by Admin | Sep 18, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has seized the passport of the immediate past Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema, as part of investigations into the alleged N76bn fraud perpetrated by Shema. Shema was detained by the EFCC on Friday after he voluntarily walked into the head office of the EFCC. However, a source close to the ex-governor told SUNDAY PUNCH that despite meeting the bail conditions, the anti-graft agency refused to release him. The source said, “You will recall that the EFCC declared Shema wanted even though they knew he was not on the run. They had invited him for questioning in June but when he arrived at their office, he was informed that the detective in charge, Mr. Hyecinth A. Edozie, was out of Abuja, and that a new date, after Sallah, would be communicated. “However, they never informed him of a new date and then went ahead to declare him wanted. On getting to the EFCC on Friday, the ex-governor presented a stamped document acknowledging that he had honoured the EFCC’s invitation in June. “After being grilled for several hours, the EFCC gave him bail conditions, including that he tenders his passport and property documents of his sureties which he did. However, the EFCC still refused to grant him bail and said he should wait till Monday.” The anti-graft agency started investigating Shema following allegations levelled against him by his successor, Governor Bello Masari, who is a former Speaker of the House of Representatives. Masari had accused Shema of financial impropriety and diversion of billions of naira. The governor said he had “concrete...
by Admin | Sep 18, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI Thirty-six-year-old Adejoke Popoola is a mother of seven children born to different fathers. She had her last baby, almost three months ago, through caesarean section. But the labour pain she must have experienced while going through the births of her seven children did not make her have consideration for other mothers when she decided to connive with another woman to steal other people’s children for sale. But the long arm of the law caught up with her in Ogbomoso town, Oyo State, two weeks ago, when she was arrested by the state police command for allegedly stealing a four-year-old boy (name withheld) at Oja Igbo area of the town. Two other suspects connected with the stealing, one Mrs Abibat Oyesanya and a male staff of the social welfare department in a ministry in an undisclosed state in the South-West, were also arrested. Disclosing this last Wednesday, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Sam Adegbuyi, who was represented by the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Adekunle Ajisebutu, a Superintendent of Police, said the suspect perpetrated the act while the boy was playing in front of his father’s house. Adegbuyi said the suspect was, however, stopped in her tracks when the sibling of the stolen child who saw her raised the alarm which attracted the victim’s father and other sympathisers. He added that the father and sympathisers ran after the woman who had escaped from the scene with the child strapped to her back, apprehended and handed her over to the police at the Owode Division in the town. The police commissioner further stated that the case was...
by Admin | Sep 18, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI The Chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Nigeria Limited, Mr. Jide Omokore, has returned N200m to the Federal Government, Sunday PUNCH has learnt. It was learnt that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has also traced and frozen eight bank accounts allegedly belonging to Omokore. Reliable sources in the commission told our correspondent that the eight accounts were opened at different branches of Skye Bank Plc. Omokore, who is an ally of the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, among five others, are currently standing trial before a Federal High Court for an alleged $800m (N247bn at an exchange rate of N309/$1) fraud. A top source at the commission said, “During investigations, we traced about eight accounts to Omokore in Skye Bank. Most of the accounts are company accounts. Some were domiciled in Marina, Adeola Hopewell and some other branches on the (Lagos) Island. “We were able to identify about N200m. He raised some bank drafts in the name of the Federal Government and the money has been deposited into the Federal Government account while investigations continue.” The commission had on Monday, July 4, 2016, arraigned Omokore, and five other individuals and firms, before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja on nine counts bordering on money laundering and procurement fraud. Those arraigned with him were a former Managing Director of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited, Victor Briggs; a former Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Abiye Membere; a former Manager, Planning and Commercial of the NNPC, David Mbanefo ; Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited and Atlantic...
by Admin | Sep 18, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI This report by JAMES COCKAYNE, head of United Nations University Office of the United Nations, details how terror groups have taken to social media to sell their female victims into slavery. The members of the United Nations Security Council hear terrible stories from conflict zones with alarming frequency. So it takes a truly horrific tale to bring them to tears. Yet as officials in the Council listened in December to Nadia Murad Basee Taha bravely recount her torturous ordeal as an Islamic State sex slave, some wept openly. When she fell silent, she received a rare ovation. Murad is returning next week to the UN to be inducted as a Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. Since her last visit, the Security Council has requested a report from the Secretary-General on human trafficking in conflict, and what can be done about it. The council should act soon – because the problem appears to be rapidly getting worse. Is slavery making a comeback? International law is clear that slavery is never allowed, anywhere, any time. Yet the best estimates suggest that 45.8 million people alive today are enslaved. Armed groups have long forced vulnerable people into sexual exploitation, military service, and forced labor including construction, cleaning work, digging trenches, mining and agriculture. Some people displaced by conflict in South-East Asia may even end up catching and processing the fish that ends up in our supermarkets. But today, organizations such as Islamic State and Boko Haram are openly encouraging and organizing slavery on a scale not seen since World War II. More than 5,000...
by Admin | Sep 18, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI THIRTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Adegboyega Michael, the leader of the fraud syndicate which was allegedly involved in the transfer of money from bank customer’s account in a first generation bank (name withheld) through the connivance of a bank staff member, has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command. Michael (38) was arrested on August 26, four months after the police had been looking for him. Crime Reports learnt that a female banker (names withheld) whose password was used to access a bank customer’s account details lodged a complaint with the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, that she was falsely accused of fraud in her office. The owner of the account who was based in London had lodged a complaint with the bank when he discovered that money in his account had depleted. The police commissioner reportedly forwarded the petition to the Rapid Response Squad on April 19 and by the following day, four suspects were arrested. Those nabbed included Ezurike Peter (35) who was a staff member of the bank in which the account of the victim was domiciled, Ayo Olalekan (32), Ochenehi Israel (31) and the gang leader’s wife. A manhunt was also launched for the syndicate leader, Michael. The syndicate’s modus operandi, according to police sources, was to increase the limit of a bank customer’s account after Peter, who was an insider, would have got the customer’s details and phone number by using his colleague’s password to access it. The phone number of the account holder would also be blocked temporarily from receiving debit alert while the limit of his/her financial transaction would be upped...
by Admin | Sep 17, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos on Friday, declined jurisdiction to hear a case instituted by Human Rights activist and lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, in November 2015, challenging the appointment of Col Hameed Ali, Rtd, as the Comptroller General of the Nigeria nCustoms Service by Gen Muhammadu Buhari Rtd. Adegboruwa had asked the court for an interpretation as to whether the President could appoint anyone as Comptroller General of customs without complying with Section 3 of the Official Gazette of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made on 25th March 2002, where it was stipulated that only those within the rank of Deputy Comptroller General of Customs can be elevated as substantive Comptroller General and asking the court to nullify the appointment. In response to the case, the Nigerian Customs service filed a preliminary objection dated 29th April, 2016, challenging the locus standi of the applicant to file and maintain the suit. The customs service contended further that Adegboruwa’s suit was a mere academic exercise raising hypothetical questions that the court should not entertain. The court heard arguments from counsel to the parties on 15th June 2016 and adjourned for to September 16, 2016, for judgment. But during proceedings on Friday, Adegboruwa appeared in person whilst the respondents, Gen Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney General of the Federation, were absent and unrepresented. In its judgment, the court held that the President is empowered under Section 5 of the 1999 Constitution, to exercise all executive powers, either by himself directly or through officers delegated for that purpose. The court held further that under section 171 of the same...
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