The Nation Newspaper

Tag: charge

  • Three marketers lose bid to quash N1.5b subsidy charge

    Three oil marketers, Mahmud Tukur, Alex Ochonogor and Abdullahi Alao yesterday failed to quash the N1.5 billion fuel subsidy fraud charge preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo of a Lagos High Court, sitting in Ikeja, yesterday, dismissed the application by the defendants and their firms, Eterna Plc and Axe Energy Limited.

    The defendants are facing a nine-count of conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretence, forgery and uttering preferred against them by the EFCC.

    The agency alleged that they got money from the Petroleum Support Fund for a purported importation of 80.3 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit.

    Their counsel, Olaniran Obele, Ebun Adegoruwa and Aderemi Oguntoye argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the charge.

    They said the proof of evidence did not support the offences alleged against the defendants, stressing that the charge against their clients was an abuse of court process and should be struck out.

    The defence lawyers argued that the EFCC failed to obtain a fiat from the attorney-general of Lagos State to empower them to prosecute the defendants before the state high court.

    They said the issues in dispute related to fuel importation and Federal Government revenue, hence the court had no jurisdiction to hear the charge.

    But EFCC counsel Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) urged the court to dismiss the application because the issues raised had been decided by the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division.

    Jacobs said the appeal court on April 30, 2015, in Walter Wagbatsoma Vs FGN, conferred jurisdiction of fuel subsidy cases on state high courts.

    He submitted that the EFCC could initiate criminal proceedings against anybody without obtaining fiat from the attorney-general of the state.

    Ruling yesterday, Justice Lawal-Akapo held that he was bound by the decision of the Court of Appeal and emphasised that there was similarities between the cases.

    The judge said the EFCC did not need fiat to prosecute the case, adding that the charge was not an abuse of court.

    “In this result, I find no merit in the consolidated application and they are accordingly dismissed,” Lawal-Akapo said.

    The judge adjourned the matter till April 11,13,18, 19 and 20 for trial.

  • Education should be first-line charge, says TETFUND chief

    Education should be first-line charge, says TETFUND chief

    The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Prof. Suleiman Elias Bogoro, has urged state governments to priotise education by making it a first line charge.

    A statement yesterday said Bogoro spoke while delivering the 10th anniversary lecture of the Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), in Ijagun.

    Bogoro lamented the funding inadequacies confronting education, especially at the senior secondary school level.

    He said: “Education must be lifted to the priority ranking it deserves, there is need for state governments to get their legislatures to make laws that compel education to be in the first line charge and monitored  by persons of impeccable integrity.”

    The scholar urged the improvement of primary and secondary school education.

    “Primary and secondary education are a vital aspect of the education sector, with implications for a country’s effort to improve the quality of life of its people. Primary and secondary education holds a key to development, which is why society insists that these levels of education must be job-oriented, providing school leavers who are functionally ready for work, as well as preparing students for higher learning,” Bogoro said.

    According to Bogoro, without primary and secondary education, Nigeria would continue to lack the skills and knowledge for economic growth, including further learning and training of professionals. In addition, primary and secondary education plays a crucial role in making youngsters responsible.

    He urged stakeholders to ensure that education was for all, adding: “This may not be achievable until stakeholders, and this includes the universities, are seen to fully participate. Universities cannot be on the sideline in the drive towards broadening access and ensuring quality basic education for the sustenance of democracy and good governance, poverty eradication, economic empowerment, social justice and national development.”

    He added: “Research has shown that those vulnerable groups belong primarily to the secondary education age where there is the greatest ability for behavioural change, for fostering positive social attitudes, civic values and other social engineering. It is believed that basic education yields considerable public returns while secondary education provides opportunities to acquire desirable attitudes and job-oriented skills and competencies that are not likely to be developed while the pupils are in primary school.”

    He canvassed the creation of an agency to support secondary education or the expansion of the mandate of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to cover it.

    He said: “With the exiting of primary and secondary education in the funding arrangement of TETFUND, however, the fate of secondary schools is problematic due largely, to states’ inability or unwillingness to fund this subsector. At least, primary and junior secondary schools are somewhat being supported by the UBE Programme. It is, therefore, necessary to either create a new agency to support senior secondary education, or the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) can be expanded to support this vital subsector.”

  • Electricity fixed charge: Where is the change?

    Sir: The affable minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN has explained to Nigerians why it is necessary to jerk up the tariff for electricity. But he didn’t talk about the fixed charge which all Nigerians have been  kicking against since the privatization took place. The fixed charge is now seen as Federal Government-regulated fraud. It makes the DISCOs not to be serious with the business of improving power supply, as cheap money enters their pockets on a monthly basis. I give an example : If 50 million Nigerians are using pre-paid meters, they pay N750 to the DISCOs monthly, that is N750 x 50,000 000.

    A consumer who wants to recharge his or her prepaid meter with N4,000  gets  units worth N3,250 as N750 is forcefully deducted from the amount presented for the recharge. If there is equipment failure such as a broken down transformer for six months, whenever the affected consumers want to recharge  after restoring power, the fixed charge must be paid for the six months that power was not supplied. Is this not fraud? If not that many Nigerians don’t know their rights, this can be argued in the court. Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said that consumers should not pay fixed charge if they didn’t have light for 14 days in a month. How do consumers prove to the cashier in the bank that light was not supplied for 14 days?  It is now very obvious that Nigerians are paying for staying in darkness!

    The  fixed charge was imposed on Nigerians by the PDP-led government in favour of its cronies who acquired the DISCOs. The regulatory body, NERC, was appointed by the former regime to be in an unholy alliance with the largely ineffectual DISCOs to perpetrate the fraud. It is strange that the APC -led government is still maintaining the status quo. Then where is the CHANGE? The fixed charge should please be abolished or embedded in the tariff to propel the DISCOs to be serious.    Some of the DISCOs have formed the habit of switching off power so that they pay less to the GENCOs at the detriment of consumers who pay outrageous estimated bills and unholy fixed charge. It is imperative that the honourable minister looks into these issues dispassionately before approving the new tariff.

     

    • Terry Andrews Odisu,

    Warri, Delta State.     

  • Halima Dangote takes charge

    Halima Dangote takes charge

    Halima, one of the daughters of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has proved that she is a chip of the old block. The mother of two, who is the executive director of Dangote Foundation, with her team are building a world class diagnostics and laboratory complex valued at N7b at the Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, Kano.
    Halima is a marketing graduate of America Intercontinental University, London. She raised the bar at Webster Business School, London, immediately after her first degree to obtain Masters of Business Administration.

  • GRASSROOTS SPORTS IN NIGERIA: Dalung charges state directors of sports

    GRASSROOTS SPORTS IN NIGERIA: Dalung charges state directors of sports

    The Honourable Minister of Youths and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung has charged the body of Directors of Sports in Nigeria to rededicate themselves to the development of grassroots sports in the country.

    The Hon. Minister stated this while declaring open the meeting of the Directors of Sports from the 36 states of the federation Thursday in his office in Abuja.

    Barrister Dalung charged the Sports Directors in the States to do away with all unwholesome practices in sports as it relates to selection of athletes, welfare, and payments of bonuses.  He reiterated the promise to rededicate himself to the development of all sports at the grassroots and not only football.

    He called on them as states Director of sports, to be disciplined and avoid favouritism in their selection process and grooming sport participants from states.

    Earlier, the Chairman of the Forum of State Directors of Sports in Nigeria, Mallam Tunde Kazeem, who is also the director of sports in Kwara State, told the Minister that they are in the Minister office to tell him that they have all it takes to move the sports development to the next level, and also to remove the uncertainty about the pending National Sports Festival that was billed to hold in Cross River State last year. They assured the Minister that the decision on the new date of the  Sports Festival will enable them plan ahead.

    Th forum also informed the minister that the Rio Olympics should start immediately for us to win more medals, more funds should be given to federations, he should place more emphasis on training and retraining of coaches, carry the forum along and the federal government should establish mini sports stadium in all the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria.

    Present at the occasion were Directors at National Sports Commission, State Directors in the 36 States of Nigeria and staff of the Commission.

     

  • Lawyer files contempt charge against NERC chief

    Lawyer files contempt charge against NERC chief

    Activist-lawyer Toluwani Adebiyi has initiated contempt proceedings against Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) Chairman Dr Sam Amadi on his claim that judges were frustrating reforms in the electricity sector.

    The NERC chair made the claim in an August 7 letter to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta.

    Amadi, who noted that the judges were ignorant of the sector, accused them of handing out improper injunctions, which could discourage investments.

    The Federal High Court in Lagos had restrained NERC from increasing tariff, following an ex-parte application by Adebiyi, who sought an injunction to stop NERC from raising power consumption bills without steady power for 18 hours a day.

    Adebiyi filed the Form 48 yesterday, which requires Amadi to appear in court to justify his statement or risk a jail term.

    The application is entitled: “Notice of consequence of derogatory, unlawful, misguided accusations of Federal High Court Judge, same which is contemptous of the integrity of the court as contained in contemnor’s letter to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and published on page 12 of The Nation newspapers of 18th august 2015.”

    It reads: “Take notice, that unless you can substantiate and justify your accusation as contained in your letter to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court dated 7th August, 2015, published in The Nation Newspaper of 18th August, 2015, of which you contemptuously in a very insulting and derogatory manner accused the court, casting aspersions in a way so prejudising, in a matter pending before the court, you will be guilty of contempt of Court and will be liable to be committed to prison.”

    Amadi had stated that such injunctive reliefs against legitimate business operations of licensed electricity companies were not well considered.

    “MY Lord, permit me to bring to your notice a subtle threat that can undermine the success of the power sector reforms. This threat is in the form of an increasing spate of seemingly reckless and inconsiderate interim injunctions that have been issued against the commission and electricity distribution companies at the instance of consumers, who have not made out clear case meriting such intervention by the court,” Amadi wrote.

    But Adebiyi believes that the accusation that judges were granting “reckless and inconsiderate injunctions” was contemptuous.

    To him, the NERC chair has derogatorily directed the judges to always exercise restraint and defer to his commission in the exercise of their judicial power, an act that cannot be separated from an intention to subjugate, undermine and intervene with the Judges’ lawful responsibility.

    Amadi is expected to appear before Justice Mohammed Idris, who gave one of the restraining orders, on September 23.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Shekau: I’m still in charge

    Shekau: I’m still in charge

    The leader of the Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, yesterday denied being killed or ousted.

    He spoke in an audio recording attributed to him by security experts.

    In the eight-minute message in Hausa language,  Shekau denied claims by Chadian leader Idriss Deby that he had been replaced. He called the president a “hypocrite” and a “tyrant”.

    “It is indeed all over the global media of infidels that I am dead or that I am ill, incapacitated and have lost influence in the affairs of the religion,” he said in the recording released on social media.

    “It should be understood that this is false. This is indeed a lie. If it were true, my voice wouldn’t have been heard, now that I am speaking.”

    Deby declared on August 12 that efforts to combat neighbouring Boko Haram jihadists had succeeded in “decapitating” the group and would be wrapped up “by the end of the year”.

    He told reporters in the capital, N’Djamena, that Boko Haram was no longer led by the fearsome Shekau and that his successor, whom he named as Mahamat Daoud, was open to talks.

    “Gratitude be to Allah and with his help, I have not disappeared. I am still alive and I am not dead. And I will not die until my time appointed by Allah is up,” Shekau said in the message.

    The SITE Intelligence Group verified the authenticity of the message, and an AFP correspondent with extensive experience of reporting Boko Haram said it exactly resembled Shekau’s voice in previous recordings.

    Shekau’s absence from Boko Haram videos in recent months has fuelled speculation that he might have been killed or injured.

    He has not spoken publicly since he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group in an audio recording released on March 7.

    The jihadist commander refers to himself in the new recording for the first time as “leader of the West Africa wing” of IS and pays homage to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, referring to him as the “Caliph of Muslims”.

    He taunted President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power on May 29, vowing to crush Boko Haram and ordered his military chiefs last week to end the insurgency within three months.

    “This ostentatious person, a liar — I mean Buhari, who raised arms to crush us in three months. You Buhari, why didn’t you say in three years?” Shekau said.

    “We will certainly fight you by the grace of Allah until we establish Allah’s law everywhere on earth.”

    Boko Haram has been waging a six-year uprising against Nigeria, which has claimed more than 15,000 lives.

    The jihadists have repeatedly extended their northeastern insurgency into border areas of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

    In recent weeks, suicide bombers, many of them women, have launched attacks on Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad.

    The four countries and Benin have pledged troops towards a regional 8,700-strong force aimed at ending the insurgency and due to deploy within days.

    Speculation about Shekau’s condition — and even his true identity — has been rampant in Nigeria for years.

    The wanted Islamist leader’s whereabouts are unknown, but he has in the past made himself heard whenever he has been proclaimed dead.

    Some experts and Nigerian security officials insist “Shekau” is a composite character, with different militant fighters stepping into the role at different times.

    The original Abubakar Shekau — the son of poor farmers, who became radicalised in a series of theological schools before taking over Boko Haram in 2010 — actually died months, or possibly several years ago, according to the security services.

    But the United States and other experts have questioned the credibility of that claim.

    “Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath,” the insurgent leader, who has been sanctioned by the UN Security Council and declared a “global terrorist” by the United States, said in a video released last October.

  • As Buhari takes charge

    Four days on, the mantle of leadership of this country will switch over to president-elect, Gen. Mohammed Buhari. On that day, he would be sworn in as the president of the country for the next four years following his successful election.

    Preparations are on top gear with expectations very high on the good things to come with the change of leadership in national affairs. Representatives of governments, groups and individuals have been generous with suggestions on what the incoming government should do to make the needed difference. Issues that have been a recurring decimal, among others include the urgency to battle corruption, insecurity and the parlous state of the nation’s economy.

    Incidentally, these were some of the key campaign promises of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under which platform Buhari won the election. If there are constant references to them, they serve as reminder to the incoming administration of the imperative to live up to the high expectations of the people.

    In this wise, institutions, persons or groups that ought to attract the prying eyes of the new government in its new direction have been fingered very relentlessly. So also are the necessary policy measures to be initiated for our economy to rebound.  There seems to be a wide range of consensus that things must be done differently for this country to move forward. Not surprisingly, corruption in all its ramifications stands out as one cankerworm that must be uprooted for these high-minded expectations to be met. There seems to be a wide range of consensus that we are now ready for this all important crusade irrespective of the pervasiveness of the malfeasance and envisaged reluctance of some vested interests to embrace the new direction.

    The way the issue of corruption is being bandied, the impression one gets is that people are expecting a very quick fix to the cankerworm. But that would be a very limited understanding of the pervasiveness of the matter. It would imply that we are yet to come to terms with the dynamics of the matter. Corruption is more encompassing and pervades the entire gamut of the nation’s social fabric. It is every where. It has eaten very deep. Such a debilitating problem cannot lend itself to a quickly procured remedy as is currently being expected. This is more so because some of the systemic dysfunctions that are at the root of corruption will take a long time to lend themselves to serious therapeutic response. Some of them are deeply rooted in the very structure and organization of governance framework. Others have their root in the defective manner the Nigerian federation evolved. The role of ethnicity, religion and some other primordial influences in

    sustaining corruption can only be ignored at a great risk to the envisaged fight. So also is the defective federal structure that vests the powers of life and death on the central authority. There is also failure on the part of our leaders (past and present) to institute socialization processes capable of producing true Nigerians (in the way an American will regard himself) – the kind the Israeli did through their Kibbutz system.

    It is nigh impossible to fight corruption in a setting where ethnicity and religion are in constant competition with the government for the loyalty of the citizens. It is difficult to fight corruption in a milieu where civic institutions are seen as instruments of dominance by one ethnic group against the others. That exactly is the point the Nigerian federation finds itself now. So if we focus on institutions of governance without taking into account the latent sources that influence behavior at those formal levels, we may not get the right handle to it.

    If we focus on proper husbanding of our revenue without considering how to whittle down the prebendal nature of our politics, we may not achieve optimal results. This point is further underscored by our geo-politics that places higher premium on where the candidate comes from rather than suitability and ability to do the job. The logic of geo-politics in our case is rooted in the warped notion of sharing the national cake rather than issues of affirmative action or balance. The underlying thinking is that it is only when one of theirs ascends to that high office that their interests can be adequately taken care of. That has been the general feeling and it cannot make for real progress.

    Even with many years of living together since independence, rather than wane, these tendencies have been on their ascendancy. They got to a point about two years ago that two former heads of state, Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida had to issue a joint statement lamenting the degenerate level the nation had sunk within this ignoble matrix. They were alarmed at a situation where some of those they hitherto regarded as patriots were increasingly beginning to question the basis for Nigerian unity. And their ranks are not few. The fears they then expressed were further taken to a dangerous level during the last electioneering campaigns and are bound to influence public perceptions for some time to come.

    The thing to consider is why we have not progressed beyond the things that divide our people. We need to factor in the role of the elite in sustaining and reinforcing these centrifugal tendencies and whose interests such divisions largely serve- that of the elite or the fetchers of wood and drawers of water.

    As Buhari moves to confront issues of corruption and development, he is bound to be challenged by these systemic dysfunctions some of which will entail fundamental restructuring of the polity.  He has to take both a short and long term perspective of them. Yes, he can start with the leakages in the system. He has said every Nigerian would be made to live within his means. For this to happen, all avenues for fleecing the government must be plugged and blocked. But corruption is not all about stealing money from the government coffers. It is also about giving disproportionate attention to some geo-political zones to the detriment of others. It is all about a skewed distribution of public goods based on some other hazy exigencies.

    It is the same phenomenon that gives rise to allegations of alienation and marginalization by the constituent units. Things must have to be done the right and proper way for the fight to be won. There are institutions of government that have been notorious in shortchanging the public. They too must have the searchlight beamed on them. One of such institutions is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The corruption that goes on within that organization during elections must be stamped out without much delay. Since elections are the basis for conferring legitimacy in a democratic setting, a corrupt electoral process is unlikely to produce leaders who can meaningfully wage a relentless war against the cankerworm.

    So the fight must start from the electoral body. Much of the problems that marred the last elections in many places were as a result of INEC officials compromising their positions. Not only did they sell authentic results sheets to the highest bidders, falsification and mutilating of results sheets were all traceable to these officials.

    Somehow, there is the feeling that we should let go and move forward. Fine! But there is no guarantee people will be that patronizing the next time round.

    Buhari must move to unite the country; give all a sense of belonging through inclusive policies. He must at once, identify and redress the sources of frustration which forced Obasanjo and Babangida to deplore the increasing loss of confidence by patriots on the continuing basis for the nation’s unity 54 years after independence.

  • Charge deputy governor with violence, says Ekiti APC

    Charge deputy governor with violence, says Ekiti APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to charge the Deputy Governor, Kolapo Olusola, with election violence.

    Olusola allegedly directed his security aide to shoot an APC member, Jide Owolabi, in Ikere-Ekiti, during Saturday’s elections.

    The APC also asked INEC to cancel the result in Ire-Ekiti for violence and ballot box snatching.

    The party’s Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said in a statement that the two incidents were strategies by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to influence the election.

    He alleged that the deputy governor’s action in Ikere-Ekiti was a reckless display of lawlessness and flagrant abuse of power to intimidate the opposition.

    Olatubosun said: “What happened in Ikere-Ekiti was a premeditated incident to cow the opposition to submission. We earlier raised the alerted to the plan by top officials of the Ayodele Fayose administration to employ violence and intimidation to cow our members to enable them manipulate the electoral process.

    “We wrote the security agencies, including local and international human rights’ groups, about PDP’s plan. Saturday’s incident was a manifestation of such fears.

    “The deputy governor cannot claim ignorance of the provisions of the Electoral Act prohibiting movement of government officials from one unit to the other on election day.

    “He can’t claim ignorance of the law that disallows government officials’ security men to carry weapons during elections. It is clear that the deputy governor was not accredited to carry out any election duty, including providing or restoring order where there is violence.

    “But he deliberately exercised a reckless abuse of power by leaving his unit with his armed security who he ordered to shoot our member for complaining that his interference in other polling units outside his unit is a breach of the law.”

    The APC spokesman said the INEC and security agencies should not allow this attempted murder to go uninvestigated and charge the deputy governor with electoral violence.

  • Ebele Obiano takes charge

    Ebele Obiano takes charge

    AS the newest member of Nigeria’s First Ladies’ club, Ebele Obiano, wife of Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, is fast catching up with the demands of her duties. In doing so, the beautiful woman has had to exert herself, a development not a few of her husband’s aides and associates are not finding funny one bit. The charge against the First Lady is that her alleged overbearing attitude has alienated most of the people who played key roles in her husband’s emergence as governor. But Ebele Obiano’s admirers have come to her defence, insisting that her main pre-occupation at the moment is providing  sanctuary for her husband in the discharge of his onerous duties.