The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Dasukigate

  • Dasukigate: Metuh claims to have met judge before trial

    Dasukigate: Metuh claims to have met judge before trial

    The judge handling the case involving the spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, has expressed discomfort over attempt to blackmail him into withdrawing from the case.

    Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja noted Thursday that Metuh has written, through his lawyer, Emeka  Etiaba (SAN), to the court’s Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim Auta, raising sundry accusations against him (Justice Abang) and seeking the transfer of the case to another judge.

    The judge said he will not be intimidated and that, by virtue of a circular by the National Judicial Council  (NJC), he will continue to preside over the case until the court’s Chief judge takes a decision on the petition (letter)  written by Metuh.

    Metuh, in the letter dated March 11, claimed to have been the judge’s classmate at the Nigerian Law School and that, they had met few weeks before his trail commenced before the judge.

    Metuh, who is standing trial with his company, Destra Investment Limited on a seven-count charge of money laundering, accused the judge of being bias and withholding records of proceedings in the case, with the intention of denying him (Metuh) the right to appeal.

    The judge spoke on the letter Thursday while ruling on an application by one of Metuh’s lawyer, Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN) for an adjournment in the case, on the ground that the lead defence lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) was not available.

    Justice Abang said: On the 16th of March 2016, at about 4pm, the honourable Chief Judge of this court forwarded a copy of the letter written by Emeka Etiaba (SAN), for the defence, praying the honourable Chief Judge to transfer this case to another judge, eight witnesses having been called, the no-case application of the defendant having been dismissed for lacking in merit.

    “I want to say that I have a circular issued by my employer, the National Judicial Council (NJC) to the effect that where there is a petition in a matter, seeking the transfer of the case to another judge, the judge handling the case shall continue to preside over the matter until a decision is taken by the authority to which the petition was addressed.

    “On the account of this circular, I shall continue to preside over this matter until the honourable Chief Judge takes a decision on Mr.Etiaba’s petition,” Justice Abang said.

    The judge expressed surprise that Etiaba failed to avail the prosecution with a copy of his letter dated March 11, as required under Rule 30(5) of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners. He said having refused to serve the prosecution with a copy of his letter, he (Etiaba) violated the Rules of Professional conduct for lawyers.

    Justice Abang noted that by not serving the prosecution with the letter, Etiaba has denied the prosecution lawyer the opportunity to react to issues he raised in the letter.

    “Mr. Etiaba complained, in the letter that the record of proceedings was not made available to him. The record of proceedings of about 212 pages, have been served on the defence team since two days ago. This is not the only case the court is handling.  This court is a busy court.

    “And again, he (Etiaba) said the accused person is my classmate. I don’t know the accused person as being my classmate. It is for him to prove that he was my classmate. Assuming the accused person was my classmate, which will not change the facts of the case and the law.

    “I do not take arbitrary decisions. Whatever decision I take here is in line with the law and my conscience. I fear no evil. I am guided by my conscience, without fear or favour,” the judge said.

    Going through the history of the case, the judge noted that most adjournments have been at the instance of the defence.

    Metuh’s legal team comprising of three Senior Advocates, including Ikpeazu, Adedipe and Etiaba, suddenly developed cold feet when,  after the judge ruled on March 9, dismissing the defendants’ no-case submission for lacking in merit, became reluctant to open its defence.

    Metuh made a no-case submission after the prosecution completed its case after calling eight witnesses, who the defence team exhaustively cross-examined. Rather than lead evidence in his defence, Metuh elected to make a no-case submission, which the court dismissed on the ground that the prosecution has raised several issues to which Metuh must respond to by conducting his defence.

    After the judge refused his no-case submission on March 9, Metuh was asked to open his defence. He sought for time to enable him prepare his witnesses, prompting the judge to adjourn to yesterday for the commencement of defence.

    Rather than open his defence yesterday, Adedipe, who led the defence team told the court that the lead lawyer, Ikpeazu, who prepared the defence witnesses, was not available. He sought an adjournment, undertaking to conduct defence, in the event that Ikpeazu was away at the next date.

    Prosecution lawyer, Sylvanus Tahir reluctantly agreed to an adjournment in view of the promise by Adedipe to conduct defence on the next date even where Ikpeazu was absent.

    Justice Abang upheld Adedipe’s application and adjourned to March 23 for Metuh and his company to open their defence.

    Part of the letter reads: “it is the brief of the defendants that the 1st defendant (Chief Olisa Metuh) was called to the Nigerian Bar along the honourable Justice O. E. Abang, the presiding judge in the above charge, in 1988 and after their call, they both practiced Law in Lagos for many years before he (Chief Metuh) relocated to Abuja where he has since lived and hounourable Justice Abang, on his part, took to the bench.

    “The 1st defendant further informed us that the last time he met with honourable Justice Abang was sometime late last year at Meridian Hotel in Akwa Ibom, where they had time to talk on many issues. Chief Metuh informed us that he was baffled at honourable Abang’s views and when eventually the charge against him was assigned to his court this January (a few weeks later), he got very worried because he feared that he may not get justice in his court.

    “The defendants believe that having been a part of the trial in this case and having noticed the disposition of his lordship in this case, they ask themselves this pertinent question: Do we believe that honourable Justice O. E. Abang will do justice in this case? They went ahead to resolve the question in the negative, hence a need for this very urgent and intervening letter.

    “The defendants state that they had resisted causing this letter to be written, but have come to the inevitable conclusion that a judge, who denied them the inalienable right of appeal by withholding the record of proceedings amongst others, will care less about whether they obtain justice in the same case.

    “May we therefore appeal to my lordship, in the interest of justice, to cause the transfer of this case to be made to any other judge in the interest of Justice.”

     

  • Dasukigate: Why Jonathan should face trial – Ndume

    Dasukigate: Why Jonathan should face trial – Ndume

    Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, Thursday said that former President Goodluck Jonathan should face trial if he covertly instigated the sharing of $2.1billion given to former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, to buy arms.

    He also said that Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the state.

    Ndume who spoke to reporters in Abuja noted that if Jonathan who approved $2.1 billion for the purchase of arms turned back to give directive secretly that the money should be shared among his cronies, he should be prosecuted.

    He said, “I do not want to dabble into that being one of the victims of the insurgency. My house was taken over by insurgents and my town was declared a caliphate of the insurgents. My Emir was killed while these people were smiling to the banks with the money that was meant to buy arms and ammunition.

    “It was for lack of ammunition that the Nigerian Armed Forces had to run away.

    “As far as I am concerned, these people are living on blood money, the blood of so money innocent citizens of this country particularly from the North East.

     “No justice is too much for them, nobody is supposed to be spared. Because the case is judicial and I am not a lawyer to determine who should be brought to book, what I am saying is that justice should be served.

    “Over 10,000 people have lost their lives, at one time you could see my people were slaughtered like chickens and the reason why this happened was because our army was not equipped and not well kitted.

    “And somebody made away with the money meant for the procurement of arms and ammunition.

    “I am not defending President Jonathan but he approved that this money be used for procurement of arms. So if the law says he should be part of those that should be part of the accountability or those that should face justice, I think nobody should be spared.

    “I really don’t want to make comment on that but anybody that is involved in that blood money should be held responsible.

    “If the President approved that money in the name of buying arms while giving a directive that it should be shared among his cronies, then he should face the law.

    “If anybody is supposed to buy arms and you gave them money to buy arms, as the president, after some time you should ask `where are the arms anyway.”

    Let me add and clearly that is my position, if because of this or any other criminality Jonathan should face the law, he should, I did, I am facing the law.

    “Nobody is supposed to be above the law, if Jonathan is a culprit he should face the law: if there is evidence that the former president should face the law then he should. After all, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

    On the trial of the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, by Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), he said that the issue is being blown out of proportion.

    Ndume wondered why his own trial on allegation of being a Boko Haram sponsor, is not getting the kind of attention Saraki’s trial by the CCT is receiving.

    He said, “Do you know that I am still in court on a more serious issue.

    “The President of the Senate is in court for assets declaration but I am in court for a more serious issue that I am alleged to be a sponsor of Boko Haram

    “I have been in court for four years so why is it not an issue.

    “I have not complained, it is not a big deal. I am still the Leader of the Senate and my role is as important as that of the President of the Senate but it is not a big deal.

    “Why are you making his own case a big deal? I think the Nigerian press trivializes things, dramatises issues, and concentrates on events and personalities instead of ideas: does that help us?”

    The killings going on in Rivers State, Ndume said that Governor Wike should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the state.

    He noted that as the Chief Security Officer of the state, Wike should on top of situation in his state.

    The Senate, he said, has always “condemned what is happening severally, not just in Rivers but anything that is happening that has to do with loss of lives and criminality we stand to condemn it.”

  • Where was the capitalist media before Dasukigate?

    Like the Chinese proverbial sage who sees no evil, hears no evil and speaks no evil, so is the Nigerian media.”

    I am looking inside the media to analyse the conflicting pressures on owners, editors and media workers. This perspective can be contextualised when we assess the role of the mass media as a capitalist enterprise. However, activists argued that it must connect with every day experiences of the working class.

    If the media of the first century is overwhelmingly that of monopoly capitalism, it has operated in very different political environments. There are considerable differences between the way in which the mass media operates in state capitalist society, a fascist society, a classical military dictatorship and a bourgeois democracy.

    While it may be true that in the end, in all of these examples the media is concerned with justifying the existing order, the ways in which they do so vary widely. I am looking at the media as it works in an emerging bourgeois democracy like Nigeria. It is characteristic of capitalist society that the ruling class is divided among itself. One of the essential features of capitalism as a system is that the capitalists compete with each other; otherwise, the system would lose its undoubted dynamism. While all capitalists have common interests, like keeping wages down and having the unrestricted right to manage, different capitalists have divergent individual interests. Debates and disputes between different interests, debates and disputes between different capitalists and different sections of capital are a central and irremovable aspect of capitalist society.

    Even in the extreme case of state capitalism, where the interest of individual sections of capital are ruthlessly subordinated to the collective interests of the bureaucracy, there remain arguments about the exact policies to be pursued, which classically would be settled by a bloody purge.

    In a bourgeois democracy, on the other hand, these differences are open and public and form a great deal of the agenda of legitimate political life.

    Bourgeois parties like APC, PDP and the rest in Nigeria, are formed around these differences between sections of capital. Newspapers and other media platforms can in such circumstances adopt a wide range of positions, while remaining entirely within the framework of capitalism. Sometimes newspapers are directly linked to particular groups of capitalists or to the political parties they favour and carry materials directly promoting their views of the situation.

    Flowing from this graphic illustration of the trajectory of media in capitalist society in general and Nigeria in particular, I draw attention to the absence of investigative journalism in the country. The constitutional role of the press is to be “The Watch Dog” of the society. Ironically, how can the dog watch when the bosses who pay the dog dictate the tune of public agenda? Nigeria has history of treasury looting since independence, yet we have a vibrant press that was at the vanguard of the struggle for self-rule. No wonder, large section of the media benefited from the “Dasuki-Gate”, Guild of Editors and Newspapers Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) among others. The watchdog becomes a toothless bulldog when the ruling class baits it with slush fund. How much is the media investigating this government before we wake up to another “Gate?”

    Indeed, another “Gate” is possible even under the nose of President Buhari who has chosen to clean the “Augean Stable”. In the tradition of capitalists’ competition over divergent interests, others who are outside the power equation now may not lie low while their associates are being hounded.

    After all, is it not in the same country Nigeria that when the poor steals, he gets one arm or leg amputated, jailed for years or dies awaiting trial? Where is the media when many in this class rot awaiting trial or die without justice? In a dramatic twist, when the rich and powerful steal state funds or whole arms budget or slush fund, they are at worst guilty of “misappropriation, embezzlement, misallocation and other funny adjectives”. The truth is that, “authority stealing is worst than armed-robbery”, the late Afro legend Fela said so, and he is still very correct about the many “Gates” in Nigeria long after his classic philosophical and thought provoking lyrics rents the airwave.

    The major reason why our periphery capitalist economy has not evolved to develop and create wealth is because the Nigerian capitalists and bourgeoisie political elites are bereft of creative ingenuity. They can only depend on ideas and products created from the ingenuity and inventions of the core capitalist economies in the West. At best, they loot public treasury and leave their people in abject poverty, most often at the mercy of foreign donor agencies. They come back from their havens in developed countries just to shout corruption in endless litany that has become a cliché today.

     

    • By Comrade Ogbu A. Ameh

     

  • Where was the capitalist media before Dasukigate?

    Like the Chinese proverbial sage who sees no evil, hears no evil and speaks no evil, so is the Nigerian media.”

    I am looking inside the media to analyse the conflicting pressures on owners, editors and media workers. This perspective can be contextualised when we assess the role of the mass media as a capitalist enterprise. However, activists argued that it must connect with every day experiences of the working class.

    If the media of the first century is overwhelmingly that of monopoly capitalism, it has operated in very different political environments. There are considerable differences between the way in which the mass media operates in state capitalist society, a fascist society, a classical military dictatorship and a bourgeois democracy.

    While it may be true that in the end, in all of these examples the media is concerned with justifying the existing order, the ways in which they do so vary widely. I am looking at the media as it works in an emerging bourgeois democracy like Nigeria. It is characteristic of capitalist society that the ruling class is divided among itself. One of the essential features of capitalism as a system is that the capitalists compete with each other; otherwise, the system would lose its undoubted dynamism. While all capitalists have common interests, like keeping wages down and having the unrestricted right to manage, different capitalists have divergent individual interests. Debates and disputes between different interests, debates and disputes between different capitalists and different sections of capital are a central and irremovable aspect of capitalist society.

    Even in the extreme case of state capitalism, where the interest of individual sections of capital are ruthlessly subordinated to the collective interests of the bureaucracy, there remain arguments about the exact policies to be pursued, which classically would be settled by a bloody purge.

    In a bourgeois democracy, on the other hand, these differences are open and public and form a great deal of the agenda of legitimate political life.

    Bourgeois parties like APC, PDP and the rest in Nigeria, are formed around these differences between sections of capital. Newspapers and other media platforms can in such circumstances adopt a wide range of positions, while remaining entirely within the framework of capitalism. Sometimes newspapers are directly linked to particular groups of capitalists or to the political parties they favour and carry materials directly promoting their views of the situation.

    Flowing from this graphic illustration of the trajectory of media in capitalist society in general and Nigeria in particular, I draw attention to the absence of investigative journalism in the country. The constitutional role of the press is to be “The Watch Dog” of the society. Ironically, how can the dog watch when the bosses who pay the dog dictate the tune of public agenda? Nigeria has history of treasury looting since independence, yet we have a vibrant press that was at the vanguard of the struggle for self-rule. No wonder, large section of the media benefited from the “Dasuki-Gate”, Guild of Editors and Newspapers Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) among others. The watchdog becomes a toothless bulldog when the ruling class baits it with slush fund. How much is the media investigating this government before we wake up to another “Gate?”

    Indeed, another “Gate” is possible even under the nose of President Buhari who has chosen to clean the “Augean Stable”. In the tradition of capitalists’ competition over divergent interests, others who are outside the power equation now may not lie low while their associates are being hounded.

    After all, is it not in the same country Nigeria that when the poor steals, he gets one arm or leg amputated, jailed for years or dies awaiting trial? Where is the media when many in this class rot awaiting trial or die without justice? In a dramatic twist, when the rich and powerful steal state funds or whole arms budget or slush fund, they are at worst guilty of “misappropriation, embezzlement, misallocation and other funny adjectives”. The truth is that, “authority stealing is worst than armed-robbery”, the late Afro legend Fela said so, and he is still very correct about the many “Gates” in Nigeria long after his classic philosophical and thought provoking lyrics rents the airwave.

    The major reason why our periphery capitalist economy has not evolved to develop and create wealth is because the Nigerian capitalists and bourgeoisie political elites are bereft of creative ingenuity. They can only depend on ideas and products created from the ingenuity and inventions of the core capitalist economies in the West. At best, they loot public treasury and leave their people in abject poverty, most often at the mercy of foreign donor agencies. They come back from their havens in developed countries just to shout corruption in endless litany that has become a cliché today.

    • By Comrade Ogbu A. Ameh

  • EFCC amends Metuh’s case, adds third count charge

    EFCC amends Metuh’s case, adds third count charge

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Friday amended the charge of destruction of document against Olisa Metuh, Peoples Democratic Party National Publicity Secretary.

    The charge was amended at the resumption of the proceeding by its Counsel; Sylvanus Tahir at an FCT High Court presided over by Justice Ishaq Bello.

    Tahir said the third-count of Mischief contravened Section 326 punishable under Section 327 of the Penal Code.

    Testifying in the case an EFCC witness, Mr Junaid Said, told the court that Metuh tore the commission’s document.

    Said, a Special Task Force Team member of EFCC, led in evidence by Tahir, said that the team received a petition in January 2016.

    He said that the petition was from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, which alleged that he transferred N400 million to Destra Investment Limited, a company owned by Metuh.

    The EFCC witness said investigations revealed that the transfer was done without any contract approval.

    He said the team visited the resident of Metuh at Prince and Princess Estate, Abuja, on Jan. 5 and invited him to the commission.

    Said told the court that Metuh honoured the invitation and was interrogated by Ibrahim Musa, Michael Wetkas, Bello Umar, David Nkpe, Bello Adama and Eucharia Ibrahim.

    The EFCC witness said the defendant volunteered a statement to the commission.

    “My Lord, when he concluded writing his statement which was on four sheets of the EFCC statement form, I collected the statement and read over it, I then handed the statement over to my superiors Musa and Wetkas.

    “When I was handing over the statement, the defendant said he was surprised that he had written that much and that he felt he had given too much information.

    “Because of the comment, I was worried I gave him the statement sheets one after the other for endorsement,’’ the witness said.

    He said Metuh endorsed the first and second sheet, but tore the third sheet.

    The witness told the court that the third sheet was where Metuh disclosed that he received the money for PDP political activities, settle his personal needs and made reference to former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “My lord, he suddenly tore the statement sheet into pieces, in great shock and surprise I stood up I asked him why he did what he did?

    “He said he did that because he was no longer willing to give the information on that statement sheet.

    “I then requested the pieces of the statement, he declined and attempted to put them in his pocket, I then cautioned him and told him to respect himself he insisted that he was going to dispose the tore sheet.

    “I persuaded him to handover the tore sheet and brought one plain paper before him, he poured the pieces on the plain sheet, my other colleagues were there looking at us in surprise as well.

    “He furthered tore them into pieces, saying only in the movies would this be recovered.

    “I poured the pieces in the commission’s transparent polythene bag for exhibit and made entry of the incident into the EFCC’s incident duty station diary as well as EFCC’s pocket notebook.

    “Later, in the day he requested to make additional statement, which he made, wrote his name and signed but declined to make any other statement on the tore paper.’’

    The EFCC’s incident duty station diary, EFCC’s pocket notebook and the tore pieces were tendered and admitted as exhibits.

    Said admitted under cross examination by Mr Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), Metuh’s Counsel that the issue of the tore sheet was not written in his statement.

    Ikpeazu demanded for the witness statement, but the prosecuting counsel gave him a photocopy of the statement.

    Tahir said that the defendants should have served him with notice to produce the document.

    Bello said the matter could no longer proceed without the original copy of the witness statement.

    “Documents must meet the status as required by the law, there must be a certified copy of your documents.

    “It is a healthy practice to produce the documents in your custody, especially in a criminal trial,’’ Bello told EFCC.

    Bello adjourned the case till March 16 for continuation.

  • Dasukigate: Don’t drag my sons in the mud, Obanikoro warns

    Dasukigate: Don’t drag my sons in the mud, Obanikoro warns

    Former Minister Musiliu Obanikoro yesterday sought to rubbish media reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) traced N4.7billion believed to be from the $2.1billion slush funds from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to the account of a company in which his two sons –Gbolahan and Babajide – are directors.

    The money was allegedly paid in tranches into the Diamond Bank account of Sylvan McNamara Limited.

    Responding to the reports through his media aide, Jonathan Eze, Obanikoro challenged the EFCC to publish the names of directors of the company.

    He wondered why his sons whom he called thorough bred professionals in their own rights could be so maligned when it would not have cost the media much to verify from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) the directors of the company at the time the transactions were made.

    He urged the EFCC to be straight and above board in its investigations while avoiding speculations and conjectures infringing on the fundamental human rights of his sons.

    Obanikoro said: “Associating my sons to the Sylvan McNamara account that allegedly received funds from the office of the embattled National security Adviser is highly preposterous and unthinkable.

    “I am particularly amazed by the fact that trials and investigations are being done using the media unconventionally just to satisfy the cravings of political entities who are desperate to rub my hard earned reputation in the mud.”

    He particularly picked on online news site Sahara Reporters ”whom I have legal cases against” for being ”at the forefront of misleading the public and defaming my person, perhaps rationalising that I would withdraw pending suits against it.”

    He asked EFCC to “publish in good conscience the signatories and the names of the directors of the said company and to restate that I shall conclusively pursue this injustice and infringements to a logical end.”

    The anti-graft agency suspects that the N4.7billion was used to prosecute the last governorship elections by  the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti and Osun states.

    Obanikoro, who is currently in the United States, was a key player in the coordination of the governorship polls in the two states including alleged abuse of deployment of troops.

    Reliable sources in the anti-graft agency said the money was paid in tranches.

    One of the sources said: “Two sons of former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, Babajide and Gbolahan Obanikoro are currently on the radar of the EFCC.

    “About N4, 745,000,000.00 was traced to a company, Sylvan McNamara Limited, in which they have interest.

    “The money was paid in several tranches into the company’s account number: 0026223714 with Diamond bank from the Office of the National Security Adviser account with the CBN.”

    Another well- placed source said: “All the transfers were effected between June and December 2014, a period that coincided with the preparation for and the conduct of the Ekiti state gubernatorial election which ushered in the current administration of governor Ayodele Fayose.

    “For instance N200m was transferred into Sylvan Mc Namara’s account on June 5, 2015 while N2billion was also wired into the account from the CBN/ Imprest Main account on June 16, 2016.

    “Another transfer of N700m hit the account on July 7, 2014, while N1billion was credited to the account on July 30, 2014.

    “Other transfers included: N160m on August 8, 2014; N225m on August 22, 2014; N200m on November 14, 2014 and N200m on December 5, 2014.

    “Both Gbolahan and Babajide Obanikoro( as directors of the company)  were also signatories to its account until 2014 when one Olalekan Ogunseye was made sole signatory to the account.

    “The payments to the company from the office of the National Security Adviser were made without any contract.”

    Responding to a question, the first source added: “Some of the funds traced to Obanikoro’s son’s account were meant for procurement of arms.

    “We are making necessary contact with the son of the ex-Minister for appropriate interaction with our operatives.

    “We hope he will get in touch as required or else, we may invoke necessary legal procedures to make him to account for these curious payments.”

     

  • Wabba chides elder statesmen implicated in Dasukigate

    Wabba chides elder statesmen implicated in Dasukigate

    THE President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has described the revelation that some prominent elder statesmen received huge sums of money as not only shameful, but very embarrassing.

    Speaking with reporters in Lagos recently, Wabba said it is very sad that eminent Nigerians that people look up to as role models like Tanko Yakassai, Olu Falae, Peter Odili, Jim Nwobodo and others can be involved in corrupt dealings.

    The NLC President said there should be no bending the rules in the current fight against corruption, no matter the personality involved.

    On the claim that they are ignorant of the source of the money, he said: “Ignorance is not an excuse in law. If they are claiming that they don’t know the source of the money, then why not return it? I’m even happy that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the then ruling party whose members are involved in the national show of shame, has denounced those people involved. The party has asked them to refund the money and that is the way it should be. These people should return money collected to the national treasury.

    “After that these people should not be spared; they should be put on trial to serve as a deterrent to others. I’m also happy that the PDP has asked former President Goodluck Jonathan to speak up on the issue. Col. Sambo Dasuki and his co-travellers in this journey of shame have been mentioning Jonathan’s name, let the former President obey his party by speaking on this issue, if only to clear his name and reputation.”

    He said the recovered loot should be used to provide infrastructural facilities for public use. “Hospitals and schools can also be built with the money. Part of the fund can also go into providing efficient social services like modern efficient rail system and state of the art medical facilities,” he added.

    Wabba noted that though Nigerians have always known that corruption is one of fundamental problems of the country, the recent exposures are sordid examples that graphically illustrate how bad things were under the last administration.

    He added: “In the light of the above, the Nigerian Labour Congress is giving its full support to President Muhammadu Buhari in his resolve to fight and defeat corruption. In fact, there is a convergence between our own promise to Nigerian workers during our 11th delegates’ conference in February/March 2015, when we were elected, and President Buhari’s campaign promise during his own election campaigns.

    “In our programme we had stated: ‘It is a fact that the level of corruption in our public life has reached an unacceptable dimension’. We then said we would take the campaign against corruption more vigorously as we move into a new dispensation post. This informed our decision early in September 2015 to mobilise our members and allies in civil society to have the one-day national rally against corruption and for good governance.”

    On withdrawal of petroleum subsidy and the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, the NLC President said the union is familiar with government’s arguments, rhetorics and other tricks. He added since successive governments in the last 30 to 35 years have found it necessary to increase prices of petroleum products that no other group has engaged government as much as organised labour and its allies in civil society.

    He said: “The Hon. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu’s latest effort to clothe the desire of multinational oil corporations’ to increase fuel prices in the name of ‘price modulation’ is therefore nothing new to us. It is in fact coming straight out of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) briefing on how to enforce fuel price increase on Nigeria.”

     

     

    “Despite Dr Kachikwu’s antics, Nigerian workers and the mass of our people will hold President Muhammadu Buhari to his words that there is indeed no fuel subsidy to be removed. The President having been Federal Commissioner of Petroleum Resources for three years (under General Obasanjo as military Head of State) and superintended over the construction of two of our four refineries, is in a vantage position to speak with authority on the issue of subsidy.

    “What needs to be removed is not subsidy but the massive corruption that we have and which has been documented in the state’s efforts to make available these essential products for Nigerians. We still support President Buhari to go after the cabal involved in this monumental corruption and dismantle them. That is one of the reasons that Nigerians massively voted for him in March 2015 in spite of the glaring intimidation and threats to their lives.”

    Wabba said it is unfortunate that some governors flew a reprehensible kite of minimum wage reduction last year, adding that if anything the minimum wage is due for an upward review. He argued that the National Minimum Wage Act of 2011 established parameters for re-opening negotiations for a new national minimum wage, which is to be reviewed every five years.

    He added: “Such review would take into perspective the purchasing power of the naira and prevailing rate of inflation. As things are right now, with the sharp devaluation of the naira, the existing N18, 000 minimum wage equally declined in value, thereby worsening the cost of living for workers.

    “It was therefore discomfiting that President Muhammadu Buhari appears to have given tacit support to the governors’ gambit, in the course of his maiden Presidential Media Chat on December 30, 2015. Echoing the claim that states might not have the capacity to (continue to) pay a mere N18, 000 as minimum wage.”

     

     

  • Dasukigate: Why Buhari must be on alert

    SIR: Since our return to civil rule in 1999, if there is one thing successive governments agree on as a barrier to our journey to development as a nation, it is corruption. Indeed no nation grappling with Nigeria’s kind of blatant corruption can experience any meaningful development.

    Ever since the story of $2.1b misapplied defence funds broke, many Nigerians are still alarmed at the height of wickedness in high places. Was it up to two years that Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State told the world that the Nigerian army was ill-equipped to fight Boko Haram insurgents? Shettima attracted knocks, sticks, stones and invectives mainly from political chauvinists who viewed the issue from the prism of sentiments. Today, the Borno governor has been vindicated by the stench emanating from the office of the former National Security Adviser (NSA).

    Curiously, former President Goodluck Jonathan either looked away or slept when the funds meant to secure Nigeria and Nigerians were funneled into his campaign to secure second term in office, even when he swore that his ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigerian.

    One indisputable reason Dasuki played “Donatus” with the $2.1b defence fund is the fact that the former NSA and his cronies see the victory of the PDP in the 2015 elections as more important than the millions of IDPs in the Northeast. To them, Yobe can convulse. The entire Borno can burn; a PDP victory is all that matters. After all, the party’s chieftain, Chief Adeseye Ogunlewe, attempted to justify the diversion of defence funds for partisan purpose in an interview with Punch newspaper lately. Hear him: “If one wants to contest for an election, will the person not have money to spend? Won’t money be shared? Whatever is happening is normal.’’

    Ogunlewe is not too far from the truth for what is normal here is actually weird in sane climes. That is why heads would have rolled through the guillotine in countries where there is punishment for stealing.

    Beyond excoriating Dasuki and all the beneficiaries of the blood money he gave, the diversion of defence funds for partisan purposes should provoke a national debate about how parties in this part of the world are funded. How, for instance, has the PDP been funding its Presidential elections after 1999? How have governors of all the ruling parties -PDP, APC, APGA, etc. at the state level been funding their campaigns?

    The only reason Dasuki is in the eye of the storm is because his party was displaced at the centre. We probably may never have the faintest idea of the blood money shared by Dasuki and the gang if PDP’s dream of ruling for 60 years had not been cut short. But the buck stopped on Jonathan’s table.

    It is apposite to state that corruption did not die with the PDP on May 29, 2015. Corrupt elements are also in the ruling party. Now that the call for Jonathan to speak up on the corruption that happened under his watch is gaining traction, the lesson President Buhari can glean from the Dasuki episode is that one day, it will also be his turn to take responsibility for all that happened under his watch. This is why Buhari must be on the alert.

    • Ladesope Ladelokun,

    Lagos.

  • Dasukigate: CAN members in U.S. shocked

    The Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN) has described the diversion of money meant for arms as a “tragedy to the nation”.

    The association, in a statement by its media consultant, Williams Ekanem, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to to name, shame and prosecute all those involved.

    The group’s Executive Director, Dr. Ayo Oyeshile, urged the administration not to be intimidated by the antics of the highly placed suspects but undertake their prosecution in a universally accepted manner.

    Oyeshile said: “We are particularly miffed by the heartlessness exhibited by the accused in the manner they allegedly withdraw and share millions of dollars while the Nigerians wallow in abject poverty.”

    The association added that never in the history of the nation has those in government been discovered to have cornered public funds “with such impunity without an iota of empathy for the people”.

    The statement reads: “Corruption has unfortunately undermined the nation, and according to analysts,  keep 68 per cent of its population living on less than $1.25 a day thereby  perpetuating instability, especially the long-running conflict with Boko Haram.”

    “The situation becomes graver with the proven strong link between corruption and insecurity. According to Transparency International, when a country’s institutions are weak, its security forces are not trusted and its borders are not strong, as is the case in Nigeria, it gives terrorist organizations room to flourish.

    “This indeed is a tragedy of a nation and the administration can only be supported to root out the endemic corruption that has eaten so deep into the fabric of high level government officials.

    “As a Christian body, CANAN will continue to pray for the country that God should touch the heart of our leaders and make them God fearing as a first step to stem the tide of corruption in high places.”

     

     

  • Why 66 convicted soldiers deserve freedom

    Why 66 convicted soldiers deserve freedom

    The Chairman/ National Coordinator of All Progressives Congress (APC) Scandinavia, Ayoola Lawal has commended the Nigerian Army for listening to the outcry of Nigerians and walked the path of honor by reviewing the death sentences passed on the soldiers that were accused of insurrection and mutiny.
    The National Coordinator quoted a statement credited to the Nigerian Army spokesman, Col. Usman Sanni, as saying ‘the death sentences by firing squad passed on 66 soldiers in January and March 2015 by separate General Court Martials have been commuted to 10 years imprisonment each.’
    “The sentence review was a confirmation of the attentive leadership of the new C-in-C of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
    However, it is a known fact that the majority of Nigerians are not in the professional position to pass comment on what were purely military judgments.
    “Meanwhile, in the light of the emerging facts on the Dasukigate and others, it will be more honourable and human if the Nigerian Army can delve further into the review 0f the 10 year sentence by relating it to the unfolding developments of the $2.1 billion meant for the procurement of the weapons to prosecute the insurgency in North Eastern, Nigeria, but intentionally diverted for personal and political purposes by the office of the National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd.),” he said.
    According to Lawal, it is sad and unfortunate that the senior officers that were supposed to investigate the matter could not trace the investigations to the reality of non-availability of weapons as claimed by the convicted soldiers before the sentence.
    “Special thanks to concerned Nigerians for their outcry and as well, the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, the convicted brave men in uniform would have been killed by firing squad.
    “As much as Nigeria or her citizens would neither allow nor encourage any act of gross misconduct in the force, it will amount to the act of wickedness and injustice if the leaders that were supposed to provide leadership, cater for the well- being and also arm the followers with the appropriate tools refused but later turned to blame the followers for bad followership.
    “As a matter of fairness, justice and patriotism, the convicted 66 soldiers should not be made the casualties of bad leadership of the past administration.
    “I call on all well-meaning and concerned Nigerians home and diaspora to join hands further in imploring the C-in-C and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari to please, order the review of the 10 year sentence and possibly grant the convicted brave men a presidential pardon,” Lawal pleaded.
    He further warned that if the conviction is not handled with care, dismissing the 66 soldiers or sentencing them may further harden their hearts thereby making them a threat to the society upon release.
    “These brave men have acquired survival skills so we should be careful how we force them to use the skills acquired from the Army. Nobody is even asking what will happen after the 10 year jail term. Will they be re-absorbed into the system or dismissed.

    “Similarly, prominent Nigerians were pleading for amnesty for the terrorist group, Boko Haram, even as some of the arrested members of the sect were released, I therefore suggest Federal Government come in to give the brave men pardon,” Lawal pleaded.

    He also noted that it is understandable that the military has set rules and guidelines, but advised that it be laid aside to save the innocent soldiers who displayed readiness to prosecute the battle against terror but were held back by lack of ammunition, which they protested.