THE Sokoto State Judicial Commission, set up by the incumbent governor, Ahmed Aliyu, to investigate the immediate past administration of Aminu Tambuwal, has indefinitely shifted the date for its interrogation.
At the initial date for interrogation billed to be held today, Saturday, February 17, the immediate past governor was seen at the commission of inquiry alongside some of his executive members during his time as the governor via a post on his social media handle.
The ICIR gathered that Tambuwal was not given an audience before the panel as he was asked to return on another date.
The Senator representing Sokoto South Senatorial District shared the information via ‘X’ handle @AW Tambuwal.
Part of the post read, ”Earlier today, I appeared before the Justice Mu’azu Abdulkadir Pindiga-led Sokoto State Judicial Commission of Inquiry instituted by my successor, H.E Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto.
“I was accompanied by my legal team and some officials of my administration, including the ex-SSG, Muhammad Mainasara Ahmad, ex-Chief of Staff, Muktar Magori, ex-Attorney General, and Commissioner of Justice, Dr. Sulaiman Usman, SAN, among others.”
He boasted of his record while leading the state and described his appearance at the panel as a symbol of respect for the rule of law.
“Our track record of integrity in public service speaks for us, always.
“In leading the younger generation, we must instil in them utmost respect for the rule of law and constituted authorities,” he wrote.
The roles of the commission are, to examine the sales and auctions of government assets, including all official vehicles of State and Local Governments, all plants and machineries of state and Local Governments, to ascertain the government bank account and amount realised from the sales and auctions of government assets and examine the various allocations of lands throughout the state.
Others are plots of land allocated to individuals and bodies of persons whether corporate or unincorporated in the Sokoto new city, all carved-out plots, and all government houses sold or auctioned, to ascertain the government bank account and the amount realised from the sales and auctions of government houses and to do any other thing that is deemed relevant and necessary for the discharge of the commission’s assignment.
THE 2020 Audit report published by the Auditor General of the Federation has accused 101 federal government ministries and institutions of unaccounted funds totaling N149.36 billion.
The audit report complies with the provisions of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Section 85(5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, (as amended), states that “the Auditor-General shall, within ninety days of receipt of the accountant general’s financial statement, submit his reports under this section to each House of the National Assembly and each House shall cause the reports to be considered by a committee of the House of the National Assembly responsible for public accounts.”
Cut-Crossing Issues on 2020 Audit report
The report identified 23 issues ranging from unaccounted funds, irregular payments, overpayment to contractors, non-remittance of statutory taxes, non-deduction of statutory stamp duty, and others.
The highest misappropriation reported was N37.2 billion in government revenue not accounted for, N29.1 billion extra-budgetary expenditure, N24.2 billion irregular payment for allowances and N15.1 billion paid vouchers not presented for audit.
Some others include N225.3 million for overpayment to contractors, N74.9 million for using public funds for private functions, N463.2 million for violation of the e-payment policy of the federal government, N775.9 million for irregular possession of government vehicles, and others
The report, which was recently released, is coming three years after the financial year of the 2020 budget. By this release, the federal government has failed to comply with the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) provisions, 2007.
Section 49 (1)of the FRA, 2007, says that “the Federal Government shall publish their audited accounts not later than six months following the end of the financial year”.
The last audit report released by the Office of the Auditor General was the 2019 audit report in August 2021, 10 months behind the financial year.
Also, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) Paragraph 69 explains that ongoing factors such as the complexity of an entity’s operations are not sufficient reasons for failing to report on a timely basis.
Cut-Crossing Issues on 2020 Audit report
The Programme Officer, of Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI), Abdullahi Adebayo, told The ICIR that untimely releases of Audit reports have a lot of negative consequences on the country’s growth, such as untimely review of this report by the Public Accounts Committees (PAC) of the National Assembly, lack of implementation of the recommendations of the auditor general and the resolutions of the PAC on recovering the unaccounted funds, loss of public funds etc
He said, “If these funds are to be recovered, I am certain it is going to play a huge role in the nation’s budget, especially in funding some significant projects in the Education, Health, Agriculture, WASH, and Environment sectors.
“It is becoming a routine now in Nigeria. Unfortunately, this can’t help us achieve the desired development as the African giant nation and the need for FG to ensure a speedy enactment of the Federal Audit Service Bill to guarantee the independence of the Supreme Audit Institution in Nigeria.”
THE European Union (EU) has disclosed plans to invest €37 million to boost hydropower, solar for health care facilities, and rural electrification with isolated and interconnected mini-grid projects in Nigeria.
The EU Ambassador to Nigeria, Samuela Isopi, disclosed this during a visit to the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, on Thursday, February 15 in Abuja.
She was accompanied by the new Head of Cooperation of the EU, DE Luca Massimo, and the Programme Manager on Energy, Godfrey Ogbemudia.
During the visit, the ambassador spoke on the EU’s various intervention programmes in the power sector, noting that “the current support would cover small hydropower, solar for health care facilities, rural electrification with isolated and interconnected mini-grids project, circular economy in power sector project. The projects will commence this year.”
Isopi requested the Minister to attend an upcoming launch of two projects funded by the EU and implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in Nigeria.
Responding, the Minister, who received the ambassador in the company of his Chief Technical Advisor, Adedayo Olowoniyi, lauded the EU for the support given to Nigeria and said the nation expected more to enable it to address the enormous challenges in the sector.
He identified liquidity issues as the main problem that the government was trying to resolve. He said that the market would only be sustainable and run efficiently when there is a cost-reflective tariff in place.
Besides, he promised to work with the EU on its programmes, especially on Small hydro and state electrification.
A container truck on Saturday, February 17, crushed three people to death in Mowe on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
It was gathered that the accident occurred when the container slid off the truck with number plate T-1563 LA, killing the three victims inside a Howo truck without a number plate.
According to a statement by the spokesperson of the Ogun State Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Florence Okpe, the incident resulted from reckless driving leading to loss of control of the vehicle.
Okpe said the FRSC rescue team’s effort to save the victims – the driver and two passengers – was abortive, adding that the victim succumbed to death due to various degrees of injuries sustained.
She added that the deceased had been deposited at a morgue in Sagamu.
“The FRSC operatives at Mowe carried out a rescue operation at about 0107 hrs on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway around Mowe involving two vehicles (trucks) with registration number T-15636LA Bluebird and a HowoTruck with no number on it.
“Three persons were involved, all male adults, and they were all killed by the container that fell and rested on the occupants of the HOWO truck. The suspected cause of the crash was dangerous driving and loss of control.
“The operatives tried to rescue the trapped victims, but unfortunately, the driver and two other people in front of the vehicle died. The dead bodies were taken to Idera Morgue, Sagamu,” the FRSC said.
She advised motorists to drive safely, stressing that the interests of other road users must always be taken care of to avoid accidents.
A former Deputy Governor of Edo State, Lucky Imasuen, has withdrawn from the All Progressives Congress governorship primary election billed to hold today, Saturday, February 17, 2024.
Imasuen declared his withdrawal hours going into the election race, reducing the contest to ten aspirants.
It could be recalled that earlier 12 aspirants declared their interests to contest for the party’s flagbearer ahead of the governorship scheduled to hold September 21, 2024.
But one of the aspirants, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, announced his withdrawal from the race yesterday.
Giving a reason to toe the line of Ize-Iyamu, Imasuen said he succumbed to the party’s leadership preference of zoning the governorship position to Edo Central Senatorial District.
“I have come to the conclusion that since members of our National Working Committee, in their wisdom, have expressed their preference for zoning the governorship position to Edo Central Senatorial District, it is wise to align with the decision of the party,” the letter read partly.
He thanked his supporter, describing the decision as bitter pill to swallow, assuring his support of the eventual winner.
“I am immensely grateful for your unwavering support and belief in me, throughout this journey. Your dedication and passion have been the driving force behind my campaign.
“While this decision was not made lightly, I trust that you will understand, and continue to support our party, as we work together towards our shared goals.
“From the foregoing, I am ready to support whoever emerges as our candidate in the primary election,” the letter read.
Other aspirants include
A former Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba.
Hon Anamero Dekeri; a member of the South-South executive committee of the party.
Blessing Agbomhere; retired Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
Ernest Umakhihe; the member representing Edo Central Senatorial District.
Sen Monday Okpebholo; Businessman.
Engr Gideon Ikhine; former governor.
Senator Oserheimen Osunbor, and
Former state chairman of the party Col David Imuse, retd.
A Former Executive Director, Finance in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. Major General Charles Airhiavbere retd;
Member representing Ovia Federal Constituency, Hon Dennis Idahosa.
NIGERIA will likely witness another season of cross-border smuggling of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) as the corruption-ridden fuel subsidy regime is already back, energy experts say.
They argued that the return of the subsidy and floating of the naira would also see neighbouring countries resort to Nigeria’s ‘cheap’ fuel, which could lead to inflation of Nigeria’s consumption figures by relevant authorities.
President Bola Tinubu-led administration announced a ‘no more subsidy’ regime on May 29 – the day he took over power.
The move consequently triggered over a 200 per cent increase in PMS being subsidised by the government prior to the declaration.
“Nigeria has missed the opportunity to reform the oil sector and learn from its counterparts like Petrobrass and Saudi Aramco, which are reaping the benefits of such reforms. It has also lost the goodwill of the Nigerian people with a poor approach to social intervention programmes,” Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, told The ICIR.
Following the announcement of fuel subsidy removal by Tinubu, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) distorted the market with a regulatory “price control regime”, which saw licensed marketers unable to import amid a short supply of dollars at the official market rate.
In October 2023, the ICIRreported that price distortions by the NNPCL were a major concern that caused problems for the deregulated market and had not allowed licensed marketers to import and compete with the NNPCL.
Subsidy is back, IMF confirms
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed that the Nigerian government brought back petroleum subsidies through the back door.
This was disclosed earlier this week after the Executive Board’s Financing assessment meeting with Nigeria. The organisation expressed concerns that the government capped fuel prices at retail stations.
What energy experts say
Informed energy experts revealed that the country was paying about N907.5 billion subsidy on PMS monthly as the nation’s foreign exchange crisis pushed the actual cost of a litre of fuel to N1,203.
A week before the 2023 presidential election, which ushered in the new administration, the Group CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, said at the final cutover ceremony of NNPC and the birth of NNPCL at the corporation’s towers in Abuja that the country was spending over N400 billion monthly on petrol subsidy.
Recent investigations into Nigeria’s petrol pricing dynamics have revealed a significant surge in the landing cost of the product attributed to the escalating black-market exchange rate.
According to findings, at the prevailing black-market rate of N1,500 per dollar, the landing cost of petrol has soared to N1,009 per litre, marking a substantial increase from N720 per litre recorded in October 2023.
Licensed importers rely on NNPC as sole importer
To date, the state-owned oil company remains the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria, despite the passing of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 and the deregulation of the downstream sector, which allows private oil marketers licensed to import the product into the country.
However, accessing forex required for the importation of the commodity has proved difficult, leading to them depending on the state-owned oil company.
More than 90 licensed marketers tasked with importing petroleum products into Nigeria find themselves hamstrung by an unresolved price differential, making them unable to bring in any products nearly nine months after President Bola Tinubu announced the deregulation of the downstream segment of the petroleum industry.
A major marketer and former Chairman of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Adetunji Oyebanji, told The ICIR that the current situation would make NNPC remain the sole importer and the situation would fuel corruption.
“Deregulation is good, but when there’s a limited supplier in the market, there would always be artificial pricing and sudden billionaires would be created as a result of corruption. Few people closer to the NNPC will benefit from this development.
“Our production targets are not being met, and there is no solution in sight since we don’t have any supply and not meeting our Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota. Currently, we cannot import, and everyone is waiting for allocation from the NNPCL. You may have many situations, but it is what the NNPCL gives to you that you distribute,” he added.
The country manager of TradeGrid, Jide Pratt, said that marketers needed access to forex to import refined products into the country to change this development.
According to him, it will benefit all parties if the NNPCL stops being the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria.
He said PMS Eurobob delivered to West Africa was at $867.60 per tonne. There are 1000 litres in every tonne, which brings the landing cost of petrol per litre in Nigeria to $0.87.
“With an exchange rate of N1,555/$, the retail price should be estimated at N1,098 per liter. A lot needs to be done,” he said.
Analysts argued that the return of fuel subsidies was to the detriment of key infrastructural development and would deprive the government of funds for developmental projects.
“The government has lost the goodwill it had initially when it removed the subsidy on May 29, 2023, and did not complete the plan with necessary reforms and social interventions that would serve as a safety net for the poor,” a Professor of Energy Economist, Adeola Adenikinju told The ICIR.
He explained that the process of fuel subsidy removal was not properly managed, and Nigerians who believed the reforms were disappointed, adding that ”social safety programmes should have accompanied reforms and subsidy removal. Unfortunately, the government dillydallied on the reforms.”
SOME officers of Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank and Nigeria Police Force, including two former Inspector Generals of Police and a contractor, are enmeshed in allegations of corruption involving forgery, bribery, and violation of Nigerian laws in an alleged illegal sale of Police landed property designated for the construction of barracks in Abuja, The ICIR can exclusively report.
Documents obtained and reviewed by The ICIR, which include court affidavits, allege that some police officers assisted Andy Chime, owner of Copran International Limited in forging the signature of a late Deputy Inspector General of Police, Saleh Abubakar, to secure the contract for the project.
The contractor used the alleged forged document to obtain a loan of N573 million from the Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank and also unlawfully used the houses on the land as collateral, thus shortchanging the Police all the way.
Findings by The ICIR show that the land in itself cannot be developed as an estate as it would violate the federal government’s guideline for the sale of government-owned residential facilities in the FCT, including lands designated as police and military barracks.
The documents also indicted at least six police officers for receiving bribes from the contractor to secure the approvals of the former Inspector Generals of Police Ibrahim Idris and Solomon Arase for the project.
The accusations form the central part of an ongoing litigation at the Federal High Court in Abuja where a former staff of the Copran International Limited, Kalu O Kalu, and a lawyer, Francis Mgboh, accused both former IGPs of unlawfully approving the sale of the land designated as police barracks in violation of the federal government’s guideline on the sale of state-owned facilities in the FCT.
The ICIR gathered that the case has been adjourned till February 22, 2024.
Big revelations
In his deposition before the court, Kalu accused both former Inspector Generals of Police, Ibrahim Idris and Solomon Arase, of receiving N200 million each and a house allocation as incentives for awarding the estate development contract to Copran International Limited.
Kalu said Chime and his wife approached him in 2013, claiming that they got a contract to develop the Police barracks, and they sought his assistance in getting foreign partners to fund the project. He said he felt reassured and immediately asked them to come up with a letter of intent after they presented the letters of award by the Nigeria Police to him. He would later find out that the award letters were forged.
According to him, the project had commenced with substantial funding from some local investors whom he helped him to find when they both went to meet with Hilary Ndunaka and Chintua Amajor-Anu, both of whom are Deputy Inspector Generals. He said the duo helped them convince the then Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, that they had money to finance the project.
He noted that both officers were unaware that the award letters being paraded by Andy Chime were forged and that what he needed was access to the funds from Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank using Police houses in the estate as collateral.
Kalu said he later found out that two officers of the Nigeria Police Force, Chris Magel and Gerald Eneh, were the ones who conspired to forge the signature of late DIG Saleh Abubakar on the award letter.
He further alleged that to secure a nod to continue the project, Chime offered Hilary Ndunaka a 5-bedroom duplex in the estate and N200 million as bribe. The same gesture was allegedly extended to the former IGPs, Solomon Arase and Ibrahim Idris and some other senior police officers, influencing them to approve the project without proper scrutiny.
Arase denied the allegation when contacted for comment but abruptly ended the call when The ICIR pressed further. Efforts to reach Idris proved abortive as his line remained switched off.
Kalu stated that Chime had promised to compensate Gerald and Chris with a sum of N50 million and a 5-bedroom duplex for their involvement in forging the award letter. However, Chime failed to fulfil his promise after using the letter to secure funding from the Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank, it is alleged.
Kalu shared that Chris told him, after a disagreement with Chime, how they connived to forge the signature of the late Saleh Abubakar on the award letter. He said he further confirmed this when he compared the previous signatures of Saleh on official documents with his signature on the letters being paraded by Chime.
The ICIR approached Gerrard for comment, but he asked this reporter to meet him at the FCT Police command. Upon a visit on December 20, he took this reporter to one Lanre A.O., who appeared to be a senior officer at the Works Department. However, both of them declined to comment when confronted with the findings.
Kalu said Davido Igbodo, who served as Head of the Legal Unit, was aware of this alleged fraud but also kept mute after being induced with house allocation and a promise that his Abuja residence in Guduwa would be renovated.
David, however, denied the allegation when contacted by The ICIR.
Kalu said he took the matter to the former Inspector General of Police Alkali Baba and urged him to investigate and recover the assets of Nigeria Police fraudulently taken by Copran International Limited and bring all the Police officers involved to book but Andy Chime lobbied with senior police officers to thwart the investigation.
The controversial sale of designated Police Barracks
In 2014, the Nigeria Police was granted 2.13 hectares of land at Cadastral Zone C 06, Mbora District, Abuja, by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for the construction of barracks to address the inadequate housing for police officers. The aim was to enhance rapid response and bolster security in the nation’s capital.
The ICIR understands that in 2005, the federal government approved guidelines regulating the sale of all residential facilities in the Federal Capital Territory owned by government agencies.
A section of the Mbora estate also known as Muhammadu Buhari estate/ Credit : Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank
While exceptions were granted for military, police, and other security and paramilitary barracks according to the guidelines, findings showed that top officials of the Police approved the development of the lands to Copran International Limited, an Abuja-based company, through a process marred by secrecy and suspicion.
Section 4 of the guidelines titled “Exemption” reads: “The following residential facilities owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria will not be sold for constitutional, statutory or administrative reasons, and are accordingly exempted from the sale programme, that is the residences occupied by:
(a) President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria;(b) Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; (c) Senate President; (d) Speaker of the House of Representatives; (e) Deputy Senate President; (f) Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives; (g) Chief Justice of Nigeria; (h) Minister of the Federal Capital Territory; (I) Presidential Guest Houses and Safe Houses of the Intelligence Community ;(J) Houses within the Security Zone of the State House; (k) Justices of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, Federal High Court, and High Court Of The FCT; (L) Barracks of the Military Police, Para-Military, and approved uniform services; and (m) Institutional residences within schools, hospitals, power plants, Dams and universities, etc.”
Letter of land allocation granted to the Nigeria Police by Federal Capital Territory Administration.
Lawyers who spoke to The ICIR agreed that the land given to the Police, thus, is not meant to be sold or developed for commercial purposes as it would negate its purpose of allocation and violate the law.
A human rights Lawyer, Abdul Mahmud, argued that while the Police Act of 2020 allows the Force to generate revenue for its general administration, it does not explicitly permit the indiscriminate sale of its land holdings.
“The absence of a specific provision in the Act which creates the Force as to how it disposes off its properties suggests that recourse should be made to extant government policies on the sale of properties,” Mahmud said.
“The current sale of its property without recourse to the Approved Guidelines for the Sale of Federal Government Houses, without the approval of the Presidential Implementation Committee, is illegal.”
Another legal counsel at G. Ofodile Okafor SAN and Co, Emanuel Ike, observed that the guidelines imply that police barracks are not included among the federal government properties in FCT meant for sale. He emphasised that any attempted sale of these barracks could be rendered null and void.
He noted that the lands can only be sold if there exists a subsequent notice or directive which repeals the earlier notice gazetted, adding that even though the Police have the right to own the property, the primary purpose of the land needs to be put into consideration.
“Now, the police would have to explain why they got a developer to develop the land and for what purpose. If the purpose is contrary to the ideal purpose for the allocation at the first instance, then such action would be deemed a nullity,” he said.
“Assuming there is no superior order or public notice then the act of the Nigerian Police would be viewed to be ultra vires. They would have acted outside the confines of the stipulated guidelines,” he noted.
Police Mortgage Bank violates law, grants loan to contractor with police houses as collateral
Findings show that while the Nigeria Police could not raise the funds to develop the land; Copran Limited could also not raise the necessary finances for the project.
Consequently, the company applied for an estate development loan of N573 million from the Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank in 2015. However, the loan was granted without collateral.
This contravenes section 15 of Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act, which makes it an offence for any director, manager or employee of a bank to grant a loan without any collateral or with defective or inadequate collateral contrary to the accepted practice or bank’s regulation.
Following the approval of the loan, the company defaulted, leaving the bank with no other choice than to enter an agreement with them to use houses in the Police estate as collateral to recover the owed funds in 2018.
In a letter seen by The ICIR, the bank also accused Copran International Limited of inflating the prices of a unit of the properties from N25 million to N40 million and diverting the payments by customers into its accounts with other banks in contravention of the agreement with the bank that the proceeds would be domiciled to company’s account with the bank.
A letter written by the contractor to the managing director of the Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank and dated February 5, 2018 shows that the contractor gave the bank the authority to market and sell houses in the estate due to its failure to pay back the loan.
Recall that the houses are not meant for sale according to the law.
Lawyer accuses officers of NPF, NPMB, contractor of bribery, forgery and violation of extant laws
A lawyer, Francis Mgboh has, however, dragged the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank and Copran International Limited to court over alleged illegalities observed in the entire deal.
Mgboh said he observed these violations of due processes during debt reconciliation between Copran International Limited and the Nigeria Police Force.
He accused Andy Chime, the director of Copran International Limited of forging award letters to fraudulently acquire the assets and funds of the Nigeria Police Force within the Federal Capital Territory.
He noted that the signatures of Chime on the contract documents differ from his signatures in the Memorandum and Article of Association of Copran Limited, which indicated a suspected foul play in the transaction between the contractor, Nigeria Police Force and Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank.
Mgboh further alleged that some senior officers of the Nigeria Police Force used Copran Limited to divert the sum of N330 million from Nigeria Police Cooperatives Society Funds between June 8, 2018, to June 29, 2021. He added that the force could not account for the revenues generated from the sales of houses at the various police barracks.
He stated that some other lands of the Nigeria Police located at Gusape, Apo-Dutse, Wumba and Karimo districts in the FCT which were also exempted from sale have been illegally sold.
Mgboh accused some officials of the Police of threatening his life in an attempt to deter him from exposing the questionable dealings he had witnessed in the deal.
Contractor mum, defended by legal representative
When contacted by The ICIR, the Copran Limited owner, Chime, said he would not comment on the allegations since the matter is still in court. He, however, asked his legal representative to contact this reporter.
Director of Copran International Limited, Andy Chime / Source : LinkedIn
Reacting to the allegations, his legal representative, Oladimeji Ekengba, threatened legal action against The ICIR for intervening. He said the company just filed a suit of N500 million against AIT for airing a report on the issue.
He claimed that Mgboh purchased a house from Andy Chime but failed to fulfil the payment, leading the latter to file a lawsuit against him for defaulting.
“A man sold a house for you for N26 million, you paid N5 million. The balance, you kept saying you are his lawyer, you are doing this, you are doing that for him,” he said. “The man said enough is enough and took you to court for the balance. Instead of you paying him, you started talking that he stole land from the Police. The Police said, ‘No, our land is not missing’.”
“Out of almost N50 million, somebody sold the house for you at N26 million because you are his lawyer, and you paid N5 million. The man sued you for the money, and you started writing stuff against the man.”
But, Mgboh denied owing him any debt. He stated that he rendered legal services to him and reached a verbal agreement with him that the rest of the payment would be paid with his service. He further presented invoices given to him by Chime to back up his claim.
Oladimeji explained that the company entered a joint partnership with the Police to develop the land on the condition that the properties would be shared 50:50 after completion.
“The estate issue, there’s nothing illegal about it. In Nigeria, we don’t even buy or sell land under Nigeria’s law. What the government gives you, even the Federal Capital Development Administration, is a lease for 99 years. What people use as ‘buying lands’ is a technical term, it’s not buying. It’s a lease. In Nigeria, you don’t have an absolute principle. What we have is leasehold interest. Even my own house that I bought, the FCTA can come and take it after 99 years,” he said.
He promised to get back and give more clarification but has yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.
Police Mortgage Bank hides under “right to privacy” to evade scrutiny
The ICIR approached the Head of Credit of Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank, Sunday Fasipe, to verify the procedures followed in granting the loan but he directed the reporter to Kennedy Ugwuoke, the head of the Legal Unit of the bank.
Even though The ICIR‘s mission was to investigate the process of awarding the loan and the collateral used, Kennedy insisted that the bank would not divulge the information as it involved a third party protected by the right to privacy.
In the bank’s response to The ICIR’s request, the bank acknowledged that the request is guided by statutory provisions of the Freedom of Inofrmation Act but said, “Customers have the right to freedom from the disclosure of customers account details by the bank as well as an intrusion into customer’s accounts information to a third party.”
The bank claimed that the public interest was not established in any way in our request, adding that the individual interest outweighs any other interest.
It also said the bank would not divulge information of a customer to a third party(The ICIR) except if there’s an order from the court of competent jurisdiction or letter of consent from our customer requesting or granting the request.
But Section 2(7) of the FOI Act provides that private companies such as Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank utilising public funds or providing public services or public functions must make information readily available to the public upon request.
Police disregard FOI law, spokesperson neglects duty
Efforts to unravel the procurement processes involved in the award of the contract were frustrated by officials of the Nigeria Police. Despite the force’s non-response to the FOI request, the reporter was continuously redirected frustratingly during the subsequent follow-up.
The ICIR had, on September 13, 2023, sent a FOIA request to the Force to ascertain under which arrangement the sale was carried out. The request was acknowledged, but the force failed to respond despite multiple follow-ups.
Copy of FOI response duly received and acknowledged by NPFCopy of FOI request received and acknowledged by Nigeria Police Force
The requested information includes the contract description, the date of advertisement and media organisation the notice was placed, the approved threshold, procurement method, the bid opening date, the name of the contractor, and the date the contract was awarded among others.
Two months later, the reporter visited the agency’s headquarters to follow up and was told that the letter had been sent to the legal and prosecution unit. This reporter went to the legal unit and they said one lawyer, Rotshang Dimka, would handle the letter. When The ICIR contacted her, she said her efforts to get the records of the project had not yielded any positive results. She promised to get back but no response from her yet as of the time of filing this report.
A copy of the request was also sent to the Ministry of Police Affairs but the agency said the information is not at its disposal despite being the agency partly responsible for ensuring the better welfare of Police affairs, which includes providing a suitable housing plan.
The ICIR also contacted the spokesperson of the Nigeria Police Force, Olumuyiwa Adejobi and he asked this reporter to send his questions, which the reporter did. Olumuyiwa has refused to pick up this reporter’s call for more than a month despite multiple follow-up calls and text messages.
State of Police Barracks in Nigeria and controversial sales by authorities
Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is facing a gross housing deficit with only 10 per cent of its 350,000 personnel having access to adequate accommodations. Over 90 pr cent of police barracks, intended to provide housing for the men and women who diligently serve the country, are in a state of disrepair. This is due to a lack of adequate funding and rampant corruption within the system.
Documents acquired by The ICIR show that the most affordable house in the estate is a three-bedroom terrace duplex, with each unit priced at N40 million—an amount considerably beyond the financial means of an average police officer due to their remuneration. The price might have skyrocketed due to the current high inflation rate caused by the removal of fuel subsidy.
According to the law, if the sale programme is a joint venture between the Nigeria Police and Copran International Limited as claimed by the contractor’s lawyer, it has to be certified by the Federal Executive Council. It also has to be in line with the Public Procurement Act, enacted in 2007, which prescribes principles by which public procurement entities within the various Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies should conduct their affairs.
The basis of the Act is to offer all interested contractors, suppliers and consultants a level playing field on which to compete and, thereby, directly expand the purchaser’s options and opportunities.
It remains questionable whether this due process was followed in the award of the contract.
ON December 30, 2023, an online news platform, DailyNigerian, reported how a Cotonou-based university issued a degree certificate to one of its reporters within six weeks after it offered the reporter admission.
The report generated reactions from Nigerians, including the government, and raised further concerns about unaccredited institutions in the country.
On January 3, The ICIRreported that the National Universities Commission (NUC) listed all unlicensed universities in the country and urged the public not to enrol in any of them.
Despite the warning, many Nigerians remain worried about the possibility of admission-seekers ignorantly enrolling in unaccredited universities.
This is because of the tactics these ‘schools’ deploy to lure unsuspecting prospective students.
Azizat Abdulmalik is an admission seeker who hopes to continue her education at one of Nigeria’s federal universities. However, she is unsure whether the school or course she intends to run is fully accredited.
This is the same for Oche Benjamin, who aspires to be admitted to another university in Abuja to study Public Administration.
He cannot tell whether the course he wants to run has been accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
He has heard stories of people who had been admitted to run programmes in some universities and would later realise that the courses offered were not accredited and would have to accept other programmes against their will.
Abdulmalik and Benjamin are among the over one million candidates registered to sit for the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exams (UTME).
What does it mean for a university to be accredited?
For a university to be accredited, it must maintain a certain level of educational standards required by an accreditation agency charged with the responsibility.
The body responsible for the accreditation in Nigeria is the NUC, a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Education.
Speaking with The ICIR in his office in Abuja, the Acting Executive Secretary of the NUC, Chris Maiyaki, noted that accreditation was the stamp of authority granted to confirm the existence, legality, legitimacy or otherwise of an approved university, which also applies to the courses being run.
He said the NUC was established by law to set minimum academic standards and to serve as a flagship regulatory, coordinating and quality assurance agency for university education in Nigeria.
‘We do this by laying down minimum standards. We also conduct resource assessments, which assess your available resources in terms of quantum or quality. Once a school is approved, it has its accreditation as an institution,” he stated.
He said that apart from university accreditation, the NUC also accredits programmes for the universities, which he said is entirely different from the former.
“We conduct programme approvals, and it matures. We put together subject experts with a checklist to ensure the programme operates at full strength.
“Otherwise, we would issue an outcome statement that can lead to suspending admission into the programme if it is consistently found to be non-performing. You would be denied accreditation, but if you have fulfilled accreditation, we applaud you and give you a clean bill of health to operate through the next five years,” Maiyaki added.
The National Youth Service Corps is a mandatory one-year service programme for Nigerian graduates in tertiary institutions both at home and abroad. Some political officeholders have previously come under fire and even had their appointments terminated for failing to participate in the mandatory service or forging the NYSC certificate.
For any individual to be considered for the mandatory youth service, apart from being a university (or polytechnic/monotechnic) graduate, the school has to be accredited and acknowledged by Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), and the student’s name has to be on the approved list of the school’s Senate.
Students of any school not approved or accredited by the NUC and acknowledged by JAMB will not be eligible to participate in the mandatory youth service.
Illustrating this with engineering courses and the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), an education activist, Femi Adeyeye, said while the power to accredit universities resided with the NUC, courses accreditation is the duty of both the NUC and professional bodies.
“School accreditation is the duty of the NUC, but the course accreditation is that of both the NUC and the relevant professional body in charge of that particular course, courses like Medicine, Law, Engineering, etc.
“COREN, being the regulatory body of engineering as a course and profession in Nigeria, has its standards. You should know the basic things that a university should have before it can say it has an engineering department and engineering faculty.
A university cannot say it is offering Engineering without a workshop laboratory. So, NUC has a duty to accredit the university when it meets the standards of what they have in their policy book. In accrediting courses in those universities, NUC, working with these regulatory bodies of the professions, has a role to play.
While emphasising the difference between programme accreditation and university accreditation, Maiyaki cited examples of some schools that had lost their programme accreditation but still maintained university accreditation.
“Some years ago, we denied the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, their Law programme accreditation. They failed accreditation, same as Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, University of Ibadan, and the Accounting Department of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
“At that time, you couldn’t say the universities were not approved; they were approved universities, but the programmes were consistently non-performing and considered to have failed accreditation. So they are two different things,” he noted.
An X user, King_Folake, had called out Redeemers University in a series of posts for not being able to attend Law School two years after graduating from the school’s Law Department.
‘We paid for Law School training because we believed it would only be a couple of months before we got into Law School. And now it’s 2024,” she said in a post.
The NUC, JAMB, and NYSC websites list accredited universities in Nigeria.
‘It’s in the public domain, what is approved and what is not. If a student likely goes to do otherwise, only he can answer the question.’ Maiyaki stated.
THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared a two-day nationwide mass protest for February 27 and 28 over the worsening hardship in the country.
The NLC president, Joe Ajaero, stated this at the Labour House headquarters during an emergency press conference on Friday, February 16.
Ajaero said the decision to protest was made after the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum issued to the Federal Government over hardship across the country.
The ICIR reports that in addition to tackling hardship, the congress gave the 14-day ultimatum to pressure the government to honour the 16-point agreement that was reached with the union on October 2, 2023.
The unions had accused the Federal Government of failing to implement the agreement.
“It is regrettable that we are compelled to resort to such measures, but the persistent neglect of the welfare of citizens and Nigerian workers and the massive hardship leave us with no choice.
“Constrained by this development and recognising the urgency of the situation and the imperative of ensuring the protection and defence of the rights and dignity of Nigerian workers and citizens, the NLC and TUC hereby issue a stern ultimatum to the Federal Government to honour their part of the understanding within 14 days from tomorrow, the 9th day of February 2024,” the union had said in a statement.
The workers fresh warning came few days after the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) said it would commence a nationwide strike from February 27 should the Federal government refuse to implement the agreement it entered into with the association in 2020.
The Kogi State chairman of AMBCN, Adeniyi Gabriel, while speaking with newsmen on Tuesday, February 13, said the notice was contained in a joint statement by the national president of the association, Mansur Umar, and the national secretary, Jude Okafor.
Gabriel said the organisation was shutting down due to the significant rise in prices of baking materials, including flour, sugar, yeast, vegetable oil, and fuel such as petrol and diesel, triggered by subsidy removal and forex deregulation, alongside multiple taxation imposed by Federal Government agencies.
The ICIR reports that there has been an astronomical increase in the prices of goods since President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of the fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023, the day he took over power.
Tinubu’s declaration immediately led to fuel queues as many retailers shut their filling stations, hoarding their stock and creating scarcity with a view to hiking fares later.
Two days later, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCLtd) officially increased the pump price of petrol by over 200 per cent.
The NNPCL, in a template sent to marketers, confirmed the sharp rise in the pump price of the product, with the minimum being N488 per litre obtainable in Lagos, while it would be as high as N557 per litre in Maiduguri.
The fuel pump price has since increased, leading to a sharp rise in the cost of transportation on the different routes as commercial cab drivers transfer the additional cost of petrol on passengers.
Although one of the ways to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government was the disbursement of N5 billion in financial support to each of the country’s 36 states, many Nigerians have yet to feel the impact.
THE Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has arrested a ‘notorious’ kidnapper, Saidu Abdulkadir, also, known as Dahiru Adamu, barely 48 hours after the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, offered a N20 million bounty.
The FCT police commissioner, Benneth Igwe, said his officers made the arrest after a raid on kidnappers’ camps bordering Nasarawa and Abuja via Kuje Area Council, at about midnight on Thursday.
“The bandits on sighting the police operatives, opened fire and engaged the police in an intense gun duel and were eventually overpowered by the police,” he said.
The ICIRreported that on Wednesday, February 14, Wike promised the command a N20 million reward to apprehend two notorious kidnappers, including Abdulkadir.
“Let me put money on their heads. Wherever they are, put your men out there. I will give them N20 million. Go and fish them out wherever they are. I want to see them alive or dead.”
Several reports by The ICIR ( including the one here and here) have captured the plight of the FCT residents abandoning their homes due to rising kidnapping and bandits attacks.
Speaking on Abdulkadir’s arrest on Friday, Igwe noted that his arrest was a huge success for the command and the FCT administration, adding that two kidnap victims, Habu Yakubu and Isufu Abubakar, abducted from Kwaita village through Pegi district of Kuje Area Council, were also rescued unhurt.
However, the CP said that preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect masterminded the kidnapping and killing of the district head of Ketti community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Yahaya Zakwai.
Zakwai was killed in June 2023 after he was abducted in a forest in Nasarwa state.
![[EXCLUSIVE] Two former IGPs, senior Police officers accused of bribery in shady land sale of designated Police Barracks](https://www.icirnigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/collage-2-768x576.jpg "[EXCLUSIVE] Two former IGPs, senior Police officers accused of bribery in shady land sale of designated Police Barracks")
