A Federal high Court sitting in Abuja has granted bail to Robert Azibaola, a cousin to former President Jonathan, to the tune of N500 million.
Azibaola, his wife Stella and their company, Oneplus Holdings limited were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission for allegedly collecting the sum of $40 million from Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser.
Trial judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba also ordered him to provide two sureties in like sum, and who must have landed property in Asokoro or Maitama Districts of Abuja. The sureties must also provide evidence of payment of income tax for the past three years.
However, the accused will remain in prison custody pending when he is able to meet his bail conditions.
The Nigerian Navy on Tuesday paraded one Michael John, suspected to be the main coordinator of the bomb attacks on oil and gas infrastructure in the state.
John, who is suspected to be a member of the gang that killed three soldiers at Jones Creek three months ago, was paraded with his face covered, at the Naval base in Warri, Delta State.
His arrest came as the federal government is offering the militants an option of dialogue in order to end the ongoing crisis.
Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Delta, Ramie Mohammed, refused to comment on whether the suspect was a member of the Niger Delta Avengers but said he was arrested in connection with an attack on an onshore pipeline in Forcados.
“This arrest came after several weeks of trailing and arrest of several of his foots soldiers. The suspect is also deeply involved in pipeline vandalism to steal crude oil. He steals crude from abandoned oil well heads and pipelines in Okpoko and Obodo, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State. Navy believes with his arrest, attacks on Chevron/NNPC oil and gas facilities will abate,” he said.
The Navy also paraded a suspect arrested on May 29 in connection with the killing of a soldier, police officer and one other victim.
The Navy commander said the suspects’ identities were shielded so as not to compromise ongoing investigations which could possibly lead to the arrest of other members of their respective gangs.
The Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, on Wednesday said it is not interested in negotiations with the federal government.
Early on Wednesday, the militant group tweeted that any group that is negotiating with any committee formed by the government was doing so on its own.
The tweet also announced that the group has blown up oil well RMP 20 belonging to Chevron.
The affected oil facility is said to be between Opia and Dagbolo villages in Warri North, Delta State.
The recent attack is coming despite the two-week ceasefire declared by the federal government on Monday to create room for dialogue with the militants and leaders from the region.
Professor Yami Osinbajo, who is Nigeria’s acting President in the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari, had on Tuesday in Abuja, met with Governors of the Niger Delta states, Service Chiefs, Minister of Defence, Dan Ali, Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty, Paul Boro, among other stakeholders, and it was agreed that military operations in the state be halted pending the outcome of the negotiations.
Former captain and coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Stephen Keshi has been confirmed dead.
Aged 54, the Big Boss, as he was fondly called by many people, reportedly suffered a heart attack on Wednesday.
Keshi was one of only two men to win the Africa Cup of Nations both as a player and a coach.
He was captain of the Super Eagles team that won the 1994 Nations Cup in South Africa and narrowly missed out on a World Cup quarter-final place the same year.
He then led the Nigerian national team to the 2013 Nations Cup title in South Africa and the last 16 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
He was sacked for a final time in July 2015 following series of disagreements with the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF.
Keshi had coached the Malian and Togolese national teams. But he made history in Togo when he led the country to its first ever FIFA World Cup in Germany in 2006.
Keshi’s playing career included a spell for Belgian club side Anderlecht.
It would be recalled that Keshi lost his wife to cancer in December 2015 and family members said he never got over that tragic incident.
Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, and the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, are to appear before a panel of the Federal House of Representatives Tuesday over the persistent leadership crisis rocking the State House of Assembly.
The panel created by Speaker Yakubu Dogara will be chaired by House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila.
The Governor is accused of encouraging five members of the 25-man Kogi State assembly to continue to sit and carry out legislative functions despite a resolution of the National Assembly to the contrary.
Kogi State Assembly had been ‘on fire’ following the impeachment of the Speaker by only five members. The impeachment was later nullified by a federal High Court in Abuja on May 19, but Governor Bello has continued to recognize the five-man legislator.
He presented the State’s 2016 budget and his cabinet nominees to the five member house, an action the federal lawmakers say was illegal.
Following the crisis the National assembly had taken over the functions of the Kogi State assembly, directing the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase to seal up the Assembly premises pending the resolution of the crisis.
Meanwhile, the Army Chief, Buratai was dragged into the case because Governor Bello had allegedly used soldiers to give protection to the five members to continue to sit in defiance of court orders and the resolution of the House of Representatives.
The federal lawmakers threatened that if the Governor refuses to appear before the panel, they will have no other option than to commence impeachment processes against him.
The Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Bayelsa State branch, on Tuesday threatened to begin an industrial action if the state government refuses to pay the over 5-month salary arrears owed its members.
Israel Jeremiah, state chairman of the association, announced at a news conference at the association’s secretariat in Yenagoa, that the NMA has issued a 21-day ultimatum to the government to pay up or face a strike action.
According to Jeremiah, three affiliates of NMA in the state, namely the Association of Resident Doctors in Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri; Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria and National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners, will be taking part in the strike
He noted that House Officers, who are the most vulnerable in the medical profession, are currently faced with untold hardship as they can no longer meet their obligations.
“Despite the untold hardship occasioned by this nonpayment of salaries for five months now, our members have kept faith with our Hippocratic Oath and continued to render services to ensure that Bayelsa people enjoy adequate healthcare. The continued non-payment of salary has adversely affected healthcare delivery in the state. Hospital attendance has markedly reduced, patients can no longer procure drugs, pay for tests, settle bills on discharge and in the worst case scenario, opt to die at home,” Jeremiah said.
The NMA said it was not part of the agreement reached with organised labour that workers in the state would take 50 per cent salary pending the improvement of the state’s revenue.
The association said since it was excluded from the meetings where the agreement was reached, its members would not be bound by the agreement, hence they will insist on full payment of their salaries.
The NMA however urged the Speaker of Bayelsa state House of Assembly, Konbowei Benson, Royal fathers, and all well-meaning people in the state to intervene in order to avoid the impending strike and the attendant consequences.
The Kogi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal has dismissed the petition filed by Idris Wada, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the November 21 Governorship election in the state, against the nomination of Yahaya Bello as governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, for lack of merit.
The tribunal led by Justice Hamima Mohammed said Wada lacked the locus standi to challenge Bello’s nomination.
It held that the nomination and sponsorship of Bello by the APC as its candidate in the election following the death of the original candidate, Abubakar Audu, was purely a domestic affair of the party and neither the PDP nor the tribunal nor any other person who did not participate in the process had the legal capacity to it.
The tribunal however said it was still considering the merit of the petition jointly filed by Wada and his running mate, Sunday Awoniyi and the PDP, asking the tribunal to return Wada as winner of the election since he polled higher number of votes than Bello.
Wada posited that Bello polled only 6,805 votes in the December 5 supplementary election and could not possibly inherit the over 240,000 votes polled by Audu, the initial candidate of the APC.
Wada asked the tribunal to declare him winner of the election and the validly elected governor of Kogi state, having garnered a total of 204,867 votes in the elections.
But Justice Mohammed ruled that the votes recorded in the November 21 election belonged to the various political parties as had been established in various rulings of the Supreme Court.
It added that INEC was right to have collated the 240,857 votes polled by the APC through the the late Audu, and merged them with the 6,885 votes recorded by the party in the supplementary poll.
On whether Bello should be disqualified because he had no running mate, the tribunal held that the issue was not part of conditions of qualification to contest as governor under section 177 of the Constitution.
The tribunal held that James Faleke was still the deputy governorship candidate of the APC in the supplementary election since he did not withdraw his candidacy as spelt out under section 35 of the Electoral Act which required him to give 45 days’ notice to his party before the election and his party would in turn notify INEC.
The tribunal had dismissed the petition by James Faleke, late Audu’s running mate, yesterday for lack of merit as the tribunal held that he had no locus standi to challenge the process.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled that Azibaola Robert, a cousin to Former President Goodluck Jonathan,be remanded in Kuje Prison pending the determination of his bail application.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had arraigned Azibaola and his wife Stella alongside their company, Oneplus Holding Limited, before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, for allegedly illegally receiving a $40 million contract from the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.
Azibaola has been in the EFCC custody for 72 days.
Justice Dimgba however ordered that Stella should continue to enjoy the administrative bail granted her earlier while adjourning till Wednesday to rule on Azibaola’s bail application.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has denied claims by the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration that he handed over a virtually empty treasury.
He made this known in an interview with Bloomberg Television, London, on Monday,saying that Nigeria’s economy has been contracting since middle of 2014 when the price of Brent Crude was reduced by almost half.
“It is not true; there is no way that he would have inherited an empty treasury and at the same time give bailout to the states. It’s not possible,” Jonathan said.
Crude exports accounted in 2014 for as much as two-thirds of government revenue, with most state budgets relying on monthly handouts from the federal administration.
Authorities in Nigeria have started investigating and prosecuting corrupt officials and have recovered millions of dollars in cash so far. Also the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have slammed criminal charges on top officials of Jonathan’s government such as Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser and Olisa Metuh, Publicity Secretary of the Poeples Democratic Party, PDP.
On whether he was being investigated for corruption, Jonathan said, “I will be investigated and I am being investigated. Yes! Investigations are going on but I would not want to make certain comments. When a government is working it is not proper to make certain comments. I will allow the government to work. It is not a good practice.”
The former president also expressed confidence that the government will be able to come to an agreement with the Niger Delta militants in order to stop the attacks on oil and gas installations that have slashed production.
“Definitely, it will be resolved; yes, government can always overrun restive movements and so on, but the Niger Delta is too delicate. The level of damage will be too much for the government to bear. We used dialogue,” he said.
Jonathan was vice-president when the government offered an amnesty and monthly stipends to militants to end years of instability and violence.
But in February, Jonathan’s successor, President Muhammadu Buhari, reduced the stipends and cancelled security contracts with former military leaders, leading to escalation of violence in the Niger Delta region and resurgence in the destruction of oil infrastructure.
President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Nigerian military to halt operations in the Niger Delta for two weeks to enable government dialogue with the militants who have stepped up bombings of oil and gas installations in the region.
Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, disclosed this in Abuja, on Monday, saying the federal government was determined to restoring peace in the Niger Delta region.
“The President is interested in dialogue and has mandated the military to halt actions for about two weeks to ensure a team that will be led by the NSA, dialogue with the militants to ensure peace in the region,” he said.
Many local and multinational oil companies in the Niger Delta have reviewed their operations in the area as a result of the persistent bombing of their facilities in Delta and Bayelsa states.
Kachikwu urged the militants to embrace the offer of dialogue as it will involve key leaders from the region who have had first-hand experience of the crisis so that peace may once again be restored.
According to Kachikwu, the dialogue will be headed by the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno and will consist of top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, service chiefs and ministers from the Niger Delta.
He expressed optimism that the dialogue would yield positive results and get Nigeria back to the crude oil production target of 2.2 million barrels per day as contained in the 2016 budget.
Meanwhile, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday disclosed that the federal government has commenced talks with leaders and people of the Niger Delta to halt the spate of attacks on oil installations in the area.
He said this when he met with a delegation of the European Union, led by the EU Ambassador to Nigeria, Michel Arrion.
“We are talking, we are ensuring that we minimize losses and we are stepping up security. We are also engaging the international oil companies, IOCs, to see what options exist,” he said.
