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Tag: Alhaji Lai Mohammed

  • Suspected film pirate nabbed in Lagos

    Suspected film pirate nabbed in Lagos

    • IG orders that case be moved to Abuja
    This may be the beginning of a real legal battle against intellectual property theft, as a suspected pirate, Eze Obasi, on Tuesday, was apprehended in Alaba market, Lagos, following tip off.
    This happened two days after the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, during a meeting with stakeholders in the film industry declared war against pirates, “this is totally unacceptable!” he said. “This Administration is determined to fight this scourge, and the good news is that we have the backing of Mr. President.
    Obasi may just be the first of similar cases to be attacked with all seriousness, as the Inspector General of Police (IG), Solomon Arase has ordered the transfer of Obasi to Abuja.
    Arase was acting on the directive of the Minister of Information and Culture, who was contacted by a prominent member of the film industry who craved anonymity.
    Earlier, filmmakers were agitated over the relocation of Obasi, thinking it was another ploy to release the suspect, who has the backing of king pins in the market.
    But the Special Assistant to the Minister of Information and Culture, Williams Adeleye confirmed to The Nation that his boss was indeed aware of the case and had contacted the IG about it.
    Speaking to The Nation at the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC)’s office where he was taken to on Thursday for questioning, Obasi admitted to the crime, saying; “They caught me with pirated movies.”
    Although the NCC officials would not allow our reporter take the picture of the suspect, they let him talk to us at length. He is a man in his early thirties.
    He confessed that he was on his way to make supply, having prepared the waybill.
    One of the major films being processed by obasi as at the time he was caught was Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen’s movie, Invasion 1897. He claimed he is new in the business.
    “It was after Invasion 1897 came out. That was when customers were demanding for it, my customer told me to send him some copies of the film.”
    But contrary to Obasi’s claim, prominent movie marketer, Gabriel Okoye, aka Gabosky, said Obasi had indeed been arrested for similar case in the past.
    You must have been doing the business before for you to know that customers are demanding for Invasion 87, The Nation asked. “Customers do buy different market so they know want, I’ve not been doing it for a long time,” he insisted, but added he was merely dealing in foregn films before now.
    “It was where I went to but that I saw this one (Invasion 1897)  na im I cun buy am to go do waybill,” he said in pigeon.
    How do you do the waybill you share to other people for sale? He replied: “Na only one guy call me I cun go carry am so as I carry am dey go do waybill na em police catch me for road.”
    He said further, his voice unstable: “I don’t know, I am just begging the owners of the movies to temper justice with mercy and I promise that I won’t do it again.  I know that it is not good and it’s not that I really want to be doing this business but it is because of my background and assuming I have enough capital I would gone abroad to start a business or maybe be an importer. I am even planning to further my education because I am just an O’level holder.
    “It’s not that am really doing it to wicked the owners of the movies, am just trying to raise money to further my education. Please I am begging for forgiveness I promise I won’t do it again.”
    Who are the people that supply him these movies? “These people are inside Alaba international market,” he said. “Even though the Alaba government is against it they are doing it secretly, Alaba market no allow this kind thing.”How come they are doing this and the Alaba authorities don’t know? “Maybe they are settling some people. “That means there are corrupt officials among the Alaba government? “I don’t know my brother just help me beg them,” were his words.
    According to Gabosky, CEO of G-Media who was at the NCC office early Thursday, “Invasion 1897 belongs to Lancelot Imasuen and it was released by G-Media on the 15Th of February.”
    He narrated the incidents that led to the arrest of Obasi.
    “Majorly, the film is about Benin Kingdom and the position of the then Oba in1897 and Lancelot went to Benin and solicited with the people and the Oba not to allow the scourge of piracy that is bedeviling the industry to extend there with that film Invasion and they promised. So when this pirate, Eze Obasi way-billed it to somebody in Benin, the person returned it to him saying that he will not because he doesn’t want the curse they will place on whoever pirates the movie in Benin to extend to him.
    “This was how the police at Ojo were contacted and they sprang into action. I asked them what their plan was for the pirate, they said they will take him to court because they can’t hold him for more than 48hours. I know that once they take him to magistrate court they will discharge him and they will go without any more follow up. I had to call the NCC since this copyright issue is on exclusive legislative list which allows the Copyright Commission to be the only legal body to prosecute on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
    ‘This morning the copyright commission followed up by sending an officer to Ojo Cantonment, I also sent my own lawyer to supervise and they brought the guy, Eze Obasi.
    “When they brought him here, I now saw that it was the same guy that we arrested when he pirated October 1 by Kunle Afolayan. When we arrested him then, the Alaba people fought that we couldn’t do anything, it became a problem to remove him from Alaba market so we had to use Alaba market chairman to get him to write an undertaken that he will not do this thing again which he did and we seized the copies of the works from him.
    “So when I saw that he is the same person again I asked him; were you not the one who signed this undertaken? He said yes, he say na devil. I had to come here to oblige them my statement, called Lancelot to oblige them his statement. Let’s see what will happen again because we are handicapped by the kind of law we are using to prosecute these criminals.”
    Gabosky lamented that, “Most of the producers are down, some are dying of hunger because these boys are moving from one clan which is Abakaliki and they are just pirating people’s work, getting richer while the government is not doing anything.”
    He expressed regrets that although the Copyright Commission will charge him to court and then start prosecuting him, “but sometimes they will be on that prosecution while the suspect goes back and continues the business because the fine they give them is nonsense.”
    The NCC official, Mr Joe however declined comments on the matter.
  • FG to partner British Council on cultural development

    FG to partner British Council on cultural development

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Monday expressed his ministry’s readiness to partner with the British Council on cultural orientation and development in the country.

    Mohammed said this when the Country Director of the council, Mrs Connie Price, led a delegation on a visit to his office in Abuja.

    He said the ministry wanted the council to assist in area of cultural orientation to positively change people’s attitude towards discouraging corruption, impunity and indiscipline.

    He minister requested the council to also assist in areas of capacity building, infrastructure development, digitization programme, women empowerment through cottage industries and revival of dead cultural industries.

    According to him, the ministry needs the council to stem piracy in the film industry.

    Mohammed said the partnership was imperative but it should be done in a cooperative manner.

    Earlier, Price said that the UK Government had sustained its cordial relationship with the Federal Government.

    She said the purpose of the visit was to discuss with the ministry and identify programmes that required the council’s intervention.

  • “Nigerians will get the change they voted for”

    “Nigerians will get the change they voted for”

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has assured Nigerians that the change they voted for is guaranteed, promising better times.

    The Minister on Tuesday said that “this Government will not give excuses. The painstaking and methodical approach by the Buhari Administration, its deep analysis and understanding of the challenges and the recent inauguration of the cabinet will herald a new dawn.”

    Alhaji Mohammed, who stated this at a meeting with representatives of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Abuja on Tuesday, said that in the next few days, the Administration will start firing from all cylinders, starting with the unveiling of the 2016 budget.

    “Nigerians will witness measurable and impactful progress in all spheres of governance. We shall not abandon our social intervention policies such as one meal a day for school children and the payment of 5,000 Naira each to vulnerable Nigerians. We are committed to lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

    On how the Administration will fund its programmes, in view of the drastic fall in the price of crude oil, the Minister said it would be through the diversification of the economy, plugging of leakages as well as exploiting and widening the country’s tax base without necessarily raising taxes.

    “A comparative analysis between Nigeria and South Africa will drive the point home. In 2013, with a population of 160 million and GDP of $510 billion, Nigeria collected $30 billion in taxes, whereas South Africa, with a population of 54 million and GDP of $366 billion, collected $74 billion in taxes.

    “In 2014, Nigeria, with a population of 170 million and GDP of $535 billion, collected $26 billion, while South Africa, with a GDP of $350 billion and population of 54 million, raked in $70 billion. From the figures, it is obvious that if only we can widen our tax base, we do not need to raise taxes to increase our tax revenue,” he said.

    The Minister commended the CSOs for the role they played during the last general elections, saying the organizations, especially those grouped under the Situation Room, contributed hugely to the success of the polls.

    He said the Buhari Administration will carry the Civil Society along in its efforts to change, for the better, the country’s fortunes.

    “That is why we have started our engagement with you this early. Therefore, this will be the first in a series of engagements with the Civil Society. We see you as credible, and we see you as patriots, who are genuinely interested in the welfare of the people,” the Minister said.

    In his speech on behalf of The Situation Room, Mr. Clement Nwankwo urged the Federal Government to tackle growing national issues with the urgency that it deserves.

    “Expectations are very high amongst Nigerians for the changes promised by General Buhari during the campaigns. The need to deliver on campaign promises is against the background of the complete lack of public trust in government and its institutions,” he noted.

    Mr. Nwankwo listed urgent symbolic steps and quick wins to be urgently implemented by the government as including transparency and openness of recovered loots from officials of the immediate past regime, openness of the national budget, sale of some of the presidential jets, zero tolerance for impunity and the probe of the FCDA land swap.

    [news_box style=”2″ display=”tag” link_target=”_blank” tag=”Minister” count=”8″ show_more=”on”]

  • FG plans citizen reorientation campaign

    FG plans citizen reorientation campaign

    The Federal Government is set to commence nationwide sensitization campaign, with the aim of reorienting the people.

    Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said Tuesday that Nigerians need a paradigm shift in the way they do things.

    Mohammed explained that the level of indiscipline in the country has called for reorientation; stressing that as a people, Nigerians do no longer respect time.

    The minister who spoke Tuesday at a strategy meeting on the impending nationwide reorientation campaign by the ministry, said the there is a need to address the issue of indiscipline in the country.

    He also informed those at the meeting that what the country needed at this point in time is behavioral change.

    He said: “Make no mistake about it, we need to change the way we do things in Nigeria. It is important to let our people know that we cannot continue to do things the same way and expect a different result.

    “The impending campaign must take on the indiscipline, the lack of respect for time, loss of our time-tested values and generally lead to attitudinal change in such a way that there will be a paradigm shift in the way we do things. This is also in line with my vision as Minister of Information and Culture.

    “We need to change the way we do things in Nigeria. It is important to let our people know that we cannot continue to do things the same way and expect a different result.”

  • Mixed reactions trail ministerial list

    Mixed reactions trail ministerial list

  • APC backs Buhari’s probe of Jonathan’s tenure

    APC backs Buhari’s probe of Jonathan’s tenure

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed strong support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to probe the immediate past federal government, saying the revelations of mind-boggling corruption that are just beginning to emerge have made such a probe imperative.

    The party said in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said; ”Some people have insinuated that the Buhari Administration should ignore the massive looting of our patrimony and move on. We say no responsible government can afford to do that, because it will amount to endorsing corruption and impunity.”

    It said in the oil sector alone, billions of dollars have been skimmed off by pathologically-corrupt public officials, wondering how the government of the day can meet its obligations to the citizens if it refuses to recover the huge funds taken away by thieving officials

    ”It is an irony that those who are suggesting that the Buhari Administration should turn a blind eye to the incomprehensible looting are the same ones accusing the government of not doing anything. It is
    even a cruel irony that the same party that presided over what is fast emerging as the worst governance in the history of our country is the same one that is daily bad-mouthing an Administration that is cleaning up its mess,” APC said.

    The party said even if all the acts of corruption that were perpetrated during the tenure of the last Administration are limited to what is now in the public domain, it is still absolutely exigent for the Buhari Administration to do all it can to bring the perpetrators to book and recover the looted funds.

    ”Where does one start from? Is it the fact that the NNPC failed to remit 3.8 trillion Naira to the Federation Account or the mind-blowing stealing of 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day? Is it the fact that the NNPC itself does not know how many bank accounts it had or into which ones the payments for Nigerian crude are made? Could anyone have imagined that a government minister would steal the unprecedentedly-huge amount of 6 billion US dollars of public funds as being alleged?

    ”How does any sane person rationalize the fact that 1 billion dollars was unilaterally and illegally withdrawn from the Excess Crude Account just because, as the immediate past Minister of Finance has disclosed, the President ordered the withdrawal? What about the billions of Naira waivers recklessly approved to dubious importers by the Jonathan administration?

    ”Is it not clear now that the stealing and the profligacy – more than anything else, including the fall in oil price – helped to drastically reduce the monthly allocation from the Federation Account from about
    800 billion Naira to about 400 billion Naira, thus pauperizing the states and the local governments, and by extension the citizenry?

    ”Against the background of the stunning revelations, what message will any government be sending to its citizens and indeed the global community by looking the other way, when it could still recover some
    of the looted funds for the benefit of the people? This is why we are supporting the Buhari Administration’s probe decision, and calling on all Nigerians to support ongoing efforts to get to the root of the matter,” it said.

    APC said it is now clear that the Jonathan Administration cleverly delayed giving the then incoming Buhari government the handover note so as to avoid being asked critical questions pertaining to the
    unprecedented looting under its watch.

     

  • APC hails Buhari for ending workers’ misery

    APC hails Buhari for ending workers’ misery

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for coming to the aid of the long-suffering Nigerian workers with a multi-billion-naira package.

    The party aid the aid  will not only ensure that all arrears of salaries owed by many states across the country are immediately paid, but will also make it easier for the states to meet their monthly salary obligations henceforth.

    In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC said it was particularly delighted that the President has shown that he is truly the father of the nation by eschewing partisanship in approving the intervention fund for all the states, irrespective of which parties they belong to.

    ”We say this because when states were financially handicapped during the tenure of the last federal government, opposition states were hung out to dry why states belonging to the then ruling PDP got generous bailouts,” it said.

    APC said by his action, President Buhari has practicalized his deep understanding of the essence of governance which, more than anything else, is the about the well being of the citizenry.

    The party said worthy of note and commendation is the fact that the special intervention fund approved by President Buhari was packaged without any external borrowing, despite the paucity of funds occasioned by the fall in the price of crude oil and the unprecedented profligacy of the immediate past administration that dried out the pot of national resources.

    It said so early in the life of his administration, President Buhari is walking his talk by showing that with prudence, financial discipline, plugging financial leakages and a deep sense of patriotism, even the nation’s dwindling resources can still be more effectively utilized for the benefit of Nigerians, rather than be looted by thieving public officials who abuse their office.

    APC described as uncharitable and a clear indication that shame has taken flight the situation in which those who created the rot that is now being cleared by President Buhari are the same ones daring to point accusing fingers at the government that inherited their rot.

    ”The PDP that spent the past 16 years plundering and pillaging Nigeria has boasted that the Nigerian people will soon come, cap in hand, to beg them to return to power. What delusion! What arrogance! Who presided over the looting and the mismanagement of public funds that made it impossible for the nation to absorb the shock of the falling oil prices? Who depleted the Excess Crude Account (ECA) without authorization? Who has degraded the standard of living of Nigerians?” the party queried.

    APC said the multi-pronged package approved by President Buhari includes the sharing of about $2.1 billion sourced from the LNG’s payment to the Federation Account; and a CBN-packaged special intervention fund that will offer financing to the states, ranging between N250 billion to N300 billion, as a soft loan available to states to access for the purposes of paying backlog of salaries.

    Also, the President has approved a debt relief programme that will help states restructure their commercial loans currently put at over N660 billion. The implication is that the life span of such loans will be extended, while reducing the states’ debt-servicing expenditures, thus leaving the states with enough resources – which otherwise would have been removed at source by the banks – to meet their monthly salary obligations, among others.

    ”History is repeating itself before our very eyes. Some 31 years ago, Buhari, then as a military head of state, also inherited a huge national rot similar to what has been bequeathed to it by the PDP, and had to approve 480 million Naira for the payment of arrears of workers’ salaries. Truly, the President is a man of destiny,” the party said.

    It said that with thousands of workers made destitute by the frittering away of the commonwealth under a rapacious and wasteful PDP government now being given a new lease of life, their purchasing power being boosted and the nation’s economy being reflated, the change which the President and his party promised the nation has just begun.

    ”We thank Nigerians for voting the APC into power at the centre and for believing in us even when the horizon became hazy, not out of our making but because of the misdeeds of the past. By their relentless support for President Buhari and the APC, Nigerians have indeed demonstrated that what is worth fighting for is worth defending,” APC said

  • Alkali: we have been vindicated over APC crisis

    Alkali: we have been vindicated over APC crisis

    Prof. Rufai Alkali, the former Special Adviser on Political Affairs to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has reiterated his earlier claim that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was not prepared to govern a complex nation like Nigeria.

    Speaking with reporters in Abuja yesterday, he reminded Nigerians of his earlier call on the leadership of the APC, before the handing over of government “to plan more and talk less”.

    But he alleged that he was instead castigated by the APC’s spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

    He was reacting to the selection of the leadership of the National Assembly and the responses from stakeholders within and outside the APC.

    He said: “I have observed with keen interest the scenario in the National Assembly that resulted in the election of Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara and other leaders of NASS and what attracted my attention more, though not surprising, were the incoherent and contradictory responses from the leaders of the APC.

    “This is indeed a clear confirmation of my earlier warning to the APC to plan more and talk less. Undoubtedly, things have started falling apart in the APC.”

    On the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP as Deputy Senate President, he said: “Whoever said that the PDP is dead and buried should please show me the cemetery and the grave where the PDP was buried.

    “Nigerians should not forget the fact that some of the members of the PDP who joined the APC went there as a result of some circumstances, but the souls and minds of most of them are still in the PDP.”

  • APC cries out over PDP-instigated violence, voting disruptions in Lagos, Rivers, Ondo

    APC cries out over PDP-instigated violence, voting disruptions in Lagos, Rivers, Ondo

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday protested violence and disruption of voting in Lagos, Rivers and Ondo states.

    In a statement by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, he said in many parts of Lagos, thugs armed by the PDP went on the rampage, shooting sporadically to scare away voters and carting away voting materials.

    It said the development confirmed earlier statements by the APC that the PDP has been engaging in gun running in Lagos, with a view to arming thugs to disrupt the polls.

    The APC said that in Lagos alone, PDP thugs were let loose on Abule Okuta area of Bariga, shooting and disrupting the accreditation of voters.

    They also proceeded to harass and intimidate APC agents.

    Officials of INEC allegedly refused to show result sheets to APC agents who demanded for it and the party said it feared “those results sheets may have been handed over to PDP.”

    It listed other breaches as follows: – PDP agents storm Polling Units in Apapa Ward A Unit 009 with persons who do not belong to the Polling Units and they were accredited

    – OPC thugs under police protection attacking voters and INEC officials all over Lagos.

    – No Electoral Officers in PUs in Ogudu, a known APC stronghold.

    – PDP Secretariat in Apapa (Lander Close) off Liverpool Road filled with OPC men from Ajegunle

    – Police in Iyana Ipaja arresting intending voters holding PVCs and locking them up in police stations, thus preventing their accreditation

    – Electoral materials hijacked in many Polling Units in Ibeju Lekki. PDP thugs waylay INEC officials, vowed to kill them if they come to the PUs.

    – Ballot boxes snatched in three Polling Units in Eti-Osa LG

    – Shortage of Card Readers in many Polling Units in Ikorodu.

    In the case of Rivers State, the APC said “over 50 soldiers have been posted to (PDP governorship candidate)  Nyesom Wike’s residence in Old GRA area of Port Harcourt. The troops have been harassing people in the area; Home of Commissioner for Women Affairs in Rivers State, Joeba West, set ablaze in Buguma; INEC registration area centre in Kalabari National College in Buguma also set ablaze; Police patrol vehicle also burnt in Buguma by suspected PDP thugs.

    The party also alleged that a traditional ruler in Ondo State hijacked election materials in Ilaje Local Government Area in collusion with the PDP.

  • NIS recruitment deaths: APC accuses Jonathan of taking political advantage of calamities

    NIS recruitment deaths: APC accuses Jonathan of taking political advantage of calamities

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday accused President Goodluck Jonathan of taking political advantage of calamities in the country.

    It dismissed as belated government’s compensation of N5million each to families of those who lost their lives in the Immigration recruitment exercise after one year.

    The party said the compensation, coming at this time, was aimed at currying votes.

    National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement in Lagos wondered why it took the president all of one year to act on the promise he made to the families, adding that “but for the forthcoming elections, the President would have simply ignored the families, in his usual style.”

    He said: ‘’The truth is that this President was forced to act because of the elections. Otherwise, why has it taken one year for the president to redeem his promise to the bereaved families? Why has his Administration not sanctioned those who sent innocent job seekers to their early graves after extorting them? Why is the Interior Minister, Mr. Abba Moro, who presided over the deaths, still in office, virtually dancing on the graves of those innocent youths?

    ‘’Sunday, March 15th, will mark one year since those vibrant youths were lured to their deaths by a callous federal government that failed them in all ramifications, including the security of their lives and the assurance of their welfare, the raison d’être of any government. It is therefore utterly reprehensible, immoral and wicked for the same administration to seek to make political gains out of the needless tragedy.’’

    APC said President Jonathan, in his desperation for re-election, has also sought to take political advantage of other tragedies, including the Buni Yadi massacre of school children and the abduction of Chibok girls

    It observed, ‘’After refusing to even visit the families of those school children in Buni Yadi and Chibok, the President suddenly woke up and started sending delegations to meet with them, all this because he needs votes. As a parent himself, how will the President feel if he had been so treated? Why must the President put his re-election over and above everything else, including the welfare and security of Nigerians? Is there no limit to desperation?’’

    The APC said Nigerians are aware that the President has “suddenly woken up from his deep slumber and become artificially hyperactive, making repeated visits to regions that he had neglected in the past six years and doling out hard currencies even at a time the Naira was taking a beating, all for election purposes.

    ‘’No one is fooled by the antics of a desperate President, and in the fullness of time, Nigerians will show President Jonathan and his cohorts that they are not impressed by his pretend governance.’’