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Tag: prosecute

  • Oyo to prosecute herdsmen with guns

    Herdsmen caught with guns will be treated as criminals and prosecuted accordingly, the Oyo State government has said.

    This was stated in a communiqué issued at the end of the State Inter-Religious/Ethnic Committee (OYSIREC) held in Ibadan at the Executive Chamber of the governor’s office.

    The meeting was attended by religious, tribal, ethnic and community leaders, including security agents, with Governor Abiola Ajimobi in attendance.

    OYSIREC appealed to clerics to stop preaching hate and inciting sermons that derogate other religions.

  • Prosecute the villains

    Prosecute the villains

    •All those found to have attacked electoral officials should be arraigned expeditiously

    It is not certain if Nigerians could learn the correct lessons before the 2019 General Elections. The February 25 polls conducted to fill the vacant seats in the Etche/Omuma federal constituency and the Rivers State House of Assembly Constituency 2 indicate that nothing has really changed in attitude, mentality and conduct of our political elite. Hell was let loose as thugs had a free rein, scaring away the electorate, snatching ballot boxes and other electoral materials and generally disrupting voting, despite the deployment of thousands of security agents to the 161 polling units.

    The most unfortunate development was the injuries inflicted on innocent electoral officials. As the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC)for the state, Aniedi Ikoiwak, lamented, “over 25 INEC staff members are in hospital today because the people of Rivers State decided to either kill or wound them. They were all beaten up because they went to those villages to conduct an election. Let the people of Rivers State tell us the offence of any of them. What did they do? They were bringing materials for the election; they decided to descend on them, beat them up, collect their personal belongings and run away.”

    The barbaric conduct of these people during the outing was quite shameful. The officials only heeded the clarion call of their fatherland. In the December 10, 2016 rerun legislative election, many people were killed, including police personnel who were beheaded. Soldiers, too, have been, routinely attacked, abducted or killed in the area. We find the conduct of the thugs and the politicians who hired them distasteful and unacceptable. It is however heartening that the only electoral official abducted in the election has been released.

    Why would thugs be unleashed on innocent election officials? How would future elections be conducted in the state when parents start warning their children and wards to avoid the battle field? We call on the security agents and the prosecuting authorities to start applying the law fully in respect of those who breach electoral laws. The Rivers State political scene is notorious for maiming and killing innocent persons.

    In 2007, Human Rights Watch reported that elections did not really take place in the state. Figures were awarded as against results properly collated after voting. The report said: “in recent years, Etche has earned a degree of unwelcome notoriety due to allegations of corruption, thuggery and murder levelled against its current chairman.”

    Incidentally, all the participants agree that the February poll failed the crucible test of credibility. The All Progressives Congress (APC) state chairman, Dr. Davies Ikanya, and the party’s candidate in the 2015 governorship election, Dr Dakuku Peterside, rejected the result declared, pointing out that it was collated at the instance of Governor Nyesom Wike and in Port-Harcourt as against the legal prescription of the constituency headquarters. The REC partly corroborated this by accepting that the results were declared in the state capital, only adding that the collation was done in Okehi, the local government headquarters. The electoral commission did not deny that Governor Wike stormed the commission’s centre of operations. Neither did the governor who insisted he had to do so to ensure that the results were declared as collated.

    All those found to have infracted the laws in the December 10, 2016 and February 25, 2017 elections in Rivers State should be made to face the law. If they are diligently prosecuted without being offered partisan cover, others would realise the need to shun such illegality in future. The 104-page police probe panel report should be fully given effect, as well as the INEC administrative panel report. Murder is a capital offence under the statutes and all found to have killed for political reasons should be made to face the music.

    Enough, indeed, is enough.

  • Presidency to prosecute SIP forms racketeers

    The Presidency yesterday said that non of the forms under the Social Investment Programmes (SIP) is for sale.

    The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, in a statement, said that the Federal Government will prosecute anybody caught selling any of the SIP forms.

    He also urged Nigerians to refuse to pay  for the SIP forms.

    He said: “We have been receiving reports about instances where Nigerians are being asked to pay application fees for  SIP forms. We want to make it clear that such action is illegal and could warrant criminal prosecution.

    “Let us make this very clear: in order to benefit from N-Power, you don’t have to pay any application fees at all. The way to apply is to go online to the N-Power portal. But it is not open right now as we are still working on the 200,000 unemployed graduates already engaged,” he said

    He also said that there is no application forms or fees to be paid for the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT).

    Akande said:  “We are using a Community-Based Targeting template of the World Bank and as we have explained, this is the mode of identifying the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable.”

    He said that there were instances during the N-Power online application process when some leaders uploaded information of their people onto the N-Power Internet portal to meet the online application requirement.

    “We don’t frown at such an effort as long as the information of the N-Power applicants is properly in-putted online. But we frown at anyone selling forms to Nigerians for this programmes,” he said.

    On claims that some party agents were involved in such illegal form sales, Akande said “the rule affects everyone. No one should sell forms for N-Power or any of the President’s Social Investment Programmes. That is exploitation and it is fraudulent.”

    Stressing that the CCT payments had begun in the pilot states, he said that not everyone in those states had been paid due to logistics and banking challenges.

    Three banks including Stanbic, Access and Guranty Trust Bank, he said, had  been very helpful in the process, including supporting the implementation of aspects of the CCT pro bono.

    Akande said that the Homegrown School Feeding Programme would also proceed this week with the addition of five states.

    He said the states would receive  federal government funding to ensure that primary school pupils in those states start enjoying one hot meal a day.

    Those states are Ogun, Oyo, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Osun. When added to Anambra where the school feeding programme kicked off last year, there would now be six states implementing the scheme.

    According to him, at least 5.5 million Nigerian primary school pupils would be fed for 200 school days under the free Homegrown School Feeding Programme, according to the 2016 Budget, which has an allocation of N93.1B appropriated for the feeding scheme.

  • AGF empowers state Attorneys-General to prosecute federal offences

    AGF empowers state Attorneys-General to prosecute federal offences

    The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (AGF), has yielded part of his powers to states’ Attorneys-General, empowering them to prosecute federal offences.

    Malami issued the 36 states AGs the fiat to empower them to prosecute offences created by federal legislation, but committed within their states.

    This decision formed part of a communiqué issued after a meeting held in Abuja on Thursday between the AGF and the states AGs under the aegis of the Body of Attorneys-General.

    The fiat so issued by the AGF will now allow the states AGs to prosecute offences like kidnapping, human trafficking, terrorism, drugs-related offences, economic and financial crimes, cyber-crimes, copyright breaches, among others.

    The states AGs hailed the body of AGF’s decision, but reminded him to publish it in the Federal Government’s gazette as required. The body also adopted the proposed National Policy on Prosecution, Code of Conduct and Guidelines for Prosecutors in the country.

    The body in its communique, while promising to continue to work together regardless of party affiliation, expressed concern on congestion in the nation’s prisons.

    It also called for an amendment to the Constitution to make provisions of its Chapter 2 which deals with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Police justiciable (enforceable in court).

    The body added that it would help to curb corruption.

    Part of the communiqué reads: “That Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which heals with Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy be made justiciable to avail the citizens of the advantages afforded by the Constitution and to curb corruption.

    “The body expressed serious concern about the congestion in our prisons and urged the Attorneys-General of states to accelerate the prosecution of offenders while also facilitating the release of minor offenders in the exercise of the Governors’ Prerogative Powers of Mercy and their constitutional powers under sections 174 and 211 respectively.

    “The body commends the decision of the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation to grant a General Fiat to states Attorneys-General to prosecute federal offences in their respective states on behalf of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

    “The body further urged the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation to publish the said fiat by way of Legal Notice duly gazetted.”

    The AGF told the gathering that the step was to enhance quick dispensation of criminal cases and to reduce the number of awaiting trial inmates in the nation’s prisons.

    He said the adoption of the policy and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 by the states would, among others, promote effective and efficient criminal justice administration.

    Malami pointed out that it would also remove impediments to speedy dispensation of justice, protect the society from crime and protect the rights and interest of defendants, victim and the society at large.

    He noted that the fear that a national and uniform adoption of the policy documents would infringe on the autonomy of the states was unfounded.

    The AGF said the policy only sought to provide framework for all prosecutors and prosecuting agencies in achieving higher prosecution standards. “The beauty of having a policy as opposed to legislation lies in its flexibility. The policy will serve as basis for sound philosophy and practice for our teaming prosecutors and a guiding code that would be respected and observed by all. A policy has the capacity to be adjusted without the controversies associated with amending legislation.”

  • Fed Govt to prosecute occupants of right-of-way

    The Federal Government has threatened to punish any road users blocking the right-of-way to prevent road damage and the ensure free-flow of traffic.

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola spoke in Oyo at the weekend while inspecting Section II of the Oyo-Ogbomosho and Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

    According to him, most of the roads have been taken over by trucks indiscriminately parked on the left and right of the roads, thereby limiting the right-of-way.

    “We are going to develop strategies to repossess the right-of-way, which is 45 meters on both sides from the centre line; it is the law. I am using this opportunity to appeal to those occupying the right-of-way to leave voluntarily, otherwise we shall take them over by compulsion”

    “Next week, I will be  meeting controllers across the 36 states to agree on guidelines to manage the highways for safety and recover the right-of-way so that motorists can move freely.” he said

    Fashola said:” This country is such a beautiful country but Nigerians does not have the opportunity to see their country because they cannot travel due to bad roads. We can even use this to build our unity when everybody have the opportunity to travel and interact with one another”

    Reacting on the pace of the Oyo/Ogbomoso road, he said:” I think the  progress is obvious here when compared to where it was three years ago, although other constraints are affecting the contractors but it will be address on time. Contractors are back to work and they promise to employ more people to the site to benefit from the economic benefit. “

  • How Fed Govt can prosecute looters, by lawyer

    The Federal Government has been advised to push for the amendment of the Constitution to stipulate a time limit for the prosecution of corruption and related cases to eliminate delays in the trial of corrupt public officers and treasury looters.

    A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Sebastine Hon, who said this, warned that the trials of some public officers may linger beyond the tenure of this administration if nothing was done to ensure speedy prosecution of corruption and related cases. He suggested the inclusion of some major provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) in the Constitution.

    Hon, who noted such ACJA provisions as prohibition of stay of proceedings in criminal trials, said he support the effort by the National Assembly to review the Constitution, but said such review must give financial autonomy to the Judiciary and local governments.

    The lawyer spoke in Abuja on Saturday while announcing plans for the presentation, in Abuja, on July 12, of his 1,300-page book – S.T. Hon’s constitutional and migration law in Nigeria – which discussed, among others, over 4,000 decisions of Nigerian and foreign courts on issues covered.

    Hon advocated the abrogation of pension provisions for political office holders  on the grounds that it was immoral for people, who begged to be elected to serve to constitute liability to the state by drawing pensions. He faulted the restriction of immunity to leaders of the Executive arm, and argued that the nation should either abolish the concept of immunity or extend it to other arms of government.

    He called for a review of the jurisdiction of the National Industrial Court (NIC), because, as it is, it is arguable whether, besides fundamental rights cases, there is a right of appeal against its decision.

    “It is not good to say that matters that affect the welfare of workers and their employers are going to terminate at the NIC.  I will suggest we push up the appellate jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal to include appeals from the NIC. My book has proactively dealt with this issue. It is necessary that we amend the 3rd Alteration Act to expressly restore the supervisory jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal on all matters dealt with by the NIC.

    “I will also suggest an amendment that will provide time limit, in the Constitution, for trials of corruption and terrorism matters. Because when they first amended Section 285 and introduced sub-sections 6, 7 and 8, which provide for 100 days at the election trial and 60 days each for the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, most of us criticised it. But now everyone agrees there is wisdom in the amendment.

    “So, nothing also stops us from abridging the time within which trials on corruption and terrorism matters should start and conclude. Nothing also stops us from elevating those provisions in the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) concerning the prohibition of stay of proceedings to become constitutional provisions, because we are faced with a hydra-headed monster called corruption, and except something is done and done quickly and fundamentally, we may be saying goodbye to project Nigeria’’.

     

  • Arrest, prosecute all political killers – Lawmaker

    A member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Oluyinka Ogundimu has reiterated the need for all political killers to be arrested and prosecuted to forestall future occurrence.

    Ogundimu, who is the Chairman House Committee on Finance, gave this advice while speaking on a programme organized by the Lagos State House of Assembly Correspondents Association (LAHACA) designed for lawmakers to give account of their stewardship.

    It would be recalled that a serving youth corps member, Dumebi Samuel was killed during Rivers re-run that took place on Saturday 19the March.

    Samuel was attached to Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) as an Ad-Hoc staff but was killed during the election.

    A similar incident also happened at the lawmaker’s constituency, Agege constituency in the last general elections where a youth, Eyitayo was gruesomely murdered by political thugs.

    Ogundimu who was reacting to incessant political carnages, stated that “he is already working with the state Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on how to forestall future occurrence and also bring perpetrators of previous killings to book.”

    He disclosed that there were plans in the pipeline for the youths in his constituency, adding that the young ones in the society would have to channel their energies to sports.

    The lawmaker however pointed out that in trying to encourage the youths to take part in sports, it must be an effort for them to earn income rather than just exercising themselves.

    While commenting on the relationship between the executive and legislature in the state, Ogundimu said “the relationship between the two arms of government should not be the kind that we have between pepper and eyes.”

    He explained that the state House of Assembly has been known for effective oversight, saying that that was done through monitoring and corrective measures.

    “We are doing our monitoring, we don’t have to be confrontational; we still get them corrected where it is necessary. When we blow the whistle, it serves as corrective measure. There is no arm of government that can work in isolation,” he said.

    In his comment on the new law on Employment Trust Fund in the state which is meat to create enabling environment for job creation, the lawmaker stated that the N25bn which would be pumped into the economy of the state for a space of four years would be adequately monitored.

    He stressed that before the House passed the Bill, there was an improvement in comparison with the Security Trust Fund, saying “we made sure that the executive sent the administrative guidelines before passing the Bill.”

    He added that there is also a standing committee of the House that would carry out the required monitoring of the Employment Trust Fund to ensure that the money is judiciously expended.

  • N43b fraud: EFCC, AGF can’t agree on who to prosecute

    N43b fraud: EFCC, AGF can’t agree on who to prosecute

    Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday ordered the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation  and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to decide which office will prosecute 16 suspects accused of fraud at the Consolidated Discount House Limited.

    Their arraignment was stalled following a disagreement between lawyers representing the AGF and EFCC on who should prosecute the case.

    Three separates charges were filed against the suspects. Defendants in the first charge are Stephen Akinretoye, Peter Ololo and Falcon Securities Limited.

    The second charge has Akinretoye, Mudashiru Shittu, Olawale Omisore, Captain Eddy Ndoms, Aquatic Transport Limited, Cross Oceans Limited and Ehco Ventures Limited as defendants.

    In the third charge, Akinretoye, Shittu, Larai Claude-Eninn, Hassan Gbenga, Ajibola Jolaosho, Omisore Olawale, Omisope Johnson, Onimole Adebawale and Emmanuel Odedina are the accused.

    In the first charge, the complainant, the Federal Government, alleged that between January 1 and December 31, 2007, the accused conspired to defraud Consolidated Discount Limited by granting loans to Falcon Securities Limited, a company owned by Ololo, without proper documentation.

    The prosecution said they allegedly converted N43.9 billion, funds belonging to Consolidated Discount, in contravention of Section 15 (2) and 15 (3) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2012.

    In the second charge, Akinterotoye and others allegedly defrauded the company in the guise of granting loans to the fourth to seventh defendants and converted N520 milion, N303 million and N600 million.

    The prosecution said investigations showed that Consolidated Discount paid for vessels before the dates of the applications for loan made by the fourth to seventh accused.

    In the third charge, the prosecution said the defendants, as employees of Consolidated Discount, committed fraud by converting its N915.7 million.

    Shittu (as managing director) and Gbenga (as financial controller), between March 2012 and June 2013, allegedly transferred N1.6 billion from Consolidated Discount’s Union Bank Plc account: 0033295449, to companies belonging to them.

    A lawyer from EFCC, A. B. Ozioko, who brought the suspects to court from the commission’s custody, announced appearance for the prosecution, saying the matter was for arraignment.

    But another lawyer, D. C. Enwelum, also announced appearance for the prosecution. He said he was authorised by a fiat by the AGF to prosecute the case.

    Justice Idris said the issue of who has the authority to prosecute the suspects must be sorted out before they are arraigned.

    Ozioko applied that the suspects be remanded in EFCC custody to guarantee their attendance in court at the next date.

    “We apply that they be kept in EFCC custody. That is the only way we can guarantee their production,” he said.

    But defence counsel, including Osaro Eghobamien (SAN), said the suspects were on administrative bail.

    According to them, their clients always reported at EFCC whenever asked and were only detained when they responded to EFCC’s summons on Monday.

    Justice Idris ordered that parties maintain the status quo ante bellum, which he explained to mean that they continue to enjoy the administrative bail granted them before the charge was filed and served on them.

    He adjourned the three cases to March 3 for arraignment.

  • APC to Fed Govt: prosecute ‘riggers’

    APC to Fed Govt: prosecute ‘riggers’

    •Lawyer to sue Fayose

    THE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has called for the prosecution of all those indicted in the alleged rigging of the June 21, 2014 governorship election won by Governor Ayo Fayose.

    This followed the revelations by the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) State Secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko, where he released facts and figures on how the 2014 poll was allegedly rigged in favour of Fayose.

    The APC, in a statement yesterday by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, called on the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to prosecute all those named in the rigging drama.

    Olatunbosun said the election fraud crisis had refused to go, despite all shenanigans by Fayose, who he said was the biggest beneficiary of the fraud.

    The APC spokesman said even though there was nothing new in the PDP’s scribe’s revelations, he noted, however, that it had become pertinent to prosecute the suspects as the revelations were again emanating from the insider who participated fully in what is now known as Ekitigate.

    “By Aluko’s revelations, we are justified in our claim that our candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi, never lost that election, but was criminally toppled by a coup d’état orchestrated by the Goodluck Jonathan administration that illegally deployed money and the military to ensure victory for Fayose.

    Human rights lawyer Morakinyo Ogele has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the Ekitigate scandal.

    He called on Fayose to resign within seven days “because the election that brought him to office was highly compromised”.

    The activist-lawyer also challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to explain its side of the story, following the alleged sharing of N1 billion by its officials.

    The National Coordinator of Ekiti Redemption Group (ERG) said the latest revelation has dented the state’s image acclaimed as “Fountain of Knowledge” and “Land of Honour”.

    He urged stakeholders to come together and rescue it from those he described as “perpetrators of impunity and fraud”.

     

  • ‘I ‘ll prosecute treasury looters’

    ‘I ‘ll prosecute treasury looters’

    Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, in this interview monitored by Uja Emmanuel on the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), gives account of his administration in the last six months. He also speaks on the amnesty programme, the anti-graft battle and the disbursement of the bail out funds. Excerpts: 

    IN the last six months, what are your achievements?

    I give glory to the Almighty God for where we are today. When I came in as governor of Benue State, I knew that we had a lot of challenges. The first thing I noticed was that the whole state was under siege and it was very disturbing. The state was insecure; people were being killed indiscriminately, people were being robbed, people were being kidnapped and I saw it as a very disturbing development. I decided, right from the day of my swearing-in, from May 29,  that the first thing that I had to do was to secure the state. I thought it wise, after due consultation with the Federal Government, I granted amnesty to all those youths who were having arms illegally. As a politician, I knew what transpired during elections, our youths were armed to prosecute the election. Fortunately because of the overwhelming support, which I had from the Benue people. They were not able to execute their plans through violence, moreso that I refused to be part of any violent acts against the people of the state. The amnesty program yielded positive results. We succeeded in receiving over 400 different types of sophisticated weapons from these youths. More than 700 of these youths came together  and surrendered to the amnesty. We just held a retreat for them and we are going to encourage them to go back to school while some will go back to vocation training schemes to acquire skills. Some will be incorporated into government security strategy as part of intelligence gathering so that we can secure the state further. We are excited that this has yielded positive result. They gave me their word that they will not go back to their old ways. That was one major achievement. The intentions of government to ensure that the state is industrialised, to ensure the introduction of schemes that will promote micro, small, and medium enterprises, in ensuring that we attract investment into the state and to ensure that we encourage trading and commercial activities in the state cannot be realised without adequate security. Having confronted the challenge headlong, today, we have been making contacts all over the world and several investors are flowing into the state with the intention of investing.

    Why did you borrow to pay salaries?

    I met a deficit treasury and it was worrisome because of debts. Well, government is a continuous process. So, we had to take up from there. After due consultations with stakeholders and the House of Assembly, we chose to borrow N10 billion to pay salaries and take on very critical responsibilities that needed urgent government attention, that we did. We were able to dialogue with unions at the Benue State University (BSU), that were on strike and they accepted our commitment to them and they resumed and today, our students are back to school and several of them have graduated.

    The other problem we had, which affected the entire state was the medical students from BSU that since the inception of the  College of Health Science, which started about 12 years ago, could not graduate due to the non- accreditation of the school. This was one issue that we gave attention and brought in the management who put all the challenges together and we took it up and paid all the requirements that were needed to get the accreditation. We invited the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to come to Benue and the accreditation was done. Today, Benue State University has successfully graduated the first set of medical doctors in Benue, 27 of them. They are already doing their housemanship in BSU Teaching Hospital. There too, we needed to upgrade some facilities which we did and our students are doing their housemanship there in the Teaching Hospital.

    We had issues of pension arrears, salary arrears and all that. What we decided to, out of the N10 billion, we started paying arrears form May because we resumed on May 29 and so when we secured this N10 billion, we started paying the arrears. Since then, for pensions, we have not reneged. We have been paying pensions because most of the pensioners live on drugs. Pension at the state level alone is N394 million. At the local government level, it is N117 million every month. We have been paying because these are our mothers and fathers, we are not toying with them.

    The other issue was the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Makurdi. That is one institution whose graduates are working all over the world in Europe, America, Asia,etc. It is the only school that on graduation, appointment letters are waiting for you. We discovered that for the past three years, no administration was done because the accreditation had been withdrawn. When we came in we said we cannot allow this to continue in Benue State and so we swung into action and today if you go there, there is massive construction and renovation going on and we have set aside funds to ensure that we provide the equipment that are needed and as soon as the renovation is finished, we are going to invite the Council to come and re-accreditate the school and then our children will take off again.

    Could you shed light on the disbursement of the bail out funds?

    The other thing that we did was to discuss with the President and he saw the need was that salary arrears were owed for several months and he decided that we find a way around it. We were given a loan, a kind of bailout to support the staff. That is ongoing. We have been able to pay at the state level what we were owing. At the local government level, it is ongoing. But there are issues at the local government level. A lot of fraudulent activities were perpetrated by certain political leaders and civil servants. The payment is being coordinated because we have introduced a new system of payment, it’s e-payment. This will eliminate the issue of ghost workers and stop some of the indiscriminate recruitments that were making the salary wage bill to be very high.  At the local government level today, teachers and other staff have a salary bill of N3.5 billion. At the state level when you put pensions, when you put overheads, when you put together salaries, salary is about N3 billion today, pension N394 million with overhead put together is over N4 billion. Last month which is October, the total money that we got at the local government level was N2 billion  with a deficit of over N1.5 billion. At the state level, total monies that we got was also N2 billion and so we had a deficit of N2 billion.

    But these are issues that we are discussing, we are transparent, nothing is hidden about us. I have said that the issue of bailout at the local government level is still having some outstanding and so it requires some clarification. We have set up a committee headed by the Deputy Governor and they are receiving complaints and dealing with them as they come. One thing is that I have seen several insinuations and blackmail from the opposition who are still dreaming that we are not transparent and that money have been moved here and there. No single kobo has been diverted. We promised the people that we have zero tolerance for corruption and as far as we are concerned all the resources meant for bailout are available and people can cross-check their facts. I have said that if you see that I am doing anything to short-change the state or any person working under me, blow the wistle. It is not their right to accuse people that they have diverted N3 billion, that they have diverted so many millions and so on. Bring those facts, we are ready to deal with anybody under this government including myself. If you have facts and figures, bring them out so that we can appreciate what you are saying.

    How are you fighting corruption in Benue State?

    The issue of fighting corruption should not be limited to government circles alone. It should be total, the whole society should be involved. When you notice anything, it is your duty to bring it out, but bring facts and figures. If not, people can go to court against you for telling lies. So, we are very transparent and accountable. We still believe that anyone who is sincere to adding value to the development of the state should be frank and should work hard to support this government.

    We have also constituted the Benue State Internal Revenue Service board because this is one area that we need to look inwards. Today the oil prices have fallen, before we came in oil was sold for about $140, today it’s sold for $38, so it means we must look inwards and looking inwards is internally generated revenue.

    In summary, these are some of my achievements with several other things that we have been doing. My government has zero tolerance for corruption. We are fighting hard and one other thing that I must mention is the setting up of the two panels. One, a judicial panel to verify the income and  expenditure from 2007 to 2015. This is a fact finding panel. It is meant to give us a picture of what transpired. As at today, we are still verifying certain debts that the state is owing.

    When we came in initially we were given figures by the Ministry of Finance that we had a debt burden including salary arrears, pensions and gratuities and contractual obligations and so on to the tune of N90 billion. We set up a transition committee that was supposed to collaborate with the past government but the government later withdrew and so when we came in we told them to go ahead and verify some of these facts. They came up with a figure of over a N130 billion of commitments. Then arrears of gratuities and pensions put together amounted to N169 billion. Up to today, we are still verifying because people are still bringing up some government commitments and so on. This panel is meant to bring out facts because as Christians, we do not intend to witchhunt or blacklist anyone. So the panel is meant for people to go there and exonerate themselves.

    Are you saying the Benue State government has no hand in the recent arraignment of the former governor by the EFCC?

    We have no hand in it. It’s very clear, he is being prosecuted for the N3.1 or N3.2 billion that was paid into a private account of a private Bureau De Change businessman who converted it to $15 million and gave him. We have not taken on any person, whatsoever, in the past government until we have the report of the judicial panel that we have set to verify these facts, because we do not want to witchhunt anyone or blackmail anyone for whatsoever reason, so we want facts. That is why I’m insisting that those whose names  have been mentioned should try and clarify this matter at the judicial panel because whatsoever they give us at the end of the day, those facts will be there and if we ask you to make refunds and you do not, we can now prosecute you.

    Do you think you can recover missing funds from the 2007- 2015?

    My situation room will soon be ready so people can have access to the situation room and be able to communicate with us. Information is key and I appreciate you and I promise you that you will not be disappointed at all. I agree with you totally on the need to bridge the information gap, that is what made me to appear on this programme. This is because I was popularly elected and I’m doing my best and my covenant is with God and with the people of Benue State. Even where I think that I’m clever, I cannot be clever before God. You have heard what I’ve said are some our achievements inspite of the challenges that we have. You can imagine what we’ve been able to do. A lot of insinuations and lies are being peddled. The former government officials have seen what we’ve been doing. For instance, what justification do they have to close the School of Nursing and Midwifery for more than three years? All that was needed for the accreditation was less than N300 million and one transaction where monies were stolen is in billions. These are things they do not want people to know. That was why the former Governor went to stop the probe panels but I thank the judiciary for standing by the truth and ensuring that justice must prevail. We have no intention to blacklist or blackmail anyone but let the truth be told in Benue State.