Sheik Gumi: Soldiers Are Fighting Innocent Muslims, Not Boko Haram.

Sheikh Ahmad Gumi

By SaharaReporters, New York

Outspoken Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, has demanded that the Nigerian government withdraw soldiers from violence-ridden northern cities because the government and soldiers are not really serious about fighting Boko Haram. Instead, Mr. Gumi accused the soldiers of killing innocent Muslims across Northern Nigeria. He called on the government to send the soldiers back to the barracks for peace to reign.

The cleric also accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo and one-time Defense Minister General T.Y. Danjuma (ret.) of conspiring to retire competent Muslim military officers on account of their having held political appointments.

A source who heard Sheik Gumi’s latest sermon at the famous Sultan Bello Mosque in Kaduna told SaharaReporters that Mr. Gumi made these observations at a well attended Ramadan sermon on Friday evening.

According to the source, the cleric “told the congregation that he saw with his eyes how soldiers were beating an innocent citizen in Kaduna yesterday (Friday) – after removing the citizen from a car.” Mr. Gumi reportedly wondered which law gave a soldier or police officer the right to maltreat innocent people. He concluded that the government was not waging a fight against Boko Haram but was molesting Muslims in their most populated environment. He claimed that there was a plot to oppress Muslims since the Chief of Army Staff is a non-Muslim.

The source quoted Gumi as stating that the country was “back in the Ironsi days, querying why soldiers are molesting innocent Muslims on streets by forcing them off their motorcycles. “Are they the Boko Haram?” the source quoted Sheik Gumi as asking. He added that the cleric stated, “[The soldiers] know where Boko Haram is because they… have their telephone numbers and are interacting with them on the Internet. What we are saying is, Islam does not permit any one to be killed unjustly. We are not talking on behalf of Boko Haram or on behalf of government. Anyone that goes wrong we will not be afraid to say it.

“I read in the papers that this American woman came and said that they cannot use force and fight Boko Haram. And we know they will say sweet things in public and continue conspiracy underground. What we are saying is in the spirit of peace; they should remove these soldiers and police on the roads and nothing will happen to us in the name of Allah.

Sheik Gumi reportedly suggested that it was the presence of soldiers and police on streets that draws attacks by Boko Haram, leading to civilian casualty. “Take them [soldiers and police] to the barracks or rooms and we will get peace,” the cleric reportedly said.

Our source disclosed that Mr. Gumi accused some powerful elements of using the threat of Boko Haram as a ruse to mistreat Muslims. “They are following our innocent people and killing them in the name of Boko Haram. If the Boko Haram [militants] are Muslims, they should leave us with them, and enter their barracks. Muslim cities like Sokoto, Kano, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Bauchi, Yobe and all others should be vacated,” the sheik reportedly said.

Embattled Businessman Jimoh Ibrahim Interrogated By The EFCC.

Jimoh Ibrahim

Embattled Businessman Jimoh Ibrahim Interrogated By The EFCC

Law enforcement sources have told SaharaReporters that Lagos businessman Jimoh Ibrahim yesterday spent several hours at the offices of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) where he was interrogated on allegations of money laundering.

Mr. Ibrahim, who is currently embroiled in a growing public controversy over his reported crooked hijack of 51% shares of Newswatch magazine, was grilled over several questionable business transactions in Nigeria that enabled him to amass millions of dollars with which he established Energy Bank in Ghana and Sao Tome as well as purchased a private jet, Challenger 605 in 2009.

One EFCC source familiar with the investigation told SaharaReporters that Mr. Ibrahim appeared sufficiently prepared for the interrogation, having covered up his tracks.

SaharaReporters learnt that the businessman recently gathered all incriminating documents relating to money laundering and burnt them in the middle of the night. A source close to him disclosed that Mr. Ibrahim’s clothes caught fire and he sustained burns on 30 percent of his body.

An EFCC operative who saw Mr. Ibrahim said the scars of the fire incident were visible all over his hands.

After receiving the burns, Mr. Ibrahim invited a Lagos doctor, Dr. Paul Oriafor to treat him privately at home. He stayed out of public view until last Wednesday when he made a public appearance at his Energy House office in Lagos to celebrate the 19th year anniversary of his “Global Fleet” company. The event, which featured Pastor Samuel Kayode Abiara as the keynote speaker, turned into a disastrous spectacle. Mr. Ibrahim’s speech at the event was punctuated with biblical references. But in the middle of the speech, the shadowy businessman launched into a verbal attack of Newswatch magazine directors who have been having a public dispute with him over his stake in the magazine as well as his recent unilateral decision to suspend publication and relocate the magazine’s editorial offices. Other Newswatch directors like Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed and Soji Akinrinade are opposing Mr. Ibrahim’s decision to shut down the magazine. They allege that the businessman had yet to meet his financial obligations he agreed to when they sold him a slight majority stake in the magazine. A source close to one of the directors told SaharaReporters that “Jimoh Ibrahim is behaving like a bandit and wants to fraudulently hijack the magazine.”

At the event, Mr. Ibrahim openly cursed the Newswatch directors feuding with him. A source close to him disclosed to SaharaReporters that Mr. Ibrahim privately chafes at what he views as the directors’ hypocrisy and greed. “Ray Ekpu, Agbese and the rest of them played into Chief’s hands when they accepted 50 million naira each from him as gifts in order to pave the way for him to assume control. Chief Ibrahim feels that, after pocketing his huge gifts, the same directors cannot come back now to question how he wants to run a business in which he acquired controlling shares.”

The embarrassing spectacle at the 19th anniversary party took a different turn soon after the event closed. Mr. Ibrahim’s first wife, Modupe, engaged in a physical brawl with a female staffer, Bukola Ogundare, the head of administration of her husband’s Global Fleet Oil & Gas Limited business.  She accused Mrs. Ogundare of having an affair with Mr. Ibrahim.

Meanwhile, fresh documents seen by SaharaReporters have shown that Mr. Ibrahim’s ownership of a private jet- N605GF may be in jeopardy as two US pilots who worked for the businessman have filed “mechanic liens” in a Nevada court against the jet.

The consequence is that the jet is liable to be seized if Mr. Ibrahim refuses to pay the two pilots, Barton Gault of Glendale, Arizona, and Joe Abrahamson of Phoenix, Arizona the sums of $54,814.74 and $30,522.40 respectively for services rendered since 2009.

Mr. Ibrahim bought the jet in 2009 through a shell company incorporated in New York. At the time of purchase, the jet was barely a year old.

In a related development, one of Mr. Ibrahim’s staff members has written a petition alleging that the businessman laundered funds meant for pensioners to buy the jet. Using a highly complex transaction, Mr. Ibrahim “wet-leased” the jet from the company in New York, Global Fleet 605, Inc. to his Global Fleet Company in Lagos.

Essentially, Mr. Jimoh is wet leasing the jet owned by him to his company in Lagos and getting paid for doing so. The US Federal Aviation Authority also lists the jet as not having Aircraft Geometric Height Monitoring Element (AGHME) since 2009.
 

$3m subsidy bribe scandal: Farouk Lawan weeps.

By KINGSLEY OMONOBI, Abuja
Detectives at the Police headquarters investigating the $620, 000 oil subsidy bribe money collected by erstwhile chairman of the House of Representatives Subsidy Probe Panel, Hon. Farouk Lawan from oil magnate, Mr. Femi Otedola, at the weekend disclosed to Vanguard that the decision of the Police not to stand in the way of the embattled Farouk travelling out of the country on religious grounds, followed his keeping to the terms of his bail conditions.

Farouk Lawan

Aside reporting to the Police Special Task Force on two times daily basis, or whenever his presence was needed to shed more light on some issues, Farouk Lawan is said to have wept in one instance when it dawned on him that he had been abandoned by his colleagues to swim alone and was neck deep in the bribery allegation and that it will take close to a miracle to escape the consequences.
When the issue of his travelling for pilgrimage ‘Umrah’ came up, the authorities studied his conduct and analyzed his willingness to cooperate with the bribery investigation. In most cases, all the addresses, information needed from him were provided and were found to be true; the only exception being that he regretted that his colleagues in the house, disappointed him when the $620, 000 which he claimed he kept in the house was not forthcoming.
It was gathered however that a specific time frame within which the embattled former chairman would perform his religious obligation and return to the country, was agreed and signed, and failure to keep to the agreement would lead to ‘certain actions’, the source said.
Vanguard was made to understand that up until when the investigation was concluded last week and the report submitted to the Attorney-General’s office for legal advice, Farouk had continued to insist that his colleagues would bring the money to him to hand over to the police.
It would be recalled that Vanguard reported last weekend that authorities of the Special Task Force investigating the $620, 000 bribery scandal concluded the investigation, had written its final report and submitted the case file to the Attorney- General’s office.
Consequently, Hon. Farouk Lawan who has been in the eye of the storm over the bribery allegation, is set to face a 15 count charge of conspiracy, bribery, corruption, and lying under oath among others.
However, contrary to the widely held belief that going by the provisions of the law, the giver and taker of bribe are liable to face criminal charges, Vanguard gathered that Chief Femi Otedola who gave the bribe might be a prosecution witness if the recommendations of the investigation report is approved by the Attorney-General.
While intimating Vanguard of a watertight case file owing to the fact that painstaking steps had been taken to plug any envisaged loophole in the report, sources disclosed that it will be difficult for the defence lawyers to arm-twist both Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo the secretary of the committee from complicity in the allegation.
Vanguard gathered that among new addition to the charges included in the case file, were attachments detailing how Farouk Lawan collected and concealed the bribe monies from both the House Committee on Subsidy probe and the ploy to deceive investigators that he handed over the money to the chairman of the Financial Crimes Committee for safe keeping.
Asked if the non recovery of the hard cash of $620, 000 would not stand in the way of nailing the culprits in the scam, a source said, the Police is very optimistic that even though the $620,000 was not returned to be used as exhibit, there is overwhelming evidence to get conviction for the duo.
Recall that Hon. Lawan claimed in his statement to the Special Task Force (STF) that the $620,000 bribery money was handed over to the chairman House Committee on drugs and financial crimes, Adams Jagaba. Jagaba however rubbished the claim and challenged Lawan to prove how the money was given to him which he (Lawan) has so far failed to do.

Police quiz two governor’s Special Advisers over killing of soldiers.

By Sanni Onogu.

Two special advisers to Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State are in police custody over last Tuesday’s killing of two soldiers in Okene. 

The two–Yahaya Karaku (former Chairman, Okene Local Government Council) and Abubakar Zubair Adagu (former chairman, Okehi Local Government Council)–are among those being interrogated by the police over the soldiers’ killing. 

Gunmen stormed the Okene Local Government secretariat on the fateful day and opened fire, killing the two soldiers in the process, just 24 hours after terrorists invaded Deeper Christian Life Bible Church in the town, killing 20 worshippers. 

Karaku and Adagu were appointed by Governor Idris Wada as Special Advisers without portfolio on July 26. 

The incumbent boss of Okene Local Government, Mr Salihu Ogembe, was believed to be the target of the attack. Ogembe escaped death by a whisker. 

Several other politicians from Okene are also being held by the police, but their names were not immediately available. 

The suspects have been moved to Abuja. 

Ogembe, in a text message to our reporter yesterday, confirmed that he was in the office when the gunmen opened fire on the secretariat. 

He, however, said he was not sure of their mission. 

He said: “Yes, I was in the office but not sure of their mission. God is in control.” 

It was gathered that the Monday attack on the Deeper Life Church might have been a smokescreen to divert the attention of the military men from the city centre where the council secretariat is located. 

According to one source, a security alert had gone round all the banks in the town on Monday before the attack on Deeper Life Bible Church. They were then advised to beef up security around their premises. 

The Joint Task Force (JTF) also deployed its members to the city centre to check the threat. 

One source said this appeared to have been done to deceive the security agents because, according to him: “Immediately that attack (on Deeper Life Church ) was reported, all the security agents, who hitherto were at the city centre, moved to the Federal College of Education area where the incident took place. 

“But the two soldiers who died in the attack were sent to the council secretariat, following a distress call by an official of the council before the gunmen came. 

“This may also explain why Boko Haram has not claimed responsibility for the killings.” 

Soldiers yesterday ransacked all the markets in Okene township. 

The few traders who had displayed their wares took to their heels when the soldiers who were patrolling the town started shooting sporadically into the air. 

An eyewitness stated that when the soldiers got to the main market, they alighted from their trucks and started overturning market tables and the wares displayed on them. 

Food items like palm oil, rice, beans, garri, meat and cassava flour littered the market. A similar action was allegedly carried out by the soldiers at Ogamnana Market. 

Economic activities in the town remained paralysed yesterday. 

Banks are closed; the sick cannot access treatment at the hospitals while the Okene, Adavi and Ohehi local government secretariats remained shut.

We went to London to see the queen.

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By Ikenna Emewu.
Close to 1,000 medals have been won in London since July 27. That is the Olympic Games, the world’s number one sports platform where class and talent are displayed. Two hundred and four nations have sent over 10,000 athletes, with track and fields events having the highest of over 2000 contestants. In all the events, medals have been tabled for grabs.
Many have been grabbed. Of the countries participating, as at yesterday, 66 had been listed in the medals table. And Nigeria is not one of them. Nigeria is the sixth most populous country in the world. Nigeria is the sixth highest oil-producing nation in the world. Nigeria is the 187th poorest nation.
Nigeria is among the last to pick a medal. What it means is that Nigeria is the number one country in the whole world with the least endowment of sports talent, given its population. But in the contrary, China is the most populous nation in the world, and USA is about the fourth or fifth most populous and from the medal haul, USA is the second best. So, Nigeria is the direct opposite of China. While China has large population and highest pool of talented sports people, Nigeria has the largest population with the least pool of talented sports people.
That means the expedition by about 70 Nigerian contingents to London reminds me of the popular children’s rhyme: “pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been. I have been to London to see the queen.” All the nations of the world went to London for Olympics to win medals and register their names among great nations for good.
Nigeria went there to just see the queen or her capital city. Unfortunately most of them might not have been at the opening ceremony venue where the Queen appeared. So, at last they could not even see the queen in London. So, they went to London for jamboree and to play tom-tom drums. I know you saw the picture of Ms. Evelyn Oputu, the Bank of Industry CEO playing talking drum in the Nigerian camp.
I am sure Chief Edem Duke, Tourism Minister and the Tourism Board CEO, Segun Runsewe are all there to ‘showcase’ Nigeria’s shamelessness. It was scandalous reading in the papers that despite not winning any medal, Nigeria’s camp bubbles with party marketing Nigeria’s tourism potentials. And they advertised it as something very special.
I think the worst state of no shame is where it is displayed as honour. The party is good. But that is fraud. If they know we were going to London for tourism fair, then we had no need deceiving ourselves to send athletes and budget N2b for that. When the world is showcasing sports and ingenuity, we showcase tourism. Maybe at a world tourism fair somewhere, sometime, Nigeria will commence her Olympic Games and win medals competing with herself.
Kenya has the best tourism market in Africa. South Africa and Tanzania also have, yet they are in Olympics showcasing sports. Way back home, we are nowhere their equals in tourism.
Development and marketing of Nigerian tourism and Nigerian sports are just the same – all words, jamboree, settlements, fraud and not action. Have you checked out our medals list so far? They read like: “Russian boxer salutes Ogoke’s courage in loss. Okagbare crashes again, Athlete Y breaks African, Commonwealth record, but fails to qualify, Oghene’s 400m hope dashed, D’Tigers lose gallantly.”
You can see so many medals lined up for us there. But are these contestants inferior? By no mean so. They are all super talents whose country doesn’t place any value on. That is why whenever they defect to other countries, they start to shine bright because it takes talent and encouragement to excel in sports as in every other competition.
By the time the athletes come back, you will hear sordid tales of how they competed in empty stomach, how no doctor attended to their health complaints, and how a certain powerful government agent absconded with their allowances. And at last nothing will come out of it. What Nigeria showed at the Olympics is the true colour of what she is – a country without regard for her image.
Otherwise why would be pass through this same sorry track again after the abysmal outing in Beijing four years ago? Those that have regard for their national identity prepare on time, place high premium on the contingents and make sure they get all the incentives to win. And win they do.
The story is that the fund for Team Nigeria was released three days after the games had commenced. I bet you that of the N2b we heard was approved, about 70 percent might have left the approving office and maybe 25 percent got to London.
Here at the Olympics, I have once again seen people sticking to their areas of core competence. Talk of Kenya, Ethiopia, Cuba, Jamaica, Japan etc, you can beat them in so many other areas, but in those sports they know their strength is defined, you dare not. For Nigeria, please, where is our competence? None? We go to compete with the whole world banking on ‘luck’ and the ‘will of god’ as if God created only Nigeria and devil created the rest. Olympic has shown the exact nation we operate today.
A nation that flops at home and abroad; a nation where image matters not; a nation where identity is no issue; a nation no citizen loves or cherishes; a nation that does not exist in the real sense of it; a nation that has made herself an object of constant ridicule and whose consciousness for honour is fast fading in the minds of the outer world. Sorry, Nigeria. That a nation they say has 160 million persons competed at the world forum and never had its anthem sang or its flag hoisted high while others cheered, is just unbearable.
President Goodluck Jonathan once took the right step to end this shame when he decided to disband the Eagles after the woeful outing two years ago in South Africa. At last he recapitulated and allowed a sports terrorist called Sepp Blatter to bully him into surrender. I think we have to go back to that option and end this reign of shame. We have fumbled for too long to have convinced everyone that we can’t do better than this.
So, let the gamble be over. But I know nobody will take my advice among the sports ‘administrators’ who feed fat on these jamborees. As the image and reputation of Nigeria gets atrophied everyday, they grow fatter lining their pockets with booty from failed sports outings. Bombings: Successful in churches, aborted in mosques There is a faultless trend in the bombings reported and witnessed in Nigeria, especially since the bombers made the first hit on a church.
Since October last year, there have been at least 25 successful bombing of churches in several cities in Nigeria. All of them were successful with the exception of one where they caught ‘some Christians’ who wanted to bomb a church somewhere in Kaduna or Bauchi. The last count was in Okene. Sixteen worshippers in church were gunned down, just like the incident in a church inside the Bayero University, Kano some months ago. While the bombers and shooters carry out their acts on churches without missing, they never succeeded in ‘bombing’ any mosque.
Some weeks after they succeeded in killing some university dons in Kano, a certain laughable report was in the papers that a major disaster was averted as bombers targeting Kano central mosque were outsmarted. Really? Funny enough, the reports in all papers came in the same sentences. They failed to bomb Maiduguri mosque, just as the Potiskum mosque and just a day after hitting Okene church, they still failed to ‘bomb’ Okene mosque. Even fools should not remain fools forever. Who generates these ‘mosque bomb’ tales to create the impression that what we see is not religious war. Are we actually these people’s fools?

Christian Leaders Should Speak Up On Corruption – Nda-Isaiah.

Chairman and editor-in-chief of LEADERSHIP Newspapers Group Limited, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, has challenged leaders of the Christian faith in the country to speak up against corruption in the high places, which he said had ruined the country.
In his review of the synod presidential address delivered by Bishop (Dr.) Josiah Idowu Fearon, the Doicesan Anglican Bishop of Kaduna, in Kaduna yesterday, Mr. Nda-Isaiah said that the problem of the country was failure of leadership.
He said that the massive corruption going on in government had made it impossible for the government to provide the necessary amenities for the citizenry, hence the attendant socio-economic problems.
The publisher lamented that terrorists have overpowered the government and taken over the land, killing innocent citizens, noting that there is too much bloodshed in the land.
His said, “But my submission is that our problem is squarely a failure of leadership. We as Christians must avoid being too sentimental about the issues. There are some things that only governments can do, and indeed, the constitution of the country states very clearly that welfare and security of the people are the responsibility of the government.
“If churches are frequently bombed and this has happened continuously, then it is the government, and by extension, the man who leads the government that has failed; nothing more, nothing less.
“It is about time Christian leaders started telling the truth to power holders as directly as they should.
“One of the things that have led to this failure of leadership is the level of corruption we now see. And many Christians are involved. Corruption in Nigeria is now measured in trillions of naira. So much money has been stolen that only a meager amount are left for the running of the police and intelligence services. So the consequence is that the terrorists have outgunned our security agents.”
Nda-Isaiah said that because of the high level of corruption in the guise of fuel subsidy,  specially in 2011, not enough funds were left for the security of the people.
“Because of this monumental fraud, not enough money was left for the security of the people and the creation of economic activities that would create jobs and reduce tension in the land.
I will have no time to talk about the stolen pension funds and the N2 trillion that was supposedly spent to generate electricity between 1999 and 2007. But Christian leaders have been too quiet on the matter, and it is not good.
“I will, therefore, call on Christian leaders to speak up. Senior leaders must be seen to be openly speaking the truth to the power, or else they shall be guilty of complicity. In fact, that is the only way to help a leader. Proverbs 20:28 says, ‘Mercy and truth preserve the King.”
He, therefore, admonished the church to get on its knees in prayers, as according to him, “It is time to spiritually break the jinx and cycle of bad leadership.’’

What is This Incessant Talk about Resignation? Is One around The Corner?

Tunde Bakare,

In the last one or two weeks or so, the polity has been inundated with talks about resignation or no resignation. Fiery Lagos pastor, Tunde Bakare, started it all, I think. While giving a sermon in his church, Latter Rain Assembly, he predicted that President Jonathan might not last up till 2015; that the President would either resign or be forced out before then. Many see the prophecy as political harakiri. They ask: If Pastor Bakare wants to play politics given that he is also a politician, why would he not step down from the pulpit and embrace politics with all his might and oratory? Then the Boko Haram Islamic sect that has been tormenting the nation, killing and maiming innocent Nigerians in the North, joined in the resignation buzz. The sect asked President Jonathan to step down or become a Moslem as a condition to ceasefire.

As if that invidious demand did not rankle enough, rather than ignore Boko Haram and not dignify it with a response, the president went on to say he won’t resign. Speaking through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, President Jonathan said he would neither resign nor convert to Islam. He described the Boko Haram call as rude and a mere blackmail. “The President cannot be intimidated by any group or individual. The President will never resign. He has the mandate of Nigerians to serve his fatherland and nobody should imagine that he would succumb to blackmail,” Abati had told journalists. Then, when we thought that had perhaps rested the matter, former Federal Caiptal Territory (FCT) minister, Nasir el-Rufai, picked it up again, as if taking the gauntlet on behalf of Boko Haram.

El-Rufai was actually taking issues with Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark who castigated some Northern leaders over the activities of Boko Haram. El-Rufai asked Clark to desist from insulting Northern leaders. He said Jonathan has already made it clear to Nigerians and the international community that the gale of bombings in the land was beyond the capability of his administration to handle. Then the clincher: “If he (Jonathan) cannot do the job for which he was elected to do, he should consider going home…” Meanwhile, Dr. Doyin Okupe, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, has also blasted Bakare and el-Rufai for calling on Jonathan to resign.

My sense in all this, and forgive me as this is what my Yoruba instinct tells me,  is that if something is becoming recurrent like this, like this call for resignation, it just might be in the offing. Is resignation around the corner?