There is an ongoing underground move by Kano state governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, to fulfil his campaign promise to depose the well respected Emir of Kano, Alhaji (Dr.) Ado Bayero CFR, LL.D, JP, who hopes to celebrate his Golden Jubilee on the throne next year. A commitee of the state House of Assembly is currently touring the 44 local government areas of the state ostensively to prepare ground for the probe of the Emirate Council headed by the emir.

For several months before the 2011 general elections, Kwankwaso had adopted the slogan “SABON SARKI, SABON GOMNA!” (i.e. new governor, new emir!) which was shouted all over the state by his supporters at campaign rallies. Since his unexpected return to power in May last year many people have waited with bated breath, as those who knew him well had said that because of his stubborness Kwankwaso would certainly attempt to embarrass the emir.

247Ureports gathered that the first person to utter this slogan at a campaign rally is currently the governor’s commissioner for environment, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, the son of a nephew of the emir and holder of the traditional title of Wamban Kano, Alhaji Abbas Sunusi, whose desperation to become emir is common knowledge in Kano.

Kwankwaso was said to have fallen in love with the slogan because he was bitter at what he repeatedly complained as the emir’s relentless support for the programmes of his arch political rival and the then governor of the state, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, particularly the governor’s flagship programme of moral rejuvanation, “A Daidaita Sahu.”

Then hoping to return for the second time as governor, Kwankwaso was so angered by the emir as he explained to those around him that the support for Shekarau was a subtle indication to Kano people to vote for the ANPP government. He was so crossed that he was reported to have boasted that he would punish the emir if he returned to power.

At a point in time the governor ordered one of his henchmen, now serving Senator El-Jibrin Doguwa, to speak disrespectifully to the emir when members of the PDP in the state visited him at his palace by complaining bitterly about the open support the emir allegedly gave to the Shekarau government.

The problem between him and the emir, one of his source close aides said, became even more compounded after Kwankwaso won the election and Alhaji Ado Bayero, as a result of advanced age and illness during last year’s Eid-el-Fitr, reduced the usual number of events undertaken annually to celebrate the festival including “Hawan Nassarawa,” which was to be a courtesy visit to the governor.

“His Exellency considered the action as an affront to him and a confirmation of his suspicion that the emir did not support his return to power,” the aide added. Thus, he was said to have reasoned that if the emir could undertake other events despite his illness what could have stopped him from coming to the Government House for just a few minutes.

So the governor resorted to blackmail by causing the repeated airing by Radio Kano the announcement that the emir would perform the “Hawan Nassarawa” the following day having agreed to include the item among the few that he would undertake to mark the Sallah festival. Realising that the governor wanted to drag him into an unnecessary public confrontation, the level-headed emir graciously paid the courtesy call to him.

However, it now appears as a highly vindictive person Kwankwaso is yet to be satisfied as he has again caused the Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Committee of the state House of Assembly to tour the 44 LGAs in the state and investigate how much each District Head, including his father, gets from “the colossal” funding the government gives to the Emirate Council.

As the committee was doing its work the Hausa Service of Radio Germany got wind of the clandestine move and aired a report recently with the recorded voice of the chairman of the commitee, Alhaji Kabiru, confirming that they indeed intended to probe the Emirate Council.

According to him, government had observed that the District Heads were living in misery which showed even from their filthy sitting rooms as apparently they did not get what was due to them from the colossal amount paid to the Emirate Council. He assured that the house would do everything in its power to ensure that all workers of the state government including District Heads were paid their due salaries and other emoluments as and when due.

On Thursday last week, the emir returned to Kano from a medical checkup in London and was received at the airport by a mommoth crowd of supporters including the princes and all the District Heads. This is an indication that the Emirate Council is well aware of the move to probe the emir as this show of support at the airport had hardly ever happened before.

The state government had apparently planted a rumour in the social media that the emir had died in London in order to prepare the minds of the people for the possible appointment of a new emir. As intended, the rousing reception ought to have indicated to the government by now that the emir is still very popular with his people.

247Ureports’ enquiries in Kano revealed how surprised some elites were that Kwankwaso has not learned a lesson from the experience of the first civilian governor of the state, the late Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Rimi, whose government faced violent protests on July 10, 1981 as a result of alleged similar move to remove the emir which resulted in extensive burning of some ministries and the killing of his political adviser, Dr. Bala Mohammed.

As we await the outcome of the preliminary investigations now being undertaken in the 44 lacal government areas of the state by the commitee headed by a protege of the governor, and see if the process will begin in the “honourable” house, we pledge to keep you updated as new events unfold.

Access Bank financed the importation of about 40 per cent of the petrol brought into Nigeria in 2011 and received, into accounts at its branches, a similar percentage of the N2trillion the FG paid as subsidy during the period.

Access Bank and other Nigerian banks played major roles in the fuel subsidy scandal of 2011 and have several questions to answer, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation has shown.

Sources at Access Bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the oil industry say that although there is no apparent focus on the role of Nigerian banks in the whole scandal, some of them, particularly the major players like Access Bank helped perpetrate the fraud.

While N240billion was approved in the 2011 budget as petrol subsidy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s finance minister last week told the Nigerian Senate that the Federal Government actually paid 2.19 trillion as subsidy to petrol importers.

Following pressure on the administration by civil society and other Nigerians over the implementation of the recommendations of the House of Representatives committee, which probed the fuel subsidy payment for 2011, the government set up two committees. A technical committee was first set up by the Finance Ministry, followed by a presidential committee, set up to review the work of the technical committee. Both committees were headed by Access Bank’s Group Managing Director, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.

Investigating himself

Aigboje Aig-ImoukhuedeThough Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede headed the two probes, Access Bank, which he heads, financed the biggest chunk of fuel importation for the 2011, which was characterised by large-scale fraud, our investigation has shown.

Sources at the CBN and documents have shown that the bank financed close to 40 per cent of the petrol imported to Nigeria, and for which subsidy was paid, in 2011.

“Access Bank financed about 40 per cent of the deals in 2011,” a top Access Bank staff familiar with the deal said. “So, if there was fraud in the 2011 subsidy scheme, then companies finance by access bank, even our bank or senior officials, perpetrated or benefitted from 40 per cent of the fraud.”

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that about 400 cargoes of petrol was imported into Nigerian in 2011 with almost 160 of them financed by Access. Some of the importers financed by Access bank include Sahara Energy, Eterna Plc, and Spog Petrochemicals Limited.

Eterna and Spog are two of the companies indicted by the House of Representatives committee in its report. Eterna was indicted for tax evasion; while Spog, owned by controversial Jide Omokore, a major financier of President Goodluck Jonathan’s election and beneficiary of various government largesse including juicy oil blocks, acquired in questionable manners, was indicted for getting approval to import petrol even before it was registered by the PPPRA. How that was done is difficult to decipher. But Access is its long-term financier.

Mr. Omokore is also married to Angela Jones, a senior official of Access Bank, who is currently in charge of Wealth Management at the bank. Ms. Jones, alongside Aig Aig-Imoukhuede, younger relative of the Access Bank GMD, also sits on the board of another company, Marina Securities.

The younger Aig-Imoukhuede is a co-owner of Ice Energy Petroleum Trading Company Limited which was also indicted by the Lower House.

Another company owned by Mr. Omokore, Ceoti International Limited, defaulted in its tax payment, the House committee discovered.

Validating Spog

Spog Petrochemicals which was alleged in a petition to the Attorney General of the Federation in 2011 to have imported 3000 metric tones of petrol despite receiving subsidy for 13,000 metric tonnes early 2011, came highly recommended by Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede’s Access Bank.

In a letter addressed to the executive secretary of PPPRA, dated May 31, 2011 and signed by Tope Ogunfusika and Ojeifoh Okosun, Access Bank stated that it had had a great relationship with Spog since 2006.

“We recommend the company (Spog) as being suitable for normal business engagements with your company (PPPRA),” the bank told PPPRA, in order to strengthen the company’s application to participate in the subsidy regime.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that that letter helped shore-up the image of Spog which at that time was almost blacklisted by PPPRA over suspicion of underhand dealings.

Access Bank made no reports         

Investigations show that Access Bank, into whose accounts the Federal Government paid about 40 per cent of the N2trillion subsidy, never reported any marketer either to the CBN or the PPPRA for underhand dealings.

“The bank was just interested in its money. As long as the marketers could get the money, even through subsidy, we (Access Bank) didn’t see a reason to report them to the CBN. Though we knew many of them were not selling any products,” our source stated. Access wouldn’t comment on its role in the subsidy regime. Our reporter tried consistently for a week to get the bank’s reactions to the facts at our disposal. Its spokesperson, Segun Fafore, demanded an email enquiry on Thursday last week. By Thursday evening, Mr. Fafore, after receiving our emailed enquiry, called to say that the bank would respond to our enquiry on Friday. After failing to respond on Friday as promised, Mr. Fafore did not answer subsequent calls from our reporter.

Covering-up the banks

When the technical committee, headed by Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede, submitted its report, it identified 17 methods allegedly used by oil marketers to defraud the Federal Government.

Although the report is yet to be made public, sources knowledgeable about its content say the first method identified is the lack of evidence of sale proceeds of imported fuel with the financing banks.

In other words, though the banks paid for the imported petroleum products, the marketers probably sold the products behind the banks, diverted them, or did not even do any importation. The total sum for the unaccounted products according to the committee is N158billion.

This finding was however faulted by senior bank sources including top officials of the central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria’s banking regulator.

“Who did the banks complain to that there was no evidence of sale? Since the subsidy money was paid into the marketers’ accounts with the banks, why didn’t the banks complain to the CBN or even PPPRA that they had no evidence that any product was sold,” a top CBN source said.

“The truth is we know they were all involved in the scheme, they are just trying to exonerate themselves.”

Another bank source made reference to the membership of both the technical committee and the Presidential committee as reasons the committee would never indict or reveal the roles of the bank. Apart from Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede, who heads both committees, there are two other top bankers on the two committees: Sola David-Borha, the MD of Stanbic IBTC; and Onyinye Ahuchogu, a Deputy Director at the CBN, are members of the two committees. How can you want to investigate a sector where banks played a crucial role, and you appoint heads of the same banks to lead the probe. Can they ever probe themselves,” a top CBN source queried.

Ignoring the banks

Nigerian banks, described by a top industry source, as “very complicit if thorough checks are done,” have been overlooked by previous probes of the subsidy scam, including the technical committee.

It is not only Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede’s committees that avoided the complicity of the banks in the scandal, the House of Representatives committee, which did a live telecast of its probe, and whose report has been widely acknowledged as thorough, also overlooked the banks.

“We focused more on the marketers and regulators,” a member of the House committee told PREMIUM TIMES. “But while investigating, we knew there was no way they could exclude themselves from the scam.  I just don’t know how they escaped our view. But I can assure you, they are complicit.”

Analysts believe that without the banks, there wouldn’t have been a basis for subsidy payment for most of the oil marketers in the first place. They provided the finances and now, sources say, the banks, which industry sources say “are as complicit as the marketers and the regulators” are going to exclude themselves from the probe again.

How the banks get involved

After securing petroleum import licence from the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), an oil marketer approaches a bank to finance the deal.

The bank “bids for forex (foreign exchange) for you from the central bank on the basis that you obtained a license,” a top official, of a major Nigerian bank, involved in the energy sector said, while explaining the process to our reporter.

The bank also opens a letter of credit (LC) with the offshore oil supplier or its bank, from whom the Nigerian company is buying the petroleum product. The bank then provides evidence of financing to the PPPRA. The evidence will contain the volume of product paid for, volume imported, and so on.

In order to ensure the marketer does not default in payment, and does not divert the products, the bank ensures that both the subsidy sum to be paid by the PPPRA, and the fee to be paid by local purchasers of the imported fuel are paid into the oil marketer’s account domiciled with the bank.

“The truth is the banks cannot claim not to know that there is fraud going on. Sometimes, we (the banks) even partake in it,” a senior banker said.

“There is no way a marketer will divert a product we have paid for without us knowing. Sometimes, we even appoint people to help us monitor the imported product at the tank farms,” he said.

Sources in the oil industry also confirmed what the bank officials said.

“Do you think a bank will use its own money to pay for a product and let one marketer do what he likes with it? They learnt from their earlier mistakes during the banking crisis. Most of what goes on is with their knowledge,” a top oil industry source, who did not want her name mentioned for fear of victimization, stated.

However, it is not only the Access Bank and other commercial banks which should be investigated on the subsidy scam; even the CBN was culpable.

See no evil

CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido

The CBN, Nigeria’s apex bank and financial regulator, looked away while marketers were colluding with bank officials to dupe the nation, investigations reveal.

In at least one occasion, the PPPRA wrote to the CBN when it suspected that some oil marketers were playing pranks, submitting suspiciously fake bank documents, in probable collusion with the affected banks, in order to claim subsidy payments.

In a letter dated February 1, 2011, received by the CBN on the same day and directed to the director in charge of trade and exchange, the PPPRA told the CBN that it “received documents from the indicated marketers as part of the requirements for subsidy claim.”

“In line with the policy of transparency, the Agency deemed it necessary to request the verification of authenticity of the attached documents from the CBN,” the letter stated; the word, “authenticity”, was in bold fonts. The documents suspected to be fake and sent to the CBN included Form M, Letters of Credit, and Evidence of Bank Finance.

Investigations at both the CBN and the PPPRA revealed that the CBN never responded to the request.

“That was a trying period, particularly for the banks involved. We (the CBN) didn’t want anything that would further erode public confidence in the banks. That is why we didn’t respond to that request. Nobody knew all these (the fuel subsidy scandal) would happen,” a top CBN official said.

Following our email enquiry last Thursday, Ugochukwu Okoroafor, CBN’s director of corporate communications, said (in an email) on Friday that the apex bank would respond to our enquiry this week. Mr. Okoroafor is however yet to respond to our questions on the various roles of the CBN in the 2011 subsidy regime.

Despite the apparent complicity of the banks however, the fate of the mismanaged trillions of naira and the expectations of Nigerians is still being managed by Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede and his other bank colleagues in the Presidential probe panel.

“Anyone expecting any justice from Aig’s panel is deceiving himself. He will never indict himself or his colleagues. With that committee, President Jonathan has dashed the hopes of Nigerians on the fuel subsidy scandal,” a top CBN source stated.

Source (Premium Times)

Reports reaching 247ureports indicates that a gun battle broke out in Bukuru Jos this morning, the gun battle this paper gathered began immediately after a bomb explosion rocked an Islamic school in the neighborhood along Jos South Local Government Secretariat within Bukuru expressway.

According to source close to incident soon after the explosion a man who drove in an Opel Vectra car blazing from his car and afire a rocket propelled grenade into the locale largely occupied by Muslims.

However people within the vicinity reportedly replied with gunshots a scenario which created panics among shop owners who ran for safety as they locked their shops and flee. As at the time of filling this report, the battle of guns is still on. More details on the way.

JUBA – A South Sudanese anti-corruption activist said he had been kidnapped and beaten for two days by unknown assailants angry at his campaign to expose officials suspected of stealing $4 billion of government funds.

Deng Athuai Mawiir, chairman of the South Sudan Civil Society Alliance, said he had been abducted outside his hotel in the capital Juba on July 4. His ordeal underscores the challenges facing South Sudan, which became the world’s youngest nation when it seceded from Sudan last year after two decades of civil war.

Widespread corruption, rising food prices, dwindling government funds and fraught relations with Sudan plague the nation, and overshadowed celebrations marking its first birthday on July 9.

Mawiir told Reuters that the assailants had gagged him, put a bag over his head and taken him to an unknown location. They tied him to a chair and questioned him without giving him food or water, he said.

Mawiir, whose umbrella organisation includes local human rights groups, said his captors wanted to know who was sponsoring his campaign to publish a list of 75 officials suspected of stealing $4 billion of government funds.

“They slapped me and kicked me and said, ‘After this you will talk’,” Mawiir said, pointing to his face and stomach, where he said he had been struck.

In the days after his abduction, members of his group said they began to receive phone calls and text messages saying they might be killed if they continued to speak out against graft.

Activists say corruption has drained state resources and hindered badly-needed development in the war-battered country.

Iran is likely to obtain a nuclear weapon by 2014, making an Israeli or American strikeon the Islamic Republic more likely by then, the head of Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence agency said, the Daily Telegraph reported on Friday.

“The Iranians are determinedly going down a path to master all aspects of nuclear weapons; all the technologies they need,” John Sawers is quoted as saying.

“It’s equally clear that Israel and the United States would face huge dangers if Iran were to become a nuclear weapon state.”

Sawers made his views known at Civil Service Live, a meeting of senior civil servants, a week earlier, during which he credited covert MI6 operations for preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons earlier. Without intervention, Iran may have gone nuclear as early as 2008, he said.

The UK has worked to ensure international sanctions against the Islamic Republic were introduced and implemented, and ran operations to slow the nuclear program’s pace, according to the report.

“I take great pride in the fact that, in the last 10 years, over a number of jobs, I’ve been involved in an issue of global concern, and I feel that I as an individual [have made] an impact in the outcome of events,” he said.

The European Union banned Iranian oil imports as well as providing insurance for vessels carrying Iranian oil starting on July 1, and US sanctions have limited Iran’s major trading partners from buying its crude oil.

At least four scientists associated with Iran’s nuclear program have been killed since 2010, most recently in January. Iran has blamed Israel, the UK and the United States for the deaths, and more recently lashed out against France and Germany as well.

Washington has denied any role in the killings, while Israel has declined to comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.