by Admin | Apr 10, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI The Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State has described former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s reference to Salamigate as another confirmation that the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, became governor through judicial fraud. The party said this while referring to the Court of Appeal, Ilorin judgment delivered by Justice Isa Ayo Salami, which removed Segun Oni of the PDP from office and declared Fayemi as governor of Ekiti on October 15, 2010. The party maintained that Fayemi had never won any election in his life. Obasanjo while playing host to members of the Correspondents Chapel, the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ogun State Chapter, at his hilltop residence in Abeokuta on Sunday, said; “…Our judges must be committed in fighting corruption. They must be committed to fighting corruption. Because if the investigation is very sound and you have ‘ogbologbo’ lawyer to handle the case, if you have Salamigate, you know what the answer will be.” But in a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti on Monday and signed by the State Publicity Secretary, Mr Jackson Adebayo, said, “Fayemi never won the 2009 rerun governorship election. Rather, he was awarded victory by Justice Salami after cancelling votes in wards where the PDP won and this has been further established by former President Obasanjo.” The PDP said Nigerians should recall that records of telephone calls and messages between Justice Salami and APC chieftains like Lai Mohammed before and after the judgment were made public, confirming that the judgment was obtained by fraud. “It should also be recalled that even programmes of Fayemi’s swearing-in ceremony and other souvenirs were printed more...
by Admin | Apr 10, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI The eighth National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria parades a long list of suspected thieves more than the number any anti-graft agency can prosecute in one administration. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC have investigated a good number of the serving senators at one time or the other for embezzlement, money laundering, diversion of public funds and other criminal charges. In fact, a total of 21 of the lawmakers including the senate president currently are involved in corruption cases that have reached various stages of trials in courts. Former Senate President David Mark is reputed to be one of the most corrupt public officers in Nigerian history. The senator representing Benue-South in the upper legislative house is a retired army general who amassed a lot of wealth during the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, another military autocrat with a history of corrupt self-enrichment. Mark, a fifth –term senator, is one of the few Nigerians listed in #PanamaPapers, the report that reveals identities of clients of the most secretive companies in the world, registered through the law firm of Mossack Fonseca. The senator together with his wife, Vikky Preye Mark both laundered billion of dollars abroad. As Nigeria’s Minister for Communications in the 1980s, David Mark acquired a reputation for speaking in a gruff manner. His most notorious gaffe was a statement that telephones were not meant for poor Nigerians. The statement was in response to criticism of the scarcity of telephone lines as well as their high cost. Mark was then at the peak of a flourishing military career that saw him amass an...
by Admin | Apr 10, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI Former President Goodluck Jonathan probably received as much as $200 million to approve the controversial $1.3 billion sale of OPL 245 oil field, Italian prosecutors said in court documents. The documents, which were extracts of a thorough investigation by Italian authorities into the deal, also confirmed that Shell and ENI knew a good chunk of the $1.3 billion would be disbursed as kickbacks to Nigerian politicians, yet went ahead with the deal. The findings were obtained by BuzzFeed and Italian business newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore. BuzzFeed released its own version earlier today. The prosecutors quoted Ednan Agaev, a Russian middleman who helped negotiate the transfer of the oil block to Shell and Eni, as saying that Dan Etete, the former Petroleum Minister at the heart of the oil scandal, said he intended to dole out as much as $400 million in bribes if the deal went through. If Mr. Etete actually paid out such an amount in bribes to Nigerian officials, “Agaev stated that he would think President Goodluck Jonathan got at least $200 million of this money,” BuzzFeed quoted an excerpt of FBI submissions to Italian authorities as saying. The revelations were made when the FBI interviewed Mr. Agaev, whom prosecutors also said met with Mr. Jonathan on more than one occasion in Nigeria during the OPL 245 negotiations. Mr. Agaev, who was Mr. Etete’s representative in the negotiation, said the convicted former petroleum minister told him of the $400 million bribe to Nigerian politicians when he approached him for his payment. When FBI detectives asked Mr. Agaev about payment of his commission, he “stated...
by Admin | Apr 10, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is trailing the owner of N448.85 million discovered in a shopping plaza in Lagos State, spokesman of the commission in Lagos, Mr. Sam Amadin said. In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday, Amadin said the agency was making efforts to reach the owner of the complex, with a view to knowing who rented the said shop 64. “The shopping plaza, from preliminary investigation, was built by estate developers. From the developers, we will get the owner of the money. “The people around the complex know the owner of the money. The place has not been in use for a long time, the owner only sneaks into the place and keep the money. We will find the owner very soon,” Amadin assured. The commission, on Friday in a statement confirmed the recovery of N448.85million in a shop at the LEGICO Shopping Plaza, in Victoria Island, Lagos. Operatives of the commission, acting on a tip-off by a concerned whistleblower, swooped on the shopping complex and sought the identity of the owners of two shops, LS 64 and LS 67, which were under lock and key. “The shops had the signage of a Bureau de Change. Inquiries about the owner of shop 64 indicated that he had not been seen for a long time, as neighbors claimed the shop had not been opened for business for close to two years. “The attention of the plaza’s Chairman and some traders were drawn in order to force the shops open. “There was no money found in shop 67, but in shop...
by Admin | Apr 10, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI Unidentified gunmen abducted Gabriel Odu-Orji, the Cross River Commissioner for Water Resources, at Effionawan Street on Mayne Avenue in Calabar South on Sunday. An eyewitness, James Ibri, said that five gunmen kidnapped Mr. Odu-Orji as he was about to enter a restaurant. “At around 12 noon today, I was in front of a restaurant waiting for a friend when the Commissioner for Water Resources stepped down and was approaching the restaurant,” Mr. Ibri said. “Before he could get into the restaurant, some five well-armed men came in a blue Audi, parked their car by the road side and ordered the commissioner into his car and drove away.” He added that the gunmen wore masks to conceal their identities. ASP Irene Ugbo, the State Police Public Relations Officer, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview. “We have received a complaint about the abduction of the Commissioner for Water Resources. He was kidnapped and taken away in his Prado Jeep today,” she said. “We have deployed our men from the command and those from the intelligence department to all routes in the state with a view to releasing him. “As we speak, all checkpoints are thoroughly manned by our men to ensure that he is released safely,” Ms. Ugbo...
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