LAGOS — Nigerian police said Saturday they had arrested four suspects over the theft of data machines for the registration of voters for next year’s general elections in Africa’s most populous country.
“Four suspects were arrested between Thursday and Friday in the Akowonjo area of Lagos and they will appear in court soon,” a senior police officer told AFP.
He said the suspects had provided useful information that might lead to the arrest of other suspects in the theft of the machines at the cargo terminal of Lagos airport on Tuesday.
The direct data capture machines were ordered by the Independent National Electoral Commission to register voters for the April poll.
The commission said a consignment of 20 machines was stolen, out of a total of 6,000 that was imported into the country.
It said 16 of the machines had been recovered.
Nigeria’s lower house of parliament has ordered security agencies to investigate the theft.
A two-week voter registration begins January 15, while presidential elections are set for April 9, a week after legislative polls on April 2 in a country with a history of electoral violence and fraud.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
A-list actress Genevieve Nnaji who featured prominently at the just concluded maiden edition of the African International film festival, held in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State capital was missing during the glamorous night of awards.
The actress participated at the celebrity fashion show alongside Rita Dominic, which held the second day of the event, but failed to show up at the award night for reasons best known to her.
HVP gathered that Genevieve who is said to be having sizzling affair with the rapper , D’banj stayed back in her hotel room, at La-Meridian that night. Though no reason was given for her absence. She sneaked in, at Genesis Deluxe cinema, where the opening ceremony was held and later, disappeared the same way she entered the place.
Meanwhile, in her absence, other star-actresses who graced the occasion like Rita Dominic, Omoni Oboli, Ibinabo Fiberesima, Dakore Egbunson who compered the occasion alongside BBA 5 presenter, IK Osakioduwa had their funs. Rita Dominic was everywhere, as she took to the floor digging it out with Donka Mighty, who thrilled the large audience with his scintillating performance, and later Psquare took the stage, and in the duo’s earth-shaking performance got the visiting Hollywood stars on their feet.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Top Hollywood actor and musician, Malcolm-Jamal Warner left Nigeria an unhappy man last Sunday. He was one of the guest stars that graced the film festival.
Warner could not hide his disappointment , especially when it was obvious to him that he was returning to his base in America without achieving his desire to meet with the Nigerian diminutive actors, Aki and Pawpaw (Chinedu Ikedieze and Osita Iheme).
Best known as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, and Rockmond Dunbar whose roles as Kenny Chadway on the Showtime television drama series “Soul Food’ stood him out, Warner expressed his disappointment this way, “I looked forward to meeting with Aki and Paw-paw but unfortunately, they did not attend the event. I would loved to see them face to face.â€
Warner actually had swell time, while the festival last ed. He confessed, “ I’m enjoying myself here. Africa and indeed Nigeria is cool.†Mid-way into the award night, the actor-turned musician was given a Nigerian name, and also, the freedom to chose a wife from the host state.
The guest-star said, he was in Nigeria to flag off a collaborative venture with Nigerian film makers and actors.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Recent alarm raised by the federal lawmakers, especially the senate, that the central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s claim that 25% of the Federal Government overhead in the 2010 budget was been gulped by the National Assembly members would not surprise Nigerians in that the parliamentarians penchant for grandiose and ostentations life styles which the perk of office offers, has elicited numerous scandalous sleaze on the national treasury.
There is no gainsaying that Sanusi’s Wednesday, 1st of December, 2010 revelation was a tip of the iceberg, given that the continuous public outcry that the remuneration and salaries of the insignificant 469 lawmakers against the majority of 150 million Nigerians was dealing a dead blow on the nation’s economy.
Sanusi it was reported had at an academic exercise last week in Okada, Edo State, delivered a lecture on the state of the Nigerian economy where accordingly he revealed that 25% of the 2010 budget was been spent on the lawmakers, a statement which infuriated the national assembly to summon the CBN governor who in response insisted that he quoted figures obtained from the office of the director of Budget of the Federation.
Displaying an uncommon princely mien and indignation to the vexed outrageous budget manipulation, Sanusi exhibited rare courage and bravado which is least expected of a supposed corruptible Nigeria public servant by telling it to the faces of the lawmakers that their reported allowances is costing the federal government a quarter of its 2010 budget overhead. This audacity of the CBN governor ultimately not only serve as a litmus test to other public officers to be open to Nigerians in their budget processes but to shun corruption and the illicit act of padding government budgets to the detriment of the impoverished Nigerians.
There are various accounts that buttress this misnomer that the Nigeria budget process is laden with corruption. In 2006 precisely, a senate president and sitting minister in the then president Olusegun Obasanjo federal executive cabinet were accused of “Budget for Bribe†allegation amounting to over N100million. Other members of the House of Representatives which include a current sitting Governor were also fingered but denied the alleged impropriety.
The National Assembly then set up an investigative committee to look at the Obasanjo’s allegation. But alas the House particularly, exonerated its member accusing Obasanjo of passing judgment without trial. Obasanjo it will be recalled had rushed to national television to announce that members of the National Assembly had the penchant of over bloating budget estimates sent to it by the executive arm for consideration. The president had argued that such reasons accounted for why he could not implement the budgets progressively for the development of the country. He also accused the parliamentarians of padding the budget with ridiculous figures that were not accounted for on the long run while also faulting their push for constituency projects.
While the House of Representatives absolved its members of any complicity, senator Adolphous Wabara and professor Fabain Osuji, former minister of education were not lucky as both were striped of their exalted positions. It must be generally accepted that since 1999, the country’s budgeting process has been laced with absurdities such that government expenditure has only benefited political office holders both in the executive and legislative branch to the detriment of majority of Nigerians.
At this juncture, it is worthy to concede this modest effrontery to the Kano born prince in the current outlandish budget face-off between him and the NASS since it brought to the fore his gallantry. His disclosures no doubt is a welcomed development as it reinforces the apprehension in clear terms that in the face of government’s dwindling revenue and threats to the national economy, the federal parliamentarians allocated to themselves a whooping N136.259 billion as recurrent overhead from the total N536.268 total federal government overhead representing 25.4 of the total 2010 annual budget.
Expectedly Nigerians loathe this lopsidedness, with no exceptions to political office holders across the country and the self seeking measures of the Omisore empanelled parliamentarians in particular and entire National Assembly. For if they must be patriotic and see their electorates first, then there is the need for a rethink for downward review by the Abuja lawmakers, while it is expected that the Director General of the Budget office of the Federation be summoned to shed more light on the controversial overheads. Because whether it is 25.4 percent or the finance Minister’s percentage computation of N158 billion of N3.9 trillion which is the clarion call by Nigerians and other key government institutions for downward review of the lawmakers allowances, period.
While we salute Sanusi’s doggedness against the face of intimidation, we commend his undeterred posture to drum, point blank, to the federal lawmakers that they are fat cats milking the Nigerian treasury recklessly.
We greet this courage, and to the lawmakers, “We say a word is enough for the wiseâ€.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Pfizer was accused of hiring investigators “to uncover corruption links†to Nigeria’s former attorney general and apply pressure to drop lawsuits against the company over a controversial 1996 test of antibiotics on children with meningitis, according to a secret State Department cable that related a company official’s account.
Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company, denied the cable’s allegation, which was contained in documents released by WikiLeaks. The cable indicated that the information alleging corruption on the part of the attorney general was spread through the media to publicly pressure him to drop the lawsuits.
“Any notion that the company hired investigators in connection to the former attorney general is simply preposterous,†Christopher Loder, a spokesman at Pfizer’s New York headquarters, said on Friday.
The former attorney general, Michael K. Aondoakaa, told The Associated Press that he knew nothing of any Pfizer attempt to investigate him. “If they were doing it behind my back, it’s very unfortunate,†he was quoted as saying.
Last fall, Mr. Aondoakaa dismissed a $6 billion lawsuit and criminal charges as part of a settlement agreement with Pfizer, after allegations that the drug maker’s experiment with antibiotics resulted in the deaths of Nigerian children. Pfizer contested the cause of the children’s deaths, but ultimately settled with the country for $75 million in one case, according to a Pfizer filing in November. Mr. Loder said the money was to pay Nigeria’s lawyers in the case.
Last year, the Nigerian state of Kano, where the experiments occurred, also accepted a $75 million settlement to drop criminal charges and a civil suit seeking more than $2 billion. Mr. Aondoakaa was not involved in the Kano settlement.
In the cable, dated April 20, 2009, United States officials described an April 9 meeting in Lagos with Enrico Liggeri, Pfizer’s company manager in Nigeria.
“According to Liggeri,†the cable says, “Pfizer had hired investigators to uncover corruption links to federal attorney general Michael Aondoakaa to expose him and put pressure on him to drop the federal cases. He said Pfizer’s investigators were passing this information to local media.â€
The cable continued: “A series of damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa’s ‘alleged’ corruption ties were published in February and March. Liggeri contended that Pfizer had much more damaging information on Aondoakaa and that Aondoakaa’s cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of further negative articles.â€
In seeking comment, Pfizer would say only that Mr. Liggeri was still employed as a manager in Nigeria, but it would not say whether the company had talked with him since the cable became public. Mr. Aondoakaa was not charged with any offenses.
Another part of the cable covers discussions a week earlier with Mr. Liggeri and two Pfizer lawyers about the state settlement, which had been tentatively reached even as federal negotiations continued. That part of the cable appears to accurately reflect the details of the state settlement announced in July 2009. It included $35 million for the families, $30 million for state health care programs and $10 million in legal fees.
Pfizer was sued in Nigeria after reports that it had tested an experimental antibiotic called Trovan on 100 children during a 1996 meningitis epidemic. Another 100 children were given an approved antibiotic, ceftriaxone. Families later charged they had not been properly informed and that the standard antibiotic dose was too low. Some children died and others suffered brain damage, paralysis, deafness or blindness during the trial, first disclosed by The Washington Post.
Pfizer said its researchers acted ethically. The company said deaths and injuries were caused by the meningitis, an inflammation of membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.
Trovan was approved in Europe and the United States for adults in 1997 but banned in Europe and restricted in the United States in 1999 after reports of liver failure and deaths.
In the leaked cable, the embassy describes Mr. Liggeri and two Pfizer lawyers briefing the ambassador and an economics deputy about the state settlement. In a meeting, “EconDep,†who was not otherwise identified, met with Mr. Liggeri. In addition to referring to Mr. Aondoakaa, the cable says Mr. Liggeri complained the lawsuits were “wholly political in nature.â€.
Mr. Liggeri, contacted by e-mail early Saturday morning in Nigeria, declined to comment on the cable and referred questions to a spokesman at Pfizer headquarters.
The cable was first published Friday by the British newspaper The Guardian and the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Pfizer hired investigators to dig up dirt on Nigeria’s then-attorney general early last year in an effort to pressure him to drop a $6 billion lawsuit against the company, according to a classified U.S. diplomatic cable.
The high-profile litigation, which stemmed from a 1996 drug experiment conducted on perilously ill children, was settled privately after the meeting that led to the April 20, 2009, cable.
The cable was released this week by the anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks and represents just the latest twist in the case’s 14-year saga. In a statement, Pfizer called the new allegations “simply preposterous.”
The Pfizer drug trial, whose tale has been compared to the plot of the Academy Award-winning movie “The Constant Gardener,” has become notorious since its details were first made public in a 2000 investigative series in The Washington Post, and in a follow-up investigation in 2006 that led to homicide charges against the company.
In 1996, Pfizer’s researchers selected 200 children at an epidemic hospital in Nigeria, then gave about half of them an untested oral version of the antibiotic Trovan. The other children were given a comparison drug. Researchers did not obtain signed consent forms, and medical personnel said Pfizer did not tell parents their children were getting an experimental drug. Pfizer’s lead investigator later acknowledged that he personally created and backdated a key ethics approval document.
Eleven children died during the trial and others suffered disabling injuries. Pfizer said it broke no laws and that the deaths and other problems resulted from meningitis
Nigerian officials brought criminal and civil charges in 2007, one set filed by state officials and the other $7 billion case brought by federal authorities.
The 2009 cable, classified as “confidential,” says that Pfizer’s country manager, Enrico Liggeri, met with U.S. officials in Abuja to discuss the cases.
“According to Liggeri,” the cable says, “Pfizer had hired investigators to uncover corruption links to federal attorney general Michael Aondoakaa to expose him and put pressure on him to drop the federal cases. He said Pfizer’s investigators were passing this information to local media.
“A series of damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa’s ‘alleged’ corruption ties were published in February and March. Liggeri contended that Pfizer had much more damaging information on Aondoakaa and that Aondoakaa’s cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of further negative articles.”
Aondoakaa told The Guardian, the London newspaper that first reported on the cable, that he knew nothing about Pfizer’s attempts to investigate him.
A Pfizer representative in a phone interview Friday declined to discuss specifics of the cable or Liggeri’s alleged comments. In its written statement this week, Pfizer said it negotiated the confidential settlement with the federal government “in good faith and its conduct in reaching that agreement was proper.” Pfizer said it had agreed to pay the legal fees and expenses incurred by the federal government in the litigation and no payment was made to the federal government of Nigeria itself.
According to the cable, Liggeri also told U.S. officials that the lawsuits were “wholly political in nature,” and that the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders also gave children Trovan. Officials with the organization said that is not the case, and other records suggest that only Pfizer would have had access to Trovan at the time.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Earlier this week, Nigeria charged former Vice President Dick Cheney with doling over $180 million in bribes to government officials, but a new GlobalPost report suggest that it could take more than twice that much to keep him out of prison. On Wednesday, the country’s anti-corruption agency accused Cheney of making the payments while he was head of Halliburton’s engineering subsidiary, KBR, in the years prior to 2007. KBR, which is no longer a part of Halliburton, owned up to the bribes, and reportedly agreed to pay $597 million in fines. But Cheney himself is still on the hook. Femi Babafemi, the spokesman for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, tells GlobalPost that Halliburton is negotiating a plea deal with Nigeria that could involve a $500 million settlement. (Raw Story points out that “it’s not clear from the GlobalPost report if the $500 million figure refers to the amount Halliburton will have to pay or whether that amount would cover all the companies that have been charged.”) If convicted, Cheney would face three years in Nigerian prison.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the northern consensus candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primaries has been attended by much controversy. It generated widespread comments from a cross section of the Nigerian pubic. Most of these comments were uncomplimentary, and sometimes, detracting. He has been denigrated for being too old, that at 64, he should retire from politics and make way for a younger generation of leaders. There were remarks about his being very corrupt, and that a case is pending against him in the United States of America, and that as the president of Nigeria, he would not be allowed entry into the United States of America.
While the object of this writing is not to hold briefs for Atiku Abubakar, I must categorically state that a 64-year-old man is not too old to be the president of Nigeria. Ronald Reagan was 69 years old when he became the president of the United States of America, and Winston Churchill became the British Prime Minister at 65 years old. While youthfulness is magnificent, it is not a necessary prerequisite for good leadership. Age does not impede leadership capabilities, up until that point when it becomes associated with senility and other forms of incapacity.
So, a youthful generation of Nigerian leaders will emerge when the Nigerian youth can politically dislodge the old guards and wrest power from them. For example, a young Barack Obama emerged as the president of the United States of America not because there was a humane, philanthropic resolution among older American politicians to allow a transfer of power to the younger generation of politicians, but because he triumphed in the struggle for power. In the Democratic Party primaries, he defeated politicians who were older than him. And in the presidential election, he also defeated John McCain who was 69 years old.
It is possible for a democratically elected Nigerian president to reform Nigeria into a democracy buttressed by high moral values and ethical standards, rule of law, social justice and efficient and responsive institutions without being a friend of the American government or having any need to travel to America. Therefore, my issue with the presidential candidates in the upcoming presidential election is not their acceptability to the American government but what they are bringing to the office of the presidency: knowledge, experience, character, sound political programmes and, above all, commitment to public service.
Human behaviour is driven by interests, be them personal, group, religious, ideological. And democratic politics is resolution of human interests. Therefore, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the resolution of the conflicting personal political ambitions of four northern politicians into a northern consensus candidate.
That successful endeavour at consensus building foreshadows a number of advantages for the Nigerian democratic process. For one, its approach differed significantly from earlier PDP modus operandi. It was not done in the usual PDP military–like fiat, and the candidate was not determined and imposed by a bunch of self-serving godfathers. The internal workings of the PDP are undemocratic and sometimes dictatorial. The method used in choosing the PDP presidential candidate for the 2007 election was authoritarian. All the presidential contenders were browbeaten into withdrawing their candidacies to pave way for the godfathers’ preferred candidate. Refreshingly, the northern consensus candidacy was determined by consultation, extensive, dispassionate consultation, by a neutral group working for the collective good of the North, and by extension, Nigeria.
Ezukanma can be reached on maciln18@yahoo.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Tunde Oyesina writes on the seeming cold war between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and how this could affect prosecution of corruption war in Nigeria.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is an organ of the Federal Government created to curb the rate at which corruption is growing in the country. Though the commission has come under criticisms, it has made a mark.
It is now contentious, however, if the commission remains effective after the exit of its former boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, as far as prosecuting high-profile cases is concerned.
During Ribadu’s tenure, the commission forged relationship with similar organisations in other parts of the world, making it difficult for stolen public funds to be repatriated abroad.
A former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun and former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, were prosecuted and jailed, though some people considered their conviction a slap on the wrist.
Also, the EFCC arrested, paraded and commenced the prosecution of former Governors Saminu Turaki, Orji Kalu, Chimaroke Nnamani, Joshua Dariye, James Ibori, Ayo Fayose and Jolly Nyame, who only a few months earlier were protected by Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution which granted them immunity from prosecution while in office.
The arrest and arraignment of these former governors helped to send a message about the limits of immunity. The point was well made that no one would again be allowed to mismanage public resources. Apart from the hounding of corrupt public officials, the EFCC adopted other measures, including plea bargaining in pursuit of its mandate.
There is no doubt that the nation will suffer in the hands of corrupt leaders who will perpetrate their acts if this cold war is allowed to persist.â€
The EFCC had brought renewed respect to Nigeria with the country receiving better rating on the international corruption index. Before the creation of the EFCC in 2003, Paris, France-based Financial Action Task Force had blacklisted Nigeria as a destination for capital investment. With the EFCC in place and its proven vigilance, more investors developed confidence in the Nigerian system, the evidence of which was borne out by the increased robustness in the banking sector and the capital market.
The commission arrested and investigated over 5,000 people for various crimes within its purview and countless number of convictions was made In 2007, the commission sustained an established pattern of activism against economic and financial crimes. Economic crimes as defined by the EFCC Act in Section 46 covers crimes such as the embezzlement of public funds, currency trafficking, drug trafficking, money laundering, tax evasion, dumping of toxic wastes and smuggling and all such acts which may have a damaging effect on the national economy. Financial crimes, on the other hand, refer to advance fee fraud, cyber crime, capital market fraud, currency trafficking and counterfeiting, and any such attempt to earn wealth illegally. The commission invited prominent bankers for questioning, senior public officers too and it gave trouble to frauds. At a time, there were over 500 persons in its cells, while it prosecuted over 150 cases in court.
In the run up to that year’s elections, the commission warned the then sitting governors that anyone among them who had stolen public funds, would be arrested immediately they left office. Indeed, it announced that 16 state governors and two former governors were being investigated and would be picked up by its men. The commission did not quite keep to this promise, but it was generally believed that the speed with which many of the former governors fled abroad as soon as they handed over power on May 29 was not unconnected with the threat.
Some of the EFCC’s major achievements in 2007 included the jailing of a number of bankers who had defrauded their customers or engaged in money laundering. Kingpins of 419 were sent to jail, including one Ade Bendel, who had defrauded an Egyptian General, Ali Abdul Aliah, to the tune of about $800,000.
There was also the Wilbros Scandal. Wilbros Group Incorporated, an American company, had allegedly paid a bribe of over $6 million to officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Shell Petroleum Development Corporation (SPDC) to facilitate a gas pipeline contract.
The EFCC promptly invited all the named persons for questioning. But perhaps the cumulative effect of the work of the EFCC could be seen in how it succeeded in criminalising illicit wealth.
In a country where questions are hardly asked about the source of an individual’s wealth, the EFCC impelled the people to adopt a change of attitude.
When the present boss of the commission, Farida Waziri, came on board, it was believed that the commission would not go far even till now. Some still believe that the EFCC has lost its effectiveness, but the commission under the leadership of Mrs Farida Waziri has made certain remarkable feat.
The EFCC recorded over 100 convictions in the last two years. And from a country that achieved notoriety world-wide as the bastion of advance fee fraud emerged “Project Eagle Claw,†a unique software which tracks and destroys scam mails before they get to their target, thus marking a sharp decline in the number of advance fee fraud cases originating from Nigeria. Recoveries in corruption and money laundering cases also stand at $3.5 billion.
These milestones, recorded over a period of two and a half years with Waziri at the helm of affairs are testimonies to the effectiveness of the EFCC and underline its importance in the battle against corruption and economic crimes.
Indeed, since the agency was established in 2003, it has changed the face of law enforcement in Nigeria with achievements made in the execution of its core mandate, which is the eradication of all forms of financial and economic crimes.
EFCC forced its way into national and global consciousness from the outset when it swooped on the band of fraud, seized the proceeds of their crimes and put them to trial. The likes of Emmanuel Nwude, Amaka Anajemba, late Maurice Ibekwe, Fred Ajudua and Adedeji Alumile, alias Ade Bendel, who moved about in convoys with police escort were all taken out of circulation. Even now, most of the notable 419 kingpins are either in jail or facing trial. A good number have also fled the country and now operate from neighbouring countries.
Today, the agency has over 100 high-profile cases in court and has recorded a number of high-profile convictions, among which are the conviction of former deputy national chairman of the PDP, Chief Olabode George.
Chief George is serving a two-and-a-half-year term alongside five others for their roles in the N100 billion contract splitting scam in the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Similarly, Cecilia Ibru, a former chief executive officer of Oceanic Bank Plc., is serving an 18-month jail term for sundry financial crimes, while conceding assets valued at over N195 billion to the state. The Ibru case is a landmark of sorts, not in terms of the length of prison term, but by the quantum of assets recovered.
Without doubt, it is the single biggest recovery by any law enforcement agency in Nigeria. The manner the recovery was made is quite commendable. It was civil and bereft of high drama.
The conviction of Ibru appears as the climax of the EFCC sanitisation efforts in the banking sector after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sacked the managing directors of five stressed banks for sundry financial malpractices in 2009.
The commission has recovered over N180 billion for the banks, depositors’ funds that was almost lost as unsecured loan. The effect of this on the economy is obvious. In the short term, it has helped to shore up the liquidity of the stressed banks. EFCC’s involvement in the saga has also impressed it on bank executives that it is no longer business as usual.
But in recent times, there has been a lot of challenges against the EFCC and this has been traced to many factors such as alleged cold war between the EFCC boss and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Muhammed Adoke, who is the chief prosecuting officer of the nation. This could have been said to be the cause of the slow pace which prosecution of high-profile cases are being handled.
This alleged lack of understanding between the EFCC boss and the number one law officer of the country was reported to have pushed Waziri to the point of attempting to resign from her duty of ripping the nation of corruption.
Furthermore, the sour relationship between EFCC and the office of the AGF has delayed prosecution of some high profile cases and even the withdrawal of some on grounds of plea bargaining.
This seems to be a clear departure from the EFCC as Nigerians knew it, which had corruption cases prosecuted headlong.
There is no doubt that the nation will suffer in the hands of corrupt leaders who will perpetrate their acts if this cold war is allowed to persist.
It is, therefore, pertinent for the EFCC boss and the AGF to work hand in hand to continuously clear the nation of corrupt elements.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Lagos, Nigeria – Sixteen of the 20 electoral equipment stolen by armed gunmen at Nigeria’s main gateway Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos Monday have been recovered, the local press reported Friday. The stealing of the Direct Data Capturing (DDC) machines imported by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the country’s voter registration exercise 15-29 January 2011 has raised fears that next year’s polls may not be free and fair.
The speculation is that the machines were hijacked by unscrupulous politicians who want to use them to carry out illegal voter registration, with the aim of rigging the polls.
The stolen machines were part of the 6,000 brought into the country by a local firm contracted by INEC to import them.
However, INEC has moved quickly to douse fears over the forthcoming polls.
‘There are adequate safety features to forestall any nefarious use of the stolen items; as such, the integrity of the electoral processes would not be compromised,†INEC spokesman Kayode Idowu said in a statement.
“The Commission urges all eligible Nigerians to turn out for the planned voter registration in January, and to work with INEC for the attainment of free, fair and credible elections in 2011,†he added.
The private Guardian newspaper reported that the Presidency Thursday summoned the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze, and Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority (FAAN), Richard Aisuebeogun, over the security situation at the Airport, where the DDC machines were stolen.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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