I believe in devolution of power, says Buhari by Segun Adewole

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Friday, said he believes in devolving power to the people. He, however, said the contentious issue of restructuring, true federalism or devolution of powers remains a constitutional matter which can only be dealt with by the National Assembly. This was disclosed in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Friday. According to Adesina, Buhari said this when he received members of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) led by Co-Chairmen, Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar and President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), His Eminence, Rev. Dr. Samson Supo Ayokunle, at the State House in Abuja. At the meeting, the President said, “On the contentious issue of restructuring or true federalism or devolution of powers, like you all know, this is a constitutional matter with which only the National Assembly can deal. “I remain an unapologetic believer in devolving power to the people and that is why I signed the Executive Order granting autonomy to State Legislature and Judiciary. Unfortunately, this was met with some resistance at the state level and led to a more than two months strike action that has cost the country a lot of pain. “Luckily the National Assembly has nearly completed the constitutional review process, which I hope would address some of the burning issues agitating the minds of our people.’’ Adesina, in the statement, said, “President Buhari assured that efforts were already on to create a more conducive environment to address both direct and indirect causes of challenges including areas of job creation and employment generation while appreciating religious leaders for their significant roles in national development, particularly in shaping perspectives.” He quoted Buhari as saying, “Your role is critical in putting the correct perspective out to Nigerians.’’ Adesina said Buhari assured “the religious leaders that the government was already going after financiers of criminal elements, who also supply them with arms, but were constrained by the strike by Judiciary workers.” “Fortunately, this strike has been called off and prosecution of some of these people would soon commence, while our security agencies expand their network in closing in on the others,’’ he quoted Buhari. He said Buhari assured that his regime remains committed to “quickly pushing this dark side of our history behind us and we are currently making sure that funding would not hamper our efforts.’’ According to the President, the last Federal Executive Council meeting approved some funds for the security agencies, which would be put to judicious use. “As I mentioned yesterday, in Lagos, we would not relent in our efforts at clearing these criminals from all parts of our land including the forests,’’ Buhari said. The President said the government had the major part to play in providing security, “but besides the imperative to abide by democratic processes is the important aspect of support of the citizenry to the security agencies by providing relevant and timely information.’’ “I must confess that I am more pained than anyone can imagine with the ongoing security challenges because, like you noted during your meeting, they have increased the hunger, pain and anger in the land,’’ he noted. The President thanked the religious leaders for their patriotism and commitment to ensuring peace and understanding. “I have listened to you and I am particularly happy that your meeting clearly identified specific and major roles for both the Government and the people of Nigeria. This is what has been lacking for some time in the national discourse on addressing our current security challenges,” he said.

EXCLUSIVE: EFCC Recovers N1 Billion From Permanent Secretary Working Directly With Works And Housing Minister, Fashola BY SAHARAREPORTERS

Bawa had in May while appearing before the Senate Committee on Finance said the agency recovered over N1 billion from the bank account of a civil servant. The civil servant the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovered N1 billion from has been identified as a Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. Babatunde Fashola is the Minister in charge of the ministry. EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa had in May while appearing before the Senate Committee on Finance said the agency recovered over N1 billion from the bank account of a civil servant. “It is good for us to observe for now and wait for your committee to conclude its work so that whatever report you have and anyone that your committee decides, we are ready to take it up from there,” he had said. SEE ALSO How We Recovered Over N1billion From A Civil Servant In One Week—EFCC Chairman 28 Comments 4 Weeks Ago “We have recovered over N1 billion sitting in the account of a civil servant last week.” Bawa however refused to mention the name of the individual civil servant. Speaking to SaharaReporters on Thursday, a source at the anti-graft agency identified the civil servant as a Permanent Secretary working with Fashola. “The civil servant the chairman was talking about is the Permanent Secretary working directly with Fashola,” the source said.

High-profile Nigerians threaten to kill me, says EFCC boss Bawa by Kayode Oyero

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, says corruption does fight back, adding that he has been receiving death threats since he came on board as the chairman of the anti-graft agency. He spoke on Tuesday when he featured in Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme monitored by The PUNCH. The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had in November 2016 said, “Corruption is fighting back vigorously”. When asked on Tuesday if indeed corruption is fighting back, Bawa said, “Last week, I was in New York, as all Nigerians are aware of. A very senior citizen received a phone call from somebody that is not even under investigation. What he (the caller) said to him on phone is that; he is going to kill the EFCC chairman, the young man.

“He said, ‘I am going to kill him. I am going to kill him’. This is to tell you how bad it is. It is actually real. Corruption can fight back.” When further asked if he meant he has been receiving death threats, the EFCC chairman said, “Yes”. The President had in February 2021 named 40-year-old Bawa as the new EFCC chairman to replace the embattled ex-acting chairman of the anti-graft commission, Ibrahim Magu.

Twitter suspension: Lawyer sues Lai Mohammed, Malami as courts resume by Eniola Akinkuotu

A human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has sued the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the Federal Government for suspending social media platform, Twitter. In the originating motion marked FHC/L/CS/542/2021, Effiong is seeking nine reliefs including an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents from further suspending, deactivating or banning the operation and accessibility of Twitter or any other social media service in Nigeria. Effiong asked the court to declare as illegal the threat of criminal prosecution issued by Malami and Mohammed against Nigerians who ‘violate’ the suspension or ban of Twitter, despite the absence of any written law. The activist asked the court to declare that the act of the respondents in “suspending the operation and accessibility of Twitter in Nigeria without any written law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society enabling the said suspension is unconstitutional, unjustifiable, undemocratic, arbitrary, null and void and amounts to a violation of the right of the applicant and other Nigerians to use Twitter for expression, reception of information and impartation of ideas and is therefore contrary to Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap. A9 L.F.N. 2004. Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.” In his supporting affidavit, Effiong, who is also the National Legal Adviser of the African Action Congress and Co-Convener of the Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, said he was an active Twitter user since 2021 and currently has 45,500 Followers and follows 13, 600 accounts on the platform including dozens of accounts of broadcast stations in the country. The activist stated that as a public affairs commentator, he uses Twitter to express his views on the failure, inadequacies and performance of the government at all level, including the Federal Government of Nigeria and its agencies. Buhari’s tweet was considered offensive by many Nigerians who flagged it and reported it to Twitter. The lawyer said Twitter subsequently deleted the President’s comment, a move that led to the suspension of Twitter days later. Effiong said it was a known fact that every Twitter user had agreed to abide by the rules of the platform before being allowed to use it. He said the decision of the respondents to suspend Twitter have gravely “infringed on my freedom of expression and that of broadcast stations and other Nigerian citizens who depend and rely daily on Twitter for information, expression and impartation of ideas. This has caused me emotional trauma and distress and limited my capacity to connect with the global community.”

Twitter’s founder, Dorsey, liable for #EndSARS losses – Lai Mohammed

The Federal Government says Twitter and its founder, Jack Dorsey, are vicariously liable for the losses the country suffered during the EndSARS protest. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this on Tuesday when he featured on “Politics Nationwide,’’ a Radio Nigeria call-in programme monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja. Mohammed alleged that Dorsey raised funds through Bitcoins to sponsor the EndSARS protest while his platform, Twitter, was used to fuel the crisis. He said when he made the allegations earlier, Nigerians did not take him seriously until an online media outfit carried out an investigation and fact-checking. The minister said the online publication confirmed that Dorsey retweeted some of the posts by some of the coalitions supporting the EndSARS protest. He said it was also confirmed that the Twitter founder launched fundraising asking people to donate via Bitcoins. The minister said Dorsey further launched Emoji to make the EndSARS protest visible on the microblogging site. He said Dorsey also retweeted the tweets of some foreign and local supporters of EndSARS. “If you ask people to donate money via bitcoins for EndSARS protesters then you are vicariously liable for whatever is the outcome of the protest. “We have forgotten that EndSARS led to the loss of lives, including 37 policemen, six soldiers, 57 civilians while property worth billions of naira were destroyed. “164 police vehicles and 134 police stations were razed to the ground, 265 private corporate organisation were looted while 243 public property were looted. “81 warehouses were looted while over 200 brand new buses bought by Lagos State Government were burnt to ashes,’’ he said. The minister said it was unfair to conclude that the operation of Twitter was suspended indefinitely because it deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s message. He said the government was unambiguous that the action was taken because the platform was being used to promote the views of those who wanted to destabilise the country. Mohammed added that Twitter consistently offered its platform to promote agenda that were inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria. “Twitter has become a platform of choice for a particular separatist promoter. “The promoter consistently used the platform to direct his loyalists to kill Nigerian soldiers and policemen, run down INEC offices and destroy all symbols of Nigeria’s sovereignty. “Every attempt to persuade Twitter to deny its platform to this separatist leader was not taken serious,’’ he said. The minister said the Federal Government has no apology to offer to those unhappy over the suspension of Twitter’s operations in the country. He said a country must exist in peace before people could exercise freedom of speech and fight for a source of livelihood. (NAN)

How minister laundered $37m through property deal – EFCC Chair by Solomon Odeniyi

THE Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has described the real estate sector as one with grand scale corruption in the country. The EFCC boss added that about 90 to 100 percent of resources are being laundered through the sector. Bawa stated this while featuring on Sunrise Daily, a current affairs programme, on Channels Television on Tuesday. He said the commission investigated a female minister, who he said, bought $37.5m property from a bank and deposited $20m cash. Bawa, who is marking his 100 days in office, did not however disclose the identity of the suspect or whether she is a current or former minister. He said, “One of the problems we have in the country is the real estate. Ninety to 100 per cent of the resources are being laundered through the real estate. Of course, they are being regulated but they are not enough in terms of how they give their returns to the Special Control Unit. “We investigated a matter in which a bank MD marketed a property to a minister and agreed to purchase it at $37.5m. The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20m from her house in the first instance. “The bank succeeded to put it in their system and paid the developer and then a lawyer set up a special purpose vehicle where the title documents were transferred into and of course, he is posing as the owner of the house. “Without the help of the banker, the minister couldn’t have imagined collecting $20m from anyone with opportunity from the real sector; she could not have thought of where to launder the proceeds of crime.” PUNCH.

APC National Chairmanship: Let's Say No To Ex Governors!

As we progress towards the elective National Convention of our great party, let us learn from our own history, avoid common mistake and correct ourselves. We cannot continue to do things the same way, using same category of men, and expect better result. We have had four National Chairmen since inception, three former and one serving governors namely, former Governor Bisi Akande, former Governor John Oyegun, Former Governor Adams Oshiomhole and currently, Governor Buni of Yobe State . Erroneously, we are fast establishing it as a convention that only serving or former governors can lead APC at national level. How much has leadership from this class favoured the party? Experience has shown that the qualities required of a national chairman to succeed are what our new generation governors lack completely . The qualities of a good national chairman include: 1. The habit of wide and sincere consultation. 2. Humility 3. Amiable and respectful disposition. 4. Ability to accept corrections and contributions from others . 5. Tolerance and embrace of decenting voices. 6. Experience in party organisation . With all due respect to governors of this dispensation , the system has spoiled them to be lords onto themselves, dictators in a democracy to the extent that they don't value the input of others to the party. Come to look at it, does becoming governors certify them as good organizers? The chairman that APC needs now is one that is experienced in party organisation and membership mobilization. One who will not feel too big to visit even a ward leader in any part of the country if duty demands him to do so. The egoes of former governors are harmful to the successful organisation of a political party. Such will be an expensive gamble for our party of today. It is therefore my humble appeal to all former governors from any of the region's to which the office of the national chairman is zoned this time around to please steer clear of the contest if they wish the party well. I appealled to leaders of the zone to search for a candidate with the qualities enumerated above. The north should not copy the south in this case. Rather, they should show better example. -------------------- Comrade Godwin Erhahon Former: Chairman NUJ, Edo State Former State Chairman CPC Pioneer Edo State Publicity Secretary, APC