Internationally renowned charity group, doctors without borders, MSF says about 200 refugees fleeing Boko Haram militants have starved to death over the past month in Bama, Borno State.
The group says a catastrophic humanitarian emergency was unfolding at a camp it visited where 24,000 people have taken refuge, adding that many people in the camp are traumatised with one in every five children severely malnourished.
Aid Ghada-Hatim, head of the MSF in Nigeria said “According to the accounts given to MSF by displaced people in Bama, new graves are appearing on a daily basis. We were told on certain days, more than 30 people were dying due to hunger and illness.
During the assessment, the MSF team said it counted 1,233 graves located near the camp which had been dug in the past year, 480 of which were for children.
“This is the first time MSF has been able to access Bama but we already know the needs of the people there are beyond critical,” Hatim says.
“Since 23 May, at least 188 people have died in the camp – almost six per day – mainly from diarrhea and malnutrition,” adding that the charity group is treating malnourished children in medical facilities in Maiduguri, the Borno State Capital.
The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has also confirmed the report.
Mohammed Kannar, Northeast Coordinator of NEMA said the agency is working together with other aid agencies to ensure that IDPs are better taken care of.
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, has sealed the premises of Silverbird Galleria in Abuja, belonging to Ben Murray-Bruce a member of the Nigerian Senate.
Two other companies belonging to the Bayelsa State senator has also been taken over by AMCON, including Silverbird Promotions Limited, and Silverbird Showtime Limited.
AMCON had on April 18 appointed Muiz Banire as Receiver/Manager over the sprawling assets of the three companies located at 133 Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos; Plot No 1161 Central Area Cadastral Zone AOO, Abuja; and Abonnema Wharf Road and Abali Park in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The takeover is sequel to an interim injunction granted by Justice Cecilia Olatoregun-Ishola of the Federal High Court, Lagos, on June 17 which allowed the Receiver/Manager to take possession of the said properties.
The properties were locked up by the agents of the Receiver/Manager in an exercise carried out under the supervision of men of the Nigerian police as directed by the Court order at around 8 am Thursday morning.
In the said order, Ben Murray Bruce’s companies are owing AMCON the sum of N11 billion which the companies have defaulted in paying up.
Kunle Adegoke, counsel to the Receiver/Manager, said the sealing up of the properties was lawful as there is a court order backing it up.
“It must be borne in mind that innocent depositors’ money is what the Common-sense propagator and his brothers have been living large and feeding fat upon, without recourse to the interest of the real labourers who own the money,” Adegoke said.
He explained that Murray-Bruce had used his companies to borrow monies from the Union Bank Plc in 2005 and 2007, but has defaulted in paying it back. He added that AMCON had purchased the loan from Union Bank in 2011 after the capital base of the bank became really shaky.
Adegoke said that a Receiver/Manager was appointed by AMCON to recover the loan when it became obvious Bruce was not ready to pay back the money.
Adegoke said it was hypocritical for the ‘Common sense’ senator to be pretending to have the welfare of Nigerians in mind while at the same time living luxuriously on proceeds from a loan he has refused to pay back.
Agents of the Receiver/Manager and officials of AMCON were seen on Thursday, sealing up the Silverbird premises in Abuja, Lagos and Port-Harcourt, backed by armed security personnel.
Murray-Bruce could not be reached for comments as calls to his phone lines were “not connecting.
However in a brief statement via his twitter handle, the common-sense senator said he was aboard an international flight at the time, adding that “the situation is being resolved and things will be back to normal.”
“In 36 years, Silverbird has grown and like any body, it will face challenges. Tough times don’t last. But we, as tough people, outlast them.”
UK Prime Minister, David Cameron After voting with his wife in London
Voting has begun in a historic referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union or not.
According to provisional figures from the Electoral Commission a record 46,499,537 people are expected to take part in the exercise.
Polling stations opened at 7:00 am local time and will close at 10:00 pm.
It is the third nationwide referendum in UK history and comes after a four-month campaign by politicians for or against BREXIT – a term that means UK’s exit from EU.
The referendum ballot paper asks the following question: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”
Whichever side gets more than half of all votes cast is considered to have won.
After the referendum polls close, sealed ballot boxes will be collected and transported to the count venue for each of the 382 local counting areas.
These represent all 380 local government areas in England, Scotland and Wales, plus one each for Northern Ireland and Gibraltar.
Results from these areas will then be declared throughout the night, along with result totals from 11 nations and regions.
Depending on how close the poll is, the result may become clear before the final national result is officially declared by the Chief Counting Officer, who will be based at Manchester Town Hall.
The Electoral Commission estimates a final result “around breakfast time” on Friday.
The last nationwide referendum took place five years ago, when voters rejected an attempt to change the way MPs are elected.
The first one was in 1975, when the country was asked whether the UK should continue to be a member of what was then called the European Economic Community.
Gunmen have kidnapped seven people in the outskirts of Calabar, the Cross River state capital, including three Australian citizens and one from New Zealand.
The hostages, two of whom police say later escaped, are contractors for Lafarge Africa, a cement company.
Viola Graham-Douglas, a spokeswoman for Lafarge Africa, said the company has been informed of the development and is working with security agents to ensure the safe return of all the men involved.
Meanwhile Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull, has condemned the incident, describing it as a “very serious kidnapping”.
The New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, on Thursday during a press conference in Wellington, said there was no chance of the government paying a ransom for the release of New Zealander being held hostage in Nigeria.
Key said the compromise would only put a bounty on the head of any New Zealander working in a volatile region thereby making the situation worse.
The Nigerian Army has dismissed as untrue, dangerous and an abomination allegation that it is seeking to overthrow the government.
Reacting to a statement by the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force, JNDLF, that some members of the army approached it for support to take over government, the army said such allegation is capable of distracting it in its efforts to end insurgency and other criminal activities in the country.
In a statement issued by army spokesperson, Sani Usman, the army distanced itself and said its men will never contemplate seizing power from a duly elected civilian government.
“We would like state in clear terms that that we are a product of democracy and a focused professional institution and would have nothing to do with such abomination and heinous crime.
“We wish to state further that the NA is the greatest beneficiary of democracy and therefore cannot ever contemplate any anti-democratic misadventure, certainly not under the command of the present Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai.
“We wish to further assure Nigerians and indeed all peace loving people that the Nigerian Army and indeed its personnel will never be involved in such terrible misadventure,” the statement read.
It added that it is investigating those behind the allegation with the intention of bringing them to justice no matter how long it takes.
“I married him because I love him; there was absolutely no chance of me going for another man,” she says, flashing a rare grin before taking a flash to re-admire the man she married at a muted ceremony in Kaduna a little less than a year ago.
But those were not the words of an excited young bride tossed into delirium by a momentous opportunity to tell an enchanting love story.
Instead, they were the words of a young lady already matured by emotional adversity; they were the reflections of someone who had experienced both the illumination and darkness of love — someone who, at just 24, had become an epitome of the for-better-for-worse language of love.
Joy Johnson may have had only one man all her life, but the man she married in 2015 wasn’t the man she met and began dating in 2009. Seven years ago, she met a young, handsome civilian who rode a motorcycle for a living in daytime but trekked long distances with her at night for their daily routine of sharing sweet nothings.
But one year ago, she was left with an amputee, a man who could no longer mount a motorcycle or walk a minute without aid, a man with whom sharing the rest of her life represented more of a burden than paradise. Yet, she chose to marry him.
Johnson had just finished serving breakfast to her husband and his army of equally-injured friends when she sat down at the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna, to narrate how she embarked on a journey that continues to test the resilience of her love.
As she spoke, it was impossible not to admire the see-through beauty percolating from her face to her heart. What she had lost in limited education, she made up for with her strength of character.
Sweet lover in the oily village of Ogoni
“I met him in 2009,” she recalls, slipping into the melancholy that defined her entire afternoon.
“He hadn’t joined the army then; he was a motorcycle rider. He joined the army in 2011, then this tragedy happened to him in 2012.”
By “this tragedy”, Joy was referring to a raid by Boko Haram on Giwa Barracks, Gombe state, during which her husband suffered multiple gunshot injuries, the most severe of which led to the amputation of his leg in 2014. By that time, though, her husband had already done enough to convince her she owed him nothing but unfettered loyalty in his moment of tribulation.
“He won my heart with his character; I liked his way of doing things,” she says, casting a gaze at him as though wishing for the emptying of their past into the present.
“He was very calm and measured in his ways. If I asked him for anything, he never got angry; he never rebelled against the things I liked. He was always soft with me and he treated me really well.”
Joy says that back then, when Nwibani had his legs, he was a “very sweet” lover who broke bounds to please her.
“He was very caring. He would wash my clothes and even cook for me,” she adds, her face lighting up with positive emotion.
“He still does it, but surely not as often as before because even me, I won’t be able to bear it watching him wash my clothes in this condition.
“Back then, there were times when I was in the living room and he would be in the kitchen cooking for me — that time when his legs were intact. But now, all he can do in that regard is that if I’m in the kitchen, he’ll come and stay with me, playing with me and supporting me.”
The lovebirds were both in their Kana Gulle village in Ogoni, Rivers state, at the time. But when Nwibani joined the army in 2011, he was posted to Gombe state. This rendered their romance long-distance, but the fire continued burning as fiercely as it did back when they saw each other every day.
In October 2012, after he was shot in the leg, Joy literally became a nurse overnight, devoting several hours of her every day to tending to her husband’s wounds. The setback of the time didn’t seem like a dead-end; the army had promised him a prosthesis.
In fact, Kenneth Minimah, a retired lieutenant-general and former chief of army staff, had visited him in hospital and a photo of the duo graced the 2015 calendar of the Nigerian army, as proof of the army’s preparedness to “go to any length” in looking after injured soldiers.
“Immediately the tragedy happened in 2012, they told him they would give him an artificial leg,” she recalls. “Last year, the army took him to Lagos to give him an artificial leg, but the one he was given is actually fake. It’s not something he can use.”
Wedding after amputation
By 2014 when the leg was eventually amputated — after some careless medical mishandling culminating in the sight of maggots in the leg — they had been dating for five years and tying the knots was overdue. In 2015, she married him, despite protestations from a few “well-wishers” who thought she deserved more than a “one-legged solder”.
“Some people told me to leave him, saying I should not marry an amputee and I should find another man, but no way!
“My mind didn’t work that way. There was absolutely no chance of me going for another man. My mind didn’t tell me to leave him, and I cannot do anything my mind doesn’t tell me to.”
As the endless wait for original prosthesis continues, Joy continues to serve her man as both wife and caregiver, helping him run the home, run errands, fetch water — helping him do everything a man with two legs would have done for himself, or what a prosthesis would have helped him do.
“I don’t have a job and I can’t have one yet because taking care of him is itself a fulltime job,” she says.
“Now, I help him fetch water when he needs to bathe or use the toilet. I prepare all his meals and wash his clothes. I do everything that he can’t do or that he can only do at great physical cost.”
Asked what she would be doing had her husband been given a prosthesis, she says: “You know, if I got some help, with just N500,000, I could set up a petty provisions business with which I can support him more.
“But, of course, even the business would be meaningless without prosthesis for my husband.”
Nwibani himself does not regret the choice of woman he made several years back. Without her, he says, it would have been far harder to cope with the loss of his leg and the army’s failure to redeem its pledge of a prosthesis.
“Now, there are so many things I cannot do by myself and when I tell her to, she does them without complaining,” he says with a smile in appreciation of his woman, which quickly thins out into a frown betraying his helplessness.
“The truth is I can no longer meet up with taking care of myself; she is the one who runs errands for me — up to the simplest of them such as buying odds and ends for me. Personally, I am not happy with my condition; I’m not happy that I can no longer fend for myself.”
No one to turn to
Take Joy out of Nwibani’s life, and there isn’t much to be joyful about. His father died back in 2010, leaving his aged mother and two sons. He has never had a sister. His only brother was shot dead in January 2016 during the bloodily-contested Rivers state legislative rerun. All these mean he is grateful for life.
“When I look at all I have experienced, I probably should not be alive by now; I should have died,” he says. “I know the pains I endured on the day I was shot. It was like dying every day — dying every morning and night. But I told God to promise that I would not die, and God preserved me.”
But they also mean he has “no one else to turn to”, which explains why neglect by the army hurts him that much.
“I am happy with God — but not with the army,” he says bluntly.
“Look at me? Should I be in this condition for four years? Would it happen if I were their son or if my wife were their daughter? We don’t need their money; it is just to pay us our salary and allowance, and give us good treatment. If all these happened, nobody will grumble.
“But with the state of things, do you think anyone who knows me will be willing to join the army? When I travelled to my village, people were discussing me in hushed tones, wondering why a soldier should be in my sorry state.”
Nwibani reiterates that he asks for only one thing from the army: the chance to get as close as possible to his pre-attack physical state.
“All I need from the army is my leg — original artificial legs,” he says.
“I cannot continue using these crutches because they hurt me and leave marks on my ribs. If the army says move and you don’t, you are dismissed. But they told you to move and you did… you are now injured but the same army is not ready to take care of you. That is not fair.”
LOVE SEALED ON THE BATTLEFIELD
Nnenna Aguba (not real name) was eight-and-a half-months pregnant and in another few weeks, she would be calling her soldier-husband fighting Boko Haram in Borno state to inform him of the birth of their latest baby. Instead, it was her husband who called; he had been shot in Gunun Kurmi by insurgents and was recuperating at the 7 Division Hospital, Maiduguri.
Her husband, Benjamin, tall, sturdy and larger-than-life, is that kind of soldier born to face an insurgent group as recalcitrant as Boko Haram.
First injured on September 1, 2014 when his forehead was gashed by fragments of a Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG), Benjamin spent six weeks at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital before heading straight back to the battlefront!
“I was first injured in 2014 when Boko Haram dislodged my entire unit from Bama. “As we were fighting on, they fired RPG, let me say 50 to 60metres from me,” he recalls vividly.
“It was just a passing fragment, so you can imagine what would have happened if the thing had met me directly. It would have affected my brain or I would have died. Fragment is very dangerous, RPG fragment, especially the heat.”
Soldiers withdrew when they were overpowered by that onslaught from insurgents, but Benjamin returned from the sick bed to help the army recapture the town “after six to seven months of planning”.
In December 2015, he was nailed again, this time in a deadlier attack. Forty soldiers had conquered a village and were preparing to advance to Alafa, another village, when hundreds of insurgents attacked them.
“When they attacked us, we pinned down and we were launching. But because they knew the location more than we did, they took another route and suddenly started attacking us from our rear.
“I was firing mortar, the 60mm; that is why they were looking for me. I fired two bombs already, and I got many of them. When they hit me, I tried to run but no way, so I fell down because the thing broke my bone. The bullet charged through my bone.”
Woman of gun (and God)
When news of his injury got to Nnenna, a soldier herself, she offered praises to God rather than panic.
“When he called to say Boko Haram shot him in the leg, I said ‘Thank God that you are alive,’” she says, slapping her two palms against each other. “I am a woman of God, so I gave God the glory that it was not his life that was taken.”
In a matter of months, she had two ‘babies’ to care for — one, the one she carried in her womb for nine months; the other, the one who was shot in Borno and was back home to continue his recuperation after surgery at the hospital.
As she cleaned and bathed and breastfed her toddler, she also fed her husband and cleansed his wound — all these in addition to rendering financial support for purchase of drugs.
“We spend a lot for the treatment. I have had to assist,” she admits.
“They take care of them at the hospital but we have also bought some minor drugs with our money.
“I support him because we are together in that we run a joint account. Some drugs we buy, while some are given to him there. But when he is at home and the drugs finish, we buy with our money.”
What God has joined together…
These sacrifices must have been easy to bear for her because theirs is one of the most intriguing love stories that could possibly emanate from the army. The two soldiers met in Lagos and within two months decided to spend the rest of their lives together.
Did it bother her that getting married to a soldier like herself was too big a risk to take, particularly for her children?
“It’s not risky,” she says with cocksureness. “It’s God that joined us together and what God has joined together, no man can put asunder.”
True. Both lovers should actually never have come together. That they eventually did must mean that nothing else can possibly put them asunder.
When Nnenna met Benjamin in 2010, she hadn’t even weaned the baby she had outside wedlock. Her ex, again a soldier, had thrown her out when he learned of the pregnancy.
“He sent me away, shouting at me that he didn’t love me and I should go and throw the child away,” she says slowly, soberly.
“My mother told me to report him at the office so that he could be responsible for the baby’s upkeep, but I told her I wouldn’t do that because I had committed him into God’s hands. The truth is that I had already forgiven him.”
Too good to be true
Perhaps Benjamin’s entry into her life was reward for her graciousness because within two months he not only desired to marry her, he vowed to take care of the baby.
“I told him everything that happened, the way my son’s father behaved to me,” she adds, her voice gradually becoming boisterous.
“He felt for me knowing I am a nice person. He wondered why someone would behave to me in that manner. He told me not to worry, that he would take care of the baby.
“He told me to allow my ex walk away, and not ask him for a dime over the upkeep of the baby. He said he would take good care of the baby, and even pay the child’s school fees. Even you, if you were me, wouldn’t you be happy?”
Those two months were the most shocking of her life; it all happened too fast for Nnenna to accept that it wasn’t a dream that would come crashing in no time:
“I didn’t expect that with a child outside wedlock, he would want to marry me so fast,” she concedes. “I was surprised. I was still in pains at that time because of what the other guy did to me.”
It is now six long years since the unfurling of that “dream” but it doesn’t appear destined to end anytime soon.
“I am happy; he has been so nice to me,” she enthuses about the man for whom she has now borne two children. “We are doing fine. Everything is moving smoothly before God and man. I thank God that today, everything is okay.”
Which explains why she harbours no animosity against her ex: “I have already forgiven him from the depth of my heart; I have.
“If he comes later that he needs his child, fine. If he doesn’t, fine. I give God the glory.”
Her husband now spends more time at home recuperating from his gunshot wound, only travelling to Kaduna occasionally to honour appointments with the doctor. The entire burden of his post-hospital care now rests on Nnenna, and it is a role she is more than happy to fulfill.
“I massage the leg with hot water. Sometimes he can’t stand up, even to pee; I help him up.
“I support him to the bathroom for his baths, I fetch water for him; I do everything for him. Sometimes it affects my work but I take time off so I can assist my husband, since he doesn’t have a leg.”
She intends to “continue doing everything” for a man who showed her the true meaning of love at a time when life meant little to her. And for this, she says she will not tire.
“I just love him,” she says, laughing sheepishly, childishly, unashamedly. “He is the one I love. I love him. He is so nice; he doesn’t have problem. He doesn’t hurt me; he pets me all the time.”
This love is the reason Benjamin can see out his recovery period with grace and look forward to the future with optimism.
“I will be patient till my leg heals,” he says, “because I’m returning to Borno once I’m fit; we have to finish off these foolish Boko Haram guys.”
THE DARK, HIDDEN WORLD OF WOUNDED SOLDIERS’ WIVES
Maimalari-Cantonment-Cemetery
It is not in all cases that, like Nnenna, a soldier’s wife has the good luck of enjoying years of her husband’s love. The Nigerian army is undoubtedly killing insurgents in their thousands, but it is also grossly underestimating its own casualties.
For example, privately-seen death records of the army show that 894 soldiers had been buried in 2016 alone as of mid-May — excluding soldiers who were declared Missing In Action (MIA) and their likely death undocumented. Rarely do families of fallen soldiers get timely information on the fate of their loved ones, and the wives are the biggest sufferers.
“I swear to God whom I serve, some soldiers were killed here more than three years ago, and as we speak, nobody in their family has been notified by the army,” says a soldier who was posted from Lagos to Maiduguri.
“There are soldiers who have died and their wives keep calling me for information on their whereabouts, but since I am not the army, I am not the authority, it’s not my duty to tell them that their husbands have died.
“I just tell them: ‘Oh… you’ve not heard from your husband? Maybe he is one of the soldiers posted to a location where telecom network is unavailable.’”
By his explanation, wives of slain soldiers who are young and beautiful, and are not connected to top army officers, are at risk of sexual harassment while trying to claim their benefits.
“If you die and your wife is young with pointed breasts, they must sleep with her before paying her,” he claims, buttressing it with the encounter of a late soldier’s wife whom “one officer” tried to sleep with.
“In the process of applying for her husband’s claims, the officer was trying to hug her,” he says.
“That’s when the woman told him to keep the money. She had to open the door and leave in annoyance. She never returned there!”
Architects of their own misfortune
Sani Usman, spokesman of the army, has “stayed in this system for quite a long time” to know that soldiers usually make a mess of filling documents.
An example is that of “somebody” who is happily married with a wife and a kid, but names his “father or younger brother” as his next of kin.
“Now, in the event of death, such people, especially if you marry from far away, will come with all sorts of excuses; hardly does the real beneficiary get anything,” he says.
“I am a living witness… someone headed to war and he died, and they come for the collection of children’s sponsorship. One of the wives was saying that she was seeing the other child for the first time.”
He maintains that “it is not true that you process over and over again and still don’t get it”.
He explains, too, that “there are certain entitlements that are the responsibility of the Nigerian army, while there are those that are the responsibility of the directorate of military pension board, such as the group life assurance, death benefits and the rest”.
“If the documents are not correct it will not be processed when due,” he says, but then tells families of soldiers still awaiting their claims: “They should exercise patience and have faith in the system.”
However, he doesn’t say how long this wait would last.
‘There will be judgement!’
Not that the documents required to be tendered for claiming these benefits are easy to procure, anyway. One of them is the death certificate, but how can it be produced for a slain soldier whose body the army didn’t retrieve from the battlefield?
“Your husband was killed in Sambisa and his body left to rot there or acid poured on him, how do you obtain the death certificate?” the Lagos-to-Maidguri soldier asks, stone-faced.
He cites the example of Monguno, where, last year, soldiers went to recover corpses of slain colleagues, only to discover that some had already dried up “with their rifles in position”.
“How do you claim entitlement for those kinds of death?” he wonders. “My own belief is that on the day of judgement, everyone will give account for his works. Many have gone but dry bones will rise again.”
Editor’s Note: In the final episode of ‘Forgotten Soldiers’, the reporter shares his personal observations from his interactions with some of the protagonists of the war against insurgency, plus two fateful events that — if they occurred in separate circumstances — could have rendered him a victim of a bomb blast that killed four people and injured 19.
Here, you can read parts one, two and three of the series.
The military intervention in the Niger Delta region, codenamed OPERATION PULO SHIELD, has been scrapped with immediate effect and replaced with OPERATION DELTA SAFE.
This is in line with the Defence Headquarters’ initiative to restructure the Joint Task Force for better service delivery, efficiency and effectiveness.
A statement signed by Rabe Abubakar, Brigadier General and Acting Director, Defence Information, said the move is in line with the vision and mission of the Chief of Defence Staff to contain the current security challenges in the Niger Delta especially protection of critical assets and provision of security in the area.
Under this arrangement, the Joint Operational Areas of the new outfit have been delineated into 3 sectors and 5 Operational Bases covering the entire Niger Delta, Ondo and Akwa Ibom States. The headquarters of OPERATION DELTA SAFE would be in Yenagoa.
This development, according to Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin becomes expedient in order to inject new tactics and robust operational initiative to tackle the emerging security challenges in the Niger Delta region such as piracy, bunkering, vandalism and other criminal activities prevalent in the area.
A Federal High Court in Yenagoa has barred journalists and parents of Ese Oruru’s, the minor, who was allegedly abducted by Yanusa Dahiru, from court as trial of evidence in private began on Wednesday.
Yanusa is standing trial on a five-count charge of criminal abduction, illicit sex, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge of a minor, Ese Oruru.
The Prosecution Counsel, James Amate earlier told the court that Ese Oruru had delivered a baby and was available to give evidence.
Ese, 14-years, gave birth to a baby girl on May 26.
Justice Aliya Nganjiwa, the trial judge, who agreed to take the evidence in private said that the court would begin the trial after all cases for the day were dispensed with.
At about 2pm, Ese Oruru was sneaked into the court room through the back door after the Judge had ordered everybody including Ese’s parent and journalist to leave.
Dahiru’s defence team was led by Kayode Olaosebekan, while the prosecution team was led by James Amate. The Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA, legal team representing Ese’s parent was led by Dise Ogbise.
It will be recalled that the Court has on May 12 adjourned the case to determine ruling on private trial for Ese Oruru, minor.
Granting the application, Justice Nganjiwa, who premised his decision on the provisions of Section 36 subsections 4 (a) and (b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, said “the evidence of Miss Ese Oruru would be taken by the court in private and in chambers.
According to him, evidence would be taken in private, excluding all persons other than the prosecution, the accused’s counsel, court clerks and prison officials and any other persons if the accused person does not object.
The trial of a former governor of Nasarawa State, Aliyu Akwe Doma, and two others continued on Wednesday, June 22, 2016 before Justice Agatha A. Okeke, with a prosecution witness, Ego Abashe, the Clerk of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, revealing how the former governor had allegedly diverted the sum of N350m from the state funds.
Doma alongside Timothy Anjide, a former Secretary to the State Government, and Dauda Egwa, a former Accountant-General, are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a 10-count charge bordering on money laundering and financial crimes.
The accused persons between January, 2007 and December, 2009 allegedly conspired and fraudulently laundered state funds to the tune of N8bn, an offence contrary to Section 14(1)(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2004 and punishable under section 14(1) of the same Act.
At the resumed hearing today, Abashe told the court there was no approval or record by the House of Assembly for the sum of N350 million allegedly disbursed under the title of ‘‘special releases’’.
Abashe, who was led in evidence by Kemi Phinheiro, SAN, also told the court that the State House of Assembly did not initiate the disbursement of N70 million as shown to him in exhibit 23aa-cc.
He added: ‘‘I can’t recall the disbursements of N80 million as shown in exhibit 23ca; N150 million as shown in exhibit 23ab and N120 million as shown in exhibit 23ba, as there was no record or memo initiated for such releases; and there was no cheque raised for special releases in the office of the House of Assembly.’’
Abashe, who stated that he was familiar with the records of the House of Assembly even before becoming the Clerk, added that ‘‘ for additional funding, which is not captured by the budget, the Clerk will put out a memo endorsed by the Speaker of the House of Assembly and addressed to the State Executive (Governor). The Governor would approve the memo, which would be conveyed to the House of Assembly and then taken to the Office of the Accountant- General for a cheque to be released.’’
According to him, funding of the House of Assembly is initiated by a memo and not by any other means.
While under cross-examination by A. F. Yusuf regarding the disbursements, he said that he was not the Clerk as at the time the disbursements were carried out.
He, however, said the procedures for disbursement were the same and were all in the files.
Still testifying, he said: ‘‘Monies meant for security matters are not addressed to the Clerk or channeled to the Clerk, as security matters are not discussed in the House of Assembly.’’
Another prosecution witness, Abubakar Ishaq, Permanent Secretary, Bureau for Cabinet Affairs and Special Services, presented two documents titled: Expenditure Needs for the Nasarawa State Public Services and Part of Nasarawa State Executive Council Convention, which were tendered and admitted as exhibit P30 and P31, respectively.
He told the court that the documents were to guide government officials, ministries, departments and agencies particularly in areas of finances.
Ishaq, who was formerly a director in the same office, said: “It was proposed that the governor could not make expenditure above N50m. However, the Governor can expend any amount and later make ratification provided that the expenditure was done in the interest of the state and in accordance with due process.’’
When Ishaq was presented with exhibit P20, which was an approval for N496 million initiated by the Office of the Secretary to the State government, he told the court that there was no ratification by State executive council for it.
Also, going through exhibit P23 (cc), which was the approval granted by Doma for N150 million and P23 (ba) for N120 million , he told the court there was no directive to the State executive for ratification and he did not receive any ratification for it either.
The case has been adjourned to June 23, 2016 for continuation of trial.
President Muhammadu Buhari has warned staff in the presidential villa to avoid dipping their hands into the treasury to avoid going to jail and causing embarrassment to their loved ones.
The president gave the warning on Wednesday during his first meeting with the staff. He urged them to learn from the government’s ongoing anti-corruption drive, adding that only those who have helped themselves to public funds are prosecuted.
“You and your family will earn respect. But, if you short-change the treasury, you will be caught and I pity your family, because people will be abusing them. People will be calling you big thieves; that how did you raise money to build all the houses in Abuja and Europe with your meagre salary.
“I think personal integrity is something to be encouraged. I assure you that I am absolutely dedicated to serve Nigeria. Those who behave themselves will never regret. But, those who don’t behave themselves, is their problem,” the President said, adding that there is no going back on the fight against corruption.
He also assured that government is preparing to ensure that next year the country feeds itself.
“We have to quickly go back to the farm. It is too late for this year. But, next year, we will make a better arrangement to make sure next year, we can feed ourselves,” he said.
