The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • PVC sale: Scandal on steroids

    PVC sale: Scandal on steroids

    There are scandals, and there are scandals on steroids. Or how else do we describe the case of a lady who reportedly isn’t a staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but who managed to get possession of permanent voter cards (PVCs) of duly registered voters and allegedly imposed a levy on them before she would hand over those cards to enable them to exercise their statutory franchise? It is doubtful impunity can be worse than that!

    Enugu State command of the Nigeria Police Force, last week, said it had arrested the lady seen in a viral video clip, allegedly extorting persons who wanted to collect their PVCs. Voting is a civic obligation that eligible Nigerians are often encouraged to rise to; hence, INEC periodically plies campaigns to urge them to register, and when they have done so, to pick up their PVCs and vote on election day. The electoral body neither charges a fee to register voters nor to issue them the PVCs when it is produced. Actually, in view of the civic nature of the enterprise, it often bends backwards to get PVCs to registered voters by devolving issuance closer to them – say, to the ward level – and extending the deadline for card collection by registrants. But in the visual clip that trended online late January, a lady was seen extorting one thousand naira apiece from registrants who wanted to collect their PVCs. She claimed in the video that the levy was to cover her transport fare and other inconveniences she went through to get the cards to a primary school in the neighbourhood of Emene, a community in Enugu East local government area. When some potential claimants protested, she got insulting and dared them to take the pains and go to the council area office of INEC themselves to collect their cards.

    In its statement last week, the Enugu police command identified the lady as 41-year-old Chinwendu Nnamani who has been arrested. The command said it also arrested Nkiruka Obinna, 38, an INEC personnel who is believed to have handed the PVCs to Nnamani for distribution to the registrants. Command spokesperson Daniel Ndukwe, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said the suspects were arrested by the State Criminal Investigation Department, that investigation into the matter had been concluded and the suspects had been charged to court in line with provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act. “The suspects were granted bail and the case adjourned until 15 February 2023 for further hearing,” he added.

    We must wait on the court to conduct its trial. Commenting only on what transpired in the visual clip seen online, the impunity displayed was gross.

  • Heightened savagery from Imo

    Heightened savagery from Imo

    The grim fate of the late Christopher Ohizu, beheaded sole administrator of Ideato North Local Government area of Imo State, shows how easy it is to foment anarchy but how difficult it is to fend off opportunistic crimes, which such free-wheeling outlawry embeds.

    Since these latest Imo killings — several others have been reported after the Ohizu murder — the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been screeching it had nothing to do with them: neither the free-wheeling killings nor the campaign against the 2023 elections.

    IPOB could well be innocent of it all.  But can it in all honesty and in all good conscience wash itself off the free hate campaigns of Nnamdi Kanu, its leader, during his heyday of romantic anarchy? 

    And those elders who back them lost their voices instead of thunderously supporting the voice of reason — can they right now wash their hands off this mess? 

    The ill-fated Ohizu should never have happened.  It’s just a low, low cruelty that belonged to atavistic times — even then, it wouldn’t have been less ugly and less condemnable — and certainly not 21st century Nigeria.

    The victim was seized from his Imoko community home, after which his kidnappers set his house ablaze.  Horrors of horrors!  They didn’t reportedly only receive N6 million from his panicked kith-and-kin, who somewhat hoped for his safe release, they went ahead to behead him with this arms tied to his back.  They then videoed their gory exploits and released that grisly video clip on their victim’s own WhatsApp account!

    Now, what are these people — humans?  Or beasts of the most bestial essence?  Even if fellow humanity is too far from these brutes, what happens to their common Igbo kindred spirit?  It’s concentrated horror from the darkest of hearts!

    The vile fellows swore they were neither IPOB nor Eastern Security Network, the IPOB militant arm — just Biafra agitators.  But why their reference to both IPOB and ESN, in the first instance?  Why not reference to MASSOB, which had been in Biafra activism far longer before IPOB’s doomsday version?

    The reason is the notoriety IPOB has acquired over a short period of time, though it would be tough to be roped into a crime, if it was really innocent of this one.  What’s more?  The clamour against elections, for short-term gains had also been an IPOB trademark, just as was the infamous sit-at-homes, which has petered out now.

    The security agencies should not only nab these brutes, they should also seize their soulless sponsors. 

    As for IPOB, it should learn to moderate its messaging.  A revolution is senseless if all it does is consume own children.  That’s the long and short of IPOB campaign in the South East — self-defeatist.

  • Indirect police extortion

    Indirect police extortion

    In Lagos, the death of a bus conductor in shocking circumstances was alleged to be connected with unlawful police activities. He was identified as Michael. One Daramola Olanrewaju, described as a tout, was said to have demanded a N500 ‘police fee’ from him at Ketu Bus Stop, Lagos. Payment of the money was said to be compulsory for commercial buses plying the Ketu area.

    The tout allegedly “dragged the conductor from his bus,” causing him to fall, and he “was crushed to death by an oncoming vehicle.” Olanrewaju was allegedly working for some police officers attached to the Ketu Police Station when the incident happened on February 3.

    A bus driver, Taiwo Akanni, was quoted as saying it was not the first time a tout had dragged a conductor from a moving bus. “It was just unfortunate that the man died,” he said.

     “They harass and behave anyhow to us even in front of their masters, the police officers.

    “This needs to stop. The power those police officers gave them is too much and that is why we are having this kind of issue.”

    Lagos State police spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin said the suspect who allegedly caused the death, and the driver of the vehicle that ran over the conductor, were in police custody. 

    “On the allegation that the boy is working for police officers, that is being taken into consideration, as investigation continues,” he stated.

    There should be a thorough investigation of the so-called ‘police fee.’ Is it true that touts working for police officers collect money from bus conductors/bus drivers on their behalf? It is striking that the report quoted a bus driver who claimed it was not a new thing.

    If true, the collection of so-called ‘police fee’ by touts representing police officers is indirect police extortion. Police extortion is condemnable because the police are supposed to enforce the law, not break the law.

    Notably, last July the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) had dismissed a Police Inspector who, according to an official statement, was “caught in a viral video dignifying and justifying extortion of members of the public and official corruption.” 

     According to the statement, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, “warned all personnel to eschew extortion, unprofessionalism, official corruption and other inappropriate acts.”

    The police should get to the bottom of the incident in Lagos, which sadly involved the death of the bus conductor. Police extortion, direct or indirect, is unacceptable. 

  • Money and infernal moneymen

    Money and infernal moneymen

    There’s a local axiom that on the day an elephant dies, you get to see all manners of carving blades brought to bear in butchering its huge carcass. Such is the thing going on lately with the money circulation crisis foisted on this country by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy to redesign higher denominations of the Nigerian currency and curtail supply to the economy close to the 2023 general election. The N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations were redesigned by Godwin Emefiele’s CBN and the old notes will cease to be legal tender form 10th February if government refuses to change its mind. The policy has resulted in cash supply crunch equivalent to the elephant’s huge carcass, and this has thrown up all shades of currency speculators – like the carving blades – seeking  to profiteer from the misery of Nigerians desperately seeking cash for their routine economic operations.

    The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) announced last week that it arrested the operations manager of a bank branch in Osogbo, Osun State capital, where automated teller machines (ATMs) were loaded with naira notes with the wrappers not removed and thereby blocked from being dispensed. A statement by ICPC spokesperson Azuka Ogugua said the agency’s compliance team on inspection directed that the wrappers be removed and cash loaded properly. Upon a follow-up visit the following day, however, the team found that one of the teller machines was still loaded with cash in wrappers, hence had the operations manager arrested and taken in for questioning.

    In similar vein, the branch service head of another money deposit bank in Deidei, Abuja, was taken into custody for refusal to load cash into the branch’s teller machines even when cash was available and people were queuing at the ATMs. “When the ICPC monitoring team stormed the bank at about 1:30p.m. to ensure compliance and demanded explanation as to why all the ATMs were not dispensing cash, it was informed by the branch’s head of operations that the bank just got delivery of the cash. However, facts available to the ICPC operatives indicated that the branch took delivery of the cash around 11:58a.m. and either willfully or maliciously refused to feed the ATMs with the cash,” Ogugua said, adding that the team compelled the bank to load the ATMs with the redesigned notes and ensured they were all dispensing before arresting the official.

    Also, seven Point of Sale (PoS) operators and a security guard were arrested in Osun State for extorting the public over new notes.. ICPC said its investigation showed they got the cash from filling stations and were reselling at exorbitant rates to the public. These are the things you get when a policy isn’t well thought-through before being unleashed, and where supposed policy allies turn into saboteurs.

  • Bad breeding

    Bad breeding

    The old jingle, on the old Radio Nigeria network, went: the words of our elders are words of wisdom. 

    Talking of words of wisdom, a Yoruba saying comes to mind: they say your child is daft and you quip at least (s)he’s alive, not dead; whatever kills a child more than rank stupidity?

    Now, how do you apply this saying to the fate of two women with Yoruba-sounding names just nabbed for Naira swap racketeering?

    One was partying, throwing wads of new Naira notes — now as scarce as water in the desert — at fellow revellers and stomping on the new Naira notes (mint-fresh!) in the ecstasy of the moment!

    But for bad socialization of the most garrulous kind, how can you do such things?  How can you video yourself doing them, and then post such nonsense in the social media? How!

    Well, that ignited a trail and before the virtual D-J could scratch the vinyl and change the tune, EFCC had nabbed her with reportedly other damning evidence of Naira swap racketeering — in a Range Rover to boot!

    Read Also: Naira redesign: Hope PSBank activates community inclusion initiative

    Indeed, nothing more slays a child faster than rank stupidity!

    The second woman virtually lighted a lamp, showcasing her own “crime” scene: she advertised her sale of new Naira notes on her social media handle, just like her other hustles in beauty care and beauty products, she being a “serial entrepreneur”!

    Now, does exposure to the social media equate manic thoughtlessness?  That  might not be far from the truth given how recklessly many youths — and even some elders — act on the social media!

    But the basic question, beyond rank stupidity, is how these young women came about  that volume of cash they trafficked in, in an era of acute scarcity, causing everyone pains?

    Which soulless bank managers, or even higher up in the hierarchy, are so soullessly greedy as to slay the sacred trust the bank put in them to slake the evil greed that gnaws at their souls?

    That is the pit-black heart of darkness of the Nigerian today.  That bad socialization is reflected in both the Naira crunch and acute fuel scarcity.

    Yes, the government should be drubbed for its own carelessness, which always brings out the worst in everyone.  But the basic culprit is that dark heart that glories in others’ pains.

    So, nabbing the girls are not enough.  They must lead the arresting agencies to the bank fat cats that drive this illicit hustle.  Those are the true devils that must be nailed on the cross.

  • Part of the problem

    Part of the problem

    Then the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, finally appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on new naira redesign and naira swap policy, on January 31, after apparently shunning two previous invitations, he conveniently blamed banks for the scarcity of new naira notes, which is a big issue.
    But he failed to see, or acknowledge, that he was part of the problem. From what he said, it could be seen that he was not blameless.
    “I addressed the bankers… and I expressed to them my disappointment and in fact, the disappointment of the President and that of leaders with the way this has gone,” he told the committee.
    “Many of us have unfortunately seen the new naira, instead of being used for the purpose it’s meant, is used in parties, in celebrations.
    “What we saw being stamped on people at parties were packages of the new naira notes, which means they (banks) had breached certain aspects of the guidance note we gave to them.”
    There had been media reports of currency hawkers selling the redesigned naira notes at party venues and motor parks. Trading in naira notes is against the law.

    He said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Department of State Services (DSS) had been directed to go after the violators.
    Reports this week said the DSS had arrested some members of a syndicate selling new naira notes in parts of the country.
    Where do the currency sellers get the new notes from, amid the reported scarcity? Who are those supplying the sellers with the notes? Why is it easy for them to get the notes? Why is it difficult for the authorities to deal with the situation?
    Emefiele also said people would not lose their money “even when it loses its legal tender.” He explained: “You can take it to the bank and pay it into your account.”
    Responding to the CBN governor’s comments, the chairman of the committee and House Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, pointed out that communication was essential, adding that the comments had come “at a belated point.” He told Emefiele: “If you had communicated this much earlier, this crisis would not have come up at all. Nigerians would go home to sleep without any fear at all.”

    In other words, the CBN boss had contributed to the new naira chaos. He should not blame the banks only. He was part of the problem.

  • Outage diplomacy

    Outage diplomacy

    Conventional diplomacy could be likened to a proverbial handshake between two countries through consular relations. When the handshake by one of the parties stretches  beyond the palm to become a grip of the other’s elbow, that could mean a subtle declaration of war – still proverbially speaking. South Africa’s disconnection of electricity to the Nigerian consulate in Johannesburg recently over “unpaid bills” smacked of a handshake that had turned into an elbow grip.

    Officials of an electricity distribution company in South Africa, City Power, stormed the Nigerian consulate on 18th January alongside operatives of Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) and thereafter cut off electricity supply to the facility for allegedly owing 600,000 South African rands (about $35,000) in arrears. “We are on our 2nd day of revenue collection drive around Alexandra service delivery centre (SDC). Here we started with the Nigerian Consulate-General in Illovo who owes @CityofJoburgZA minimum of R600 000, and they were cut off,” City Power tweeted. The firm’s spokesperson, Isaac Mangena, reported that the consulate had shut its gates and refused City Power entry into its premises, adding that the consulate’s electricity was cut off when it was clear no official was coming to meet with the DisCo. He was also reported saying: “The Nigerian consulate-general has been defaulting since last year but they promised to clear up the bill by January after the disconnection.”

    The Nigerian mission deplored the operation as an illegal siege on its consular immunity. It said inter alia in a statement: “The invasion squad, which comprised officials of JMPD and City Power, as well as members of the press, arrived at the consulate without prior notice or appointment and disrupted normal consular services. The consulate maintains that the action of the officials, no matter the justification, was in complete violation of extant international treaties and conventions, especially the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963, which guarantees the inviolability of consular premises.”

    No one ever said diplomatic missions shouldn’t pay for commercial services subscribed to and enjoyed in host countries, since they are themselves partly a commercial enterprise offering consular operations at a fee to subscribers. It is, however, thoroughly undiplomatic for consular premises that are sovereign territories to be barnstormed by ragtag operatives of host country’s agencies on purported debt recovery drive. Come on, there must be savvier avenues of engagement! But it must also be noted that the plight of the Johannesburg consulate is only a function of cash-strapping of diplomatic mission abroad by the Nigerian government. It has a way of creating image crisis for this country.

  • I.E’s ‘jankara’ tactics

    I.E’s ‘jankara’ tactics

    In Jankara, a market in the heart of commercial Lagos, anything goes.  It’s the territory of toughs that often don’t play by the rule.  Hence the phrase, “Jankara tactics”.

    I.E, the biggest electricity Distribution Company (DisCo) in the land, would appear comfy with such strong arm tactics, in its thirst for unearned revenue, through its so-called estimated billing, perhaps the most naked piece of corporate fleecing Nigeria has ever experienced.

    If you doubt, how about this oppressive tale, by I.E. customers in the Somolu area of its Igbobi Undertaking, as reported by The Nation of January 30?  The affected customers, mainly owners of shops and sundry small ventures, just sent an SOS to Abubakar Aliu, the Power Minister, against I.E’s oppression.

    The crisis started when I.E. declared their pre-paid meters “phased out” — hardly illegitimate.  It wants the meters changed into current ones — again, hardly unreasonable.

    But the crux came when I.E. moved in to forcibly remove the meters without providing an automatic replacement which, rather conveniently, would have degraded the customers to its rather lucrative estimated fleecing — sorry, billing — regime, in which I.E. can charge to its heart’s content, with hardly any obligation to render any service.

    That drama got all the more macabre when I.E. deployed its disconnection gangs — notorious street pest against the meter-less — to forcibly remove the meters.  Thrice I.E. has tried, according to the report, and thrice the customers have resisted the move.  The trouble is further attempts and resistance could well lead to a bang, which could end in tears on both sides.  The authorities had better not let that happen.

    On the resistance, the customers stand on rock-solid points.  They claim that they bought the meters from I.E. If that is true, and the same company claims the meter is dated, why should it be the customer’s sole burden to fund the replacement?  Why doesn’t it just upgrade — or replace — to secure its earnings?

    Isn’t the meter the surest guarantor of I.E’s revenue?  If so, shouldn’t that be its sole burden?  Even if the DisCo dialogues the customers on cost-sharing, why must it be in blind haste to remove the meter so it can send them arbitrary charges which, by the way, are so cut-throat they might eventually cripple the customers’ ventures?

    Sanya Oni, one of The Nation columnists, just wrote on how this same I.E. declared his meter “outdated” (though it still worked fine), condemned it in a jiffy, told him to fork out some money for a new meter and, at the speed of light, pelted him with its estimated fleecing — yes, fleecing — as the poor guy scrambled to pay for the new meter before Volcano I.E. completely razed his pocket!

    I.E., with the collusion of security agencies, brings old NEPA hauteur and racketeering into a supposed new era of unstinted customer service measured in clear value.  It’s high time the industry regulators called I.E. and other DisCos to order. 

    Too soon, however, the market will punish these erring DisCos — whatever the regulators’ action or inaction.  Even ‘jankara’ tactics have expiry dates.

  • A question of credibility

    A question of credibility

    There are alarming allegations by the proscribed separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). According to its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, the group’s detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is in serious danger and “dying slowly.”

    He claimed, in a statement on January 27, that “the secret police want to eliminate Kanu through a silent and systematic process of gradual starvation.” He said Kanu was given “only bread and water twice a day.”

    Also, the spokesman said Kanu “complained that he hasn’t been allowed to see any doctor since the second week of December 2022 and DSS has refused to take him to the doctor in spite of his deteriorating health.”

     Are these allegations true? The Department of State Services (DSS) needs to urgently clarify Kanu’s detention conditions.

    IPOB argues that he should not be in detention. In an earlier statement, the group’s spokesman had pointed out that the Court of Appeal, Abuja, on October 13, 2022, “discharged and acquitted the leader of IPOB and all the remaining eight-count amended charges preferred against him, and consequently directed for his unconditional release.”

    This is not the whole truth. The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on October 28, 2022, ordered that the enforcement of the judgment releasing Kanu be put on hold pending the resolution of the federal government’s appeal filed at the Supreme Court.

     So, it is untrue that Kanu is being detained unlawfully, as IPOB claims. It is also untrue that the federal government is “in grave contempt of the orders of its own court,” as the group claims. 

    It is understandable that the group wants its leader released, but it should not advance its case through a misrepresentation of reality.

    Kanu was first arrested in October 2015, and granted bail in April 2017 in the course of his trial for “alleged offences of conspiracy to commit acts of treasonable felony and other related offences.”

    He fled the country in September 2017 following “Operation Python Dance,” a military exercise in the Southeast during which “rampaging soldiers” allegedly invaded his house in Afara-Ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, Abia State.

     He had reappeared in Israel a year later, in October 2018. He had grabbed the headlines yet again with a tweet in January 2019, saying, “I am back in the UK to continue our excellent work to liberate #Biafra from the pit of darkness, Nigeria.”

    He was re-arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June 2021, about four years after he mysteriously disappeared from the country.  

    IPOB’s claim that there is a plan to kill Kanu in detention is not credible because the group itself is not credible. The authorities should respond to the alarming allegations, and show that they lack credibility. 

  • Sunak isn’t ‘the state’

    Sunak isn’t ‘the state’

    It was King Louis XIV of France who was believed to have declared “L’etat, c’est moi” (“I am the state”) before the Parliament of Paris in 1655. The monarch, who ruled from 1643 to 1715, was asserting absolute royal authority against attempts by the parliament to contest royal edicts. Such power absolutism by a long stretch does not apply to contemporary leaders, especially those of decent societies.

    British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak just got treated to sanctions prescribed for violating traffic law in his country, just like anybody else. He was fined for not wearing seat belt while taping a social media clip in the back of a moving car in northwest England. The prime minister was in Lancashire as part of a trip across the north of England to film the video aimed at promoting the government’s latest round of “levelling up” spending. Sunak had uploaded the video to his Instagram account, and it was there his traffic law violation was widely noticed and viewers complained to Lancashire police.

    Lancashire police, in a statement last Friday, announced its sanction and did not even acknowledge the offender by name or status. It simply said: “After looking into this matter, we have today issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty.” Fixed penalty notices are a sanction for breaking the law requiring that a fine be paid within 28 days or contested. If the offender chooses to contest the fine, the police will review the case and decide whether to withdraw the fine or take the matter to court. Under British law, passengers caught failing to wear seat belt where one is available could be fined £100, which could rise to £500 if the case goes to court. Passengers aged 14 and over are responsible for ensuring they wear seat belt in cars, vans and other vehicle types if one is fitted; drivers are responsible for passengers under 14. Exemptions apply where there’s proven medical reason, or in vehicles used for police work or rescue services.

    No. 10 said Mr. Sunak “fully accepts this was a mistake and has apologised,” adding that he would pay the fine. A Sunak spokesperson explained that the prime minister regretted his “brief error of judgment” and urges everyone to wear seat belt. It was not Sunak’s first collision with the law. In 2020 when he was finance minister, he was fined along with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson for breaking Covid-19 lockdown rules by attending a birthday gathering for Johnson in Downing Street. Forget the partisan jibes, there’s beauty in equality before the law!