The African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, on Thursday knocked his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi for expressing surprise at the incessant collapse of the country’s national grid.
Nigeria’s power grid collapsed again on Wednesday, as it crashed from the 3,921.8 megawatts generated at 6am to as low as 50MW around 12.23pm, causing a widespread blackout across the country.

Industry figures obtained from the Federal Ministry of Power in Abuja showed that power generation on the grid had hit a peak of 4,091.6MW on Tuesday.
But this dropped to 3,921.8MW on Wednesday morning, before crashing to about 50MW, a development that led to the eventual collapse of the national electricity grid.
Wednesday's collapse of the national grid was the sixth time the country would experience such an occurrence this year. 
However, Obi, whose tweet on Thursday, about the issue came over 24 hours late, blamed the frequent collapse of the national grid on the government.
“Reports that the national power grid has collapsed for the 6th time in 7 months is alarming. Once again, many Nigerians have been left grope around in darkness without electricity,” he had tweeted.
“Such negative parameters are not only benchmarks for governance failure but a compelling catalyst for leadership change.
“Moreover, in a nation where many go the bed hungry, and national bakers going on strike is indicative of the high-stress level in both the productive realm of our economy and quality of life.”
But reacting to Obi’s post, Sowore asked him to stop pretending as he was once an adviser to a sitting President, Goodluck Jonathan who led the country for about six years.
He said, “What a puerile response? 
‪@PeterObi‬ served as an adviser to ‪@GEJonathan @OfficialPDPNig‬
 govt & the electricity situation didn’t improve, recently you traveled to Egypt to “learn” how their electricity works. Didn’t you learn anything? Why pretending that you just found out now?”
Sowore on Wednesday also berated a former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar over his reaction to the National Grid collapse.
Atiku on Wednesday after it was announced that the National Grid had collapsed for the 6th time posted on his verified Twitter page, his displeasure over the repeated collapse of the grid that has continued to throw Nigerians into darkness.
Among other things he said on the thread, Atiku had noted, “I am reliably informed that there was a total National Grid Collapse at precisely 12:23pm today. This is one collapse too many. It is the 6th time this is happening this year alone.”
Reacting to Atiku’s tweet, Sowore said, “The National Electrical grid collapse started when you and Obasanjo invested $16 billion to procure darkness for Nigeria, the @MBuhari regime came to gazette grid collapse as a law.
“Alhaji @atiku, don't pretend that you care about the National Grid!”
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been accused of spending $16 billion on the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) to increase Nigeria’s power generation to 10,000 megawatts.
 
However, when President Muhammadu Buhari came to power and vowed to probe the alleged $16 billion investment in the national power sector, Obasanjo denied the allegation, describing it as “incorrect information based on ignorance.”
 
The House of Representatives had in 2008 described the alleged $16 billion spent on power projects between 1999 and 2007 as “a colossal waste.”

Civil Society groups including SERAP had called for a probe of the funds but in a statement by the Media Aide to the former President, Kehinde Akinyemi, published by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Obasanjo denied the allegation. 

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Hope Uzodinma
Hope Uzodinma

The South-East socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has described as a sacrilege, an attempt by Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State to cover up the killing of 14 wedding guests in the Otulu area of the state on Sunday by operatives of the state-owned Security Network codenamed Ebubeagu.
The group which condemned the killing of the 14 young men in strongest terms said that everyone who was involved in any attempt to cover up the crime would never escape the laws of natural justice and God's retribution.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo in a statement by its Secretary-General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, called for an immediate disbandment of Ebubeagu security outfit and demanded that the federal government of Nigeria should lead a forensic investigation into the matter to bring the perpetrators to face the full wrath of the law.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide has condemned in strong words, the killing of wedding guests from the Otulu community in Oru East of Imo state, and the attempts by those who went awry to cover up their misdeeds without decent investigation over the killings will never escape the laws of natural justice and God's retribution.
“Ndigbo is inquisitive in unraveling the circumstances and mystery surrounding the unfortunate killing of seven wedding guests as confirmed by the Otulu Community President General, as the identity of those killed has been identified by the community leader, Nnamdi Agbor, if the issues are not properly handled by Federal Government it might lead to the total breakdown of law and order in the southeast, this carnage should not be allowed to be swept under the carpet, as there were reckless endeavors to cover up the issues with the aid of security reports to confuse Nigerians.
“Ndigbo calls for a forensic investigation (led by the Federal Government) into the killings of the Otulu wedding guests from Oru East of Imo State and President Buhari's intervention is expected to help in assuaging the bitterness of Ndigbo over the tragic incident.
“Ohanaeze calls for the disbandment of Ebubeagu security outfit Imo State chapter, as they have turned into a killer squad that had outlived its usefulness, instead of serving the purpose of which they were established as an intelligence gathering organization for the society, they have become a pro bandit and state-sponsored terror groups.
“Ndigbo has handed over the tragic incident and the Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State to Almighty God and Igbo deities, for prosecution and actions.
“We are committed to any lasting measures that the security agencies will employ to curb the insecurity challenges in the southeast, but it's a sacrilege for anyone to use security reports to exonerate those responsible for the gruesome slayings of Otulu community's wedding guests, whose identities are known, a time of reckoning is imminent, we call for calm in Oru East and West LGAs of Imo State and President Buhari's intervention is what Ndigbo is looking forward to beholding,” Ohanaeze Ndigbo stated.

 

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File photo used to illustrate story.

Gunmen suspected to be bandits have killed four mobile policemen and three civilians at Gatikawa community, Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State.
SaharaReporters gathered that the incident occurred on Wednesday evening.

The policemen stationed at a checkpoint in the community were on special duty from Kano State Command.
Katsina, despite being the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, has witnessed sporadic attacks by bandits and kidnappers that have claimed the lives of many.
Over 2000 people have been reportedly killed by the gunmen in Jibia, Kankara, Dutsinma, Musawa, Danmusa and Safana local government areas of the state in the last one year.
The latest incident is coming a few weeks after terrorists killed the Area Commander of the Dutsin Ma Police Area command in the state, Aminu Umar.
Umar, an Assistant Police Commissioner, was killed alongside one other officer.

Insecurity News AddThis :  Original Author :  Sahara Reporters, New york. Disable advertisements : 

The United States’ Congress passed a bill on Thursday to safeguard access to contraceptives, less than a month after the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said the bench should overturn the landmark case protecting forms of birth control.
The legislation, titled the Right to Contraception Act, passed in a 228-195 vote.

Eight Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the measure, and two Republicans voted present.
This was also announced by a member of the Democratic Party, Ilhan Abdullahi Omar via her social media on Thursday.
"The Right to Contraception Act just passed the House! This bill will protect the right to birth control nationwide by enshrining this right into federal law," she said.
It remains unclear if the bill will garner the GOP votes it needs to clear the evenly divided Senate.
The measure seeks to codify access to contraceptives on the federal level, allowing individuals to obtain and use birth control and safeguarding a health care provider’s ability to supply such products.
The right to use contraceptives would be inscribed into law under a measure that Democrats pushed through the House on Thursday, their latest campaign-season response to concerns a conservative Supreme Court that already erased federal abortion rights could go further.
SaharaReporters had reported that at least 16 Democratic members of the Congress on Tuesday were arrested during an abortion-rights protest in Washington, D.C., including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
This was announced by the U.S. Capitol Police announced on Twitter on Tuesday.

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A Federal High Court sitting in Yola, Adamawa State, on Thursday ordered substituted service on the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and two others in a case of alleged violation of human rights, involving unlawful detention.
The two other entities are; the Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Comptroller General of Nigeria Correctional Services.

Justice Abdul-aziz Anka of the Federal High Court Yola, granted the order in response to an application filed on behalf of 15 applicants by their lawyer, Lionard Nzadon.
The applicants are; Adamu Eli, Edan Andrawus, Dimliura Akila, James Na'abi, Amos Tafida, Usman Saudi, Munriura Amos, Shehu Audu, Godwin Umar, Sumobiu Yakubu, Gaman Yoyila, Stanley Kongo, Oliver Haniel and two others.
In the application, the applicants claimed that their fundamental right to freedom was violated by the AGF on whose directives they were illegally arrested by operatives of DSS and subsequently remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja.
SaharaReporters gathered that the applicants are among 44 persons tried and discharged by Justice Anka on June 8, 2022, but were bizarrely rearrested, moved to Abuja and incarcerated at the Kuje prison.
As further gathered, they were detained for eight years, tried for five years on alleged illegal possession of firearms without substantial evidence, according to the trial judge, Justice Anka; who consequently discharged them.
Before discharging them after ruling on “a no case submission,” Justice Anka held that the prosecution failed to diligently prosecute by calling only three witnesses, as against what contains in their list of witnesses submitted to the court, according one of their lawyer, Daniel Danladi.
However, just after passing his judgement, operatives of DSS stormed the court to forcibly take them into custody against the law.
"The prosecution knowing what the outcome of the ruling on our 'no case submission' will be like, they filed another case, charged the same people standing trial; which is an abuse of court process, because you cannot stand trial in two cases having the same elements, the same ingredients. In law this amounts to double jeopardy.
"So they arranged with the DSS and laid a siege to the court to forcibly take them from court so that they can stand another trial.
"Now the position of the law is very clear, DSS are not supposed to be involved in this kind of case. They're not in any way made for this kind of arrest. But it seems they were getting orders from above; I learnt that it was on the orders of the Attorney General of the Federation (Abubakar Malami)", Danladi told Saharareporters.
The DSS allegedly obtained a fraudulent warrant of detention from an incompetent court of jurisdiction, Upper Area Court IV, presided by Magistrate Ibrahim Wulanda.
"Normally the practice is that you don't obtain a warrant to further detain a suspect without presenting them in court. In this case the magistrate who granted the warrant later said he was manipulated or misled.
"He regretted his action, maybe he was influenced by the DSS. I learnt the magistrate said they got the order without giving him full details of the matter", Barr Danladi said.
The applicants, who are currently locked up in Kuje prison, were part of the inmates who escaped after the facility was attacked by terrorists recently.
SaharaReporters, had on July 7, 2022, reported that one of the inmates who fled Kuje Correctional Centre after the prison facility was attacked Tuesday night had spoken about the attack; how the inmates were freed by terrorists and why he decided to turn himself in.
"So immediately after now, we'll be going back to Kuje because we know we're innocent of the charges brought against us and we have confidence in the justice system; we'll be vindicated at the end of the trial", Eli had said.
Eli and 14 fellow applicants had filed an application seeking the enforcement of their fundamental right to freedom at federal High Court in Yola.
Justice Anka who grated the substituted service order, fixed September 26, 2022 for hearing of the application.

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The Russian government has dispelled rumours about the wellbeing of its President, Vladimir Putin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, on Thursday, stated that the Russian leader is in good health contrary to the speculations of ill-health, RT reported.

Peskov said, “Ukrainian, US, and British would-be media professionals have been spreading bogus stories about the president’s health condition in recent months. This is all hoax."

Peskov also addressed the fact that the president apologised for a cough at a public forum.
The Kremlin spokesman attributed it to overexposure to air conditioning during the visit to Tehran, the Iranian capital.
He added, “As for the air conditioners, that’s true, it’s hot outside, 40C, but it’s chilly under the AC. My voice became husky too. Such things happen, no big deal."

Meanwhile, the United States Director Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, William Burns, said on Wednesday, that Russian president is "entirely too healthy.”
“There are a lot of rumors about President Putin’s health, and as far as we can tell, he is entirely too healthy. It’s not a formal intelligence judgment,” he said, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum.
Earlier this week, Putin made a trip to Tehran for talks with his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, and Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The remarks by both Burns and Peskov come after a flurry of speculation in Western media and from officials about Putin being in poor health and purporting that he had undergone a cancer treatment and even survived an assassination attempt.
Ukrainian officials have also participated in the conjecturing.
In late June, Defense Intelligence chief Kirill Budanov claimed that “Putin doesn't have a long life ahead of him,” citing a supposed Ukrainian spy ring in the Kremlin.
Moscow has repeatedly denied the claims of ill health.

International News AddThis :  Original Author :  Sahara Reporters, New york. Disable advertisements : 

A N2million ransom has been reportedly placed on the leader of Ebube-Agu militia who allegedly led his men to kill 14 Otulu and Awo-Mmamma youths, who were returning from a traditional wedding of their friend last week in Imo State.
The Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) who placed the offer made this known in a statement signed by the media and publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, on Thursday.

He asserted that the government’s version of the story that the victims were members of IPOB and Eastern Security Network (ESN) was false.
He challenged the government to identify which of the ESN camps the murdered youths came from.
The group also dismissed a statement from an opposing group that Friday was sit-at-home, saying there was no such thing.
The statement reads, “Indigenes within the location of the massacre know that Hope Uzodinma’s house in Omuma is also referred to as “Ebube-Agu camp” because that was where the Ebube-Agu militia who murdered the 14 youths came from and they returned to the same Omuma residence of Hope Uzodinma after their murderous operation.
“We ask again: Which camp in Awo-Mmamma is Hope with his partners in crime referring to”, they queried, wondering “if it is the one at Omuma Community in the stadium where they murder and burn human beings alive or another?”
“We also wish to remind the DSS to stop lying. They did not kill any ESN member; they are trying to cover up Hope Uzodinma from his evil. If they claim that the slaughtered wedding guests were ESN members killed in their camp, let them tell the very camp in Awo-Mmamma where they killed these 14 innocent youths.”
"The leader of Ebube-Agu is working with murderous Nigerian security agencies and now living with Governor Uzodinma in the Government House, Owerri, he will be caught any time.
"The sit-at-home declared by Mr. Simon Ekpa on Friday is laughable, citizens should ignore. Ekpa is being used by the Nigerian government and the enemies of Biafra to launch so many tragedies and attacks against the people.
“We, therefore, urge our people to ignore the meaningless and senseless order from a Nigeria Agent to Sit-at Home tomorrow,” he added.

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Ping Express, a financial technology company owned by two Nigerians in the United States, has debunked claims that its executives were involved in $160 million fraud.
The company denied the claims in a statement released sent to SaharaReporters.

It said the Texas-based company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Anslem Oshionebo, 45, and its co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO), Opeyemi Odeyale, 43, both pleaded guilty intentionally over the conduct of the court proceedings.
“Ping Express and its founders appeared to have taken a decision to discontinue the legal process seeing how it appeared from the conduct of proceedings that no matter what the facts were or what was said and proven, minds had been made up for whatever reason and only one thing was going to happen in the end.
“The company and its founders simply pulled the plugs on the case and voluntarily filed a guilty plea,” the statement read.
Ping Express added that the company or its past directors were never involved in money laundering or fraud.
“In the last two and a half years, Ping Express, the fintech company registered with the US FinCen to practice in Texas and other states has been dragged through the US court system on allegations which centered on failure to flag transactions and report same under the US anti- money laundering laws.
"We deny any allegations that we participated in money laundering activities via our platform, the court records are available and very clear. It is saddening however that a technology that was designed to help immigrants stay connected to their families and which has over 80,000 customers has also been used by a few who the US authorities have found to have defrauded others.
“It is however important to clarify that the source of funds transferred on the Ping Express platform is banks in the US as Ping Express is not a deposit money bank. The transaction dynamics as can be confirmed for Nigerians who have used the platform, is such that users transact with their electronic debit or credit cards issued by banks on their accounts with the banks.
“Ping Express therefore has no control or contact whatsoever with tracing the original source of its customers’ funds, the first and only contact with the direct source of funds is the deposit money banks who by regulation are empowered to flag suspicious transactions based on history and KYC.
“Despite the above, Ping Express conducts its own due diligence procedure however limited by the reality of transaction dynamics being just an electronic go-between, the company also does an extent of KYC. It is however impracticable for Ping Express to know or ascertain the source of the funds its customers transfer on its platform.
“The company did not steal from anyone and neither conspired with anyone to steal a dollar from anyone. The court documents and rulings are clear. No losses or restitution was imposed on the company or its founders and this validates that the US court recognized that no fraud was perpetrated within the company's platform nor was fraud aided or abetted by its founders.
“Ping Express served more than 80,000 hardworking and honest Nigerians in the US and more in other parts of the world, it operated in more than 28 countries including UK, Canada and several European countries and served immigrants from 27 African countries with a consistent Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that were reviewed and approved by regulators. It is of importance to note that some of Ping's users that were queried by the US Department of Justice are also customers of the top 2 competition.
“These users paid Ping directly from their personal bank accounts in the US. All customers were verified and went through extensive screening before their transactions were processed. Internal limits, which were subject to review by virtue of the approved company’s policy, are the basis for which we were non-compliant. In essence, customers have no hard limits per the company’s policies (not external limits).
“Ping operated strict compliance standards, and ensured users paid from their personal bank accounts, at no point did the company collect cash from any customer. Unfortunately, the US government insisted that Ping did not consider and file enough suspicious reports on all its customers despite them paying from their personal bank accounts with monies already housed by American banks who in the dynamics that Ping know are the ones responsible for the flagging of the source of the monies in their customers' accounts.
“It was apparently expected that its owners will know every single Nigerian by name, creed, behaviour and track record, as amusing as this sounds, it's concerning and a pointer to many other things that has crystallized in this matter. It is depressing to view the malicious and baseless claims being reported in a section of the Nigerian media. The malicious relish with which a number of Nigerian-based media organizations have picked up on the story, seemingly driven by worst manner of sensationalist instincts is very shocking, as they have embroidered the tale with the removal of salient factual elements of the case and outlandish plot elements that have a tenuous grip on reality.
“They have maliciously reported so-called facts without taking time to investigate or verify information read on other platforms; this is not in consonance with the time-tested norm in the practice of journalism, which should still be relevant in today's journalism.
“This becomes a sample case for us all to find company founders being held liable for internal control failures of their company, especially when they had no personal relationship with its users. However, this is what the Ping former owners are faced with despite the noble intention behind the initiative of the company.”
Speaking also, Oshionebo said, “We focused on making the simple task of helping family members back home much easier. We worked very hard with integrity to develop a system that disrupted the marketplace. Rather than join other companies in creating customer service and relations team outside Nigeria, we were passionate about Nigeria and built one of the first outsourcing unit in Nigeria, employing over 40 Nigerians. History is the best judge.”
Odeyale, former COO and co-founder of Ping Express added, “Having led an extremely expensive and painful legal battle with the US regulators over the last 3 years, with the full support of my wife, it was simply time to make a decision that was only in the best interest of my family. I stand proud of what we have achieved for the Nigerian and African community in the US and other parts of the world."
 

Scandal News AddThis :  Original Author :  Sahara Reporters, New york. Disable advertisements : 

The Parapo communities in Lagos State have asked Mr Lanre Ogunlesi (Senior Advocate of Nigeria), a lawyer to the Oloja of Epe, Oba Kamarudeen Animashaun to stop parading himself as their lawyer.
In 2006, when Lekki Free Zone was created, about three communities were identified as Abomiti, Yeguda and Eyin-Osa.
However, the government allocated another land, which is 10% of what it compulsorily acquired for the displaced communities elsewhere for their resettlement, which some top Lagos State Government officials, and two traditional rulers in Epe and Ogun State, are allegedly now hijacking and converting to theirs, so as to start selling through some real estate companies.

SaharaReporters had last week reported an alleged move by Mrs Lola Akande, the Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperative, in collaboration with Oba Kamarudeen Animashaun, the Oloja of Epe; one Oba Ganiyu Olusegun Awokoya, aka {Alhaji White}, the Onirete of Irete in Ogun State, to convert the Abomiti, Yeguda and Eyin-Osa resettlement land for kickbacks.
The chairmen and trustee members of Free Trade Zone Parcel B Resettlement Communities, Chief Obafemi Onayemi Obajimi (Baale Onigbagbo and other family representatives of Abomiti, Eyin-Osa, Yeguda-Parapo, the displaced communities for Parcel B and Alaro City Projects) in a letter asked Ogunlesi to stop parading himself as their lawyer.
“We the undersigned are representatives of our communities within the Parcel B of the Resettlement in Abomiti, Eyin-Osa and Yeguda (Parapo) communities and we write this in our representative capacity for ourselves and on behalf of the said Parapo communities within Abomiti, Yeguda and Eyin Osa Zone,” the letter read.
“It came to our notice via a letter dated the 19th day of July 2022 written to us through the office of the Permanent Secretary to the Lagos State Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperative (letter is hereby attached for emphasis) that you have been referred to as our communities lawyer, particularly in the 2nd paragraph of the said letter which is not only ridiculous but indeed laughable.
“You are a lawyer to the Surveyor Awokoya and Oloja of Epe and those communities that choose to be with them or (you are ) consultant to Mrs Lola Akande because we are not going to recognise you without the Lagos State official letter confirming Olusegun Awokoya as the State Government consultant base on your assertion that "Surveyor Awokoya" should be addressed as consultant because we did not actually engage Awokoya as consultant to our communities.
“We are sure that not until recent litigation, you may not also know that Awokoya is not actually licensed and to your understanding that he has been presenting forged or backdated survey to some of the communities.
“We wish to reiterate without mincing words that we DID NOT AND NEVER WOULD engage and or retain your services and that of your Law firm as our legal representatives for the purpose of this matter at hand because we know you to be Awokoya and Oloja of Epe’s lawyer and we actually do not want to experience what Lekki Coaster and Epe Lagoon resettlement is facing for years in which the government has to suspend all the activities there because of Awokoya’s greed and conversion of all the land for personal sales.
“We humbly attach, series of letters showing our individual communities dealing with Land Bureau through our Lawyers during enumeration exercise and by that, mean those are the Lawyers engaged by the individual communities with proper instruction letters. The Ministry of Commerce also mentioned Communities' representatives, probably she want to mention the Oloja and Awokoya conniving with Lola Akande Kangaroo Committee for the 3 Zones, your real clients should at least put you in known that 80% of those who you people registered as trustees for the 3 zones are not actually from the zones, they are mere front for Oloja and whoever within the civil servants the Quack Surveyor White is claiming to be holding our land for in trust.
“Regretfully as a respected Lawyer with integrity that all our communities would have appreciated to be our counsel but you being a lawyer to Awokoya (The Onirete), let it be known to your firm sir, that we have long retained the services of Ibile Partners who have been acting on our behalf in the light of the above and equally copied in this letter and we desire that further deliberations/correspondences should go through them and no other.
“The above is for the general public and to whom it may concern to take note forthwith. Should you have objections to this state of things, we would like to see any evidence (though we know for certain that you have none) that you may possess in proof that your services are currently retained by individuals communities or any of Abomiti, Yeguda and Eyin-Osa (Parapo) members and note that whatever instruction from Oba Animashaun and Surveyor Awokoya Trustee on CAC which we are closer to ask a court of law to determine, dissolve and compel the State Government to accept part of the real community beneficiaries representatives as trustee on CAC.

“It is in the interest of justice that you comply with our desires and further desist from all acts of passing off as our legal representatives.”
 

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The Federal Government of Nigeria may ban the use of motorcycles nationwide following increasing security challenges threatening the corporate existence of the country.
The National Security Council on Thursday announced that it is considering the nationwide ban on motorcycles and mining activities in the country.

The meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the State House in Abuja, said although the council was mindful of the pains the ban would cause, it was part of strategy to curb terrorist activities, checkmate loopholes and cut off their sources of funding.

Addressing state house correspondents after the meeting, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami stated that investigations were still ongoing especially to establish the correlation between mining and motorcycles which they suspect provide funding for the supply of arms to the terrorists.
Malami said that terrorists had moved from the conventional ways of funding their activities to mining and ransom taking.
He accepted that the economic consequences of the proposed resolutions, particularly the motorcycle ban would be enormous but noted that it had become imperative in order to guarantee the nation’s security.

He said "Terrorist groups, in particular in Nigeria, are increasingly interested in controlling areas of production of gold. The opportunistic nature of these activities ties strongly to the fact that gold is often the favoured mineral of the terrorist groups as many of these groups use this to secure a source of funding for future operations."

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Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed October 20, 2022 to conduct a trial-within-trial to ascertain the voluntariness or otherwise of the statements of Aliyu Abubakar one of defendants in the trial of the controversial $1.3 billion Oil Processing License (OPL) 245 otherwise known as Malabu Oil.
At the resumed trial on the case on Wednesday, an Investigating officer of the Economic and financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) official, Mr. Ibrahim Ahmed, told Justice Ekwo how Chief Dan Etete, a former Minister of Petroleum, allegedly shared the proceed of $1.3 billion Malabu Oil deal among his associates.

The sale of OPL 245 reportedly owned by Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, has been under controversy following an alleged complicity and fraud in the deal. It has been contested in the courts even outside Nigeria.
But giving evidence in the case, with Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CR/268/2016, Ahmed, narrated how the proceeds from the sale were transferred from JP Morgan into Malabu's accounts with First Bank and Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank) and subsequently transferred to various companies' accounts, the defendants in Suit directly benefited.
According to the witness, some of the beneficiary companies included those owned by, Mr. Aliyu Abubakar, an Abuja businessman currently standing trial before the court, according to The Street Journal's report.
The witness also told the court that EFCC, apart from Abubakar is also prosecuting seven other companies, accused of benefiting from the alleged diversion of the proceeds of Malabu Oil sales.
He listed the seven companies as - Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, A. Group Construction Company Ltd, Rocky Top Resources Ltd, Megatech Engineering Ltd, Novel Properties and Development Company Ltd, Imperial Union Ltd and Carlin International Nigeria Ltd.
The EFCC Officer, further, disclosed that some board resolutions were forged to alter the actual ownership of Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd.
Led in evidence by EFCC's lawyers, Offem Uket, Ahmed said, "Again, in 2010 another purported board resolution was filed in Corporate Affairs Commission by one Barrister Ayo Ademola.
"The documents filed by Ademola suggested that the initial directors have resigned their directorship and their shares in which Joseph Amara and Seisougha Munamuna were appointed as directors not minding the changes earlier made.
"When the documents were filed with the Corporate Affairs Commission, having them discovered that those documents were forged, the Corporate Affairs Commission returned the company to status quo.
"Similarly, the second step was to identify the bank accounts owned by Malabu Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited and the investigating team discovered that Malabu Oil and Gas have two accounts which are domiciliary accounts domiciled at First Bank and former Bank PHB and the only signatory to the accounts was Chief Duazia Loya Etete," he said.
Speaking further, th EFCC official said that analysis of the statement of account, revealed that the account of Malabu Oil and Gas Limited domiciled with Keystone Bank (formerly Bank PHB) on August 24, 2011, received the sum of $400 million from JP Morgan.
He stated further that Etete, on September 6, 2011, fraudulently transferred the sum of $334 million to Rocky Top Resources account domiciled with the same Keystone Bank.
"On September 24, 2013, another sum of $75 million were transferred to the same Malabu Oil and Gas Limited account with Keystone Bank out of which $74 million and some fractions, same was transferred to the Rocky Top Resources account but only $73 million and some fractions got into the account.
"Similarly, on August 24, 2011, another sum of $401,540,000.00 was transferred to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited account with First Bank from J. P. Morgan.
"On August 29, 2011, Chief Etete transferred the sum of $157 million into the account of A Group Construction Company Limited.
"On the same August 29, 2011, Chief Etete again transferred the sum of $180 million to Megatech Engineering Ltd.
"On the same August 29, 2011, the same Chief Etete transferred the sum of $34,540,000.00 to Novel Properties and Development Limited. On September 2, 2011, he transferred another sum of $30 million to Novel Property and Development Limited," he alleged.
On the account with First Bank, he said his team, "discovered that A Group Construction received $157million from Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, Megatech Engineering received $180 million from Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd.
"Furthermore, Novel Property received $34,540,000.00 and also $30,000 000.00 from Malabu Oil and Gas Limited."
Ahmed disclosed that on further studying of the account opening documents of MegaTech Engineering and, A Group- Construction Company, it was discovered that Aliyu Abubakar (the 8th defendant) was the signatory to the accounts.
He added that investigation revealed that before the transfer to Rocky Top Resources, Aliyu Abubakar had an interest in the company, adding that when the money came in, he sold the company and introduced Chief Dan Etete as the sole signatory of the account.
He told the court how Abubakar volunteered statements and the prosecution was at the point of determining the statements when the defence team including Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Olalekan Ojo (SAN), Joshua Musa (SAN) and others objected on the grounds that the statements were not made voluntarily.
Responding, the trial judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo opted to conduct a trial-within-trial to ascertain the voluntariness or otherwise of the statements.

Corruption News AddThis :  Original Author :  Sahara Reporters, New york. Disable advertisements : 

Adamu Garba

Some Nigerians on Twitter have called out a former presidential aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Adamu Garba, for alleged blasphemy.
Garba had while reacting to the news of fake Bishops attending the unveiling of Kashim Shettima as APC candidate's running mate tweeted an edited photo of him wearing a bishop's cap.

“Ladies and gentlemen it appears I have a new title,” he said in a now deleted tweet.
The tweet before being deleted was condemned by both Christians and Muslims who accused him of blasphemy.

Below are some reactions from Nigeria;

Adamu Garba can post this photoshop, make funny excuses & getaway with it. But when a cartoon was drawn in faraway Denmark, 30 churches were razed, & more than 17 people were killed in Maiduguri. Adamu & Bashir twerk for death for blasphemy. But Christians should just endure? OK! pic.twitter.com/kWcoZZA8BH

— NEFERTITI (@firstladyship) July 21, 2022

It’s commendable that Adamu Garba took down that senseless tweet. But that’s not yet enough, he should come out and apologize to the Christian community.

Had it been Adamu knows the implication of what he did in Islam, he wouldn’t even dream of doing it.

— Abu Amir (@Sadiqsans) July 21, 2022

APC members and Adamu Garba mocked the body of Christ without being remorseful about it. The God I serve is a living God and He does His things His own way. When God starts dealing with APC and the evil men in it, we'll all be witnesses to that by His Grace.

— Deborah Gaji (@Deborahgaji) July 21, 2022

30 churches were burned and more than 17 people were k1lled in Maiduguri when Muslims protested because a man in a Denmark drew a cartoon of prophet Muhammad.

People like Adamu Garba can make and reshare jokes like this because??? https://t.co/HU2esPcJzV

— Man of Letters. (@Letter_to_Jack) July 21, 2022

Adamu Garba's statement when Deborah was lynched in sokoto Vs. His statement when Fake Bishops were employed to mock the Christian faith.
Let's be wise!

__________
Peter Okoye #davidhundeyin APC and BAT Muslim -Muslim APC VP Chemical Musa Lady T #BBNaija imams pic.twitter.com/lKmP3yQvyL

— NK£M #PeterObi2023 (@Nkemchor_) July 20, 2022

Let us learn to respect each other's believe and religion. I condemn inviting of fake bishops at the unveiling of @OfficialAPCNg Vice Presidential candidate and I condemn what Adamu Garba tweeted. I am really ashamed and disappointed in both APC and @adamugarba

— ♔ Fatima Abubakar ♔ (@tyeemaa1) July 20, 2022

Adamu Garba has made an open mockery of the Christian community. This is blasphemy but we don’t know how to burn people like they did to Deborah. pic.twitter.com/Vqz24foEZE

— MOONSHINE (@ill_nojie) July 21, 2022

30 churches were burned and more than 17 people were k1lled in Maiduguri when Muslims protested because a man in a Denmark drew a cartoon of prophet Muhammad.

People like Adamu Garba can make and reshare jokes like this because??? https://t.co/HU2esPcJzV

— Man of Letters. (@Letter_to_Jack) July 21, 2022

Politics News AddThis :  Original Author :  Sahara Reporters, New york. Disable advertisements : 

President Joe Biden

United States’ President, Joe Biden, tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, his administration announced, saying the 79-year-old leader was experiencing “mild symptoms” and would carry out his full duties while isolating at the White House.
“He is fully vaccinated and twice boosted and experiencing very mild symptoms,” the White House said in a statement, adding that Biden had begun taking Pfizer’s anti-Covid pill Paxlovid.

“Consistent with CDC guidelines, he will isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.”
 

International Breaking News AddThis :  Original Author :  Sahara Reporters, New york. Disable advertisements : 

 

 

The advent of any significant changes in technology has often triggered concerns about the fate of journalism. Even at the infancy of social media, TIME covered one of its editions of February 5, 2009, with concern about the imminent death of journalism. To drive home the point, the graphic was illustrated with a copy of the New York Times wrapping a tilapia.

 

The profession went through similar bouts of self-doubt and anxiety, after the introduction of the movable type and printing press. This same thing happened following the introduction of the telephone, radio and television. In hindsight, it would seem that journalism’s death was slightly exaggerated.

But can the survival of journalism as we know it today be taken for granted in the midst of the extraordinary changes in technology and ICT? In 5, 10 or 20 years, will there be any dots to connect between technology and journalism or would the profession be submerged in a sea change?

 

In Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Stuart J Russell and Peter Norvig’s groundbreaking, expansive study on AI, first published in 1995 and released in its fourth edition in 2020, the computer scientists and scholars offer a sharp and comprehensive introduction to the foundations of artificial intelligence. The book covers a diverse range of fields from philosophy to mathematics, neuroscience and psychology, and linguistics.

 

In a particularly memorable passage, the authors said, “We don’t want machines that are intelligent in the sense of pursuing their objectives; we want them to pursue our objectives.”

 

The extent to which this goal is achievable, and whether it should be desirable in the first place, has, of course, been a subject of vigorous and prolonged debate.

 

There are those rightfully concerned that the oncoming waves of automation would exacerbate existing inequalities between workers whose backgrounds have afforded them education and other social privileges that put them at the higher ends of well-paying tech jobs and those who depend on jobs that would most likely be phased out by automated systems.

 

The stats may not amplify these fears but they do not allay them either. A report from Mckinsey studying skill shifts in the workforce in Europe and the United States says that between 2016 and 2030 the demand for technological skills would increase significantly compared with the demand for manual and basic cognitive skills. The prospects may be slower in Africa, but they are creeping up.

 

Mass media have long ceased to be the sole domain of professional journalists. That is, not only have established assumptions about the authority of the journalist to witness, record and disseminate news been severely undermined, established assumptions about audience’s expectations in journalists have also been challenged.

 

When I joined PUNCH in 1989 the dominant way of collecting the news from offices outside Lagos, the headquarters, was by radio. We had a few telephone lines alright, but they were congested and unreliable. Reporters filed in a few copies from the states by telex, but the bulk was by radio. The compugraphic machines, galleys and cow gum did the rest of the prepress job. That was over three decades ago.

 

We deployed reporters in Sheraton Hotels, Lagos, where they spun war stories from Baghdad by watching the TV at the reception over a bottle of coke taken for hours. Somehow, through improvisation and compelling designs, the paper became a hit.

 

What happened in PUNCH was emblematic of the crises that the industry faced after the prosperous seventies and eighties.

 

There were significant changes in the operating environment, partly as a result of ownership and politics, but fundamentally as a result of poor economics and the inability of the industry to forecast where changes in technology might lead and to leverage them.

 

As production costs increased and infrastructure deteriorated, however, the response of the press, in particular, was not necessarily to find smarter, more efficient ways of distributing content. Instead, media owners embarked on a binge of buying fleets of distribution vans and producing multiple editions, with very little returns on inventory.

 

This massive investment in a blackhole worsened their already precarious financial positions after General Ibrahim Babangida’s controversial “structural adjustment programme”.

 

With advertising naira shrinking, advertisers began to insist on data, forcing the opaque newspaper industry to begin to face its own demon. Adoption of new practices and improvements in internal methods to make them more efficient and customer-centric – including deployment of new technologies – became not a matter of choice, but of survival for the industry.

 

Today, a number of media houses (print and broadcast) have strong social media platforms and even web-first news policies, while strictly online brands such as Sahara Reporters, Premium Times, The Cable and Peoples Gazette, to name a few, have become significant players, using an extensive degree of new technologies to collect, process and share content and earn revenue.

 

However, of all these developments, the arrival of citizen journalists on the one hand and the AI-powered robots on the other, are perhaps the most significant occurrences in journalism.

 

It seemed OK when technology led to mechanized farming, brought changes in the mode and speed of transportation and even transformed the textile and culinary industries. Journalists were happy to herald these changes.

 

As soon as technological changes arrived at the doorsteps of the profession, however, with the distinct possibilities that non-journalists could use and deploy them in everyday life, the alarm bells were set off, sounding like a tribal call against the invasion of aliens: AI was The Beast!

 

Yet, by focusing on more routine and menial tasks, it is believed that automation frees journalists up for more comprehensive, in-depth reporting, significantly improving the quality of journalistic work.

 

Sharing examples of how journalism and robots are connecting and finding common grounds elsewhere raises the natural question: where does that leave the Nigerian journalist?

 

Incursions by bloggers, influencers and corporates using non-traditional news channels to share valuable content have challenged the mainstream media. Also, the increased entry into the profession of persons with non-formal-media background has improved the profession both in its diversity and deepened its adoption rate of new technologies.

 

Through hackathons, collaboration of media and non-media persons, for example, robotics have been deployed in sourcing data that shine the light on community problems on access to healthcare, education and job-creation.

 

Media organisations either working collaboratively on independently also deploy drones in previously inaccessible communities, to gather content, especially in conflict situations. Although this practice is still not sufficiently widespread because of costs, inertia – and even grey regulatory areas sometimes - an increasing level of training and collaboration might see improvements in the years ahead.

 

It is true that the role of the journalist is changing, and I believe future developments in the field will give journalists more power and responsibility, not less.

 

Once, we suffered from not knowing nearly enough. Now, we may be entering an era in which we know too much. Even if we could guarantee responsible use of AI and similar technologies - which we can’t - we would still bear the heavy burden of knowledge in a world that has become more predictable but no less dangerous.

 

But what is also true is that there are more of us now than there have ever been, citizen and career journalists alike, with significant resources at our disposal, to decide not only what the news is, but what it should mean and what responsible actions it should spur.

 

A number of media houses in Nigeria are currently battling a range of problems from low, irregular pay to poor training, infrastructure and low trust rating as a result of poor ethics. My anecdotal experience does not suggest that displacement by bots is a serious concern in the face of these current existential crises.

 

The media is still a long way from where AI may be regarded as a clear and present danger to jobs. Yet, globalisation, which has narrowed boundaries, made travels cheaper and increased connections, has also exposed consumers of media content in Nigeria and across the continent to higher standards.

 

With greater penetration of smartphones and other home devices (embedded with such bots as Siri, Bixby, Alexa) at lower costs and the expansion of Internet services, my guess is that the demand for more AI services amongst Nigeria’s media consumers would also increase.

 

And hopefully journalists who are in this business for the long run would have little or no option but to raise their game. The question is not whether the dots are connecting, but how quickly, responsibly and efficiently journalists can connect them in the service of the craft of storytelling.

 

The future belongs to man and machines.

 

This is an abridged version of a paper on “Cybernetics, robotics and journalism: Connecting the dots”, by Ishiekwene presented at a seminar at the Department of Mass Communication, Bingham University, Abuja on July 14

 

 

 

 

 

Opinion AddThis :  Original Author :  Azu Ishiekwene Disable advertisements : 

Two National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members have lost their lives in a ghastly motor accident on their way back home to Kaduna State after the 2022 Batch "B" Stream One Orientation Course in Adamawa State.
This was confirmed in a statement released by the NYSC Director of Press and Public Relations, Eddy Megwa, stating that deceased were on relocation from Adamawa to Kano State before the unfortunate accident occurred along Zaria/Kano highway after their registration in Kano.

The statement reads in part:  "The Director General of National Youth Service Corps, Brigadier General Muhammad Kaku Fadah on behalf of the NYSC Management has condoled with the families of two Corps Members that lost their lives in a ghastly motor accident on their way back home to Kaduna State after the 2022 Batch "B" Stream One Orientation Course in Adamawa State.
"The deceased were on relocation from Adamawa to Kano State before the unfortunate accident occured along Zaria/Kano highway after their registration in Kano.
"Speaking during his condolence visits to the bereaved families today in Kaduna, General Fadah commended the patriotic spirit of the deceased Corps Members who paid the supreme sacrifice while serving their fatherland.
"He thereafter prayed for the repose of their souls."
The statement also stated that "The Director-General had visited the other two Corps Members that survived the accident but were receiving treatment at the 44 Military Hospital in Kaduna."
The General, therefore, pray for their quick recovery.
He added that the Scheme would do everything possible to put a smile on their faces.
"General Fadah commended the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Colonel NS Onuchukwu and his staff for providing adequate medicare for the hospitalized Corps Members.
"The CMD assured the Director General that the hospital would do everything possible to ensure that the injured Corps Members receive prompt and necessary medical attention.” 
 

News AddThis :  Original Author :  Sahara Reporters, New york. Disable advertisements : 

The Nigerian government has announced that it will spend the sum of N6.72trillion on subsidy in 2023.
This was made known in Abuja on Thursday by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, during the 2023 – 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategic Paper (MTEF and FSP) Public Consultation. 

According to the minister, the government has projected fiscal outcomes in the medium term under two scenarios based on the underlying budget parameters/assumptions.
She said that the second scenario is that “petrol subsidy will remain up to mid-2023 based on the 18-month extension announced early 2021, in which case only N3.36 trillion will be provided for.” 
Meanwhile, a report by The Nation also quoted Ahmed as cautioning that “both scenarios have implications for net accretion to the Federation Account and projected deficit levels.”
The Finance Minister further noted that “There will be tighter enforcement of the performance management framework for Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) that will significantly increase operating surplus/dividend remittances in 2023.”
Recall that the National Assembly approved the sum of N4 trillion for subsidy this year (2022) representing almost 25% of the country’s National Budget for the year according to a Policy and Advocacy Centre (PLAC) report.

News AddThis :  Original Author :  Sahara Reporters, New york. Disable advertisements : 

Hope Uzodinma

 

A coalition of Nigerian civil society organisations has called on Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State to put to an end the bloodletting going on in the state.

The coalition made up of 18 civil society organisations stated this in a statement made available to SaharaReporters on Thursday, titled “Governor Hope Uzodinma must end the bloodletting in Imo state”, and signed by Okechukwu Nwanguma on their behalf.

In the statement dated July 19, 2022, the Coalition insisted that Governor Uzodinma should rein in the bloodthirsty criminals masquerading as Ebubeagu security outfit, committing serial acts of extrajudicial killing, rape and other crimes against humanity in Oru-West, Oru-East and other parts of the state and bring perpetrators to justice.

The group which was reacting to the gruesome murder of 14 wedding guests in Awo-mama in Oru West local government area on Sunday evening by gunmen believed to be operatives of the Ebubeagu South-East Security outfit in the state, condemned in strongest terms, the savagery and atrocities being committed daily by the group directly supervised by the governor.

While describing killings in Imo state as alarming, the coalition noted that all the security agencies – Nigerian Army, police, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and Ebubeagu have all been competing to kill young men over 15 years with little or no investigation carried to ascertain the facts.

It described the silence of both governor Uzodinma and President Muhammadu Buhari in the face of the atrocities going on in the state as despicable, especially when the atrocities were committed by Nigerian security agencies.

“We are informed that Ebubeagu operates in cahoots with the Police, State Security Service (SSS) and other security agencies in the state.

“The Imo State Police Command authorities have also remained silent in the face of these deadly attacks on the youths and other members of the affected communities.

“In June 2022, RULAAC wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari urging him to order an investigation into the activities of Ebubeagu operatives and other security agencies in Imo State following reports that several young men were allegedly killed, their body parts harvested and their remains burnt by security personnel comprising of the Ebubeagu, police, the SSS, the Army and the NSCDC.

 

“It was revealed, among other things, that young men from age fifteen (15) and above are usually the targets of these bloodthirsty hounds who arrest many of them and are never seen again or their whereabouts ever known again by their communities. Neither the Imo State Governor whom Ebubeagu reports directly to nor the President who is the country’s Chief Security Officer has deemed it fit to address these acts of terror on communities threatening to liquidate their youth population.

“In June 2022, Ebubeagu Security outfit in search of youths to capture in these communities allegedly invaded a compound in Okporo Community and ended up shooting everybody in sight including the elderly men, leaving several of them in the pool of their blood. Ebubeagu operatives are said to periodically carry out joint operations with the police, SSS and civil defence, allegedly arresting young men based on unsubstantiated accusations.

“In some cases, some of the arrested youths are taken to the Tiger Base office of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in Owerri, Imo State where they are tortured, extorted or even killed. Young women are allegedly violently seized, taken to bush paths or inside their vehicles and gang-raped and asked to thank God that they were not killed but “merely raped”.

“We are further disturbed by recent virile but yet to be independently verified reports that some teenage girls who were out in the evening playing amongst themselves within their family compound in the Njaba and Orlu axis were arrested by Ebubeagu operatives and indefinitely detained at the SSS facility in Owerri.

 

“One of the teenage girls identified as 15-year-old Oluebube Uzoma and others including Chidera Amaefula, Chidinma Oba, Favour Azubuike, Chiamaka Okoro, Chibueze Ezike, and Mmesoma Ezike were said to have been arrested and detained at the SSS facility in Owerri for more than four (4) months and are allegedly being sexually exploited with Chiamaka Okoro allegedly already pregnant during the period of her unlawful incarceration.”

“There is information that many of those recruited into the Ebubeagu in Imo State are alien militant elements who were handed assault rifles without appropriate training and ostensibly sent to go after the ‘unknown gunmen’. The unknown gunmen seem to have since gone underground but Ebubeagu operatives have turned their fangs on armless youths.

“We are deeply concerned about the activities of this killer outfit which have become too egregious and inhuman to condone. Whatever may be the motive for setting up such a deadly outfit cannot be in the interest of public safety and security, especially as Governor Hope Uzodinma who set it up, to all intents and purposes, condones the atrocities they commit against communities.

“There are also fears that the outfit may eventually transform into a tool for political violence. Governor Hope Uzodinma should, on his own, take steps to rein in these bloodthirsty hounds masquerading as a security outfit. He needs to reassure Imo citizens and residents that he has their best interest at heart, contrary to the widespread notion of the contrary.

“He must end the killings and atrocities, order the arrest, investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators with a view to bringing them to account and guarantee adequate compensations to the victims.

“President Muhammadu Buhari in his capacity as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and as the ultimate Constitutional authority in control of security in Nigeria should decisively and urgently intervene in aid of communities affected by insecurity.

 

“We call on President Buhari to call Governor Hope Uzodinma to order and order a stop to these barbaric acts. The Police Act 2020 prohibits profiling and arrest of persons based only on their looks, hairstyle or bodily mark. The Nigerian Constitution also guarantees citizens’ freedom of movement, association and assembly as well as the right to life and human dignity,” the statement reads.

 

Members of the Coalition are "Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Justice and Human Empowerment Center (JAHEC), Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy & Development (FENRAD), Nigeria International Solidarity for Peace and Human Rights Initiative, Samuel Ihensekhien of one love foundation endorse it. Samuel Akpologun (Ace & Vanguard LLP) International Peace and Civic Responsibility Centre (IPCRC)."

 

Others are "Anambra State Next Generation Youth Initiative International (NeGYII), Eyeeoma Development Initiative Umuahia, Abia State, Bauchi Human Rights Network (BAHRN) (NOPRIN), Foundation Institutional and Sustainable Development Foundation, FCTLegal Resources Consortium, Lagos Justice for Peace and Development Initiative, Lagos, Legal Awareness for Nigerian Women, Kaduna Rights Enforcement and Public Law Centre, Human Rights Social Development and Environmental Foundation (HURSDEF), Public Enlightenment Projects (PEP)."

 

 

News AddThis :  Original Author :  Sahara Reporters, New york. Disable advertisements : 

In his dialogues with the ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, Phaedrus said, “Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many.” To underscore the supreme need for enlightenment, he added, “the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.” 

 

Recently, Nigerians woke up to the news that a United States of America (USA) court in Texas sentenced CEO Anslem Oshionebo and COO Opeyemi Odeyale, two Nigerian founders of a fintech company, Ping Express U.S. LLC, to 27 months in prison for the company’s failure to maintain effective anti-money laundering controls. According to a statement released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), during the period under review, customers used Ping Express’ technology platform to transmit more than $167 million overseas, including $160 million sent to Nigeria, purportedly without seeking sufficient details about the customers and the sources or purposes of the funds involved in the transactions. Before being sentenced, Oshionebo and Odeyale reportedly pled guilty to their failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.

 

Since the news broke, several Nigerian news media and individual commentators have erroneously situated this as another Ramon Abbas, commonly known as Hushpuppi, who committed business email compromise frauds and other scams, including defrauding a US law firm of about $40 million. On the night his apartment at the Palazzo Versace was raided, Abbas was arrested alongside eleven others in six simultaneous raids. Detectives seized more than 150 million dirhams (about $40 million) in cash, 13 luxury cars worth Dh 25 million ($7M), 21 laptops, 47 smartphones, 15 memory storage devices, 5 external hard drives, and 800,000 emails of potential victims alongside suitcases full of cash (Dawkins, 2020). Another parallel that Nigerians have drawn is Obinwanne Okeke, also known as Invictus Obi, who alongside his syndicates, was charged by the FBI for defrauding American citizens up to $11 million through fraudulent wire transfer instructions in a massive, coordinated, business e-mail compromise scheme (DoJ, 2019). These examples apparently influenced the Nigerian media’s reception of the Ping Express case to the extent that a popular Nigerian news medium cast its headline thus “Nigerian Fintech Company Owners Jailed In United States Over $160m Proceeds Of Fraud Sent To Nigeria”.

 

Unfortunately, things are not always what they seem! Unbeknown to Nigerians, right before their very eyes, honest young Nigerian entrepreneurs who did not steal money nor conspire to steal money have become victims of first-world scapegoatism because of their evident technological innovations that have disrupted the international financial technology space in the past 7 years. This is why it is important to separate real criminals from audacious serious-minded innovators who have ventured into a global sector with limited African participation.

 

To underscore my point, I will share a few examples with readers of peer organizations in the USA and their chief executives that have been victims (and in certain instances, enablers) of severe abuse by fraudsters and who have in the past been in either the exact situation that the executives of Ping Express found themselves today or in worst cases where the latter’s infractions paled into insignificance. The reader would be at liberty to form their opinion independently and conclude on what truly may be playing out. 

 

In 2021, a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) showed that Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Bemba), and four aides, had in a period of ten years (2005-2015) utilized Western Union and MoneyGram fund transfer platforms to facilitate an elaborate bribery scheme to cover criminal culpability in war crimes. For context, Bemba had previously commanded 1,500 Congolese soldiers who intervened in a conflict in the neighbouring Central African Republic. His victims later told the International Criminal Court (ICC) that Bemba’s forces killed civilians and raped women and girls as young as 10. In 2016, the ICC found Bemba guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and witness tampering (Fitzgibbon & Torres, 2020).

 

The suspicious activity report (SAR) submitted to US authority by the Western Union cited hundreds of recipients of Bemba’s bribes in 23 countries. The Western Union report was, however, notable for its timing. It was being submitted 7 years after the fact! According to ICIJ, financial institutions are required to regularly examine transactions and accounts for signs of money laundering and other types of financial crime. Western Union did not file the suspicious activity report until 2015 or later — at least seven years after Bemba’s arrest. The ICIJ reporting team found that banks, money transmitters like Western Union, and other financial institutions have moved vast amounts of money for people accused of corruption and other crimes, often long after allegations were first made public. Bemba’s bribe was part of at least $150 million that went through Western Union and MoneyGram between 2005 and 2017, according to an ICIJ analysis of transactions from the FinCEN Files. Other recent cases in which money transmitters allegedly played a central role include several involving opioid trafficking rings and the crime rampage of a violent Eurasian mobster.

 

Did the US Justice Department prosecute or jail the money transfer companies’ executives?

 

Quoting the ICIJ report verbatim, in 2012, the U.S. Justice Department agreed not to prosecute Dallas-based MoneyGram, the world’s second-largest money transmitter, after its agents conspired with fraudsters to trick victims into sending money with false promises of lottery winnings and bargains. MoneyGram officials actively participated in the crime. Their “agents knowingly entered false addresses, telephone numbers, and personal identification” and took fees for processing the frauds. The company admitted this in a statement of facts filed in a US federal court. To escape prosecution, MoneyGram agreed to create a system to spot and stop potential frauds, tie executive bonuses to compliance with the law and require every MoneyGram office worldwide to follow U.S. anti-money-laundering rules, among other conditions. MoneyGram however further broke the agreement when its new anti-fraud system failed to prevent a substantial number of criminal transactions, according to the Justice Department. Rather than suspending the license of MoneyGram and prosecuting and jailing its executives, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed that the US Justice Department simply fined MoneyGram a $125 million penalty. The company promptly paid (ICIJ, 2021).

 

In 2014, the US Justice Department citing MoneyGram’s “environment of fraud,” took the unusual step of suing a senior executive of MoneyGram. It accused the company’s chief compliance officer, Thomas Haider, of allowing criminals to use MoneyGram “to defraud innocent consumers and then launder the proceeds.” Haider however settled and was allowed to pay the US government a fine of $250,000. Case closed. 

 

Earlier in 2010, Western Union, the world’s largest money transfer company with headquarter in Colorado, agreed to upgrade its anti-money-laundering systems and paid $94 million to settle charges that drug, human, and weapons smugglers laundered and moved vast sums of money across the USA-Mexico border. Yet, seven years later, a U.S. investigation found that the company still enabled scammers to defraud hundreds of thousands of Americans who paid to claim prizes or job offers that did not exist. Western Union was further fined $586 million. The US Justice Department established that “various Western Union agents were complicit in these fraud schemes, often processing the fraud payments in return for a cut of the fraud proceeds.” It is easy to see that in both damning examples, none of the executives of Western Union or MoneyGram was prosecuted or jailed for failing to maintain adequate or effective anti-money laundering controls!

 

Full disclosure, this author strongly supports the US Justice System and the US brand of democracy. That position remains intact. The author has advocated for replicating the same standards in Nigeria. However, the gaping disparity in the treatment of Anslem Oshionebo and Opeyemi Odeyale is indicative of double standard – in the face of peer organizations where the same and even worse failing have occurred. For instance, in the case of Western Union, the US Justice Department established that agents of Western Union were culpable and did get cuts in such illegal abetting of crime. With Ping Express on the other hand, not a cent of such money was traced to the executives or the company’s agents. The US Justice Department did storm the home of Anslem Oshionebo and turned the place upside down in search of damning pieces of evidence. They found none. They also did not find a shred of evidence that those who transferred illegal money to Nigeria or other places via Ping Express shared proceeds with Oshionebo.

 

Ping Express and its executives are being sanctioned despite the architecture of the company’s payment technology requiring that customers could only pay from their bank accounts with monies already housed by American banks, who in the circumstance, are the ones responsible for the flagging of the sources of the funds in their customers' accounts. In essence, apart from the Know Your Customer (KYC) policy imposed at the point of use by Ping Express, the company again ensured only users with verified bank accounts could transmit funds through its platform while also ensuring that only users with bank accounts in the receiving countries could withdraw such transferred funds. This strategic check put in place by Ping Express contributed to the ease of tracing and apprehending the 5 (five) bad customers that used the platform. Ping Express, by the way, had over 80,000 customers and was federally licensed with FinCen. Any reader that used Ping Express would recall that they passed through a rigorous verification process reminiscent of proper due diligence and KYC and that some even underwent an enhanced due diligence procedure. Under a fair or non-malicious review, it stands to reason that expecting Ping Express to flag customers paying or transferring money from their valid US bank accounts with robust KYC as suspicious was inconsistent and illogical.

 

Ping Express, like MoneyGram, while in similar trouble with the law, offered to be given a second chance to upscale its security architecture and ‘create a system to spot and stop potential frauds,’ but the US Justice Department did not provide Ping Express that chance. However, second, third, and endless further chances were given repeatedly to Western Union and other American companies in a similar circumstance. It is safe to conclude that Ping Express and its executives (Anslem Oshionebo and Opeyemi Odeyale) were unfairly punished personally for an administrative offense for which other companies were usually fined. 

 

From available reports, Ping Express cooperated fully with the US Justice Department and handed all backend server information to the authority. This gesture helped the Anti-Money Laundry (AML) investigators to locate and arrest the criminals that leveraged the Ping Express platform to send money to Africa. The authority subsequently prosecuted and jailed those individuals. Now that is justice, and the US Justice Department should be commended for that. Ping Express adjusted its internal suspicious activity reporting and began to regularly forward those reports to relevant authorities in the US, thereby effectively correcting its previous lapse. This was acknowledged in the Department of Justice press statement. Afterward, it became near impossible for fraudsters to leverage the platform. Rather than just a fine of Ping Express as was done in the case of its peers (Western Avenue and MoneyGram) and a mutual agreement on outstanding areas that may require additional corrective measures, the US Justice Department decided to prosecute the company, fined it for an amount less than 500,000 US dollars (which in itself is an indication of the relatively inconsequential nature of its infractions compared to its rivals), put it on probation for 5 years and then decided to jail its two executives for 27 months for an offense committed by users of their platform.  

 

Ping Express was even vigorously condemned and sanctioned for ‘operating’ in states where it was not registered despite the ubiquity of the standard virtual technology and the elementary nature of the effectiveness of IP masking and evasive tactics that could empower anyone with half a day's knowledge of information technology to wilfully reroute his point of access to any state or even anywhere in the world to bypass detection. This is not meant to provide an excuse for Ping Express but to highlight the delicate nature of intrusion technology vis-à-vis required countermeasures. This is why specific previous measures put in place by Western Union became ineffectual at some point – fraudsters have simply found a workaround! 

 

Those who have read the US Department of Justice’s indictment of Ping Express would have also noticed a copious reference to a violation of daily and monthly transfer limits (Griffin, 2022). While the report was not ambiguous that this limit was a personal in-house control mechanism put in place by Ping Express at the onset of its business (as the company did not anticipate it would scale so quickly), many news organizations have erroneously reported this as a violation of US obligatory regulatory standard. It is not. What failed in this instance was the need for matching human resource expansion following users' rapid acceptability of Ping Express. That in-house policy should have been reviewed and upgraded to match the reality of the growing user base of Ping Express. Regardless, a civilized response from the US Justice Department, based on its established precedent and antecedent (i.e., from dealings with peer organizations), should have been the imposition of a duty upon Ping Express to review and develop a new realistic monthly transaction capping time-table with obligatory compliance.

 

Whilst the blatant double standards in the way the US Justice Department handled similar infractions by Western Union, MoneyGram, etc. may be confounding, what is beyond any speck of doubt and which was not stated in the US indictment is that Western Union, MoneyGram, and others that have been pampered under worse situations enjoyed an absolute monopoly of handling billions of dollars Diaspora remittances to Nigeria and the rest of Africa for decades. Ping Express, founded by US citizens of Nigerian descent, was changing the dynamics of that lopsided economic reality.

 

Ping Express is economically significant to Nigeria’s strategic national interest. With the digital economy thrust of the federal government, a company owned by Nigerians with the potential of being a serious competitor in the global dollar-denominated remittance market is a national asset. The US Justice Department did not prosecute, criminalize, or destroy Western Union and MoneyGram and their owners because they recognize the strategic significance of those companies to the US national interest. Does the Nigerian leadership understand that Ping Express offers similar potential with attendant benefits to Nigeria on the capacity of hardworking Nigerians to remit their hard-earned money back home with limited red-tapism? By destroying Ping Express and its owners, is the US not waging a covert economic war against African states and, in this case, Nigeria’s strategic interest, especially on the flow of US-denominated foreign exchange?

 

Summarily, the US Justice Department established four parameters against Western Union and MoneyGram: (i) their executives repeatedly failed to effect satisfactory anti-money laundry controls, (ii) their executives failed to submit suspicious activity reports for 7 years in certain documented instances (iii) their officials participated actively in the violation (iv) their officials got financial rewards or cuts for their participation. Yet, the US Justice Department did not prosecute the executives of both companies. When they attempted to prosecute them, the Department promptly gave the American executives the generous option of fines to avoid conviction. The Justice Department also readily allowed them to improve the processes and technical lapses observed in their systems. Even after repeated failures, they were given further chances. In the case of Ping Express on the other hand, (i) the executives failed to effect satisfactory anti-money laundry controls (ii) the executives failed to submit suspicious activity reports for about 3 years (iii) officials of Ping Express did not participate in the violation as a norm (iv) officials of Ping Express were not rewarded or given cuts for abetting the violations. The US Justice Department, however, decided to prosecute Ping Express and its officials and sentenced the Nigerian executives to 27 months in prison.

 

In conclusion, it is important to note that Oshionebo and Odeyale are not being sanctioned for committing the crime of fraud. They are pretty much being jailed for not doing enough to prevent possible crime by people they do not know. Anslem Oshionebo and Opeyemi Odeyale own Ping Express. That company disrupted the international money transfer space with its technology and empowered Africans to be able to remit funds directly to Africa (Nigeria in particular) with greater ease. During Ping Express’ active period, Diaspora remittance to Nigeria increased tremendously. Ping Express ensured every transaction originated from a properly verified bank account with a robust KYC fidelity. Each transaction also terminated, in the case of Nigeria, in bank accounts with proper KYC backed by inviolable BVN. Technically, Ping Express was not a black hole as every transaction could be traced and the individual involved found. Ping Express’ entrance into the market was a valid business threat to established big-time players like Western Union and MoneyGram. Even the blind can easily sense that the African Fintech Market is the prize in this case. 

 

While “things are not always what they seem,” as Phaedrus stated, it is obvious that we now know what things truly are in this matter with the benefit of peer comparison. I have some questions: What will the Nigerian government’s Ministry of Digital Economy do about this? What is the Nigerian government’s Diasporan Commission going to do about this? What will the Nigerian government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs do about this? Although you cannot interfere in US court activities, you can nonetheless apply intense diplomacy to let your counterparts in the USA know that you know what is truly happening and that you are not happy with the ‘coincidences’ of their gently slapping their child on the wrist while having your child violently clubbed over the head! 

 

 

Tunji Ariyomo is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and the pioneer Coordinator of the Ondo State Information Technology Development Agency.

 

 

Credit

Dawkins, D. (2020, July 14). Nigerian Influencer Ramon ‘Hushpuppi’ Abbas, Accused By FBI Of Money Laundering, Is Denied Bail. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2020/07/14/nigerian-influencer-ramon-hushpuppi-abbas-accused-by-fbi-of-money-laundering-is-denied-bail/?sh=378da3ab7f28

DoJ. (2019). Massive International Fraud and Money Laundering Conspiracy Detailed in Federal Grand Jury Indictment that Charges 80 Defendants. U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, Department of Justice. California: DoJ.

Fitzgibbon, W., & Torres, M. (2020, October 13). The fastest way to send criminal cash: money transmitters. (ICIJ) Retrieved July 19, 2022, from The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: https://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/the-fastest-way-to-send-criminal-cash-money-transmitters/

Griffin, D. (2022, July 15). Fintech Execs Convicted in US After $160 Million Sent to Nigeria. Retrieved July 20, 2022, from Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-15/fintech-execs-convicted-in-us-after-160-million-sent-to-nigeria

 

 

Reports AddThis :  Original Author :  Tunji Light Ariyomo Disable advertisements : 

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday submitted his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella.
Draghi’s resignation which will plunge the European Union’s third-largest economy into fresh political turmoil comes after several key parties in his coalition-- the powerful 5-Star movement, the largest party in the country's coalition government, centre-right Forza Italia and the far-right League -- boycotted a confidence vote in the government Wednesday night, CNN reports.

Mattarella, who accepted the resignation, is scheduled to meet with the speakers of Parliament on Thursday afternoon, the presidential palace said in a statement. The next step is to call for a snap election.
Last week, Draghi first tendered his resignation after the 5-Star movement withdrew its support in a parliamentary confidence vote on a package designed to tackle Italy's cost-of-living crisis.
Draghi had previously said that he would not lead a government that did not include 5-Star.
That resignation, however, was rejected by Italy's President Sergio Mattarella, who urged him to stay and find a solution.
On Thursday, the FTSEMIB, Italy's main stock market, was down more than 2.5% after the country's government was left on the brink of collapse.

International News AddThis :  Original Author :  Saharareporters, New York Disable advertisements : 

A man in Osun State, Bolu Bamidele, who died after he was allegedly set ablaze by his wife, Ifeoluwa, over allegations of having an extramarital affair has been buried. 
 
Bamidele, popularly known as Teebam, was said to have returned to Osogbo, the capital of Osun State from Cairo, Egypt, to give his wife a nice treat on her birthday.

The wife, according to findings, discovered that Bamidele had cheated on her and even had a child outside their union.

Ifeoluwa was said to have gone through her husband’s telephone and discovered the messages the deceased allegedly exchanged with another woman on WhatsApp. 
After confronting him with the information, an argument ensued.
 
The lady was said to have angrily written on her WhatsApp stories that she would be taking drastic action.
 
She had said that her man has “pushed her to the edge” and that people would weep over the two of them before daybreak.
 
Bolu was reportedly set ablaze in his home at Koka village on Sunday, with all his belongings destroyed.
 
He was rushed to the hospital and died days later. The deceased was buried amid tears on Wednesday in Osogbo in the presence of family and loved ones.

The spokesperson for the state police command, SP Yemisi Opalola, said the police had declared Ifeoluwa Bamidele wanted.
 

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