Fayose Causing Confusion In Our Party, PDP Says

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State of causing confusion in the party.

It said the governor was behind the plan to hold the South-West zonal congress in Akure on Saturday despite the court order which asked the party to suspend the exercise.

National Secretary of the party, Prof. Wale Oladipo, stated this while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Saturday.

Oladipo said that the party had decided to obey the order of Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos, which restrained the party from going ahead with its zonal congress.

Apart from Akure, another faction of the party had planned to hold a separate zonal congress in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State on the same day before the court order was served on the party’s national leadership.

The judge had ruled on an ex parte application brought before him on Thursday by the incumbent PDP South-West Zonal Secretary, Chief ‘Pegba Otemolu, and  restrained the party from going ahead with the scheduled congress.

The judge said the order would subsist until the final determination of Otemolu’s main suit.

But a day later, Fayose had stormed the national secretariat in Abuja, where he boasted that the congress would go ahead.

Oladipo said on Saturday that the National Legal Adviser of the party, Mr. Victory Kwon, had advised the party to obey the order of the court, which he said was served on him(Oladipo) and the party on Friday afternoon.

He also said that the National Chairman, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff who he said was not at the party secretariat on Friday when the order was served, had been notified.

Oladipo, who is the head of the party’s national secretariat said, “Governor Fayose is not a member of the National Working Committee of the PDP, but he’s causing confusion with his utterances.

“We are not dabbling into his government and he has no right to tell us how to run the party here. We have an order of the court stopping the congress. The governor cannot overrule the court.

“He should behave like other governors who do not dabble into the running of the party at the national level. He should learn from Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State who respect the party and the President of the country.

“The order of the court was even published in three national dailies and therefore, he can’t deny he was not aware.

“Our National Legal adviser who is the Chief Legal Adviser of the part, Mr. Victor Kwon, has advised that we comply with the order and we are complying with it. We are not above the law of the land.”

Oladipo said whatever result that come out of the convention would not be respected by the party as it would amount to waste of time and resources.

According to him, “Those who want to claim they want to organise any conference are doing that on their own, not on behalf of the party.

“Whatever come out of it would be null and void because we are not monitoring it just as the Independent National Electoral Commission has also been informed about the order of the court.

“So, the commission will also not be part of any illegality . We definitely won’t be part of it.”

Our correspondent gathered that INEC had been served with the court order and had directed its officers to stay away from fine congress.

But the governor said he was attending the congress as a loyal member of the party.

The governor, who spoke with through his Media Aide, Mr. Lere Olayinka, said he was only invited to attend the congress.

He said, “Fayose is not a member of the NWC, he isnot a member of the congress committee but he was invited as a member of the party.

“The congress committee is in Akure and that’s why we are attending. Oladipo is an interested party. The governor is interested in the smith-running of the party. The party is not run on the pages of the newspaper.

“If the national chairman said he was not aware of the court order as at Friday, why trying to stop the congress then? Fayose is not interested in any crisis.“

Fuel price hike: FG rolls out N500b palliatives to succour Nigerians

Fuel price hike: FG rolls out N500b palliatives to succour Nigerians

The Federal Government has unveiled measures which it said would  directly impact the lives of more than 8 million Nigerians in different social investment as provided in 2016 budget spending. This  it said ,will  provide succour and be a ready-made palliative to ordinary Nigerians.

It was designed to cushion the harsh  effectsof the last week fuel price hike.

This disclosure was made by the Senior Special Assistant for Media & Publicity to the President, Mr. Laolu Akande, in an interaction with the press in Abuja.

He gave new details and a breakdown of the interventions and palliatives, some of which he said would be starting in a matter of weeks thus,  the direct payment of N5000 monthly to one million extremely poor Nigerians for 12 months as provided for in the 2016 budget for which N$68.7billion has been appropriated.

There is also the direct provision of very soft loan -cash for market women, men and traders, including artisans and Agric workers.

This would be for a total of 1.76million Nigerians, without the requirement for conventional collateral. Some of the traders will likely get about N60, 000. A total sum of N140.3billion has already been appropriated for this in the budget

According to the statement , payment of between N23,000 to N30,000 per month to 500,000 unemployed graduates who would be trained, paid and deployed to work as volunteer teachers, public health officers and extension service workers among other responsibilities.

They would also be given electronic devices to empower them technologically both for their assignments and beyond just as 100,000 artisans would also be trained and paid N191.5billion has been set aside for this in the passed budget.

Also, at least 5.5 million Nigerian primary school children -ie starting first in 18 states-three per geopolitical zones-would be fed for 200 school days under the free Homegrown School Feeding Programme.

N93.1 billion has been appropriated for this in the 2016 budget.

One hundred thousand tertiary students in science technology engineering & maths (STEM), plus education will partake in the N5.8billion already provided for this education grant in the budget. This payment would also be paid directly to the students.

According to the Federal Government, when added together this year alone, more than 8 million Nigerians would be benefiting from the Social Investment budget.

Akande who works from the Office of the Vice President said the N500 billion social investment programmes of the Buhari administration is a ready made palliative to lift Nigerians from poverty and economic hardship.

“Long before now the Presidency has made adequate arrangements in the 2016 budget to ensure that Nigerians are lifted from poverty and hardship,” the spokesperson stated.

This will not only assuage the current pains arising from the new fuel pricing regime, but will provide ongoing social safety nets for over 8 million Nigerians this year alone, according to Akande.

He added that this is beside the jobs that would be created by the infrastructural projects that would be restored and the new ones that would soon be taking off.

Said he: “the Buhari presidency is keen to ensure that Nigerians are lifted and that if necessary on an ongoing basis palliatives measures would always been considered to address the conditions of the people.”

Return Nigeria’s stolen assets, Buhari tells UK

Nigeria does not need any apology from the United Kingdom, but a return of all its stolen assets stashed away in Britain and its Crown territories, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said on Wednesday in London.

Buhari spoke in  London at the Tackling Corruption Together Conference ahead of the International Anti-Corruption Summit to be hosted on Thursday by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

"All I will demand is return of assets. What would I do with apology? I need something tangible," Buhari said less than 24 hours after the publication of a video which shows Cameron describing Nigeria and Afghanistan as the two most corrupt countries in the world.

"Unfortunately, repatriating stolen assets is tedious, time-consuming, costly. It entails more than just signing of bilateral agreements."

In an earlier response to the Cameron's comments, Nigeria's presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, said the country was embarrassed by the comments and noted that it did not reflect present realities.

"This is embarrassing to us, to us say the least, given the good work that the President is doing. The eyes of the world are on what is happening here. The Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria. Things are changing with corruption and everything else," Shehu said in a message posted on social media.

However, Buhari insisted that Nigeria was ready to partner with the UK in order to combat corruption. He hoped the two countries would be able to agree on rules-based architecture to combat corruption at the end of the Summit on Thursday.

" I call for establishment of an anti-corruption infrastructure that will trace and return stolen assets to their countries of origin.

"Corruption does not differentiate between developed and developing countries. It is serious threat to good governance, peace and security."

He re-emphasised his government's zero tolerance for corruption and would fight the 'monster', "even if many feathers would be ruffled."

Saraki, witness disagree over asset forms

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, was worth $22m, £12m, €2.6m and N4bn in cash, movable and landed assets before he became the Governor of Kwara State in 2003, his lawyer, Mr. Paul Erokoro (SAN), told the Code of Conduct Tribunal on Tuesday.

Erokoro said this while cross-examining the first prosecution witness, Mr. Michael Wetkas, in the ongoing trial of the Senate President before the CCT in Abuja.

Wetkas is an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, who led the team that investigated the allegations from which the charges preferred against Saraki emanated.

Saraki is being prosecuted before the Danladi Umar-led CCT on 16 counts, including false and anticipatory asset declarations, operation and maintenance of foreign accounts and other asset-related infractions which he allegedly committed when he was governor between 2003 and 2011.

Wetkas also faulted the argument of Saraki that his (Saraki) asset declaration forms had been tampered with.

Two asset declaration forms, which Saraki had submitted to the CCB since he became a Senator in 2011 along with the four others, which he had submitted as governor, had been tendered by the lead prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), and admitted by the tribunal as exhibits.

Erokoro, on Tuesday, led Wetkas in reading from the asset declaration form which Saraki submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau on assumption of office as governor in 2003.

The lawyer said he needed to take Wetkas through the asset declaration form to debunk the impression created by the witness earlier in his evidence-in-chief that Saraki would not have been able to buy certain landed assets without obtaining a bank loan.

“The defendant was very rich before he became governor in 2003,” he said.

Jacobs said in response, “The fact that somebody is rich does not mean that he will not steal. That is not a defence. In fact, experience has shown that it is the richer ones that will desire to have more.

“It is when somebody is rich that he even has the capacity to steal more.”

During the cross-examination, Wetkas confirmed that there were 16 vehicles, which cumulatively worth N263,400,000, declared by Saraki in 2003 on assumption of office in his first term as governor.

The vehicles are Mercedes Benz S320 valued at N16m; Mercedes S500 valued at N20m; Mercedes G500 valued at N6m; Mercedes V220 valued at N2m; Ferrari 456GT valued at N25m; Navigator valued at N15m; Mercedes MN240 valued at N8.5m and Peugeot 405 valued at N2.9m.

Other vehicles include Mercedes CLK 320 valued at N9m; Mercedes E320 valued at N11m; Mercedes G500 bulletproof valued at N45m; Mercedes S500 valued at N30m; Lexus jeep bulletproof valued at N30m; Linclon Navigator bulletproof valued at N25m.

“By my calculation, the total worth is N263,400,000,” Wetkas said.

He added that Saraki’s landed property was worth between N2.5bn and N3.5bn cumulatively.

He confirmed that Saraki’s cash was worth about N50m.

He also confirmed that the total assets declared by Saraki, including that of his wife and his two children under 18 years in 2003, was worth $22m, £12m, €2.6m and N4bn.

Saraki obtained his M.B.B.S at London Hospital Medical College of the University of London in 1987 and had only worked as a medical officer at Rush Green Hospital, Essex, from1988 to 1989, before he became a director of Société Générale Bank (Nig) Ltd from 1990 to 2000.

He was appointed by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo as Special Assistant to the President on Budget in 2000 before he later became Governor of Kwara State in 2003.

Meanwhile, the Senate President on Tuesday revealed one of his lines of defence in his ongoing trial before the CCT by claiming that his asset declaration form submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau in 2003 had been doctored.

Erokoro made this claim while cross-examining Wetkas on the charge of anticipatory asset declaration of the property at No.15 Mcdonald Street, Ikoyi, Lagos.

He was cross-examining Wetkas with respect to the prosecution’s allegation that the Senate President had, on assumption of office as Governor of Kwara State in 2003, declared the property at 15 Mcdonald Street, Ikoyi, Lagos, as part of his assets, which he (Saraki) only acquired in 2006.

Wetkas maintained on Tuesday that Saraki bought the property from the Presidential Implementation Committee on the Sale of Federal Government Properties sometime in 2006, but had declared it as part of his assets on September 16, 2003.

He maintained that Saraki declared that he acquired the property named, 15A and B, Mcdonald Street, Ikoyi, Lagos, sometime in 2000 through his company, Carlisle Properties, “whereas our findings revealed that he acquired it through Tiny Tee Limited sometime in 2006”.

He added that the property only appeared on the records of the Presidential Committee on Sales of Federal Government Properties as No. 15 and Block 15, Flat 1 to 4, Mcdonald Street, Ikoyi, and not as 15A and B Mcdonald Street, Ikoyi, Lagos, as represented by Saraki in his asset declaration form in 2003.

But Erokoro said it was impossible for his client to have declared the property earlier in 2003, when it was only offered for sale and keenly contested by various parties in 2006.

He said, “Exhibit 1 (the 2003 form) has been tampered with. Who inserted the property? Was that why you never confronted him with Exhibit 1?

“Your team did not invite the defendant because you were afraid that he would challenge the document.”

In his response, Wetkas denied the allegation that the document was tampered with, pointing out that each page of the document bore the signature of Saraki and the date it was signed on September 16, 2003.

He said he could not doubt the genuineness of the document because it was backed by an affidavit sworn to before a judge.

Wetkas added, “I did not sign it; it was signed by the defendant. As far as I am concerned, from the document, it was signed by the defendant on September 16, 2003. No, I did not insert the property. There has never been any case of complaint of insertion. This Code of Conduct Bureau is a responsible agency of government; it could not have inserted it.

 “He swore to an affidavit before a judge. Whether I see him or not is immaterial. Since it was sworn to before a judge, I believe the content to be correct.”

He maintained that as of the time Saraki declared the property in 2003, it had not been sold by the Federal Government.

He said, “As of the time this document (the defendant’s asset declaration form made on assumption of office in 2003) was prepared, this property had not been sold.

“What I found out, which was what I said in my evidence-in-chief, was that in the course of our investigation, we came across 15A and B Mcdonald Street, Ikoyi.

“We wrote to the Presidential Implementation Committee. We also wrote to Lagos State Land Registry. The Lagos State Land Registry said they didn’t have record of 15 Mcdonald Street, Ikoyi.

“But the Presidential Implementation Committee stated that the record they had was 15 Mcdonald Street, Ikoyi, which was sold to the company, Tiny Tee Ltd, and Block 15, 1 to 4 Mcdonald Street, Ikoyi, which was sold to another company, Bitti Oil Company.

“In the case of the prosecution and the evidence I gave was that 15 Mcdonald was sold to Tiny Tee belonging to the defendant (Saraki) which we did not see in any of the asset declaration forms.”

The CCT adjourned further trial till Wednesday (today)

Panama Papers go online, Tinubu & Saraki files thrown open

The Mossack Fonseca law firm offices in Panama City

The Panama Papers scandal will deepen around the world today when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists puts most of the digital cache of documents online, accessible to all.

The ICIJ said it will release the documents in a searchable database at 1800 GMT on Monday accessible to the public at offshoreleaks.icij.org.

The US-based organization said the release “will not be a ‘data dump’” of the sort the Wikileaks group became known for.

But it will reveal names and information on 200,000 offshore entities set up by wealthy individuals around the world.

The documents are from 2.6 terabytes of data given to a German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, over a year ago by an anonymous source using the name “John Doe.”

Senator Bukola Saraki: Panama files now open to the world

– Data from ‘John Doe’ –

The data came from nearly four decades of digital archives of one Panamanian law firm specialized in creating and running offshore entities, Mossack Fonseca, which says its computer records were hacked from abroad.

The German newspaper gave access to the trove to the ICIJ, and through it to hundreds of journalists in different countries.

Reports thus far have focused on scores of high-profile individuals: political leaders, celebrities and a few criminals.

– Iceland’s prime minister was forced to resign when his name was linked to an offshore company.

– British Prime Minister David Cameron ended up admitting he profited from an offshore firm started by his father.

– Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest circle was named in the revelations, prompting Putin to claim the Panama Papers was a US plot against him.

– Argentine President Mauricio Macri was also linked to offshore companies.

– China censored media and online social networks from mentioning links between the families of Chinese leaders with offshore entities.

wale Tinubu: Mossack Fonseca files posted online

– Other notable people made uncomfortable by the documents include Argentine football star Lionel Messi, Hong Kong film star Jackie Chan and Spanish movie director Pedro Almodovar. In Nigeria, Senate President Bukola Saraki, his wife, Toyin, Lt. General TO Danjuma, Oando chief, Wales Tinubu, Folorunso Coker, a tourism commissioner in Lagos were among the people named as salting hidden assets away in Panama, Seychelles and British Virgin Islands.

Mossack Fonseca on Thursday issued a “cease and desist” letter to the US-based ICIJ, saying putting up the information publicly would violate attorney-client privilege.

– ‘Should be public’ –

But there is no sign of the ICIJ calling off the online database. The organization says it is important the public be able to look at information on any offshore company in the Panama Papers.

“We think that information about who owns the company should be public and transparent,” Marina Walker Guevara, deputy director of the ICIJ, told CNN.

She stressed, however, that “this is not disclosing private information en masse.”

Since reporting on the Panama Papers started at the beginning of April, Panama’s government has been struggling to persuade the world that it is not a haven for tax-dodgers and money launderers.

France has already put the Central American nation on its blacklist of tax havens, and other Western countries are considering following suit.

The online release of more Panama Papers could deepen the damage to Panama’s image.

“We’re very concerned that the country’s reputation will be affected by this situation,” the minister for government, Milton Henriquez, told TVN-2 television.

Panama’s pushback against being singled out as a facilitator of offshore business was further complicated just days ago when the United States declared members of one of country’s most prominent business families, the Wakeds, among the top global money launderers for ruthless drug cartels.

The US blacklisted many of the Waked’s 68 companies in Panama, whose interests span a bank, an upmarket shopping center, duty free outlets and media. One of the suspects, Nidal Ahmed Waked Hatum, was arrested in Colombia and is awaiting extradition to the United States to face charges.

On Sunday, Panama’s Chamber of Commerce for Industry and Agriculture acknowledged that the scandals were “rocking the country.”

senate-forgery-agf-orders-dpp-try-suspects

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, has given the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation and the police a two-week ultimatum  to prefer charges against suspects, who allegedly forged the Senate Standing Orders used for the proclamation of the current 8th Senate, The PUNCH has learnt.

The Senate Standing Orders 2015, alleged to be a forged version of the 2011 version, was used for the leadership election of the Senate, which produced Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy, shortly after the 8th Senate was proclaimed on June 9, 2015.

Top sources in the Federal Ministry of Justice and the police headquarters confirmed that Malami had given the police and the DPP of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Diri, two weeks to file charges against the suspected forgers.

It was learnt that Malami called for the file on the case last week and found out that the ministry had since July 29, 2015, some months before his appointment, recommended the prosecution of the yet-to-be-identified suspects.

The minister was also said to have discovered in the file that the ministry had requested the police to further investigate the case in order to unravel the suspects and the roles played by them in the case.

The sources confirmed that the suspects would be charged with criminal conspiracy, forgery, breach of official trust and unlawful assembly said to have contravened various provisions of Penal Code in about one or two weeks.

This confirmed The PUNCH’s exclusive story published on April 4, 2016, that the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, had, on July 29, 2015, issued a legal advice for the prosecution of the suspects after considering the report of investigation submitted to him by the police.

The PUNCH had reported that the legal advice, addressed to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department of the Force Headquarters, Dan’Azumi Doma, was received by the recipient’s office on July 29, 2015, the same date it was issued by the DPPF.

The document showed that it was issued in response to the report of police investigation, with reference number CB: 3514/XFQ/ABJ/Vol./23/17, which was sent to the Ministry of Justice by Doma, quoting the number given to the case by the police as FHQ/X/ABJ/SEB/365/2015.

The legal advice as reported by The PUNCH had sought further police investigation to unravel who played what roles in the forgery case in order to identify who to prosecute for flouting the various provisions of the Penal Code.

“When the minister saw all these in the file, he had to call on the officers in charge of the case and asked them to liaise with the police and come up with the charges within two weeks,” the source said.

One of the sources said the minister was patiently taking his time to take decision on the case because “he is aware that there are a lot of vested interests that are out to frustrate the case.”

The source added, “But I can assure you, in one or two weeks’ time, the minister’s decision on the case is going to be made known to the public and you will be impressed.”

Our correspondent had sighted the legal advice issued by the Federal Ministry of Justice with reference number, DPPA/ADV/258/15,  recommending that some suspects, whom the police refused to name in their investigative report, should be prosecuted.

The legal opinion, which analysed the evidence thrown up by the police investigation, had indicated that the “leadership election, based on the forged document, cannot stand and it is null and void”.

The legal advice added, “Further investigation should reveal:

“Who authorised the promulgation of the Senate Standing Order 2015?

“Who published the Senate Standing Order 2015?

“Who approved the Senate Standing Order 2015?

“Who paid for the publishing of the Senate Standing Order 2015? and

“Who distributed the Senate Standing Order 2015?”

In addition, the legal advice recommended the yet-to-be-identified suspects to be prosecuted “for criminal conspiracy, contrary to provision of Section 97 of the Penal Code; forgery, contrary to Section 99 of Penal Code; breach of official trust and unlawful assembly contrary to Section 102 of the Penal Code.”

The legal advice also recommended that the various versions of the Senate Standing Orders since 1999 should be collected as part of evidence needed for the prosecution of the case.

When contacted on Sunday, Malami’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Salihu Isah, said he had no information on the case and requested to be given time to find out.

“I have not received any briefing on it. Give me some time to make inquiries about it,” Isah said.

 The Force Public Relations Officer, Bisi Kolawole, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, did not respond to calls put across to her mobile by our correspondent on Sunday.

The police had investigated the alleged forgery of the Senate Orders following a petition by Senator Sulaiman Hunkuyi of the All Progressives Congress from Kaduna State.

The petition had alleged that some parts of the 2015 Senate Order were different from the one ratified by the 6th Senate and was used by the 7th Senate, as Standing Orders 2011.

The police had, during their investigation on July 6, questioned some members of the 7th and the 8th Senate as well as some management employees of the Senate, including the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa.

It was alleged that the 2011 version of the Senate Orders was secretly altered by some individuals to produce the 2015 edition.

The 13-page police report of the police investigation had confirmed that the amendment to the 2011 version of the Senate Standing Order to produce the 2015 edition was “criminally” done as it was carried out by only a group of senators.

The police report, however, failed to indict any particular person and also did not recommend anybody for prosecution.