by Admin | Nov 16, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI A witness on Wednesday told a Federal High Court in Lagos that Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, did not declare 15 million shares he possessed in a secret company. A Senior Detective Superintendent with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Chukwuma Orji, gave the evidence at the resumed trial of Dudafa over N5.1 billion fraud. EFCC had arraigned Dudafa alongside one Joseph Iwejuo on 23-counts of conspiracy and concealment of crime proceeds. Led in conclusion of his evidence-in-chief by the prosecutor, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, the witness told the court that following intelligence report, the commission uncovered a company known as Ibejige Services Ltd. He said that further investigations revealed that the mandate of the company had the signature of Dudafa and also bears his international passport. According to the witness, intelligence also showed that in July 2015, Dudafa signed as Chairman of the company, and that his wife was also a signatory to the company. Orji told the court that investigations revealed that Dudafa possessed 15 million shares in the said company, and had failed to declare it in his asset declaration. After his evidence, Oyedepo informed the court that he had closed his examination-in-chief with the witness. Meanwhile, under cross examination, defence counsel, Mr Gboyega Oyewole (SAN) asked the witness for his employment details. Orji, in response said: “I joined the commission between 2007 and 2008, and am currently a Senior Detective Superintendent.” On his educational qualification, he told the court that he possessed a degree and a masters degree in Engineering. When asked whether the accused was under any...
by Admin | Nov 16, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI The Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Delta Safe (OPDS), has launched a manhunt for the leader of a kidnap gang identified as Karowei Gbakumor in Delta. The Commander, OPDS, Rear Adm. Suleiman Apochi, disclosed this on Wednesday when he visited Enekorogha community in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta where four British Missionaries were kidnapped and one eventually died. Apochi was accompanied by the Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu, and the Commander, Sector 2 of the OPDS, Col. Alhassan Grema, and other military personnel. The commander, who described the abduction of the Britons as an international embarrassment, urged the community to assist the security agencies to fish out the criminal. Four British missionaries: David and Shirley Donovan, Ian Squire and Alanna Carson, who were providing free medical services to Enekorogha community where abducted on Oct. 13. Squire died in the captors’ den while the others regained freedom weeks later. Apochi said that the incident would be a setback to the community and the neighboring ones who benefited from the free medical service. “Now you see that the armed forces are not here to harm or sent to kill you, but to protect and make life conducive for you. “All we do is to make the environment safe for you. Nobody has come to take what belongs to you. “But you people think we have come to attack or harm you, now you see that your enemies are living next to you. “This unfortunate incident is an international embarrassment. “I want you to mobilise and find Gbakumor and let us know where...
by Admin | Nov 16, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI According to the US Attorney’s office for Oregon, a Nigerian man, Michael Oluwasegun Kazeem, 24, has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his role in the bilking of over $11 million via an identity-theft scheme from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Kazeem, who came to the United States on a student visa, has been sentenced in federal court in the southern Oregon town of Medford on Nov. 8 for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and mail fraud. Kazeem has also been ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken to pay $4.3 million in restitution. Last August, Kazeem’s brother, Emmanuel Kazeem, was convicted in Medford of mail and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. The evidence was presented at his trial and showed Emmanuel Kazeem purchasing over 91,000 taxpayer identities from a Vietnamese hacker. Kazeem joined in 2013 to help his brother, who lived in Bowie, Maryland, and Nigeria. His brother’s sentencing is scheduled for March 22, 2018. In a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office, it was determined by an IRS criminal investigation that the co-conspirators obtained personal identifying information of more than 259,000 people, and used it to acquire over 19,500 electronic filing PINs from the IRS. The co-conspirators obtained and used pre-paid debit cards with the stolen identities to receive direct electronic tax refund deposits. They eventually filed over 10,000 fraudulent federal tax returns, attempting to obtain over $91 million in refunds, with actual losses amounting to over $11 million. Refunds were withdrawn from the debit cards and at least 2,000...
by Admin | Nov 16, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday traced N860m to the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada; and a former acting governor of Taraba State, Sani Danladi. While N500m was traced to Wada, N450m was traced to Danladi. The money was said to be part of the N23bn allegedly disbursed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, through the then Director of Finance of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Senator Nenadi Usman. It was learnt that Wada arrived the EFCC office around 12pm and was still in custody around 9pm. The spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed that Wada was detained by the commission. He said, “Yes, he was invited by the EFCC over N500m Diezani money. He is still in our custody.” The Gombe zonal office also quizzed Danladi in respect of the N450m collected by him through Senators Joel Dallami Ikenya and Mark Useni during the build-up to the 2015 presidential election. Danladi, in his statement on oath, told interrogators that he chaired the eight-man committee that disbursed the money for Taraba State. The EFCC stated, “He further stated that, he and the other members of the committee shared N36m among themselves while the balance of N414m was distributed to other stakeholders across the 16 local government areas of the state and one Development Area Council.” Danladi was arrested and detained in Abuja last week and later released on bail to reliable sureties, but asked to report to the EFCC Gombe zonal office for further investigation. Last week, the commission detained a former governor of Benue State, Gabriel...
by Admin | Nov 7, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI No fewer than 50 children have died in a Jigawa State village of ”a strange disease”, the village head said yesterday. The kids who died within the last two months in Gidan Dugus in Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa State were within the age of one and five years, it was learnt. Gidan Dugu village is 35 kilometres from Jigawa State capital Dutse in the Northwest geo political zone. Village Head Malam Bashari Galadima Gidan Gudu told our reporter that ”the problem started about two months ago, but the situation got worse in the last few weeks” Explaining how the disease affects the kids, he said: “The children will start with serious fever, than develop stomach swelling and within a little time they will give up.” Painting a grim account of the situation he said: ”there are families that lost seven, four and three children to the disease and at a time, we buried between four and two kids daily during the worse period.” The village head said the children were treated at Wangara Health Clinic and some referred to Dutse General Hospital and to Kano, the neighbouring state, where some of them are still on admission. Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary Alhaji Ali Dandidi said: “ We learnt the problem started sometime in July. The community members refused to go to the public health centre. They relied on and patronised chemists and other medical vendors all the while “Nobody reported to the ministry (of health) until on October 27. The ministry sent a medical team there. The team took samples of the patients to the...
by Admin | Nov 7, 2017 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that the pension fund assets under management has increased by N332 billion to N7.164 trillion in the third quarter of this year, from N6.832 trillion in the second quarter, the National Bureau Statistics has revealed. In a statement yesterday in Abuja, the NBS noted that 7,710,564 workers were registered under the pension scheme in the quarter under review compared to 7,589,936 registered workers in Q2. This showed a growth of 120,628 workers. The Bureau said the pension fund assets were invested in various asset classes by approved existing scheme (AES), closed pension fund administrators, retirement savings account (RSA) active fund as well as RSA retiree fund. A breakdown of the total pension assets revealed that with N4.339 trillion, the RSA active fund formed the largest chunk of the lot, while CPFAs, which stood at N895.811 billion, trailed it, followed by AES with N696.309 billion and RSA retiree fund with N484.026 billion. According to NBS report, the breakdown indicated that the pension fund assets were held in asset classes namely, domestic ordinary shares and foreign ordinary shares, FGN securities, local money market securities, open/close-end funds and real estate properties. Others are private equity fund, infrastructure fund and cash & other assets.Pension fund investment in FGN bonds had the highest weight of 54.09 per cent of the total assets and was followed by the one in treasury bills with 17.73 per cent. While domestic ordinary shares represented 8.66 per cent of the total pension assets, foreign ordinary shares accounted for 1.41 per cent. Infrastructure funds had the least with 0.07 per...
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