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Before project 2019 ruins Buhari’s anti-graft agenda

Editorial
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Before project 2019 ruins Buhari’s anti-graft agenda

By Martins Oloja

Verily, verily, we should say it to President Muhammadu Buhari and the men and women who are assisting in running his government that this is not the best of time to say ‘silence is golden’. Surely, silence can’t be a strategy in Nigeria at this time when there are serious concerns and questions about the future of the most populous black nation on earth.

Before the president’s reputation managers start screaming blue murder and resume their blame game on the previous administration, the concerns raised today are not about them. They (concerns) are about the office of the president from the office of the citizen. The president and his men should note that before they begin to raise huge funds for the 2019, there are weightier matters of governance, especially about corruption that they should settle quickly, lest they will be the last in 2019.

Indications are daily emerging that politicking around 2019 is beginning to becloud sound judgment in the presidency. As I noted here last week, there is no need reading the president’s lips anymore: I advised us to read his leaps in Kano the other day.

Now, there is the need to draw attention of the president’s reputation managers to some lessons of history that should not be ignored at the moment. They are lessons that past leaders ignored and regretted. And the president and his undiscerning men are beginning to fall into the booby traps – of obsession with a second and more terms in office. Our amiable General Yakubu Gowon once listened to a strange voice that told him 1976 terminal date set “was no longer feasible”. He regretted it.

Even the coup speech that toppled the Buhari administration (1983-1985) appears fresh today as if it was written in 2017. I read it again last night and shook my head that not much has changed, after all. What is worse, the man who would have been our hero of democracy around June 12, 1993 presidential election organised a remarkable election result adjudged to be the best and the cleanest ever. But Professor Omo Omoruyi, the chronicler and a witness to that dark history said General Ibrahim Babangida decided to listen to a strange voice of one mystery Khalifa who asked him to tamper with his country’s destiny: He annulled the result and today we are still nursing the wounds. But no one would believe the report of IBB about June 12-23 1993.

And another man who advertised himself to us in 1998/1999 as “a man we can trust” again decided to plot a blighter called “third term” instead of paying attention to critical governance issues that would have made him a natural successor to Nelson Mandela, and the original icon of Nigeria’s democracy development. That was how General Olusegun Obasanjo too lost steam and Nigeria: He too ended up handing over his ailing presidency to an unhealthy good man who was being assisted by an unprepared deputy who later won election for a full four-year term- as we say here ‘with nothing to show for it’. Who today will believe the report of General Obasanjo on third term agenda?

Specifically, Obasanjo was warned. He had big dreams for Nigeria. His second term was full of exceptionally resourceful men and women who could have helped him to achieve greatness. He was restless. I was covering the presidency and Abuja then as a Bureau Chief for this newspaper.

I was well aware, for instance, that the workaholic called Obasanjo planned to disband the entire police force for reorganisation and operational efficiency that could well serve the world’s most remarkable black nation. I knew who he wanted then to head the police force in that strategic plan. I was also in the know then that Obasanjo the institution, was already aware that the judiciary was getting corruptible. His intelligence chiefs had confirmed to him that judges even at the apex court then were beginning to write two judgments on the same case, waiting for the higher bidder. And he was set to strike.

He wanted to nominate, for instance, Olisa Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, a man he could trust even as Chief Justice of Nigeria. And some private lawyers were to be nominated to the apex court. The constitution allows the president to nominate a lawyer that has had a 15-year-post-call experience into even the Supreme Court or as Chief Justice of Nigeria. The man had other big dreams that the third-term hidden agenda destroyed inside Aso Villa where big dreams always die.

All these historic and historical contexts are to advise President Buhari about the danger of allowing his men to run away with fixation on a second term plans without clearing his name, specifically from serious allegations Abdulrasheed Maina has levelled against him and his men.

This is another time to remind Team Buhari that there are documented impurities in the anti-corruption crusade that will definitely affect his campaigns for a second term. The only reason people tolerated even electoral malpractices in key zones to get Buhari elected in 2015 was this firm belief in the former head of state’s integrity he could depend on to fight Nigeria’s Number One Enemy, rampaging corruption! It is that integrity that his aloofness, his poor attitude to governance is seriously threatening. That was why on 8th October, I asked a difficult question in this column, Is President Buhari’s integrity overrated?

I hope the president’s men are telling the president that the last straw has been the Mainagate, which has become what Awonoor Williams calls “the chameleon faeces” into which they have stepped and when they clean it cannot go!. Yes, Mainagate has become a big albatross from revelations that have affected almost all the president’s key men and the president himself. It is not too late to speak up. It is another truth in a grave. It will surely rise up before 2019.

Even the president’s wife who has been so frustrated, has defied the subculture in the far north and cried out against the husband’s poor attitude, presidential procrastination, especially in dealing with unspeakable impurities associated with the president’s men. It is getting more curious that the president who has only two-point agenda – fighting corruption and insecurity – continues to tolerate these corrosive impurities in his domain, already noted as a house of commotion.

It is still baffling that even at the weekend, there was no indication that the Presidency was ready to react to an allegation by the fleeing former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Maina, that President Buhari actually mandated his recent re-absorption into the civil service, despite being a fugitive.

Maina had earlier been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to explain his role in the alleged disappearance of over N10 billion worth of pensions funds. At the time he was to be tried during the last administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, he reportedly escaped justice by going on self-exile.

But barely three months ago, the embattled Maina was sighted at the Ministry of Interior where he had been re-deployed as an acting director. Following revelation of this drama, President Buhari, apparently embarrassed, especially with the public outrage generated by the incident, ordered Maina’s sack.

But the former pensions task force’s boss, believed to be hiding from the long arm of the law, has been spilling the beans. He recently accused President Buhari of having foreknowledge of how he was re-employed, claiming that the President sent an emissary to him in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, led by the nation’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN).

This is not an ordinary allegation. Part of this serious allegation has been confirmed at the National Assembly where both the Attorney General of the Federation and the Director General, Department of State Services had confessed to contacts with Maina in Dubai.

Maina specifically revealed that the President’s delegation came to convey a message begging him to come back and take up his job as it had been realised that he was actually cleared of any wrongdoing by the law courts. Buhari, he claimed, had set the stage for his secret re-absorption into the civil service. He added that to reciprocate the gesture, he hinted the visiting minister of how to retrieve a missing N1.3 trillion. These are too grave to be silent about!

Meanwhile, there have been some dark spots on the anti-corruption war the president has to clean up before 2019 politicking begins. One is the issue of the EFCC boss who has been acting as Chairman since 2015. The Senate has refused to clear him. This followed two letters the Director General, DSS also wrote to the same Senate saying the president’s nominee was unfit to hold that office. Certainly, the status of the EFCC chairman will surface sooner than later when campaigns begin soon. Who will history record as the Chairman of the EFCC from 2015 to 2017/2019? The answer should not continue to blow in the wind in a serious country.

In the same vein, there are still unanswered questions about the authenticity of Ikoyi Osborn Towers Flat and NIA’s $43 million allegedly found. From testimony credited to the former DG, NIA, Ayodele Oke and even the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, was there really a whistle blower who was just paid more than N400 million? Who owns the flat? Who posted the NIA operatives reportedly found at the Flat when the EFCC operatives struck? Was there any missing money? What is the executive summary of the report of the presidential panel headed by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo on the issue?

We the people should know to clear our doubts about the authenticity of the EFCC’s curious raid. The operation on the Osborn Tower is still shrouded in mystery especially as it was reported in the beginning that the NSA was aware of the N13 billion allegedly kept in the Flat for curious “covert operations”. This too is one other dark spot in the fight against corruption a newspaper editorial just described as “overhyped”. In the main, the president and his men should note that silence on the Mainagate, status of EFCC boss, Magu and the mystery whistle blower on Ikoyi Osborn Flat is not golden, after all. That silence should be broken so that we will not return to the question of whether the integrity of the president has been overrated, after all.

Martins Oloja was former Editor of The Guardian Newspaper from where this article is culled.

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Throwing $1bn to those throwing bombs will not work, says Shehu Sani

Kingsley OBIEJESI
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Throwing $1bn to those throwing bombs will not work, says Shehu Sani

Shehu Sani, Senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, says throwing money to counter-terrorists who are throwing bombs ill not work.

Sani was reacting to the decision of the National Economic Council (NEC) to pull $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account to boost the fight against insurgency in the North East.

Airing his opinion in a post on his verified Twitter handle on Friday, Sani said the move signifies that the terrorists have not been technically defeated as the government always claimed.

Sani also wants the government to release a detailed breakdown of how it intends to utilize the money.

“One billion dollars to fight Boko Haram as approved by the FG officially means the insurgents are yet to be ‘technically’ defeated,” Sani wrote.

“The breakdown of the sum is necessary to make meaning out of it.Throwing money to counter those throwing bombs hasn’t worked in the past.”

Similarly, Ahmad Salkida, a journalist who is well known for his extensive coverage of the Boko Haram insurgency, weighed in on the issue, describing Nigeria as “a nation that doesn’t ask questions”.

Ayodele Fayose, Governor of Ekiti State, had also expressed his reservations with the decision to withdraw money from the Excess Crude Account.

According to Fayose, the move is a ploy to illegally siphon funds to prosecute President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election campaign.

“For posterity sake, I wish to place it on record that I was not among the governors, who approved the withdrawal of $1bn, almost half of our savings in the Excess Crude Account, which belongs to the three tiers of govt to fight an already defeated Boko Haram,” Fayose said.

“Since they said they have defeated Boko Haram, what else do they need a whopping sum of $1 billion (over N360 billion) for; if not to fund President Buhari’s re-election in 2019?

“The APC promised to wipe out Boko Haram within six months, now it is 31 months and what the APC government is wiping out is the economy of Nigeria and the means of livelihood of the people.”

Leadership will easily get to the Igbo after Buhari, says Okorocha

Kingsley OBIEJESI
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Leadership will easily get to the Igbo after Buhari, says Okorocha

Rochas Okorocha, Governor of Imo State, says it is highly likely that the leadership of the country will easily get to the Igbo after President Muhammadu Buhari must have completed his tenure in 2023.

Speaking to members of the Rochas Mandate Movement, who held a solidarity rally in support of his policies and projects, Okorocha maintained that his administration had recorded great achievements, especially by bringing heads of states of several African countries to Imo.

Okorocha also denied that his administration had been a family affair, explaining that the people who are now being referred to as members of his family are people who grew into prominence under his guidance.

“The people I see here are people who are committed. People that are following me not because of what they could gain from me, but because of what we have done for the world,” he said.

“My coming as a leader in Imo State was by your efforts. No big political bigwig supported me and in my stride, I have brought sitting heads of states of other countries to Imo State.

“As it stands, come 2019, I’m contesting for nothing. But in my heart, I have searched out and resolved that one man has good thoughts about Nigeria in his heart. Secondly, the possibility that leadership will easily get to the Igbo after him. That man is President Muhammadu Buhari.

“There are more than 4,000 children who have gone to University through Rochas Foundation and more than 15,000 of such children are also in the various colleges of the Foundation and when some of them graduate, they chose to be with me and I cannot afford to say no to them.

“If any of such children becomes anything under me, they would say he or she is a member of Rochas Family and I don’t deny that since my ambition in life is to see people grow through me.

“Uche Nwosu is from Nkwerre Local Government Area and Prince Eze Madumere (his deputy) is from Mbaitoli LGA, but they are all counted today as members of my family because they have grown to prominence, but when they took those steps of faith no one counted them as members of my family.”

The Imo State House of Assembly has already unanimously endorsed Uche Nwosu, who is married to Okorocha’s daughter, as the one to become Imo State Governor in 2019.

Soldier who killed five rescued civilians gets death sentence

Kingsley OBIEJESI
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Soldier who killed five rescued civilians gets death sentence

John Godwin, a Lance Corporal in the Nigerian army has been sentenced to death by a General Court Martial sitting in Maiduguri, Borno State for killing five civilians who were rescued from Boko Haram insurgents.

This was made known by Kingsley Samuel, a Lieutenant Colonel who is also the spokesman of 7 Division of the Nigerian Army.

“The civilians were earlier rescued by troops of Godwin’s battalion and were taken for investigation at the time he shot and killed five of them,” Samuel told newsmen on Friday.

“Another soldier, Sergeant Innocent Ototo, was sentenced to life imprisonment for manslaughter after torturing and killing a 13-year-old boy who he said stole his phone.

“The incident happened at Zamanbari area of Maiduguri in Borno State.”

Other soldiers punished by the court were Benjamin Osage, a Lance Corporal, and Sunday Onwe, a Private, who were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment each for offences bordering on manslaughter and illegal possession of firearms.

VIDEO: My story is one the world would want to hear, says Omarosé, Nigerian-American who served under Trump

Kingsley OBIEJESI
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VIDEO: My story is one the world would want to hear, says Omarosé, Nigerian-American who served under Trump

Omarosé Manigault-Newman, the Nigerian-American lady who recently resigned from Donald Trump’s administration, says the world would be interested in her story as the only African-American Female in the Trump White House.

Speaking to ABCNews’ Good Morning America, Omarosé said she had witnessed “things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally.”

Her resignation takes effect from January 20, 2018.

Watch a clip of the interview below:

Preacher, actress, broadcaster… Meet Omarosé, the US-born Nigerian who just resigned from Trump’s administration

Kingsley OBIEJESI
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Preacher, actress, broadcaster… Meet Omarosé, the US-born Nigerian who just resigned from Trump’s administration

Not many, especially in Nigeria, have heard about Omarosé Manigault-Newman, who was, until Wednesday, the only African-American female holding a top office in the Donald Trump-led United States government.

Omarosé, whose father is of Nigerian descent, resigned from her role as Director of Communication in the Public Liaison office at the US White House.

Before becoming a staff in the White House, Omarosé had worked as a broadcaster, a reality TV participant, an actress and even a preacher.

JOURNALIST

According to Wikipedia, Omarosé graduated with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism in 1996 from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. She later moved to Washington, DC, to attend Howard University, where she earned a master’s degree and worked toward a doctorate in communications but she did not finish.

REALITY TV STAR

Omarosé first became popular in 2004 following her participation in the first edition of ‘The Apprentice’, a reality TV programme sponsored by the NBC, starring Donald Trump, then a billionaire businessman.

She was described as a controversial, and sometimes, acrimonious character, and was ranked 45th in TV Guide’s ‘The 60 Nastiest TV Villains of All Time’.

Omarosé  was the only participant in ‘The Apprentice’ to be re-invited for the sequel, ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ in 2008. She was eventually fired in the 10th episode, after serving as the project manager of the team.

ACTRESS

Omarosé had several roles as an actress but she is more widely known for appearing in Soul Sistahs (2006), Knock ’em Dead (2014) and We Are Family (2017).

She dated late American Actor, Michael Clarke Duncan, whom she met in 2010. Duncan later died of a heart-related ailment in 2012.

PREACHER

In August 2009, Omarosé  enrolled at the United Theological Seminary in Ohio to pursue a Doctor of Ministry degree.

She received a preacher’s license in February 2011 from her church (Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California) and was formally ordained on February 27, 2012.

In February 2012, she was working on finishing her degree at Payne Theological Seminary.

Omarosé narrated how she came to the decision of becoming a preacher when she visited an orphanage in West Africa, where she encountered a little girl who “was dying of AIDS”.

She said: “It was at that moment, looking into the face, in the eyes of this dying child that I received my call to the ministry.

“Upon returning to the United States, I put reality television on hold. I put everything on hold and returned to seminary full-time.

“There were people who felt like because I had done the (Apprentice) show so many years ago that maybe that disqualified me from the ministry. I’m not really certain.

“But boy did I hear from the critics, and to them I have to say that they underestimate the power of God’s ability to transform a person’s life.”

SO WHY DID SHE RESIGN?

Though there are some reports saying she was fired, Omarosé maintained she voluntarily decided to quit. She however would not elaborate more as her resignation takes effect from January 20.

“I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people,” Omarosé said.

Nevertheless, Donald Trump took to twitter to bid Omarosé farewell and wish her better times ahead.

The task of making life greener in Nigeria, the GHIF story

Editorial
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The task of making life greener in Nigeria, the GHIF story

By Michael Orodare

Whichever perspective you may want to view it from, there is a very high level of poverty in Nigeria, and it is having its toll on the socioeconomic development of the people and the largest black nation in the world. Access to fundamental needs such as food, water, clothing, shelter, may sound cheap; they are not cheap for the poor Nigerian for whom poverty has become a companion.

According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, about 112 million Nigerians (representing 67.1 per cent) of the country’s total population of 167million live below poverty level.

In the midst of all these agonising reports of poverty, a non-governmental organisation has been working so hard to make life easy for the people from the north to the south of the country.

Many have been heard and reported about NGOs fighting one social courses in the country, but what is perhaps less known yet is that one among them is doing all these without soliciting funds from local and international donors.

Located in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, Green Heart Impact Foundation (GHIF), the NGO, has already saved thousands of lives from the claws of poverty, and remains resolute on making life greener for the people who make up the Nigerian poverty index.

Founded by Munira Suleiman Taninu in June 2014, GHIF has been assisting and empowering the less privileged across the country through innovative programmes that address root causes of poverty, from the north reported with the highest level of poverty to the south.

Perhaps no one feels the pulse better than one who has had first-hand experience of what it means for people not to have access to basic needs of life; this informs why the Founder of GHIF decided to take up the task of helping people get out of the claws of poverty and hardship with her personal income.

“I grew up in the north with a very large family. While growing up, people came to our house every day to ask for food and other needs,”says Munira.

“In every family in the north, you’ll have four people around you who depend on you for basic needs of life. I grew up helping my father to assist the needy, so that drew my attention and it became my passion to help people who don’t have. Although I am not a rich person, I still try as much as I can to help.”

The President of GHIF is no doubt proud of the sterling achievements of her NGO in few years without external support.

Three-year-old Zahra’u is one of the success stories of the humanitarian efforts of GHIF. Zahra’u lay helplessly at the malnourished unit of the Asiya Bayero Children Hospital in Kano as her hapless parents watched the clock tick, probably expecting death to take her; they had no hope of giving her a chance to live. She was critically ill and suffered from a severe case of malnutrition. She was at the throes of death; it was just a matter of days before she lives to live no more.

“When the GHIF team visited the hospital during one of our routine visits, we found few children suffering from malnutrition, but Zahra’u’s condition caught our attention and prompted immediate action from the team. We had to pay people to donate blood for her and other malnourished children who needed blood donation at the hospital. We donated health, food and other materials to her,” Munira narrates. Zahra’u survived.

During one of its community services, the GHIF team also discovered Mallam Hassan, with his four children, resident in Kano. He suffers from a form of disability that has prevented him from getting employed to meet the needs of his family.

“The GHIF team took interest in his case. We visited his home which was in a deplorable state. From our interaction with his children, none of them was enrolled in a school. This prompted a quick intervention. We renovated Hassan’s home and built a shop for him to start trading in food commodities supplied by GHIF while we enrolled all his children in school,” Munira said.

Today, millions of children in Nigeria especially in the northern part have dreams, but many of them don’t see it coming through because poverty has denied them access to the major step of reaching their dreams – education. The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Adamu Hussaini, recently said Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world. He puts the figure of out-of-school children in Nigeria at 10.5million of the cumulative 20million out of school children in the world.

There are over 130 million girls around the world that are out of school, and statistics show that by the year 2030 this population may double. The girls, from age 10 and above, are not just out of school, they roam the streets hawking for their parents. Hawking has taken the place of books; many of the girls are given away into marriage once they reach their teenage years, to probably rich men who the parents of the girls believe can give succour to their hardship.

In Nigeria, aside from the fear of underage marriage, the present plight of girl-child hawkers from age 10 and above represents a major health and socioeconomic challenge, which is known to be a preliminary step to societal ills such as prostitution, drug abuse and human trafficking, which sequentially have an adverse effect towards the development of the nation. To tackle this, the GHIF team recently flagged off a project to reduce girl child hawking in Nigeria, tagged #BooksOverTray

The GHIF President says “the project aims to reduce the number of girl-child hawkers across the nation via a process that identifies and extracts the girl-child hawkers from the circle of child labour through provision of educational grants and empowerment for their parents/guardians”.

Taking girls off the street from hawking can be difficult, especially when the finances and the livelihood of the family depends on them, the move could be met with brick walls from their parents who depend on the ‘tray’ as a source of daily meal ticket for the family.

Putting this into consideration, Munira says “GHIF adopted the strategic approach of empowering the mothers as they take the tray away from their daughters, so the hardship won’t felt”.

“In the last two months, we have taken 54 girls off the streets in five northern states; 10 each from Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Niger and 12 from Borno State, and we have also empowered 54 mothers to start up businesses while we enrolled their daughters in a boarding school, all expense, from tuition fees to books, their feeding and other needs, paid for by the GHIF team,” she says.

It is widely believe that African women are a major economic force in their homes and policy makers believe empowering the women translate to empowering the family. This seems to have informed Munira’s decision to make the mothers economically independent while their daughters go to school.

Munira does not see herself as an affluent African lady, neither is she a money bag, one would then wonder how she gets funding for all the huge work the GHIF team has been doing in the last three years.

“Collaboration and support from the team and my personal finance have been our source of finance. I put 10 per cent of monthly income from my events centre in Abuja, my farm and transport service into the foundation,” she says. “I wanted to do something different, my dream was to make it stand out and prove that NGO can run without soliciting for funds from international donors, government and the affluent in the society.”

From the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in the North East and Abuja, to Sokoto, to Kano, to Wauna village in Lere local government area of Kaduna State and other parts of the country where GHIF has empowered widows with grinding machines, spaghetti making machines and sewing machines, among others, to start up businesses, men and women are also being equipped with innovative skills to make them stand out in the society. GHIF has stamped an indelible mark on humanitarian service in Nigeria with the empowerment of over 4,000 people across the country.

Like every other African lady, Munira had dreams while growing up. This dream she pursued vigorously from childhood, studying through the university and bagging a degree in Sociology from the University of Abuja and a Certificate in Communication from Harvard University. But unlike other African ladies pursuing a career in the banking or oil and gas sector, that’s not Munira’s way of being the woman of her dream. Fulfillment for her is about uplifting the less-privileged in the society, and make sure they all smile to bed every day.

Munira and her GHIF team have chosen their path, and no doubt they have chosen rightly, to empower the less privileged, give them a fillip for better life, and also contribute to turning around the poverty index in Nigeria.

Court extends ‘killer wife’s’ prison stay to February 2018

Kingsley OBIEJESI
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Court extends ‘killer wife’s’ prison stay to February 2018

Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court, Jabi, has refused to grant bail to Maryam Sanda, who is standing trial for allegedly murdering Bilyamin Bello, her husband, in their Maitama, Abuja, residence last month.

Sanda is the daughter of Maimuna Aliyu, former Executive Director of Aso Savings and Loans, whose nomination to the Board of the ICPC was overturned after the ICIR revealed she was being investigated for alleged corruption by the same agency.

Though Sanda had initially been arraigned on a two-count charge of culpable homicide and tampering with evidence, to which she pleaded not guilty, the charges were later amended to include her mother, Maimuna; his brother, Aliyu, and another suspect whose name was given as Sadiya.

According to the prosecution, the newly-added defendants were the ones who had tampered with the crime scene before investigators arrived.

At Thursday’s hearing, they all pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

Joseph Daudu, counsel to the accused persons, presented a medical report before the trial judge, urging him to grant the defendants bail, especially as Maryam, the principal suspect, is a nursing mother.

However, the prosecution team, led by Jacob Idachaba, opposed the bail application, saying that though he sympathizes with the baby, it is insufficient reason to ask for bail for the principal suspect.

As for the other three defendants, Idachaba argued that they should be in prison custody, adding however that the court should use its discretion to determine whether to grant them bail or not.

In his judgement, Justice Yusuf Halilu held that the principal suspect was strong enough to face trial, adding that the medical report presented by the defence counsel did not state that her ailment could not be adequately treatedat the prison’s medical facility.

“I have gone through the arguments of counsel for the defence and that of the prosecution as well as section 161 (2) of the ACJA relied upon by Daudu with regards to exceptional cases,” Justice Halilu said.

“However, there must be cogent evidence to show that the sickness the first defendant is suffering from is that which cannot be taken care of within the medical facility. It is not enough to include a medical certificate.

“Effort must be made to show that the defendant cannot be treated in the medical facility at the detention camp.

“I have seen from where I am, which is close to the duck that the first defendant is strong enough. The first defendant who has been inside the duck for over an hour is very strong.

“On the whole I am not favourably disposed to granting the first defendant bail. My discretion in her favour is hereby withheld.”

For the other defendants, Halilu granted them bail on the condition that they must produce “two sureties with evidence of residence within the centre of Abuja”.

“They shall deposit their travel documents in court. The two sureties shall deposit documents for their landed properties to the registrar of the court,” he said, before  adjourning the case to February 5, 6 and 7, 2018.

Governors approve $1bn from excess crude account for Boko Haram war

Chikezie OMEJE
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Governors approve $1bn from excess crude account for Boko Haram war

 

The 36 state governors of the federation have approved the release of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to boost the Federal Government’s fight against Boko Haram.

Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Edo State State, disclosed this on Thursday to State House correspondents after the meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC)) at the council chamber of the Presidential Villa Abuja.

The meeting, attended by all the state governors, was chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

“We are pleased with the Federal Government achievements in the insurgency war; and in that vein, state governors have approved that the sum of $1 billion be taken from the Excess Crude Account by the Federal Government to fight the insurgency war to its conclusion,” Obaseki said.

Hassan Dankwambo, Governor of Gombe State, who spoke earlier, said the Excess Crude Account had a balance of $2.317 billion as of December 13, 2017.

 

Jibrin to Buhari: Don’t let Dogara get away with the falsehood in his biography

Kingsley OBIEJESI
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Jibrin to Buhari: Don’t let Dogara get away with the falsehood in his biography

 

Abdulmumin Jibrin, suspended former Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives, says President Muhammadu Buhari has never met with him over the budget padding allegations he made against Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House.

Jibrin, who made this known in a series of tweets of Thursday, called on Buhari to “make clarification if indeed such event ever took place”.

He was replying to comments attributed to Dogara in his biography, written by Dele Momodu and set to be presented to the public on December 22.

The biography, titled ‘A Reed Made Flint’, claimed that after Jibrin had accused Dogara and other principal officers of the house of budget padding, Buhari met him and warned him never to raise such arguments again if he had no evidence to substantiate his claims.

“Although Hon. Jibrin himself had subtly blackmailed Mr President on a Channels TV interview, he still managed to get some elements in the security services to ferry him before Mr. President where he made the allegations of padding against us,” Dogara was quoted as saying in the book.

“As a principled and experienced leader that the President is, he sought to know where the other leaders of NASS were when the budget was padded by just four leaders of the house.

“None of our traducers could answer the question. Since he does not suffer fools gladly, he told them that except they answer the question nobody should bring up the subject matter to him again.

“That was how the lying cowards left him and never returned. They dare not mention anyone in the Senate or the House Leadership when every informed person knew that no position on any aspect of the budget can be taken without the concurrence of the Senate.”

But in his reply, Jibrin said: “Mr President is known for his integrity and disdain for lies. It will be in the public interest if he respectfully makes clarification if indeed such event ever took place. It will be a huge disservice to the country if Speaker Dogara is allowed to get away with such falsehood.

“Moreso that Mr President wrote the forward to the book and by implication giving some validity to such falsehood against himself as well.

“After writing 3 letters to Mr President seeking audience without response, I gave up. I did my best and left everything to the anti-graft and security agencies.

“The false allegations in the book has left me with no choice than to speak out as my last resort to clear such lies.

“It will be unfair to me if we allow Speaker Dogara in continuation of his witch hunt against me after keeping me illegally away from the House for 15 months to use the name of Mr president in his expensive image laundering in an attempt to clear himself of any wrongdoing.”

Jibrin said he had been in court for the past 15 months challenging his illegal suspension from the House. He called on Buhari “to appeal to Chief Justice of the federation on our behalf for speedy dispensation of justice in this matter of utmost national importance”.

“We challenged the suspension in court with an originating summons. It’s a constitutional matter. The case has been in court for 15 months,” Jibrin said.

“A similar case in respect of Sen Ndume was dispensed with within three months by the court! We don’t want to believe something is wrong.”

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