The Nation Newspaper

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  • Capital Oil boss, others refused bail

    Capital Oil boss, others refused bail

    THe detained Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, and four principal officers of his company yesterday lost their bid for freedom.

    Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Lagos, refused their ex-parte application in which they sought to be released by the police.

    Also detained were Nsikan Usoro (Head of Trading), Godfrey Okorie (Depot Manager), Chibuzor Ogbuokiri (General Manager, Operations) and Orji Joseph Anayo (Executive Director, Operations).

    They were arrested on October 9 by the Police’s Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Ikoyi, Lagos, for allegedly defrauding the Federal Government of N43.291billion in the fuel subsidy fund.

    Last Thursday, a Magistrate’s Court at Tinubu, Lagos presided over by Martins Owunmi, granted the police request to remand them.

    He ordered that they be kept in police custody for 14 days.

    The police said the accused were being investigated for offences of on economic sabotage, obtaining money under false pretences and stealing.

    They were accused of defrauding the Federal Government “by falsely pretending that the company has imported and sold 538.74 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit last year in 26 transactions.”

    But their lawyer, Joseph Nwobike (SAN), yesterday argued the ex-parte application , challenging their continued detention.

    Named as respondents were the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Commissioner of Police, SFU and Francis Idu Alonyenu.

    The application marked: contained two prayers.

    The first was for an order directing that the applicants be admitted to bail or be released, pending the determination of the substantive suit.

    The second was for an order of interim injunction restraining the respondents and their agents from further arresting and detaining the applicants in relation to the fuel subsidy issue, pending the determination of the substantive suit.

    Nwobike was, however, silent on the earlier proceedings at the Magistrate’s Court.

    He argued that his clients were being unjustly held since they reported at the SFU, Ikoyi, Lagos on October 9.

    Nwobike said by denying his clients administrative bail and refusing to arraign them in court within the constitutionally prescribed period, the police have contravened Section 36 (4) (5), (a), (b) of the 1999 Constitution.

    But Justice Abang held that the orders sought were impossible in nature.

    He said he would hear from the respondents before pronouncing on the application.

    The judge held that there was an “urgent, compelling and deserving need to put the respondents on notice before a decision is taken.”

    The judge, relying on Order 26 Rule 10 of the court’s Civil Procedure Rules, converted the ex-parte application to a motion on notice.

    He ordered that the motion and a copy of his order be served on the respondents.

    Justice Abang gave the respondents till noon today to file their response and fixed hearing for 1 pm .

    Three officials of an oil marketing firm, Matrix Energy Ltd, who were also being detained on the order of Owunmi, filed a similar application yesterday before the Federal High Court.

    The trio are Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu (.Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer), Yusuf Adebowale Oyolola (Operations Manager) and Adewale Akinde (Accountant).

    Their application is yet to be assigned for hearing.

     

  • Kaduna killings: Yakowa cancels foreign trip

    •‘Govt will arrest perpetrators’

    Kaduna State Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa yesterday called off his foreign trip and visited Dogon Dawa community, which was attacked on Sunday by some criminals said to be on a revenge mission.

    The governor said his administration would pick up the medical bill of the injured.

    Yakowa said the government would collaborate with states sharing boundary with Birnin Gwari to drive out the criminals in the area.

    The governor told the residents that the state would fish out those responsible for the killings.

    Yakowa was received by the Emir of Birnin Gwari, Alhaji Jubril Maigwari.

    The governor said a special State Security Council meeting would be held to plan how to drive away criminals away from the area.

    He said Kaduna State would collaborate with the security agencies in Niger, Zamfara, Kebbi and Katsina states to curtail criminality.

    The governor was accompanied by the Genaral Officer Commanding (GOC) One Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, Maj.-Gen. Wahab; the State Director of the State Security Service (SSS), Mr. Yomi Zamba; Police Commissioner Olufemi Adenaike; the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), senior security officers, among others.

  • Jonathan reassures flood victims of govt support

    Jonathan reassures flood victims of govt support

    President Goodluck Jonathan has reassured flood victims of government’s support.

    Jonathan spoke yesterday while addressing flood victims in Gurin Village in Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa.

    He said: “I am here to give you assurance that we will work with the state government to make sure that as you go back home you will be assisted to start your life again.

    “On behalf of the Government of Nigeria, I assure you that we will do our best.”

    The president said government was making all efforts to ensure that displaced people do not spend long period in camps.

    He said government agencies including, the Army Engineers, had been mobilised to tackle the situation.

    Governor Murtala Nyako commended the president for his show of concern by visiting the state, and said that the state government had set up 68 camps for displaced persons across the state.

    Nyako said many of the camps had been closed because the flood water had receded leaving only 30.

    He said his administration was planning a comprehensive package for farmers, who lost their crops, adding that they would be provided with early variety seeds of rice and maize that would mature in 60 days.

    “We have also ordered for irrigation pumps to be made available to the farmers,” Nyako said.

    The Chairman of Adamawa Flood Committee, Mr Kobis Thimnu, said the flood was the worst in the state since 1948.

    Thimnu said the flood was caused by the release of water from Lagdo Dam in neighbouring Cameroon, as well as from the Dadin Kowa and Kiri Dams in Nigeria leading to loss of lives and property worth billion of naira.

    A spokesman of the flood victims, Mr Manasa Nagugun, commended government and other stakeholders, particularly NEMA, SEMA, Red Cross and UNICEF for the sustained concern and support to those affected by the flood.

    Nagugun called for a relief package in form of soft loans for the victims to go back to their normal lives and businesses.

  • Obegolu loses father

    NBA General Secretary, Emeka JP Obegolu lost his father last week. A message from the family said: “We regret to announce the passing unto glory of Chief Charles E. N. Obegolu, Ezeani Ononiwu of Obeledu, which sad event occured on Wednesday, 10/10/12. Chief Obegolu read Law in the University of Ife and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1970. He is survived by his wife, Chief Mary I. Obegolu, Chair Census Tribunal ‘C’ and five children among whom is Emeka J. P. Obegolu, General Secretary, NBA.”

    Burial arrangements will be announced shortly by the family.

  • NBA to hold conference

    NBA to hold conference

    The Nigerian Bar Association Section on Legal Practice (SLP) will hold its sixth Annual General Conference.

    Date: November 13 to 15, 2012.

    Venue: Jogor Centre, Liberty Road, Ibadan, Oyo State.

    Theme: Raising the Bar, International Best Practices in Legal Practice

  • Developer petitions Mark on demolition of 500 houses

    Developer petitions Mark on demolition of 500 houses

    An Abuja estate owner, Emmanuel Mbaka, has petitioned Senate President David Mark a the demolition of 500 housing units in an state at Lugbe in Abuja by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA).

    The petition was copied to the three senators representing Abia State in the National Assembly.

    The Abia State Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Emma Nwaka, sent the petition on behalf Mbaka.

    The petitioner said the demolition happened on September 29 without a prior notice from the FCDA.

    He said: “The only idea I had about the grouse of the authority was over the genuineness of my title documents as broadcast on the radio on September 28.”

    The petition reads: “When efforts to contact the authority failed, I got in touch with Senator Smart Adeyemi, the Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, who was kind enough to listen. He scheduled a meeting with the authority on October 2.

    “But given the fact that the minds of those at the helm of affairs at the FCDA to inflict pain on me had been made up, they went on the rampage with their bulldozers and reduced to rubble a built-up housing estate, thereby pre-empting and making nonsense of the scheduled meeting.”

    Mbaka insisted that there is an ulterior motive behind the action of the FCDA.

    According to him, even if the title documents were defective, justice demands that enough notice should have been given and the owner’s side of the story heard before any action was taken.

    He said: “Instead of waiting for the scheduled meeting already arranged between the two parties, the authorities of the FCDA went behind Senator Adeyemi and demolished the estate and never bothered to give any reasons for their action.”

    The petitioner said instead of applying elementary justice, the authority assumed the position of the complainant, prosecutor, judge and jury in the matter.

  • Amosun praised over land commission

    Amosun praised over land commission

    The Commissioner, Federal Public Complaints Commission in Ogun State, Mr Wale Ogunbanjo has praised the State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun for establishing the Judicial Commission of Enquiry on Land Matters.

    Giving the commendation in Abeokuta when he paid a courtesy call on the governor, Ogunbanjo said the recommendations of the land commission would right the wrongs of the past and ensure that the rights of land owners are restored to them.

    He said the initiative was a bold step towards ensuring that no citizen of the State was cheated or oppressed unjustly, maintaining that his Commission was also set up to help indigent citizens seek redress and ensure that their rights were not trampled upon unjustly.

    He therefore enjoined the State Government to make available to the people, its white paper on the recommendations of the panel, so that those that were affected directly can know what steps to take.

    The Complaints Commissioner also acknowledged the State government’s intervention and cooperation with his agency, noting the financial assistance rendered to one Miss Omowunmi Akinola, a student of Abeokuta Grammar School, who was injured during a rain storm and the re-absorption of a staff of the State Signage and Advertising Agency, whose appointment was wrongfully terminated as instances.

    Responding, the governor, represented by the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Wemimo Ogunde (SAN) pledged that his administration will not relent in ensuring that the rights of all citizens of the state were protected and where trampled upon, necessary redress would be sought.

    Amosun noted that the commission had been performing creditably in the protection of rights of Nigerians, promising that on its part, his administration would continue to render necessary assistance and support to the Commission
    On the issue of Tolu Village, which the commissioner alleged was acquired for the Mobile Police Headquarters without due compensation to the original owners, Governor Amosun pledged that the issue would be looked into by the appropriate agency of government.

  • Police rescue five-year-old girl in Zamfara

    •Kill two suspected kidnappers

     

    The Zamfara State Police Command has killed two suspected members of a kidnapping and human parts’ selling syndicate during a raid on their hideout.

    Police Commissioner Usman Gwary told reporters in Gusau, the state capital, that the girl was rescued during the raid.

    He said the two suspects were killed in a crossfire with the police on the Sokoto-Gusau Road.

    The police chief said the suspects were first intercepted when they were negotiating to sell the girl.

    Gwary explained that his men acted on a tip-off and ambushed the suspects at strategic points on the Zamfara-Sokoto states’ boundary.

    He said the suspects allegedly abducted the girl from a private school in Imo State last week.

    The police chief said the girl was to be delivered for sale to another syndicate in Niger Republic through the Sokoto-Zamfara boundary.

    According to him, the police sourced N600,000 for a phony purchase deal, having been briefed that the syndicate usually collected between N500,000 and N1,000,000 for their victims.

    Gwary said the police were connected to the syndicate through a mobile phone number they got from an informant.

    He said his men offered to buy the girl for N600,000, a price the suspects accepted.

    Gwary said when the suspects attempted to drive off, a gun battle ensued, which led to their death.

    The police chief said the girl’s parents had been contacted through the Imo State Police Command.

     

  • ACN, PDP quarrel over Kwara ministry’s burglary

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State are quarrelling over the recent burglary at the Ministry of Finance.

    The ACN demanded the probe of the incident.

    But the PDP accused the opposition of plotting to thwart ongoing police investigation.

    The ruling party urged the “state police command to invite Kwara ACN officials to explain how they obtained information about the items allegedly stolen from the ministry during the suspected burglary when the police, who are by law empowered to provide such information, are yet to make a statement in that regard”.

    The PDP Director of Publicity Alhaji Mas’ud Adebimpe said: “ACN is desperately trying to use misinformation and blackmail to distract the government from its determined drive to positively transform Kwara and its people.

    “We also asked hardworking local government workers to disregard the ACN’s attempt to disrupt the well-intentioned efforts by the government to plug loopholes in local government expenditure and, therefore, ensure that the councils meet their obligations, including the payment of salaries, promptly.

    “The PDP hail all workers for their maturity in participating in the exercise and assure them that the affected councils will pay all outstanding salaries once the exercise is completed.”

    ACN Chairman Kayode Olawepo said: “The PDP is at liberty to rant all it likes on the burglary. We have made our point. And the source of what documents were stolen could be traced to newspaper publications, especially Sahara Reporters.

    “As regard the council workers’ unpaid salary, we say the following: On August 20, our party issued a statement backing the National Union of Local Government Employees’ (NULGE’s) 14-day ultimatum to the Kwara State Government to pay the backlog of salary arrears owed the council workers. In the statement, we urged the government to come clean about the state finances, which we insisted were unhealthy.

    “The PDP and the state government, as usual, dismissed our interventions and said we were inciting workers. But, of course, the government’s spokesman gave contradictory reasons on why they were owing council workers. Addressing reporters on August 22, the Finance Commissioner Demola Banu claimed the delay was due to shortfall in allocations from the Federation Account.

    “On August 26, Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed himself said: ‘There had been drops in the allocation to the states, and delays in allocation meetings and allocation of funds to the local governments. The shortfall since May, June and July, this year, has not been helpful..’

    “When countered with the fact that all the states of the federation are affected by this shortfall and that Kwara alone is owing workers for months, the government made another excuse, back in August, that the salary delay was due to some screening (biometric) to clean up the finances of the councils and guarantee accountability…”

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Chime is hale, hearty, says official

    Chime is hale, hearty, says official

    •‘Governor on vacation’

    The Enugu State Government yesterday said the reported illness of Governor Sullivan Chime is false.

    It said the governor “is hale and hearty”.

    The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chuks Ugwuoke, who spoke in Enugu, explained that Chime was not receiving treatment in a foreign hospital, as a national newspaper reported.

    According to him, the report is “cheap and mischievous” because the governor is on vacation, his first since he assumed office over five years ago.

    The commissioner explained that contrary to the claim that the governor’s last public appearance was on September 9, “Chime had actually presided over the State Executive Council (Exco) meeting on September 18, where he announced that he was proceeding on his annual leave. He handed over to his deputy, Sunday Onyebuchi, who is today the Acting Governor”.

    Ugwuoke said Chime also attended a meeting of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum in Abuja on September 19 and travelled abroad the next day for his vacation.

    He added: “All these facts are verifiable.”

    The commissioner noted that it was uncharitable for the “same reporter to falsely claim that the Acting Governor was limited in the discharge of his responsibilities”.

    Ugwuoke wondered why a reporter would publish what he called outright falsehood about the governor’s health.

    He said: “We want to reaffirm that the Sullivan Iheanacho Chime administration will continue to promote freedom of expression while also maintaining its cherished reputation of civility and accommodation of all shades of opinion, including constructive criticisms from the media and other quarters.”