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Tag: shared

  • ‘How we shared N15.1million ransom from monarch’s abduction’

    ‘How we shared N15.1million ransom from monarch’s abduction’

    Isaiah Ododomu, one of the suspected abductors of the Oniba of Iba, Oba Goriola Oseni’s has narrated how the gang shared the N15.1 million ransoms collected for the monarch’s release.

    Oba Oseni was kidnapped on July 16 in his palace. The kidnappers shot a guard, Sunday Okanlawon and the monarch’s younger wife.

    Okanlawon later died of gun shot wounds.

    Ododomu and Toba Forejo, both from Ondo State, were paraded by the police at the State House, Ikeja, yesterday.

    Narrating how they kidnapped the monarch, Ododomu said nine people went to the palace to kidnap the Oba on that fateful day.

    Some of the names, he gave, are Toba, Igodo, Mighty, Folly and Sam.

    He said Micah, who is a leader did not go with them because “he has a babe with him at home.”

    The suspect explained that they were armed with two AK-47 rifles and three pump action guns for the operation.2

    According to him, “Toba, Igodo, Mighty and others went to kidnap the king, after which they demanded for N500 million. It was later reduced to N40 million. They were given N12 million. After that we gathered and shared the money.

    “All our senior people got the lion share of the money. They gave Toba N1 million, and Micah, collected N2.5 million and so on; for me, they gave me N100, 000.

    “I later travelled and when I came back, there was now an argument as to the sharing formula and later some other guys were saying they will not leave the king but the children of the king continued begging. I told them that we should collect any amount and decamp because they can arrest us. Because of me, they agreed to collect N3.1 million. They later brought N3.1 million. The family dropped the money at Igbeyin Adun waterside around Barrack side out of which I was given N100,000.  Our base is Ishekemo creek in Ikotun. Toba and the others shared the remaining money.”

    Ododomu said he was the one who paddled the monarch on the water to Iba. Others fled on sensing danger and he was arrested.

    Ododomu, who said he was into bunking, explained that since the bunkering business had been stopped, they decided to go into kidnapping.

    “I am a bunkering man, when this government stopped the bunkering business, our leaders formed another group and we started kidnapping to manage ourselves. I am a married man and I don’t have any job to cater for my family. When we started the kidnapping business, whenever we collected N500,000, they will give me N20,000.

    Ferejo confirmed that nine people participated in the monarch’s saying that he was arrested at Iyana School area.

    Lagos State Governor Akinwumi Ambode vowed that those involved in the monarch’s abduction would be punished in accordance with the law.

    Ambode, in a statement read by the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem, said the kidnap of a monarch in Yorubaland was a sacrilege.

    He hailed the police, saying the investigation has been painstaking and purposeful to ensure that the kidnappers were apprehended.

    “Permit me to state that the kidnap of an Oba in Yoruba land is a sacrilege and a complete desecration of the cultural values of the Yoruba people that must not go unpunished,” he said.

    According to him, “the arrest of the suspect is a clear warning to criminal elements that the state government value and cherish the Yoruba tradition and will leave no stone unturned to ensure that it is protected.”

    He also commended the ongoing operation Awatse designed to flush out militants and criminals that have been terrorising riverine communities in the state.

    “This operation is yielding desirable results and will continue until those criminal activities are completely stamped out,” he said.

    Commissioner of Police (CP) Mr. Fatai Owoseni, said:” We have always reiterated that it is not about whether ransom was paid or not. If it is about ransom, suspects would not be arrested. And what I would say is that pressure by the Lagos Command, and the special team of the Inspector-General of Police from Abuja paid off. The most important thing is that Kabiyesi is in his palace.

    “As to his state of health, I was with Kabiyesi till about 12 midnight and I can tell you emphatically that Kabiyesi is hale and hearty and he is very strong, and nothing is wrong with him.

    “What we want to do is to thank and appreciate the understanding of the family. They have been cooperative with us to get the Kabiyesi out of the hands of his abductors hale and hearty.”

  • Shared fate

    For Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, these are not the best of times. The duo have been going through a rough patch since they became leaders of the eighth Senate through what some consider to be unfair means. They were said to have forged the Senate Rules to facilitate their coming to office on June 9, last year. Saraki and Ekweremadu do not belong to the same party. Saraki is of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC); Ekweremadu belongs to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    As the majority party, APC has the prerogative of filling the principal offices of Senate president and deputy Senate president. Acting under the principle that the party is supreme, the APC leadership settled for Senator Ahmad Lawan from Yobe State as its candidate for Senate president and asked its members to support him. Some members kicked, saying the party could not decide who their leader should be in the Senate since it is not made up of APC loyalists alone. As presently constituted, APC has 57 members in the Senate, PDP, 45 and Labour Party (LP), one; six seats are vacant. Then, it was APC, 59 and PDP, 49 because of the death of APC’s Senator-elect Khalifa Ahmed Zanna from Borno State..

    Among those who kicked against the party’s position was Saraki, who was also interested in the Senate presidency. His supporters went all out to campaign for him and castigated the party for meddling in what they called the Senate’s internal affairs. The APC insisted on Lawan despite the antics of the Saraki loyalists. To break the logjam, President Muhammadu Buhari invited the APC senators to a meeting at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja on June 9, the day he had fixed for the proclamation of the National Assembly. By now, there was a split in the rank of APC senators, with the creation of two opposing camps – the Unity Forum and the Like Minds.

    Lawan’s supporters are in the Unity Forum; those for Saraki belong to the Like Minds. The Unity Forum members went for the meeting, which eventually did not hold; their Like Minds counterparts, who seemed to be aware that the Senate will be inaugurated that day in accordance with the president’s letter to the Clerk of the National Assembly, were on the floor of the chamber in full force. They came prepared for the election of the Senate president and his deputy. Armed with the supposedly amended Senate Rules, which allow the  inauguration of the Senate without its full complement of members, the clerk proceeded with his job and called for nominations for the post of Senate president. Saraki was nominated unopposed, while Lawan and his loyalists watched the proceedings on television dumbfounded from the ICC.

    APC’s Ali Ndume vied for the deputy Senate presidency with Ekweremadu. With the PDP members outnumbering their APC colleagues at that sitting, Ekweremadu won hands down. The truth is God saved APC from losing the Senate presidency too. If PDP had contested the position with APC, it might have won because it had the number to carry the day, but it refrained from the race because of what some political pundits described as the understanding it had with Saraki, who was a member of the party before he defected to APC. Since then Saraki and Ekweremadu have become conjoined politically. With their shared destinies, they have been facing good and bad times together since June 9, 2015.

    Reason: the Senate Rules under which they became presiding officers are said to have been forged. Who forged the rules? This is the puzzle Justice Yusuf Haliru of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court is to unravel in the trial of Saraki, Ekweremadu, former Clerk of the Senate Salihu Abubakar Maikasuwa and Deputy Clerk Benedict Efeturi. They appeared in court last Monday and were granted bail. Their trial begins on July 11. Beyond the trial is what Saraki and Ekweremadu said after their arraignment last Monday. Saraki believes that he is being persecuted by the Presidency, which he claims ‘’is distracting the nation with its inability to move beyond a leadership election among Senate peers’’.

    Accusing Attorney-General Abubakar Malami of filing trumped up charges against them, Saraki asked : ‘’How does this promote public interest and benefit the nation…however, what has become clear is that there is now a government within the government of President Buhari which has seized the apparatus of executive powers to pursue its nefarious agenda. This latest onslaught against the legislature represents a clear and present danger to the democracy Nigerians fought hard to win and preserve’’. Not to be outdone, Ekweremadu said it ‘’is democracy and not the defendants that is on a ridiculous trial’’.

    He went on : ‘’This grotesque display of vindictiveness, arrogance and mindless targeting of innocent citizens should find no sanctuary in our democracy’’. Replying Saraki, presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said his ‘’allegation is not worth the paper on which it is written as anybody can wake from a troubled sleep and say anything…pretending to carry an imaginary cross is mere obfuscation, if, indeed, a criminal act has been committed. But we leave the courts to judge’’.

    Yes, the ball is in Justice Haliru’s court and milord has promised to dispense justice without fear or favour, affection or ill will. Saraki and Ekweremadu too should concentrate on defending themselves instead of making incendiary statements. What will it profit them if through their statements they heat up the polity? A clear conscience has nothing to fear. The law presumes that they are innocent until otherwise proven. The onus is on the prosecution to prove its allegation that the Senate Rules were forged. If, indeed, they were forged, who did it? This is the trillion naira question, which no amount of political chicanery can answer. Only evidence, credible evidence, at that, can answer the question.

    No matter how much the attorney-general may hate their faces, assuming that is the case, he cannot get them convicted without proving his case beyond reasonable doubt. The nation is watching how the case will go because it is the number three citizen that is being tried not just anybody that was randomly picked off the street for an offence he did not commit. Will this case sink Saraki and Ekweremadu or will they swim out of it?

  • How Benue politicians shared N500m, by witness

    The Justice Elizabeth Kpojime Commission of Enquiry at the weekend heard that politicians, their families and aides shared the N500 million Bank of Industry (BOI) loan meant for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) under former Governor Gabriel Suswam.

    Testifying before the panel, a retired Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Igbalumun Igbudu, said the disbursement began under his stewardship.

    The former permanent secretary said the process was handled by a former commissioner in the ministry, Mr. Terfa Ihindan, and the consultant at Data Diamond Global Concept.

    He said politicians, their children and aides were the major beneficiaries of the loan.

    Igbudu said 700 beneficiaries were shortlisted for the funds, adding that by the time he left office, only N6 million was left in the account.

    Also testifying before the commission, another former Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Augustine Odey, said the fund was to be paid into the ministry’s account as loans to SMEs.

    The ex-permanent secretary said he was no longer in the office when the disbursement started.

    Messrs Odey and Igbudu were summoned to clarify what happened during their tenure in office.

    Odey, who served between 2009 and 2012, denied knowledge of N152 million withdrawn on April 24, 2012; N200 million on August 13, 2007; N710 million withdrawn on December 31, 2010, from the ministry’s account and paid into fixed deposits accounts at UBA, Zenith Bank and Ecobank.

    The ex-permanent secretary said he did not know who benefited from the accrued interest from the fund, adding that Mr. Cephas Akpam, who was the accountant then, should be asked to clarify on the matter.

    Odey also said the former commissioner in the ministry, Mr. Alex Adum, directed the opening of an account for Benue Integrated Company Limited, where all revenue collected at the Modern Market and others were lodged.

    But he said there was no memorandum from the State Executive Council (Exco) on the directive.

    A former Managing Director of Data Diamond Global Concept, who is the special adviser to the governor on Rural Development and Cooperatives Mr. Tsenongo Abancha said he got a verbal contract from the then commissioner and was to be paid N30 million for the processing and recovery of the loan.

    He said N19 million was paid to him, adding that lack of cooperation from the ministry was hampering the recovery of the processing fee due to him.

  • Shared services project

    The Executive Director, Operations and Technology,Mainstreet Bank Limited, Anogwi Anyanwu, has announced the completion of the first phase of the firm’s Group Shared Services (GSS) project.

    Speaking on the project, Anyanwu said the first phase improved the bank’s ability to respond to customer needs in promptly and efficiently.

    He cited some of the benefits recorded so far to include consolidation of 41 Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) centers and 34 clearing centers into one centre thereby ensuring prompt processing and delivery of service. The project, he said, has also led to an end to end processing of many hitherto branch functions from the Group Shared Service Centre.

    Other benefits of the first phase of the project include standardisation of services across the bank, centralised processing of basic customer requests, prompt and seamless funds transfers, instant advice to customers on various types of transactions, and card issuance on the electronic card request management (e-CRM) platform which facilitates processing of all  card requests under 24 hours.

  • ‘N572.9b shared among fed, state, local govts in Nov’

    The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has approved revenue distribution to the three tiers of government in November, totalling N572.9 billion, about N2.0 billion lower than what was shared in October.

    However, accruals to the Excess Crude Account rose slightly to about $9.66 billion, up from about $9.5 billion that accrued to the Account in October.

    Total accruals from the statutory revenue source during the month under review was N569.459 billion, as against the N640.766 billion grossed in the preceding month.

    This indicated a deficit variance of N71.307 billion, a development that necessitated the augmentation of the distribution with N59.138 billion.

    The budgeted distribution for the month, inclusive of cost of collection to revenue agencies stood at N574.402 billion, an amount higher than the distribution by about N1.51 billion.

    The Federal Government got N190.3 billion, which represents 52 per cent; states got N96.5 billion, representing 26 per cent; local governments, N74.4 billion, 20 per cent; and oil producing states shared N41.8 billion as 13 per cent derivation.

    Speaking to reporters at the end of the meeting in Abuja yesterday, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla, said the shortfall in revenue during the month was occasioned by several disruptions in crude oil production and lifting operations during the period as a result of the Force Majeure declared by Exxon Mobil, leakage and fire outbreaks at the Trans Niger as well as crude oil theft and maintenance work at Qua Iboe, Brass and Forcados terminals.

    A breakdown of the shared revenues showed that distribution from statutory revenue stood at N407.86 billion, VAT accounted for N62.73 billion. Others are- SURE-P, N35.55 billion and refund by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), N7.62 billion.

    Otunla said: “The distributable statutory revenue for the month is an N407.868 billion. There is an augmentation of N59.138 billion as a result of the shortfall in revenue for the month.”

    Also distributed is the N7.617 billion refunded by the NNPC.

    “In addition, N35.549 billion is proposed for distribution under the SURE-P Programme. The total revenue distributable for the current month (including VAT) is N572.895 billion,” he said.

    On the persistent agitation by state governments for the Excess Crude Account (ECA) accruals to be shared, the Accountant-General said since the federal and state governments always resolve fiscal issues of that nature through dialogue, the latest demand by the states would be resolved.

    The Chairman of the Finance Commissioners’ Forum, Mr. Timothy Odah, justified the state government’s demand, saying: “You don’t keep saving for a rainy day when the roof of your house is already blown off.”

    He assured that the money would be utilised by “the state governments to meet pressing demands that will impact on the welfare of the people.”