Kwara lawmakers to Lai Mohammed: you lied on funding our elections By Jide Orintunsin

APC ratifies suspension of 11 Lai Mohammed’s loyalists in Kwara The crisis in the Kwara chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) deepened on Thursday when the caretaker committee ratified the suspension of 11 members loyal to Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed for taking the party and the state chairman Hon. Abdullahi Abubakar to court. × Approval of the suspension was contained in a letter by the National Secretary, Caretaker/Extra-ordinary National Convention Planning Committee, Sen. James Akpanudoedehe, to Abubakar. The letter, obtained by The Nation in Abuja reads: “The Caretaker/Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee considered the decision of the Kwara State Caretaker Committee dated 5 February 2021 on the resolution of the Kwara State Disciplinary Committee to suspend erring members who Instituted SUIT NO: CV/241/2021 BETWEEN JOSEPH TSADO AND 10 ORS VS ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS & 2 ORS against the party. “After due consideration of the decision, the members of the Caretaker/Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee found the decision meritorious because the members who instituted the above-mentioned suit against the Party had flouted the directive of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of 25th June 2020, wherein the NEC resolved that no member of the Party should institute any action in court and to withdraw all pending cases in Court in order to explore the internal conflict resolution mechanisms of the party. “Consequently, the Caretaker/Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee ratifies the decision of the Kwara State Caretaker Committee and upholds suspension of the following Party members: “Joseph Tsado, Bamidele Ogunbayo, Issa Fulani, Imam Abdulkadir, Morufu Olaniyi Yusuf, Saludeen Lukman, Kerebu Fatai, Bola Ajani, Nurudeen Fasasi, Salman Shehu Babatunde and Abdullateef Ahmed Kolawole. “TAKE NOTICE; that this suspension constitutes a bar on the above-named persons from participating in the on-going registration and revalidation of membership exercise.” The group had kicked against removal of erstwhile state chairman, Bashir Bolarinwa, a development that divided the party into two factions with Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and Lai Mohammed jostling for control of the party. The eleven had approached the court to demand removal of Samari in contravention of the 25th June 2020 directive of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, which forbids members from instituting any action in court.

The Largest Bank Robbery In History About To Happen In Nigeria BY TOPE FASUA

I lived in London in 2006 when the largest to date cash robbery in that country – and perhaps in the world – happened. It was the robbery of the Tonbridge, Kent facility of the Bank of England by a team of bloggers (that’s how they call thieves in Britain), which included fighter Lee Murray, Lea Rusha, and a couple of Albanians. 53 million pounds sterling was hauled from that facility after they tied up the workers there. Emir Hysenaj, one of the Albanians, was the inside man who provided the logistics and coordinates. I remember the situation very vividly to date and even then I knew it was a matter of time before the gang was caught and the plot unraveled. Britain is not where you could walk to a bar/pub and spend 2,000 pounds ‘declaring’ drinks for everyone without being surveilled and picked up in a short period of time. No one sees that kind of cash, and many people are snoops. No one spends lavishly like we do here. And so, under two days, arrests were made in Forest Hill London. The money was just too much to handle. The robbers abandoned one of the vans they used in a hotel in Ashford, with 1.3 million pounds in it. This was discovered on the 26th of February, 2006, while the robbery took place on the 23rd of February. By the 27th of February, 2006, the truck used for the robbery was discovered at Elderden Farm in Welling, owned by car dealer John Fowler. Earlier, on the 25th of February, 2006, the gang leader Lee Murray had been arrested in a shopping mall in Rabat, Morocco. However, even though all the parties involved have been apparently jailed, with a few of those arrested acquitted, more than 32 million pounds from the entire haul of 53 million pounds is yet unaccounted for to date. Before the Tonbridge incident, the largest cash robbery was thought to be that of the Northern Bank in Belfast, wherein in 2004 the sum of 26.5 million pounds was stolen. But some pundits put the largest-ever theft of cash at 1 billion dollars, stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq in 2003, upon the invasion of that country by the almighty USA. That one did not need robbers, since the Americans had deliberately sent that country back to the Dark Ages and so any and everyone did what they liked. Also notable was the Brinks-Mat gold bullion robbery which took place at the Heathrow International Trading Estate in London in November 1983. 26 million pounds worth of gold bullion, diamonds, and cash were moved in that robbery when 6 robbers attacked the facility. In the year 2000, police foiled a 350 million pounds diamond heist at London Millennium Dome, which would have set a record. Later in 2015, over the Easter holiday, some thieves abseiled down a lift shaft at Hatton Garden Safety Deposit Limited and made away with approximately 200 million pounds worth of diamonds, rare jewels, and gold. The perpetrators were rounded up within a month. All British. The Americans are no pushovers. There was the Loomis Fargo bank heist in 1997, where $25.9 million was stolen, and the Dunbar Armored robbery in Los Angeles in the same year where $29 million was hijacked, among others. Elsewhere in the world, there was the Agric Bank of China fraud worth $9.5 million, the NOKAS cash-handling facility robbery in Norway where $13.5 million was stolen in 2004, the Bank Central burglary in Fortaleza, Brazil where $55 million was stolen in 2005, the Swiss Post heist of 1997 where $55 million worth of unregistered and uninsured cash was stolen in 1997, and the heist at Harry’s, the Parisian jeweler where $108 million worth of goods were hauled in 2008. But like in many things amazing and fantastic, Nigeria is struggling to take the cake. How can we forget Chief Emmanuel Nwude, Ezenwamadu, who sold a non-existent airport for $303 million to Bank Noroeste, Brazil, in the year 1997? He extracted $242 million from that bank before the bubble burst. The Nwude case, I believe, is still on, decades after. It just may never conclude. Nigeria has also developed a reputation with the 419 culture, and of late, yahoo-yahoo boys, Business Email Compromise (BEC), benefit frauds, and whatnot, with guys like Hushpuppi, that SA to the Ogun State governor and many more putting us on the ignoble map. Leadership crises over the years have resulted in a rudderless population busy engaged in anything just to find some money. In spite of all this, what could probably be the largest imagined heist of all times has landed in Nigeria. I first got to know of this incidence through one of Simon Kolawole’s writeups, which I read severally with mouth agape and then shared. I then decided to use my knowledge of banking operations and Nigerian banking history to interpret the events and was wowed! The story goes that sometime in 1993 under the reign of the great king General Sani Abacha one Prince Isaac Okpala approached the government and promised to build 3 spanking new oil refineries in Nigeria. Abacha said ‘ok, I have no objection, go ahead please’. Nigeria could never have too many refineries and of course, our refineries were already giving us loads of issues by then. The company Prince Okpala ran was called Petro Union Oil and Gas Limited. The Prince (please take your mind away from the Nigerian Prince taught in financial markets today as part of anti-fraud training and let us assume he was a real prince), promised to bring in much foreign investment for these 3 refineries. He said he had foreign partners and mentioned Gazeaft UK Limited – a company that he happened to own and control. Next was that he appointed one Gladstone Kukoyi and Associates, Chartered Accountants and decided to show ‘transparency’ that he already had all the required funds needed to build all three refineries sitting coolly in his Gazeaft UK Ltd account, by writing a single cheque of 2.5 billion pounds sterling in favor of this accountant – Mr. Kukoyi. No, he didn’t want the money in his own account as that wasn’t transparent enough. The accountant deposited the cheque in his own account with Union Bank at Broad Street, Lagos. Recall that Nwude of the Brazilian Noroeste Bank fame, was later (or once) a director at the same Union Bank, but there is no connection with this other caper. Anyway, come along with me. The timeline for this 2.556 billion pounds transaction goes as follows: 7th June 1994 – Cheque deposited Barclays Bank Cheque Number 01040 deposited into Kukoyi’s account with Union Bank. 29th June 1994 – Union Bank writes to Petrol Union that “CBN has instructed to proceed and forward an application for the approval of said amount”. This is interpreted by Petro Union to mean that the cheque had cleared and that Petrol Union was now free to start withdrawing in order to build their refineries. Sometime in early 2005 – Petro Union petitions Union Bank at EFCC asking that they should have access to their 2.5billion pounds sterling which they believe had cleared since 11 years! It is unclear what happened in the 11 years in between and how many times the client wrote to Union Bank or what Union Bank’s response was in that interregnum. 10th May 2005 – EFCC writes Union Bank Plc, stating that the cheque was deposited at UBN Broad Street Branch in 1994 and if unpaid should be returned. 2012 – Petrol Union sues Union Bank and Central Bank of Nigeria, asking to be allowed access to the 2.556 billion pounds. 12th March 2014 – High Court Justice Kafarati awarded a case against Union Bank – and CBN. He asked that funds be returned to Petro Union with 15% interest compounded since 1994. Union Bank appeals the judgment. 6th June 2018 – Appeal court upheld High Court decision. Said Union Bank appeal lacked merit. Basically threw out the case. 16th December 2019 – Supreme court also struck out Union Bank Plc’s appeal and affirmed the initial judgment. By now Union Bank and CBN, and indeed the whole of Nigeria is owing Petro Union 15 billion pounds sterling 17th Jan 2020 – UBN invited management and directors to meet and got them arrested by EFCC The case is still on. The drama is still on, as the directors of the company are shuttling between EFCC and the courts. The progenitor, Prince Isaac Okpala is now dead, but his adult children are on the case and need their money urgently. WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED In 1994 I was a clearing officer at Citizens Bank Ltd – now defunct or somehow submerged into Heritage Bank. I had finished up my National Youth Service at the University of Calabar as an Admin Officer in 1992 and hustled back to Lagos in search of a good job in the financial sector. I was lucky to get one at Citizens Bank where I knew nobody. I was assigned to the Clearing Unit where I would eventually take over as the ‘clearing guru’. Apologies to my ogas back in the day but I sort of mastered the manual process back then, very much unlike today when everything is digitized. The clearing officer basically collates all 3rd party cheques drawn on a bank in a certain jurisdiction, as well as cheques deposited by customers of the bank, and takes them to a ‘clearing house’ then located at the Central Bank, where they would be routinely exchanged. A good clearing day is a day when the value of cheques you took to clearing was more than what you brought back. Consistent net negative clearing balances meant the bank was hemorrhaging customers and liquidity. And then there were all sorts of frauds. Forged cheques will be deposited and if a bank is not careful, it will give value and allow a fraudulent person to withdraw all the funds. There was cheque kiting, meaning that some people specialized in writing cheques on accounts that have no funds in the hope that they somehow get value and walk away. Some put pressure on bank management to grant them early value on spurious cheques and if they are lucky, the bank is cooked. Then there was cheque suppression. This is a scenario where someone deposits a cheque in their account that should be presented to another bank but never gets to the bank. On the other side, there are no funds and if the cheque actually gets presented through clearing, the other bank will simply bounce the same. The trick is never to allow the cheque to get presented to the paying bank. As a young clearing officer, I was approached severally by the teaming population of bank fraudsters in Lagos, to switch cheques. The scared look on my pimply face probably never encouraged them to push further. It was however normal to hear that one of your colleagues in the clearing house was busted over the weekend because he had acceded to some fraud syndicate. Some got away with the frauds. Most were impressionable young men and women who will capitulate if they didn’t have serious home training and internal resolve. Or good luck. It was the days of 80 commercial banks, in various states of disrepair. It was the days of finance houses who ran Ponzi schemes. It took 5 full working days for a local cheque (drawn in Lagos and paid into a Lagos account, to clear. For ‘upcountry’ cheques it took a whole 30 working days, later 20 working days. This means if your friend gave you a cheque drawn on his account in Ibadan, and you pay into your Lagos account today, just come back in like 45 days’ time. Life was slow. Life was sweet and blissful. All these digital kids of nowadays will rue their fates for not having lived in our time. Yinmu. What is being hung around the neck of Union Bank Plc today is that the cheque was never returned to Petrol Union. Where is the cheque? Petrol Union says Union Bank received value for the cheque but never allowed them to make withdrawals and build 3 shiny new refineries for Nigeria. Union Bank on its part cannot find the cheque. Upon being contacted, Barclays Bank said that the Gazeaft UK Limited account upon which the cheque was drawn, had been closed 5 years before the cheque was ever written (in 1989). Clearing a foreign cheque, by the way, was a different kettle of fish from the ‘local and upcountry’ I described above. To clear a Barclays cheque into a Union Bank Nigeria account, you had to receive the cheque and probably dispatch same to your correspondent bank in London – usually Bankers’ Trust or Citibank. They will then present in their local clearing and hope to get value. You will then keep calling them to know if the cheque had properly cleared. They will confirm through telex! That could take 2 or 3 months! So, the questions that unravel this case and make me think – using my forensic mind (and I am indeed a qualified forensic auditor under the auspices of ICAN) – that this is an attempted bank heist and may well be the largest ever in the history of human beings and in the history of heists especially if it comes through, is that: 1. Did a foreign cheque clear under a month in 1994? Could we say the period between 7th June 1994 and 29th June 1994 (17 working days) was enough to clear a foreign cheque in 1994? 2. What was the rationale for transferring such a humongous amount into the account of a relatively unknown accountant in order to show ‘transparency’? Most people I know will rather have the money within their control. What if the accountant died? I’m not sure anyone will transfer a tenth of such funds to Accenture or PwC just for keeps. 3. Who keeps 2.5 BILLION, I mean BILLION pounds sitting in an account waiting to build a refinery? 4. In building huge projects like refineries, who advance the full amount from the beginning? Even financiers would rather walk with you in the transaction, disbursing funds on a needs basis as you achieve milestones. 5. How did Petrol Union manage to have 2.5 BILLION Great British Sterling Pounds sitting coolly in their account in 1994? The company was never a big player in that sector. I doubt if Royal Dutch Shell or any of the seven ugly sisters could claim to have such idle liquidity – or to be able to raise such an amount from investors in a jiffy and without any proposal or documentation for use of funds. 6. If the funds were borrowed – and indeed to build a refinery an investor will have to raise money from banks, private equity, and all sorts of parties (see Dangote the richest black man in the world for instance) – how come the big banks of the world have not chased their money to Nigeria? How can financiers release billions of dollars for the funding of a project and as alleged, watch CBN and Union Bank simply appropriate the funds? In my view, there are a thousand ways to catch a thief. No thief succeeds in covering all the tracks. 7. It is also instructive to note that this company – Petro Union – has no footprints in the business space. For a company that could be sitting on 2.5 billion pounds way back in 1994, one would expect them to have done some big projects. None showed upon my scouring the internet. As a fact, Petro Union does not have a website that could be put together with $200 today. A company without a mere website is chasing a deal of 2.5 billion, or 15 billion pounds sterling! 8. Even if Barclays Bank is claiming that the Gazeaft UK Limited account had been closed 5 years before the cheque was issued, but Petrol Union and co claim that is not true, the simple thing for them to do is produce a statement of account where the 2.5 billion pounds was debited into the account of Gazeaft UK Limited. 9. Why is Petrol Union – which is now being run by the children of Prince Isaac Okpala – and as contained in their last statement, now saying if Union Bank and CBN could ‘apologize’ for what happened they will be okay and probably walk away from it all? Who walks away from 2.5 BILLION pounds at the sound of a nice ‘sorry’? COMMENSENSE OVER LAW I have always had issues with some decisions that judges take, and how lawyers sometimes reason. We are in our own era of lawyering, as against seeking and obtaining justice. From the calculations of compounded interest on the judgment sum till date, Union Bank and CBN now ‘jointly and severally’ (including all of us) owe Petrol Union the sum of 15 billion pounds sterling and counting based simply on the ability to reproduce a cheque. All the SANs in the world have line up to feed on this high drama and intended largest-ever heist in history; another act of ignominy that will place us further on the dark map, as if we haven’t seen and heard enough. What could be deciphered by commonsense often gets complicated and made into a huge mountain once we start plodding through the ‘law’, especially in this country. We also know how infamous some of our judges can be as some can send the innocent to the gallows and free dangerous menaces to society, for the love of money. SENSE OF PROPORTION What makes this more interesting for me is the lack of sense of proportion. The heist may not be as ridiculous sounding if it was 25 million pounds or 2.5 million pounds, and indeed they may have well got away with everything. I just checked the historical perspective of Nigeria’s external reserves and as of 1994, Nigeria probably had less than $1 billion in reserves as a country. Then in comes some singular person with a single cheque for $2.5 billion. If CBN wanted to confiscate and spend the money as alleged, the CBN will still invite the company and slam money laundering charges on them while the money gets forfeited. So, the CBN and Union Bank know that it will be unjustifiable to simply keep quiet and share monies belong to Mr. Okpala and his sons. The truth is that Union Bank slept on the transaction, or there were insiders in Union Bank who ‘died’ the cheque, which was never presented at Barclays London. If Nigeria was to truly refund 15 billion pounds or $21 billion today, we may as well fold up and go home, and change Nigeria’s name to Federal Republic of PetroUnion, or United Republic of the Okpalas. This is one country-wrecking, continent-liquidating caper. All blaggers, scammers, and schemers in the world must be lined up, hands behind their backs, heads popped forward, watching intently as this family attempts to pull this off in the country know for the highest rapidity of fast financial magic. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN The cheque kiting and suppression case reminds one of the prolific conman, Frank Abagnale who was so prolific, he has become a living legend. In those analog days, Abagnale simply created his own cheques, using his artistic prowess. He preyed on the trust that permeated the system in those days. But even he will marvel at the size of this one. Abagnale basically ran peanuts in a clever way. One is also reminded of the P@ID case… and I always told people that from the name of the company alone, Michael Quinn (now late) and Brendan Cahill – both Irishmen – set out to simply dupe Nigeria. Process and Industrial Development was the name of the company, so they simply paid a cynical game on the country because the acronym is actually PAID. They intended to get PAID by Nigeria for doing nothing – or just to teach us a lesson in how not to be sloppy with taxpayers’ money. We think our boys are the only smart ones going around duping vulnerable, brokenhearted old women and scamming benefit schemes in America, but these white guys are far worse and more calculating. At $9.6 billion, the P@ID case is larger than this one but is a contract scam. Also, with the court judgments, this 2.556 billion pounds matter has now ballooned to 15 billion pounds sterling. This one takes the cake for a scam wrought on the banking system but when we consider that there is a judgment from the Supreme Court which has acted alongside other lower courts like a man was made for the law and not the law made for men, we have to say to the Okpalas, Tuale!

Tension As Nigerian Anti Graft Agencies Widen Investigations Into Alleged Diversion Of Billions Of Naira Of University Funds By The Former AAU Vice-Chancellor And His Cronies.

FEAR and anxiety has gripped members of staff of the Edo State-owned Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, particularly those who served as Deans and Directors during the tenure of the former Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Ignatius A. Onimawo as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) intensified investigations into the alleged massive embezzlement, mismanagement and diversion of the University funds. Investigation by the Trojan News revealed that there was palpable fear, tension and anxiety among staff of the University yesterday, following the report making the rounds that some past Deans and Directors have been invited for interrogation by the anti-corruption agencies to explain their role in the allegation of financial fraud and maladministration allegedly perpetuated by the immediate past Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ignatius A. Onimawo. It would be recalled that Professor Ignatius A. Onimawo is currently being investigated for possible prosecution for alleged large-scale financial fraud, bordering on embezzlement, mismanagement, diversion and misappropriation of the University funds running into billions of naira. Last week, precisely on the 5th and 6th of July, 2021, Professor Ignatius A. Onimawo was in the dragnets of the ICPC in Abuja alongside with his personal assistants while in office, Messrs Christopher Akhigbe Omo-Iriogbe and Eugene Osemudiamen Eraikhuemen, whose private bank accounts were allegedly used as accessories in the diversion of the University funds in large scale. The immediate past Bursar of the University, Mr. Lawrence Esene, was also said to have been quizzed by the ICPC over the alleged financial fraud rocking the University, while the Acting Bursar of the University Mr. Emmanuel Omomoh and some staff of the University’s Bursary Division were on hand to provide information on the alleged financial fraud. Trojan News gathered yesterday that while ICPC has scheduled another engagement date with the former Vice-Chancellor and others, EFCC is poised to quiz Prof Ignatius A. Onimawo and his co-travelers, Christopher Akhigbe Omo-Iriogbe, Eugene Osemudiamen Eraikhuemen and others in the said alleged financial crime on 15th of July, 2021. It was learnt yesterday that the University has already approved the memo from the EFCC dated 22nd June, 2021 and signed by one Muhar S. Bello, to the University’s Registrar, demanding the release of both Christopher Akhigbe Omo-Iriogbe and Eugene Osemudiamen Eraikhuemen for interview, pursuant to Section 38(1) & (2) of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 and Section 21 of Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended. Trojan News gathered that the past directors in the University that made the search and interrogation list of the ICPC and EFCC as at yesterday included the Director of the University’s Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Prof. Osadolor Odia and that of AAU Consult Limited, Dr. Hanson Iyawe. The past Deans and Heads of Departments that are likely to face the interrogation of the anti-corruption agencies of government included the Deans and HoDs who were made or forced by the immediate past Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ignatius A. Onimawo to pay monies into the bank account of his personal staff, Mr. Chris Iriogbe during accreditation exercise. In the University’s Entrepreneurship Development Centre, there is the allegation of mismanagement, diversion and failure to account for millions of naira during the Prof. Ignatius A. Onimawo’s period as Vice-Chancellor. The University’s immediate past Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, Chief (Sir) Lawson Omokhodion had revealed that the University’s Entrepreneurship Development Centre operated outside the University requirements and yet was shielded by the former Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ignatius A. Onimawo, adding that “the Centre was being critically reviewed by Council prior to Covid-19 crisis. Final audit of this unit is outstanding. “Similarly, there is allegation of foul play in AAU Consult Limited, given the information that the Consult “had outstanding receivables of ₦120 million and owed the University ₦70 million in advances but no University staff knew from where the receivables could be collected. ”The University’s immediate past Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, Chief (Sir) Lawson Omokhodion had revealed that ₦350 million of the University’s funds was transferred from its various accounts/revenue units between October 2016 and December 2018 into the private bank accounts of Christopher Omo-Iriogbe and Eugene Eraikhuemen. He added that the practice may have continued till May 11, 2021 and the large sums transferred into the private accounts of the VC’s personal assistants “were subsequently paid to the VC, his wife and children.”Omokhodion said: “Council found the financial management practices of the former VC and Bursar very strange and opaque. The Bursar was questioned for paying AAU monies into the private accounts of VC’s personal assistants and he claimed the VC approved the practice. In this way the funds of the University were recklessly abused. The statements of Zenith Bank Savings accounts of Christopher Omo-Iriogbe and Eugene Eraikhuemen covering the period June 1, 2016 to May 10, 2021 should be tendered to see the actual amounts of AAU funds transferred into their accounts. The amount could be in excess of ₦1 billion. “Also before the scrutiny of the anti-corruption agencies is the puzzle surrounding the ‘disappearance’ of the credit balance of ₦75 million in the liquidated Allstates Trust Bank in favour of AAU. NDIC records had it that the money had been collected by certain individuals in the University. Given the available facts, the University’s Entrepreneurship Development Centre and AAU Consult Limited would attract the searchlight of the anti-corruption agencies. ”The former Vice-Chancellor is also to convince the anti-corruption agencies why he should not be prosecuted over the alleged discovered anomalies in the number of staff of the University. More than 200 staff names not on the university payroll were said to have received emoluments as approved by Prof. Ignatius A. Onimawo as Vice-Chancellor and every attempt to conclude investigations into the said discovery was either thwarted or frustrated by the former VC. Prof. Ignatius A. Onimawo is also to explain why he authorized the disbursement of over N5 billion naira NEEDS Assessment programme in fragrant violation of due process. Prof. Ignatius A. Onimawo left as Vice-Chancellor on May 11, this year, while the University was in administrative and financial comatose evident in massive strike actions by all staff unions (ASUU, SSANU, NAAT and NASU) in the University as a result of more than 1 year of non-payment of staff salaries. Prof. Onimawo’s era in the university is said to have witnessed serious decline in academic standards and a reign of repression, victimization, sycophancy, corruption and administrative highhandedness.

POLITICS: Don seeks law against defection

A public affairs analyst, Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, has described the act of taking mandates received from one political party to another through defection by elected officeholders as unwholesome. Pearse, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos He said there was the need for a law that would prevent such practices to promote politics with principles in the country. He said the recent defections of Governors Dave Umahi of Ebonyi, Bello Matawalle of Zamfara and Ben Ayade of Cross River and some lawmakers from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and other parties were not good for the nation’s democracy. Pearse said: “There should be a law against this unwholesome practice of receiving the mandate of one party and taking it to support the fortunes of another political party. “Each of the PDP governors and others who defected to APC and other political parties from APC is running away from debilitating personal problems. Their crossover is a matter of expediency, not principles. “Their political parties and the people who gave them the opportunity to become leaders of their states are powerless at this point in time to help them. “The defection of people to the ruling party and others is a reflection of the desperate times we live in. Principles and morality are fast becoming luxuries that people can hardly afford,” he said. According to him, the defection from party to party has become a norm in Nigerian politics, especially at the approach of the 2023 general elections. He said the recent defections could be perceived as a prelude to 2023. Pearse said: “Political party membership usually becomes stable after the national elections. “Many of the defectors to APC and other parties are likely to shuttle back to their original parties once that party is back in power. “What is more worrying today is preserving the unity and continued democratic existence of the nation.” NAN reports that there had been massive deflections from the main opposition party to the ruling party lately, the recent being the defection of Rep. Kabiru Amadu (PDP-Zamfara) on Wednesday to APC. Vanguard

Negotiate Your Way to Power, Imoke, Saraki, Others Charge Nigerian Youth by Emameh Gabriel

•As Wike blasts Secondus, says he lacks character and quality of a leader •Rivers gov, Oshiomhole engage in verbal brickbats

Ahead of 2023, a former Governor Cross River State, Liyel Imoke, has charged Nigeria youths to leverage their influence and negotiate their way into power. This is as River State Governor, Nyesom Wike went hard on the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, describing him as a serial liar and one that could not be taken for his words. Imoke made the call yesterday in his opening remarks at his 60th birthday and 10th anniversary of his foundation, Bridge Leadership Foundation (TBLF) as well as 11th Career Day Conference of the foundation. He said despite the influence the Nigeria youths commanded both in and outside of the social media, they have not been able to annex such influence to break into what he described as the ‘boardroom’ so as to provide a fertile ground for them to influence policies in the polity. He identified the failure of the youths to set out their objectives before going into politics as one of the reasons they have been constantly sidelined by the current generation of leaders in the country. He noted that social media seemed to be the place, where the young people thought they had influence but added it was not enough, given the fact that government across Africa always had certain influence over the operation of social media. He advised that the current crop of leaders in the country would not be ready to shift except and unless the youths broke their ways in and be actively involved in politics. He, however, reminded them that just as 2023 was around the corner, it provided them another ample opportunity to get into the business of political leadership. He said they must be audacious to make the change they yearned for. He noted that it was not enough to be “a member of an organisation but to also be a member of the board, because that is where things happen, unless you are in the board, you will remain where you are. “Whenever you think you have such a power of influence for any activity, it must be for a purpose. It must be towards an objective. And until you become part of that decision-making process, your effort will remain just an effort. “Next time, before you finish your influences, make sure you negotiate your way into the boardroom. When you get to the boardroom, there you can influence policy. Until you get into the boardroom, you can never influence change! You can make all the noise, you can have all the activity, you can have all the followers, but, you will not change the policy. “This is the time for a new generation to get into the boardroom, it is time for a new generation to appreciate the importance of being audacious. No one, not anyone of us in front, or anyone there is going to shift! No one is going to shift by you saying, please make space for me, I am young, it is my time. “Nobody gave me space. At 30, nobody gave me space. It was hard work. But, the good fortune was that I wanted to be in the boardroom. The generation that we are talking to, 2023 provides you with an opportunity to be in the boardroom, provides you with an opportunity to take control and to take charge. But, it’s a lot of work. Are you ready to deliver? Are you ready to do what it takes? “The time has come for you to make those decisions”, he said recounting how one of the keynote speakers, Nelson Chamisa, an opposition leader in Zimbabwe challenged the government in Zimbabwe, and to the surprise of everyone else, he got 45% of the popular vote in the election. It was unprecedented and the most recent is Bobi Wine, a Ugandan politician, who challenged the status quo. Other dignitaries at the event also took their turns to extol the virtues of the former Cross River State governor, saying he laid the foundation, where the next generation of leaders would emerge from. Saraki, while speaking, described Imoke as a man of character and commended him for the feat the foundation had attained in the last decade. The former senate president said character was what makes a good leader not age even as he charged the youth to be actively involved in politics and to also leverage their population advantage to change the leadership narrative in the country. He said: “One of the important things is to build people with character. Character to be able to know what you stand for. Having an ambition is not a bad thing, because it is the ambition that will drive you to become a leader. “The youths must be ready to use their voting strength to make the change. They must not only engage in complaining but be fully involved. Please, be bold, be focused and be audacious”, he added. The PDP national chairman, Secondus, in his tribute, thanked the organisers of the event for using the occasion of Imoke’s 60th birthday to organise a platform for national leadership dialogue aimed at transforming the country. He said: “The country needs this foundation and many others that will gradually transform our country. Our country is in crisis, you are in the right place and in the right foundation. “Because of the situation in the country today, we must go back to the foundation, where we derived all the powers. As we see our country drifting today due to poor leadership, we must give way for our youths, who have learnt so much. You can come on stage, because you have been equipped to lead. “It requires one person, it doesn’t matter where you come from. I can see many of you have what it takes. We need the right leader, not only a leader but a statesman to lead this nation”, said Secondus, who added that the foundation has the capacity to produce one of such qualities to lead the country, just as he promised that the PDP would be working closely with the foundation to tap from its wealth of experience. But Wike later stole the show, when he walked to the podium amid encomiums from the crowd only to tongue lash Secondus, who left the occasion the same moment he was to give a tribute to the celebrant. Wike, in his usual brash manner of speaking, lambasted Secondus saying he talked with two sides of his mouth and blamed him for the current woes in the party. He said if Secondus, who came to the podium to talk about good leadership, had acted as one, the party would not have been hit by the crisis that has started to consume it. “Talking about leadership, unfortunately, the national chairman (Secondus) left before I start. We should not be theoretical but be practical in what we practice. He goes to the church, you see the pastor, you pontificate him. He leaves the church, he does a different thing. What is the problem with this country: it’s leadership. “If he ( Secondus) had shown leadership in Cross River, our party would not have had the problem we have today. The national chairman said we need good leadership in the country, but if you don’t show good leadership, the party cannot produce good leaders. That is the truth of the matter. “We talk about character. What is leadership? Leadership is about character, boldness, selflessness and audacious. As a leader, you must have character. Not to speak white in the morning and you speak black in the evening. Is that leadership? What are we telling our youths? We are talking about the future of this country. “Our youths must be audacious. In essence, they should speak out. They should be bold. How many of us have been bold to speak out from our party? Those who are bold, those who are fair, those who have characters, do you want them to exist? Certainly not”, said Wike, who described Secondus as one who did not possess the qualities of a good leader. “Leadership is that you must decide whether to stand for the truth or not. You must decide whether to do the right thing or not. Leadership is the ability to say the decision I took was wrong and I have accepted that I was wrong and now I am in the position to correct it. There is nothing wrong with you admitting that you are wrong. That is one quality of a leader. To be able to identify, when he is wrong. “As the head of a family, you see crisis in your family, you take a decision that will keep that family together. Leadership is all about sacrifice. You put your ego down for the interest of the family. That is leadership. All the leaders, who are here should show good leadership. Like Oshiomhole’s APC, today the country is having leadership problem,” saying the ruling APC was a disaster. Reacting to Wike’s comment about poor leadership of the ruling APC, which he said has drifted the country into chaos, former Edo State Governor and erstwhile national chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole recounted one occasion, at a leadership meeting with PDP leaders and how he was almost prevented from speaking about the rots that characterised the PDP era at the centre. He said in that occasion, “They didn’t want me to talk about the fact that six hundred barrels of crude was stolen every day for two, three, four consecutive weeks. How can 600,000 barrels be stolen everyday and you didn’t want to talk about it? “It was Wike’s PDP that was in charge of the country then. I think if any young man here is in that hall, I do not think anyone of them can be more brutal than we were that day – speaking truth to power even though observers thought we were all in power. But some are more in power than some others.” Oshiomhole, who subtly took a swipe at another former Senate President, Pius Ayim, for allegedly dividing the attention of the audience said, “As you can see, as I am speaking here, the former Senate President (Ayim) has engaged a successor Senate President so that they will not hear what I am going to say”. He disagreed with other speakers, who harped on age as one of the fundamental problems of the country. “One of the points former Senate President made, Senator Saraki is when he talked about character. I think that sometimes we sectionalise and exaggerate the issues. I don’t think Nigeria’s issue is a matter of age. There are competent old men. There are incompetent old men. There are also rascally young boys and incompetent young boys and girls. “Therefore, I agree with you when you said we must speak about character, because we speak about age as if it’s a burden. It’s a stage in life. What is constant, is character. Our problem has to do with value, character and consistence,” he said. Oshiomhole, however, commended Imoke, saying “I want to join everyone to congratulate you for choosing to use your 60th birthday to have a conversation with the very young people and the not-so-young”. In his keynote address, Zimbabwe opposition leader, Chamisa said Nigeria stood on the threshold that could be the transformation in African history. He said young people must be ready to be part of political leadership and the democratic development in their country, adding that it was a crime as youth not to be revolutionist and also a crime not to be actively involved in politics. “The key question affecting Africans today is to ask the leadership questions that are important: how do we move forward? How do we become audacious? What are the roles of audacious young people? How are they able to move the continent forward? How do we build this new Africa? What is it that will make a new Africa new? “What do we do, how do we achieve transformation and modernization? When we talk about audacity, we are talking about willingness to check a series of audacious maneuvers; we talk of a patent of fearlessness, bravery, courage. “That courage, that picture of the future is very important. It will take you where you have to go and it will also make sure that you will never get lost: it is impossible to get lost, when you know, where you are going and it is important to be informed by your past, because your past shapes and informs the future. “But it is also impressive to have very audacious young people with audacious goals from the African continent. Those big audacious goals now on this continent are that we need to make sure that we democratise Africa and after this, the young people of Africa have to agree in governing ourselves and democratise our continent. “We will occupy Africa; we will crash, smash and squash dictatorship on the African continent. We will silence the hun and violence. We will be peace builders, we will end corruption, we will defeat exploitation, we must transform lives, we must build strong institutions, we must make leaders accountable and responsible in society in the nation. In governance, we must fight injustice and the breakdown of the rule of law, we must unite Africa, we will lead the world. Let us be leaders,” he said.

NBBF unimpressed as sports analyst Smith confesses ‘I messed up’ Segun Adewole

The Nigeria Basketball Federation seems unimpressed by the apologies tendered Monday night by American sports television personality, Stephen A Smith. Smith had apologised for his unsavoury comment following the win recorded by the Nigerian Basketball team, D’Tigers, against the United States. D’Tigers won the pre-Olympic exhibition game at Mandalay Bay Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday [9.30PM Eastern Time; 2.30AM Nigerian Time] with the final score line reading 90-87. Smith, who was displeased by the loss recorded by the US Basketball team, appeared on a TV show where he slammed the American team’s performance. The TV personality stated that it was awkward that his country’s star-studded team lost the basketball game to the Nigerian side with players who are not known. Reacting to his comment, the Nigerian Basketball Federation tweeted, “You can lament your loss without slandering the players who gave blood and sweet [sic] to grind out a win. Put some respect to their names.” His comment also received a backlash from many Nigerians who took to social media to call him out, leading to his apology. In a video tweeted via his verified Twitter handle @stephenasmith, Smith said, “I wanna start the show today the only way it can and should start, with an apology, my sincere apology, to be quite honest with you. “An apology that’s from me, that’s from the heart, not from the network, not from anybody else, just me. “Not something handed down to me to say on the airwaves, because I alone messed up. “I can say that my intentions were good, but as a black man in America, I’ve heard a lot of people say hurtful things about the black community, and they claimed their intentions were good. “I know it doesn’t work like that, and you know I don’t let people get away with that excuse when it’s targeted at black America.” Continuing, he said, “What I spoke about the Nigerian basketball team hurt people. “So, it doesn’t matter what my opinion was or my intentions were. What matters is that I messed up. And I intend to learn and listen to those people in those communities to better understand their perspective on their culture, on language, on marketability, you name it. “I messed up and hurt people with my words. For that, I apologise.” Reacting to the apology, the NBBF tweeted, “Thanks to all Nigerians (home and abroad) and all our friends who stood up to berate @stephenasmith after his unguarded remarks about our team .” Smith is not new to controversies, though, and he seems to thrive on it, as once reported by Chicago Tribune in a 2014 article titled, ‘Despite controversy, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith gets even more work.’ The medium had reported, “Despite being suspended for his comments about domestic violence, you will be able to hear more from Stephen A. Smith, not less. “It was announced this morning that ESPN will produce The Stephen A. Smith Show for SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sport Radio, channel 85. “ And Smith was reported to have expressed utmost excitement, “Words can’t express how excited I am to be going to SiriusXM,” said Smith in a statement. “I’ve waited a long time for this. All I’m going to say is Sept. 2 can’t arrive soon enough. So Buckle Up! Because I’m coming.” Smith reported came under fire for his comments on ‘First Take’ in the wake of the NFL’s ruling on Ray Rice. He appeared to suggest that women could be responsible for provoking men to become violent.” An arbitrator had overturned the National Football League’s indefinite suspension of Ray Rice, a former Baltimore Ravens running back, who knocked out his fiancée in an elevator altercation. As is the case with the D’Tigers, Smith eventually issued an apology on his show in 2014, though ESPN took him off the air for a week then.

COVID-19 Delta variant: Don’t travel for Sallah, NCDC warns Nigerians by Kayode Oyero

As Muslim faithful prepare to mark the 2021 Eid-el-Kabir celebrations next week, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has warned against trips that characterise the period. NCDC Head of Risk Communications Division, Dr Yahya Disu, handed down the warning on Wednesday during Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast show monitored by The PUNCH. Disu said the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic started in Nigeria because people travelled for Christmas last December. He, therefore, urged Nigerians to avoid unnecessary trips as Sallah celebrations hold next week. The PUNCH had earlier reported that with the detection of the Delta COVID-19 variant in Nigeria, experts warned against a fresh lockdown, stating that imposing a new lockdown would have devastating impacts on the economic. The experts spoke against the background of a third wave of COVID-19 with the steady rise in positive cases in the last one week and the discovery of a new variant of the virus in Nigeria. The deadly Delta variant is recognised by the World Health Organisation as a variant of concern, given its increased transmissibility. Speaking of the third wave, the NCDC official said, “Before now, we knew the third wave was going to be inevitable. Third wave is about having increase in the number of cases. We have had increase and decrease in number of cases before now. So, the third one is starting but what is important is what we are able to do to ensure that we are able to reduce it.” He urged religious leaders to sensitise their followers on the need to strictly observe COVID-19 protocols in order to prevent rise in recorded infections. Disu said, “More importantly, Sallah is coming when people just travel and that makes the risk higher in villages, in different parts of the country. So, we need to warn people: they don’t need to travel if it is not necessary, you can celebrate where you are. During Sallah, we go to mosque in large numbers but this is the time we need to be very cautious. “We are working with the religious organisations. The second wave in Nigeria started because of Christmas, because people travelled for Christmas. So, we can avoid it, we can learn from it. A life that we lost is very important for every one of us, it could be anybody. So, it is not worth it to lose a life because we want to celebrate Sallah or Christmas.” Nigeria has recorded over 168,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 2,100 associated deaths since the index case of the virus was reported in the country in March 2020, according to statistics by NCDC who continues to urge Nigerians to maintain social distancing and hygiene practices as well as use masks in public to prevent transmission of the lethal virus which has been identified to move through droplets.