The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Presidential panel

  • Presidential panel recovers N40m hidden in bank by govt agencies

    The Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) has said it recovered over N40 million for the Federal Government from an unnamed commercial bank. SPIP said it withheld the bank’s name to avoid causing panic among its customers.

    The panel’s spokesperson Lucie-Ann Member Laha said the new recovery was different from the $20 million earlier recovered by the panel. SPIP said it discovered the money while investigating accounts of Federal Government agencies operated by commercial banks from 2009 to 2015.

    The statement reads: “The recovery (the N40 million) was made as a result of findings by a team of the panel’s investigation into accounts of Federal Government agencies operated by commercial banks from 2009 to 2015.

    “The investigation panel had earlier assigned a team of forensic auditors with the task of x-raying the operations of Federal Government accounts domiciled in commercial banks within that period, with a view to establishing whether or not such accounts had been subjected to arbitrary or excessive charges, interest shortfalls, accrued interests or other illegal dealings.

    “Arising from its findings, the panel, in a letter dated January 19, 2019, issued a demand notice to the bank for N230,144,784.34, comprising of N180,932,793.39k and $161,350.79, to which the bank objected.”

     

    “Following the objection, therefore, the panel and the bank held a joint reconciliation meeting and agreed that the amount actually due for refund was N40,336,186.25.

    “The money has since been paid into the panel’s TSA Recovery Account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    “The reconciliation team also agreed that $56,919.10 should equally return to the coffers of the Federal Government.

    “This recovery is different from the $20 million earlier reported by the panel. It may be recalled that the panel recently informed Nigerians that it had recovered $20 million from a commercial bank, being part of money deposited into the bank by a government agency which failed to transfer same to the government’s TSA account.

    “That report had said the $20 million was initial part refund of $232 million, adding that the bank had committed to refunding $10 million monthly until the refund was completed.

    “As in the earlier case, the panel refrains from naming the bank in question, in order to prevent panic by its customers.

    “SPIP, however, remains resolute in its commitment to recover looted public property and bringing to book all who contribute to the economic adversity of Nigeria.”

     

  • Presidential panel spent N10b on Northeast IDPs in two years

    •Agency commits N2b to 67,000 students

    THE Federal Government spent N10 billion on foods for victims of insurgency in the Northeast in the last two years, it was learnt yesterday.

    Due to the devastating effect of Boko Haram insurgency on education in the region, the Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiatives (PCNI) is committing over N2 billion to support 67,000 students and 6,750 teachers to encourage conducive learning environment.

    The education intervention programme was launched simultaneously on Monday in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

    PCNI Vice Chairman Tijani Tumsah, who spoke in yesterday, stated that with about 1.7 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the region, a 25-kilogrammes food basket of seven items at a cost of N54,000 is spent on a family monthly.

    Read also: You can’t blackmail Nigerians, PDP tells Buhari

    “Food is a major consumer of our funds. In the last two and a half years, the PCNI has spent over N10 billion on food for the IDPs. Before the inception of PCNI, there has been various interventions by various organisations, but when we came on board, we have to coordinate and fill in gaps wherever they exist.

    “We now have about 1.7 million IDPs. Before now, the figure was over two million.”

    Tumsah also said the panel’s intervention in the education sector of the region became imperative due to the massive damage done to the psyche and school attendance by the insurgency.

    On the Northeast Education Programme, the PCNI Vice Chairman said prior to the insurgency, the region was lagging behind other regions in development indices.

    He said the situation was compounded by the insurgency that led to large-scale destruction of infrastructures as well as the socio-economic life of the people.

    It was in view of this that the PCNI conceived the idea of Education Support Programme, whereby primary and secondary schools are targeted for assistance.

    “Not all schools and students would be covered by the programme, but only those with critical needs and so far, we have identified 67,000 students and 6,750 in the state and Local Government Areas across the region.

    “The identification and selection was carried out in collaboration with Ministries of Education and individual school managements in the states and local governments in the region.

    “About N800 million has been committed to the three states where the programme was launched a couple of days ago and in a matter of days, the other states in the region would follow suit.

    “The programme is designed to reduce the huge deficit recorded in that sector by encouraging a conducive learning environment for the children through provision of learning materials for the students and their teachers and equipment that would assist the school to meet its obligations to the children.

    “Even as reconstruction of the region is ongoing, it was our aim to ensure that the children are encouraged to go back to school and once they got back to school, they have aids to be able to have access to sound education as much as possible,” Tumsah said.

  • Presidential panel deplores torture

    The Presidential Panel on the Reform of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has criticised the continued use of torture as a tool of interrogation by security agents.

    The panel’s members, led by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Executive Secretary Tony Ojukwu, spoke after their on-the-spot visit to SARS’ main detention centre in Guzampe, Abuja at the weekend.

    On the panel’s findings, Ojukwu said members encountered detainees with scars and serious injuries, “which they (the detainees) made us understand were as a result of torture”.

    He said in view of the findings, the panel has summoned the investigating  police officers (IPOs) handling cases involving suspects with such injuries, and some other senior supervising police officers to appear at its on-going sitting in Abuja.

    Ojukwu called for the adoption of intelligence-led policing and scientific investigation methods as against the reliance on torture by investigator.

    He argued that the deployment of force by the police and other investigating agencies always result in the destruction of vital clues and intelligence that would have aided in crime prevention and detection.

    He said the condition of facilities in the detention centre required urgent improvement.

    Ojukwu lamented that  facilities were inadequate and  detainees were kept in over-crowded and smelly cells, with inadequate access to food, medicine and healthcare.

    Ojukwu added: “We found that some of them are sick and have not been taken to hospital. We were told that nurses visit them on a daily basis. But, some of them (detainees) complained that they pay for the drugs that they need to get well. It is important that the medical facilities here are kept up-to-date so that we don’t have cases of death in detention.”

    The NHRC Executive Secretary, who said his panel also found that minors and policemen were also detained in the facility with adult criminal suspects, faulted the practice, where erring policemen, trained to apprehend criminals, were detained in the same cell with such criminal suspects.

    He suggested the practice, where minors and erring security personnel are kept in separate facilities to prevent the many unintended consequences that often result from such cases.

    Ojukwu identified practices like the involvement of SARS in cases of minor offences, indiscriminate arrest and detention, and the delay in the criminal justice system as factors responsible for the over-crowding of detention facilities.

    The NHRC Executive Secretary said his panel also found that some of the detainees have not been taken to court for over a year.

    Ojukwu urged police authorities and the judiciary to work on ways to decongest such detention facilities, including ensuring that detainees were allowed prompt access to court to enable them establish their innocence or guilt within the time provided by the constitution.

  • SARS: Presidential panel calls for intellient policing

    The Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Mr. Tony Ojukwu, wants intelligent policing in reforming the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operations.

    Ojukwu, who doubles as Chairman, Presidential Investigation Panel on the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, made the call during a visit by the panel to SARS detention facility in Abuja.

    The panel was set up by the federal government to look into the petitions by members of the public on the operations of SARS and to recommend a way forward.

    He said the visit was for the panel members to see things by themselves.

    “We have always preached prison decongestion, we need to do some background checks; there must be intelligent policing in other to move forward,” he said.

    The chairman stressed the need for officers to minimise or do away with the way they torture inmates or suspects.

    “We don’t benefit much from torture, it only breeds frustration, and the truth cannot be extracted from the person tortured.

     

  • Ekweremadu selling off undeclared assets in U.S., London, says presidential panel

    THE Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIPRPP) has accused Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu of engaging in clandestine sale of his assets in the United States (U.S.) in a purported bid to render useless the order of forfeiture being sought against him.

    The SPIPRPP made the allegation in a counter-affidavit it filed on March 26, 2018 and deposed to by Yohanna Shankuk of the law firm of Festus Keyamo (SAN).

    The panel had recently applied ex-parte to the Federal High Court, Abuja for an interim forfeiture order on some 22 property allegedly owned by Ekweremadu in Nigeria and abroad, but which he allegedly refused to declare.

    Rather than allow the court hear and decide the ex-parte application, Ekweremadu challenged the court’s jurisdiction, claiming among others, that the SPIPRPP was an illegitimate body.

    The panel, in responding to Ekweremadu, filed a counter affidavit, in which it claimed that Ekweremadu, in a desperate bid to avoid forfeiting the properties, has already sold two of his three undeclared properties in Kissimmee, Florida, United States of America.

    It accused the deputy Senate president of employing delay tactics to frustrate the suit.

    The panel said the property, which were bought in 2008 for $200,000 each, were put on the market in January and sold for $150,000 to the same buyer on February 20 2018.

    It wants the court to restrain Ekweremadu from further selling the 22 property identified in the motion pending before it.

    It equally urged the court to grant its reliefs to enable the panel investigate and identify the alleged buyers.

    SPIPRPP’s move against Ekweremadu was said to have been informed by a petition by a retired judge, Justice Innocent  Umezulike.

    In the petition dated March 23,2018,  the retired judge alleged that he was moved by civic responsibility to lodge a complaint to the panel to the effect that the life style of Ekweremadu and the massive property he had acquired were not justified by his source of income.

    The judge urged the panel  to investigate him (Ekweremadu).

    Part of the petition reads: “In sum, from 1999 till date,  he has been in the realms of public office without any break to engage in any personal business.

    “Thus, his emoluments in the past 18 years are easily ascertainable from revenue mobilisation allocation and fiscal commission.

    “Prior to his entry into public office in 1999, he was not a successful lawyer,  he lived in the dirt of high density suburb of Enugu at No:17, Mike Ejeagha Street, Abakpa -Nike, Enugu.

    “Curiously, in a space of 18 years, the suspect has amassed and stashed billions of naira in cash and choice properties strewn in major cities in four continents of the world.”

    He added that the cash is locked up in the vault of two banks.

    The judge to who the case is assigned at the Federal High Court, Abuja could not conduct any proceedings in the case yesterday.

    Justice Binta Nyako adjourned to June 5 for hearing.

     

  • Knocks as Amnesty International fails to prove human rights abuses before Presidential Panel

    Human rights monitoring organization, Amnesty International, AI, came under fire as it testified before the Presidential Investigation Panel to Review Compliance of The Armed Forces with Human Rights Obligations and Rules of Engagement, after it emerged that it tried proving its earlier reports with manipulated videos and pictures before the panel.

    Amnesty International, led by Professor Ernest Ojukwu, SAN, appeared before the panel to demonstrate and prove to the panel human rights abuses which it had earlier published and circulated widely before Nigerians and members of the international community in an attempt to stop the military from fighting terrorism.

    The Nigerian Army team led by Professor Yemi George, SAN who cross-examined  Amnesty International’s researchers  at the tribunal on their methodology, said the entire report lacks any iota of credibility to be published in the first instance, if not for selfish motives.

    It was therefore a case of helplessness  for Amnesty International throughout the session as experts who appeared before the panel seem not to have either prepared the report or part of the investigation that produced the video and pictures being used by the organization against the military.‎

    The ongoing public sitting  briefly descended into exchange of heated words between members of the panel and the Amnesty International (AI) representatives.

    The brief rancour started when a member of the panel, Olawale Fapohunda asked the representatives of AI if they are aware that having access to restricted documents they copiously referred to in their report is an illegal act.

    To this, AI’s Senior Director for Research, Dr. Anna Neistat,  replied that if the panel is accusing the organization of committing any crime, the organization would like its corporate lawyer to be present.

    “If you insist AI should answer this question, it would be provided in writing after consulting with our organisation’s lawyer,” she added.

    Fapohunda earlier asked if in the over 55 years existence of AI, if there is any occasion where it was discovered that facts contained in their publications were found to be incorrect.

    “Yes, there are cases of minor errors discovered and in all these cases, they have been immediately corrected and rightly communicated. But none of these errors have ever affected any of the allegations we raised. We have extreme rigorous process before publishing our reports,” Neistat answered.

    However, when another member of the panel, Maj. Gen. Patrick Akem (Rtd) said he found it shocking that AI did not visit Maiduguri before publishing its report “Stars on their shoulder, blood on their hands”; counsel representing AI, Prof. Ernest Ojukwu (SAN) replied that the panel is already “telling us your result without any conclusion. You are already shocked and it sounds conclusive.”

    At this point, the Chairman of the panel, Sir Justice Biobele A. Georgewill intervened, assuring that although it is expected that there would be little altercation in such hearings, no single panel member will have a final say.

    “Please, ignore these exchanges, just let the panel conclude its investigation,” he said.

    The Chairman however asked AI how it expects the panel to go about investigating the allegations when AI did not provide specifics or present eye-witnesses.

    “Groups like us document our allegations to form a prima facie case for government to investigate. Our role is not to implicate any individual,” AI’s Director of Research and Advocacy for Africa, Netsanet Belay said.‎

    In an incident that further underscores Amnesty International’s growing loss of credibility in Nigeria and other parts of the world, the Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC) said it would be forced to kick the international NGO out of Nigeria if the Federal Government fails to expel it for its many atrocities against the country.

    SHAC said it takes particular exception to reports by Amnesty International like  “Blood on Their Hands,” and other reports aimed at undermining the ability of Nigerian military and security agencies to respond to security threats and protect citizens. It disclosed it would mobilize Nigerians to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to reject the NGO’s position while ensuring that Amnesty International is compelled to pay the necessary compensation for the damages done to the image of the country.

    The video, pictures and submissions were earlier discredited by the Nigerian human rights and humanitarian organization, SHAC, which paraded nine International experts on human rights and conflict resolution.
    SHAC’s team included Ambassador Lumumba D’Aping, a one-time Sudanese Ambassador to the United Nations, David Falt, Founder of Preventive Diplomacy in Geneva, Mary Johnson, a practicing human rights lawyer in the United States and United Kingdom. It also has a lawyer, Edward Omaga , Professor Shuaibu Danfulani of the University of Abuja and Dr. Ifure Ataifure of the Centre for International Strategic Studies, Abuja.
    The local NGO which submitted 3 memos on the Nigerian State’s  response to threats to humanity had monitored proceedings of the panel since its inauguration including a visit to the north east, south east and south-south geo-political zones of the country  where its experts assessed the threats being faced by the people of Nigeria.
    Lead Counsel to SHAC, Edward Omaga esq whilst speaking to pressmen after the sitting said Amnesty International should apologize to the Nigerian people for the various unsubstantiated allegations it published as reports in online and electronic media even before approaching the panel and the International Criminal Court (ICC) without a single proof to back up its claim.

    He warned that “failure by Amnesty International to do this within 14 days will force SHAC to institute an action against them at the International Criminal Court same way they did against the Nigerian authorities as their motive has clearly been exposed by their poor outings before this panel in Nigeria.

    “AI has constituted itself into a court where the same party acts as a judge, a victim and a defendant in its own case. This must not be tolerated any further anywhere close to Nigeria soil and the attempts to discredit the Federal Government in protecting its citizens has surely failed,” he stated.
    Omaga also said “Nigerians will not forgive Amnesty International for trying to twist the successes of the anti-terrorism campaigns against those whose blood was used as sacrifices for us to have the current peace and tranquility in the country.”
    He called on genuine NGOs and international partners to support Nigeria in addressing the humanitarian issues in the north east and other parts of Nigeria and not to add to the woes of the people in any way.

  • Presidential panel on military rights abuses begins sitting in Port Harcourt

    Presidential panel on military rights abuses begins sitting in Port Harcourt

    THE Presidential Panel of Investigation set up to review compliance of the military on rules of engagement has commenced hearing in Port Harcourt.

    Its chairman, Justice Biobele Georgewill, said yesterday the panel would listen to stakeholders from the south-south region over alleged human rights violations by the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

    He said the panel would take receipt of memorandum from state governments, traditional rulers, community leaders, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, human right groups and other stakeholders.

    “It is gratifying to inform that the panel has been receiving memoranda from across the country as we intend to hold public hearings in each of the six geopolitical zones.

    “We have concluded our sitting in Maiduguri (Adamawa) for the Northeast zone, and now, we are in Port Harcourt for the South-South zone from September 25 to September 28.

    “The public sitting will attend to all memoranda submitted to the Panel from all the south-south states and thereafter, move to other remaining zones of the country.

    “This arrangement will provide the opportunity for all those who submitted a memorandum to make presentations before the panel sittings at each of the zones,” he said.

    Georgewill said the hearing was a unique opportunity for individuals, groups, and organisations to present verifiable evidence of alleged human rights abuses by the Armed Forces.

    According to him, the penal inaugurated on Aug. 11 by Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, was mandated to investigate alleged crimes against humanity by the military in tackling local armed conflicts.