ICPC: Nigeria loses $10bn to illicit financial flows annually

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) says Nigeria loses $10 billion to illicit financial flows (IFFs) every year.

According to Bolaji Owasanoye, the ICPC chairman, this figure represents 20 percent of the $50 billion that Africa is losing to IFFs.

Owasanoye, ICPC chairman, was speaking at a virtual meeting to review the report on IFFs in relation to tax on Wednesday.

He explained that taxation plays a crucial role in the country’s political economy.

“The African Union illicit financial flow report estimated that Africa is losing nearly $50 billion through profit shifting by multinational corporations and about 20 percent of this figure is from Nigeria alone,” he said.

“Taxes play a very strategic role in the nation’s political economy and a very crucial focus in curbing illicit fund flows and ease of doing business in Nigeria.”

Owasanoye said the objective of the virtual meeting was to improve awareness of IFFs, especially in areas of taxation.

In his remarks, Muhammad Nani, executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), expressed concerns that IFFs pose a serious threat to the Nigerian economy as the act robs the nation of resources that are needed for development.

Nami said tackling IFFs would expand the country’s tax base and improve revenue generation which was required for the development.

The commission also urged all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), as well as the organised private sector to work together to help curb the estimated $10 billion IFFs out of the country.

- THECABLE

Father, children arrested for alleged kidnapping in Ogun

 

The police in Ogun State said it has arrested a “kidnap syndicate made up of members of the same family.”

Their arrest, DAILY POST learnt, was sequel to many kidnapping cases within Sagamu and its environs in 2020.

The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Edward Ajogun, had given an order to the Area Commander and all the DPOs in Sagamu to fish out those behind the dastardly act within the shortest possible period.

In compliance with the directive, the DPO of Sagamu division, CSP Okiki Agunbiade, his crack detectives with the support of Sagamu Security Council under the Akarigbo of Remo land, embarked on an intelligence and technical based investigation, leading to the arrest of one Oweniwe Okpara from Delta State and three of his children – Samson Okpara, Bright Okpara and Eze Okpara.

It also led to the apprehension of one Christian Ishaha who had accommodated them.

The Ogun State Police Spokesperson, Abimbola Oyeyemi, told DAILY POST on Friday that the suspects were all arrested in Ajaka area of Sagamu for their roles in the kidnap of eight persons at different times.

“In the course of investigation, it was discovered that three other members of the family constituting the criminal gang namely; Godwin Okpara, Godspower Okpara and Mathew Okpara are the armed squad of the syndicate, while Samson, Bright and Eze Okpara were the ones spying on their targeted victims.

“One Emmanuel Joseph, a native of Ebele in Edo State was later recruited into the fold, having confronted their sister, Eze Okpara to tell him the source of money they count every day. They subsequently opened up to him that they were into kidnapping business, and he also joined them,” Oyeyemi said.

Some victims of the suspected kidnappers, Oyeyemi disclosed, are Okechukwu Onwubiko, who was kidnapped on June 4, 2019; Omotayo Sobowale, kidnapped on June 16, 2020 and Lamidi Akeem, abducted by the same gang on July 20, 2020.

“On the 3rd of November 2020, the gang kidnapped one Mrs. Areoye Olufunke, and barely a week after, on the 11th of November 2020, they abducted one Mrs. Adijat Adeleye and Ashaye Olayinka Tobi was also kidnapped on the 12th of November by this dreaded gang.

“Having heard about the arrest of their father and their three siblings, Godwin, Godspower and Mathew Okpara ran to Delta State with their operational car and their arms, where they were subsequently apprehended by the Delta State police command after carrying out another kidnapping there.

“Their camp locating in a forest near Ayepe-ijebu where their father used to farm before converting it to a camp was located by policemen led by the DPO of Sagamu and subsequently destroyed,” it was said.

- DAILY POST

Varsity graduate bags 24 months imprisonment over love scam

 

A 25-year-old graduate, Olawale Oladayo, was on Thursday, March 4, 2021, sentenced to 24 months imprisonment by Justice Mahmood Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin, over offences bordering on love scam and internet fraud.

Olawale, a graduate of Quantity, was prosecuted on a four-count charge by the Ilorin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Count one of the charges against him reads: “That you, Olawale Oladayo, sometime in July 2020, at Ilorin, within the Judicial Division of the High Court, did cheat by personation, while acting as a white female, named Zenith Beuty Yart with Gmail account, zenithbeutyat@gmail.com, and in that guise induced one Liu Minghao to send you the sum of $300.00 (Three Hundred USD) vide eBay Gift Card and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code”.

Oladayo, who was arraigned on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, pleaded ‘guilty’ to the charge preferred against him by the anti-graft agency.

Following his plea, the prosecuting counsel, Andrew Akoja, invited to the witness box one Detective Musa Sanni, an investigator with the EFCC to review the facts of the case.

Sanni in his evidence-in-chief narrated how a petition by some citizens of Offa on the activities of fraudsters in the area was assigned to his Section. According to him, the defendant was arrested on September 15, 2020. Upon arrest, a search was executed in his house where items including phones, laptops and Honda Accord car were recovered.

He also tendered several fraudulent messages printed out from the defendant’s email, which the court admitted in evidence.

In a well-considered judgment, Justice Abdulgafar found Oladayo guilty and sentenced him to six months imprisonment on each of the four counts.

“The sentences, which would run concurrently is however suspended till after two years”, the judge added

The court also ordered the convict to pay the sum of $375.00 (Three Hundred and Seventy-Five United States Dollars) to one Liu Minghao, $200.00 (Two Hundred United States Dollars) to one Johnny Soxnard and $75.00 (Seventy Five United States Dollars) to one John Tran as restitution.

The Judge further ordered that the convict’s phone and laptop which he used as instruments in perpetrating the crime be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The convict is ordered to be reporting at the EFCC Office once every month.

- PM NEWS

We cant review constituencies without a new population census – INEC replies Reps

 

 The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained why it shied away from creating new Senatorial Districts and constituencies.

INEC in a statement blamed the lack of population census for not reviewing the existing constituencies.

The Commission in a statement by Festus Okoye, Chairman Information and Voters Education Committee disclosed this on Friday.

DAILY POST had reported that the House of Representatives tasked INEC to review the electoral act.

The Commission said it would be hard to review the constituencies without a population census since Nigeria had its last census in 2006.

“The Constitution also provides that the Commission may embark on revision and adjustment after a national census, creation of states or by an Act of the National Assembly [Section 73 (2}].

“None of these conditions actually exists at the moment. The last population census was conducted in 2006, about fifteen years ago.

The Commission feels that revising or altering constituencies based on 15-year-old population data is inappropriate because the well-known rapidity of population changes in Nigeria would make nonsense of any outcome.

- DAILY POST

Amotekun arrest 2 suspected gay men in Ondo

 

Ondo State Security Network, Amotekun Corps have arrested two men caught having sex.

The duo, Seyi Balogun aka Amunidara, 42, and Tosin Arifalo,18, were arrested at Kajola in Ijoka area of Akure.

Meanwhile, the gay partners accused their significant other of luring them into having sex. Speaking to newsmen, Balogun, a native of Isua Akoko, claimed that it was Tosin that lured him into the act.

“I was never into it before, it was Tosin that came to me saying he loved me. I don’t like the homosexual act, he seduced me, he lured me into it. He threatened me that I have to obey him when I told him to give me rest of my mind.

”Since then, we have been having sex together. What I can say is that the devil caused it, and I have warned him not to come to my house again,” he said.

However, Tosin from Iro in Akure, said he was lured by Balogun into having sex with him three times.

Tosin explained that anytime Balogun wanted to have sex with him, he would take him to his house at Kajola in Ijoka. Also that Balogun introduced him to one of his friends, Olojijo, who had sex with him many times.

Both men have been handed over to the Ondo Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps for investigation and prosecution.

- PM NEWS

Army officer ‘supplying ammunition and uniform to bandits’ arrested in Zamfara

Zamfara government says an officer of the Nigerian Army supplying ammunition and uniforms to bandits has been arrested in the state. 

The bandits terrorising the state are often seen in military fatigues. 

At a press conference on Friday, Bashir Maru, deputy chief of staff to Bello Matawalle, governor of the state, said the military arrested the officer alongside his girlfriend, following community driven-intelligence. 

“The military recently arrested an army officer and his girlfriend who were engaged in assisting bandits with military uniforms and ammunition in active connivance with other saboteurs. This arrest was only made possible through community-driven intelligence,” he said.

“While the state government awaits the action the military will take on this matter and make an official statement, the development has further proved the position of Governor Bello Mohammed that unless the fight against banditry is cleansed of bad eggs and saboteurs, we may not record the desired success in the fight.

“Let me use this medium to salute the courage and patriotism of the individual who came forward with information that led to the arrest of these traitors. Our gratitude knows no bounds.” 

Mohammed Yerima, army spokesperson, was not immediately available to comment on the arrest. 

In February, hundreds of schoolgirls were kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Talatu-Mafara LGA by bandits. The girls were released about 10 days after their abduction. 

- DAILY POST

COVID-19: NAFDAC certifies AstraZeneca vaccines safe for use in Nigeria

 The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has certified AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine safe for use in Nigeria.

Dr Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of Health, made this known on Friday at an event held at the National Hospital in Abuja.

Ehanire explained that the government agency cleared the vaccine for use in Nigeria after NAFDAC concluded its final test on it.

Ehanire said, “The long-awaited day is here on which Nigerians can now join others in the global community to be vaccinated against the dreaded COVID-19 virus.

“For us in the health sector, it is a relief and the marking of the start of a tedious but hopeful exercise to see our fellow citizens develop immunity against this virus.”

He added, “I am also relieved again to announce that at 12 minutes past midnight today (Friday), I got a text message informing me that NAFDAC has certified this vaccine for use, otherwise, we will not be sitting here today.”

Recall that Nigeria, on Tuesday, received 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and shipped via the COVAX facility.

- DAILY POST