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Tag: Nigerian Newspapers

  • Khashoggi murder: Family denies considering settlement

    The children of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, on Wednesday denied discussing any sort of settlement over his killing by Saudi agents.

    This followed a report that the family was considering accepting financial and material compensation for his death.

    “Currently the trial is taking place and no settlement has been discussed or is being discussed,” said the statement, published on Twitter by Khashoggi’s eldest son, Salah.

    The Washington Post, where Khashoggi was a columnist, reported last week that the children were given million-dollar houses and monthly five-figure payments as compensation.

    But it added however, that it was a separate deal from any potential “blood money” payment that could be negotiated after the murder trial under the Saudi justice system.

    Read Also: Jamal Khashoggi: Murder so horrible

    While ruling out a “settlement,” the statement did not, however, explicitly deny receiving the compensation.

    “Acts of wisdom and generosity arise from high morals and humanity and are not an admission of guilt or error. We were raised to be grateful for favours and not reject them,’’ the family said in the statement.

    The Kashoggi family, however, could not be immediately reached for further comments on the matter.

    Eleven suspects are on trial for last year’s murder of Kashoggi, which the CIA and some Western governments believe was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

    The authorities have continued to deny Salman’s role or knowledge of the killing, which sparked an international outcry and limited sanctions by Western allies.

  • Police tear-gas INEC Ad-hoc staff protesting nonpayment of election allowances

    Police in Enugu on Tuesday used tear gas on some INEC ad-hoc staff at the just concluded general elections who protested the non-payment of their allowances in the state.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent who was at the scene, reports that the tear gas affected passersby, school children and motorists who ran helter-skelter for their lives.

    NAN reports that the protesters comprising corps members, students and workers besieged the INEC headquarters in the state and blocked entrance and exit to the building.

    Mr Tony Ani, a 42-year-old man, who served as an Assistant Presiding Officer (APO 3) lamented the nonpayment of allowances for both the Presidential and Governorship elections including the inhumane treatment meted out to them.

    “You can imagine me at this my age coming here for the past three weeks over this issue of nonpayment.

    “I worked at Akama Primary School, Ezeagu Local Government during the Presidential and Primary elections and we were told to fill attendance and payment details.

    “Ever since we have not received payment and they will always tell us to write our names and account number just to pacify us, but as soon as we leave, they will trash it,” he said.

    A Corps member, Miss Chioma Emmanuel, who worked at Igbo-etiti, said she had not been paid any of the allowances including training allowance since the elections ended in the state.

    She noted that the idea of the protest was formed when a WhatsApp page was created for those yet to receive allowance.

    In the same vein, a student of Enugu State University of Technology (ESUT) who claimed anonymity for fear of being disciplined by the school authority, berated INEC for treating the issue of allowance with levity.

    “The painful thing was that after failing to adequately make provision for accommodation, they still refused to pay us.

    “This money is what I hope to buy study materials and augment for my upkeep,” he said.

    Reacting, the INEC REC in Enugu State, Dr. Emeka Ononamadu described the protesters as `impostors’ sponsored to pressurize INEC into paying those that did not work.

    Read Also: UTME: Police warn students against malpractice

    Ononamadu, who refused to address the protesters, told journalists that those protesting were in the third category of payment.

    “One thing you need to know is that there are three sets of people we are dealing with now.

    “There are the corps members, those posted but did not work and those who were not posted but made the list because their names were subverted with that of others.

    “Those protesting are those students who are not corps members and who were not posted by INEC but bribed their way through and ended up working as Presiding Officers and APO 1.

    “Most of the protesters are in the third category of people and if you see any corps member among them, then it is either the fault of their Local Government Inspectors or head of mobilization because they are the ones we are

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  • Landslide destroys 10 houses in Bayelsa

    A major landslide has destroyed 10 houses in Odi community, Kolokuma-Opokuma Area Council of Bayelsa, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    NAN gathered on Monday, that the incident which occurred near the bank of the River Nun, on Sunday, caused panic in the community.

    Mr James Dounana, a resident in Odi attributed the landslide to marine erosion, saying it might have been triggered by indiscriminate sand dredging from the River.

    “It was God’s doing that the incident happened during the day and not night.

    “It is one of the many challenges faced by riverine communities. It started at about 7: 00 a.m. as earth tremor; and two hours later, the ground gave way causing the houses to collapse.

    Read Also: Tears as Bayelsa community buries slain APC supporter

    “Thank God no life was lost,’’ Dounana said.

    Mr Tonye Isenah,the Chief Whip of Bayelsa State House of Assembly and member-elect for Kolokuma/Opokuma constituency I, and an indigene of Odi, visited the affected community on Monday.

    Isenah expressed concern over the level of destruction caused by the river erosion.

    He called on the relevant authorities to come to the aid of the victims.

  • Three die as trucks collide in Ogun

    Three persons died on Monday in Ogun state when a tipper bearing granite rammed into the rear of a Sino truck marked NSR 89 YQ, killing three occupants of the tipper.

    The Iveco tipper truck bearing granite had just left a quarry site in Isara area of Remoland and was hurrying to Lagos to offload when the driver lost control of the wheel and crashed into the Sino truck marked with emblem of Dangote, a source told The Nation.

    Read Also: Woman dies, daughter injured as vehicle plunges into Ogun river

    The driver of the Dangote truck was unaffected, the source added.

    The Public Relations Officer of the Ogun state Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), Babatunde Akinbiyi, told The Nation the vehicles were taken to the Police Motor Traffic Division at Ogere while the remains of the dead were evacuated to a private morgue – FOS Mortuary, Ipara, Ogun state.

  • Akingbola: Court to rule April 18 on documents’ admissibility

    The Federal High Court in Lagos Friday adjourned till April 18 for ruling on the admissibility of documents sought to be tendered in the trial of defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Dr Erastus Akingbola.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) sought to tender through its third witness, Uyoyou Ewhe, an Access Bank official, statements of certain accounts domiciled in the bank.

    Prosecuting counsel Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) said he called Ewhe to tender the documents because the intended witness who was to tender them had left the bank and the country.

    Defence counsel Chief Woke Olanipekun (SAN) opposed the application.

    According to him, the documents were freshly sourced when it is the law that before a criminal case is initiated, investigations must have been concluded.

    “The prosecution was sourcing for evidence two days ago in a trial that started 10 years ago,” Olanipekun said.

    Citing a 1965 case of Enahoro and the Queen, Olanipekun contended that the prosecution could not substitute a witness.

    “You cannot substitute a witness in a criminal proceeding; substituting a witness amounts to sourcing for evidence contrary to the decision of the Supreme Court in the celebrated case of Enahoro against the Queen of 1965.

    “If you don’t have your witnesses, you don’t have your witnesses; you cannot substitute witnesses,” he said.

    He urged the judge not to admit the documents on the basis that they emanated from Access Bank, which he said was an interested party in Akingbola’s trial.

    “Section 83 of the Evidence Act prohibits admissibility of this type of document. We have addressed Your Lordship on the interest of Access Bank in this matter, which is undisguised.

    “This witness, the maker of this document, is an official of Access Bank. Put succinctly, this document is an Access Bank document.

    “I dare say, the documents were made as a result of evidence already given, maybe to patch up the evidence; it is a natural consequence which the court is called upon to assume.”

    But, Jacobs said the question of substituting a witness did not arise.

    He said even if it arose, the prosecution was not limited to the list of witnesses in the proof of evidence originally filed.

    He said the Supreme Court did not decide that witnesses cannot be changed in the case of Enahoro, which Olanipekun cited.

    Jacobs said by virtue of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, the prosecution was at liberty to file additional evidence any time before judgment even if freshly made.

    He added that the documents were old statement of accounts of 1990.

    “It is just the letter covering the documents and the certificate showing compliance that are new. It is new bottle with the old wine,” Jacobs said.

    He stressed that the documents were relevant to the case.

    EFCC said Akingbola, between November 2007 and July 2008, “caused to be created a

  • The race for the 9th assembly

    In advanced democracies governed by rational-legal authorities, leadership of national assembly is often a routine affair within a ruling party with a majority in parliament. Model builders from John Calvin (1509-1564) to Baron de Montesquieu (1748) and others that came up with the idea of separation of powers in their wisdomrealized that was the only way to guarantee stability of government and prevent it from being held hostage by a hostile opposition without prejudice to the supervisory functions of the parliament. It is therefore unimaginable in the US whose constitution we copied, that the GOP will embark on a surreptitious move to take over the congress with a democrat majority. Such was equally inconceivable during the first and second republics and in the first 16 years of the fourth republic. Of course there were conflicts within the national assembly with Obasanjo changing senate presidents at will, but it was all intra-party affairs.

    But all that changed with the takeover of our National Assembly in 2015 by ruffians, in the guise of protecting the independence of the legislature. And predictably, what the model builders and framers of our constitution sought to avoid was what happened with the ruling government with a majority held hostage by PDP and APC ruffians who stalled government projects through budget passage delays, budget padding and cornering a big chunk of the annual budget for themselves. At the end, the 8th assembly which will probably enter the Guinness Book of Records as the highest paid parliament in the world served no one but their members.

    Because we allowed evil to thrive in 2015,the desperate struggle for the leadership of the 9th assembly has againstarted in earnest with top aspirants for the position of presiding officers within the ruling party reported to have converted some suites in the Transcorp Hilton Hotels to a mini secretariat. Newly elected and returning federal legislators have also been sighted sneaking in and out of the emergency secretariat’. Going by our experiences in recent years with outcome of presidential primaries determined by the contestant’s weight in dollars and voters openly hawking their votes, it is most unlikely those going in and out of the emergency secretariat will leave empty handed. The stakes have become higher with PDP’s reported “launching of an audacious move to win to its side 13 All Progressives Congress (APC) senators-elect as part of a grand design to hijack the leadership of the 9th Senate”.

    “The fact that it has been a convention for the majority party to produce presiding officers does not make it legal or the norm” –PDP, a beneficiary of the same convention for an unbroken 16 years, now insists. The party now says “it is not mandatory for the principal officers of the senate and the House to come from the party with a simple majority in the two chambers”.Just like the ‘like-mind’ senators claimed in 2015, they say they are worried about a possible emergence of “a possible rubber stamp legislature” if the ruling party is allowed to foist leaders on the two chambers. They did not only fail to identify any democracy where their model works, they were silent on the fact that theirunique model in 2015 ended up creating a parallel government with the National Assembly preparing their own budgets,paying themselves outrageous salaries and allowances and frittering away billions of naira on over 500 abandoned constituency projects that were doomed to fail since feasibility studies were never carried out.

    But why would a party that was given free hand to run the country for 16 years and made a mess of it be reluctant to perform the role of an opposition which is to keep the ruling party on its toes? It is precisely because PDP is not a party.Itis according to John Campbell, a former US Ambassador to Nigeria, “a club of elites who come together for sharing of oil rents and political spoils”. As military-baked ‘new breed’ politicians,they merely  set out to complete Babangida’s uncompleted mission – the destruction of the economy through ill-conceived  Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) that turned our nation to net importer of other nations’ labour, with its own ill-implemented privatization programme that shared out Nigeria’s budding industries after injection of public funds, to its members. PDP and its leaders set out to serve none but themselves and their members.

    Let us start with Obasanjo, the father of PDP. In an attempt to consolidate his hold on power after winning in 1999 election without a political base, he did everything to undermine the country’s democratization process by presiding over massively rigged elections in 2003, 2007, impositionof ailing Yar’Adua following his third term fiasco, and in 2011, Goodluck Jonathan.His continuation with Babangida’s adopted Bretton Woods’ international monetary arrangement that set up a system of fixed exchange rates with the US dollar as the international reserve currency,which Lamido Sanusi, (Emir of Kano) in a widely circulated socialmedia video said he regretted embracing as CBN governor, only brought ruin to our nation and impoverishment of our people. The only beneficiaries are private jet-owningPDPimporters of wine,champagne, rice,textile, fake drugs and tooth pick among others.

    Like Obasanjo, Atiku Abubakar’s struggle is for Atiku.His decision to collude with South-south’s self-serving governors led by James Ibori, in an attempt to deny Obasanjo, his boss a second term in2003 could not have possibly been on behalf of poor Nigerian victims of the duo’s war over the privatisation and sharing of our common resources. And Atiku’s 12 years of motion without movement between PDP, ACN, PDP, APC and back to PDP,in search of platform many believe,had little to do with serving the people but more to do with fulfilling his ambition.

    We similarly have evidence to supportBukola Saraki’s claim that he was driven by noble objectives to inelegantly seize the leadership of the senate in 2015. Andrefusing to relinquish the senate presidency after decamping back toa party, with minority, in the words of Oshiomhole,APC chairman, only”portrayed Saraki for who he was – a person, whose personal interest always comes first before any other interest, including national interest.”And as if to confirm PDP is not averse to unscrupulous means to political ends, Senator Olujimi, Fayose’s former deputy reminded Nigerians that it was the PDP that gave Saraki 42 of the 53 votes with which he emerged senate president in 2015.

    The story is the same with PDP elected assembly members who in 2002, publicly made it clear they were in a hurry to recoup their expenses having sold houses to fund the 1999 elections.They went on to pass the PPPRA bill which was to become the instrument with which they and their siblings defrauded the country to the tune of about N1.7trillion.

    Democracy is never sustained by immoral behaviours of politicians like Ayo Fayose who ruled his state with six lawmakers after chasing 22 lawmakers out of town with thugs or a Saraki who took over the red chambers with 42 opposition senators after outwitting 52 of his party senators. There is noknown democracy where a party with 37 elected lawmakers would be scheming to take over a parliament with a majority of 63 senators.

    And no constitution, including the American constitution that we copied which according to John Adams, the second American president (1797-1801), was ‘made only for a moral and religious people”, can survive greed, recklessness, licentiousnessas we today witness among PDP and APC politicians. Those promoting immoralityand lack of character as ‘real-politik’ must realize that nothing threatens democracy and freedom as immorality.

  • El-Rufai praised for health initiatives

    The President of Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria (EHOAN), Samuel Akingbehin, has praised Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai for his bold initiatives towards better health service delivery.

    Akingbehin, who was reacting to the appointment of Dr. Suleiman Usman as the Provost of the Shehu Idris College of Health Sciences and Technology, Markafi, said El-Rufai has demonstrated his believe in merit and competence in sustaining his achievements in governance.

    He described Usman as a seasoned professional with the capacity to ensure the school is ranked among the best in the country through the production of quality environmental health graduates.

    “The appointment of Dr. Usman, Chairman of the Kaduna State branch of EHOAN, is a good decision by Governor El-Rufai, to encourage the availability of quality health personnel for the state and the country. Dr. Usman is a rare breed environmental health professional. He is a round peg in a round hole. It shows the sincerity of the governor in ensuring high productivity through the appointment of qualified and competent hands in important positions.

    “The state, and indeed Nigeria, needs qualified personnel to ensure effective implementation and supervision of government health policies. I have no doubt Dr. Usman will justify the confidence reposed in him,” he said.

  • AAU suspends ASUU chairman over alleged sexual assault

    Authorities of the Ambrose Alli University ( AAU  ), Ekpoma have suspended the institution’s chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Prof. Monday Igbafen over alleged sexual harassment.

    Prof. Igbafen who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy was alleged to have been threatening female students with marks for sex.

    A press statement signed by the university’s spokesman, Mr. Edward Aihevba, said the suspension followed the arraignment of Prof. Igbafen before the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee (SSDC) on allegations of gross misconduct bordering on sexual harassment and threat of marks for sex.

    Aihevba said Prof. Igbafen has earlier been found culpable and indicted by an investigative panel of the University for the Offence of sexual harassment.

    He said a family of a female victim had threatened to drag the institution before the ICPC if it failed to bring Prof. Igbafen to book.

    According to the statement, “On receipt of the petition, the university management asked for his comments. His response was found unsatisfactory. He was therefore arraigned before the SSDC.

    “As due process demands, he has been suspended from the university pending the determination of the allegation leveled against him.

    “He is therefore not allowed to participate or involved in any university duties or functions except those related to SSDC during the period of his suspension.”

    Responding, Prof. Igbafen said he would expose the Vice Chancellor, Professor Ignacious Onimawo, to the world that blackmail does not work within the university.

    Prof. Igbafen said the suspension was part of a grand plan to intimidate ASUU chapter of the university.

    He said the VC has a personal vendetta against him.

    Read Also: AAU to resume Sunday as some dons ditch ASUU for CONUA

    According to him, “It is a grand plot that will fail. The VC is desperate because he has so many things to hide. He is looking for a weak ASUU to manipulate.

    “That petition was written against two of us when I was a Lecturer II in 2011. I answered it that my hands are clean. Is that why he is denying me of my promotion?

    “All these things are plot to destabilise the Union. It is a cheap blackmail. The VC is desperate to decimate ASUU. I know he is behind all the petitions against me.”

  • Tackling traffic gridlock with technology

    Can sanity ever return to Lagos roads? The state government, experts and transportation stakeholders say it is possible if motorists comply with traffic regulations, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    These are ‘mad’ times for motorists and commuters in Lagos State. For many residents, hell has been let loose in the state, no thanks to traffic gridlocks across the metropolis.

    According to the Bureau of Statistics, the state lost over two billion man-hour to traffic in 2016. This figure, motorists believe, will be doubled by the time this year’s data is computed.

    Although residents and visitors to the state have been coping with traffic snars since, the current traffic pattern has increased their pains, anguish, tears and sadness.

    “Many, these days, dread to be on the roads in Lagos,” a top government worker, who craved anonymity, admitted to The Nation.

    Transportation Studies teacher Prof. Samuel Odewunmi blamed the traffic mayhem on “government’s planlessness.”

     

    Lockdown

    Odewunmi, who is Dean, School of Transportation Studies, Lagos State University (LASU), said the state got into traffic crisis because it embarked upon massive reconstruction of virtually all its arterial corridors at the same time, against the grain of urban transport planning.

    He said: “The massive reconstruction of all the major highways into the state simultaneously violates the principles of urban transportation planning. If you have three or four major arterial roads to your state, you cannot work on two at the same time. Doing that will lock down the city. What is recommended is that you embark on them one after the other.”

    He said the almost permanent lock down of Apapa-Oshodi, Marina-Mile 2 -Badagry Expressways, which is the state’s busiest corridor, the construction of the Agege flyover bridge, and the Abule-Egba to Oshodi BRT median corridor, on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, contributed to the gridlocks, made worse by the vehicular density in the state.

    Read Also: Lagos set to unlock 60 major traffic gridlock areas Inbox

    Odewunmi, a member of the state’s Transportation Policy drafting team, said the first step was for the government to admit that it has a traffic emergency on its hands. He also urged the government to adopt other measures, among which are: work on the collated reports of perennial traffic dark spots by LASTMA; profile each of them to know the causes of traffic and provide solutions to such;  and fix bad roads, whether highways, major or minor roads, as they are major impediments to free traffic flow.

    Admitting the government’s good intentions, Odewunmi said because most of the contractors have scant knowledge of roads specifics, most  roads they constructed or rehabilitated hardly last two rainfalls.

    Observing that traffic congestions are localised, Odewunmi called on the state to involve the 20 local governments and 37 local council development areas in road maintenance and developing traffic solutions in their domain, rather than having them as onlookers.

    According to him, council chairmen could be mandated to hold regular meetings with transport union leaders on how to achieve constant free flow of traffic in their respective domain.

    “Traffic management is local and governments must be involved and not just be mere onlookers. It is also important to bring road transport unions on board. They should not just be collecting revenues that are not being shared by the government,” he stated, adding that, most importantly, the government must continue to place high premium on enforcement.

    Corroborating Odewunmi, Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) Corps Marshal Boboye Oyeyemi said any transportation management policy without enforcement was a picnic. He argued that to drive sanity back to the roads, the government must be stern on enforcement.

     

    Enforcement

    Transportation Commissioner Ladi Lawanson said the government would continue to pursue aggressive awareness campaign on compliance with the state’s traffic laws. He, however, assured that the government would, henceforth, enforce to the letter the Traffic Law 2018, adding that the state’s traffic management agency (LASTMA) has been primed to ensure sanity on the road and among motorists and other road users.

    “Among other things, we are extending the working hours of all our traffic officers, as the governor has approved that they can now run three shifts, especially on perennial traffic prone corridors. The governor has also directed security cover for them against assaults and molestations in the course of their duties, while the Ministry of Justice has been directed to set up more mobile courts to try traffic offenders,” he said.

    Lawanson further disclosed that the government had approved the establishment of special traffic intervention force, which would operate on motorbikes, to enable them get to traffic prone areas on time. He also revealed plans for traffic officers to be armed with body cameras, to further reduce conflicts with motorists in the event of being apprehended for traffic violation.

    He said: “The bodycams, which would be on the traffic officers, would be deployed to further reduce human interaction and use technology to further drive sanity and enforcement of traffic on the roads. The body cams, which work like the CCTVs, would capture the details of the offending motorists and such would be ticketed and, in case of default, such a culprit could be prosecuted.”

    Lawanson also said the intermodal transportation plan would begin on a sure footing next year, as the government would take delivery of two new watercraft, making its ferry acquisitions it would use to announce its entrance into water transportation four.

    He said with the take off of the new bus scheme, and the channelisation of the waterways for increased patronage, there would be a reduction in road traffic.

    Commissioner for Information and Strategy Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan  sued for Lagosians’ patience as the government battles with the intractable traffic situation.

    Bamigbetan, who identified impatience and motorists’ attitude as the bane of the traffic bottlenecks, said if drivers were patient and obeyed  traffic regulations, sanity would be restored on the roads.

    Bamigbetan said besides bodycams, the automated number plate capturing equipment (ANPR) would also be mounted on roads, especially areas prone to traffic, so cameras would pick the number plate of the offender, process the picture on the database and deliver a ticket to the culprit’s address obtained from the database.

    Bamigbetan   said the government was determined to rid the state of gridlocks. he added that no stone would be left unturned in the task of making travel seamless in the state.

    A former Transportation Commissioner, who craved for anonymity, while applauding the application of technology to enforcement, said LASTMA should do more as it has the wherewithal to resolve traffic snarls.

    The ex-transportation chief said there were traffic snarla everywhere in the state because of the absence of a transportation management plan by the agency established to ensure free flow of traffic.

    “Everywhere you go what you see now is crippling traffic. It now takes about three to four hours to move between Ikeja and Oshodi, and you may end up not been able to get to honour any event which you are invited if you did not leave home early. When you finally get ahead of the traffic, you will see nothing but the abdication of responsibility by LASTMA.

    He said what needed to be done to tame the nightmarish traffic was to give purposeful leadership and direction to the agency as it remained the only one that could help resolve the crippling traffic.

    “The traffic bottlenecks in Lagos require a more focused and aggressive solution beyond the cosmetics being applied by the government,” he said.

    According to him, traffic in Lagos is simple and easy to manage and as such does not require complex applications.

    He said: “In the past 16 years, we have never had transportation this bad. Except for traffic engineering solutions, which require more cash inflow to tackle, traffic control should not be beyond LASTMA.

    “The problem is that there’s lack of a transport plan. The Police should be involved in not more than the provision of security, but not for LASTMA to surrender traffic flow to them. Same for the FRSC, they can only collaborate. The only agency that is saddled with traffic management in Lagos is LASTMA. That mandate is very clear. Right now LASTMA has over 6,000 officers.

    “Let the leaders talk to people, who understand the problem, and let them develop a robust intervention plan that can address the challenge that traffic is currently posing to Lagosians.”

    He also carpeted the use of mobile courts, saying those who contravene the law must either be ready to pay the fine or be prosecuted. “There should not be anything like mobile courts. Let anyone who does not want to pay face the music. Enforcement must be hard and firm,” he argued.

    As the roads get busier due to the year-end activities, Lagosians could only hope they will begin to enjoy some respite on roads, as only this can save them from the ‘hell’ they seemed to have been sentenced.

  • Yahoo Boys: Nigeria’s newest players in the illegal ivory trade

    In this report, TAIWO ALIMI investigates how a new band of players – Yahoo Boys – use the cyberspace to market and sell illegal ivory in Nigeria

    Mohammed (not his real name) has been into cyber fraud for six years, before adding ivory marketing and sales. He walks into the room without smiling. He has chosen the place and time of our rendezvous with the aid of a contact—an antique dealer in Jakande Ivory Market, Lekki—a high-brow community of Lagos, Nigeria. The place is a quiet eatery in a backstreet of Victoria Island, overlooking the five-star Eko Hotels and Suites.

    Slim and athletic, Mohammed could pass for a university student, but upon closer scrutiny, his dark brown face with wrinkles shows a man accustomed to hustling.

    He considers himself a cyber genius. “I used to con people on the internet,” Mohammed said. “I’m a marketer now selling ivory to rich Nigerians and foreigners. It is easy and lucrative.”

    The 32-year old is not alone. He works as a middleman for sellers and buyers of refined ivory. According to him, the general decline in proceeds from 419 scams and growing police trouble have distanced the Yahoo boys from the internet fraud after which they were named and into the sophisticated and organized international ivory trade.

    “I was introduced into the business by a colleague and many other ‘Yahoo boys’ are doing it,” Mohammed said. Interestingly, this new crop of ivory middlemen thinks they are legitimate. “The police don’t disturb us. We have a string of customers now that reach out to us easily whenever they want ivory products.”

    These days the Yahoo boys’ hangouts are no longer cybercafés but five-star hotels in Lagos Island and Lekki, Lagos Bar Beach, and other places frequented by wealthy Asians and Europeans. Every day, they sniff out prospective buyers. Top on their wanted list are Asians. The boldest often directly approach them, offering ‘small price’ for any kind of ivory piece.

    The Yahoo boys are well known at Jakande Ivory Market, which Andrew Dunn, Nigeria Country Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), described as “the largest domestic market for ivory in Africa.” He said they often bring their clients there to authenticate the products before buying.

    “Many times we sneak ivory out to clients or bring them in when they insist on seeing and handling before buying,” said Mohammed. “We just bring them to the dealer and wait for our cut.” From time to time, they get tips from both sides, as impressed buyers often part with financial gifts for their services. “Dealers will add a little money on the good as our compensation.

    Our cut is proportionate with volume of trade. I have made N1000 ($2.7) and up to N5000 ($14) in a single transaction,” Mohammed explained.

    He said a happy buyer would be glad to part with N500 ($1.3) or N1000 ($ 2.7) for the link up with dealer.

    According to Mohammed, on the average, the monthly take home of a go-between Yahoo boy is between N45, 000 ($125) and N60, 000 ($166).

    Gloria Chi, an ivory seller confirmed Mohammed’s claim.

    Out of their takings Mohammed and co, however, must part with a little sum occasionally to olori (meaning leader in local language). Olori is the underground grandmaster that controls illegal activities within a locality.

    According to him, the payment called ‘protection’ is “ransom paid to olori for protection from police and other criminals,” and for them to work in his area of control.

    The sum is not fixed but is delivered whenever olori calls.

    Pressed for other payments to ivory dealers at home and abroad, he gave an emphatic NO. “We don’t work for them,” he said.

    Although Mohammed insists that his days as a cyber criminal are over, he is still using the internet to market and sell ivory, an illegal act according to an agreement reached by member states to ban international trade in ivory at the 1989 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). In early 1990, CITES added domestic trading with a caveat: ‘unless there is proof that your ivory was lawfully acquired prior to the date that the African elephant was listed in CITES Appendix I (January 18, 1990)’.

    Booming online sales

    The Yahoo boys have taken ivory trafficking to the next level by taking advantage of their expertise in cyberspace to put it online.

    “We promote our products on the internet too. We advertise on popular online media and some social media. This is what everyone who has something to sell does,” Mohammed added.

    Our investigation turned up valuable information to back up Mohammed’s claim. Jiji.ng, one of Nigeria’s fastest growing online market—which sells everything from baby stuff to clothes, electronics and cars—is awash, daily, with promos of ivory beads, trinkets and jewelry. For a little fee, sellers are allowed to post pictures, prices, and inviting descriptions of their goods online. The sellers’ contacts are also on display for prospective buyers.

    For example, a seller by the name of Ayedun Mercy put on sale original ivory beads for ?100,000 ($273) on the portal. Seven other offers for ivory-related items were also on display that same day. The adverts encouraged interested buyers to make contact, and to validate the products before payment. The owners of jiji.ng boast of having 100,000 visitors daily.

    Ronke Oyebade, Jiji.ng’s salesperson, said that adverts are automatically blocked after two reports on them. “We have prohibited items; weapons, military/police items, human organs, stolen properties and product prohibited by laws, among others. Ivory items are not under any of this category,” she said.

    Also involved in the illicit online trades are vconnect.com—a popular business-oriented portal—and nairaland.com, one of the most used online portals with high traffic 24/7. One seller on nairaland.com says he has 11 elephant tusks for sale. Another, Nnamoekenna, is looking for buyers for ivory staffs belonging to his late father, an Igbo chief.

    Lagos open market 

    If Mohammed was careful and discreet at the restaurant, he became bold and loquacious on getting to our destination; Jakande Ivory market.

    The marketplace, otherwise known as Bar Beach Market by the uninitiated, and going by the signage, is a sizable and colourful place. Though the road to the market is dirty and worn out, the market itself is clean and well kept. It has about 200 stalls in neat rows. Stalls with similar wares are in the same regions and you can pick out the grocery area on entering. Other stalls bearing stone handicrafts, traditional beads, wood masks, wood carvings, bracelets, paintings, exotic animal purses, bags and sandals, and African prints are close to the back, and the same goes for the ivory stalls.

    There, the stalls are cleaner than the rest of the market, and the environment is inviting. Even the salespersons are young and cordial. They speak English eloquently and treat shoppers well.

    Neatly lined up in transparent shelves, about 20 stalls display exclusive ivory products; from beads to pipes, trinkets to bangles, traditional pipes, combs, pendants, religious carvings and life-size ivory in different sizes. Some have been carved into different shapes; blowing pipes, animals

    and religious symbols. Multiple images of Mary, the mother of Christ, adorn the shelves.

    Prices differ. A small bangle sells for N30, 000 ($82) while bigger ones go for as high as N70, 000 ($193).  An ivory cigarette pipe goes for N40, 000($110) while necklaces cost between N100, 000 andN150, 000. ($273 and $414) For a small life-size ivory staff, the price tag is N150, 000($414) while longer ones can go for as high as N300, 000($828).

    Ivory vendor, Chi, offered to supply fresh elephant tusk for a N300, 000 ($828) deposit. “With N500, 000($1,381) I can supply you fresh ivory within three days,” she said.

    Another seller, Chinedu, said many Asian nationals and Europeans frequent the market. “Our products are Africanized. They are genuine and the best you can find anywhere in Africa. That is why most of our customers are foreigners,” he boasted.

    Patronage is equally good. According to Chinedu, “in a week, my store makes between N1million and N1.5 million” ($2778 and $4167). Out of his stock, he said the ivory tusk, carried as staff of office by Igbo chiefs, bangles and necklaces are hot in demand. “The staff is sold in pairs and Asians and local chiefs buy them regularly. Society women also come to buy ivory bangles and necklaces.”

    Chi put her monthly sale at N4million ($11,112) or more.

    With more stalls overflowing with ivory products, it is safe to estimate that mega million ivory deals pass through this market thereby worsening elephant butchery in Africa.

    Solomon Adefolu, programme coordinator of the Climate Change and Local Engagement Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) observed, “That is where Igbo chiefs go to buy their tusks, which is a symbol of authority in their locality. It is the same market that men and women with large appetites for ivory trinkets, beads and bangles go, as well as small and big-time ivory product sellers. Chinese of

    ten buy to resell when they travel home. ”

    From Island to Mainland

    Through the Yahoo boys ‘energetic online marketing, ivory trading is no longer exclusive to Lagos Island. Ivory products now adorn hidden shelves in mainland markets and residences where transactions are done.  Mainland areas such as Ikeja, the Lagos State capital, Ojodu, Yaba, and Isolo are culprits.

    This year alone, there have been several recorded seizures of ivory. According to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), 218 pieces / 343kg of elephant tusks were seized on February 13, from a Chinese-occupied apartment in Ikeja, Lagos. The occupant was arrested.

    In May, four elephant tusks were held in Tejuoso Market, Ikeja, while 329 sacks (8,492 kgs) of pangolin scales were apprehended from another Chinese national at his Ikeja home in March in Ikeja. Two days later, 78 sacks (1,771 kg) of pangolin scales were also apprehended from the same apartment.

    There is no doubt that the growing population and concentration of Asians in Lagos is aiding big sales in Lagos. Granted, the Yahoo boys are boosting the ivory market internally, but Nigeria’s biggest threat to elephant killings and ivory trade remains in international trading.

    “Even in the UK and US, that is an issue with websites and online trade,” said Dunn, who has been working in Africa since 1989. “It is much more difficult to control. But it is probably small amounts. The larger amount would be through containers.”

    He suspects that the quantum of online trading is little when compared to the amount that goes through the borders and shores. “There is domestic trade going on but there is also a big international trade going through Nigeria,” Dunn added.

    Another problem is Nigeria’s laws on ivory trade. “They are ambiguous,” he said. “Surely, it is clearly illegal to import or export ivory, but is it illegal to sell or buy ivory within Nigeria? I am not really sure. Ivory is being sold openly in Lagos; there is nobody that’s been arrested. It is a threat to Nigeria’s remaining elephants.”

    According to the Constitution as amended in 1999, under the Endangered Species (control of international trade and traffic) Act prohibited animals are classed into two groups. Animals in the first group are ‘absolutely prohibited’ from hunting or capture of or international trade. For animals in the other group, hunting or capture or international trade may only be ‘conducted under license.’

    It states that with a permit from a federal minister, international trade can be conducted. It does not mention local trading.

    Interestingly, ‘immature elephants’ are in the first list, while mature elephants are in the second list. Meaning: it is absolutely legal to trade big tusks once you can produce a permit.

    “There is an urgent need to repeal this law,” Adefolu said.

    For offenders, the current law stipulates a mere N1000 ($2.7) fine for a first timer and six-month imprisonment for a second time offender.

    A source in Customs revealed that no offender has been prosecuted. “There have been seizures and arrests of locals and Asians, but no prosecution. Our laws on wildlife are weak,” he said under condition of anonymity.

    Where the federal government has failed, Bauchi State government in collaboration with WCS—the body managing conservation in Yankari Game Reserve—has upgraded local laws on wildlife to punish offenders severally.

    “Arrested hunters and poachers face six months’ imprisonment with option of between N300, 000($828) and N500, 000($1,381) fines. Many times, we keep them in jail because they could not afford the fine,” said Geoffrey Nachamada, the landscape director of Yankari.

    As for the Yahoo boys, they are new to the police, whose focus has been on internet fraud.

    Dr Elizabeth Ehi-Ebewele, Head of Wildlife at Nigeria CITES, is also advocating for legislation that would properly protect wildlife in Nigeria. “We need legislations that are strong and encompassing to check the killing and smuggling of wildlife. They go to our forests. They collaborate with community people, and gain access to the bush. They kill any elephant, any mammal, including the young ones. To them what is important is money. They have no regard for the future. It is high time we took wildlife very seriously,” she said.

    This story was produced by The Nation Newspapers written as part of the ‘Reporting the Online Trade in Illegal Wildlife’ programme. This is a joint project of the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The Global Initiative Against Organized Crime funded by the Government of Norway. More information at http://globalinitiative.net/initiatives/digital-dangers.The content is the sole responsibility of the author and the publisher.