PDP 'ALOOTER' FAMILY !! Corruption: Dasuki, Diezani, Shema, Fayose’s houses top list of assets seized by EFCC

Former governors, ex-ministers, top military officers and businessmen are among owners of the mansions seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Leading the pack is a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who has forfeited some prized assets.

Lost to the Federal Government by the ex-Minister are a multi-storey building in Banana Island Foreshore Estate in Ikoyi, Lagos, a real estate comprising six flats in Ikoyi and an estate of 21 mixed housing in Yaba, Lagos, the Nation reports.

Many properties allegedly linked with Diezani have also been placed under interim forfeiture by the anti-graft commission. Also, the EFCC has secured the final seizure of Flat 7B at Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos where $43.45 million cash was recovered. The embattled former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, has two properties in Kaduna and Abuja temporarily forfeited to the government.

Also, a former Managing Director of PPMC, Haruna Momoh, who is overseas, loses two mansions in posh Maitama District to temporary forfeiture order.

Some ex-governors and former ministers whose assets have been placed under interim forfeiture are Ibrahim Shema(20); Ayodele Fayose (three); Babangida Aliyu (two); Bello Mohammed (ex-PDP National chairman) – one; Iyorchia Ayu (one); Isa Yuguda(one) and Abba Moro(one).

Others are ex-Managing Director of Platinum Multi-purpose Cooperative Society Limited Mr. Michael Osasogie Obasuyi, who bought 134 buses, 20 houses with N11.4billion slush cash.

According to the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, about 407 mansions were seized by the agency from 2015 to 2018.

He said: “Hundreds of properties such as filling stations, petroleum products, land, jewellery, automobiles, real estate, vessels, hospitals, company shares and heavy machinery and broadcast equipment, have been seized from corrupt elements between 2015 and 2018.

“From 2015 to 2018, 407 mansions were seized, 126 have been forfeited finally and 281 are under interim forfeiture.”

- Daily Post

MR DESPERADO !!! Atiku: I don’t mind oil-producing states keeping 100% of the revenue

Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says if he emerges president in 2019, he does not mind giving oil-producing states all the revenue from crude oil. 

Abubakar said this while responding to questions on restructuring in an interview with The Africa Report.

He, however, said he would tax the states to maintain the federal government.

Asked he was in favour of states having control of their resources, Abubakar said “for now, it’s not advisable at this stage of our development”.

“That will depend on negotiations between them and other parts of Nigeria. But I know they can get more because in the First Republic the regions had 50/50. I don’t mind giving even 100% […], but I would tax those states to maintain the federal government,” Abubakar said.

“Even during the First Republic there was this derivation sharing between revenues and resour­ces, or between the regions and the federal government. So I think we could have a middle course. It would be unfair to ask me for specifics; that will depend on negotiations.”

Speaking on how he would tackle the number of out of school children, Abubakar said he would make education compulsory.

“There is no will on the part of the Nigerian government, at federal and state level, to see that the standard of education is improving. We introduced free primary in 2004. We omitted to provide penalties for state governments that did not meet [those demands],” he said.

“If I had the opportunity again, I would introduce a penalty clause, to make it not only compulsory, but if you don’t meet the target then you are penalised.

“You make education compulsory – if you don’t send your child to school you are punished for that – and you increase your edu­cational budget to train more teachers, build more classrooms. I tried to do it as a vice-president because I realised how backward the north was. You know that we have an educational tax?”

On the insecurity crisis in the country, Abubakar said he knows how Boko Haram came to be and how to curb their activities. He also proposed the building of grazing reserves in each state to curb farmers and herders crisis.

“I happen to know how Boko Haram came into being. They were offshoots of political thuggery. Politicians used those boys in Boko Haram to win elections and then abandoned them and then there were no jobs for them. It was the same thing with the Niger Delta. In 1998, I saw it myself and I warned people,” he said.

“It’s going to be a multifaceted approach. It will involve negotiations. It will involve military action.

“In each province in the north, we used to have a grazing reserve. During the season, the cattle are in the reserves. When it is off-­season, when farmers would have cultivated all their crops, then the cattle move out to the areas where the farmers have cultivated, allowing the grass in the grazing reserves to grow. These grazing reserves have been abandoned over the years.

“One way is to make sure that we give local leaders the power to resolve disputes between farmers and grazers.”

- TheCable

How SARS operative killed suspect and converted Sienna buses

The Presidential Panel on Reform of SARS sitting in Lagos on Thursday heard how a member of the squad, Police Inspector Wilson Okenya, killed a suspect and converted two Toyota Sienna buses for himself.

Giving evidence in a case bordering on extra-judicial killing before the panel, a Chief Superintendent of Police, Modupe Opaleke, confirmed that Okenya was charged to court after investigations revealed that he truly converted two Toyota Sienna buses.

“I was assigned to enforce a court judgement which ordered Insp. Okenya to return two Sienna buses and pay N500, 000 compensation to a victim, one Benjamin Chibuzor, for unlawful arrest and refusal to appear in court in 2013.

“The case actually began at Ajangbadi division where Chibuzor and four other suspects were arrested for alleged armed robbery during which two Sienna buses were taken from Chibuzor.

“Chibuzor was charged to court and when Insp. Okenya failed to show up in court, the case was dismissed and he was asked to return the two Toyota Sienna buses and pay a N500, 000 compensation.

“Investigations however revealed that the inspector after registering the buses as exhibit at SARS, Ikeja, illegally auctioned the buses.

“He was then charged to court for conversion. Insp. Okenya retired from the force three months after he was charged to court,” she said.

The panel, headed by Mr Tony Ojukwu, further asked CSP Opaleke if she bothered to find out why only Chibuzor out of the five suspects was charged to court and if the inspector went through orderly room trial before being charged to court.

According to panel, the outcome of the orderly room trial should determine the charges that would be leveled against the inspector.

The panel also asked CSP Opaleke if she came across any suspect named name Ogadi during her investigation as the suspect was the one that was allegedly shot dead by Inspector Okenya.

Responding, CSP Opaleke said she was only assigned to investigate the case as regards the judgement which ordered Insp. Okenya to return the buses and pay compensation.

Mr Chibuzor, who was also present at the hearing, then told the panel how the inspector had confessed in the presence of CSP Opaleke that he killed Ogadi.

Mr Chibuzor was then asked by the panel if he had included that in his statement and the police were requested to bring Chibuzor’s statement alongside Insp. Okenya on Friday, Nov. 16 for interrogation.

The public sitting holding at the Lagos High Court, Ikeja will end on Saturday.

- PM News

Nigeria’s $2bn rail project suffers setback as GE pulls out

Nigeria’s railway projects have recorded a fresh setback as General Electric pulls out of Nigeria’s $2bn narrow gauge railway concession, TheCable understands.

The company has handed over to South African Transnet SOC Limited, which deals in pipeline, port, and rail construction.

TheCable also understands that GE had pulled out from the deal a while ago, following the sale of its 111-year-old rail construction business, but the information was kept under wraps in government circles.

In April,  Yewande Thorpe, head of communications, GE Nigeria, said the company signed an interim concession agreement with Nigeria phase for “light remedial civil and track repair works” on the narrow gauge rail line.

“Additionally, a joint operation will be established between the (GE-led) consortium and the Nigeria  Railway Corporation with a supply of 10 locomotives and 200 wagons provided to augument the existing rolling stock in Nigeria,” she added via a statement.

All of that rail work is in doubt now, as GE, who led the consortium pulled out of the deal, handing reins over to Transnet, who recently recalled its Nigerian team.

Speaking at the 24th Nigerian Economic Sumit (NES24), Rotimi Amaechi, Nigeria’s minister of transportation, said the concession has inched from one setback to the other.

“We met GE an GE told us that for 11 years, we have been begging the federal government to concession narrow gauge to us, and they have refused.

“And I told them, we would concession it to you tomorrow if you are ready. They said they are ready. Six months, we have finished all documentation, everything we need to do, GE slowed us down.

The president even fired the then DPP because he was becoming a clog in the process of ensuring that we succeeded. We were at the verge of concessioning, when GE transport… did it collapse or they sold it.

“You people are businessmen, I don’t want to say the one that they would say it affected the economy, but they are no longer there to deal with us.

“Then Transnet took over because Transnet was part of the consortium, and we met on Friday, and we were to meet today (Monday), but if you read your papers, the just fired the head of Transnet.

“So I said, what is this witchcraft? And they have now summoned the team back to South Africa. We have made progress, we are at the verge of completion. Today, we would have been looking at the draft agreement.”

The Nigerian government led by President Muhammadu Buhari has made strong commitments to the rehabilitation of the Nigerian railways.

- TheCable

Buhari ‘covering up unemployment figures because of 2019 elections’

The Atiku Campaign Organisation has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of deliberately covering up unemployment figures to protect his re-election bid. 

In a statement on Thursday, the organisation accused the Buhari-led administration of deliberately not providing funds for the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to release the report which is long overdue.

Yemi Kale, the statistician-general of the federation, had said the federal government has not released money for the NBS to complete the unemployment report.

Its been a year since the bureau released Nigeria’s unemployment figures, which are usually released quarterly, with speculations that publishing the data will work against Buhari in the 2019 presidential election.

The Atiku Campaign organisation said part of Buhari’s campaign promise in 2015 was to create three million jobs yearly, but the current administration has instead recorded losses equaling the numbers promised.

The statement read: “We note with dismay the testimony of the Statistician General of the Federation, Mr. Yemi Kale, that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is unable to release the annual unemployment report that it is mandated by law to produce, because the Buhari administration has not provided the NBS with the funds it needs to perform this essential service.

“If the Buhari administration can afford ₦1.1 billion to fumigate the office of the National Security Adviser, if they can afford ₦3.5 million every month to feed Ibrahim El Zakzaky, then they can afford to release funds for the NBS to perform its statutory duty of releasing the nation’s job report.

“President Buhari promised to create three million jobs per annum during the 2015 presidential campaign season, but has ended up losing over three million jobs every year since he was sworn in on May 29, 2015.

“Since the Buhari administration came to being, 11 million Nigerians have lost their jobs and in December of 2017, the NBS under Yemi Kale, announced that 7.9 million Nigerians lost their jobs in the 21 months period under review.

“It is safe to draw the conclusion that if the NBS had been funded and able to release the now due 2018 job reports, the total figure of jobs lost under the present administration may climb higher than the present 11 million jobs.

“Thus, we can understand why this failed administration is desperate to cover that information up, however, the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation insists that Nigerians deserve to know the truth no matter how unpalatable it may be.”

- TheCable

US: Nigeria will be world’s 2nd largest rice importer in 2019

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has projected that Nigeria will be the world second largest rice buyer in 2019.

China is predicted to be the world’s largest buyer.

“On an annual basis, consumption and residual use is projected higher in 2018/19 in Angola, Benin, Burkina-Faso, Cambodia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam,” the department said in its latest Rice Outlook released on Tuesday.

“China and Nigeria are projected to remain the largest rice importing countries in 2019, followed by the EU, Cote d’Ivoire, and Iran.

“Nigeria and Egypt are projected to account for the bulk of the 2019 import increase. Imports in 2019 are also projected to be larger than a year earlier for Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, EU, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, Mali, Senegal, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

“Global rice consumption (including a residual component) in 2018/19 is projected at a record 488.4 million tons, down 0.1 million tons from the previous forecast but up more than 1 percent from a year earlier.”

Audu Ogbeh, the minister of agriculture and rural development,  had earlier warned that the country may experience rice shortage if appropriate measures are not taken to replant after the recent flood.

States like Jigawa, Kebbi, Anambra and Kogi had experienced floods that resulted in farming losses.

The Buhari-led administration had said it would end dependence on imported rice and the Central Bank of Nigeria supported the move by restricting forex for rice importation and the Anchor Borrowers Programme.

- TheCable

EFCC arrests 24 undergraduates, others over cyber crime

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Ibadan has arrested 36 suspected internet fraudsters at 21, Sawmill Road, Awa-Ijebu, Ogun State.

The commission’s acting Head, Media and Publicity, Mr Tony Orilade, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.

Orilade stated that the suspects, who were between 19 and 37 years of age, included 23 university students, out of which, nine were ladies who allegedly claimed to be girlfriends and or neighbours of some of the suspects.

He added that one of the suspects was from another university, while 12 others were not students.

He stated that EFCC got wind of their activities through intelligence reports alleging that the suspected fraudsters were obtaining money by false pretext.

He said, “the suspects carry out their activities by sending emails to unsuspecting victims mostly in the United States of America, while others were engaged in romance scam on several dating sites.

“At the point of arrest, EFCC operatives recovered over 300 SIM cards from them.”

Orilade said other items recovered from the suspects included different models and brands of exotic cars, 18 laptops, nine being of Apple brand, 50 cell phone, including 21 iphones and two bags of fetish objects.

The media and publicity acting head said that the suspects would be charged to court after investigation.

- PM News

Three Soldiers killed, many missing as Boko Haram attacks military base

At least three soldiers were killed and several missing after a Boko Haram attack on a military base in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, military and militia sources have said.

Boko Haram fighters believed to be from the IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province late Wednesday attacked the base in the town of Kareto, 150 kilometres (about 90 miles) north of the state capital Maiduguri, AFP reports.

The militants temporarily dislodged troops from the base before being repelled with aerial support, the sources said.

“We lost three soldiers in the fight and several others are still missing,” a military officer in Maiduguri told AFP.

“The terrorists were smoked out of the base by a fighter jet which deployed to the scene,” said the officer who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the incident.

Troop reinforcements were sent to the base, the officer said. It was not clear if the jihadists took away weapons.

A civilian militia fighting Boko Haram in the area said troops withdrew to the town of Gubio, 60 km away, while Kareto residents fled across the border into Niger.

“The bodies of three soldiers were recovered after the attack,” said the militia who preferred not to be identified.

“More troops have arrived in Kareto but most residents have not returned,” he said.

It was the second attack on the military base in two years.

In April 2016, a Boko Haram raid left 24 soldiers wounded, according to military authorities.

Boko Haram jihadists late Wednesday also attacked Mammanti village, just outside Maiduguri, killing one person and burning the entire village before stealing hundreds of cattle, the local chief of the village and residents said.

“The insurgents came around 11:00 pm (2200 GMT) and opened indiscriminate fire,” Muhammad Mammanti, a resident, said.

“They killed one person and burnt the whole village and stole our cattle,” Mammanti said.

Earlier in the day a group of jihadists abducted seven women while working on a farm near the town of Bama, 70 km from Maiduguri, after killing their male escort, militia sources said.

Boko Haram has stepped up attacks on farmers and loggers in recent years, accusing them of passing information on the group to the military.

Despite the government’s insistence that the group is near defeat, Boko Haram has recently carried out major attacks on military and civilian targets, killing scores.

More than 27,000 people have died since the start of the insurgency in the remote northeast in 2009 and 1.8 million are still homeless.

- PM News

Police deny conveying cash with helicopter in Kwara but photos show otherwise

The police have denied conveying money with helicopter to Kwara state for APC candidate. Fine, but this picture is portraying another thing. So, who is lying, the police or the photograph?

Somebody also tweeted about the mysterious helicopter delivering cash to a candidate. Read:”This evening an helicopter belonging to @PoliceNG landed at the St Paul’s Primary School, Omu-Aran in Kwara South & off-loaded cash into a vehicle belonging to Mr. Tunji Ajuloopin, the APC candidate for the by-election in Ekiti/Irepodun/Isin/Oke-ero Federal Constituency”

Police denied the story.

The Nigeria Police Force has denied that its helicopter and vehicle were used to convey cash as claimed in some social media reports.

Some social media reports had alleged that a helicopter belonging to the force landed at St. Paul Primary School, Omuaran, Kwara to off load cash into a vehicle belonging to Mr Tunji Ajuloopin, the APC candidate for the Nov. 17 by-election in the state.

A statement by the force spokesman, acting DCP Jimoh Moshood on Thursday in Abuja, said the helicopters were deployed for surveillance and airlift of officers in the Saturday Ekiti/Irepodun/Oke-Federal Constituency by-election.

He implored the public and the media to disregard and discountenance the publication.

Moshood said that the police helicopter and vehicle in the picture being circulated were not used to convey any cash and the vehicle does not belong to Ajuloopin as claimed.

He emphasized that the helicopters were deployed for surveillance patrols and support services to ensure secure environment during the by-election.

The spokesman urged the public to discountenance the report which he described as a deliberate blackmail to misinform the public.

“The renewed commitment of the Nigeria Police Force to ensure adequate security for a free, fair and credible election in the country remains unwavering,” he said. 

- PM News

Four family members die after `Amala’ meal

Four members of a family in Ilorin were found dead after the consumption of `amala’ meal (cassava flour), suspected to be poisonous.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that four others who took from the meal, had also been hospitalised at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH).

The incident happened at Magaji-Ogo community behind Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies, in Ilorin West Local Government Area.

A source told NAN that the victims took the meal on Sunday night before three of them were found dead the following morning.

According to him, the fourth casualty, who was the head of the family, died on Wednesday.

“Those feared dead are the family head, his sister and two children, while those recuperating in the hospital are the mother and three other children.

“The corpses of the deceased had been buried in accordance with Islamic rite. They were eight that took the meal.

“Though we are not sure yet of the cause of death, the meal was taken alongside amphibian and there is a suspicion that they died of poisoning.

“Officials from the state Ministry of Health were in the community to take samples of the meal for test but nothing was yet to be said of the findings,’’ the source said.

The family, NAN learnt, is an extension of the Histrict Head of Adewole, popularly known as Alangua Adewole in Ilorin.

Meanwhile, Dr Oluwatosin Fakayode, Director, Public Health and Disease Control in the state Ministry of Health, confirmed the incident.

He, however, said that the ministry was yet to identify the cause of the “ugly and unfortunate occurrence.”

Fakayode told NAN that samples from the meal were taken for laboratory investigation, which would be out within the next 24 hours.

“As it stands, it is difficult to say the cause until the result is out.

“However, we are definite that it is food poison because of the symptoms, but we are not sure of the food item that is culpable.

“We learnt they took these amphibian that they hawk around with it. So we are not sure if it is the source of the death because some of them are poisonous.

“Though we have not identified the culprit in terms of whether it is organism or chemical, definitely, it is a symptom of food poison.

“But our suspicion is the amphibian. It could be preservatives that were used on the items that were used for the meal,’’ he said.

When a NAN correspondent sought confirmation of the Police in Kwara on the incident, its spokesman, DSP Ajayi Okasanmi, said the command was not aware of the incident.

- PM News