FREQUENT acts of violent crime have grown to form a major threat to Nigeria’s national security. These include instances of militancy, insurgency and banditry. Banditry includes cattle rustling, armed robbery and kidnapping for ransom.
Kidnapping has remained the most virulent form of banditry in Nigeria. It has become the most pervasive and intractable violent crime in the country.
Kidnapping can be targeted at individuals or at groups. School children have been kidnapped in groups in various parts of Nigeria. Usually, the prime targets of kidnapping for ransom are those considered to be wealthy enough to pay a fee in exchange for being freed.
Kidnapping is the unlawful detention of a person through the use of force, threats, fraud or enticement. The purpose is an illicit gain, economic or material, in exchange for liberation. It may also be used to pressure someone into doing something – or not doing something.
Nigeria has one of the world’s highest rates of kidnap-for-ransom cases. Other countries high up on the list included Venezuela, Mexico, Yemen, Syria, the Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.
Thousands of Nigerians have been kidnapped for ransom and other purposes over the years. Kidnapping has prevailed in spite of measures put in place by the government. The Nigerian police’s anti-kidnapping squad, introduced in the 2000s, has endeavoured to stem the menace. But this been to no avail, mainly due to a lack of manpower and poor logistics.
In my view these efforts have also failed because of weak sanctioning and deterrence mechanisms. Kidnapping thrives in an environment that condones crime; where criminal opportunism and impunity prevail over and above deterrence.
This obviously calls for an urgent review of Nigeria’s current anti-kidnapping approach to make it more effective.
Opportunistic and organised bandits
Even prior to the advent of colonialism there were recorded cases of kidnap for rape, ritual or for other purposes in various parts of Nigeria. But kidnapping today is done primarily for ransom – either money or its material equivalent to be paid for someone’s release. The underlying logic of the kidnapping enterprise is that the victim is worth a ransom value and they or their proxy have the capacity to pay.
Each victim has a so-called “kidnap ransom value” which makes them an attractive target. This value is determined by a number of factors. These include the victim’s socio-economic or political status, family or corporate premium on the victim, the type of kidnappers involved, as well as the dynamics of ransom negotiation.
The kidnapping business in Nigeria has been mostly perpetrated by criminal gangs and violent groups pursuing political agendas. Bandits have often taken to kidnapping for ransom to make money. The escapades of the famous kidnap kingpin, Evans, speak volumes of this pattern of kidnapping. Evans was a multimillionaire kidnapper who was arrested in Lagos a few years ago. He is currently is detention awaiting trial.
Organised violent groups such as militants and insurgents have also been involved in kidnap for ransom in Nigeria. Current trends have been linked back to the example set by Niger Delta militants who resorted to solo and group abductions as a means of generating funds both for private use and for the cause of a particular group.
Similarly, Boko Haram insurgents have used the proceeds of kidnapping to keep their insurgency afloat. The insurgents engage in single or group kidnapping as a means of generating money to fund their activities. Huge sums are often paid as ransom by the victims’ families and associates to secure their release.
In addition to militants and insurgents, organised local and transnational criminal syndicates have been involved. This is happening to apocalyptic proportions in North West Nigeria where rural bandits engage regularly in kidnapping in the states of Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi and Sokoto.
The cost
Kidnapping has led to the loss of tens of thousands of lives and huge sums of money in Nigeria. Many of the victims of the crime have been killed in the course of their abduction, custody or release. Many more have been injured. This is in addition to huge amounts of money lost to ransom takers.
For the victims and their families and friends, the consequences are even more frightful.
Nigeria should never have got here. Kidnappers persist because the benefits of their crimes exceed the costs. So the obvious solution is to raise the costs by imposing harsher, surer penalties. The present penalty for kidnapping ranges from one to 20 years in prison, with the possibility of life imprisonment for extreme cases involving, for instance, murder.
Stricter measures, such as life imprisonment or the death penalty, may not be completely out of place in dealing with the kidnapping menace. After all, the crime of kidnapping is a maximum threat that requires an equally maximum deterrence.
BASED on the volume of cocoa output from the Niger Delta region and the number of cocoa farmers there, a new report says the future of Nigerian cocoa production lies in the region.
The output of Nigerian cocoa beans for three years, between 2014/15 and 2016/17 was 620,000 metric tons and Niger Delta Delta states accounted for 546, 822 metric tons of the total output, revealed Cocoa Value Chain Assessment Report.
In the report unveiled by the Foundation for Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta (PIND), 88 per cent of the total cocoa output for those years was produced by the Niger Delta states.
“There are 120, 000 active cocoa farmers in the Niger Delta and 66 per cent of them have plantations with size ranging from one to five hectare of land,” says Executive Director of PIND, Dara Akala, while presenting the report at a Cocoa Stakeholders’ round-table held in Akure, Ondo State capital.
According to him, the report was the result of a study carried out by the Foundation to provide a detailed scoping and value chain analyses of the cocoa sector in the Niger Delta.
He explained that PIND is already implementing interventions in aquaculture, cassava, poultry and palm oil sectors adding that with some of the interventions attaining full maturity and reaching scale, the Foundation is now expanding into the cocoa sector.
“The cocoa sector has growth potential and ability to increase income and employment,” he said.
He said the Foundation’s vision, within five years, is that the cocoa industry in the Niger Delta will be characterised by improved linkages and communications between smallholder farmers and the processors and exporters, with mutual incentives.
Akala who was represented by PIND’s Market Systems Development Manager, James Elekwachi added that cocoa accounted for more than 30 percent of Nigeria’s agricultural export and generated a total of $774.6million in 2016 out of which $83.6million came from exportation of cocoa derivatives including cocoa butter and cocoa paste.
In 2016, the report said agriculture accounted for 24.2 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), noting that the sector is highly concentrated on crop production which accounts for 90 per cent output.
“Fishery, forestry and livestock, account for remaining 10 per cent,” the report said, insisting that the country’s agricultural potential is still high because Nigeria 82million hectares of arable land, out of which only 34million hectares have been cultivated.
It remarked that Nigeria cocoa production in the past 17 years has witnessed some volatility, noting that production has been fairly flat, “with peaks and valleys due to the cyclicality of cocoa tree production and weather conditions.”
“It was discovered from the study that for one hectare of a cocoa farm in Ondo State, the 7th year is the break-even point.”
On the cocoa processing industry, the report disclosed that the industry is divided between the processing industry (intermediate processors and finished good processors) and exporters.
While noting that local immediate processing companies produce cocoa liquor, cocoa butter and cocoa cake, it said a number of them are already grappling for survival and some have closed down the operation.
“Of the 17 intermediate processing companies, only five are functional with combined capacity utilisation of 50, 000 metric ton and four of them are in Ondo State,” the report said.
However, it stressed, that an estimated 90 per cent of these cocoa derivatives are exported, not including cocoa powder.
It further stated that there were 123 firms in cocoa business in Nigeria including processors and exporters, and that there are 20 regular exporters operating in the sector out of which only three of them control 50 per cent of cocoa beans export.
Small scale farmers, the report said, have no direct contact with the processors and exporters, lamenting that the awareness of sustainable production or certification to motivate better producer price among farmers in is limited to about 10 per cent of farmers in the Niger Delta region.
“If Nigerian exporters can incentivise farmers to produce more cocoa, they can sell it, so the challenge is on increasing production through increased productivity and greater area under production,” the report suggested.
“An integrated markets approach, considering economic, social and environmental dimensions is needed to improve cocoa sector competitiveness.”
SIX hundred and thirty naira (N630). This was the amount Andrew Bello, a Lagos-based lawyer, received in one of the months he worked for a law firm in Ikoyi.
His total salary was supposed to be N20,000 per month, but his firm deducted N500 for each day he got to the office later than 8 a.m. Living in FESTAC town, ordinarily at least an hour away from the office, and coupled with constant traffic congestion, he had little choice. And so he often went home at the end of the month with an average of N4000, while the manager’s gardener, he’d learnt, was paid at least N35,000.
When he asked why he was receiving only N630 that month, he was told the monies deducted were for lateness, practising fee, as well as seal and stamp.
“The boss even told me they just gave me that money out of generosity, that I’m the one who was supposed to pay them that month,” the 28-year-old alumnus of Benue State University recalled.
He was also given between N100 and N200 anytime he had to go to the court. Though it was never enough, he was asked to produce proof of additional amounts spent if he wanted his money reimbursed. From November 2016 to December 2017, Bello endured not only exceedingly inadequate pay but also generally poor working conditions at the firm.
A few months into the job, he travelled to Akwa Ibom for a trial and by the time he returned, his house had been demolished, with no debris in sight. He lost all his possessions, and had only two shirts, one pair of trousers, and one suit. So he went to his boss and pleaded for a week-long leave to recover.
“Err… I’m sorry for your tragedy but, if you miss one day, don’t ever come here again,” she had replied.
For two months after that incident, he slept on plastic chairs at a bar in Obalende and went to the office every morning from there. He then moved in with a friend at the Nigerian Law School. There, he facilitated tutorials between 6 and 10 p.m. on weekdays and earned an extra N20,000. He lived on the campus for three to four months before moving to squat with another friend in Ajah.
“It was terrible,” he said. “I would leave Ajah by 5 a.m., get to the office by 8 a.m. so I don’t get N500 deducted, finish from Law School by 10 or 11 p.m., go back to Ajah, get there by 1 a.m., and then I’m up again by 4 a.m. And after all that, at the end of the month, I was always in debt.”
Today, Bello works in-house for the Seven-Up Bottling Company and earns well over N200,000. “Most people like to say I paid my dues, but man! I didn’t have to pay that much,” he chuckled.
Asked if he would study law a second time if he had an opportunity to travel back in time, he said yes—but only “because of the course itself”. He added jokingly, “If it was by the people in the profession, I would pick Police Studies so that I can deal with them under the guise of anti-robbery or anti-cultism.”
Bello’s ordeal may be behind him but thousands of legal practitioners across the country continue to face a lot of difficulty in trying to eke out a living. Many law firms are reported to treat their employees shabbily, particularly when it comes to remuneration.
There are firms on the Lagos Mainland for example, sources say, that pay as low as N10,000, nearly half of the previous national minimum wage of N18,000. Then there are those who just offer to pay “something” at the end of the month, often defaulting for long periods.
It is also common for lawyers to be employed without written contracts or terms of employment, though this violates section 6 of the Labour Act that states that such contracts must be given not later than three months after employment.
A young female lawyer in Ibadan, Oyo State, who preferred not to be named, spoke of how she was paid N25,000 by her boss. Worse still, he only paid after the first month, and she had to spend out of her pocket to work for several months till she finally quit. “That is the trend of how he does his own things,” she said, implying he used that approach for his other employees too.
Again, last year a video that went viral showed two policemen hitting, dragging and threatening to shoot a lawyer, Olakunle Kareem, who had gone to his former employer, Oluyomi Olawore LLP, a law firm in Onikan, Lagos, to request for his unpaid salary.
It is suggested that the only reason lawyers are not massively seeking job opportunities in other countries, like their counterparts in the medical field, is because they are limited by country jurisdictions.
The narrative is the same irrespective of state. Believing legal practice is not enough to meet his needs, Stephen, an Abuja-based lawyer in his fifth year of practice, has also delved into the information technology (IT) space.
“I had to go learn IT,” he said. “I am a web designer. I run a tech. company with a couple of friends, and that is where I augment from.”
Young lawyer goes to his former employer to ask for his outstanding salary and this happened! Law firm: OLUYOMI OLAWORE LLP. RT till it gets to the right people pic.twitter.com/E9lw7wFbi8
— Start Up Legal Consulting (@bjspesh) July 4, 2018
According to the newly passed amendment to the national minimum wage law, employers who pay less than the minimum wage, which is now N30,000, may be sued at the National Industrial Court. On conviction, section 9 states, the employer shall pay a fine, all outstanding arrears of the worker’s wages, as well as additional penalties for each month of continued violation.
From law to tailoring
When Bisola Ogunsola, 27, participated in the compulsory one-year National Youth Service Corps scheme in 2016, like many of her colleagues she was offered neither stipends nor accommodation. They were treated like burdens in their places of primary assignment.
“We thought NYSC would soon pass and things would get better,” she said, “not knowing that many of us will so much miss the N19,800.”
Studying law was a trying experience for the graduate of University of Ibadan. Due to no fault of hers, she spent eight years, instead of the usual six, in getting a law degree. She was in her first year when her dad got diagnosed with lung cancer. His expensive treatment and subsequent death in 2011 left the family of eight in financial hardship.
Ogunsola took on three part-time jobs just to get through school. She was a tutor at a JAMB tutorial centre and worked for a home tutor business. She also sold jewellery and trained others interested in the trade.
Her mother had to secure a loan to pay her tuition at the Nigerian Law School. Life was simply a transition from one struggle to another. But, after her service year, her hopes of reaping the fruits of her hard work still did not materialise, in spite of how celebrated and highly competitive her profession is.
The firm she joined in Akure, Ondo State, told her they don’t pay salaries but only allow their staff to have appearance fees in order to promote hard work. But she soon discovered, to her dismay, that most clients wouldn’t pay the fee after proceedings, and requesting yourself could get you a scolding.
Those who paid only gave between a thousand and two thousand naira to cover transport expenses. As a result, she earned an average of N2000 every week and, with fares and call cards expenses deducted, only ended up with about N3000 each month.
“The principal will personally go for briefs where the appearance fee is attractive and push juniors to stingy clients,” she narrated.
Her search for jobs at other law firms did not bring a better offer. Many promised salaries but would not pay for months, and then you would have to let go. Some assure you of attractive appearance fees, but prevent you from going to trials. At times, they also lie that they’re handling a matter pro bono (free of charge) just to mislead their employees into thinking they are not making huge profits, she said.
So how did Ogunsola cope with other expenses? Her answer: “Business and donations from family.”
“Most young lawyers live on business. Most female lawyers are selling one thing or the other. At least, some people will patronise out of pity,” she explained. “I’ve never been a fan of sole income since my childhood. I just had to pick up from where I stopped.”
She is into the fashion business now, she added, and is training to become a seamstress. With her free time, she builds her private practice by holding briefs for clients and other lawyers outside the jurisdiction.
Another young female lawyer who narrated her experience of psychological abuse and being overworked told The ICIR she has left practice for the position of company secretary at a micro-finance bank in Lagos. From there, she hopes to delve into human resources after successfully getting inducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management in Nigeria (CIPMN).
The National Minimum Wage Act provides for remedies in case of non-compliance by employers
Not a global problem
Compared to other countries, including some in Africa, lawyers in Nigeria are not doing very fine. Based on a 2016 surveyreported by Delta Quest Media, an American lawyer who is just one to four years at the bar can up to a £166,510 (N75.8 million) in a year. Lawyers in Switzerland earn an average of N69.7 million, and those in South Africa with only one to three years of work experience earn up to N63.8 million.
Tsholofelo Tsholofelo, a lawyer in Botswana, confirmed that lawyers in the country do not get paid below the national minimum wage of about $85 per month (and there are talks of raising this to $350). Lawyers who are maltreated report to the Botswana Law Society, which holds lawyers and firms accountable.
“It is very active,” he added. “You can get disbarred for unacceptable behaviour.”
Ayomide Shittu, a US-based lawyer and graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, also told The ICIR lawyers in the United States are not an exception to the national minimum wage of $1,160 (N419,000) per month and there is no prejudice against so-called junior lawyers.
“US lawyers are paid better because the US is a more successful country and the laws about wages are enforced,” she explained.
“If someone pays you less than minimum wage, you can report to the US Department of Labor and they will sue them. Also, no one is going to even take that job so the employer won’t offer it. Law firms are serious companies. No one is going to pay you less because they feel like they are doing you a favour.”
Section 13 of Nigeria’s amended National Minimum Wage Act empowers trade unions to demand compliance with the law on behalf of their members through the court. Complaints may also be filed with the minister of labour and employment.
Benson Upah, the NLC’s head of information, said the law is not fully operational yet and processes are still ongoing to ensure its implementation. He also said the Congress has not had records of companies in the past not paying, but it plans to exploit remedies available to it in seeking compliance including going to court where necessary.
Likewise, the labour ministry’s deputy press director, Rhoda Iliya, told The ICIR that aggrieved persons who visit the ministry’s headquarters at the federal secretariat or send an email will be appropriately directed.
NBA President, Paul Usoro
What is the NBA doing?
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is the professional association of all Nigerians admitted to the bar. Aspirants for key positions at the NBA have often included better welfare for junior lawyers as part of their campaign promises, but do close to nothing after elections.
“Every candidate comes with the mantra and says he will bring back the minimum wage for lawyers, but they don’t really mean it. They just say those things like typical Nigerian politicians,” Stephen remarked.
NBA president, Paul Usoro, in his acceptance speech last year stressed the need to motivate, take care of, and improve the compensation packages of young lawyers. His predecessor, Abubakar Mahmoud, in his 2016 inaugural speech was also particular about developing “a minimum standard and practices for the employment of younger lawyers in law firms across the country”.
Towards fulfilling this, the NBA under Mahmoud’s leadership set up a 13-man committee to formulate a framework on the issue of welfare for all lawyers. Headed by the then NBA vice president, the committee proposed a minimum salary of N50,000 for young lawyers and N25,000 of corps members.
It recommended the establishment of a Welfare Monitoring Committee to act as a task force and watchdog in ensuring that the new policies are adhered to. It suggested also that there should be awards to recognise firms with a friendly disposition to welfare.
Isiaka Olagunju, former NBA general secretary, however, confirmed that the National Executive Council has yet to approve the committee’s blueprint submitted to it in February 2018.
Improve the economy, enforce wage laws
It is the view of Shittu that the fortune of lawyers in Nigeria is a direct reflection of how well the larger economy is performing, and it is not only lawyers who are victims of the system.
“Lawyers are underpaid because everyone is underpaid,” she suggested, adding that “this is so because there is no enforcement of minimum wage laws.”
Laditan Adekunle, a senior state counsel for the Lagos State government, has a similar assessment. He advised that one way to improve lawyers’ financial welfare is for the NBA to ensure that perfection of titles at the land registry can only be done by legal practitioners.
Another crucial step towards improving the financial conditions of lawyers, according to Kemi Sulyman-Akanbi, is to diversify legal practice, which is presently limited compared to what is obtained in other countries. Exploring untapped areas of law will open the doors to new career opportunities, she said.
“The rate at which lawyers are being churned out year in year out is huge, and the opportunities for work as far as Nigeria is concerned are not commensurate. There’s too much manpower, and fewer opportunities to absorb it; and that will affect the pay because if a lawyer says he is not going to take a job, there are thousands more who are willing to,” said Akanbi, an expert in labour law and lecturer at the University of Ilorin.
“Globally, there is what we call super specialisation in law. In some law firms in other countries, they focus only on energy law, artificial intelligence, humanitarian law etc. Here, we just have essentially criminal law, civil law, and a few other areas. There is, therefore, need for reorientation to open up new areas.”
She agreed there should be a minimum wage for lawyers but expressed doubt about it—as well as proposals to make law a second-degree course—bringing a lasting solution. Particularly, a minimum wage might lead to a reduction in firms’ workforce so as to cut costs and a greater number of unemployed lawyers, “if my earlier recommendations are not in place”, she said.
Akanbi also emphasised that the bulk of the burden of putting an end to poor remuneration lies with the NBA. She wonders why, lawyers who are interpreters and ultimately drafters of the law allow themselves to be cheated, despite the clear provisions of the Labour Act.
“It is the lawyers themselves that need to act; there is little the government can do. We need lawyers to take their fortune into their own hands.”
THE Supreme Court has affirmed the Court of Appeal’s nullification of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the 2019 gubernatorial election in Zamfara State and awarded the sum of N10 million against the party.
The APC, whose governorship candidate was Mukhtar Shehu, had been declared the winner of the Zamfara state governorship and state assembly elections held in March this year.
Prior to the election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had barred the APC from fielding any candidate because the party had failed to hold its primary election within the window provided by the electoral commission.
An intra-party conflict had caused a division within the Zamfara APC, causing the two factions to hold parallel primaries, none of which was recognised by INEC.
However, the APC faction that is loyal to the state Governor, Abdulaziz Yari,obtained a judgement from a state high court which directed INEC to recognise the candidates that emerged from the primary election held by the faction. INEC complied with the court order and reinstated the APC into the ballot, but the other APC faction, led by Kabiru Marafa, a serving member of the Senate, filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal.
After the election, the APC won the governorship position as well as majority of the state assembly seats.
On March 25, however, the Court of Appeal deliveredits judgement and agreed with the appellant that the APC ought not to have any candidate for the Zamfara state elections.
Dissatisfied, the other faction took their appeal to the Supreme Court seeking to set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal.
Delivering the judgement on Friday, the panel of five Supreme Court Justices, led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, dismissed the appeal and upheld the judgement of the Court of Appeal and voided all the votes cast for APC in the Zamfara election.
Bello Matawalle, candidate of the PDP in the Zamfara guber election, is likely to become the state’s next governor.
The court further ruled that the “candidate other than the first appellant with the highest vote stand elected”.
“A cost of N10 million is awarded against the appellant,” the court ruled.
Recall that because of the pending court cases, INEC had decided to withhold the certificates of return for the governor and legislators-elect in Zamfara until the cases were determined.
As it stands now, it is likely that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the elections, Bello Matawalle, who came second with a total vote of 189,452 will be declared the winner of the election and returned elected.
When this happens, it would bring the total number of States won by the PDP in the 2019 general elections to 15, namely: Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, and now Zamfara.
This would also mean that the states won by the APC has been reduced to 14 namely: Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Plateau, and Yobe.
Elections did not hold in seven states, namely Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Ondo and Osun. INEC has fixed the Bayelsa and Kogi elections for November 16, 2019. Both States are currently governed by the PDP and APC respectively.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has affirmed the electoral victory of Kayode Fayemi in the Ekiti State governorship election held in July 2018.
The court held that the appeal was lacking in merit because the judgements of both the election petitions tribunal and that of the Court of Appeal in the case were the same. It is only where there has been an established breach of the law in the two judgements, that the Supreme Court could decide otherwise.
Theresa May on Friday announced that she was resigning from her position as the United Kingdom Prime minister and quitting as the conservative party leader on June 7.
The embattled Prime Minister has faced massive criticism for failing to deliver her flagship policy of leaving the European Union, missing two Brexit deadlines.
In her emotional statement at the doorstep of 10 Downing Street, May said although she had failed in her efforts she has also tried her best to implement the decision of the people.
“I negotiated the terms of our exit and a new relationship with our closest neighbours that protects jobs, our security and our Union. I have done everything I can to convince MPs to back that deal. Sadly, I have not been able to do so.
“I tried three times.
“I believe it was right to persevere, even when the odds against success seemed high. But it is now clear to me that it is in the best interests of the country for a new Prime Minister to lead that effort.
“It is, and will always remain, a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit. It will be for my successor to seek a way forward that honours the result of the referendum.
“To succeed, he or she will have to find consensus in Parliament where I have not. Such a consensus can only be reached if those on all sides of the debate are willing to compromise.
“So I am today announcing that I will resign as leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party on Friday 7 June so that a successor can be chosen.”
The processes of electing a new leader she said would commence next week.
“I have kept Her Majesty the Queen fully informed of my intentions, and I will continue to serve as her Prime Minister until the process has concluded,” she said.
With May’s exit, it is expected that Britain will experience a leadership contest, with several Conservative MPs tipped to run. The winner will be Britain’s next PM.
THE House of Representatives has asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sanction 16 commercial banks for under-remitting stamp duty revenue to the tune of N1.6 billion.
It also asked the CBN to ensure the banks pay the outstanding revenue with interests.
The House reached the decision after adopting the report of the ad-hoc committee which investigated the non-remittance of the stamp duties on Thursday.
Leaks.ng, a collation of media houses, had reported that the agencies refused to disclose details of the stamp duty revenue whose status has been shrouded in secrecy over the years.
Following the report, the House set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the matter and report its findings.
CBN officials had told the committee the total stamp duty revenue since January 2016 stands at N35.2 billion.
The committee’s report, as presented by its chairman, Abubakar Ahmad, listed the indicted banks with highest under-remitted stamp duty revenues as Diamond Bank, with N545.87 million; Zenith Bank, with N265.63 million, and Stanbic IBTC, with N231 million.
The other banks indicted include Guaranteed Trust Bank (N196.3 million); Standard Chartered Bank (N3.65 million); Citi Bank (N1.86 million); and Providus Bank (N646,650).
Others are Fidelity Bank (N32.88 million), Keystone Bank (N24.47 million), United Bank of Africa (N81 million), and ECOBANK (N78.52 million)
Also indicted are Unity Bank (N40 million), Jaiz Bank (N2.43 million), Access Bank (N66 million), Skye Bank (N11 million), and Polaris Bank (N2.9 million).
The House, however, called for further investigation into four banks which it said failed to honour their invitations. The banks include First Bank of Nigeria, First City Monument Bank, Wema Bank and Suntrust Bank.
Recommendations
Apart from penalising the 16 banks, the lawmakers also asked CBN to strengthen its supervisory role over the stamp duty revenue to ensure they are collected promptly.
It also called for a machinery to allow for the recovery of under -remittances “after further reconciliation is carried out with the banks concerned.”
Other recommendations include:
– That all banks that were found not to have made full disclosure on stamp duties collections and remittances should be further investigated.
– That financial institutions, especially the deposit money banks (DMBs) should remit all collections with respect to government revenues promptly and correctly, and where remittances are not promptly done, the DMBs should be sanctioned.
– That the relevant agencies should give maximum cooperation to the School of Banking Honours (SBH) to enable it realise the goal of the assignment given to it.
– That other forms of stamp duty should be explored “to increase the revenue base of various tiers of government in accordance with the provisions of the Stamp Duty Act, 2004.
THE Academic Staff Union of Universities says the federal government is displaying “lackadaisical attitude” in implementing the agreement it signed with the union earlier in the year and as such should be held responsible for any disruption in the academic calendar.
This was contained in a statement issued on Thursday by the ASUU National Chairman, Biodun Ogunyemi, in reaction to the recent claims by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, that another tranche of N25 billion has been approved for the ASUU members.
Ogunyemi said the funds, which was meant to be a part-payment of the earned academic allowances, ought to have been released since February according to the Memorandum of Action that FG signed with ASUU.
“Since information on the amounts mentioned in the media went round, the ASUU has been inundated with enquiries on the union’s perspective to the story,” Ogunyemi said.
“Funding for the revitalisation of public universities has for years been of very high priority to ASUU.
“Reaching an agreement with the Federal Government has often been a frustrating journey for our union. It is often marked with protests, strikes and requires a conscious and focused engagement.
“The 2001 agreement, which gave birth to the 2009 agreement, was not an exemption. The exception here is the personality leading the government negotiation team.
“The current leadership of the government team clearly lacks the academic disposition and humility needed to undertake such task.
“Our members enjoy their work and hate to see any disruption in the smooth running of our universities. However, the level of frustration occasioned by the lackadaisical attitude of the government towards meeting the terms of the 2019 Memorandum of Action that was freely signed with our union is increasingly becoming unbearable.
“We, therefore, call on all Nigerian patriots, parents and students including the Nigeria Labour Congress to prevail on the government to keep to the terms of our agreement. Otherwise, our union should not be held responsible for any disruption in the system.”
The last strike action embarked upon by ASUU was called off on February 8, just days to the 2019 general election. It lasted for a little over three months.
ASUU strikes have become a regular occurrence in Nigeria over the years, contributing to the further depreciation of the country’s education sector. During the campaigns for the 2015 general election, Muhammadu Buhari, then candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) had promised to, among other things, bring an end to the incessant strikes.
However, education has fared rather poorly during Buhari’s first term in office, and the situation does not appear any brighter as the President is about to be sworn into office for a second four-year tenure.
FORMER Vice President, Abubakar Atiku says he has the utmost respect for Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, President of the Court of Appeal, who just recused herself from presiding over the 2019 presidential election petitions tribunal on Wednesday.
Atiku, candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, said his demand for Bulkachuwa to step aside from the trial was based solely on her being the wife of an APC chieftain and not because of any other personal issue.
“My legal team’s objection was not a reflection on Justice Bulkachuwa’s character or competence. As a matter of fact, I have great respect for her, being a pioneer and advocate for gender equality and female empowerment,” Atiku said via a statement issued on Thursday.
“It is with this in mind that I commend Justice Bulkachuwa for recusing herself from the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal Panel hearing my petition against the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Her action showed courage and is an act of patriotism. She has, by this action, increased the confidence the public have for the judiciary.
“Not only do I commend her, I also pray, especially in this holy month of Ramadan, that Justice will be done by the tribunal according to the fear of God and not in keeping with respect for the powers that be.”
Justice Bulkachuwa decided to stand aside as the chairman of the presidential election petitions tribunal for personal reasons.
Earlier on Wednesday, the tribunal had dismissed Atiku’s application asking Bulkachuwa to recuse herself from the tribunal on the basis of being a wife and mother respectively to two prominent members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Delivering the judgement, Justice Peter Ige said the applicants had not presented enough materials before the court to show that Justice Bulkachuwa will be biased in the hearing and the decisions on the petition.
Ige held that Bulkachuwa’s filial relationship to members of the APC is not capable of prejudicing the case, hence his decision to dismiss the application.
However, Bulkachuwa went ahead to withdraw from the case citing personal reasons.
A NEWS report from the Medecins Sans Frontiers also known as Doctors Without Borders has narrated how children in Borno State are still dying from measles.
The report raised concern on the spike of measles in the state in 2019. It attributed the condition to a lack of vaccination coverage among the most vulnerable people in northern Nigeria, coupled with a lack of capacity among health actors to respond to the measles outbreak.
A previous report by the UNICEF noted that nearly four million Nigerian children missed vaccination for measles in 2017.
The Doctors Without Borders said lack of the routine vaccine has left thousands of children at risk of getting infected with measles.
“In the four months from January to April alone, MSF teams treated 2,343 children with measles. And the number of cases in April was four times higher than in January. There are so many patients that all 73 isolation beds at Gwange Hospital, in the west of Maiduguri, are full,” the report read in part.
Since January, the medical team has recorded 58 deaths from measles in both the State Specialist Hospital and the Gwange Hospital of Borno State.
“But this is only part of the total death toll,” the report stated.
“MSF teams have treated 2,922 children for measles in Borno since November 2018 as part of the organization’s response to a spike in cases of the potentially deadly disease.”
Caroline Masunda, MSF medical team leader in Maiduguri said in the report that lots of children die from measles due to complications such as acute malnutrition, malaria, and pneumonia.
“It is unacceptable that there are still high numbers of children passing away from such a treatable disease,” she said. “It has brought a lot of loss and a lot of sadness to the community.”
A mother of a three-year-old girl explained how her baby nearly died from the disease.
“She started sneezing and had a high fever, the mother said in the report. “The inside of her lips turned red and she was constantly vomiting. I was so worried and I thought she was going to die. Though after nearly a month of treatment, the girl recovered from the disease.
“Most children we see are admitted for days, if not weeks,” said Muhammad Abdullahi, a doctor at the Maiduguri’s specialist hospital.
“Since I started practising as a doctor in 2016, I have not seen such high numbers of measles cases in Maiduguri,” he said.
The medical team noted that most children suffering from Measles in Borno come from internally displaced populations and the communities that host them.
The Boko Haram insurgencies have caused large numbers of displacements in northeastern Nigeria since 2014. The conflicts have left nearly two million people dependent on humanitarian assistance for their survival.
According to the latest Global Report on Internally Displacement, more than 1.1 million Nigerians were newly displaced in 2018. The number increased the stock of the displaced in the country to over 2.2 million as of December 2018.
In the situation report on measles released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on 18 May, Nigeria has recorded 28796 cases of measles as of May 12. Borno State has the highest number of the disease with a total of 13,742 cases, followed by Katsina with 4,062 recorded cases of measles.
To limit the number of complicated cases that increase the mortality rate, MSF asked for free access to primary health care in Maiduguri for the citizens.
The team also “urgently calling for better, faster coordination between all actors, including Nigerian authorities, UN agencies, and nongovernmental organizations, to provide routine vaccination to children across northeastern Nigeria to protect them against measles—and prevent future outbreaks”.
Medecins Sans Frontiers has been working in Nigeria since 1996 and has a permanent presence in Borno state since 2014.
Thegroup provides lifesaving medical care in northeastern Nigeria, running projects in Gwoza, Maiduguri, Monguno, Ngala, and Pulka, while the emergency teams respond to disease outbreaks and other urgent humanitarian needs.
THE Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) and its partner organisations have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sign two bills before him: the Proceeds of Crime (POCA) bill and the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters bill.
The POCA bill, passed in April, was transmitted to the president on Monday by the National Assembly, and the second bill had been passed by the Senate since May 2017.
ANEEJ, in a press release made public on Tuesday, said both bills when assented to will strengthen the anti-corruption fight of the administration.
“We urge the resident to assent to both bills to strengthen the asset recovery architecture in Nigeria and also institutionalise the enabling frameworks for the effective implementation of the London anti-corruption and the Global Forum for Asset Recovery (GFAR) commitments which the president signed unto in 2016,” ANEEJ’s executive director, David Ugolor, said.
“We commend the National Assembly for transmitting both bills after painstaking negotiations. While we note that the POCA cannot be perfect as passed by both chambers of the National Assembly, if assented to by the president, it will help send a strong message to other jurisdictions withholding our stolen funds,” he added.
“We also want to place on record the excellent support offered by the senate committee chairman on the judiciary, human rights and legal matters, David Umaru, leading to the passage of this all important bill.
“We equally appreciate the leading role of the Honourable Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) and his team in the Federal Ministry of Justice as well as Civil Society Organisations for their relentless efforts towards the passage of the bills over the years.”
Non-governmental organisations partnering with ANEEJ, under its Monitoring of Recovered Returned Assets Through Transparency and Accountability (MANTRA) project, have also lent their voice to the recommendation.
Zikirulahi Ibrahim, executive director of the Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), described the passing of the bills as a significant milestone for all of the country’s anti-corruption activities and said it is a big leap in implementing the government’s anti-corruption strategy.
“We must ensure that looters of the nation’s treasury are not allowed to keep proceeds of their criminality,” he said. “When assented by the president, POCA will make our campaign for the recovery and management of looted assets a lot more easier.”
The Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC) through its executive director, Ralph Ndigwe, said the transmission of both bills to the president signals a significant milestone in the war against corruption in Nigeria.
He added that Utazi Godfrey Chukwuka, senator representing Enugu North and chairman of the Senate committee on anti-corruption and financial crimes, “has written his name in gold in the struggle to rid Nigeria of corruption by this development”.
“We are happy with this development and we call on the President to assent to both Bills and use it as a template to firm up assets recovery institutional framework in the country,” said Abiodun Oyeleye, executive director of the New Initiative for Social Development (NISD), another MANTRA partner.
“It will surely give the needed teeth to anti-corruption activists to bite treasury looters. Unexplained wealth can be seized and the onus placed on the owner to showcase why the government will not seize such suspicious assets with POCA,” he added.
The bill on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters has been touted to have the capacity to assist in the repatriation of looted funds in foreign countries. It will also enable Nigeria obtain evidence, identify witnesses, and transfer suspects in other countries.
Like this instrument, the Proceeds of Crime bill is also crucial in tackling corruption. It provides for the confiscation, forfeiture, and management of property derived from unlawful activities.
