Abba Kyari

Suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Abba Kyari says his arrest and continued detention at the Kuje prison has emboldened criminals in their incessant onslaught against Nigeria, Peoples Gazette reports.
 
Kyari made the statement through his lawyer Nureini Jimoh, who prayed the Federal High Court in Abuja to review his bail application initially rejected.
  Abba Kyari
Citing instances of insecurity such as the Kaduna-Abuja train bombing on March 28, the Kaduna airport attack, as well as rampant banditry on the road linking Kaduna to Abuja, Kyari argued that the country had become a hotbed of crises ever since his arrest.
 
“Upon the incarceration of the applicants, criminality in the nation has risen up. The Kaduna train attack, Kaduna-Abuja Road attack as well as Kaduna airport attack was a result of the incarceration of the applicants,” the document submitted to the court partly reads.
 
Kyari further stressed in the document that the failure of the police to apprehend the bandits was hinged largely on his detention, insinuating security officials were incapable of functioning efficiently without his input.
 
He said, “The entire plan to incarcerate the applicants led to the criminal upsurge and other high-level insecurity in the country. Since the incarceration of the applicants, the police have not recorded any level of success on the senseless attack(s) across the country.”
 
The court had in March ordered that Kyari be remanded at Kuje correctional centre pending the conclusion of his trial.
 
He was arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on February 12 and was arraigned on March 7 over allegations of drug trafficking.

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The Taraba Patriotic Front, a civil society group advocating for good governance and transparency in Taraba State, has called on the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress and Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to properly scrutinize, documents being submitted by the former Deputy Governor of the state, Abubakar Sani Danladi to contest for Taraba North Senatorial District in the 2023 elections. 

The Coordinator of the group, Wayas Benjamin, also said the former deputy governor should be disqualified from running if the ruling party desires to record success in the general elections in the state warning that he has been parading forged documents. 

Benjamin stated that disqualifying Abubakar Sani Danladi from contesting the election will not only be in the best interest of the party but also Taraba State because he has been in and out of court several times on issues of dishonesty, false declaration and lying on oath as relates to the information contained in the affidavit supporting his personal particulars submitted to INEC.

 

Benjamin also said that Danladi was petitioned in court in 2007 and 2018 when he contested as deputy governor to late Danbaba Suntai and when he was presented by the APC governorship candidate over issues bordering on his educational qualification.

He also cited how the APC lost out in presenting a governorship candidate in March 2019 because of a Supreme Court verdict that barred Danladi from running for the post due to age falsification. 

“The suit borders around dishonesty, false declaration and lying on oath as relates to the information contained in the affidavit supporting the personal particulars submitted to INEC by Abubakar Sani Danladi,” he said. 

He alleged that Danladi has no evidence that he is educated up to school certificate level or its equivalent. 

“This is founded on several premises. Firstly, there is no record of any candidate with the name Abubakar Sani Danladi at Bachama Primary school in 1979/84, where Abubakar Sani claims he obtained his First Leaving School certificate,” he said.

“The only candidate with the name Sani in that school in that year was one Sani Babu who could read and write as of 23rd December 1991 when he sought to change his name to Abubakar Sani Danladi. Interestingly, on 17th February 2004, another Abubakar Sani Danladi who cannot read and write made a declaration attempting to lay claim to the primary school certificate of Sani Babu.”

“This fact is evidenced by a Sworn Declaration Affidavit, declared to by Abubakar Sani Danladi, wherein the content of the Affidavit had to be read over to him by an interpreter who also counter signed the Affidavit, dated 17th February 2004.”

“It can be said that the Abubakar Sani Danladi who could not read and write English language in 2004 is not the same person who owns a WAEC certificate which would imply that he could read and write English language as far back as June 2001 when the WAEC examination took place.”

 “Chairman may wish to note that Abubakar Sani Danladi submitted an Affidavit of change of name, which he purportedly deposed to sometime in December 1991. The Affidavit states that Sani Babu changed his name to Abubakar Sani Danladi.”

“It is instructive to note that the APC Guidelines for Nomination clearly requires that when a candidate submits an Affidavit for change of name, the Affidavit must be accompanied with a Newspaper Publication of the change of name and a Deed Poll, neither of which Abubakar Sani Danladi submitted in support of his Affidavit of change of name.

“Records of Proceedings from the Court of Appeal where all the above allegations against Abubakar Sani Danladi were made contains all the evidence of the documents tendered in support of the allegations. The Records are in 2 volumes compiled by the Registry of the Court of Appeal. Copies of the CTC of the 2 volumes are submitted to the National Legal Adviser of the APC and marked EXH. 1, for ease of reference.”

The Taraba Patriotic Front Coordinator argued that the APC may be disqualified from nominating a candidate for the seat of Taraba North Senatorial district if Danladi is not stopped now, noting that the integrity of the party built over many years of diligence and commitment may be smeared with a fine of N10 Million.

As a consequence, he warned that Taraba North will have been robbed of the opportunity of electing a preferred candidate from our great party.

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Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi

Details have emerged on how the Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, generated the list of three ad-hoc delegates in each of the 260 wards of the state four clear days ahead of the April 30, 2022, Ward Congress of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 

The PDP had conducted congresses across the nation to elect three ad-hoc ward delegates, who are to join the statutory delegates to elect the House of Assembly, National Assembly, and Governorship candidates of the party in the 2023 elections.

Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi

Prior to the exercise, the 552nd meeting of the NWC had advised party leaders, stakeholders and members to refrain from any form of imposition, infringement and meddlesomeness in the exercise.

 

“The NWC, therefore, directs all members and officials of the party to respect and fully comply with the party’s constitution and the Electoral Guidelines in the conduct of the 3-man Ad-Hoc and National Delegates Congresses and Primaries,” a statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Olgunagba, had said.

 

The exercise was scheduled to hold at designated times and venues being the collation centres in the wards.

 

However, findings show that Governor Ugwuanyi had already compiled the list of the three delegates for each of the 260 wards four days before the congress.

GOVERNOR UGWUANYI'S FRAUDULENT DELEGATES LIST.pdf (function(){ var scribd_doc = scribd.Document.getDocFromUrl('https://secure.saharareporters.com/sites/default/files/GOVERNOR%20UGWUANYI%27S%20FRAUDULENT%20DELEGATES%20LIST.pdf', 'pub-38756116719609018964'); var onDocReady = function(e){}; scribd_doc.addParam('jsapi_version', 2); scribd_doc.addParam('public', true); scribd_doc.addParam('allow_share', true); scribd_doc.addEventListener('docReady', onDocReady); scribd_doc.write('embedded_doc_110671'); })(); EXCLUSIVE 2023 Elections: How Enugu Governor, Ugwuanyi Conducted Mini-congress, Shopped For Party Members To Do His Bidding 4 Days Before Main PDP Ward Congress

“What happened was that the governor invited the 17 local government council chairmen to the Government House where he instructed them to meet with the Chairman of the Enugu State chapter of the PDP, Chief Augustine Nnamani, to compile names of trusted party members that would vote according to the governor’s directive at the primaries. That was four days before the congress.

 

“Nnamani summoned a meeting of the council chairmen and instructed them to compile the list of delegates working with the ward chairmen. It was this same list that the state government and the state party chairman handed to the Prince Vincent Yandev Amaabai-led national panel as a consensus list of the Enugu PDP stakeholders.

 

“These names were accordingly transferred to the result sheets at a hotel a stone's throw from the Government House where Amaabai and members of his panel were also lodged."

 

Our source, however, said that contrary to the claims, not many stakeholders, including those considered to be in the governor’s good books, were taken into confidence in the compilation of the delegates' lists.

 

“For instance, in Enugu East, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani was carried along to an extent. In Enugu North, former state chairman of the party, Chief Vita Abba, who is vying for the Nsukka/Igboeze South Federal Constituency, was also carried along, while the incumbent, Hon. Pat Asadu was left out.

 

“In Ezeagu, part of Enugu West, the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr. Festus Uzo, who is also a House of Representatives aspirant was carried along, while the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Cecilia Ezeilo, was left in the lurch," the source said. 

 

Meanwhile, our investigation showed that former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and a section of the Enugu PDP leaders refused to be played by Ugwuanyi.

 

It was gathered that Ekweremadu’s supporters and political associates mobilised to the designated venues to follow the party’s guidelines in the election of delegates in some wards even without the ward leadership.

 

“Ekweremadu’s supporters and associates were at the 260 wards where the three-man delegates' election were held and also monitored by INEC staff. The candidates came with their nomination forms and party members queued behind them.

 

“However, since the state government and PDP state chairman already hijacked members of the Abuja panel and the result sheets, the results of the exercise were recorded on plain sheets of paper and signed by the requisite party officials and INEC staff.

 

“But there were also instances where the requisite party officers such as the ward chairman and secretary declined to either record the results or sign, courtesy of order from above.

 

“It was this decision by a section of the Enugu PDP to go ahead with the exercise at the designated venues and time that resulted in the attacks on the congress by thugs in some cases in a failed bid to stop the exercise in the fields.

 

“The simple implication is that whereas there is no pictorial or video evidence of participation of the Ugwuanyi group in the Congress, which they claim to have won, there is hard evidence in terms of pictures and video of the participation of the Ekweremadu group in the exercise,” a highly placed party source revealed.

 

Our findings, however, show that as things stand now, only the courts would eventually determine the actual delegates list as both the Ekweremadu and Ugwuanyi supporters have gone to court over the delegates' list.

 

Meanwhile, alleged manipulations and lack of transparency in the ward congress across the South East, which have been blamed on the impunity of the PDP NWC and the governors is something analysts believe the PDP should worry about.

 

“In Abia, there were protests. In Ebonyi, it was the same thing. In fact, the chairman of the panel that came from Abuja was reportedly manhandled and there are court cases on congress. In Imo, angry party members held the Abuja panel hostage. INEC has equally rejected the congress in Imo for non-compliance with the party Guidelines and Electoral Act 2022.

 

“Currently, the PDP is left with only two states in the South East, namely Enugu and Abia; and unless the party manages this situation well to ensure that the most popular aspirants emerge as candidates for the 2003 general elections, the party will lose the entire region and most of the state and National Assembly seats,” a source in the party stated.

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The House of Representatives will on Wednesday convene an emergency plenary session to address the fundamental error in the newly amended Electoral Act 2022.
 
Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act has been a subject of controversy.

Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on March 7 stopped President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney-General of the Federation and Senate President from tampering with the newly amended Electoral Act 2022.
 
The judge in a ruling on an ex-parte application by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, agreed that the Electoral Act, having been assented to by Buhari, had become a valid law and could not be tampered with without following due process of law.
 
Justice Ekwo agreed with Chief James Ogwu Onoja (SAN), counsel for the PDP, that the proper place to challenge the validity of any existing law or the Electoral Act is a court of competent jurisdiction.
 
However, a division of the Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State, had on March 18, nullified Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act — a decision that agrees with President Buhari’s earlier protest against the controversial legal provision.
 
The novel statutory provision had prohibited political appointees from voting as delegates in party conventions or congresses for the election or nomination of candidates.
 
In her verdict, the judge, Evelyn Anyadike, held that the section was “unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever” and ordered the AGF, who was the sole defendant in the suit, to “forthwith delete the said Subsection 12 of Section 84 from the body of the Electoral Act, 2022.”
 
Meanwhile, President Buhari had informed a Federal High Court in Abuja that he did not order the Senate to remove the contentious Section 84 (12) from the amended Electoral Act 2022.
 
Contrary to the claims of the PDP in a suit instituted against him and 12 others on the Electoral Act, Buhari said that he only expressed reservations and concerns in respect of the aspect of the Electoral Act.
 
 
 
 

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The Coalition of Ogun State Students and Youths (COSSY) says it has obtained the mugshot confirming the real face of the Ogun State Governor, Prince Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun regarding his involvement in credit card fraud in Miami-Dade, Florida, USA.
 
The coalition said it had also received from the Criminal Justice Records, Miami-Dade, US, the Certified True Copies (CTC) of his criminal records and indictment in 1986 and 1987, both as Shawn Michael David and Oladapo Oluseun Abiodun.

This is contained in a statement signed by the General Secretary of the coalition, Muyowa Adetona on Tuesday.
 
Muyiwa said the mugshot and CTC would be tendered in court to authenticate the criminal past of the governor and get him disqualified from seeking re-election in the forthcoming Ogun State governorship primaries of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), slated for May 18, 2022.
 
The statement read in part, "The Coalition of Ogun State Students and Youths wishes to inform the general public that we have received the mugshot of Prince Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun from the US criminal justice records.
 
"Also obtained from the Miami-Dade police department are Certified True Copies (CTC) of his plethora felony indictments in 1986 and 1987 as Shawn David Michael and Oladapo Oluseun Abiodun.
 
"Also overleaf are CTC documents which one of the members who is now an aspirant in the APC shall present in court to authenticate the criminal past of Governor Abiodun and get him disqualified from seeking re-election.”
 
The youths urged the APC not to fail to disqualify Abiodun or make the “mistake of presenting him as its flagbearer in the forthcoming Ogun State Gubernatorial Primaries slated for May 18, 2022”.
 
SaharaReporters on March 25, 2022, reported how the governor was jailed in 1986 for credit card fraud in Miami-Dade, US.
 
The governor was said to have used a pseudo name (Shawn Michael Davids) with the aim of concealing his criminal identity.
 
The record revealed that Abiodun was jailed for committing criminal offences which bordered on credit card fraud, petty theft and cheque forgery.
 
He was arrested on November 7, 1986, for fighting and injuring a police officer in an attempt to resist arrest.
 
While being processed at the station, his fingerprint was run through the crime database and it was discovered that the Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun being processed for detention was the same as Shawn Michael Davids.
 
His criminal record and history were thus cemented and he was jailed.
 
According to a jail document obtained by SaharaReporters, Abiodun's jail number was 8600B9436.
In 2015, while contesting for the Ogun East Senatorial seat against the late Buruji Kasamu of the  Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP), he applied for the redaction of his criminal records in Miami-Dade, Florida.
 
This act of concealment meant he could lie on his Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) forms that he had no prior criminal records. A perjury offence that could have disqualified him from ever holding an appointive or elective office in Nigeria. The redaction was granted in August 2015.
 
The redaction application details are as follows:
CFN... 20150534571
BOOK...29743
PAGE...1170
DATE...18th August 2015
TIME...04:20:51pm
It was processed by Harvey Euvin, the Miami-Dade City Clerk of Court.

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DOCUMENTS: Ogun Youth Group Releases Police Mugshot, Certified True Copies Of Dapo Abiodun's Criminal Recor... by Sahara Reporters on Scribd

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The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has finally approved the payment of $418 million to Linas International Ltd, a company belonging to Prince Ned Nwoko, a former House of Representatives member and other consultants over the Paris Club refund.
 
SaharaReporters had reported how President Muhammadu Buhari re-approved the payment of the controversial millions of dollars in Paris Club refund to some creditors after being manipulated by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
Documents seen by SaharaReporters had shown that the Debt Management Office (DMO) on September 27, 2021, issued 10 promissory notes valued at $4,783,192.00 each to the creditors.
 
They were asked to submit the original promissory notes to the CBN for dematerialisation.
One of those who stand to gain if the money is paid is Nwoko. The businessman is laying claim to $142,028,941 via a consent judgment he obtained from the Federal High Court in Abuja in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/148/2017.
A firm, Panic Alert Security System Limited, owned by George Uboh, is also laying claim to $47,831,920.
 
“This Promissory Note qualifies as a Liquid Asset for liquidity ratio calculation for banks. This Promissory Note is negotiable and transferable, subject to the submission of this original Note to the Central Bank of Nigeria. Holders are also required to submit this original Promissory Note to the Central Bank of Nigeria for dematerialization. In any case, this Promissory Note must be submitted to the Central Bank of Nigeria for payment at least two (2) working days before the Maturity Date,” one of the documents read.
 
On November 19, 2021, the apex bank in a letter to some banks said the promissory notes “are not admissible or registrable on the scrip-less securities settlement system.”
 
The letter signed by CBN’s Director of Banking Service, Josephine Ajala and addressed to one of the financial institutions, Keystone Bank, read, “We are in receipt of two letters dated November 17, 2021, from your office, requesting for dematerialization of various FGN promissory notes for Prince Orji Nwafor-Orizu totalling $1,219,440:00 and Barrister Olaitan Bello totalling $215,195:00.
 
“Please be informed that we are unable to accede to your request because currently, Foreign Currency Denominated Promissory Notes are not admissible or registrable on the scrip-less securities settlement system (54) and as such, only Promissory Notes issued in Naira are registered and dematerialized on 54.”
However in another letter dated 29th March, 2022 with reference No. GVD/GOV/CON/DGC/210/071 and addressed to Malami, Emefiele said the apex bank is willing to pay the millions of dollars in Paris Club refund to the creditors.
“We, hereby humbly seek the direction of the HAGF, as the Chief Law Officer of the Federation confirming that there are no impediments against honoring the payment of the promissory notes at their maturity dates, or permitting the rediscounting as may be requested by the beneficiaries in line with the President’s approval so that the CBN may proceed to act accordingly,” the letter personally signed by the apex bank boss read.
“The HAGF would recall a presidential approval for the settlement of Paris Club related judgement debts of states and local governments totalling the sum of USD418.95 million through the issuance of promissory notes to six judgments creditors.”
However, sources said the sudden U-turn of the CBN boss may be connected with his presidential ambition under the ruling All Progressives Congress.
“The presidential ambition of Godwin Emefiele and the gubernatorial request of Malami have driven them to throw caution to the wind and are brazenly colluding and conniving with fraudsters in the Paris Club claim. In the next few days, they are planning to pay out $418 million to these fraudsters calling themselves consultants so that they can get 50% out of it for their various campaign teams,” a presidential source told SaharaReporters.
“These are fraudulent payments where Malami and they connived to deceive the Judges to give funny and unsustainable judgments. The payment should be investigated to save the Nigerian economy.
“Evidence of fraudulent Minister – Abubakar Malami on the 9th October, 2018 reference No. MJ/CIV/ABJ/440/17 wrote to president Buhari accusing Riok Nigeria Limited, Ted Iseghohi Edwards of fraud and that the EFCC had indicated them.
“Nigerians, these are the same people that Malami and Emefiele – the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice with the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria are pushing frantically for them to be paid $418 million which they are supposed to be standing trial.
“The Debt Management Office is colluding with Malami, Emefiele and others even when the CBN Act forbids this type of payment, The DMO woman illegally asked the CBN Governor to trigger the provision to Section 20(5) so that the money can be stolen and shared by all.
“Enough of this brazen stealing and fraud of our common patrimony by a few criminals. God will judge if no one in this administration can stand out to be counted.” 
Background
SaharaReporters had in a series of reports exposed wide-ranging legitimacy issues, including non-execution of agreed contracts and backdoor deals raised against the indebtedness from various quarters.
 
One of the beneficiaries is Dr Ted Iseghohi Edwards, who was indicted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
 
Documents seen by SaharaReporters showed that Edwards did not represent the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) as claimed.
 
A letter dated August 1, 2018, by former EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, to the Ministry of Justice/Attorney General Office, indicted him of an attempt to defraud the Nigerian government.
 
It said, “The suspects had filed applications in court to be joined as one of the judgement creditors during the garnishee proceedings and the applications were refused by the Federal High Court. The judge in a ruling delivered on the 27th of June 2016 frowned on Dr Ted Edward for brandishing a judgment purportedly delivered by the Federal Capital Territory on 30th October, 2015 and in fact, took a swipe at it.
 
“By the Motion Ex parte filed on the 30th of March, 2015, the judgement creditors applied for a Garnishee Order Nisi which was granted on 1st April, 2015 and fixed the return date for 16th April for the Garnishee to show cause why the Order Nisi should not be made absolute.
 
“The Honorable Judge in his ruling stated unequivocally that 'let me state right away that the substantive matter was commenced by me until I entered judgement on the 3rd of December, 2013. I have searched my records up to the date I entered judgement. I could not find the name of Dr Ted Iseghohi Edwards as representing the judgement creditors even for one day nor did I find any process filed by his law firm. How then was that judgement prosecuted?'
 
“Another point to highlight is the fact that according to the purported letter of engagement being bandied by Dr Ted Edwards, he was engaged on September 15, 2011, long before the matter was filed in court quoting the exact judgment sum.
 
 
“What this throws up is the fact that the said letter of engagement was done after 3rd December, 2013 and backdated to make it look as if the suspect had been engaged before the case started. There is no evidence to prove that the suspect did any work in relation to the recovery process.
 
“A careful look at the memorandum of settlement between Dr Ted Iseghohi Edwards and Hon. Odunayo Ategbero betrays the conspiracy and an attempt to defraud the Federal Government by the suspects.
 
“Pending Actions; Invitation and/or Arrest of the suspect, Dr Ted Iseghohi Edwards with a view of confronting him with all the issues raised in the evaluation above. Tracing and filing interim forfeiture order on any property or asset acquired with proceeds of fraud by Dr. Ted Iseghahi Edwards.”
 
SaharaReporters gathered that despite the report, Malami persuaded Buhari to approve $159 million as legal fees to Edward.
 
They also directed the DMO and the Ministry of Finance to release the promissory notes to Edwards and others so that they could take their shares, a source had said.
 
“Edwards was the Secretary-General of ALGON when the Paris Club refund case FHC/ABJ/CS/130/2013 was done by Joe Agi (SAN) and his colleagues before Justice Ademola. It is clear that he was not the lawyer to ALGON and this much ALGON has said in writing to Malami and the Chief of Staff, Gambari,” the source had told SaharaReporters.
 
“The EFCC in its report to Malami and (Ibrahim) Gambari also established that Ted Edwards did not represent ALGON and that Ted Edwards in his own handwriting admitted that Joe Agi was the lead counsel for ALGON. He went to one Judge, Baba Yusuf and procured a judgement that he was the lawyer to ALGON in the Paris Club refund case.
 
“Yet, Malami who knows this is recommending that Ted Edwards be paid $159,000,000 as fees from ALGON instead of the actual lawyer. Will this not amount to double payment whenever Mr Joe Agi demands to be paid? From my investigation, Mr Joe Agi, ALGON and the Nigerian Governors’ Forum have all gone back to court to challenge the payment of the $418 million including that of Edwards through promissory notes.
 
“Should Malami not take a second look at the suit and see if really there is any fraud as being widely alleged? Instead, he and the Chief of Staff tricked the President and subsequently directed the Debt Management Office and the Finance Office to release the promissory notes to Edwards and others so that they can take their shares.
 
“The total sum of $418 million promissory note suggested by Malami to be paid is just a tip of the iceberg of what is coming unless he is stopped. Nigeria will become bankrupt before President Buhari leaves office. The anti-corruption war of Buhari has been effectively clipped by Malami and Gambari using their powerful offices to trick the President who really trusted them.
 
“All (that is) needed to be done is to allow independent people to go through the whole cases concocted on the advice of Malami and the truth will be seen and Nigeria saved of all these massive stealing.
 
“Why is Malami not challenging any of these court judgements? If I may ask; in most of all these claims, the EFCC had investigated, taken statements and established that none of the contracts was executed. The report was submitted to Malami and former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun by the Magu-led EFCC (which) suggested the arrest and interrogation of Ted Edwards and one Prince Nicolas Ukachukwu but he and Gambari suppressed the report.
 
“The same man suggested to be arrested is who Malami said should be given $159,000,000. ALGON had written several letters to him and (Kayode) Fayemi, who is the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum that all the jobs executed by Edwards and others were fake, not executed. Yet Malami in the face of this clear case of fraud tricked the President in a memo and said judgement was given against them.
 
“He also negotiated the debt to 50 percent and convinced the President to pay to avoid more damages. It’s high time President Buhari saved his anti-corruption war by causing a thorough investigation of his appointees involved in this massive fraud.”
 
Others who stand to benefit if the money is paid include Ned Nwoko, who is laying claim to $142,028,941 via a consent judgment he obtained from the Federal High Court in Abuja in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/148/2017.
 
Three beneficiaries laying claim to $143,463,577.76 via a judgment of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in the suit marked FCT/HC/CV/2129/2014 are: Riok Nigeria Ltd, Orji Nwafor Orizu, and Olaitan Bello.
 
From the total money, Riok Nigeria Limited has a share of $142,028,941.95 (about 54 billion), Mr Nwafor is entitled to $1,219,440.45 and Mr Bello has a share of $215,159.36.
 
A firm, Panic Alert Security System Limited, owned by George Uboh, is also laying claim to $47,831,920 based on another “consent judgment” it obtained in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/123/2018, which was filed in 2018.



























 

DOCUMENTS: After Manipulating Buhari, Attorney-General Malami, Emefiele Set to Pay $418million to Ned Nwok... by Sahara Reporters on Scribd

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Goodluck Jonathan

The Fulani group behind the purchase of the N100million Presidential nomination and expression of interest forms of the All Progressives Congress has said that former President, Goodluck Jonathan, will not leave the country until he accepts the forms from its members.

The former President had earlier rejected the forms obtained on his behalf, noting that they were bought without his consent.

Goodluck Jonathan

The ruling APC forms had been bought for him by the Fulani supporters' group on Monday, continuing the trend of aspirants using proxies to purchase the forms.

In a statement by the former president's spokesman, he was said to be unaware “of this bid and did not authorise it.”

However, Secretary of the Fulani Group, Usman Mohammed, according to PUNCH, noted that the nomination was meant to be a surprise gift to the ECOWAS special envoy.

He noted that if the ex-president turned down the nomination form as he threatened, they would be left with no option than to force him to accept it.

“I believe you are aware of how we blocked his office in the FCT during our rallies in Kano, Suleja, Minna, and Abuja, and forced him to come out to address journalists. It is the same approach.

“If he doesn’t accept our form, we won’t let him out of Nigeria,” he said.

The Fulani pastoralists opted for the choice of Jonathan out of the almost 30 APC presidential candidates because of his patriotism and love for Nigeria, the scribe disclosed.

Mohammed explained that his people were compelled to sell their livestock to raise money for the nomination forms because of the development he brought to the Fulani and Almajiri schools.

“Jonathan is a Christian with a heart of Muslim. When he was president, he supported Almajiri schools, took care of our children, and fed them in many northern states. The money for the nomination forms was contributed by Fulani cattle herders in the country. We saw some media reporting Miyetti Allah or Northern Youths. That’s not true.

“Besides, he is the most experienced of all the APC presidential candidates. None of the other candidates has ever been president of the country, including Tinubu.

“He is a man who loves Nigerians and loves other people’s children more than his own. We need him to continue with his Almajiri school project, especially in Kano where we have over three million of these students. None of them bought uniforms with their money,” he said.

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JPMorgan, the global leader in financial services, has removed Nigeria from its list of emerging market sovereign recommendations that investors should be ‘overweight’ in.

 

According to Reuters, the move was informed by the fact that Nigeria had not taken advantage of high oil prices. 

JPMorgan also announced the addition of Serbia and Uzbekistan to the list.

 

Buttressing it, the analysts said Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) did not transfer any revenue to the government from January to March this year, due to petrol subsidies and low oil production, as it moved Nigeria’s debt out of the bank’s ‘overweight’ category. 

 

“Nigeria’s fiscal woes amid a worsening global risk backdrop have raised market concerns despite a positive oil environment,” they said.

 

It moved Serbia to ‘overweight’ as risks had been priced in and the country had high reserves and a fiscally cautious government, the note said, while relatively low debt despite Russian exposure led them to put Uzbekistan in the same category. 

 

Emerging market sovereign debt is at the “mercy” of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions, JPMorgan analysts said in a note on Monday, as the U.S. central bank’s rate raises drain capital from developing markets. 

 

Last week, the Fed raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by half a percentage point, the biggest jump in 22 years, as it seeks to tame high inflation while its rate increases also buffet higher-yielding emerging markets.

 

JPMorgan’s Emerging Markets Bond Index Global Diversified (EMBIGD) index has fallen 16% this year, the analysts said, “with most of the losses having come from rates” and $4 billion in net outflows from emerging markets since mid-April.

 

“The external and fundamental backdrop has become increasingly difficult for EM sovereigns. The COVID lockdown in China poses further downside risks," they added.

 

They noted that riskier sovereign yields were now 10.6%, the highest level since the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020, reducing market access and increasing the risk of debt defaults. 

 

However, the analysts said the “front-loaded pain” for emerging market bonds, which they said had begun underperforming in September 2021, was positive. 

 

It is understood that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February caused commodity prices to spike, benefiting exporters. 

 

JPMorgan added that the over-performance of bonds issued by oil exporters now “looks to have played out."

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Rivers Governor Wike

The leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has described as “insulting and totally unacceptable” the attack by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on the Ijaw ethnic nationality following a controversy between him and a lawmaker, Farah Dagogo.

The IYC viewed Governor Wike’s “Thunder Fire You” comment as disturbing, inciting and denigrating of the high office he occupied.

Rivers Governor Wike

The IYC leadership noted that such “tactless and disrespectful comment” by Wike was the height of his prolonged disdain for the Ijaw nation as a whole and Rivers’ Ijaw people in particular since he became governor of the state.

The IYC in a release said its only offence alongside its parent body, the Ijaw National Congress (INC), was asking for the release of an Ijaw son, Dagogo, who was arrested and remanded in prison on the orders of the Rivers governor.

The IYC said, “Despite being the fourth largest ethnic nationality in Nigeria and the largest in the Niger Delta, the Ijaw have consistently promoted peaceful and harmonious relationships with other ethnic groups, including Wike’s Ikwerre nationality in Rivers State. However, Wike should be reminded that such unguarded and incendiary comments are capable of rupturing the existing good relationship with the Ikwerres, and his kinsmen are advised to call him to order. 

“Wike has forgotten that by calling fire and thunder on the Ijaw nation, his benefactor and our revered leader, former President Goodluck Jonathan, is an illustrious Ijaw son. This “thunder” did not fire the former president when, despite all odds, he made him the choice of the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State against the wishes of other competent Ijaw aspirants in the state.

“Now, Jonathan as an Ijaw man, is also under fire from Governor Wike. For him, all those that made him, including the people of Rivers State, are in his pocket and can be insulted at will.

“We, therefore, call on our people as a whole to see Governor Wike as an enemy of the Ijaw nation. We urge Ijaws all over the world to speak against this tyrannical behaviour of Wike. We also call on our Ijaw brothers that are delegates in his party not to cast their votes for him during the presidential primaries as this will be viewed as betrayal of our heritage. Suffice it to say that if a governor can cast aspersion on an entire ethnic nationality, what would become of him as president of the most populous black nation on the planet?”

Wike had at a church programme in Port Harcourt, while responding to an ultimatum given to his government to release Dagogo, dared the Ijaw council to do their worst, warning them that they did not know whom they were dealing with.

Rounding off his speech, Wike had said, “Thunder fire them and their ultimatum.”

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Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has confirmed that former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, withdrew from 2023 presidential to support him (Lawan).
He disclosed this during plenary on Tuesday while announcing a roll call of Senators who are ambitious to contest the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

In his remark, Lawan commended Kalu and described him as a statesman for withdrawing from the presidential race for him.
He also said senators who had purchased the N100 million APC presidential nomination form include Senator Ibikunle Amosun representing Ogun Central Senatorial District; Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice, representing Ondo North Senatorial District, and himself representing Yobe North Senatorial District.
He said, “The first person to buy presidential nomination form is Senator Ibikunle Amosun; the next is the distinguished deputy Senate leader, Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice.
“Also I got the nod and I have shown my interest to contest for the Office of the President of our great country on the platform of our great party, the APC.
“So the Senate contingent is a formidable one and by the grace of the Almighty God, the aspirants for the All Progressives Congress and maybe the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well will make headway.
“The Chief Whip, who is also an aspirant, has stepped down to support my aspiration. So the Chief Whip of the Federation, I will thank you for what you have done for being a statesman.
“All our colleagues who are contesting for the governorship in their various states, we wish all of them the best of luck and those who want to come back to the Senate, we also wish them the best of luck.”
Lawan had on Monday claimed to have been presented with the presidential nomination form by a group operating under the aegis of “National Stability Project”, led by one Sam Nkire.
The nomination form was presented to him after an elaborate ceremony at the Senate President’s guest house in Maitama, Abuja where some Senators loyal to him were present.
SaharaReporters had reported on Monday that Kalu officially pulled out of the 2023 Presidential election.
He said on Monday that the decision to pull out of the race was informed by the fact that the ruling APC would not be zoning the presidency to any region.
According to him, if a candidate of South-East extraction was not successful in clinching the APC ticket, he would support a candidate from another part of the country.

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been urged to extend the timeline for the 2023 general elections by two months.

Political parties in the country made the call on Tuesday, saying they wanted slight changes to the primaries’ timeline, as stipulated by the electoral umpire.

This was made known by the Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yusuf Yabagi, on Tuesday at a meeting of the electoral umpire and leaders of various political parties at the INEC headquarters in Abuja.

Yabagi said the meeting, that was well attended by national chairmen of various party, including Abdullahi Adamu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Iyorchia Ayu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) resolved that the extension was necessary to help political parties put things in order for the forthcoming general elections.

However, the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu informed the party leaders that the commission would not review the existing timelines and appealed that primaries be conducted creditably in order to minimise litigations.

While reminding them of the forthcoming governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states, he called on all the parties to comply with the provisions in the Electoral Act.

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Dr Dennis Otiotio, Chairman, Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said that former President Goodluck Jonathan is at liberty to join the party but he has yet to do so.

Otiotio disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

He spoke against the backdrop of moves to draft Jonathan into the 2023 presidential race, saying that the APC in Bayelsa was not aware of Jonathan’s membership.

“The former president is not yet a registered member of APC. He is free to join any party of his choice. We are open and willing to receive him into our fold, as a political party desirous of winning elections; the only way to go is by admitting people into the party,” Otiotio said.

A northern support group had on Monday in Abuja, purchased the APC presidential nomination and expression of interest forms for the former president to contest the 2023 elections on the APC platform.

However, in a statement by Ikechukwu Eze, Media Adviser to Jonathan on Monday night, the former president dissociated himself from the move and said that Jonathan did not authorise the purchase of the form.

According to the statement, Jonathan was not consulted on the procurement of the APC nomination in his name and rejected it.

 

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Human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, has accused the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu of mobilising thugs to attack him and his close associates.

According to the activist in a tweet on Tuesday, the reason for the planned attack is because he exposed how Yakubu paid N3billion to renew his tenure.

Sowore added that some government officials have also mobilised thugs to attack him for calling on Nigerian youths and students to confront President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration over the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

“A new deadly attack on my person and close associates has been planned again, this time by the Chairman of INEC Nigeria, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, his reason was that I exposed that he paid N3b to renew his tenure. He procured boys from Jisiri in Abuja,” he tweeted.

“Also heard another set of persons are being mobilised for attacks on me over my call on Nigerian youths and students to confront the ‪@MBuhari‬ regime over ‪#EndASUUStrike‬. My position remains unchanged, the youths of this country must break the yoke of oppression! ‪#Revolutionnow.”‬

SaharaReporters had exposed how Yakubu secured a second tenure in office after paying huge sums of money to facilitate his reappointment.

According to a top insider, he paid at least N3 billion as bribes to have his tenure as INEC Chairman extended by another five years. See Also Sahara Reporters EXPOSED: How INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, Allegedly Paid N3bn To Secure Reappointment 0 Comments 1 Year Ago

“He paid a princely sum of N2bn to a group led by Senate President Ahmad Lawan and another N1bn to another group.

“These huge funds were deployed and mobilised by a civil servant and director in INEC, who is described as wealthy and in charge of a strategic department.

“The director was also aided by a contractor to the commission, Mohammed Sani Musa, who is presently a serving senator from Niger State responsible for the printing of INEC ballot papers used for elections under a company (Activate Technologies),” a source had told SaharaReporters.

It was further gathered that the reappointment of Yakubu as INEC boss was further made possible with the death of President Buhari’s former Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, and Alhaji Isa Funtua, and the absence of Mamman Daura from public. 

Daura is a key member of a trusted group of allies Buhari relies on before making important decisions.

The absence of these men, it was gathered, created the perfect avenue for powerful government officials with vested interests to persuade the President into handing Yakubu a fresh term in office.

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The Senate has amended the Electoral Act, 2022, to allow “statutory delegates” otherwise called elected government officials to participate and vote in the conventions, congresses or meetings of political parties.
The senate on Tuesday made the amendment according to a release from the Office of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who is now also a presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress.

“This followed the expeditious consideration of a bill during plenary which scaled first, second and third readings, respectively, and was passed during plenary by the chamber after consideration by the Committee of the Whole.
“Those identified as “statutory delegates” include the President, Vice President, Members of the National Assembly, Governors and their deputies, Members of the State Houses of Assembly, Chairmen of Councils, Councillors, National Working Committee of political parties, amongst others. 
“The bill to amend the 2022 Electoral Act No. 13 was sponsored by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta Central),” the statement said. 
Omo-Agege, in his presentation, said the bill seeks to amend the provision of section 84(8) of the Electoral Act.
The statement added, “According to him, the provisions of the section “does not provide for the participation of what is generally known as ‘statutory delegates’ in the conventions, congresses or meetings of political parties.”
“The extant section only clearly provides for the participation of elected delegates in the conventions, congresses or meetings of political parties held to nominate candidates of political parties. This is an unintended error, and we can only correct it with this amendment now before us”, the Deputy Senate President said.
“Speaking after the bill to amend the 2022 Electoral Act was passed, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks, said that the amendment became imperative in view of the deficiency created by the provision of section 84(8) of the extant Act.
He said, “The amended Electoral Act of 2022 that we passed this year, has a deficiency that was never intended and that deficiency will deny all statutory delegates in all political parties from participation in congresses and conventions.
“And, therefore, such a major and unintended clause has to be amended before the party primaries starts in the next eight days. This is an emergency legislation, so to speak.
“Our expectation is that the National Assembly - the two chambers - would finish with the processing of the amendment of this bill, between today (in the Senate) and tomorrow (in the House of Representatives), and then the Executive will do the assent.
“That is so important to enable every statutory delegate to participate in the party primaries right from the beginning that will start on the 18th of May, 2022.
“So, this is an emergency effort to ensure that nobody is denied his or her rightful opportunity as a delegate, especially the statutory delegates, and these are those who are elected.
“These are the President, Vice President, Members of the National Assembly, Governors, Members of the State Houses of Assembly, Chairmen of Council and their Councillors, National Working Committee Members of all the political parties and so on.
“This is a fundamental effort to ensure that we address this within the week, so that by next week, the Electoral Act, 2022 (amended version), will be very salutary for us to start our party primaries.”

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Reuben Abati

The current presidential election process in Nigeria, the sixth, since the return to democratic rule in 1999, is like no other before it. It is the most contested, the most controversial, and the most demonstrative of the fault lines, and notably, the moral depravity in Nigerian politics and society. By this time in every other Presidential election before now, there was more or less a clear sense of direction and whereas there were contenders, they were few known figures. This time around, the race for the Presidency especially in the two main political parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) has become an all –comer’s affair, a lottery in fact, if not a comedy, at the lower end of that spectrum- a farce, a burlesque. About a week ago, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) closed the sale of its expression of interest and nomination forms, and after screening the 17 aspirants that showed interest in the Presidential position, the party came up with a short list of 15. Fifteen: the highest number of eligible aspirants ever in the 24-year history of the party! Today, Tuesday, May 10, the rival APC closes the sale and submission of its expression of interest and nomination forms, having extended this by a week to accommodate the Ramadan holiday.
 
 The last time I checked, the APC was talking about 40 aspirants, and 24 of them having paid the high fee of N100 million, and the party boasting of over N2.4 billion in its coffers. No other electoral process has been this costly since 1999! By the time the APC closes shop for submissions today, Nigeria would have most probably on its hands, over 40 aspirants trying to be President in just two political parties. There are 16 other political parties. Where are they? Nobody is talking about them. They have been crowded out by the PDP and the APC, most effectively. Due to lack of capacity and prominence, it would be difficult for any other political party in Nigeria at the moment to provide better traction at the Presidential level, even if many of those other parties may have better aspirants, and that is the truth. How inclusive is the emerging democratic process? How diverse, open and fair are the options available to the Nigerian electorate? The two major political parties: the APC and the PDP project much that is wrong with the current transition process and the move towards 2023. It is worse that there is only one female Presidential aspirant!
  Reuben Abati
And why do we have so many Presidential aspirants, so many that nobody is even focusing on what goes on at the State and local council levels in all the 36 states plus FCT and the country’s 774 local governments, or in other political parties?  It is perhaps not so unusual in other political jurisdictions. In the 2020 Democratic Party Presidential primaries in the United States, a total of 29 candidates declared their intention, the largest number in any Presidential primaries in the US since 1972. The primaries in the US are organized in all the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the five US territories and abroad. It is not the kind of overnight affair that we have in Nigeria, rather it is staggered, and it is in comparison based on the principle of proportional representation.
 
In 2020, on the US Republican side, as early as April 2019, Bill Weld, former Governor of Massachusetts, Joe Walsh in August, former Governor of South Carolina, and US Rep. Mark Stanford, showed interest in the primary, but the party had earlier chosen Donald J, Trump, who was eligible for a second term.  He became the presumptive Republican candidate in March 2020, after securing a majority of pledged delegates. Trump couldn’t be bothered anyway. He referred to those who dared to challenge him as “stooges”. Trump’s advantage was his incumbency in 2020. Four years earlier a total of 17 candidates tried to get into the primary on the Republican side. Trump won narrowly, even with his 44.95% majority.  Those who point to the US example as evidence that there is nothing wrong if 40 or more persons show interest in the Nigerian Presidency, drawing comparisons from the US, may have the plain evidence of numbers, but the truth is that both systems are different. The numbers do not explain everything. Nigeria’s current situation points to other metrics of analysis, within a cultural, social and individual context.
 
The Presidential position in Nigeria is the most contested and the most attractive in Nigeria today because the position has been demystified so completely, I would not be surprised to wake up tomorrow morning to hear that a herbalist or a vulcanizer has purchased a Presidential nomination form. This demystification has been gradual, and it speaks to the failure of successive leaders to use the office to do grand things, failing to act at critical moments, alienating the people, creating spectacles of doubt and trust, and thus evoking in the general populace the thinking that even the right-thinking, lowliest placed can lead Nigeria. The bar has been set so low, it seems anybody can be President of Nigeria today. The other day, I was asked: what exactly does it take these days to be President of Nigeria?  While I was trying to put an answer together, I was reminded that once upon a time in this country, a cobbler once aspired to be Legal Adviser of a political party: SDP, Kano State. When the cobbler was told that he needed to be a lawyer to provide legal adviser, he was said to have retorted famously that it did not matter! I dismissed the story as entirely apocryphal but I was again reminded that in this same Nigeria, political parties once appointed men as Leaders of the Women’s  Wing of political parties, and 60-something-year-olds as youth leaders. The Presidential race ahead of the 2023 elections, notably in the two major political parties is beginning to look exactly like that.      
 
You only need to have a group of friends or access to enough money and then wake up on the wrong side of the bed, one early morning and then just decide that if you and your friends can afford the cost of the relevant forms, you too can be President of Nigeria. Money has been the bane of Nigerian politics. It is worse today.  Sums of N100 million or N50 million may look like chicken change to the Nigerian elite, when that is converted to the dollar, but to the ordinary Nigerian who has no job, facing a high cost of living crisis, and a hostile environment, that is more than a fortune. That poor Nigerian has had to witness one big man after another churning out that fortune to buy a form or two, in the past weeks, in what is at best a gamble. Many of the aspirants know that they won’t go beyond the primaries, or may never win, but they are into the lottery all the same. The Electoral Act 2022 sets a ceiling on campaign finance but it seems that this is being observed already in the breach even before the ink on the law dries off. Nobody is even concerned about the law. The Chief Law Officer of the Federation wants to be Governor in his home state of Kebbi and he is the one saying that a electoral provision arising from an enactment of the National Assembly codified as Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act does not matter, indeed that it will be expunged and deleted summarily, in line with a controversial court ruling, so why should anybody bother about what the law says?
 
This scant regard for the law is most signposted by the involvement of the Central Bank Governor of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele in the political process. The ding-dong over the alleged political interest of the CBN Governor has been one of the major highlights of the 2023 pre-primary process. For more than a month, a group of persuaders have taken it upon themselves to persuade the CBN Governor that he must seek the Presidency of Nigeria and that he is the best man for the job. The #MeffyforPresident group, as it is known, has held public events, printed posters, placed advertorials in the media, and paraded campaign vehicles in a show of strength and readiness. Twice, Emefiele has had cause to inform Nigerians that he is focused on his job as CBN Governor and that it is God that chooses leaders. Last Friday, a group of Mefy supporters, majorly Rice Farmers decided to take the bull by the horns. They collected expression of interest and nomination forms on behalf of the CBN Governor on the platform of the ruling APC party – N100 million!
 
This time around, rather than talk about his focus on his job, as the manager of Nigeria’s monetary policy, Emefiele did not disown the persuaders. He said he is consulting and seeking Divine Guidance given the seriousness of the matter, with a caveat that if he chooses to join the Presidential race, he would pay the N100 million from his own earnings in a banking career that spans 35 years. By saying so, the CBN governor simply crucified himself with his own mouth. He has confirmed that he is in fact a politician and that he belongs to Nigeria’s ruling party. It has since come to light that he has been a card-carrying member of the APC since February 2021, and the Chairman of his local ward – Ward 6 in Ika South Local Government Area of Delta, Nduka Erikpume, has confirmed this to be true. Can Nigeria’s CBN Governor be a card-carrying member of a political party and engage in partisan politics? His supporters point to the fact that in the United States, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is a member of the Democratic Party. Before her, her predecessor, Steve Mnuchin was a Republican. The example has also been cited of the Central Bank Governor of Ivory Coast, Tiemono Meyliet Kono who has now been handpicked by President Alassane Ouattara as his country’s Vice President. But what does the law say in all these places? And what does the law say in Nigeria? In the US, the Treasury Secretary, the Fed Chair, and even Supreme Court Justices are identified by their ideological and party affiliations. In Ivory Coast, the CBN Governor had to resign before he assumed office as Vice-President.
 
In Nigeria, the CBN Governor does not want to resign. He has gone to court, through his counsel, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, in Abuja to argue that he can be Governor of the CBN and an APC Presidential aspirant at the same time, and that Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act as amended, does not apply to him, he being a public officer (under Section 318) and not a political appointee. The matter has been adjourned till May 12, and the defendants – INEC and the AGF, have been put on notice. This would probably end up as one of the most interesting developments in the 2023 electoral process, and the biggest drama in the history of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It is the duty of the courts to interpret the laws. But it is noteworthy that before the matter is determined, many other stakeholders have been making noteworthy legal, moral and political statements. Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, former Minister of Education and former Minister of Solid Minerals Development says it means that for seven years, Emefiele had handed over, the CBN, a body that is supposed to be independent, representing the interest of all Nigerians, to one political party!  That is a very serious indictment. The PDP added salt to the matter by saying that the CBN has been turned into the “finance department of the APC”. Emefiele is further accused of having broken all relevant laws: Sections 6, 9 and 112 (2)(c ) of the CBN Act, Section 18 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA), and Section 030422 of the Public Service Rules. Femi Falana, SAN says Emefiele has a legal hurdle to cross. Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN of Ondo State, Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa (SAN), and Oby Ezekwesili, think that Emefiele’s reported ambition is a “a joke taken too far” and like many others, they think he must resign forthwith, or be fired by the President. Emefiele is right now ending his career as the first CBN Governor to jump directly from his office into the frying pan of partisan politics with oil splattered all over him and the entire institution from the Bankers’ Committee to the Banking Halls.    
 
Somehow, some attempt has been made to mitigate the accruing damage by the report in the last 72 hours that some characters have also purchased expression of interest and nomination forms for the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, as if to show that Emefiele has done nothing wrong. The key difference is that Adesina has not uttered a word. I think he should. He is probably silent because he knows that the AfDB is not Nigeria: rules apply there! His silence fuels the speculations. As things stand, Emefiele and Adesina may never submit any forms for consideration and hence, the public reactions and the law suits including the ex parte application filed by Naapah Bariledum at a Federal High Court, in Port Harcourt, to stop Emefiele, would become academic. But would Emefiele and the CBN ever recover from this? I doubt.   
 
It is a shame that, in addition to this sordid drama, what is predominant in the Nigerian political landscape is the politics of zoning, ethnicity and religion. There is very little about ideas. France has just completed a Presidential election in which the issues were well-defined, from far-right to the centre and the far-left, and the people made their choice. In Nigeria, there is so much smoke and no clarity. In the APC, every Presidential aspirant talks about how they have been endorsed by President Muhammadu Buhari. If indeed this is true, the President must help bring sanity to this confusing race. The seriousness of the office of the President of Nigeria must not be diminished. It is the most powerful office in the land, without doubt, but it is also the office now in most urgent need of protection from ridicule and hijack.                                                  

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Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command on Tuesday arraigned four teachers of Chrisland Schools at the Magistrate Court sitting in the Yaba area of the state.

The teachers arraigned were those who accompanied some pupils of the school to the World School Games in Dubai. The students had been involved in a viral pornographic video.

Some weeks ago, the alleged sex video of some students of the school surfaced online.

The mother of the female pupil involved had come online to seek the help of Nigerians as she alleged that her daughter was drugged by the male students and forced to engage in the sexual act.

She further alleged that the school conducted a pregnancy test on her daughter without her (the mother's) consent.

However, in a statement released by Akin Fadeyi, a member of the Advisory board of the school, the school authorities denied claims that it conducted a pregnancy test on the girl.

According to the school, only a COVID-19 test was conducted on all the students who embarked on the trip to Dubai.

Recall that on April 20, the Lagos State Police Command invited all the pupils of Chrisland Schools, Lagos, involved in the viral child pornographic video, for questioning.

 

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ex-President Goodluck Jonathan

A governor of a Northern state under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) paid for the nomination and expression of interest forms for former President, Goodluck Jonathan, sources have told Daily Trust.
A report by SaharaReporters on Monday confirmed that a coalition of northern socio-cultural groups, basically of Fulani extraction, purchased the APC nomination form for Jonathan to contest for the 2023 presidency.

ex-President Goodluck Jonathan
However, the former President through, his Media Adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, said he did not authorise the purchase and considered the move by the group “an insult", particularly as he was not a member of the ruling party.
However, sources on Tuesday revealed that a serving northern governor, whose identity was not disclosed, credited the APC Collection Account domiciled with Heritage Bank, with N100million.
The bank had also in a letter dated May 9, 2022 told the APC that it received the amount.
The letter was titled, ‘Notification of credit into account: All Progressives Congress (APC) Collections Account: 5600007616’.
Daily Trust had reported how two influential governors from the northern part of the country are plotting the return bid of Jonathan.
Multiple sources, who are in the know, said the two governors, close to President Muhammadu Buhari, have secured the buy-in of a section of the presidency to actualise their agenda of drafting the former president into the presidential race.
While one of the governors is from the North-West, the other is from the North-East geopolitical zone.
The two governors have been playing key roles in the affairs of the APC in the last few years.

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Some Keystone Bank workers have been exposed for colluding with staff of Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) to steal over N650,000 from a customer according to some court documents seen by SaharaReporters.

The victim is a bank customer, Aaron Yanate Promise, with account number 0250928866 domiciled in NIRSAL Microfinance Bank.

It was learnt that the Keystone bank workers involved also fraudulently opened an unauthorised account using Aaron’s name and Bank Verification Number.

SaharaReporters gathered that the Bayelsa State-based businessman was a beneficiary of the Covid-19 Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) loan.

The loan was part of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s targeted credit facilities (TCF) to cushion the effect of COVID-19.

The CBN had in March 2020, introduced the N50 billion TCF to support households and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that have been particularly hit hard by COVID-19.

The loans were disbursed to beneficiaries by NIRSAL, an entity owned by CBN, at an interest rate of five percent with a moratorium period that lasted till February 28, 2021.

Speaking to SaharaReporters, Aaron said hours after N700,000 was paid to him in March 2021, N656,100 was immediately moved to an account number 6026951122 domiciled with Keystone Bank without his consent.

“After I, Yanate Promise became a beneficiary of the Covid-19 Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) loan with NISRAL where the sum of N700,000 was paid into my account of with account number 0250928866 domiciled in NIRSAL micro finance bank. The account was created by NIRSAL for me. To which the money was received by CBN on my behalf and which I'm supposed to pay back the loan to,” he told SaharaReporters.

“Unfortunately, before I could access the said money, workers of NIRSAL Microfinance Bank Ltd and Keystone had diverted the sum N656,100 to an account number 6026951122 domiciled with Keystone without my consent.

“I was surprised because I had never operated an account with Keystone bank and shocked to find out that account number 6026951122 domiciled with the bank was opened in my name, had all my particulars including my passport photograph and address but not my signature. Definitely, workers at the bank must have done that, opened an account on my behalf without my consent, and moved my money to the account.”

Meanwhile, Aaron has through his lawyer, Ebikebuna Aluzu, filed an action against Keystone Bank Ltd and NIRSAL Microfinance Bank Ltd as the first and second respondents respectively in the High Court of Bayelsa State, sitting in Yenagoa.

In the suit marked; YHC/52/2022, the businessman is seeking the sum of seventy-one million, seven hundred thousand naira (N71,700,000) only in damages.

The matter is fixed for May 31, 2022 for hearing.

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Students of various universities in Kwara State on Tuesday hit the streets in Ilorin in a peaceful protest to express their disappointment over the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The students who demanded an end to the strike said they were tired of staying at home and cut off from their academic pursuits.

While they appealed to the relevant authorities to look into the issues that led to the strike for a resolution to be reached, the students rued watching their dream of graduating suffer stagnation.

They added that the lingering strike action had led many of them into social vices while the female ones now bore untimely pregnancies.

ASUU had embarked on a four-week warning strike on February 14 to press home its demands, with the prominent ones being the renegotiation of the ASUU/FG 2009 agreement and the sustainability of the university autonomy by deploying UTAS to replace the government’s “imposed” (IPPIS).

Other demands include the release of the reports of visitation panels to federal universities, distortions in salary payment challenges, funding for revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowance, poor funding of state universities and promotion arrears.

On March 14, the association extended the strike action by another two months to afford the government more time to address all of its demands.

The union in a statement by its President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke on Monday said it would be rolling over the ongoing strike for another 12 weeks.

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A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has struck out the cyberstalking charge filed against the Chairman of Human and Environmental Development Agenda, (HEDA), Olanrewaju Suraju, by the Nigerian government for lack of evidence.

The presiding judge, Justice Binta Nyako, struck out the case and discharged the defendant following an application by the government's lawyer, Y. Eko, to withdraw and discontinue with the charge preferred against the defendant.

At the resumed hearing of the case, Eko told the court that she got an instruction from the Attorney-General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to withdraw the charge and send to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for further review.

Recall that a former Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, one of the accused charged with fraud in the OPL245 scam also referred to as Malabu scandal, had petitioned the police and accused Suraju of being behind the petitions resulting in his prosecution for corruption and money laundering.

He was said to have told the police that evidence was fabricated against him to unduly incriminate him in the multi-million dollar scandal.

Suraju, who addressed journalists at the court, said, “The Nigerian government has sued JP Morgan Chase Bank over the payment of $801million to Malabu from the account that belongs to Nigeria and because of that JP Morgan was actually the one that brought the email upon which Adoke claimed was forged.

“It was brought by JP Morgan Chase to court and the same thing with the tape. The Nigerian government has gone contrary to what they said here and in the UK court, to say that email was authentic and legitimate.

“So it was in that instance we challenged them that this is what you are saying in the UK court and you are saying that same thing was forged in Nigeria. JP Morgan’s lawyer in London brought it up and said the Nigerian government was not credible by coming to say those documents are authentic because the same documents are actually being used to prosecute me in Nigeria.

“The UK-based Nigerian lawyer said that the charges filed in Nigeria were at the compromise of DPP and Adoke and it was not the Nigeria government. He pleaded there on February 28 in London court that the charges will be withdrawn.”

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