his dad had been chatting online with a Spanish woman he met on the Internet in 2009 who went by the name of Joy. She told his dad that she was a struggling artist and needed money and even though his dad was retired and only had the little money he got from the Govt. He always gave ‘Joy’ between $500-$2500 each month and couldn’t always pay his own rent.
However when his Dad got married to his third wife in April 2015, they were all relieved. His dad tried to break things off with Joy with the news that he had married someone else in the US and that he would no longer send her money.
Somehow Joy convinced his Dad to travel to Peru to pick up real estate documents for an estate she claimed she had inherited. She told him she couldn’t get a visa to make the trip to Peru herself and his Dad fell for it. He said they all told his Dad not to go, even his new wife objected to it but he still made the trip.
In Peru, he picked up two sealed packages that he told Andy felt like books, according to the Portland Press Herald.
However, his flight to London was stopped in Madrid and Martin was subsequently arrested by local authorities who found the cocaine in his possession.
Andy said his father suffers from chronic back pain and needs surgery. He had been treated for prostate cancer, had quadruple bypass surgery and has a pacemaker. He’s living in the prison infirmary with eight to ten other prisoners. He’s asking the US committee to help seek his father’s releases based on his poor health.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed on Wednesday that they have created a new initiative to fight such scams on the elderly called “Operation Cocoon.”
So far it has prevented 16 senior citizens from boarding planes, and foreign authorities have arrested 15 suspects alleged to be involved in the “romance scam.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday presented the sixth witness in the ongoing trial of a former Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, and five others for the alleged diversion of N2.3 billion.
Others are Captain Ezekiel Bala Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche, Governor Ameche Juan, Blokz and Stonz Limited and Alkenzo Logistics Limited.
At the resumed hearing Tuesday, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, led in evidence one Uchenna Emenalo, younger brother to Emeka Emenalo, the owner of O2 Services Limited, the company that was allegedly used to divert part of the proceeds from the Committee on International Shipping and Ports Security in NIMASA.
Mr Emenalo told the court that he approached the third accused person, Ekene Nwakuche, as a former school mate to help him secure any contract that his brother’s company, O2 Services Limited, could handled.
The witness further disclosed that after his discussion with the third accused person, he was asked to provide their company’s name and account details.
The witness told the court how, between March 2014 and June 2015, O2 Services Limited, received about One Hundred and Twenty One Million which he personally disbursed based on instructions from the third accused person, Ekene Nwakuche.
The third accused persons provided him with different account number into which the said amount was paid.
When confronted with exhibit P17a and b, which are documents that supposedly emanated from O2 Services Limited as Contract Application Document and Invoices for payment, the witness said the signatures on the documents were neither his, nor his brother’s. Asked whether any of the contract awarded to his brother’s company were executed, the witnessed said ‘no’.
Earlier in his evidence, Mr Emenalo admitted that O2 Services Limited is into Agro Allied Products and lacked competence in security related services.
The witness also denied knowing any General Manager, Field Operations at O2 services Limited as the company is solely run by his brother.
During cross examination, Joseph Nwobike, SAN, counsel for the first accused person, asked the witness if he runs any business by himself to which he answered, no.
Mr. Emenalo also confirmed that Mr. Ekene told him that the contract was security related but that their company would be registered as RSO, Registered Security Organisation.
E.D Onyeke, counsel for the second accused person, asked the witness if in the statement he made to EFCC he mentioned the email address of his brother or the address of O2 Services Limited.
Mr. Emenalo said he only used his house address in his statement as he was not asked the office address. The witness also said the same thing when he was asked if he gave the EFCC a copy of his brother’s company letterhead.
When asked by Mr. Adio, counsel to Ekene, whether he benefitted from the money that was paid into O2 Services Limited account, Mr. Emenalo admitted receiving the sum of Six Hundred Thousand Naira for Logistics and bank charges.
THE House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Failed Rail Contracts, yesterday, unearthed 169 ghost companies that registered as contractors with the Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, for projects valued at N1 trillion.
The ad hoc committee raised the alarm yesterday, during the investigative hearing at the National Assembly, that none of the 169 companies invited by the committee had shown up.
Chairman of the committee, Johnson Agbonnayinman, (Ikpoba/Okha federal constituency), said the need to invite the contractors was important, but lamented that efforts to reach them had so far proven fruitless.
He added that so far only the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCECC, responded to the committee’s letter.
According to him, “you are duty bound to produce the contractors. They are nowhere to be found; they are not faceless but yet they cannot be reached.
Rotimi Amaechi
“You gave them the job, so you should produce them; we are holding you responsible.”
The committee also asked the corporation’s MD, Mr. Adeseyi Sijuwade, to make available the agency’s record of Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, between 2010 and 2014, and was also asked to tell the committee what the IGR was used for.
In response, the MD said the IGR was used to augment the agency’s overhead budget.
Members of the adhoc committee of the House of Representatives on failed rail contracts have summoned the Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi; Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, Seyi Sijuwade; former Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr Mohammed Bello Haliru; and former Minister of Transport, Idris Umar, to explain their roles in the alleged N1 trillion rail contracts scam.
The adhoc committee is headed by Ehoizuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, PDP, Ikpoba/Oha Federal Constituency. They are expected to appear before the committee tomorrow during the investigative hearing.
Chairman of the adhoc committee, Agbonayinma, confirmed that all the stakeholders had been duly informed and were expected to show up unfailingly tomorrow.
Asked why the Minister of Transport was invited, despite the fact that he is barely three months old in office, Agbonayinma said: “The Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, was also invited to tell us all he knows, though he just assumed office but you know government is a continuum.
“This 8th House is 100 per cent in support of President Muhammadu Buhari’s crusade against any form of corruption.
“We are not out to witch-hunt anybody but anyone found wanting in the course of this investigative hearing will be adequately exposed although as you are aware, not until it is proven by a competent court that such persons are guilty you can’t say they are guilty.”
A suspected female staffer with an old generation bank located along Airport road in Benin City who was apprehended over allegation of swindling a wife of an aide to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of N15 million yesterday was said to have blamed her ordeal on spiritual attack.
The suspect, identified as Gloria Omoregie, was said to have lured his victim whose husband incidentally is the special adviser on security to Governor Adams Oshiomhole to fix about Fifteen million naira as deposit.
A police source yesterday said the suspect, who will soon be arraigned in court, was said to have confessed to the crime and pleaded to be pardoned just as she blamed her present predicament on a spiritual affliction.
It would be recalled that trouble was said to have started for the suspect when she approached the victim, Mrs Mikano Kadiri, and advised her to fix the said money in a deposit account where she can enjoy some profit on a monthly basis.
She also confirmed to Mrs Kadiri that on request, the money could be withdrawn. The lid was said to be been blown off the suspect when Mrs Kadiri requested to have access to the money and she was told that the money had been lent to the bank’s cooperative, a development which arose her suspicion.
On investigation, it was discovered that the bank did not run a cooperative society and the money could not be traced. It was learnt that the said Glory wrote a letter of resignation to the bank which was revealed to the victims It was further leant that when Gloria was arrested on the account of her perceived resignation, she later resorted to blackmail, stating that she was unduly molested by the Kadiris.
A former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, may have short-changed the Federal Government in an e-Pass biometric project involving a private firm, Continental Transfer Technique Limited and the Nigeria Immigration Service.
The biometric project which took off in the country on September 22, 2015 was initiated by the suspended Comptroller-General of Immigration, David Parradang, following a letter to the then Interior minister on December 18, 2014.
But Moro, according to the document obtained by our correspondent, favoured the private firm in the sharing formula for the proceeds of the project, which was based on Private-Public-Partnership arrangement.
The e-Pass project is a scheme designed by the Federal Government to ensure that all non-ECOWAS immigrants that visit Nigeria with a Tourist or Business Visa and intend to stay beyond an aggregate of 56 days in a year are made to pay a certain amount of money, as advised by the Nigerian Immigration Service.
Visitors who stay in the country beyond 56 days but not exceeding 90 days would pay a fee in the equivalent of $200 while 91 days to 180 days will attract a fee equivalent to $1,000, which must be paid to Sterling Bank Plc only.
According to the scheme, an aggregate stay by immigrants beyond 180 days but not exceeding 365 days would attract a fee equivalent of $2,000 while an over-stay without due permission from the Federal Government would attract a penalty, which is 100 per cent of the prescribed fees.
An additional fee of N8, 000 will be charged for each application form by the receiving bank.
Parradang had written a letter to Moro on the e-Pass project, proposing that the government should abolish the issuance of re-entry visa while, adding a $100 fee to the $1000 being charged for the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card.
Parradang had proposed that the service provider, CONTEC be given 15 per cent of the $100 added to the CERPAC fee while NIS collects 15 per cent.
The letter partly read, “We wish to further propose that the service provider be given 15 per cent of the $100 added to the CERPAC fee, while NIS collects another 15 per cent and the remaining 70 per cent be paid into government coffers, as is the practice. The foregoing is respectfully submitted for your consideration and approval please.”
But Moro, who signed on the letter, amended the sharing formula by giving 30 per cent to the service provider as against the 15 per cent suggested by the immigration service.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday said his administration would introduce more policies to further ease the process of doing business in Nigeria.
He said the new policies would focus on increasing efficiency and transparency in government operations and the blocking of leakages from revenue generating agencies.
According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the President spoke after a presentation made to him on, ‘Enhancing Nigeria’s Trade and Economic Competitiveness,’ at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The statement read in part, “The President said that the new policies will be focused on increasing efficiency and transparency in government operations and the blocking of leakages from revenue generating agencies.
“President Buhari said that his administration was fully committed to closing all the loopholes in the revenue generating agencies, increasing their efficiency in trade facilitation and ensuring transparency in all government businesses so as to attract greater foreign direct investments into the country.
“The President added that the Nigeria Customs Service, Ministry of Trade and Investment, Ministry of Finance and other relevant agencies will be encouraged to adopt some of the positive ideas contained in the presentation for implementation next year.”
A middle-aged man, Pius Asomba, suspected to be the leader of a notorious syndicate that specialized in dispossessing businessmen of large sums of money through fake bank alerts, has been arrested by the police in Lagos.
The Anambra State-born suspect was arrested after he jumped bail and disappeared for over two years.
Police sources said the criminal exploits of the suspect was blown open on August 31, 2012, after he went to one Engr. Moses Adebayo at Alaba International market a major distributor with Nigerchin Development Company in Ikeja, and placed an order for cables worth N9.5 million. According to the source, when he was told to pay for the goods, he claimed to be in a hurry and promised to pay through his bank.
“After they finished loading the goods around 4p.m., that day, the owner received alert of N9.5million from his bank, confirming prompt payment and the suspect also called to confirm payment. The owner of the goods also corresponded with his bank and it was confirmed, he thereafter released the goods and gave the suspect extra N50,000 for transport expenses.”
The story, however, took a different dimension when the owner of the goods went to the bank few days later only to be told that it was a magic alert as nothing was paid into his account. Based on this, the police was alerted and they commenced search for the suspect for over a month without success.
Vanguard learned that while detectives were looking for him, the suspect went to the warehouse of another trader at Okokomaiko to buy iron worth about N4 million.
He succeeded also in deceiving them with fake bank alert prompting the involvement of both the police at Okokomaiko and a private investigator, who ended up arresting him through his girlfriend living in Egbeda area of Lagos State.
It was gathered that after his arrest, he confessed to the crime and promised to pay the money. He was, however, taken to Magistrate court at Agbo-Malu Road, Apapa, where he presented three sureties.
He later jumped bail and efforts to get the sureties failed. Fortunately, after about two years of searching for him, one of the sureties was traced early this year and arrested. The surety was granted bail with a promise to produce the principal suspect but he failed. On November 30, 2015, the principal suspect was arrested at Gowon Estate where he has been hiding and handed over to officials of court, where he is being tried.
Meanwhile, it was learned that the complainant was forced to close his account with the bank after the suspect confessed that he connived with some officials of the bank to dupe him. Police said detectives are also investigating some officials of the bank with a view to fishing out all those involved in the fraud.
When contacted, Lagos State police spokesman, Joe Offor, said the police did their job by arresting the suspect and charging him to court. He assured that the matter would be prosecuted to its logical conclusion.
British divorcee Sheila has revealed how she was duped by an online con artist who targeted her through a reputable dating website. The divorcee in her late sixties told Channel 5 show Secrets Of The Scammers how she was contacted by a man claiming to be called Glen Almond and got caught up in a whirlwind romance.
She ended up giving away £4,000 before she discovered she was the victim of an elaborate scam based in Nigeria. Even to this day, Sheila has no idea who she was actually talking to or where her money went.
The couple then started planning their future together. Glen told Sheila his time in Afghanistan could be coming to an end in a matter of weeks and he would move to the UK to be with her. He said he planned to set up his own business there importing goods from the Far East.
“We were planning to walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand and live happily ever after.”
Sheila said she didn’t know anything about his business but ‘I thought we were to be a husband and wife team and I would support him in any way I could.
“He told me our whole future was at stake if he didn’t pay and we risked losing everything.”
Desperate to help the man she loved, Sheila was able to sell some shares and delve into her savings to give £4,000 in total to Glen.
She also put her house on the market so they would have some money to buy a new place together. It was only thanks to sharing her excitement over the plan with a prospective buyer that she discovered she had been conned.
“As I was showing prospective buyers around my house I was so excited as Glen was due to be coming home tomorrow. I couldn’t help telling them all about it and showed them Glen’s picture on my laptop.” she recalled.
The prospective buyer was a former soldier himself and was suspicious of Sheila’s situation. After doing some research of his own, his fears were confirmed and he contacted Sheila and told her she had been duped.
“The moment I found out it was a fake profile and it wasn’t for real I was emotionally devastated. My whole world fell apart. I contacted the police who found I was one of hundreds of victims of this professional, international scam and they traced it back to Nigeria. I have no idea to this day who I was corresponding with. Someone out there in the world was writing these emails and I have no idea who it was.”
Alexis Conran, presenter of Secret Of The Scammers, was able to track down a reformed Nigerian con artist who was part of a team perating dating scams like that experienced by Sheila.
The remorseful scammer called Kingsley admitted that divorcees were deliberately targetted because they are often emotionally vulnerable and easy to manipulate.
“I mostly made money through romance scams, we would pretend to be interested in dating them and along the line we con them out of money using various methods.” he said
“We are looking for someone who is divorced as there is always an emotional attachment, they feel some sort of emptiness.” he added.
He said they would send the woman a picture of a handsome man they would ‘fall for’ and concoct a back story about their life. He said they often pretended to have a military background as this is attractive to women and gives them a plausible reason why they can’t meet.
“Most women say they want security and someone with a good job. One of the best jobs we believe is in the military and with a military man you can say you are travelling. It is a game of emotions.”
He added that you have to dedicate time to each ‘mark’ and he would only be in contact with a maximum of five women at a time so his lies didn’t get confused.
“The more time you spend on them the more attached they become and then the sooner you will get money, sometimes it is only between one and three months,” he said.
“If you want to stay organised I would limit it to between one and five, when you are lying to them you don’t want to forget anything.’
Kingsley admitted he is now sorry for what he has done and is no longer working as a scammer and regrets duping women out of their life savings.
He said: ‘A lot of people have been permanently damaged and some will not recover, if I had the chance to undo everything I would.”
Security has been beefed up around former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke. This follows a successful cancer surgery conducted in a London hospital on October 22, 2015.
Doctors had advised Diezani, under probe by the UK government, to avoid disturbances to recover well. A family source told Sunday Telegraph, was now in hiding and has increased security.
Her decision was not unconnected with the intense media scrutiny that followed her arrest last month along with four others.
“The focus on Diezani and hysteria has completely shifted everything in one direction,” the source said.
“Her family’s interest is for her to get well. The family is particularly worried about her health and seriously praying that she gets well.
“She is yearning to give an account of her stewardship once she is well enough. Nigerians should pray for her to get well so that we can put all this behind us.”
It is unclear if the security around Diezani is being handled by a private firm or UK Police.
The Westminster Magistrate’s Court on Marylebone Road, London had early last month granted an application for the seizure of £27,000 seized from the former minister under Section 295 of Proceeds of Crime Act 2012.
By granting the application, which was filed by the UK’s National Crime Agency, the money would be held in the custody of the court until April 5, 2016.
The Lagos State Police Command has arraigned Pastor David Oladele before an Ebute-Meta Magistrate’s Court for allegedly defrauding his members of millions of Naira in car deals.
The pastor, along with others at large, allegedly defrauded six people by failing to remit profits from selling their cars, and issuing them fake cheques.
The vehicles, one Toyota Highlander, one Toyota pickup van, one Honda Odyssey, one Nissan Muraino and one Acura 3.2. were obtained allegedly under false pretences and were given to the accused to sell and remit to the dealers but he instead diverted the money into his personal accounts after the vehicles were sold.
Oladele is also accused of allegedly issuing dud cheques to two people.
The defendant was arraigned on nine counts of stealing.
The charges read in part:
“That you, Pastor David Oladele, and others now at large, between October 2014 and January 2015, at Ipaja, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit; obtaining money under false pretences and stealing, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.”
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and his defence counsel requested for bail.
The magistrate, N. A. Layeni, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N1m with two sureties in like sum.
The magistrate said one of the sureties must be a blood relation, one must be a landed property owner, and both must have evidence of tax payments.
Barely a week after the Permanent Secretary in the Power Ministry, Godknows Igali, disclosed that N2.74 trillion had been spent in the drive for better electricity supply since 1999 without anything to show for it, the public servant himself is to be investigated over some alleged scams in the sector.
The Senate has received a petition accusing Igali of diverting N3.5 billion meant for payment of beneficiaries of the National Power Sector Apprenticeship Scheme (NAPSAS), The Guardian has learned.
In a petition submitted to the Chairman of Senate Adhoc Committee on Power, Abubakar Kyari, NAPSAS alleged that the ministry recruited 7,200 youths for the apprenticeship scheme which was expected to last for six months, but stopped abruptly.
The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) has cautioned banks on the use of casual workers, stating that over 75 per cent of fraud cases in the sector had been traced to outsourced bank staff.
The managing director and chief executive of the NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, called for a closer look at the phenomenon of outsourced or contract staff in banks to ensure healthy and sound practices in the banking industry.
According to him, bank examination reports had indicated that the high incidences of fraud and forgeries in the banking system had been linked to outsourced or contract staff.
Umaru also said that in as much as regulators appreciated the necessity for banks to cut costs, it was incumbent on all stakeholders to fashion out capacity building and other strategies to motivate all employees to contribute positively rather than engaging in criminal acts that impact adversely on the entire banking system.
The CIBN president, Otunba (Mrs) Debola Osibogun, during a courtesy visit to the NDIC, regretted that a large percentage of fraud cases in the banking sector are traced to outsourced bank staff who were neither professionals nor members of the CIBN. While noting that the institute had no control over the banks, Osibogun disclosed that a committee of the institute was already working with heads of operations of banks on the challenges posed by the outsourced staff and would soon submit its report to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for consideration.
The CIBN president also said that the institute had been mandated as the agency for competency framework for banking industry by the CBN, adding that the CIBN had visited banks’ academies and had issued accreditation certificates to the academies of the First Bank, Access Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank.
Plateau state governor, Simon Lalong has given government officials in the last administration led by Jonah Jang two weeks to return all government money they stole while in office or face the full wrath of the law.
Governor Lalong gave the ultimatum yesterday August 11 when he received a report from a 12-man transition committee set up by his administration to investigate cases of misappropriation of public funds during the immediate past administration
“In line with the advice of President Muhammadu Buhari, who urge past government officials to return stolen public funds in their procession, I am giving two weeks to government officials in our state to return monies taken illegally, even before government begins the implementation of the recommendations of the committee.”he said.
A South African online media outfit, MailandGuardian Africa, came after Nigeria on Tuesday, saying, “The money ‘eaten’ there is bigger than the Gross Domestic Product of 38 African nations.”
If the stolen funds estimated at $50bn were a country, the online medium reported, it would be Africa’s 11th biggest economy.
“Some estimates put the ‘lost’ funds at $50bn. If it were a country, it would be Africa’s 11th biggest economy, at par with Tunisia’s entire GDP and larger than the economic output of Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Ivory Coast or the Democratic Republic of Congo,” the online report said.
It quoted a Nigeria’s transparency watchdog as saying that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation diverted more than $30bn oil revenue since 2009. This figure, it said, was bigger than the
annual production output of “half of the nations in Africa.”
MailandGuardian Africa said the financial shortfall caused by the theft, added to the falling prices of oil, had put Nigeria – a country where “about two-thirds” of the population live on less than a dollar per day – in a financial strait.
For Nigeria’s investment in the NNPC, the report said, the country had gained nothing but terrible disclosure records and absence of accountability.
“For all its importance to Nigeria, the NNPC is largely inscrutable. It had the worst disclosure record among 44 energy companies analysed in a 2011 report by anti-corruption non-profit organisations, the Transparency International and the Revenue Watch Institute.
“The NNPC consistently denies any wrongdoing. Allegations of missing funds go back as far as when President Muhammadu Buhari was a petroleum minister,” the post recalled.
While it admitted that the country’s oil sector needed an urgent reform, the online news organisation said history was not on the side of Buhari’s push to split the corporation.
It described the NNPC as the largest government-owned company, saying Buhari may not succeed in his plan to unbundle it. Arguing that the establishment was synonymous to corruption, it recalled that it had faced allegations bordering on financial frauds since 1978.
“A Lagos-based newspaper reported in 1978, a year after the NNPC took its current name, that the company failed to remit an equivalent of about $3.5bn it owed the treasury. In the 1990s, a military-sanctioned investigation discovered that $12bn oil revenue was unaccounted for under the regime of Gen Ibrahim Babangida (retd.).
“The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative said, at least, $23.2bn due to the government was not deposited into the federation account from 2009 to 2011. Recently, the then-Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, alleged that the corporation retained as much several billions of dollars that was due to the government,” the report said.
Back home, there is so much to read on digital media about corruption, the pains it has inflicted on the masses and how it could be tackled. Recent media reports on government’s plans to probe key past public projects and investments merely fuelled the online discussion.
The government revealed that it was scrutinising bank accounts where the stolen funds had been kept. Following the statement, bloggers and social media users have been urging government to also look into highbrow mansions in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and other major cities.
In recent times, several hashtags drawing government’s attention to such houses have been trending. The stolen money, according to social media posts, could be hidden in houses belonging to relatives, wives and concubines of former public office holders.
Blogging on this on Tuesday, one Chukwudi Enekwechi said, “Recently, a huge sum of money was being frittered away by relations, concubines and wife of a politician. Even more interesting is that locations where such money is hidden are listed online. For example, Lekki Phase 1, Ikoyi and Victoria Island, Port Harcourt, Maitama and Asokoro were mentioned.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday challenged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to also go after the corrupt leaders and members of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
The Acting National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, gave the challenge when he received a delegation of members PDP in the senate at Legacy House, the party’s campaign office in Abuja.
Secondus, who called for President Muhamadu Buhari intervention, said that the anti-graft agency was only going after PDP members in its anti-corruption war leaving those who served under APC uninvestigated.
“ So far, statistics has shown that EFCC has only arrested members of our party, those who have served in previous government.
“But there are APC governors and members, who have served various governments, they have been left alone.
“We believe that a government that is serious with anti corruption crusade cannot be one sided or selective. It should be holistic,’’ Secondus said.
He called on the EFCC to also investigate APC governors rather than targeting only PDP ex-governors and ex-ministers.
“We have seen on the pages of newspapers allegation from Lagos and Rivers states on the ex-governors. What is EFCC doing to those allegations? ” Secondus asked.
The acting chairman, however, assured that the NWC would work with the PDP senate leadership to make sure that they were successful.
Secondus said that from the inauguration of the senate to the election of the senate leadership, the NWC was pleased with the process and those elected.
Also answering question on the allegation that the NWC spent 12 billion within nine months, Secondus said that the figure was not correct.
He said, “what is correct is that from the sales of forms, we raised over N11 billion.’’
“According to our party’s guideline and constitution, this N11 billion was meant to be shared among the states, local governments and the zones.
“The local government will have five per cent, the states; 10 per cent, and the zones; five per cent. That means 20 per cent is taken away from that.
“You are also aware that people went on assignment about 15 per cent is also taken away, the rest I can tell you was used for our campaign and elections.
“No body, no member of the NWC has embezzled any money,’’ Secondus said.
He added that the Staff Welfare Association who made the allegation had apologised through its letter to the NWC.
“We raise our money and we used our money, that is the correct thing,’’ Secondus added.
Earlier, Godswill Akpabio, who led the delegates, said the aim of the visit was to appreciate the NWC for endorsing decision of PDP senate caucus that led to their emergence as senate leaders.
Akpabio, who is the Senate Minority Leader, said that the senate PDP caucus unanimously endorsed the action of the NWC so far since May 29.
“We are very proud working with your committee, and today we pass a vote of confidence on the NWC under the leadership of Sencondus.
“We are saying that we are behind you as ambassadors of the senate; we will do our best, positively to project the image of PDP,’’ Akpabio said.
He urged Buhari to carry everybody along in his administration irrespective of their party affiliations.
He also condemned what he described as interference of the Department of the State Security Services (DSS) in the electoral matter by detaining INEC officials only in states being controlled by PDP.
He listed Akwa-Ibom, Abia and Rivers as states most harassed by the DSS while INEC officials in APC controlled states were not invited for interrogation.
“No country in the world can claim they have a democracy when it does not have vibrant and viable opposition.
“So any group aiming to kill opposition party does not believe in democracy,’’ Akpabio said.
On the PDP internal crisis, between the staff and NWC of PDP, Akpabio said that the senators were happy to note that the staff had written apology letter to the NWC.
Other members of the delegates include Sen. Abiodun Olujimi, the Senate Deputy Minority Whip and Sen. Philip Aduda, among others. (NAN
According Sahara Reporters, the sacked GEDs are Mr. Ian Udoh leading Refining and Petrochemicals, Mr. Adebayo Ibirogba leading the Engineering and Technical team, Dr. David Ige leading Gas and Power, Dr. Attahir Yusuf leading Business Development.
Others are Dr. Dan Efebo leading Corporate Services, Mr. Bernard Otti in charge of Finance and Accounts, Ms. Aisha Abdurrahman leading Commerce and Investments, and Mr. Joseph Dawha leading Exploration and Production.
The report also said GMD Kachikwu intends to reduce the number of GEDs to 4 from 9.
These are supposedly African Christians in Tripoli, Libya, who converted to Islam and joined ISIS in Libya. ISIS released the photos on social media. The men don’t look like they willingly joined ISIS though. Looks like they told them “join ISIS or die!”. More photos below…
If you’re low on funds for that big vacation, you could always ask to borrow money, make a Kickstarter campaign… or swindle a couple of Islamic State recruiters. It may not be the safest way to make money, but that’s what three girls from Chechnya, a Russian republic in southeastern Europe, did.
The Chechen girls are under investigation for fraud after they allegedly scammed ISIS members into giving them money on the pretense that they would use it to travel from their homeland to Syria. The ladies got away with $3,300 before being discovered, according to RT News.
The ISIS members allegedly reached out to the girls’ social media accounts, asking the girls to join the militant cause. The young women kept in contact with the ISIS members and even sent fake pictures to string them along.
After the ISIS members wired the money, the girls closed down their accounts, stopped all communication, and kept the windfall. The con artists had no intention of actually leaving the country, though one admitted that she used to consider joining.
“I don’t recall any precedent like this one in Chechnya, probably because nobody digs deep enough in that direction,” police officer Valery Zolotaryov told a local Chechen newspaper. “Anyhow, I don’t advise anyone to communicate with dangerous criminals, especially for grabbing quick money,” he added. Wise advise.
The girls’ (totally illegal) stunt isn’t the first of its kind. RT News reported that sometimes men create fake accounts, pretending to be females, with the same ISIS-swindling intentions.
The Islamic State often targets Muslim communities, like Chechnya, in Europe and the United States to recruit people who are willing to inflict acts of terrorism on their own soil. Members have been said to use social media to get a wide reach of followers and find those who will agree to commit violence. Often women are the ones cheated during these arrangements, as they are married off to fighters and often become victims of sexual abuse.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Hajiya Zainab Shamsuna-Ahmed, on Wednesday said between 2009 and 2012, about 160 million barrels of oil valued at $13.7bn was stolen under the watch of the national oil giant, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
She also said that subsidy payment from 2005 to 2012 indicated that $11.63bn had been paid to the NNPC but that “there is no evidence of the money being remitted to the federation account.”
The NEITI boss, who called on the Federal Government to privatize the refineries, stated this during a courtesy call on Governor Nasir el-Rufai, at Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House, Kaduna, on Wednesday.
El-Rufai is among the four governors appointed by the National Economic Council to scrutinise the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Excess Crude Account managed by the administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
Part of the terms of reference was to unravel the N3.8trn not remitted to the Federation Account by the national oil giant between 2012 and May 2015, as well as $2.1bn said to have been deducted from the Excess Crude Account.
Governors of Akwa-Ibom, Edo and Gombe states were members of the team.
Hajiya Ahmed said, “Crude product swap of $866m was lost from 2009 to 2011 and $8243m in 2012. Total amount expended in subsidy payment from 2005 to 2012 as captured $11.63bn have been paid to the NNPC. However, there is no evidence that these amounts were remitted to the Federation Account,” she stated.
Meanwhile, Governor El-Rufai disclosed that since he called for the scrap of the NNPC, the corporation has being sponsoring articles in the media to attack him to fight on till NNPC will be killed.
He added that the corporation would be made to pay all monies it owed before its final death.
El-Rufai said, “NNPC has become a monster that is too powerful. I will continue to fight NNPC till it dies for Nigeria to survive.
“It is either Nigerians kill NNPC or NNPC will kill Nigeria.
“Since, I called for the death of NNPC, the corporation has sponsored articles attacking me, but I am telling them my skin is thicker than an elephant.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Friday, July 24, 2015, arraigned six persons before Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja on a 17 count charge bordering on conspiracy, stealing and forgery.
The six accused persons – Festus Onile, Olawale Garuba, Abiodun Afainiya, Jayeola Afolabi David, Yewande Adeyemi and Adetoun Kammal, were arrested by the Commission sequel to a petition from a new generation bank which alleged fraudulent transfers and withdrawals of N31 million through ATM and Point of Sale, POS, from the account of one of its customers.
One of the counts reads: “Festus Onile, Olawale Garuba and Abiodun Afainiya between the 14th December, 2012 to 18th December, 2012 at Lagos within the jurisdiction of this honourable court with a dishonest intent stole the sum of N5,513,519.98 (five million, five hundred and thirteen thousand, five hundred and nineteen naira, ninety eight kobo) through point of sale terminals (POS) from account no. 0038253607 belonging to late Shodiya Wemimo Agnes.”
The accused persons pleaded not guilty when the charge was read to them.
In view of their plea, the prosecution counsel, Abba Mohammed, prayed the court for a trial date and to remand the accused persons in prison custody.
However, Seun Adenuga, counsel to the first accused asked for a short adjournment to enable him file for bail. He also prayed the court to remand the accused in EFCC custody.
Justice Ipaye however ordered that the accused be remanded in Kirikiri prison pending the determination of their bail applications and adjourned the case to October 9th, 20th and 21st for trial.
Immediate past National Security Adviser, Col. Sabo Dasuki (rtd.), has been arrested and whisked to an unknown destination, a report from Abuja said.
He was arrested Last night, according to a report in the blog, Per Second News. “According to credible security source, the soldiers attached to the residence of the embattled NSA had been withdrawn on the orders of the president paving the way for his arrest yesterday evening,” the report said.
Soldiers had earlier been reported to have surrounded Dasuki’s residence. It is not yet clear why the Muhammadu Buhari administration moved against Dasuki but reports spoke about petitions against him bordering on alleged financial impropriety.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, has renewed its call on the Federal Government to probe the whereabouts of the dividends paid to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, as well as the taxes paid to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS Federation Account prior to the latest payment in June 2015.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said the call has become more urgent against the backdrop of published reports that the NNPC has withdrawn $1.2 billion from banks so it could place the money with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
It said the move by the NNPC is a panic reaction to the expose by the party (APC) that over $4 billion dollars are missing in past dividends paid to the NNPC by the NLNG.
”Whereas NLNG’s dividends are paid to NNPC’s account with JP Morgan, from where they are supposed to be paid into the Federation Account in accordance with the law, some unscrupulous officials of the corporation have apparently been moving such funds to local banks so they can collect huge commissions on them.
”Now that the cat has been let out of the bag, they have started moving the funds from the banks to the CBN. We believe what we are seeing now is just a tip of the iceberg, hence the need for the authorities to call the NNPC officials to give accounts of the paid NLNG dividends to date,” APC said.
The party said any delay in calling the officials to account for the dividends may give them enough time to cover their tracks, in addition to the dangers posed to the banks – and by extension the economy – by the sudden withdrawal of such a huge fund from the NNPC accounts with them.
”The top officials of the NNPC and others who met on Monday and decided to withdraw the $1.2 billion from the corporation’s account to the CBN must be asked a number of questions, including
their motive for the decision and the whereabouts of the commissions paid on such funds,” it said.
APC insisted that despite the attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians, the Nigerian government must remain undaunted in unravelling what happened to the dividends as well as previous taxes paid by the NLNG, as part of ongoing efforts to plug all financial leakages, ensure the payment into the Federation Account of all relevant funds and stop the looting of the treasury by unscrupulous public officials who have opted to abuse their office.
”It is not by accident that until the advent of the Buhari Administration that has decided to enthrone transparency in governance, no one has heard anything about NLNG dividends and taxes, while the funds therefrom have not been shared, as they should have been. This is not right.
”A situation in which funds meant for all Nigerians are eaten up by a few will no longer be tolerated. Those who are opposed to the efforts by the Buhari Administration to clear the rot left behind by the past government and restore transparency to the system are enemies of Nigeria,” the party said.
Six Nigerian nationals were extradited from South Africa to Gulfport, Mississippi, to face a nine-count federal indictment in the Southern District of Mississippi alleging various Internet fraud schemes. A total of 20 defendants are charged in this case.
The Nigerians are; Oladimeji Seun Ayelotan, 30, Rasaq Aderoju Raheem, 31, Olusegun Seyi Shonekan, 33 Taofeeq Olamilekan Oyelade, 30 Olufemi Obaro Omoraka, 26 Anuoluwapo Segun Adegbemigun, 39, are charged along with 15 others in an Oct. 7, 2014, indictment with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit identity theft, use of unauthorized account access devices, theft of U.S. government funds and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The charges stem from the defendants alleged participation in numerous Internet-based complex financial fraud schemes, including romance scams, re-shipping scams, fraudulent check scams and work-at-home scams, as well as bank, financial and credit card account takeovers.
Source: Department of Justice. Office of Public Affairs
United States of America
Oshiomhole accused the former minister of spending $1billion of government money for Jonathan’s re-election. She has responded.Read the press statement below…
Another false, baseless allegation against Okonjo-Iweala by governor Oshiomhole
The allegation by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State that former Minister of Finance Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spent $1 billion out of the Excess Crude Account to fund the re-election bid of former President Jonathan is the kind of ludicrously false statement that has unfortunately become a trademark of the Governor in his public campaign of falsehood against Dr Okonjo-Iweala.
The statement is just another example of the numerical diarrhea that seems to have afflicted His Excellency in recent times in his effort to damage the reputation of the former Minister.
He has, within the last few months, asked Dr Okonjo-Iweala to explain all kinds of totally wild and unsubstantiated figures, ranging from $30 billion, $20 billion, $2.1 billion, N720 billion and now $1 billion.
To say the obvious, the accusations are totally lacking in credibility.
Governor Oshiomhole’s published comments also contain other falsehoods. For instance, he quoted Dr Okonjo-Iweala as saying that she and the Finance Commissioners of the 36 states approved the spending of $2.1 billion out of the Excess Crude Account, adding that the Commissioners had disowned the statement. This is also a complete distortion.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala never said the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) approved spending out of the ECA. Rather as the Commissioners themselves stated, the former Minister of State Finance informed them that former President Jonathan approved the expenditure to end the debilitating fuel queues across the country.
As Nigerians know, the Finance Ministry under Okonjo-Iweala regularly published details of revenue allocations from the ECA in national media. So Oshiomhole’s tortured “calculations” based on his “four figure tables” are mere political numbers conjured to achieve a political purpose. Nigerians can see through the elaborate antics.
Governor Oshiomhole’s latest statement, like earlier ones, labours to give the impression that the entire FAAC process which involves the Federal Government and the 36 states of the Federation is a personal monopoly of Dr Okonjo-Iweala.
This is, of course not true. FAAC is a long standing national platform for allocating revenues chaired by the Minister of State Finance. The governor’s insistence on pushing this clearly fictional narrative underscores his desperation.
It is instructive that Governor Oshiomhole is a key member of the committee set up by the National Economic Council to investigate the ECA spending. His continuing attacks against Dr Okonjo-Iweala seem to suggest that he has lost confidence in this platform which he deployed to make some of his initial false and baseless allegations. The Governor does not seem to appreciate that he is undermining the very credibility of the committee.
Once again, we ask: why are Oshiomhole and his cohorts so ready to sacrifice truth, precedent and decency in this political witch hunt against Dr Okonjo-Iweala?
We are confident that they will fail because truth will triumph.
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos today convicted one Kutumisana Mbuta Blaise, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, for money laundering.
Blaise was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on one court charge of money laundering sequel to his arrest at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos for being in possession of Five Hundred and Eleven Thousand, Two Hundred and Twenty Five United States dollars ($511,225.00), cash which he failed to declare to the officers and men of the Nigerian Customs Service as required by the provisions of Section 2(3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended by Act No. 1 of 2012).
He had pleaded not guilty upon arraignment but after diligent prosecution by the EFCC, Justice Buba found him guilty as charged.
“The court is satisfied that the prosecution proved his case beyond reasonable doubt and thereby finds you Kutumisana Mbuta Blaise guilty of the allegation contained in the one count charge before the court and hereby convict you of the offence of failure to declare the sum of Five Hundred and Eleven Thousand, Two Hundred and Twenty Five United States of America Dollars in contravention to section 2(3) Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 (as amended by Act No. 1 of 2012) and punishable under section 2(5) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended by Act No. 1 of 2012).”
The convict is to forfeit the entire sum to the Federal Government of Nigeria in line with provisions of the Money Laundering Act.
Former governors of Imo and Adamawa state Ikedi Ohakim and Murtala Nyako are currently in the custody of EFCC and are likely to be arraigned in court today. Also in EFCC custody is Abdulazeez, son of Murtala Nyako. They are all alleged to have committed financial crimes.
A Malaysian court has ordered the detention of five Nigerian students in Malysia for their alleged involvement in a N125.2m (RM2.4 million) internet fraud in Selangor & Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
According to local media reports, the 5 Nigerian students who are between the ages of 20 and 30 are undergraduates pursuing a degree in Information Technology in a leading University Kuala Lumpur. They were arrested on June 30, 2015.
A Malaysian police chief ACP Azmi Adam while speaking on their arrest said two women have been arrested for providing their bank accounts for the syndicates to use in doing their illicit business. He stated that five laptops, 20 hand phones, ATM cards, SIM cards and documents believed to have been used to con their victims were seized from the men.
The men were arrested after one of their victims, a 62-year-old businessman alerted the police after receiving a suspicious email in March informing him that he was among 50 recipients selected to receive RM15.9 million from the government of the United States.
“The e-mail requested the victim to follow certain procedures to ensure he did not miss the opportunity. Convinced by the contents of the e-mail, the victim carried out 51 transactions involving money, to accounts numbers given by the syndicate before realising it was a scam. He later lodged a police report,” the police chief said.
*Four women who were duped out of £100,000 by lonely hearts conman on dating website Match.com after he posed as a Royal Marine will only get a few hundred pounds back each
*The victims paid money to Nigerian immigrant Adewale Adewole, 31
*He posed as a Royal Marine commando on the dating website Match.com
*Falsely claimed to be army captain Timmy Francis who ran an orphanage
*Duped women into sending him money which he transferred to his wife
Four besotted women duped out of almost £100,000 by a lonely hearts conman posing as a Marine commando will be paid back just a few hundred pounds each after a police auction of his luxury possessions.
Nigerian immigrant Adewale Adewole, 31, posed as Royal Marine commando Timmy Francis on the dating website Match.com
He falsely claimed to run an orphanage in Africa and was looking for romance under the motto: ‘To live and love’ and the online nickname ‘Charismatic Brit’.
But after charming the unsuspecting women, he then claimed he needed money saying he had been mugged while attending to his ‘orphanage’.
The women all sent him cash and paid his hotel bills – only for him to transfer the money into the bank account of his wife who shared his home with their two children in Eccles, Greater Manchester.
Police who caught up with father-of-three Adewole discovered he had used the women’s cash to splash out on iPads, TVs and designer clothes plus electronic and musical items such as a glitterball and a keyboard thought to be worth in total tens of thousands of pounds.
But after he was jailed for four years, officers auctioned off the confiscated items in a bid to repay the victims – only for it to yield just £2,000.
It means the women will get back only hundreds of pounds each – with one victim getting just £199.
It is not known what happened to £4,500 in cash which Adewole kept under his bed and insisted was his.
At a proceeds of crime hearing at Manchester Crown Court, prosecutor Miss Louise Brandon said: ‘The value of the loss was £98,140 and from that there is an available amount of £2,213.71 but the prosecution have four complainants who lost considerable amounts of money.
‘The available items were mainly electrical that the police auctioned off so it would mean getting that money from the auction. The compensation orders have been reached proportionally but unfortunately it is no where near what they did give but it is all we can get. The complainants are fully aware that it was unlikely they would get it back.’
At an earlier court hearing Miss Brandon said the four victims were registered with Match.com and did not know each other.
She added: ‘They were all contacted on the dating site by a man called Timmy Francis who had two profiles under the mottos ‘To Live and Love’ and ‘Charismatic Brit’. They had contact with him during the period the fraud took place via text message, phone and email.
‘He told them he had been a captain in the army. He also said he ran an orphanage in Africa called the Hope House Foundation, for which he set up a website including own mobile phone number.
‘There was a profile picture on his Match accounts and he sent some of the women photographs of himself – all of these pictures were actually of a Royal Marine Commander called Joshua McGowan who knew nothing of what was going on.
‘Each of the women wanted to find out more about him and were led to believe they were in a relationship with him. Although they arranged to meet, he never kept to the arrangements and never did meet any of the victims.
Miss Brandon added: ‘He told the women that on a trip to Africa he was the victim of a crime and needed money. The crime meant he could not access his own funds. He said they would get their money back and would be sent letters from the World Health Organisation to show that he would be able to pay them.
‘These letters were sent, but from an M30 Manchester postmark. He also sent them links to websites which, when logging in with details he gave them, appeared to show that he had a huge bank balance and would eventually be able to pay them back.
‘One woman was asked to pay for a hotel for him. When she rang the number he gave her for the hotel, they also confirmed the information and she agreed to pay it. She later received a cheque addressed to him for £35,000 to prove he had money, but this was later discovered to be a stolen cheque forged in his own handwriting.
‘Over a number of months each woman transferred significant sums of money via bank accounts and Western Union moneygrams and sent items to the defendant’s home address. They bought electronic items, took out credit cards and loans and bought clothes from Next. Many of the goods were sent to his home address in Eccles from where the victims believed they would be forwarded on to the defendant in Nigeria.
‘When the women stopped sending money they never heard from him again.’
The court heard the total amount stolen including the value of the household goods and Western Union transfers was £98,140.
Adewole was arrested in October 2012 at his flat and £4,500 in cash was found under his bed. A digital camera was found purchased by one of the victims, but containing pictures of the defendant and his wife and children. Designer clothes and shoes were also found worth £2,000 alone.
Adewole’s wallet was also seized and contained several SIM cards, some of which contained the phone numbers of the victims. His two Blackberry phones were also seized – on these three different email accounts were in use which were linked to the two Match accounts. He was bailed and later tried to call one of the woman again under the name Timmy Francis and was arrested again.
When questioned he claimed to know nothing of the orphanage but that the £4,500 was his. He said the majority of the items found in his flat were to go to his mother in Nigeria. He admitted he had used Match.com in 2010, 2011 and 2012 but could not remember when exactly.
The victims known only as Miss E, Miss A, Miss W and Miss H will get back just £863.38, £332.07, £199.26 and £819.10 respectively.
Defence counsel Mr Khadim Al’Hassan said: ‘I’m surprised by the amount from the auctions, it must have been a really bad day because they were all new items.’
As Fani Kayode celebrates his court victory today, the EFCC has said it will challenge his acquittal by a federal high court..The former aviation minister was discharged and acquitted of laundering almost N100 million while he was the minister of aviation in 2006.The EFCC had filed the suit against him in 2013..Discharging Kayode,Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia said
”It is apparent that the prosecution’s case is feeble and has failed to establish that the accused person paid or accepted cash deposits exceeding the authorised limit and did not do so through a financial institution,” the judge said.
“The prosecution has therefore failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that an offence had been committed under Section 15(1) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act (2004).
“I am of the considered view that the accused person, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, ?in the absence of copious evidence connecting him to the offence charged ought to be discharged and acquitted of the two surviving counts of the amended charge and I so hold.?”
How did theNigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) spend N3.8 trillion in three years?
This is the puzzle a four-man committee has been asked to resolve.
The four “wise men” are: Governors Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna).
Oshiomhole yesterday broke the news to State House correspondents after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He was accompanied by the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari, Kaduna State El-Rufai and Emmanuel.
According to him, from the reports presented to NEC by NNPC and the office of the Accountant General of the Federation on Monday, N8.1 trillion generated from oil sales during the period ought to have been remitted to the Federation account.
Only N4.3 trillion was remitted to the Federation Account by NNPC, Oshiomhole said.
He also disclosed that former Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spent $2.1 billion from the Excess Crude Account without approval between November last year and May 2015.
His words: “This is the first time we had a National Economic Council meeting in which under the instructions of the President, NNPC and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation were compelled to provide information in black and white on issues as they relate to the total sales of Nigeria crude from 2012 to May 2015. This has never happened before and for us this is profound.
“What we saw from those numbers, which I believe Nigerians are entitled to know, is that whereas the NNPC claimed to have earned about N8.1 trillion, what NNPC paid into the Federation Account between 2012 and May 2015 was N4.3 trillion and NNPC withheld and spent N3.8 trillion.
“We are talking about transparency, we are talking about change. And what we saw from those numbers – I believe that Nigerians are entitled to know – is that whereas the NNPC claimed to have earned N8.1 trillion, what NNPC paid into the federation acount from 2012 to May 2015 was N4.3 trillion.”
“What it means is that NNPC withheld and spent N3.8 trillion. The major revelation here is that the entire federation — the federal government, the states and all the 774 local governments— the amount the NNPC paid into the federation account for distribution to these three tiers of government came to N4.3 trillion and NNPC alone took and spent N3.8 trillion.”
He added: “Which means the cost of running NNPC is much more than the cost of running the Federal Government. That tells you how much is missing, what is mismanaged, what is stolen; these are huge figures.
“We need to earn and spend; it is basic law of accounting that even if you run a cigarette shop where you sell Three-Rings, you don’t sell and spend. You sell, take to your bank account, and you budget for your procurement including cost of running your business.
“There is no enterprise manager who goes to the market and sells and just begins to spend, otherwise nobody needs to budget. And because you are running a democracy and you are running three tiers of government, and the resources involved belong to these three tiers of government, the only lawful way decreed by the constitution, this is not an administrative regulation; it is not a policy derivable from a circular; this is from the express letter and spirit of the Nigerian Constitution as amended that for example if NNPC needs to spend money, it is obliged to prepare its budget’ like every other business enterprise, that budget will be scrutinised by the executive and forwarded to the National Assembly and the National Assembly will accordingly appropriate it.”
He faulted the NNPC for spending without appropriation.
He said: “If the Federal Government cannot spend without appropriation, why should any agency spend without appropriation? NIMASA, for example, whatever they earned they are supposed to pay into the federation account and also present the budget of their requirement.
“This is what the constitution provides for. And this is what President Buhari has promised to do that henceforth all monies must go to the Federation Account. What you need, you budget for. Nigeria cannot continue with you-earn-the-money-and-spend it. Where is transparency? Where is the role of the National Assembly?”
“So, if you were doing that you won’t have a situation where the NNPC alone will spend N3.8 trillion and remit to the federal, states and local governments N4.3 trillion which means NNPC is taking about 47 per cent and that explains all the leakages you are talking about.”
Oshiomhole went on: “Let us also be clear; nobody says that parastatals should not spend money but they must return to budgetting. There is no major player, there is no major registered private company that will spend money without a budget. Even a private company you will have your board of directors looking at your revenue, total sales, your turnover, your personnel cost, running cost, visible and invisible and you have the budget for the year that is how every sensible business runs.
“That is the way it was when President Buhari was Minister of Petroleum, so we are not reinventing the wheel; that is the way it used to be and that is the way the constitution says it should be.”
On the money spent by Dr. Okonjo-Iweala from the Excess Crude Account, Oshiomhole said that the Accountant General’s Office reported to NEC that the balance in the account as at the end of May was $2.1 billion instead of $4.1 billion left in the account in November, 2014.
He said: “We looked at the numbers for the Excess Crude Account, the last time the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy reported to the Council and it is in the minutes, she reported by November 2014, that we had $4.1 billion but today the Accountant General Office reported we have $2.0 billion, which means the Honourable Minister spent $2.1billion without authority of the NEC.
“And that money was not distributed to states it was not paid to the three tiers of government. This is why the NEC has set up a panel to look at what accrued, what it was spent on, when and by whom, so that Nigerians will have the full picture of all the transactions as regards the much talked about excess crude.”
Yari said NEC constituted a four-man panel to examine the accounts.
He said: “The 58th NEC? received the briefing from the director of funds where the state of the economy has been discussed thoroughly. We have gotten the report from the excess crude; what is there and what is not there. And also the Council got the briefing on the unremitted funds by NNPC.
On that line, a four-man committee – Edo, Gombe, Kaduna Akwa Ibom – was constituted to go through the books of NNPC and Excess Crude as well as the Federation Account.”
“The four-man committee will check the books of NNPC, most especially the issue of excess crude and what is not remitted into the Federation Account.”
“The Federal Government, in conjunction with the CBN, will look inwards to see how to support, how much they will give to states especially in the issue of outstanding salaries owed by the states and even the Federal Government.” he said
El-Rufai disclosed that the Excess Crude Account was started by former President Olusegun Obasanjo around 2004-2005 as an administrative arrangement to save for the rainy day.
He said: “And it was meant to have very clear accountability, such that every state and local government, in a particular state, knows their balance in the Excess Crude Account, though you can’t spend it but you know how much of it is yours. That was the arrangement.
“And in those days, before we spend any money from the Excess Crude Account, the federal and states governments will meet and agree. That is how we agreed to build the seven power stations which is NIPP today; it was from Excess Crude Account. And also met and agreed to build the Lagos – Kano Standard Guage Rail Line from the Excess Crude Account.
“But what we have seen, in the last few months or years is that the Excess Crude Account was operated unilaterally by the federal government; drawings were made unilaterally without consulting those that actually own the money because the Excess Crude Account is 52 percent owned by the Federal Government and 48 by the states and Local Governments.
“So the decision of the NEC is to set up this committee of four to look at the operations of the Excess Crude Account and make recommendation to council on its future.
“The other thing the committee will do is to look at the operations of the Federation Account, particularly the shortfall and again come back to council with very clear recommendations as to what to do.”
“We have not been given a time-frame but as you can imagine state governments are under pressure. Many of our state governments are unable to pay salaries on time without recourse to borrowing, so this is very important to us. This is an all-governors committee, we wear the shoes we know where it pinches. So, we are are going to do this as quickly as possible.
“The next meeting of the council is on July 23rd, we hope to complete our work and be in position to report to council on that day. So, within the next one month we will be done by God’s grace,” El-Rufai said.
The Presidency, through the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, has instructed the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Prof. Mobolaji Aluko, to refund overpayment of salaries running into millions of naira.
The Registrar of the university, David Suowari, was also directed to refund the sum of N130, 692.71 per month in excess of his due salary.
The overpayments were said to have been discovered during the commission’s visit to the institution on May 12, 2015 to carry out an inspection of FUO’s remuneration practices vis-a-vis the extant government’s pay policy.
The VC and the registrar were accused of appropriating certain allowances to themselves which were not approved by the government.
These concerns were raised in a letter from the NSIWC to Aluko, signed for the Chairman of the Commission by the Director of Compensation, Chike Ogbechie.
The commission said,
“The findings of the inspection in respect of your institution (Federal University, Otuoke) were as follow:
“The Vice-Chancellor was being paid total emoluments of N1,970,476.76 monthly, whereas he should not earn more than N922,810.23 if he were paid furniture allowance en bloc earlier, or N1,043,176.79 if he were being paid furniture allowance.
“Much of the difference was attributed to certain allowances which were not approved by the government.”
In the case of the registrar, the commission said he was being paid N130,692.71 in excess of his due salary of N502,580.25.
The commission also said the university disaggregated its staff salaries against the government’s policy of pay consolidation.
The NSIWC, therefore, directed the university to stop “the wrongful practices” and comply with relevant rules and rates.
The commission added,
“We hereby direct the vice-chancellor and the registrar to refund the cumulative overpayments made to them.
“You are to report to the commission in writing, your compliance with this directive within four weeks of this letter.”
Prof. Mobolaji Aluko became the Vice-Chancellor of the university in February 2011 and he said (in a text message to our Punch correspondent) that there was neither disaggregation of salaries nor overpayment of salaries.
The vice-chancellor said,
“Rather, pension and health insurance allowances were due to three of us, Diaspora Vice-Chancellors who are on Sabbatical from our foreign universities, and co-paid monthly in naira to us for payment to those foreign universities.
“Without that concession occurring, our own local salaries would have been wiped out completely, and we could not have accepted the job.”
“However, the need for accountability is welcome, and Salaries and Wages Commission will be fully reconciled to the full facts,” the VC stated.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arraigned Alhaji Yerima Suleiman and Mr. Uwem Essien Antia before Justice Lawal Akapo of a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretence and forgery. Yerima and Antia ran into troubles, when they were arrested in March, 2015 by operatives of the EFCC for allegedly stealing the sum of $2,250,000 (Two Million, Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars) from two bankers: Aginwa Gladys and Ale Dennis.
The suspects allegedly approached Aginwa and Dennis in February, 2015, offering to sell foreign exchange to the tune of $10,000,000 USD to them. After agreeing on the exchange rate, a sum of N672, 750, 000 (Six Hundred and Seventy Two Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira only) was transferred from BlueBeam Capital Investment Limited and Capital Field Investment and Trust Limited into the account of one of the bankers: Smiles and Light Limited.
It was from the banker’s account that the entire sum was moved into Antia’s account: Kafisto Oil and Gas Limited. Findings showed that the entire sum of N672, 750,000 actually hit Antia’s account. A Bureau de Change operator who changed the money into its dollar equivalent, told EFCC’s investigators that he went with Antia to his bank, along Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, where the transaction was confirmed. The Bureau de Change operator further revealed that, Antia subsequently transferred the sum of N666, 250,000(Six Hundred and Sixty- Six Million, Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira only) into his own account.
He said he worked out the dollar equivalent of the money, which was $3,127,000 (Three Million, One Hundred and Twenty- Seven Thousand United States Dollar). He said he could only give $3,124,000(Three Million, One Hundred and Twenty-Four Thousand Dollar) to Antia, leaving a balance of $3,000(Three Thousand Dollar), which he promised to give him the next day. Immediately Antia collected the foreign exchange, he reportedly headed for Number 17A, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, where the two bankers and his accomplice, Suleiman were waiting for him. However, rather than handing over the entire foreign exchange to the bankers, he only gave them $1,000,000(One Million Dollars), claiming that he could not source the entire amount. He allegedly promised to give them a balance of $2,250,000 (Two Million, Two Hundred and Twenty- Five Thousand Dollar) the next day.
This balance would be the dollar equivalent of the entire sum of the transaction (N672, 750,000). The bankers said that, since the day Antia and Suleman gave them the initial $1,000,000, all efforts to reach them had proved abortive. “Their cell phones were turned off”, they said. However, they lodged a complaint with the EFCC and operatives of the Commission eventually arrested the two fraudsters. The fraudsters, upon their arrest, claimed that they had given one of the bankers, Dennis the balance of the money at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, but investigations by the Commission, showed that no such transaction took place.
Count one of the charge read: “Alhaji Yerima Suleiman and Mr. Uwen Essien Antia on or about the 5th day of February, 2015 at Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud, conspired to obtain money by false pretence from Dennis Ale and Aginwa Gladys. Another count read:”Alhaji Yerima Suleiman and Mr. Uwen Essien Anita on or about the 6th day of February, 2015 at Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court, with intent to defraud and in order to facilitate your obtaining money by false pretence from Dennis Ale and Aginwa Gladys, forged acknowledgement of receipt dated 6th February, 2015 purported to have been made by Dennis Ale.” When the charges were read to them, they pleaded not guilty.
In view of their pleas, prosecution counsel, Gbolahan Latona prayed for a trial date and the remand of the accused person in prison custody. He told the court that the 1st accused person was also a defendant in another fraud charge before another court.
However, 1st and 2nd defence counsel, Ali Adams and Kabril Akingbolu said they have filed applications for bail and prayed the court for a short adjournment for argument on their bail applications. Justice Lawal Akapo adjourned the matter to November 9, 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18, 2015 and ordered that the accused persons be remanded in Kirikiri maximum prison. Media & Publicity 24th June, 2015
The Inspector-General of Police (IG), Solomon Arase, on Wednesday urged the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to collaborate with the Police to strengthen the campaign against corruption.
Arase made the call in Abuja when he visited the ICPC Chairman, Mr Ekpo Nta.
He identified staff training as a major area of collaboration.
“All along, there have been areas where we have been able to cooperate. And all I have come to seek is further cooperation to ensure that we are able to drive our anti-corruption crusade to its logical conclusion.
“And one of the areas I feel we can further cement our relationship is if we are able to encourage joint training in our various training institutions. It is a very veritable ground for our operatives to train together because if they train together, then they get to know themselves better.”
Arase said that since he assumed duty, he had continued to work assiduously to change the perception of Nigerians about the police force.
According to him, his administration has adopted a policy that will enable the police to reverse the trend.
He added that the removal of road blocks from the nation’s highways was one of the steps taken to reverse the trend.
The inspector-general said that the force had introduced motorised patrol and a technical platform where members of the public could effectively interact with the police.
He said that the platform was created to enable Nigerians to interact with the police while monitoring the conduct of its men on the highways.
Responding, Nta expressed appreciation for the visit and said that ICPC would do all it could to make sure that the collaboration was a success.
He said that the emergence of Arase as IG had led to tremendous transformations that had been of benefit to Nigerians.
Nta said: “The case tracking analysis and zero tolerance to police-citizens interface, initiatives of the police boss are steps in the right direction to change the perception of Nigerians about the police.”
He said that over the years, ICPC had relied extensively on police formations across the country during its investigations.
A 45-year-old man, Olusanya Ajala, has been arrested for allegedly selling a house bequeathed to him and his three siblings to two different buyers.
Ajala was said to have sold the property to a businesswoman, Anita Ojuola, and one other buyer, whose name had yet to be ascertained.It was learnt that Ajala sold the house to Ojuola without the consent of his sisters.
Our correspondent learnt that the building, which comprises eight rooms and three boys’ quarters, is located on Ajala Close in the Ijaiye area of Lagos.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Ojuola had shown interest in the house, and was introduced to the suspect by an estate agent. The two parties were said to have negotiated and subsequently agreed on N3.5m.
Anita reportedly paid N1m into a bank account provided by the suspect on March 9 with a promise to pay the balance towards the end of April. It was gathered that Ajala issued a forged power of attorney to the woman to signify her ownership of the property.
Trouble was said to have started when the suspect shelved appointments to meet Ojuola and refused to pick her calls. It was learnt that Ojuola, who demanded to see his siblings before she would pay the N2.5m balance, eventually met the suspect a month after.
Our correspondent was told that Ojuola discovered that the house had been sold to another person, who had started renovating it.
She said,
“Before I made payment, my lawyer, the agent and I met with him and requested proof of ownership. The lawyer interviewed him and asked him to produce all necessary documents. He produced a document indicating that he has the power of attorney to sell the house and the lawyer told me to go ahead with the payment.
“On March 9, I made a transfer of N1m to his bank account. I asked Mr. Olusanya (Ajala) on three occasions to take us to the house and introduced me to the tenants that the house had been bought, but he refused. The agent and I finally met with him on April 14. We insisted that he take us to the house. On getting there, we learnt that he had sold the house to someone else since March 20.”
Upon the discovery, the matter was reported at the Ijaiye-Ojokoro Police Station, leading to Ajala’s arrest.
One of Ajala’s sisters, Mrs. Aduni Ojelabi, said the family had no hand in the sale of the property to Ojuola.
She said,
“The house needed renovation and I called other family members to contribute money. When they refused, we decided to sell it on March 20 for N6.8m. Our agent collected N1.8m while the lawyer got N60,000. Four of us shared the remaining amount. I was surprised to hear that he (Ajala) had sold it to someone else.”
President Buhari Tuesday in Abuja assured State Governors that the days of impunity, lack of accountability, and fiscal recklessness in the management of national resources are over in Nigeria. Speaking at a meeting with the Governors in the Presidential Villa, President Buhari also vowed that funds stolen by government officials who abused their offices in the recent past will be recovered and systemic leakages stopped.
“There are financial and administrative instructions in every government parastatal and agency. But all these were thrown to the dogs in the past. Honestly, our problems are great, but we will do our best to surmount them. “The next three months may be hard, but billions of dollars can be recovered, and we will do our best, ” the President told the governors.
Expressing surprise that the governors had tolerated the atrocities allegedly committed with the Excess Crude Account since 2011, President Buhari promised to tackle the issue decisively.
The President declared that the payment of national revenue into any account other than the Federation Account was an abuse of the constitution, adding that what he had heard was going on in many agencies and corporations, particularly the NNPC, was clearly illegal.
On the refund of monies spent on federal projects by state governments, President Buhari assured the governors that the Federal Government will pay, but insisted that due process must be followed.
The President promised special assistance for the three North Eastern states badly affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.
He also said that a comprehensive statement on the economic and financial situation inherited by his administration will be made to the nation within the next four weeks.
“We will try and put the system back into the right position. What happened in the 2nd Republic has apparently happened again, and even worse, but we will restore sanity to the system,” President Buhari assured the Governors.
On an immediate lifeline for states that owe salaries running into many months, President Buhari said that a committee headed by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, will look at the Excess Crude Account and see what can be shared immediately.
The governors, led by Chairman of the Governors Forum, Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, had presented a wish list to the President that included:
Ø Obedience of extant Supreme Court ruling that all monies go into the Consolidated Federation Account;
Ø An order from the President that all revenue generating agencies must pay into the Consolidated Federation Account;
Ø Review of the Revenue Allocation Formula;
Ø Refund of the monies expended by states on federal projects;
Ø A special consideration for the three states of the North East under Boko Haram infestation;
Ø Full details of the amounts that accrued into the Excess Crude Account from 2011, and how the money miraculously shrank without official sharing.
Femi Adesina Special Adviser to the President
Few days to handover…BPP approved N190bn contracts
The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) gave clearance to ministries to award contracts worth N190 billion in the dying days of President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, Daily Trust investigations reveal.
Some of the certificates were issued on May 28, less than 24 hours before the President’s tenure expired, according to official documents seen by Daily Trust.
The contract clearing house gave the no objection certificates for the award of multiple contracts in last minute deals covering power (N19bn), aviation (N1.7bn), Federal Capital Territory Authority [FCTA, (N61bn)], works (N2.9bn) and water resources (N106bn) ministries.
The BPP issued a certificate of no objection to the Ministry of Water Resources for a N106 billion contract for the construction of a dam in Taraba state. The ministry was further asked to seek final approvals from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) which is chaired by president.
The FCTA got approval for N61bn job for the provision of infrastructure in Jahi district and also sewage disposal services for the six area councils in Abuja (N1bn).
Spokesman Mr. Thomas Odemwingie said the bureau did not deviate from its mandate as it only reviewed to determine if the conditions for the award of the no objection certificate had been met.
In a telephone interview, he said the “BPP conducted its activities in accordance with its mandate. The period under review, the staff members were earning their salaries and whatever was done was within its mandate.”
According to the BPP approval threshold published in its website, contracts for Consultancy Services and Non-Consultancy Services worth over N100 million must get the final clearance of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) chaired by the president.
For projects worth N1billion and above they must pass through FEC. However, the bureau gave a no objection certificate of a contract worth N2.2 billion to Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) in favour of Messrs Steag Encotec Ltd without asking them to get FEC for approval.
The clearance which was given on May 28, about 24 hours to the expiration of the Jonathan administration is for the extension of project consultancy services for Calabar, Egbama, Gbarain and Omoku power plants. The last FEC held by the Jonathan’s government took place on May 27.
Director General of BPP, Engr. Emeka Eze and one Engr. Babatunde Kuye signed all the approval saying; “Having examined your request and all the documents forwarded confirm that the project has satisfied all due process requirements for issuance of a certificate of “No objection” for the award of the contract.
Engr. Ezeh has been the Director General of the bureau since July 27, 2007 when he was appointed by late president Musa Yar’adua and later confirmed on January 27, 2009.
On May 28, the BPP gave the NDPHC a similar certificate to award contract for “project consultancy services for high voltage transmission lines and substations PC LOT 17, to Messrs Elens Konsult/TAP. The project is expected to cost £2.2 million (N669 million) plus N199 million in local currency.
On the same day, the bureau gave the approval to NDPHC to award contract of £1.6 million (N486 million) plus N294 million to the same company, Messrs Elens Konsult/TAP.
The project was for consultancy services for high voltage transmission lines and sub-stations PC: 15 and 22.
And on May 27, about 72 hours to the end of the Jonathan administration, the BPP also approved €2.2 million (N484 million) plus N153 million to Messrs GOPA International Energy Consultants GmbH. The contract was for project consultancy services for High Voltage Transmission Lines and Sub-stations PC: Lot 5 (T).
Still on the 27th, the NDPHC got approval for the award of $2.5 million (N490 million) plus N655 million. The company was given the approval to award the contract to Joint Venture of Messrs Oska-Jo & Partners Ltd and URS, for consultancy services for High Voltage Transmission Lines and Sub-stations PC: Lot 21-1 & 21-2.
Another contract was also approved for the same company on the same day. The contract which is worth $2.6 million (N600million) plus N713 million is for consultancy services for high voltage transmission Lines and sub-stations PC: LOT 19.
Similarly, another contract for $22 million (N4.3 billion) plus N2 billion was approved for award on the same day.
Daily Trust investigation showed that the contract was to be awarded to Messrs News Engineering Nigeria Ltd, for the completion of Lot 7 132/ 33 KV substation (Awka, 132/33 KV sub-station extension Alausa, 132 Kv Dc transmission Line Alausa-Oke and 132 Quadruple and double circuit from Oke Aro 330/132/33KV substation to Towers No 68 and 43 of the Existing Ikeja West-Oworonshoki 132 TX lines.
Documents available also showed that on May 26, approval was given to the Ministry of Aviation for the award of N1.2 billion contract.
The contract was in favour of Messrs Dari Investment Limited for the upgrade and rehabilitation of Kaduna International Airport. Still on May 26, the bureau gave the same ministry approval to award a contract worth N3 billion to Messrs Interbau Construction Limited, for the upgrade and rehabilitation of Terminal Building at the Port-Harcourt Airport.
On May 19, the BPP cleared request by the Federal Capital Territory Administration for a contract worth N1 billion but asked it to seek FEC approval. The contract was for provision of solid waste collection and management services in six area councils.
Still on May 19, the FCT was cleared to seek approval for a contract worth N60 billion. The contract was to be awarded to Messrs Gilmor Engineering Nig. Ltd, for provision of engineering infrastructure in Jahi District. And on May 21, the bureau gave the ministry of Water Resources clearance to seek FEC approval for a N106 billion contract for the construction of a dam in Taraba State.
On May 7, the ministry of Aviation was asked to proceed to seek FEC approval for a contract of N467 million. The sum was for upgrade and remodelling of infrastructure in four international airports of Enugu, Kano, Abuja and Port-Harcourt. Investigations further showed that on May 15, the ministry of works was cleared for a N2.9 billion. The contract was for the rehabilitation of Osogbo-Ilesha road.
The wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, on Saturday implored politicians who may be picked to work with President Muhammadu Buhari and all his political associates to be careful the way they carry themselves.
She said such people should be wary of the fact that it took her husband 12 years before getting to the position he currently occupies and hence, they should tread with caution.
Mrs. Buhari said this during an “Appreciation Dinner” she hosted in honour of the All Progressives Congress’ women and youths at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
She said, “There was nothing that people did not say about the past administration. It is not former President Goodluck Jonathan that is not good but the people around him.
“So, the people that are going to be around President Buhari have to be very careful because this election ended peacefully.
“We are praying and hoping that people around him should know that it took him 12 years to get to that position and they must know that they are coming to serve the masses, not General Buhari.
“It is the people that are around him that will determine the political health of our state.”
The President’s wife also promised that the current administration would run an open government.
She said government under her husband would be run differently from what was obtainable under Jonathan when people were allegedly asked to be paying huge amount of money in foreign currency before they could see the President or his wife.
“I will like to inform you that in the past regime, whether it is true or false, only God knows, some people were going round and parading themselves as personal assistants.
“If you wanted to see the President’s wife, you will pay $30,000 or $50,000 and if you are seeing the President, you will pay all that you have saved in your lifetime.
“This will not happen in our regime. Whoever asks you to give a single penny in the name of coming to see the President or his wife is not our (member of) staff. He is not an APC member, it is a lie. Don’t be deceived,” she said.
Taking a look at her husband’s 12-year journey towards returning as President, Mrs. Buhari said her active participation in the last electioneering made the difference.
She said she did not take part in the campaigns of her husband’s first three shots at the Presidency because that was how those who surrounded him at that time wanted it.
This time, she said it was a national leader of the APC and a former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who encouraged her to play an active role.
She also faulted claims that made the rounds ahead of the elections on the alleged gender-insensitivity of her husband, saying they were mere fabrications.
Describing Buhari as the pillar of her success despite the generation gap between the two of them, she said it was the President who encouraged her to go to school.
Mrs. Buhari said, “Many people did not know why I was not appearing for the last three campaigns. I appeared only this time and I think it made a lot of difference. A lot of people said my husband earned four million votes as a result of my campaign.
“We were not sure but with the popularity of my husband, we thought then that he needed female support to cancel all sorts of gender bias people have been attaching to him like that he kept me under a purdah.”
“He had never kept me under a purdah even for a moment since I got married to him…
“My husband is a gender-sensitive human being, having so many girls as his own biological children and then having me as a wife, then you can see the generation gap. He allowed me to go to school. To cut the story short, he is the pillar of my success.”
She thanked Nigerian women and youths for the roles they played towards the success of the last election, saying she was aware of their steadfastness during the electioneering up until the elections proper.
These efforts, she said, contributed significantly to her husband’s success story.
Mrs. Buhari regretted that the number of women that made it to the National Assembly during the current dispensation declined drastically from the number obtainable during the last regime.
She said the current figure was not fair to women and they felt they are not represented.
Mrs. Buhari said something drastic had to be done to address the high rate of divorce in the North, the harrowing experience of widows in the South and the harassment of female students in the nation’s higher institutions.
Earlier, a former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, who was the chairman of the event, had thanked Mrs. Buhari and other women for making his job as the Director-General of the Buhari/Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Organisation easier.
Mrs. Blessing Emeka Eze, 25 years old who has been going from one church to another claiming that her 8-year-old daughter was kidnapped and released after 11 days in captivity has been arrested.
The Owode, Ogun State-born domestic servant was caught by members of Four Square Gospel Church, Obawole, Iju station, a suburb of Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, on Sunday, 7 June, 2015 where she had gone to give false testimony that her 8-year old daughter who was kidnapped at Ogba area of Lagos State was found at Mile 2 after 11 days. She also told the congregation that precious told her that she was fed with raw food and raw meat which made the Pastor of the church, Rev. A.S. Adekunle to order that the girl be taken to a medical centre on Old Akute Road for treatment.
On getting to the hospital, the 8-year-old girl who was wearing pampers was observed by the doctor on duty and the doctor said nothing was wrong with the girl.
But the mother insisted that something was wrong with her.
At a point, the doctor prescribed that she has to be on observation in addition to giving her drip to flush out any disease she might have contracted.
Again, her mother objected and demanded that the girl be given only injection.
While the argument was on, two men came in and identified the woman and the same daughter as the person who gave a similar testimony the previous Sunday at Christ Apostolic Church in the same Obawole and the church donated N5,000 for her to take care of the child.
After she was threatened with arrest, she opened up and said the girl was not kidnapped as she alleged, adding that she was only using the girl to make ends meet.
She was subsequently handed over to the police at Iju Police Station, Red House, Iju Ishaga, Lagos State for further investigation.
Officially, politicians do not earn much in salaries but the secret allowances they collect are too much.
According to the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the President of the country, Muhammadu Buhari, will earn a monthly salary of N3,514,705.
The role of the RMAFC, empowered by Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the Nigerian Constitution, is to outline the salary earnings appropriate for individuals who hold political offices.
Buhari is also eligible for a regular hardship allowance, 50 percent of the basic salary, N1,757,350.5.
Altogether, President Buhari will take home N1,171,568.33 every month, and N14,058,820 yearly for salary.
The government also pays for the provision of car fuel, personal assistance, domestic staff, and utilities for President Buhari.
Upon request the new President has access to accommodation, Duty Tour allowances, medical allowances, as requested.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s monthly salary is N3,031,572.50. He will receive N1,010,524.17 monthly, and N12,126,290.00 annually.
These allowances are either paid periodically, monthly, etc. The Tour Allowance depends on the president’s travel arrangements.
Buhari promised during the campaign that the salaries of all members of his cabinet would not exceed what is outlined by the RMAFC.
President Goodluck Jonathan and his vice president, Namadi Sambo, have been directed by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to declare their assets.
Moreover, 29 governors, 42 ministers, 109 senators and 360 House or Representatives members were ordered to do the same, The Punch reports.
The officials were said to have been given a 30-day deadline to return the completed Assets Declaration Forms.
Kolade Omoyola, the CCB acting secretary, last Tuesday noted that “political office holders (had) to declare their assets on assumption and vacation of office in accordance with Paragraph II of the 5th Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended”.
The Bureau representative also issued a warning that those who fail to declare their assets, as required by the law, “shall attract on conviction any or all of the following: (a) Removal from office (b) Disqualification from holding any public office, (c) Forfeiture to the state any property acquired in abuse of office or dishonesty”.
It was gathered that only seven senators and 40 representatives had submitted their forms so far.
Tony Okocha, a Rivers state official, said that Governor Rotimi Amaechi would soon submit the completed form:
“The Governor Rotimi Amaechi that I know will submit his form to the Bureau very soon. He has no skeleton in his cupboard and has nothing to hide anywhere in Nigeria and anywhere in the world.”
Jacob Edi, the special adviser to the Kogi state governor Idris Wada, said that the governor, and all the other political appointees in the state subject to the law, had submitted the forms. The Edo state governor Godswill Akpabio had submitted the form before he was sworn in, his aide said.
A representative of the Oyo state governor said that Abiola Ajimobi “certainly will” declare his assets.
The late Musa Yar’Adua is the only Nigerian president who has declared his assets. Muhammadu Buhari, the president-elect, also vowed to openly declare his assets and liabilities after taking office.
Meanwhile, President Jonathan last year refused to make such a move. He explained he had already done this while being deputy to Yar’Adua. He claimed in the course of the third presidential media chat:
“The issue of public assets declaration is a matter of personal principle. That is the way I see it, and I don’t give a damn about it, even if you criticise me from heaven. When I was the vice-president, that matter came up, and I told the former President (late Musa Yar’Adua) that let’s not start something that would make us play into the hands of people and create an anomalous situation in the country.
“The law is clear. A public officer should declare his assets, and if there are issues, then the relevant agencies would have a basis to assess whether you have amassed wealth or not. When it is said that people should declare their assets in public, it is not only the president or the vice-president; it includes everybody, including ministers.
“When I was a governor in Bayelsa State for about a year before becoming vice-president, I was investigated thoroughly. I have nothing to hide. But because I was under somebody and it was becoming an issue, because of the media, and because my boss had declared, it was said that the vice-president must. I declared, not because I wanted to.
“Initially, I said they can talk about it from morning to night, I will not. It is not proper. If one amends the law to say that only the president and the vice-president should declare assets publicly, fine. But, presently, everybody who is holding political office is expected to and I say it is not right.”
In another development General Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), the former defence minister, yesterday advised Muhammadu Buhari to probe President Jonathan’s administration over the $60 billion debt the new administration will inherit.
According to Daily Trust, Danjuma lamented:
“It is disheartening to know that the incoming government of Buhari will have to contend with a debt of over $60billion and there is nothing to show for this huge debt.
“Well, we would know what happened to these monies, because I believe that the Buhari administration has to, and should, in national interest, investigate the administration so that we would know what happened.”
30 year old Nigerian successful model Ben Fiberesima, skipped bail in the UK, fled to Australia where he lived for seven years under a false name, modeled for Calvin Klein, Tom Ford, boasted of jet set lifestyle, wrote a self-help book, called himself a millionaire, claimed he was in the Great Gatsby and bragged about being an 11-time underground rap battle champion. The fugitive was arrested after police lured him to a fake swimwear photoshoot in London. Read full story below…
A gangster who launched a successful career as a male model and musician while on the run in Australia has been snared in an extraordinary police sting.
Fugitive Ben Fiberesima, 30, appeared in campaigns by fashion designers such as Tom Ford after skipping bail while facing trial on fraud and weapons charges in London seven years ago. He also performed as a critically-acclaimed rap artist under the name Roky Million, releasing singles and videos downloaded by tens of thousands of fans.
The gang member from South Kilburn was picked as one of the first people to trial the “Google Glass” for a style magazine, and in a self-help book published last year claimed he was “worth seven figures by the age of 26”.
His jetset lifestyle – which he claimed also included hanging out with supermodels and stars of Aussie soap Home and Away – ended when Met detectives swooped last year using an elaborate sting to detain him.
Officers from Brent’s Wanted Offenders Unit received an anonymous tip-off that Fiberesima was back in London in August living under a false name but were unable to locate him.
Then detectives discovered he was on the books of a respected models agency based in Covent Garden.
An officer contacted the agency claiming to represent the fake company WOU Photography and booked Fiberesima for a casting call to model a range of luxury swimwear.
When he arrived for what he thought was his next assignment at the studio in Kentish Town, Fiberesima was arrested at the door.
Fiberesima was jailed for three years and nine months after being found guilty of two counts of theft, two counts of making false representation and possessing an offensive weapon at Harrow Crown Court earlier this month.
He also pleaded guilty to three counts of making false representation and one count of possessing a prohibited weapon.
Fiberesima was originally arrested in September 2008 after calling police claiming someone was attempting to enter his flat in Christchurch Avenue, Brondesbury, north-west London.
When officers arrived, there was no intruder but they did find a stun gun, a can of CS gas and stolen chequebooks belonging to a neighbour.
He was arrested and charged with fraud, theft and possession of an offensive weapon.
The gang member from the South Kilburn estate was granted bail but failed to appear at court and was subsequently discovered to have fled the country.
Fiberesima’s Established Models biography claims: “Raised in London Roky used his talent for rhyming to be crowned UK Underground rap battle champion 11 times. He has travelled extensively modelling for international brands including Calvin Klein, Nike, Tom Ford and YSL.”
It also states that “Roky appeared in Baz Luhrman’s film, The Great Gatsby” although the Standard was unable to find his name in the film’s credits.
During his time on the run, Fiberesima published a self-help book called Roky’s Power Gain 50 – Rules To Live By To Gain Power, Money and Influence.
He said he had gone from “working class to millionaire in 15 months”, writing: “I grew up in government housing and have been for 80 per cent of my life. I am now worth seven figures at age 26. I used my in depth knowledge of power to change my fortunes.”
The last message on his Twitter feed, posted in December last year, said: “To all: Roky’s in the 5% of rappers that can genuinely be described as ‘real’ so as is life he’ll be away til further notice #management.”
In one interview for an online fashion magazine Fiberesima talks of how he started travelling the world at the age of 23 and visited countries including France, Belgium, Spain and Australia while he modelled for designers including Calvin Klein, Tom Ford and Yves Saint Laurent.
He declares : “I have had ups and downs, trials and tribulations, like everyone else” and said in his youth he mixed with gang members but had since changed his life.
He added: “ I keep it as honest as I can.”
Detective Inspector Pete Wallis of Brent CID said: “There is clear message here, that we will not forget you if you offend, and we will explore all options in tracing you and bringing you to justice.
“Mr Fiberesima used false identities to evade capture for five years and developed a very public persona in Australia and internationally as a rap artist and model.
“Thankfully he is now paying for his crimes, due to the perseverance of Brent’s Wanted Offenders Unit.”
A spokesman for Established Models said he had been on their books as Mr Million for a few months two years ago. He said : “He was not working, so we let him go. “
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Apo, Abuja, on Monday ordered Guaranty Trust Bank Plc to refund N5.3bn illegally withdrawn from the account of one its customers, Dr. Ted Edwards.
Justice Valentine Ashi, in his judgment, ordered that the N5.3bn should attract 10 per cent interest from Monday, when judgment was delivered, till the time the money was paid back to the owner.
The court also ordered that the money should attract another 21 per cent interest from December 12, 2014 when GTB allowed the illegal withdrawal, until the fund was eventually paid back to Edwards.
The judge, while reviewing the case in his judgment, held that the bank did not have any defence to its action of the withdrawal of the total sum of N5,240,516,186.21 from the customer’s account and thereby ordered the bank to pay the money to the owner through his Zenith Bank Plc account.
Edward, a lawyer of Edwards and Partners Law Firm, had initiated the suit, FCT/HC/CV/939/2015, in January 2015 following the alleged illegal withdrawal of the money on December 12, 2014.
The money was paid into the plaintiff’s law firm’s account with the GTB on January 2, 2014 by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla.
The money was said to be for the settlement of a judgment got by his clients, Impecca Services Limited and His Royal Highness, Eze Ezekwo, against the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, as cost of consultancy services they rendered to the 774 local governments.
But in his judgment on Monday, Justice Ashi struck out the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Accountant General of the Federation, Minister of State for Finance, Anaocha Local Government Area, and the Incorporated Trustees of ALGON from the suit as defendants on the grounds that they were not necessary parties.
The plaintiff stated, in the suit’s originating processes, that shortly after the money was paid into his account on behalf of his clients, GTB made some disbursements from the account as directed, but that he was only informed on December 12 by an official of the bank that the Central Bank of Nigeria had withdrawn the N5.3bn.
He said that when he enquired from the bank why it made deduction from his account without his consent, he said GTB only insisted that the withdrawal was made in obedience to CBN directive, which it could not disobey.
Justice Ashi held in his judgment that GTB betrayed the banker-customer relationship between it and the plaintiff.
The judge held that it was wrong for GTB to have made withdrawal from the customer’s account without the customer’s knowledge and consent.
The judge held that GTB’s claim that it was helpless and that the withdrawal was at the instance of CBN was not tenable.
United Kingdom Charity Commission says it has received many complaints about the Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation in London concerning allegations of financial misconduct and conflicts of interest.
The UKCC’s spokesperson, Sarah Hitchings, told Punch in an email that the commission had also started a broad investigation into the matters because the foundation had violated its regulatory standards.
She said, “We have received complaints about this charity and issues including alleged conflicts of interest and alleged financial misconduct. We currently have an open case in relation to this charity and have been in contact with the trustees.
“We have recently become aware of further information about potential wrong-doing at the charity which is of regulatory concern to the commission and we are currently considering this new information. We cannot comment further while our case is live.”
Meanwhile, the commission refused to comment on any actions taken against the recently sacked London-based Chief Executive Officer of the foundation, Anne Welsh, on allegations of money laundering.
“We cannot give information about a charge on the chief executive officer – this would be a question for the Police,” Hitchings added.
The Chief of Staff to former President Obasanjo, Mr. Victor Durodola, had told Saturday PUNCH that Welsh was relieved of her duties due to allegations of money laundering activities.
“It is true and it is sad,” he said, while commenting on the sacking of the former chief executive.
SaharaReporters had earlier obtained a video footage, which showed that Welsh was allegedly involved in plotting a $4.9m (N980m) scheme to exploit the Ebola Virus Disease tragedy in West Africa through helping a group of “Lebanese businessmen,” who wished to donate money to the Obasanjo Foundation for some works in Sierra Leone.
The footage revealed that the group demanded that it would make a donation of $2m (N400m) to the foundation if it helped it launder the balance of $2.9m, which Welsh agreed to.
“I had to go through training, through president Obasanjo, political training for one year to become discreet,” she said in the video,” adding that, “Sometimes, we get dollars from people who give money to our foundation and they say they don’t want it to be known that they donated the money, but they want to have a letter on our letterhead and a letter from Obasanjo just to say ‘Thank you’ for your kind donations to the foundation for the work to support Ebola.’ That’s it. That is what we normally do.”
Welsh had also demanded from the group an interest of 30 per cent on the $2.9m.
“At least 30 per cent; think about the hard work I’m going to put into this, you will be so grateful to me,” she said.
The video evidence had also showed that the group agreed to give her the 30 per cent, which was $90,000 (N180m), and detailed how the money would be transferred via a Nigerian bank.
Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela, has directed the immediate termination of the partnership with FORCECOM Networks Ltd., on the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment programme (SURE).
This was contained in a statement issued to newsmen on Thursday in Abuja by Mr Suleiman Haruna, Communication Specialist to SURE- P.
The statement said the minister further directed that the firm should be investigated by the security agencies.
The minister said the firm should be investigated for deploying interns to work on mobile money business months after they were deployed to the company.
She also accused the firm for presenting `time sheets’ which showed that the interns had worked and requested payment of their monthly stipend when they did not work.
According to the statement, the GIS guideline stipulated that interns should be paid for the number of days they worked every month.
The statement said the Managing Director of the frim; Mr. Paul Okafor coerced interns to sign undertaking to pay N7, 500 of their monthly stipend for training with Lekki Business School.
It also alleged that the company fraudulently convinced graduates to register in Jan. 2015 and set their hire date as Nov. 2
Former Central Bank Governor and now Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II who blew the lid on the missing NNPC money has reviewed the recently released PWC auditors report on the missing NNPC money. He shared his thoughts in a piece titled ‘Unanswered questions on Nigeria’s missing oil revenue billions” published in the Financial Times yesterday May 13. Read what he wrote below
Just over a year ago President Goodluck Jonathan suspended me from my position as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria after I questioned an estimated $20bn shortfall in oil revenues due to the treasury from the state oil company. As I said then, you can suspend a man, but you cannot suspend the truth. The publication last month of a PwC audit into the “missing billions” brings us a step closer to it.
When I was central bank governor I raised three broad questions. First, did the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation remit to the government the entire proceeds of its crude oil sales? Second, if it did not, is there proof of the purpose to which the unremitted amounts were applied? And third, did NNPC have the legal authority to withhold these funds?
Contrary to the claims of petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, the audit report does not exonerate the NNPC. It establishes that the gap between the company’s oil revenues between January 2012 and July 2013 and cash remitted to the government for the same period was $18.5bn. And it goes into detail about the NNPC’s account of how it used that money, which raises serious questions about the legality of the state oil company’s conduct.
The auditors say a significant part of the unremitted funds is supposed to have gone towards a kerosene subsidy that had been stopped two and a half years earlier by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. His decree never appeared in the official gazette, leading some to question whether it ever had legal force.
Evidence disclosed in the report suggests this is a sideshow. The executive secretary of the agency charged with administering subsidies confirmed that, acting on Yar’Adua’s orders, it had ceased granting subsidies on kerosene. There was no appropriation for such a subsidy in the 2012 or 2013 budgets.
Throughout all this, Nigerians paid 120-140 naira a litre of kerosene, far more than the supposed subsidised price of 50 naira. Yet the state oil company withheld $3.4bn to pay for a subsidy that in effect did not exist. I have consistently held that this was a scam that violated the constitution and siphoned off money from the treasury.
The second major item raised in the report relates to the transfer of oil assets belonging to the federation to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, a subsidiary of the NNPC.
NPDC has paid $100m for these assets, from which it extracted crude valued at $6.8bn but paid tax and royalties worth $1.7bn in the period scrutinised by the auditors. PwC was unable to establish how much of the remaining $5.1bn should have been remitted to the government. But the report showed that, along with the private companies NPDC partnered with, it was extracting crude worth billions of dollars but yielding very little revenue for the treasury. I was investigating related transactions when I was suspended.
The third major item is a claim of $2.8bn by NNPC for expenses not directly attributable to crude oil operations; PwC said “clarity is required” on whether such upfront deductions from remittances to the federation accounts are allowed, or whether the money should have been remitted to the government. Finally, there are duplicated expenses, “unsubstantiated” costs, computation “errors” and tax shortfalls; a total of $1.48bn has to be refunded.
Of the $18.5bn in revenues that the state oil company did not send to the government, about $12.5bn appears by my calculations to have been diverted. And this relates only to a random 19-month period, not the five-year term of Mr Jonathan, the outgoing president.
Nigerians did not vote for an amnesty for anyone. The lines of investigation suggested by this audit need to be pursued. Any officials found responsible for involvement in this apparent breach of trust must be charged.
The writer is the emir of Kano and a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation on Friday said it has fired a member of its Board of Trustees, Anne Welsh, following shocking reports that she plotted to help some Lebanese businessmen to launder millions of dollars.
A new video obtained by SaharaReporters and published Thursday suggested Mrs. Welsh “operated a well-oiled money-laundering scheme for many years”.
In the video, which the news website said was discreetly shot by one of the participants at a meeting in the United Kingdom in December 2014, Ms. Welsh was seen negotiating a $4.9 million money laundering scheme that would have seen her pocket about a million dollars.
She was seen exploiting the Ebola Virus Disease tragedy in West Africa to help a group of “Lebanese businessmen” who wished to donate money to the Obasanjo Foundation for some work in Sierra Leone.
The group, the video indicates, explained it would make the donation on one condition: the Obasanjo Foundation would get $2m, as long as it helps launder the balance of $2.9m.
But when contacted Friday, the Founder/Chairman of the Foundation, Olusegun Obasanjo, said he, other trustees of the organization as well as staff of the Foundation were deeply saddened and disturbed by the allegations against Mrs. Weish.
“Accordingly, the Board of Trustees has asked her to immediately resign, and she has done so.” Mr. Obasanjo told PREMIUM TIMES on telephone.
The former Nigerian President also said the Foundation has launched a full-scale investigation into the allegations and has already reported the matter to the London Metropolitan Police and the UK Charity Commission for a thorough probe.
“We have asked the two authorities to investigate the matter exhaustively,” Mr. Obasanjo said.
The former President also said his Foundation had already contacted personalities mentioned or photographed with Mrs Welsh in the publication that revealed the deal as well as other dignitaries and partners to inform them that” she has now become a persona non grata with the Foundation and its Chairman/Founder”.
Mr. Obasanjo however explained that Mrs Welsh had ceased to be chief executive officer of the Foundation in December 2014 when she reportedly met the Lebanese businessmen to strike the alleged money laundering deal.
“The CEO of the Foundation at that time was Franklin Lisk,” the former President said.
Mr. Obasanjo said he would travel to London to make more enquiry about the matter and that his Foundation would soon release a formal statement on the development.
“I can never associate myself with anything that has to do with money laundering and corruption, and this is a very disturbing development for us all,” the former President said.
According to information on the UK Charity Commission’s website, the Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation was granted charity status by the Charity Commission of England and Wales on September 24, 2012 with the vision of advancing human security in Africa.
“The foundation partners with change agents, policy makers, global partners and visionary individuals worldwide to tackle critical problems through the initiatives of leadership, of food and nutrition, girls education, youth empowerment and employment and health for non-communicable diseases. “
The charity, according to its 2013 annual report “works with countries across Africa —with a current focus on Republic of Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal and Ethiopia —that are at development turning-points, where there is clear potential and a leader with the vision and will to achieve progress”.
The attention of Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki’s media office has been drawn to an online article alleging that the controversial Minister of Petroleum. Ms Diezani Allison Madueke who has been engulfed in series of questionable transactions made contribution to the All Progressives Congress through Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki.
This office usually will ignore such reports as we find it completely laughable, baseless and lacking any iota of truth. However, for the avoidance of any doubt and to keep with the renewed mandate of accountability and transparency, we find it necessary to assure the teeming Supporters of APC and Senator Saraki that at no time did Senator Bukola Saraki meet, discuss or had any dealings in any form or nature with Ms Deiziani or her agents.
Senator Saraki hereby challenges either the Minister, her agent, associates or any other person that might have any evidence or information contrary to the above to share same with Nigerians.
The last time Senator Saraki met with Ms Deiziani was in year 2012 when the Minister, her mother and her sister visited the Sarakis’ on a condolence visit over the death of Dr. Olusola Saraki, the father of Senator Saraki.
The alleged publication is total falsehood and completely mischievous therefore, this story can not fly or sell, rather, the promoter should find something else to cling on as they remain with a drowning party.
The credit of the success of General Buhari, and our dear party APC across the country can only be claimed by Nigerians in every nook and cranny of the federation who sacrificed their resources, time and energy to bring about the change this country deserves and that should not be tainted by any individual or group of people who stood as stumbling block to every step taken towards achieving this noble and worthy struggle.
The word CHANGE is one that President Goodluck Jonathan doesn’t like hearing. And he just confirmed that with his hasty action against a respected retired General, Martin Luther Agwai.
Jonathan on Tuesday sacked General Agwai as chairman of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). And from what PEOPLE gathered from credible sources, his sack is connected to the lecture he delivered last week in Abeokuta during the birthday ceremony of former President Olusegun Obasanjo where he declared that “change is inevitable”.
Speaking at OBJ’s birthday, Agwai noted that change in leadership was inevitable, even as he stressed the need for reforms in the security sector, without which, he said, the country might be doomed.
In his words: “In life, you find out that everything needs change; if that is what the community wants, what the people want, you must give it to them and, as such, it becomes inevitable.
“You can have everything nice, but if you don’t have the right leadership to propel it, it cannot go anywhere. Integrity matters – doing what is good for the larger society and not just what you want to do for a narrow society to please yourself.”
Jonathan has immediately appointed former chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission, Mr Ishaya Dare Akau, as the new chairman of SURE-P.
Presidential spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, noted in a statement that the change in SURE-P leadership was in furtherance of President Jonathan’s “efforts to continuously re-energize and reposition agencies of the federal government for optimal service delivery.”
During Agwai’s speech at the birthday ceremony, he had also warned that should the military abandon its primary responsibility and get involved in politics, the country would be doomed for it.
“The military has to be transformed and this becomes necessary from the point of recruitment, training and assuming leadership role. Our forces that are trained, equipped to defend us are now in a strange field (politics).”
The President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, ( CAN) Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has finally spoken on the controversial $9.3m smuggled into South Africa by two Nigerians and an Israeli, using his private jet.
He broke his silence during the National Executive Council meeting of CAN on Monday at the National Christian Centre, Abuja.
The CAN leader said he had kept quiet all the while, because he needed to explain his position to the church which is his primary constituency.
Oritsejafor stated that he would “not do anything to tarnish the image of Jesus Christ or compromise the divine standard of the church”.
Addressing the body, he said: “As you are all aware, the media has been awash in the past few days about an unfortunate incident involving the movement of funds from Nigeria to South Africa. In the unfortunate news reports, attempts have been made to link me directly with the transaction.
Opposition party The All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the obvious attempt by the PDP-led Federal Government, working with some members of the National Assembly, to cover up the smuggling of 9.3 million US dollars to South Africa on a private plane, saying the cover-up plans will fail because the issues involve transcend Nigeria.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the cover-up attempt manifested clearly at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, when Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha curiously refused to entertain a debate on a motion seeking a probe of the issue that has further ridiculed
Nigeria in the global community.
It said the refusal of the Deputy Speaker becomes even more suspicious amid allegations that some members of the House has each received $50,000 bribe to quash the motion.
APC however hailed its members in the House of Representatives for staging a walk-out to protest against the inexplicable decision not to allow the issue to be debated on the floor of the House, saying by their actions, they have aligned with the majority of Nigerians who are eager to get to the bottom of how such a huge amount of money
could be smuggled into another country by the Nigerian authorities, despite being fully aware of the limitation on the amount of money that can be taken into any country.
