Meet Nigerian Fearless Soldier Who Became Sierra Leone Chief Of Defence Staff

Samuelawoniyi

In the history of Nigeria's mission to Sierra Leone and Liberia , one man stood out as Nigeria's foremost outstanding commander of all time & one of the greatest military personnel of our time . He is identified as brigadier Gen . Maxwell Mitikishe Khobe .

View pictures in App save up to 80% data.He is from Adamawa state . He started as a foot soldier in September 1962 & subsequently enlisted in the Nigerian defence short service combat course and was commissioned as an infantry 2nd lieutenant in 1971 alongside two other operational commanders , brigadier Gen. Olagunsoye Oyinlola and major General Gandi Sidon and the host of others .

He started the expeditionary phase of his career in Liberia with ECOMOG where he commanded a tank battalion . Because of his exceptional managerial wisdom , many troops officers always wanted to serve in his unit , troops under his units hardly entered a tank at the front but preferred to walk armed with nothing but radio on the ground . Thereafter ,he with several officers and troops marched on foot to take after town in Liberia until they captured Buchanan city in the year 1992 .

After his sojourn in Liberia he returned home but in quick succession , he was placed on another assignment to head a special unit formed to protect Lagos against armed robbers and bandits , then to Abuja , later to the armour Brigade headquarter at Yola .

The may 1997 overthrow of president Kabbah by the AFRC junta in Sierra Leone provided him another opportunity to work in Sierra Leone . He was appointed as the commander of the ECOMOG task force in Sierra Leone . In light of this , brigadier Gene Maxwell Khobe stunned the world on 12th February 1998 . He single handedly led the ECOMOG attack that routed the forces of major Koromah who held sway in Freetown for the periods of 9 months and returned the Democratically elected president Ahmed Tejan Kubbah . In recognition of his efforts , president Kabbah asked the Nigerian government to allow Khobe second him as chief of staff of Sierra Leone army .

Within the short period of assumption as the chief of defence staff to Sierra Leone army , the rebels invaded Freetown again on 6th January 1999 . However after a protracted illness at 10: 30a.m on 18th April year 2000 at the unripe age of fifty (50) , he passed away . In recognition of his efforts and achievement , the Rukuba cantoment of the 3 armouos was renamed in his memory .

The death of brigadier Gen. Maxwell Khobe sent grief as and anguish to million of people in Sierra Leone where , he played a major role in the restoration of peace and democracy .

OMS Controversy: Insiders fault police report clearing Okunbo

P.M. News Nigeria

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Captain Hosa Wells Okunbo

Knowledgeable insiders insist that the police did a shoddy job by clearing the Chairman of Ocean Marine Security (OMS) Ltd, Captain Idahosa Well Okunbo of the allegations of stealing and criminal diversion of company funds.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Monitoring Unit report had cleared Okunbo of the allegations of stealing made by Dr Tunde Ayeni.

Sources familiar with the case disclosed that the petitioner, Dr Tunde Ayeni, shortly after submitting the petition to the police, actually withdrew same having got hold of some information about further huge cash withdrawal from OMS to the tune of $1 million and the possibility of the investigation being compromised.

But in a bizarre turn of event, according to insiders, the police sent a team of its officers and men to arrest the petitioner and was subsequently practically compelled to adopt the petition.

Sources close to the police last evening (Sunday) expressed dismay at an investigation in which the directors of the company were never invited for interrogation let alone have them to write statements on the grave allegations made by the petitioner. 

A source said further: “It is common knowledge that the Chairman, Okunbo, who is the subject of the petition, is in far away London. 

“So when did the police interrogate him? When did he write a statement to the police? Did the police visit OMS or invite the Fincance and Accounts Department of the company before arriving at its findings? 

“Given all these holes, it is difficult to dismiss the allegation that investigators may have been compromised in the course of its investigation.”

Another source raised even more disturbing issue. 

He said: We are talking of alleged serious financial infractions here. Now the questions that you should ask are: did the police freeze the accounts of the company while investigating these allegations? the answer is No. 

“Did the police do a forensic combing of the books of the company in order to verify the authenticity or otherwise of the claims by the petitioner, the answer is No. 

“Were the OMS bankers called in by the police to authenticate the financial transactions of the company? Of course, not. With all these yawning holes, how credible can the police report be?

While Dr Tunde Ayeni has chosen to remain silent on this development for now, sources close to him disclosed that the police never reached out to him to request for any documents to back up his allegations while the investigations lasted. 

How do you investigate such serious allegations without as much as demanding proofs from the petitioner, the insider wondered. 

The contention in many quarters is that there seems to be an indecent haste to give Okunbo a clean bill of health, in a move insiders say was aimed at clearing the way for OMS to ensure the renewal of its contract with Shell Petroleum Development Company and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporate, NNPC.

Sources disclosed that Shell decided not to renew the OMS contract following the company’s (OMS) failure to pass Shell’s integrity test owing largely to the poor state of its vessels. OMS, according to insiders, can only execute the contract with hired vessels. 

The ownership crisis in OMS, it was learnt, was also a critical factor that informed Shell’s decision not to renew the contract.

A source said OMS is desperately lobbying some fat cats at NNPC to force the hands of Shell to rescind its decision on the contract. 

Insiders insist that part of the plot to make Shell change its position on the contract is to secure the clean bill of health from the police since the petition is a major obstacle to the contract renewal. 

Said a source last night: “Thank goodness, the petition was not submitted to only the police. The EFCC and other government agencies are also in receipt of the petition. Armed with the petition and this police report, the EFCC and the Attorney – General’s office certainly have more work to do. Certainly the last has not been heard of this matter.”

The Boldest Spy In The History Of Espionage: A Jew Who Befriended The President Of An Arab Country

MbuyaziEmmanuel

In January 1964, Arab nations met in Cairo, Egypt, and agreed to strop Israel's plan to build a canal diverting water from the Jordan River to Israel. The river runs through Syria, and it was up to Syria to build a canal diverting the waters from not flowing into Israel. This was planned secretly, but Israel knew everything; thanks to a spy they had planted in the Syrian government, a man called Elie Cohen. 

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Elie Cohen as Kamal Amin Tabet penetrated the inner circle of the Syrian government and stole top secrete intelligence for Israel (Image: Wikipedia)

“The boldest spy in the history of Espionage', that is how Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal referred to Cohen in their book ‘Mossad: The Greatest Missions Of The Israeli Secret Service.’ Israel was founded in 1948 out of Palestine, the Arabs in the middle east were provoked by this and ever since has been hostile to Israel and had fought a lot of wars with their smaller neighboring country. To survive, Israel established an intelligence agency to spy on their Arab neighbours and exposed their plans against Israel, this agency is called Mossad. It is one of the best in the world today and had produced one of the boldest spies ever, but the boldest is Elie Cohen.

Elie Cohen entered Syria in the early 1960s as a wealthy Arab of Syrian heritage who had lived most of his life in Argentina. His name was Kamal Amin Tabet. After he was employed by Mossad, Cohen who was already fluent in Arabic was trained to speak with a Syrian accent, he was made to read a lot on Syrian history and politics and then sent to Argentina to rehearse his new identity. In Argentina, he lived as an Arab, befriended Arabs and was very generous and soon made friends with the top Arabs in the country, it was in Argentina that he befriended General Amin Al Hafez, who would later become President of Syria.

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Elie Cohen poses in Damascus, Syria (Image: The Syrian Observer)

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In the TV series The Spy, Baron Sacha Cohen(right) played Elie Cohen(left). The surnames are just coincidence (Image: The Irish Sun)

It was in Argentina that Cohen now known as Kamal prevail on his Arab connections to vouch for him to the Syrian authorities to enable him to relocate to his "country of birth'', unknowing that he was a spy they did. Cohen arrived in Syria in early 1960 as Kamal Amin Tabet and settled in the capital city, Damascus, where he rented a big house closer to the Syrian army headquarters and in the neighbourhood where the richest and the highly placed Syrians live. It was from here that Cohen transmits his intelligence report to Israel.

After he arrived in Syria, Cohen quickly befriended top Syrian government officials and senior military officials, his open anti-Israel comments make him a reliable person for the government and military officials to share secrete plans against Israel with him. He in turn leak the secret to Israel. In March 1963, a coup d’etat in Syria borough some of his friends into power, a palace coup will see his friend from Argentina General Hafez become President, this made Cohen one of the spy closest to a country's president and its top secretes. It was during the time Cohen learned of the plan by the Arab nations to deny Israel the Jordan water.

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Cohen befriended top civilian and military men in Syria and organized parties for them in his house (Image: Jewish Boston)

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Gen. Amin Al-Hafez was one of the top Syrians Cohen befriended in Argentina before moving to Syria in the early 1960s. Hafez would later become President of Syria and open doors to Cohen to more access to Syrian secretes (Image: Wikipedia)

It was said that Israel being an arid nation, cannot survive without the Jordan river. The river flows through Syria and washed into Israel. The Arab nations agreed to sponsor Syria to carry out a massive engineering project to divert the Jordan and deprive Israel of Water. In the Cairo summit, the Arab nations saw Israel as a ‘danger that threatens the Arab nations, the diversion of the Jordan[river] by it[Israel] multiplies the dangers to Arab existence. Cohen leaked the secret to Israel and shortly the War Over Water began between Israel and Syria.

Apart from knowing about the planned project from government officials, Cohen also befriended the engineer who was to carry out the project, Bin Laden, the father of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden showed him the strategic points of the canal and where equipment where kept, the information Cohen passed over to Israel. In November 1964, the Israeli Airforce (aided with intelligence by Cohen of the Syrian Airforce's incapability to stopped them) began a sustained bombardment of the water diversion projects in Syria and blasted the canals. Syria had to abandon the project in 1965.

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Elie Cohen stole top secrete intelligence for Mossad, he uses special cameras (top image) to capture classified documents, and transmit intelligence to Israel using the Mose Code device(bottom image)

It was during this time that Syrian intelligence became suspicious. How did Israel know so much about their plans before it became obvious, how did they know about the site of the canals and strategic points of the project? The Syrian intelligence knew there most a spy in the inner circle of the Syrian government. No one suspected Kamal Amin Tabet. With new equipment borough from Russia, Syria began its unannounced search for the traitor betraying Syrian secrets to Israel. In January 1965, their investigation led them to Cohens flat, they broke in and found him red-handed with his transmission equipment relaying intelligence to Israel.

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Elie Cohen was hanged in 1965, his body covered with linen inscribed with words of condemnation (Image: SyrianHistory.com)

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In his honour, streets and other structures were named after him in Israel

That was how Cohen was caught and exposed, soon it was discovered that he was not Kamal Amin Tabet but Elie Cohen; he was not an Arab but a Jew, not a Syrian patriot but an Israeli spy. It was embarrassing to the Syrian government and they were laughed at by other Arab nations, how could an Israeli spy invade the inner circle of a country's government and even had the President as his friend – who could have appointed Kamal a minister in his government if he wasn’t caught. 

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Is there a bolder spy than Elie Cohen)

The torture of Cohen was vicious, the trial was a spectacle. Elie Cohen was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Israel did all it could to secure Elie Cohen's release but the Syrian government refused. He was hanged on May 18 1965 and his body was not returned to Israel to date! Elie Cohen died leaving behind a wife who knew nothing of his double life, and three children. He remains one of Israel's heroes with many roads and structures named in his honour in Israel. 

Many accounts of Elie Cohen’s life and audacious spying have been written about, there is a TV series that chronicles his life as a spy from his recruitment, training, assignments and life in Syria, up to his death. The TV series is called The Spy, Cohen was played by the renowned Jewish actor, Baron Sacha Cohen, and it was a greatly entertaining movie and an emotional one. Is there any spy in history bolder than Elie Cohen?

Federal agencies inflated payroll by N41 billion – ICPC

Akelicious — March 23, 2021 add comment

President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime says it has uncovered fraud in some government agencies amounting to N41 billion. 

The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission’s Chairman, Bolaji Owasanoye, stated that the commission had recovered N41 billion from some government agencies and institutions who fraudulently inflated their workers’ payroll.

Mr Owasanoye disclosed this during a briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team (set up to update Nigerians on President Muhammadu Buhari’s security, economy, and anti-corruption agenda). 

According to him, the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System’s introduction has helped expose fraudulent practices in public service.

“Outside falsification of capital importation, the use of tax havens, the unequal tax reporting regime of the international community, a whole range of things. Take the extractive industry, for example, the oil and gas sector – Nigeria loses a lot of money to bad clauses and contracts that we have foolishly signed over time,” he revealed.

In a related development, a presidential aide, Lauretta Onochie, via a series of tweet posts on Monday night, announced that President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime had initiated a lifestyle audit.

The country’s anti-graft agencies will now investigate persons suspected of living above their legitimate income.

“Lifestyle Audit is now legal in Nigeria. Those who flaunt lifestyles they cannot afford, can now be investigated by any of the graft agencies to produce evidence of the sources of their wealth. 

“You can now be called upon to explain how you acquired certain properties,” Ms Onochie tweeted.

In January, Matthew Page, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, had urged the UK government to make tackling illicit financial flows from Nigeria a priority. 

According to him, some families in Nigeria have a long tradition of sending their children to private boarding schools and universities in the UK. 

“These institutions are especially popular destinations for the offspring of prominent politically exposed persons (PEPs) from the region,” he noted. 

He pointed out that immigration officials, admissions staff, and UK law enforcement “are not likely to scrutinise the conditions under which the children of PEPs enrol in British schools,” even though the PEPs may have opaque asset profiles that in other circumstances would raise serious financial concerns. 

“This relative lack of review has allowed some West African PEPs to channel unexplained wealth into the UK education sector. It is not easy to estimate the overall value of this flow, yet it likely exceeds £30 million annually. Most of these funds emanate from Nigeria,” Mr Page revealed.

Politicians’ inordinate ambition threatening Nigeria’s unity – Northern Elders

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 March 23, 2021

By

 Amos Tauna

Northern Elders’ Forum, NEF, has blamed the crisis bedevilling every nook and cranny of the country on politicians’ inordinate ambition to the detriment of peace and unity.

The forum also noted that the failure of the government of the day was responsible for the threat on the country’s unity.

The forum, in a statement by its Director, Publicity and Advocacy, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, advised the government to ensure that the country is not divided but must do everything to strengthen and ensure its unity.

The NEF believes that the weakness of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was aggravating various threats in all strata of the country.

It alleged that political actors, who have political ambitions in 2023, are threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria, not minding the welfare of its citizens.

The forum lamented that the politicians were attacking the foundations of the country’s co-existence through acts that provoke, frighten or otherwise cast doubts in the minds of the citizens.

The Northern Elders advised President Buhari to ensure that the unity of the country was not negotiable.

The forum wondered why the only voices being heard were those demanding the balkanization of the country, or encouraging dangerous politics and other acts that pitch some communities against others.

The NEF stressed that, “It is no exaggeration to say that our country has never been so threatened by a combination of weak and ineffective governance and a determined effort from many quarters to capitalize on this weakness to attack the foundations which give all citizens and communities some comfort that we are not headed for almost certain, irretrievable disaster.”

U.S Government Describes Dangote Business Strategy As Very “Harmful To The Nigerian Economy”*

The United States described the Dangote Group of Companies’ business strategies which is monopolistic as disastrous to the Nigerian economy.

Owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, it is the largest conglomerate in West Africa with over 30,000 employees.

A report published on Wikileak’s website said even though Dangote played a major role in Nigeria’s economy, “many products on the country’s import ban list are items in which it has major interests.”

“Although an undiluted success in terms of wealth accumulation, Dangote personifies the duality in Nigeria’s economy,” the American government said while maintaining that the duality “presents a dilemma for country’s economic policy.”

It accused Dangote Group of blocking investment that the company may see as major competitors, noting that “Weighing everything in the balance, we believe the Dangote model is harmful to Nigerian and American interests in the long run.”

The American government further warned, “Unfortunately, the Dangote model will likely be the one most emulated until its beggar-thy-countrymen contradictions become more apparent.”

It is safe to say the assertion of the U.S. government has been evident in some of the tactics employed by the conglomerate.

Dangote Group faced wide criticisms in the past years over what detractors described as favouritism from the Nigerian government.

The company faced backlashes after it called for a total ban on tomato importation in 2019 when it started its tomato processing subsidiary.

Barely two weeks ago, the conglomerate proposed a provision in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) seeking to ban the importation of oil by companies without refining licences, which according to the company, will help spur investments in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

Dangote also recommended that the volume of fuel imported should be distributed according to what each refinery produces.

Aliyu Suleiman, a chief strategist at Dangote, suggested the anti-competition approach during a visit by members of the National Assembly’s joint committee on PIB to the company’s project site.

The group proposed that only companies with licences to refine crude oil should import fuel whenever demand surpass available fuel or when a refinery is undergoing maintenance.

The recommendation came at the time Dangote Group was on the verge of completing a 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Lagos.

Financial experts, however, said the Dangote refinery should not be allowed to become a monopoly in the manner of the state-run NNPC, although it remained unclear how the conglomerate would be prevented from holding a monopoly if the controversial clause makes it into the PIB.

This is also evident in the reopening of land borders to Dangote Group in November last year, when it was allowed to transport its products to neighbouring West African countries.

Nigeria had shut its land borders in August to give room for the consumption of home-grown products, but the access granted to the company was said to be based on an authorisation issued by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

A businessman and founder of Stanbic IBTC, Atedo Peterside, faulted the move.

He asserted that it portrayed Nigeria’s economy as favouring only the well-connected.

“Allowing legitimate exporters and importers to move their goods across the border should be a no-brainer,” Mr. Peterside said in a tweet.

“Why refuse everybody else and allow only one company (Dangote)?”

He added, “This is why some of us argue that the Nigerian economy is rigged in favour of a handful of well-connected persons.”

A spokesman for Dangote Group Tony Chiejina declined repeated requests for a reaction to the damning allegations.

McLaren F1 sign 13-year-old American karter Ugochukwu

Mon, March 22, 2021, 4:58 PM·1 min read

LONDON (Reuters) - McLaren have signed a long-term agreement with 13-year-old American karter Ugo Ugochukwu to support him through the junior categories of motorsport, the Formula One team announced on Monday.

New York-born Ugochukwu won last year's European FIA OKJ European kart championship after taking a string of titles in the United States.

"We’ve been watching Ugo’s progress with interest, so when the opportunity to sign an agreement with him became available, we had no hesitation moving on it," said McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown in a statement.

"Now we’ll focus on giving Ugo the right support when he needs it to help him fulfil his potential."

McLaren's most famous junior signing was Britain's Lewis Hamilton, now a seven times world champion, who was backed by the Woking team and Mercedes from the age of 13 and made his F1 debut in 2007.

Hamilton won his first F1 title with McLaren in 2008 and moved to Mercedes in 2013.

"I’m honoured to be signed by such an iconic team as McLaren Racing so early in my career. To have the support of McLaren is fantastic and what any young driver dreams of," said Ugochukwu.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris)