LOOTING PLATFORM !! Why we cannot expose Boko Haram sponsors – Nigerian Army

The Nigerian Army has said it is not their duty to expose those sponsoring Boko Haram in the country.

Coordinator of Defence Media Operations, John Enenche, stated this at a media briefing on Thursday.

Enenche admitted that the Army knows that some criminal groups have heavy financial backing, but its major task is to fight “terrorism and other criminality”.

He explained that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Department of State Services (DSS) were responsible for revealing the sponsors.

“It is not the duty of the military to uncover the sponsors.

“Our duty is to remain in the frontline and defeat terrorism and other criminality and that is what we are doing.

“We have the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Department of State Security (DSS). It is their responsibility to gather intelligence on the sponsors of the terrorists and not the military,” Enenche maintained.

- DAILY POST

Nigerian stars sign deals with Chelsea

Chelsea has announced their new intake of academy scholars, with three Nigerian starlets making the cut.

According to a statement on the club’s website, they are goalkeepers Kelechi Chibueze and Prince Adegoke as well as defender Derick Abu.

They have all been offered scholarships for the 2020/2021 season.

The three Nigerians signed their contracts in a socially-distanced signing session at Cobham this week.

“All players in their Under-17 year are required to start the season on a scholarship agreement before they are permitted to sign a first professional football contract on or after their 17th birthday,” part of the statement read.

Only Adegoke, 16, has been officially invited to train with the Golden Eaglet.

However, he could not travel because of the club and educational commitments.

Abu, Adegoke and Chibueze have been promoted to Chelsea under-18 squad for the 2020/2021 campaign.

- DAILY POST

Court orders interim forfeiture of 48 properties ‘linked to’ ex-NSITF chair

A federal high court sitting in Abuja has ordered the interim forfeiture of 48 properties allegedly owned by Ngozi Olejeme, former chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

Taiwo Taiwo, the judge, gave the order during the sitting on Wednesday.

The affected properties are located in the federal capital territory (FCT), Abuja, Bayelsa, Enugu, Edo and Delta states.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had declared Olejeme wanted in September 2017 over allegations of “criminal conspiracy, abuse of office, diversion of public funds and money laundering”.

She was “alleged to have, along with Mr Umar Munir Abubakar, the former Managing Director of NSITF, mismanaged and diverted well over N69billion government funds into their personal accounts through the award of suspicious and bogus contracts to proxy companies”.

According to a statement by the EFCC on Wednesday, the forfeiture order was granted after Ekele Iheanacho, counsel to the commission, proved to the court that the affected properties were purchased with proceeds of crime.

“He buttressed his position with 14 exhibits attached to his affidavit, filed on May 29, 2020,” it read.

“In granting the application, Justice Taiwo ruled that the interim order should be published in a leading newspaper within seven days of receipt of the order, and for any interested party to show cause within 14 days as to why the properties should not be permanently forfeited to the federal government.”

The matter was thereafter adjourned till July 27, 2020.

- THECABLE

Reps ask Army to release wife of Soldier who spoke out against Security chiefs

The House of Representatives has mandated its Security-Related Committees to interface with the Nigerian Army to ensure the release of the wife of Lance Corporal Martins Idakpani, Victoria Idakpani.

Lance Corporal Martins appeared in a viral video criticizing the Security Chiefs over the handling of the fight against insurgents and other armed groups in the north.

The soldier was earlier arrested but his wife was reportedly arrested while making attempts to secure the release of her husband.

The move to secure her release followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by the Minority Leader of the House, Ndudi Elumelu.

Mr. Elumelu in his motion condemned the action of the military, he noted that the decision to detain Mrs. Idakpani contradicts the constitution and called for her immediate release.

“An Army Lance Corporal recently spoke out on issues pertaining to the northeast, and he alleged that he has information about how Nigerian funds are being wasted all in the name of fighting insurgence. The wife was arrested when she attempted to plead for the release of her husband.

“On 22nd of June, Lance Corporal Martins Idakpani from the 8th division, Sokoto made an online video, wherein he condemned the attitude of the Security Chiefs towards the incessant attacks and killings of innocent Nigerians by Boko Haram and other armed groups in the northern part of the country.

“In the same video, he mentioned that the nation’s Security Chiefs have failed Nigerians in their duties to protect the country by not showing any serious commitment towards the fight against these continuous attacks,” Elumelu said.

Elumelu, therefore, expressed concerns that “instead of the Security Chiefs to buckle up after seeing the video, the Chief of Army Staff ordered the arrest of the Corporal for speaking up against the army authority.”

He explained that the action of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai contradicts section 122 sub 6 of the Armed forces act.

“Although section 121 of the armed forces act grants the military the administrative powers to arrest its personnel, however, Section 122 sub 6 provides that such personnel is entitled to immediate release unless the release will affect National Security and the Lance Corporal has not proven to be any of them.

“Even though section 122 forbids the army from perpetually detaining any military officer, Lance Corporal Idakpani has been in detention since, and his wife who tried to secure his release has also been detained. This is an affront to chapter 4 of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic.

“The military are in a habit of this illegal and unconstitutional detention of soldiers whenever they ask that the right thing be done. If this trend is left unchecked, it may become a serious menace and that can fan the embers of our young democracy for the wrong reasons, hence the need for urgent intervention,” he said.

- DAILY POST

LIKE KOGI LIKE C/RIVER !! No COVID-19 infection in Cross River, Ayade insists

Cross River Gov. Ben Ayade has insisted that his state has no COVID-19 case, saying he has nothing to gain from hiding cases of infection if they exist.

Ayade made this disclosure while briefing journalists and members of the state COVID-19 Response Team at the Government House, Calabar on Thursday.

“If you have the virus and pretend not to have it, you will only have mass deaths in your state,” he said.

He lauded the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for insisting that only Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test can confirm a positive case of COVID-19 in spite of pressures from different quarters.

“As a state, we were the first to lockdown our boundaries. Records have it that Cross River is the only state that invested over 100 vehicles for effective manning of its boundaries and we even went beyond that by producing face masks, shields and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

“So for some people to doubt the credibility of our COVID-19 free status is to imply that all the efforts of the state were not noticed.

“At this point, the state has been handed over to the Federal Government; all our boundaries are now opened, following the lifting of the ban on inter-state movement by the federal government.

“Residents of the state must know that we no longer have control over our boundaries, we have surrendered to the supremacy of the federal government and opened our boundaries,” Ayade said.

According to him, ”Cross River that is COVID-19 free will now have an avalanche of cases, I see it coming, therefore, with this message, it means our response team would be back on the road because as long as our boundaries are opened, our eyes will be open.

“So, as a resident of the state, if you think by easing lockdown, you are now safer, no, now you are more in danger, this is the time for you to commence a personal lockdown.”

Ayade, however, thanked the Federal Ministry of Health and NCDC for being worthy examples, playing a professional and technical role and giving a world class response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.

Dr Betta Edu, Chairman of the COVID-19 Response Team, thanked all the government appointees who came all out and helped in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Edu also commended officials of the state’s Garment factory who were exceptional in the production of face masks, shields and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the governor also gave a cash donation of N30 million to the state COVID-19 Response Team in appreciation of its efforts in the fight against the virus in the state.

- PM NEWS

Sneezing onboard will be treated as COVID-19, says Aero boss

Ado Sanusi, the chief executive officer of Aero Contractors, has advised intending passengers who have a cold or malaria not to come to the airport.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a programme on Channels TV on Thursday, Sanusi said passengers who are seen sneezing on the aeroplane will be isolated and treated as potential COVID-19 patients.

“I will like to point out that if you have malaria or a common cold, do not come to the airport because there is a high possibility that you are going to be denied boarding,” he said.

“This is the new normal that we are going to see.

“The main thing for the airlines is to make sure that the aeroplanes are safe and that is what we’re doing and that’s why we still believe that air transportation is the safest way to travel.

“So if we see anybody sneezing, we will take him as an index passenger, we are not going to he/she has allergies. We are going to take the person as index passenger till we have handed them over to port health officials. They will be the ones to determine if he is allergic or has COVID-19.”

Sanusi said the airline has made arrangements to isolate suspected cases to ensure the safety of all passengers.

Speaking further, he said passengers who present a doctor’s report stating that they have malaria will not be allowed to board the aeroplane.

“My airline will not allow a passenger that comes with a doctor’s report saying he has malaria I would rather that he comes with a COVID-19 test result that he is free which is only valid for four days,” he said.

“If you have malaria, please sit at home and when you get better, you can travel.”

Addressing speculations that middle seats would be left empty, Sanusi said the airline would only take a decision based on data-driven and backed by science.

“If we have data that shows that if we block the centre seats, it will reduce the rate of transmission then we will do that and increase the flight costs because somebody must pay for the centre seats.,” he explained.

The airline boss also said the airline would no longer serve in-flight meals as passengers would have to remove their face masks to eat such.

“There won’t be serving of food because that will increase the number of times you will be contacting passengers and then the passengers would be removing their face masks to eat the food so I think it is not the best,” he explained.

“It is a one hour flight. It is only in Nigeria that we serve food for a one-hour flight. Go anywhere in the world and you will see that hot meals are not served on one-hour flights.”

Hadi Sirika, the minister for aviation, announced on Wednesday that domestic flight operations will resume at the Lagos and Abuja airports on July 8.

- THECABLE

Hushpuppi and crime partner extradited to US

The police in Dubai has extradited Raymond Igbalode Abbas, an Instagram celebrity better known as Hushpuppi, from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the United States.

The security outfit took to its social media page to break the news on Thursday.

In a statement, the Dubai police said the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) extended its gratitude to the UAE crime unit for its role in apprehending and extraditing the internet personality.

“The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Christopher Wray has praised the exceptional efforts exerted by the United Arab Emirate, represented by the Dubai Police General HQ, in combating transnational organised cybercrime including the recent arrest of Raymond Igbalode Abbas, known as “Hushpuppi” and Olalekan Jacob Ponle aka “Woodberry” who were taken down in operation Fox Hunt 2,” the statement read.'

“Mr Wray also extended his appreciations to Dubai Police for their cooperation in extraditing the wanted criminals, who committed money-laundering and multiple cybercrimes, to the United States.”

TheCable Lifestyle had last month reported how Hushpuppi was arrested alongside his associates of 11 other Nigerians, including Olalekan Ponle, better known as Woodbery.

The suspects were apprehended on June 10, for alleged crimes committed outside the UAE, including money laundering, cyber fraud, hacking, impersonation, scamming individuals, banking fraud and identity theft worth Dh1.6 billion (an estimated N168 billion).

It is also understood that about 1,926,400 victims were targeted by the syndicate.

Their arrest followed an intense tracking by a special operation dubbed “Fox Hunt 2”, in an investigation that took less than four months and prompted a series of synchronised raids by the police on the suspects’ different residences while they were asleep.

Hushpuppi’s extradition also comes at about the same time when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) described him as “Nigeria’s most-wanted hacker,“ adding that “he has a case to answer”.

- THECABLE

400 suspected robbers, kidnappers arrested in Lagos

Police in Lagos on Wednesday announced the arrest of about 400 crime suspects, among whom were 97 robbers, kidnappers, rapists and murderers.

Lagos State Commissioner of Police Hakeem Odumosu, who paraded the suspects on Wednesday said the arrests were made in one month.

Twenty-eight persons were arrested for domestic violence and while nine suspects were arrested for specialising in defrauding people through fake US dollars peddling.

The suspected fraudsters, according to the police, were arrested with fetish boxes and operational vehicles.

Police recovered six stolen vehicles, 19 assorted firearms with a cache of ammunition, cutlasses, axes, and other dangerous weapons, including fetish objects from the suspects.

Odumosu gave the statistics at the command headquarters in Ikeja while parading some of the suspects arrested within the period.

The CP disclosed that a suspected armed robber was killed by operatives, 28 armed robbery attempts were foiled, six suicide cases recorded and four people stopped from killing themselves.

He said operatives intercepted N150 million worth illicit substance including 328 bags of dry leaves suspected to be Marijuana.

- PM NEWS