CORRUPTION: Senior Lawyer Jailed 4 Years for Money Laundering.

The Federal High Court Kano presided over by Justice Fatu Riman has convicted and sentenced one Yakubu Mohammed Na-Allah, a senior lawyer to four years imprisonment without option of fine for offenses of money laundering to the the tune of Fifty Million Naira Only (N50,000,000).

The convict was arraigned by the EFCC on 14 January, 2013 on a two count charge of money laundering. Upon arraignment, Na-Allah pleaded not guilty and subsequently trial commenced on 26 June, 2013 in which the prosecution called seven witnesses and tendered fifteen exhibits.

On February 1, 2013 the properties of the convict were attached by the EFCC following an interim forfeiture order issued by the same court.

Na-Allah’s journey to prison started when the commission received a petition that the 68-year-old Kano Lawyer, allegedly duped two of his clients to the tune of N50million part of the money recovered for his client in a case they filed against Ministry of Solid Minerals where the convict represented them. The petition alleged that the convict after winning the case and the sum of Ninety Million Naira (N90,000,000) recovered, he gave his client only Thirty Million Naira (N30,000,000) and converted the rest of the money to his personal use. However, investigation by the EFCC revealed that the convict used part of the proceeds to acquire a palatial mansion in Sharada area of Kano.

In his judgment, Justice Riman ruled that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and subsequently convicted Na-Allah.

Prosecution counsel, M.S Abubakar urged the court to consider the forfeiture of properties acquired by the convict with the proceed of his crime.
Justice Riman sentenced the convict to serve two years imprisonment on each of the two count charge and also ordered that the attached property of the convict worth Fifty Million Naira at the time it was purchased be forfieted to the Federal Government. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Bruno Mars Just Released His First New Single In 4 Years

Bruno Mars just dropped his first new single in four years — and it’s about to uptown funk you up.

After revealing the artwork for his highly-anticipated new album on Thursday night, the superstar singer decided to spoil his fans by releasing the single “24K Magic” and its accompanying music video ahead of schedule.

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Investigation Into 7th Assembly: Lasun, 190 Other Reps Had No Bill In 4 Years- Report

An official report of the past 7th House of Representatives, tagged “Status of Bills, Petitions and Other Legislative Measures,” released on the authority of the former House speaker and now governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, shows that a staggering 191 out of the 360 House members spent four years without sponsoring any bill of their own between 2011 and 2015.

Leading the pack of lawmakers in this unsavoury list is the current deputy speaker of the House, Yusuf Lasun (Osun, APC), Bethel Amadi (Imo, PDP), Abdulmumin Jibrin (Kano, APC), and former member, Farouk Lawan (Kano, PDP).

The remaining 169 federal lawmakers sponsored bills within the period under review. The official publication was put together by the Hon. Albert Sam-Tsokwa-led Rules and Business Committee of the 7th House.

It said a total of 755 bills were introduced to the House and they were all read for the first time on the floor of the House. 679 of the bills were initiated by private members, six were sent from the Senate while 70 were executive bills. Only 123 of them were passed by the House including the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) before its tenure expired on June 6, 2015.

Leading the group of bills’ sponsors are Hon. Ali Ahmad (APC, Kwara), Hon. Uzoma Nkem Abonta (PDP, Abia) and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos). They were by miles the most prolific House members and sponsored 36, 32 and 20 bills respectively.

The trio of Ahmad, Abonta and Gbajabiamila were re-elected into the current 8th Assembly House of Representatives which was inaugurated on June 9, 2015.

Current House speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara (Bauchi, APC), who was a member of the 7th House, sponsored seven bills including the Data Protection Bill (HB.45) 2011. However, his deputy, Lasun Yusuf (Osun/APC), who was also a member of the 7th House, did not sponsor any bill, according to the official report which covered the period between June 6, 2011 and June 5, 2015.

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Nigerian Senators, Reps Cornered N600bn In 4 Years But Passed Only 106 Bills- Report

Nigerian lawmakers managed to approve only 106 new laws out of 1,063 brought before them in the last four years, despite spending more than half a trillion naira within the period, earning the notorious title as the world’s highest paid legislators.

The figures mean for the National Assembly, with a combined annual budget of N150 billion since 2011, returned 10 per cent in efficiency and averaged about two bills each month.

Each year, the Senate, House of Representatives and allied institutions, compete for government funding with projects designed to provide jobs, healthcare, education and roads to the citizens.

While the Goodluck Jonathan administration has shown its preparedness to cut financing to those vital services to Nigerians in the face of dwindling revenues, the government has helped the lawmakers retain their super N150 billion budget per year in the last four years.

Not even the present oil crisis has been enough to force the government to minimize the lawmakers’ comfort, by redirecting funds to critical areas badly starved of resources.

A typical example is the 2015 budget, affected massively by sliding oil price. The dwindling revenue forced the government to slash spending for roads – Ministry of Works – from about N160 billion to N11 billion for the entire nation. But the federal lawmakers refused to allow even a dime to be sliced off their N150 billion annual budget.

While the National Assembly budget also covers legislative aides, the National Assembly Commission and the Legislative Institute in Abuja, the biggest chunk of the appropriation goes to the 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives, each year.

But while the lawmakers take so much, their work rate has been dismally poor, PREMIUM TIMES analysis show.

The miserable worth of Nigerian legislators’ output is amplified when compared with their American counterparts, for instance.

While the legislature, under the leadership of David Mark and Aminu Tambuwal at the Senate and House of Representatives respectively managed to clear 106 bills in four years, the U.S. Congress passed 29?7? just between 2013 and 2014.

That figure was indeed one of the lowest for any U.S. Congress session as the two chambers passed 604 in just 1999, and 460 between 2007 and 2008.

Yet, the Nigerian lawmakers are the highest paid, according to a 2012 analysis by the UK-based Economist.

The report compared lawmakers’ earnings with their countries’ GDP – what each citizen is worth if their nation’s total wealth was shared by the population.

The analysis found Nigeria ahead of all other countries of the world, with its lawmakers taking 116 times what an average citizen takes of the GDP.

Kenya and Ghana followed with ratios of 75 and 29.8 respectively.

Norway’s ratio was 1.8, while U.S. lawmakers took 3.8 of what their citizens received.

The United States pays its lawmakers an average annual salary of $174,000 while Britain pays parliamentarians $105,000.

Nigerian lawmakers officially receive a modest pay of about $50,000(about N12m) yearly.
But they also pocket several illegal allowances, including the huge quarterly allowance which is nearly a $1m (N220m) a year.

Bills passed in the 7th assembly

Even with the limited numbers of enacted laws, records show most of the bills came from the Executive. Many were budget bills.

While the lawmakers’ turnover has been poor, several critical bills lie abandoned.

The most notable is the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which has been at the National Assembly since 2008/2009.

Pressed on why the few bills passed by the Senate are mainly executive-sponsored, the Chairman of the Senate Business and Rules Committee, Ita Enang, said the upper chamber gives no preference to bills before it.

“We don’t select bills to pass, we pass bills based on priority. We don’t say we pass a bill because it is an executive bill,” Mr. Enang said.

Sam Tsokwa, the House of Representatives chairman on rules and business, did not respond to our questions despite scheduling several meetings with our correspondent.

The infographic below illustrate how the N600 billion spent on the National Assembly would have served Nigerians, if well deployed.

Creditpremiumtimesng