Imo state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha said his decision to build
a befitting guest house for his predecessor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim and
other former governors is informed by the provision of the law which
stipulated for such gesture for former governors of the state.
Gov. Okorocha who made this explanation when he interacted with leaders from Ohakim’s local government area, Isiala Mbano, said he had
put beside him all that happened before and during the 2011
governorship election to face the challenges of developing the entire
state.
He said “I don’t have any problem with the people of Isiala Mbano
because you are my brothers and friends. In fact, as I am talking to
you now, I have built a betting guest house for Chief Ohakim, whom I
still regard as my brother, Chief Achike Udenwa, late Chief Evan
Enwerem and Late Sam Mbakwe as stipulated by the law of the state.”
He reiterated that his administration would not marginalize against
any local government but will ensure that the principle of equality
and fairness is strictly adhered to ensure that dividends of democracy
are effectively spread across the nooks and crannies of the state.
Gov. Okorocha further explained that the idea of Community Government
Council is to decentralize power and ensure that hidden resources in
the rural areas are unlocked for the speedy development of the state
as well as promote agricultural practices at the grassroots for food
security and enhanced revenue generation.
He added that his administration has within one year executed massive
infrastructural projects including 24 kilometer of rural road project
in each of the 27 local government areas, 305 modern primary schools
in each of the INEC ward in the state, 27 new general hospitals, Imo
College of Advanced Professional Studies (ICAPS) and total
reconstruction of the Government House.
He promised to deliver more dividends of democracy in the second year
of the administration by initiating policies and programmes that will
have direct impact on the lives of the people as well as give priority
to industrialization and agriculture towards reviving the economy of
the state and massive job creation.
He, however, urged the people of the area to support his
administration in the desperate bid to transform and make the Imo
conducive for direct foreign investment.
Meanwhile, the CP Amodu Police team it was learnt yesterday may have collated a total figure of N11. 3billion as the bribe money collected by the committee.
The huge amount according to Police sources was arrived at following the influx of information and petitions from oil marketers to the Special Task Force detailing how much was given to the probe panel in both foreign and local currencies.
The anger and frustration of the oil marketers in the manner they were treated according to the source, had become so unbearable that some of them even deposed to signed Court Affidavits, promising to appear as prosecution witness in court against members of House panel.
The source added that the impunity with which the committee went about collecting bribe money from oil marketers was so amazing that the investigation committee could hardly believe that the same House members which Nigerians adored were behind the acts.
“As I am talking to you now, many marketers
are still afraid to come out and spill the beans because they fear the consequences of giving bribe but we will get around that”, the source said.
Regarding the fear that the $620, 000 bribe money may have been tampered with or destroyed, the source said the Police already had overwhelming evidence against the Lawan committee.
For instance, the source noted that “if the Lawan Committee thinks they are smart and they tamper with the evidence, the Police will get the serial numbers of the money and trace the money. Aside that, the call logs of the discussions, negotiation and appreciation after collection and confirmation of the amount of money collected are unbeatable evidence.”.
The Presidency denounces the lame and diversionary attempt by some newspapers to drag the person and office of the President into the very unsavoury bribery scandal involving the Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Fuel Subsidy Probe Ad-Hoc Committee and a well-known petroleum products marketer.
The mischievous insinuation in today’s editions of the newspapers that the entire affair, in which the two key players have publicly confessed their roles, is part of a plot by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the executive arm of government to unseat the leadership of the House of Representatives, is totally false and baseless.
For the benefit of unwary members of the public who may be deceived by the political innuendoes now being woven into the subsidy probe bribe affair, President Jonathan wishes to affirm that he has absolutely no reason or desire to meddle in the affairs of the House of Representatives and its leadership.
Neither the President nor anyone acting on his request or order has anything to do with the scandal that has sadly engulfed the House ad-hoc committee on fuel subsidy. The attempt to drag the Presidency into the matter is entirely speculative and without factual foundation.
Against the background of its avowed commitment to the effective prosecution of the war against corruption in Nigeria, the Presidency notes with satisfaction, that given the seriousness of the scandal, the House of Representatives has already recalled its members from recess for a special session to deliberate on it tomorrow.
The Presidency therefore urges the media to allow members of the House and law enforcement agencies to conduct and conclude investigations without further unhelpful distractions.
Recent developments notwithstanding, President Jonathan’s directive to the Attorney-General of the Federation on the report of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, as adopted by the House of Representatives, subsists and he fully expects that all those indicted in the report will be duly investigated and prosecuted if a prima facie case is established against them.
A possible Nigerian is running Globim – Say Foreign Journalists
By Odimegwu Onwumere
A monorail is a banister-platform transportation coordination based on a solo rail, which proceeds as its single support and its conduct way.
More sugarcoated answers have been given by Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State than questions are asked on the possibility of achieving the monorail project which his administration said it was going to build in Abia State. Widely reported last month, Orji had boasted that his administration has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Canadian company, Globim Corporation, for the construction of a monorail transportation system in the state.
According to information available on its policy online, Globim Corporation is a privately owned consortium of internationally-recognized and multi-disciplinary engineering organizations, experts and specialists in various fields of transportation and infrastructure. Internally, Globim has adequate personnel capabilities to implement any engineering project from start to finish. This includes design and construction, management of contractors and subcontractors, manufacturing and requisite supply needed to complete the project.
But in the outbreak that a monorail was going to be built in Abia State, I contacted my friend-colleagues in Canada and the USA in the journalism profession to help me investigate whether the Globim has a track record in the construction of Monorail, and the results of their investigation is rather more shocking than it could be believed. Their investigation reveals that Orji perhaps was out to reap money fraudulently from Abia State’s coffers.
One of their reports reads: “This is clearly a scam to get money out of Nigeria to Canada. Ask yourself why aren’t they using the world leader in rail systems at, http://www.bombardier.com/en/transportation/products-services/rail-vehicles/automated-monorailsor going to China or Japan for this? The Globim people have no track record of building anything (clue to this being suspect is that a possible Nigerian is running the company). Clearly as Governor you start as many projects as you can – scam off the development money (sometimes as much as 20% of the total – so in this case 50 million USD ) multiply by all the other projects that don’t get made, is it a good way to make money?
“According to Globim’s website, the first phase of the Onitsha Monorail is budgeted at US $503 million and will have the equivalent of 36.2 kilometers of single track. No word so far on who the supplier for the actual trains and infrastructure will be, or where it might be manufactured or what the local content might be.”
On the exterior, Governor Orji had promised that Abia State would provide the labour and security required for the success of the monorail project; in just the same way many projects awarded in Abia State require both questions and answers. For example, the Achara Ihechiowa-Amagwu road awarded to Worldwide Environmental Technologies LTD at the sum of over N380m was one of the many roads that were awarded, but later abandoned. And here is Orji promising to build a monorail system in Abia State. — Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, and Media Consultant, writes from Rivers State. Email: apoet_25@yahoo.com
Information reaching 247ureports.com indicates that the lower chamber of the national assembly will convene an emergency session tomorrow over the alleged Oil Subsidy Bribery scandal levied against the adhoc house committee chairman investigating the oil subsidy overpayments by the Ministry of Petroluem and the Presidency.
As gathered the emergency meeting will start at 10am – and the House will use the opportunity to clear its stance on the alleged bribery scandal brought about by the oil mogul Femi Otedola. Otedola had alleged that Hon Farouk Lawan demanded a $3million bribe in exchange to adsorb his company from all wrong doing. Hon. Farouk Lawan had since denied the allegation.
247ureports.com is aware that the members of the House of Representatives had been holed up in a closed door meeting yesterday night. The meeting lasted till after 12midnight. The outcome of the meeting is unknown but Hon. Farouk Lawan was part of the meeting.
Within the past two months, Nigerians have witnessed not less than ten media headlines reporting the alarm raised by Governor Adams Oshiomole over impending electoral manipulations in Edo state. Each time, he is accusing the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of planning to rig the forthcoming gubernatorial election in that state coming up in July 2012. He raised the alarm the loudest, when he narrowly escaped death from a traffic mishap, in which a tractor reportedly ran into a vehicle in his convoy traveling to Benin en route from a political event.
Even though many neutral observers attributed the fatal incident to the characteristic lawless driving patterns of government convoys in road traffic, the circumstances surrounding the crash seemed nonetheless bizarre to say the least. The Governor’s life was saved by a whisker. Rather than being chauffeured in his official vehicle, he was reported to have driven himself in a nondescript and unmarked car in the middle of the convoy. There were good reasons to believe that a political motive was not improbable even if it was not a compelling necessity. The alarm was blown again a few weeks later. This time, a close aide and confidant of the Governor was killed in the middle of the night by assailants. The Governor wasted no time pointing accusing fingers at the PDP and even claimed to have received report about the venue, time and participants of the clandestine PDP meeting, in which the nefarious assassination plan was hatched.
The Governor did not tell Nigerians however that he had other compelling reasons, which made the death of Olaitan Oyerinde particularly painful to him. Subsequent media reports uncovered that Mr. Oyerinde had been strategically positioned to take over a leadership position in the country’s umbrella labor union Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC). It is this revelation that is exposing a can of worms in political machinations involving the Governor. It marks the Governor’s personal betrayal of public trust and his own involvement in manipulative restructuring. Adams Oshiomole as a man of the grassroots rode favorably on his tenacious commitment to the interest of workers in his capacity as a former labor leader. This factor single-handedly shot him into the hearts and minds of ordinary people before he became an action Governor counting on visible achievements.
Nigeria’s recent encounter with a major socioeconomic dispute bothering on welfare and corruption however showed a reversed attitude on the part of a man who moved from being a comrade to becoming a GOVERNOR. The fuel subsidy dispute showed Oshiomole’s overnight transformation in a virtual psychological sense. He became a vocal advocate of the removal of fuel subsidy in clear disregard for the pains it meant to ordinary people and in clear negation of all that he had stood for all the years of his leadership in the labor union. He sought to perform a delicate balancing act that was not supposed to place his sympathies in Public Square for all to see. Insiders and experts knew however, where his sympathies lie. This was partly evident, not the least, in his guarded admonishment at a point in time, of a cabinet colleague who expressed unreserved sympathy for protests against subsidy removal. In the end however, the subsidy removal project was defeated and Oshiomole’s glamour image suffered a major dent.
Being sympathetic to the cause of a federal government that was bent against all odds, on removing the subsidy, Oshiomole is reported to have worked for the restructuring of the country’s umbrella labor body, which was the arrowhead of the mass uprising in January 2012. The plot sought to work quietly to replace the leadership of the NLC with characters that are more sympathetic to the government’s cause of removing the oil subsidy without any meaningful public resistance. The adverse effects of the move do not seem to matter. Olaitan Oyerinde was one person that was reportedly designated for one of the top positions in the NLC. The swapping of positions was said to be a matter of time. A very short time!
Oshiomole was therefore in no hurry to point out this aspect of developments surrounding the political résumé of late Oyerinde. Pointing fingers at the opposition party had more political expediency even though the option of opposition’s involvement cannot be discounted. It is at this point however that several critics began asking aloud if the Governor is not just getting a little too desperate. Indeed, he has reasons for desperation too.
The prospect of losing the forthcoming gubernatorial election more likely by crook than by hook is looking increasingly realistic. It is not the desperation of the opposition PDP alone that is likely to unseat Governor Oshiomole with the federal might but critical fingers are now also beginning to flash the light of improprieties his awesome way. Quite lately, pictures emerged, of mansions and several other structures that he is building in his private estate at Iyamho, for which his salary and other emoluments cannot readily account. Several Journalists do not hide their complaints and grudges these days that the Governor is peccably following the familiar footsteps of his predecessor in office Mr. Lucky Igbinedion. Aside from working too closely with and often employing the services of the university cult, the “Black Ax” movement, for political intimidation and other vices, excessive orgies of womanizing is the least of all worries. Like his predecessor too, Gov. Oshiomole is said to be advancing construction works on his private Iyamho site with the services of South African contractors.
Often reportedly taking advantage of his annual N2 billion budgetary vote on security as is granted to all Governors, Adams Oshiomole – people say – has no difficulties dishing out millions for unexplained purposes and from unexplained budgetary sources these days. I remember the days of the subsidy protest when violence spilled into Benin City. The district called Hausa Quarters was reportedly stormed by protesters who killed 5 resident Northerners. Information of the killing reached the BBC correspondent in Lagos through informal sources, who promptly filed his report for the next hourly news. On calling some friends at the Press Center in Benin City to get more information, I was told that the Governor in an attempt to suppress the media coverage of the killings had paid 3 million Naira to reporters covering the event not to report the killings. At the time I told my contact on telephone however that the information was already on BBC news that same evening and the information was passed over, I could hear many people in the background burst into loud laughter in amusement. The first question I asked my colleague was where the money was taken from, if the claim was true. The answer I got was simple. What is N3million in a security vote of N2billion? The security vote is an area that no Governor is required to render account on. It is the source of random spending such as the purchases of Jeeps for friends and political sympathizers.
Today, complaints are growing louder. People complain of several improprieties of shocking dimensions that will leave several mouths agape if another Governor came in to expose the books. My information uncovers that construction work on the Airport road was awarded to a company called Servitek belonging to a man popularly known in Benin City as “Captain Hosa” – a man who is not an unknown political quantity – at the cost of N4billion. The total length of the road is just 8 kilometers. For some reason however, Captain Hosa defected to the PDP from the ACN. The contract was promptly taken away from him and re-awarded to a company called SERTRACO belonging to one Alhaji Inu Umoru. It did not matter that the work had been started and done in a minimum part. It was suddenly re-awarded for N6billion – 2 billion Naira in excess of the previous amount! Till the moment, the discrepancy remains unexplained.
People complain that indigenes of the state are hardly employed to work in the multiple construction projects. The contract for the construction of roads in the district called Ugbowo was said to have been awarded to a company called Hydrek owned by one Mr. Tinubu – don’t ask me which – who is definitely not an indigene of Edo state. Several Lebanese and South Africans are said to be having lucrative positions in many of the projects. In fact some sharp-tongued critics even blamed the recent collapse of the building under construction at the Central Hospital, on the haste to complete and commission the project before the July election date.
It has become obvious to many observers that several construction works that were started in the early days of the Governor’s tenure were still lingering with no prospect of completion any time soon. With so much internally generated revenue, Edo state is said to have amassed more cash than at any other point in the history of the state. Today however, people suspect that the government has become cash-strapped and that the projects may never be completed even halfway through a second term, if Oshiomole wins a return ticket.
One fact that should not be ignored however is that there are several roads that people are proud to point at! Roads that have been beautifully constructed and completed. Fixed drainage systems that have rescued several districts from the cyclical agony of the rainy season! There are several teaching and boarding facilities, schools and other public institutions that were dilapidating and have now been revamped and equipped for normal function the way they were conceived of in the days of Osaigbovo Ogbemudia. In fact the repeated claim of Governor Oshiomole’s achievements is not a mere window-dressing claim. The man has several completed projects to show for his tenure. This perhaps, is the reason that he is believed to be having a strong grassroots followership that should make him win re-election easily in a level playing field.
To survive, consolidate his position and perform these feats however, it is an indisputable fact that some form of protective and sometimes offensive thuggery is indispensable in a Nigerian political landscape, in which only the fittest survives. Unfortunately however, Adams Oshiomole seems to have lacked the finesse and sophistication of personal composure. Like Olusegun Obasanjo who achieved quite a lot for Nigeria and ends up simply being derided and abused by seemingly ungrateful Nigerians, Oshiomole’s personal arrogance and larger than life attitude seems to be his undoing factor. There is hardly anyone close to government house, who does not complain in private, about Oshiomole’s arrogant and conceited nature. He does not seem to have learned to tread the more psychologically productive path of humility and bending down low. This precisely, may turn out to become his undoing factor as the opposition now loudly and treacherously accuses him of disrespect for elders – a trick that may stick. One fact is certain though: ACN under Oshiomole much like PDP under Airhiavbere will both do their part in election rigging and violence to win the Governorship seat. They have both been bracing for the moment with psychological and physical weapons of all sorts.
In the highly likely event of Oshiomole’s ACN being outdone in election rigging and violence during the Governorship election, will Oshiomole be able to muster the force of people’s power in street protests? The same people that he so dispassionately and shamelessly betrayed in the fuel subsidy disaster? Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
–
Frisky Larr (M. A.) Radio/Television Journalist/Communication Scientist Govt.-accredited Translator/Interpreter of the English language Germany
The release of CSP Dickson Adeyemi from the force headquarters in Abuja is still causing ripples in Delta State as stakeholders in the state have continued to express worry over the action of the hierarchy of the Nigerian Police Force.
CSP Dickson who is the head of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Delta State Police Command and five other police officers were arrested earlier this year and taken to Abuja on allegations of their involvement in cases of kidnappings in the state.
They were recently released for what the force called lack of evidence against them. CSP Dickson was redeployed to the state.
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who expressed concern over the release of the suspects, said their release coincided with the resurgence of kidnapping in the state.
Speaking while playing host to the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, the governor stated there was a drastic reduction in the incidence of kidnapping during the period when the suspects were under detention in Abuja, stressing that soon after their release the crime has peaked.
He said that Deltans have been agitated by the development and were requesting that the matter be re-visited and thoroughly investigated to ensure that justice was done.
“The people of Delta State want me to send a message to you on recent happening in the state and even the State House of Assembly deliberated on it. Few days ago some persons, your police officers, suspected to be involved in kidnapping who were earlier apprehended, were released.
“What is bothering us is that their release coincided with therecent upsurge in kidnap cases in the state…So we want you to have a second look at that issue,” he noted.
Members of the state House of Assembly had on Tuesday adopted a motion calling on the President Goodluck Jonathan to direct the IGP to order the re-arrest of Dickson and re-open the investigation of the allegations leveled against him.
The lawmakers had argued that Dickson was “inexplicably released” following the alleged intervention of the chairman, Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr. Parry Osayande whom they described as the father-in-law to the anti-kidnapping Czar.
But the police boss at a stakeholders’ meeting in Asaba defended the recall and redeployment of CSP Dickson, explaining that the suspect was exonerated due to lack of concrete evidence against him after a painstaking investigation.
“We have investigated. We didn’t found any evidence against the police officer. I want to be fair and just to everybody, I don’t want to prosecute anyone because they say someone is a thief and there are no evidences to prove that actually that person is a thief. If you have that evidence against that police officer that we could use to prosecute him, please bring forward to us such evidence,” the IG stated.
He had earlier told the governor that the vision and mission of police management under his leadership was “to build a people-friendly police force that will not harass Nigerians, a police force that will say bail is free and is free.”
He said efficiency was the keyword for the police in discharging its constitutional responsibility, hinting that corruption has been reduced by80% in the police since the removal of road blocks.
Abubakar assured Nigerians of their safety in the wake of daunting security challenges, pointing out that in keeping with his vision of transforming the image of the police, hoodlums engaged in criminality, including attacks on police stations and bankers, were being arrested nationwide.
Justice Pelibus Andertu of Taraba State High Court II on June 12, 2012, convicted the duo of Philip A. Timothy and Rimamsonchiti Bako who were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a two-count charge of conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and fraudulent diversion of funds.
The accused who were staff of Ussa Local Government Area, Taraba State , served as Chairman and Secretary, respectively, of the National Union of Local Government Employee, NULGE. They were arraigned on July 27, 2011.
Justice Andertu found the two accused guilty of the charges levelled against them and sentenced them to jail term of six months with an option of N500,000.00 fine each. They were also ordered to pay the value equivalent to the motorcycles involved in the scam.
The former NULGE officials were arrested following a petition by a new generation bank, alleging that sometime in 2007, officials of the union in Ussa Local Government Area, Taraba state, requested for a loan of N20 million for the purchase of motorcycles for its members. The loan was granted by the bank after the management of the local government guaranteed it.
The bank alleged that the terms of repayment had indicated that the union will pay the bank N23.4m spread over a period of 18 months.
However, only N15m was paid at the expiration of the tenure of the facility, leaving a balance of N8.3m
There is a strong allegation of bribery involving an oil magnet and a prominent member of the panel investigating the fuel subsidy scam in the National Assembly. This new twist will further dent the integrity of the legislative chamber, business community and Nigeria as a whole.
While there are several anti-corruption agencies in the country, there are no clear demarcations on which of them should be responsible for investigating and prosecuting the case as they simply duplicate their mandates. Multiplication of agencies performing similar roles have been drains on nation’s purse.
The cost of governance in Nigeria is one of the highest and most expensive in the world. The dubious duplication of functions, financial recklessness, nepotism and cronyism in recruitments are largely influenced by the establishments of unnecessary agencies, which also promote corrupt practices.
In an effort to address the high cost of governance, a Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals was established. Led by former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Steve Oronsaye, the committee has proposed some positive initiatives as well as some controversial suggestions. While the committee recommends far-reaching decisions to reduce the excessive overhead and recurrent expenditures, which in some quarters have been translated to mean retrenchment of workers, the report indeed exposes duplication of responsibilities and schedules of duty among agencies of government.
The committee was able to adhere strictly to its terms of reference which include; to study and review all previous reports/records on the restructuring of Federal Government parastatals and advise on whether they are still relevant, to examine critically the mandates of the existing Federal agencies, parastatals and commissions and to determine areas of overlap or duplication of functions, and make appropriate recommendations to either restructure, merge or scrap the duplicates.
The key recommendations of the report include the abolition of 38 agencies, 52 mergers and reversion of 14 agencies to departments in their relevant ministries. Generally, it suggested that statutory commissions should be reduced from 263 to 161. It further recommends a management audit of 89 agencies to capture biometric features of their employees as well as discontinue government funding of professional bodies and councils. The Committee stated that it found duplications and overlaps in the mandates of many agencies and parastatals, noting that successive administrations established these agencies without regard to existing laws. The report indicated that the Federal Government will be saving about N1 trillion within 3 years of implementation.
It is noteworthy that some agencies could be strengthened with added empowerment through mergers for instance the proposed National Emergency Management and Refugee Commission (NEMAREF) and Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) that may be saddled with fixing salaries of public servants and to takeover functions Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) which was created by former President Olusegun Obasanjo few years ago.
Meanwhile the committee has recommended the merger of the anti-corruption bodies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). If the government accepts and implements the recommendations, these bodies would serve as department within the larger Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). According to the report; “The establishment of strong departments among others, in the proposed consolidated structure is desirable as they would handle Prosecution, Investigation, Prevention (Advocacy), and Asset declaration/ forfeiture.”
The report also recommends the elevation of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to Anti-Corruption Tribunal to try all corrupt cases in the country. The recommendation if implemented would ensure that regular courts that are overburden with other cases will no longer try corruption-related matters whether by politicians, civil servants or business persons.
The report clearly states that: “The Code of Conduct Tribunal should be renamed Anti-Corruption Tribunal and upgraded to the status of a Court of Superior Records with the responsibility for handling only corruption cases from the proposed merger of EFCC, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau. Extant anti-corruption laws should be repealed, while a new one is enacted to accommodate the consolidation of EFCC, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau.”
Some of the cases being handled by EFCC, ICPC and others ought to have been brought to the CCT for quick determination. The CCT is a court of summary trial which by law should not waste time in deciding most other cases that are before the other anti-corruption bodies like EFCC, ICPC and CCB. The nation does not need a special court as being advocated in some quarters to deal with the cases of corrupt public officers. As it is presently constituted, the Code of Conduct Tribunal has the power to impose punishments ranging from vacation of office and disqualification from holding any public office by officers found guilty of contravening any of the provisions of the Act, especially on misconduct and corrupt practices. It also has the power to seize and forfeit to the state of any property acquired through abuse or corruption in office.
It is glaring that the regular courts are ineffective in attending to corrupt cases, such that high-profile cases involving politicians drag on for many years without an end in sight. On the other hand the suspects continue to enjoy their loots while their lawyers who are paid hefty fees deliberately prolong litigation endlessly.
It was only lately after the appointment of Justice Umar Danladi as Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal that some corrupt cases like that against the former Governor of Lagos, Ahmed Bola Tinubu were dispensed with within a short period. This demonstrates capacity and ability of the tribunal to expedite actions on cases brought before it.
The proposed Anti-Corruption Tribunal (ACT) from existing Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) should be independent and autonomous with the capacity for repression of corruption acts and observe the principles of expeditiousness, effectiveness and efficiency in the administration of justice. Branches of the tribunal should also be created in each of the six geopolitical zones to facilitate speedy trials and disposal of corruption cases.
The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan should examine the report and implement the worthy recommendations therein. The submission should not be swept under the carpet like the similar past reports on rationalization especially that of Ahmed Joda and Allison Ayida. In ensuring fairness before the implementation of the report, the government should engage the stakeholders, especially the labour and the legislature to iron out grey areas before their endorsement.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on June 13th , 2012, tendered two sets of documents in the prosecution of Dr. Shaibu Sani Teidi and two others who are being tried before Justice Adamu Bello of the Federal High Court, Abuja over a N2billion (Two billion naira) check-off dues fraud. The two others, who are being prosecuted for defrauding the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, are Alhaji Ali Abatcha and Elder Actor Zal, President and Secretary General of NUP respectively.
Two prosecution witnesses were led in evidence by Emmanuel Nonso Egwuagu from Godwin Obla’s Chambers at the resumed hearing of the case. They are Mr. Njoku Everest, Assistant General Secretary of the Union and Mr. Chikezie Aguocha, an official of First Bank of Nigeria , PLC.
While Everest tendered documents concerning total expenditure that was incurred by the Union, based on the money that came into the Union’s account between April 2008 to March 2011, Aguocha, who was subpoena on May 10, 2012, also produced seven documents which included statement of account of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners domiciled at the Garki branch of the bank, statement of account from the date it was opened to December 31st , 2011 as requested, account opening forms, mandate cards and reference forms and account update form. Also tendered before the court, was the payment instruction/instrument of the account within the stated period.
Dr. Shuaibu Sani Teidi, Alhaji Ali Abatcha and Elder Actor Zal were alleged to have, at various times, between 2008 and 2011 conspired to defraud, obtained from the Pensions Department, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation of Nigeria, various sums in the aggregate amount of over Two Billion Naira.
Dr. Teidi, while in the Pensions Department, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation of Nigeria, allegedly used his position to over pay the Check-Off Dues to the NUP which in turn returned the excess payment to Dr. Teidi.
In the proof of evidence presented before the court, Elder Zal had in his confessional statement to EFCC alleged that various sums of money were paid to Dr. Shuaibu. Zal said the NUP received Sixty Million, Nine Hundred and Fifty Eight Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty naira, Forty eight kobo (N60, 958, 850.48) on April 23rd, 2009. Of the amount, N20 million was given to Dr. Shuaibu as kick back. On August 14, 2009, Sixty Five Million, Five Hundred Thousand Six Hundred and Fifty Naira (N65, 500, 650) was received as check off dues and Dr. Teidi allegedly got N20 million as kick back. He said that of the Two Billion, Two Hundred and Ninety Million, Five Hundred and Ninety Three Thousand, Three Hundred and Twenty Two Naira, Ninety Five Kobo (N2, 290, 593, 322.95) that fraudulently accrued to NUP in the period of 2008 and 2011, Two Hundred and Forty Five Million Naira (N245, 000,000. 00) was allegedly given to Dr. Teidi as kick back.
According to Zal, the reason Dr. Teidi gave for his demand was for onward distribution to the Permanent Secretary, Head of Service, Accountant-general office, National Assembly and EFCC to facilitate smooth payment of monthly pensions to the pensioners.
After cross-examination of the prosecution witness by the defence counsels, led by S. I Ameh, the court adjourned the case till October 16, 2012, for continuation of trial. Count one of the four count charge reads: “that you, Dr. Shuaibu Sani Teidi, Alhaji Ali Abatcha and Elder Actor Zal at various times between 2008 and 2011 within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired among yourselves to by false pretences and with intent to defraud obtained from the Pensions Department, Office of the Head of Service of the federation of Nigeria, various sums in the aggregate amount of N2, 290, 593, 322.35 (Two Billion, Two Hundred and Ninety Million, Five Hundred and Ninety Three thousand, three Hundred and Twenty Two Naira, Thirty Five Kobo), thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3)of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
