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Tag: steal

  • EKEDC: the rich also steal?

    The popular Mexican TV soap was The Rich Also Cry.

    But from complaints, from the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), alleging meter bypass, bordering on electricity theft, at the tony Victoria Garden City (VCG), perhaps the first luxury residential estate on the Lagos Lekki axis, you won’t be wrong if you expect a Nigerian follow-up to the Mexican soap: The Rich Also Steal!

    According to a report in the Vanguard of May 21, EKEDC alleged it had discovered bypassed meters at VGC, which suggests some residents may have been pilfering electricity without paying for it!  Holy Moses!   Could the rich also steal?

    But before you jump to any conclusion, perhaps you should pause to do the real demographics of those allegedly involved.  Are they the real rich, which James Hadley Chase in his thrillers loved to call “the rich and the spoilt”?  And even if they are spoilt, could they be spoilt to the extent of stealing electricity, despite their clout, despite their reach, despite their wealth?

    Or it is only the minnows, the rich wannabes who also struggle to put up some appearance among the rich and the mighty, with an eye on the next kill, to actualize their nouveau rich status?

    Or is it the biblical hewers of stone or fetchers of wood, who serve their wealthy and near-Royal majesties, that play a fast one on EKEDC and neatly filch power it buys from  the transmission company and pre-pays at a premium, to enjoy at their wanton pleasure?  Unbelievable!

    But whoever is responsible, could it be good, old Karma at work — or what do you call when a scammer is himself scammed?

    Of course, you won’t dare suggest EKEDC is a scamming corporate citizen.  Neither would you say that of its tag-team mate, Ikeja Electric (I.E.), both the duopoly that straddle the Lagos electricity market and its environment.

    But don’t be too sure their customers, grumbling, dissatisfied and infuriated, won’t call both just that — corporate scammers.  All over the vast market, teeming with no less than an estimated 20 million people, there are daily cries of “crazy bills”, from the unmetered segment of the market.

    But the more the customers scream and bawl, the more arrogantly EKEDC and I.E. barge in, on the neighbourhood, with their disconnection gangs ever eager and ready, always with manic pleasure, to disconnect its customers at the virtual drop of a hat.

    What is more?  While these DISCOs have done little to up the ante in terms of service delivery, they have scaled up their revenue push, so much so that the creed appears payment first, service never!  Now, how do you survive doing business in such a market?

    So, maybe those who steal EKEDC’s electricity are returning the full compliment, stealing back the revenue the DISCOs are “stealing” — or what do you call forceful payment of bills without service — from their helpless and browbeaten market?

    Indeed, the rich — or their proxies — also steal!  No tears for EKEDC?  Hardball didn’t say so!

     

     

     

  • Airport guard, others ‘steal’ N83m from boss’ office

    Airport guard, others ‘steal’ N83m from boss’ office

    A former guard with the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (NAHCO), David Akinniran, was yesterday arraigned before a Lagos High Court for  allegedly absconding with $230,000 (about N83,030,000).

    Akinniran, 40, was arraigned by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) before Justice Agnes Nicole-Clay.

    He is standing trial on a four-count charge of conspiracy, stealing and receiving property suspected to have been stolen.

    Prosecuting counsel Mr Henry Obiazi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), said Akinniran committed the offences sometime in January,  2016 at  NAHCO House, Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja,  Lagos.

    Obiazi alleged that the defendant and his accomplices, who are at large, stole the money in tranches of $160,000, $20,000 and $50,000 from the office of their boss, Mr Rahman Adeshola.

    He said the  money belonged to two businessmen, Uchenna Okafor and Okwudili Onwuka, who kept it in Adeshola’s custody.

    The theft was discovered when Okafor and Onwuka arrived at the MMIA for their  China flight and requested for the money, which they intended to use to fund their import business.

    Akinniran pleaded not guilty.

    His counsel Grace Adenubi prayed the court to grant him bail on ‘’liberal terms’’. She promised that he would not jump bail.

    But Obiazi opposed the granting of bail on liberal terms.

    He prayed the court to either remand the defendant in prison or impose strict terms that would ensure he comes for his for trial.

    Obiazi said the defendant and his accomplices fled when the theft was discovered.

    The prosecutor said Akinniran was arrested after a eight-month manhunt for him by the police.

    Obiazi added: “The defendant is a flight risk.”

    The case continues on Thursday.

  • Engineer gets N1.2m bail for ‘attempting to steal generator’

    An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court in Lagos State has admitted a 30-year-old engineer, Eze Chimaobi, to bail at N1.2million for allegedly attempting to steal a 10KVA generator worth N1.75million from Kingsley Eze.

    The Magistrate, Mr. T.O. Shomade, who gave the ruling, ordered the accused to produce two sureties, as part of the bail conditions.

    Shomade said the sureties must be gainfully employed and should show evidence of two years’ tax payment to the Lagos State government.

    The accused, who is facing a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

    The prosecutor, Raji Akeem, told the court that the accused, who lives in Ilupeju, Lagos, committed the offence on July 9 at Adebowale Street, Ojudu, Ikeja.

    Akeem alleged that Chimaobi and others at large conspired to steal a 10KVA generator worth N1.75million from the complainant’s compound.

    The prosecutor claimed that the accused and his accomplices parked a truck in front of the complainant’s house and waited for the gateman to leave his duty post, so that they could enter the compound.

    He said immediately they noticed there was no one around the gate, the accused jumped into the compound with one of his accomplices and tried to steal the generator.

    Akeem said the accused was caught by the gateman, who saw Chimaobi and his accomplice struggling to carry the generator out through the gate.

    The prosecutor said when the gateman cried out that there were thieves in the compound, Eze called the police, who arrested the accused and took him to the station.

    He said Chimaobi’s accomplices escaped in their truck.

    The offence contravened sections 287 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015. Section 287 prescribes three years imprisonment for stealing.

    The case was adjourned till August 7 for mention.

  • Man, daughter ‘steal’ two-month old baby

    Man, daughter ‘steal’ two-month old baby

    •’I found baby under Oyingbo bridge’

    The police have arrested a house painter, Jamiu Jimoh, and his birth attendant daughter, Yetunde Osin, for allegedly stealing a two-month old baby girl from its mother.
    Jimoh, a 65-year-old divorcée, and Osin, a 35-year-old spinster, were arrested in possession of the baby by a team of police detectives from the Igbgbo Police Station, Ikorodu, Lagos following a tip off.
    The police source said the suspects are part of a child stealing and selling syndicate.
    The Nation learnt that Osin practices her birth attendant trade at her 4, Kadara Street residence in Oyingbo.
    It was learnt that on November 9, Osin helped a 28-year-old woman, Stella to deliver a baby girl at her home. She was said to have told the woman that the child was dead and even showed the mother a dead child. She then brought the baby to her father in Ikorodu.
    But Osin disputed the story, saying she found the baby under a bridge near her Oyingbo home.
    She said: “On November 9, I was walking along the road in Oyingbo. I found a baby on the ground. It was a female child, so I took it. That was the mistake I made. I should have gone to report to the police, but because it was a female baby, I liked it. That was how I took the baby home. But when I saw how everyone was behaving, gossiping, I brought the baby to my father in Ikorodu, so that I could be taking care of her from there. Even when I couldn’t come to Ikorodu from Oyingbo, my father was there to take care of her. On Sunday after leaving his home, someone called me at night that my father had been arrested.
    “I am a hairdresser, but I am also a traditional birth attendant. The baby wasn’t born at my place. I wasn’t the one that helped the mother of the child deliver the baby. But when the police heard that I was a traditional birth attendant and questioned me about whether I assisted the baby’s mother during delivery, I said yes.
    “I found the baby under the bridge on Apapa Road, Oyingbo. The baby has been with me since November.”
    Jimoh, who lives on 4, Aro Street, Ikorodu, also denied having knowledge that the baby was stolen.
    He confirmed to Lateef Akinborode, Executive Director, Community Women’s Rights Foundation (CWRF), Igbogbo, Ikorodu that the baby was found in his possession.
    In an audio interview with Akinborode, made available to The Nation, Jimoh said: “She (Osin) is not the baby’s mother. She was not pregnant. I don’t know the baby’s mother. My daughter has never brought children to me to take care of before.”

  • Fayose: There’s nothing to steal in govt again

    Fayose: There’s nothing to steal in govt again

    •To forward copy of budget to EFCC

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has said there is no more money available for political office holders to steal because of the nation’s economic crisis.

    Fayose spoke yesterday at the presentation of the 2016 budget proposal to the House of Assembly in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

    He promised to forward a copy of the budget to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

    The governor said this was to allow the anti-graft agencies join his administration to monitor its implementation and the performance of his administration.

    Fayose presented a budget proposal of N67 billion to the lawmakers with N42.1 billion representing 63 per cent earmarked for recurrent expenditure and N24.9 billion representing 37 per cent for capital expenditure.

    The governor added a comical dimension to the budget presentation when he brought out a small gavel which he banged on his lectern to symbolically ‘pass’ the budget into law with everybody present reeling in laughter.

    His words: “A copy of this budget will be forwarded to EFCC and ICPC so that they can join us to monitor the performance of this government.

    “There is nothing to steal again in government because the economy is on the floor. It behoves on all leaders to lay their cards on the table because there is nothing to hide.

    “This budget is a Budget of Reality. We don’t want to adorn the pages of newspapers with lies. We will do what the present economic reality can accommodate.

    “I want to dissociate myself and Ekiti State from any plan to reduce workers’ salaries and cut jobs.”

  • Skilled pupils steal show at fair

    Skilled pupils steal show at fair

    Doregos Private Academy, Ipaja, does not take the implementation of the Trade Subjects component of the Senior Secondary School Curriculum lightly.

    Saturdays are used to learn practical skills in the six trade subjects (Fashion Design; Photography; Aluminium fabrication; Grooming; bead making; and event and decoration) that the school has chosen to focus on.

    The results of the practical sessions were displayed during the school’s first ever Young Entrepreneur Fair (YEF) penultimate week.

    The pupils showcased what they had learnt with an array of products that impressed parents including beads, jewelries, garments sewn by them; aluminum windows which they fabricated and photographs, among others.  The programme also featured a competition in the six trade areas in which the top three winners were rewarded with tools for each of the trade.

    Success Oke, who sewed the best dress, got a sewing machine; Samuel Abba got a camera for coming first in Photography; Blessing Akakpo got decoration tools for winning the Event and Decoration category; Azeem Arowosaye was given a set of barbing tools for coming first in Grooming; Ibukun Olanipekun won bead making tools for the category; while Group One, made up of four pupils got welding tools for winning Aluminum Fabrication category.

    Expressing her delight on the initiative, Rita Obiele, Success Oke’s cousin, said the programme has helped to enhance the teenager’s creativity.

    “I noticed creativity in her.  She can draw and she is always staying with one of my nieces who is a fashion designer.  This initiative is very good.  In our country today there is no white collar job.  It only takes the creativity in you to succeed,” she said.

    The programme also featured talks from two alumni of the school, who are now successful entrepreneurs.

    One of them, Gbenga Ayo-Dada praised the initiative and the school for preparing the pupils well for the future.  The graduate of Philosophy, who runs a business designing beaded jewelry, counseled parents to allow their wards express themselves in whatever careers they are comfortable with and not box them to a corner.

    “Most of my siblings came to Doregos.  They were all award winners.  I was not; but the teachers did not discriminate.  Parents, not all your children will excel in academics; we are all different.  When you discover something in your child, cultivate it.  I can stand here today because my parents and teachers cultivated me.  If they treated me like I was useless, I won’t be here today.  My late father was the best thing that happened to me.  When he heard I was doing beads, he didn’t talk down on me.  He showed me different styles in magazines,” he said.

    Like Gbenga, chairman of the occasion, Mrs Josephine Onwuegbuzie, also counseled parents to encourage their wards to follow their dreams and embrace entrepreneurship.

    On his part, Executive Director of the school, Mr Bernardino Doregos, praised the trainers engaged by the school to teach the Trade Subjects for doing their jobs well.  He also praised the pupils for the talents they displayed.

    In an interview, the school’s founder, Mrs Clementina Doregos, said it was difficult getting parents’ cooperation in getting their wards to school on Saturdays for the training.

    “We have had problems with parents.  Some refused to pay the token fee we charged for the training; others say they don’t have time to drop the children in school on Saturdays.  We have had to house some Day students in the boarding house to enable them participate if their parents complain.  After they leave this school, we expect them to continue with these skills,” she said.

  • Why goats steal yams

    Our dear President Goodluck Jonathan, like most political leaders under constant public gaze and oftentimes, glare has had his fair share of ‘moments to regret’. Different leaders have different ways of dealing with the aftershocks of these blunders. Some indeed can be laughed off. Others can be logically reconstructed with clever ‘wordneering’. The thing though is that there are certain attributes that help a bumbler to talk himself out of a sticky ‘moment to regret’. It may be a gift of the garb, locally known as ‘sweet mouth’ or the confidence to admit that it was a ‘stupid thing to say’. Or indeed to keep quiet and at least some will afford the benefit that the bumbler had seen the light and was internalizing his painful regret. Our dear President Jonathan, will rather and in the most unconvincing fashion defend the indefensible and make things worse, or  ‘pour sand in his own garri’

    The thing about corruption is that whether we like it or not, it is simply not a laughing matter. Corruption is at the root of all our national problems and why the country is statehood in failed mode. So when a president burdened with a systemic corruption perception goes on a literary journey for which he is poorly equipped and declares that his government is not as corrupt as acclaimed – because all the talk about corruption is based on lumping stealing with corruption. This has since been summarized in the new Nigerian phraseology dictionary: ‘Stealing is not corruption’. A president overly defensive and seriously allergic to the mention of corruption, portrays a serious disconnect with the anger of his hungry people. The impression of the average Nigerian on the president’s attitude to corruption can be summed up in the well-known Nigerian phrase – ‘Wetin concern agbero with overload?’

    In a recent media chat, the president likened the Nigerian situation of endemic corruption to ‘goat and yam’ For those not conversant with folk tales and wisdom, what he means is that if you leave your yams in a barn and allow access to goats, the goats will in a compulsive manner feast on the yams to the detriment of the owners. That the goats cannot be blamed is true. But I think that it is uncharitable for Mr. President to liken our public servants and even the corrupt ones to goats. I do not share the view that they are compulsively corrupt or just cannot help themselves.

    So let me help Mr. President with my own folksy perspective. Nigerian people are blessed with a huge barn of yams sufficient to feed everyone. What has happened though is that those we have mandated to watch over the yams against insects and other elements have transformed to goats and are eating the yams ravenously, destroying yams they cannot ingest and not keeping watch over other destructive elements. The resultant shortage of yams and therefore hunger amongst the people has made them not only angry with the goats but reluctant to farm as their harvest will only be enjoyed by the goats. An atmosphere of distrust amongst the people has set in and the general tendency is that we are all now fighting each other to grab the remaining yams. What we should be doing Mr President is that we should all be out cultivating yams in the full assurance that those mandated to watch over our yams are playing that role faithfully.

    Mr President needs to know that as the head guard, when the people complain that the barn is being ravaged, we do not expect him to tell us that not all the yams are actually being eaten and that some or perhaps most are being destroyed by the feet of rampaging goats or in Jonathanspeak tell us that – ‘ All these things people say all over the place that goats are eating the yams and causing shortages is not correct. I was discussing with a former stock keeper who told me that on inspection he found that in most cases the destroyed yams were not eaten but merely destroyed.

    I don’t know why people should confuse eating with destroying. You know in my village if you cry that goats have destroyed your yams, people will ask you first whether the goats used their mouth or their legs, before knowing what to do with the offending goat. If you say the goat ate with mouth, they will ask for the complexion of the goat – this will let them know whether the goat did it out of hunger or wickedness.’ Is this the reaction of someone who appreciates our emotional connection to and dependence on our ‘yams’?

    The president should understand, that using the barn example he is the head guard appointed by the people to take care of their barn of yams and also supervise the allocation of yams for different purposes. Nigeria needs a head guard who understands that his work is to protect the yams for common benefit. His work is not to allow the guards to uncommonly transform to goats. Using the president’s analogy, Nigeria needs a head guard who is not so fond of yams that he and other guards become goats once they see yams!

    Rather we need to transform our guards to dogs so that our yams will be safe and we can all be fed and happy. Currently, we are in a situation whereby the yam owners are meeting to decide whether to appoint a new head guard or keep the present one. How does the president think the conversation will end? Yes, some owners will point to the poor rainfall, others will talk of errant goats, others will wonder why we cant distribute the yams immediately upon harvest, others will wonder why those who did not participate in the tilling and weeding but waited to harvest should be considered as owners. Many questions but in my view the main question will be whether the head guard has done his job to the satisfaction of the owners. The owners can see for themselves and will decide by themselves. Forget the rainfall, mode of distribution etc – has the head guard effectively done his job? Mr. President, that is the question that would have been answered on the 14th February and should be answered on the 28th March but must be answered by 29th May this year.

    An important consideration is the identity of the others interested in the head guard job. The chief applicant was once the head guard. Those alive at that time attest to the fact that he is allergic to yam even in the pounded form. Rather than behave like a goat he behaved like a lion and that is what worries some owners. Much as they detest the goats, they do not want a head guard with fondness for goat meat. Those rooting for a change of guard insist that the lion has transformed into a guard dog on account of the fact that we have come out of the jungle and are now in a domesticated environment under democracy. Which is why there is even a meeting in the first place to decide whom to appoint. What the owners are hearing in support of allowing the head guard to continue is that he is working on using technology to secure our yams. I think the owners are afraid that the kind of goats under the head guard and the reckless abandon with which they eat will end up eating the yams and embedded microchips, yam chips. The president’s problem is perception. So Mr. President, using your analogy; will the owners act to save their yams or the goats?

     

    • Edo ukpong is a Legal Practitioner

  • Gunmen steal 25 rifles from police station

    Gunmen steal 25 rifles from police station

    Gunmen have stolen 25 rifles from a police station in Onna Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

    It was learnt that the hoodlums attacked 12 policemen on duty and stole the weapons from the armoury.

    A source in Onna, who did not want to be named, said: “I was sleeping when I was woken up by a loud noise, which lasted for almost an hour. It was in the morning that we learnt that armed robbers invaded the police station and stole 25 rifles.”

    It was learnt that 11 of the 12 policemen on duty had been taken to Abuja for interrogation. The 12th policeman, a driver, was exempted because he is not qualified to hold a gun.

    Another source, who pleaded for anonymity, said the divisional police officer, a woman, had been demoted and transferred.

    Deputy Commissioner of Police Posi Ajuwa, who has been overseeing the command since the Commissioner, Umar Gwadabe, retired, could not be reached for comments.

    However, police spokesman Etim Dickson said no station was attacked.

    He said: “It is false. Disregard it. No rifle was stolen by anybody. I am not aware of what you are talking about.”

     

  • Steal her looks

    MERCY Aigbe looks chic in this simple but great Salvatore Ferragamo’s number. Mercy is wearing a low v-neck black and white little dress. Though her ensemble is simple, it takes confidence to pull off two-colured trend, but Mercy has rocked the looks that showed off her fabulous fair skin tone perfectly, and banana-yellow heels.

    She favoured simple accessories, adding a pretty Chanel Lego clutch purse.  Meanwhile, her infectious smile provided the real wow factor.

    If you are convinced and think you have the courage, steal her looks.

  • Steal the Central Bank of Nigeria, plead guilty, go home free

    Steal the Central Bank of Nigeria, plead guilty, go home free

    I had intended to commence, this Sunday, a series of articles on the refreshing re-engineering presently afoot in the South-West courtesy of the A C N governors in the region, a pan-regional renewal of infrastructure, education, agriculture and ground-breaking social security programmes for the elderly so heartwarming Chief Obafemi Awolowo would give the architects a thumbs up from his grave since they are earnestly working towards the happiness and well-being of the greater majority of the people which the Avatar unequivocally prescribed as the raison d’être of a good government. That, however, was before the news broke of an insensitive Abuja High Court judge sentencing one John Yusufu, a self-confessed thief of N32.8billion Police Pension fund, to two years imprisonment with an option of a measly N750, 000 fine which the convict promptly paid. Interestingly, less than 24 hours after that judgment, an Ikare Magistrate Court in Ondo State sentenced an accused to three years imprisonment for stealing a telephone handset worth N17, 000.

    More nauseating than Mr Justice Talba Mohammed’s unthinking judgment is the fact that the EFCC, with all its effete posturing about corruption, was privy to this unconscionable arrangement. This is obvious from the following statement by the agency: ‘The Commission is of the view that the option of fine runs contrary to the understanding between the prosecution and the defence wherein the convict consented to a custodial sentence with the forfeiture of all assets and money that are proceeds of crime’. Little wonder the convict knew well ahead, exactly how much he was going to be fined. With things as they stand in the country today, the EFCC must reckon as the greatest motivator of corruption. Where in the civilised world, other than Nigeria, would such a rogue walk away with a slap on the wrist? Did Mardof get a plea bargain in the U.S? Is whatever money or property seized more important than the immoralities EFCC is inculcating in the citizenry through these brazen compromises? Where is the money paid by the likes of former governor Lucky Igbinedion and co in past plea bargains or where are the houses forfeited to government in all these ludicrous paddy paddy bargains? Were they not all sold within their cabal? If a man could literally walk free from such humongous heist, why would unemployed graduates not go into armed robbery and some jobless miscreants into kidnapping? As it stands today, EFCC deserves to be completely scrapped. It was no surprise that another government agency, the Code of Conduct, was reported to have summarily quashed the case of one of the co- accused persons in whose account at the United Bank of Africa a whooping N500 million was found, freed allegedly on the intervention of the wife of a very senior government official.

    Since the news broke, I have heard lawyers of all hue rationalising plea bargaining. I make bold to say that while this may be provided for in our law books, it is absolutely unhelpful in a Nigerian society where corruption has become, not only endemic but, systemic. Whichever way you turn, all you hear are public servants stealing, no longer millions but, billions of naira given the certainty that no punishment awaits them. Impunity has taken over the land and when anti-corruption agencies make a sham of going to court, all you get is what the Abuja judge dispensed here as punishment -a huge joke and the same reason Ibori was treated here in Nigeria as a paragon of honesty only to be shamefully jailed in the U.K.

    What a rudderless government we have and what a spineless people we are turning out to be? What a country? Why will the world not call us thieves? Coming so soon after a British court described one-time governor Ibori as a common thief in state house, who in the world should respect any Nigerian? Are these judicial officers, supposedly operating in the temple of justice, so uncaring they can vomit any judgment, however inane? Granted that this judge cannot single-highhandedly re-write the law, (but) was he obligated to offer the criminal an option of fine knowing full well that a cow thief in a part of this country could have a limb chopped off? What impunity, and, again, is there a single reason young Nigerians should not go into armed robbery or kidnapping when men and women constitutionally empowered to moderate our values through the instrumentality of law are so unthinking? Going by the level of listlessness routinely displayed by the judiciary, shouldn’t every Nigerian be a criminal of sorts since criminality pays so handsomely? And by the way, hasn’t it been suggested this same judge it was who ruled that Kenny Martins had no case to answer in another police-related case where sleaze was strongly alleged? Doesn’t he realise that hundreds of thousands of poor retired old men who had served this nation to the best of their abilities are victims of this heist and that some of them actually die, queuing for this same pension? God, give us judges: men and women in their dignified robes, who will know that they are chosen by you, though appointed by man, to perform what essentially is a solemn function to the edification of your name, rather than simply see it as working for a meal ticket.

    Lord, give us responsible judges.

    Questions ad infinitum, but let us get to the nitty gritty of this thoroughly revolting case. We have in this country, a party which, as I often describe it, has held this country under its stranglehold for close on 14 years and always with about three quarters of members of the National Assembly. For these many years, has the National Assembly been so irresponsible it did not know that even if you steal the entire Central Bank of Nigeria, all you get is a 2-year jail term? Did they consider this equitable to the offence? What then is the responsibility of the Committees on Judiciary in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, or does it stop with the squandering of funds and allocation of state of the art cars for so-called committee work? Of course Nigerians will not be surprised their representatives are too blinded by graft and greed to notice such inequities.

    This case is so nauseating you want to puke.

    Where now is PDP’s so-called Ethical Revolution, that shibboleth, like Vision 20 20 20, and its cousin, Rebranding, through which they once ate the nation raw. PDP is never short of such grandstanding rhetoric. Trending now is their Centenary anniversary and Senator Ayim Pius Ayim, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, is throwing his entire weight into it. By the time the dust settles on this too, Nigeria would have been short-changed to the tune of billions of naira. Didn’t former minister Ezekwezili, only last week, ask them questions as to how they squandered a colossal $67 billion; an amount no West African country, beside Ghana, can boast of in a given financial year?

    That is PDP with its ideology of ‘share the money’.

    And what manner of people are we? Are we so consumed with the challenges of life and living that we have become so spineless? Must we take just about anything when, as you read this, Egyptians, in spite of an emergency declared by government, are still out there on the streets protesting against some draconian decrees by the Morsi government?

    .And as somebody has asked, why are the two major religions silent on this evil plaguing our country? What are the moral and ethical tenets driving these religions that they cannot lead their adherents out on a massive anti-corruption demonstration as is routinely done in other countries? And concerning the Bible and the Quran which these rogues, counting on the mercy of God, do not take seriously, shouldn’t our constitution now prescribe that public officials should swear on Ogun – the god of iron – and such like gods which show no mercy to criminals? Shouldn’t our traditional religionists place a curse on those rabidly raping this hapless country? At least one remembers General Obasanjo once suggesting we fight purveyors of the apartheid system with African juju.

    If these nation wreckers are so unrelenting, l will suggest it is time unforgiving African gods are unleashed on them for the sake of fatherland.