EFCC Re-arraigns 8 Suspected Oil Thieves

EFCC Press Release

 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, on Thursday August 28,  2014, re-arraigned Adedamola Ogungbayibi, Olaniran Olabode, Suraju Gasali, Moses Emmanuel, Wilson Bonsi, Padoun Kayode Jacob, Okparaodi Omaka Uche and Onyeogo Happy before Justice O.E. Abang of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on  a 5-count charge bordering on conspiracy and illegal dealing in petroleum product.

 They were originally arraigned before Justice Saliu Seidu of the same court on June 16, 2014. 

 

The defendants got into trouble on February 19, 2014, when they were arrested by men of the Nigerian Navy who were on routine patrol. The Nigeria Navy Ship ANDONI intercepted MT Good Success and its sixteen member crew ,  along the Lagos waters. At the time of arrest, it was discovered that while MT Good Success had authority to carry 350 metric tons of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), it was loaded with 1,459 metric tons of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). Officers  of the Nigeria Navy  then handed over the vessel, its contents and crew members to the EFCC for further investigations.

Count one of the charge reads:

"That you MT GOOD SUCCESS, hepa Global Energy Limited, Adedamola Ogungbayibi, Olaniran Olabode, Suraju Gasali, Moses Emmanuel, Wilson Bonsi, Padonu Kayode Jacob, Okparaodi Omaka Uche and Onyeogo Happy on or about the 19th day of February, 2014 at Lagos within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court conspired amongst yourselves to commit an offence to wit: dealing in Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) without lawful authority or appropriate license and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 19(6) and punishable under Section 17 of the Miscellaneous offences Act, Cap M17, Law of the Federation of Nigeria 2004".

 

 

 

When the charges were read to the accused persons, they pleaded not guilty.

 

Justice Abang admitted the accused persons to bail on terms previously  offered by court and adjourned the case to August 29, 2014, for continuation of trial.

 

Wilson Uwujaren

Head, Media & Publicity

28^th August, 2014

 

N1.6bn Fraud: Defence Stalls Arraignment of Kebbi Accountant-General

EFCC Press Release

The arraignment of Kebbi State Accountant-General, Alhaji Mohammed Arzika Dakingari and Muza Yusuf, Managing Director, Beal Construction Nigeria Limited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before Justice Sabiu Bala of Kebbi State High Court, Birnin-Kebbi scheduled for Thursday, August 28, 2014 could not go on after all.

Dakingari and Yusuf were to be arraigned by the EFCC for offences bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence, abuse of office and money laundering.

Though, the accused persons were present in court, they could not take their plea as defence counsel, Suleiman Usman told the court that he had a pending application challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the matter.

According to Usman, "the law is trite that, where an application of this nature is filed, it has to be determined first. Your Lordship is enjoined to know that this honourable court needs to have necessary jurisdictions and powers before it can hear this case".

However, counsel to EFCC, Mahmud Bello told the court that he had not been served with the motion. " My Lord, I am surprised that my learned friend said they have served the prosecution with the motion. As I speak we have not been served", he said.

Bello argued that the issue of jurisdiction can be taken at any stage in the course of prosecuting a case. He urged the court to take the plea of the accused persons.

Justice Bala, after listening to the argument of both counsel adjourned the case to September 23, 2014 for hearing of the application.

Dakingari, among other things allegedly used his office as the Accountant-General, Kebbi State to purchase 25 units of Iveco Trucks valued at N175m (one hundred and seventy five million naira) from Karimat Global Trade Links Limited for his personal company, Cigale Finance SA based in Lome, Republic of Togo but defaulted in payment.

Efforts by the supplier of the trucks to recover the money have been futile.

Wilson Uwujaren

Head, Media & Publicity

28^th August, 2014

Mohammed Arzika Dakingari AG Kebbi State

Terrorism, security of Journalists in the world

Emeka Ibemere

Last week, when Militants from Islamic State (Isis), allegedly showed a video purported to have killed an American journalist, who had been in long captive in Syria, the killers of the journalist said they did it in retaliation for ongoing US air strikes against its forces in Iraq.

A man purported to be James Wright Foley, a photojournalist, who went missing in Syria in 2012, was shown on Tuesday kneeling and dressed in an orange jumpsuit with a masked ISIS fighter alleged to have beheaded the journalist.

The masked executioner spoke in English, with what sounded like a British accent, and said the slaying came in response to the air strikes ordered by President Barack Obama against Isis 12 days before the brutal killing.

As that wasn’t enough for the Isis gang, they threatened to kill another man purported to be a captured US journalist, Steven Sotloff and in the video the victim was made to read a statement blaming the US for his own murder.

Reports claimed that Foley has been missing in Syria since November 2012, where he went to report on the bloody struggle to overthrow dictator Bashar al-Assad. He was initially thought to have been captured by forces loyal to the Assad regime.

Her mother had cried for the release of the journalist which landed on the deaf ears of the ISIS. “He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist and person,” she said.

“We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world. We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people.”

Foley, 40, a former Stars and Stripes reporter, was captured in November 2012 near the Syrian town of Taftanaz. It was not his first detention while reporting: in 2011, he was taken while reporting on the uprising against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi’s forces ultimately released him after six weeks in captivity.

A friend of Foley’s and his fellow captive in Libya, journalist Clare Morgana Gillis, was said to have written about Foley in a 2013 essay, that captivity was ‘the state most violently opposite his nature’.

 Gillis further went on to describe Foley as gentle, friendly, courageous and impatient with ‘anything that slows his forward momentum’. The world condemned the killing of the journalist.

But was what is the offence of the gentlemen of the Press, globally that they have become an endangered species or is pen still mightier than the sword. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists, CPJ, and research shows that 100 journalists were killed between 1992 and 2011 while covering violent civil disturbances.

In 2011 alone, it was reported that all work related fatalities in the industry involved journalists covering such assignments, as terrorism, crime and corruption. Some scary statistics from CPJ further revealed that 30 journalists are killed yearly around the world while 150 journalists are in jail at any given time, many without charges filed against them

It reported that 35 journalists in different parts of the world are missing at any time as hundreds are threatened, harassed or attacked. The research equally stated that many have their phones or email addresses intercepted on daily basis.

But how can journalists remain safe while discharging their social responsibility duty especially in a changing world that bores hatred and unsafe for the gentlemen of the press. Dayo Aiyetan, journalist and Executive Director International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, fortnight ago while speaking on ‘Security for Journalists Reporting In Hostile or Unsafe Environments’, during eight days training of Nigerian journalists held at the office of the CLEEEN Foundation and sponsored by the Institute For Peace and War Reporting, IPWR, said self protection must be the watchword for journalists covering and reporting terrorism and in hostile enviroment. Dayo Aiyetan, former editor of the famous TELL Magazine said there are basic precautions that needed to be taken while reporting hostile places.

“In theory, a news medium has the responsibility to provide reporters basic protection when sending them into hostile or unsafe environments. Also, you are there to report the assignment not to report rioters to the police”, he quipped.

“Self protection must be your watchword. Do not impinge on investigation by tampering with scene of a terrorist attack, never quarrel with security agencies, including anti terrorism and be careful about approaching traumatised or agitated survivors”, he added, be careful of a second attack and mind your language. Don’t become singled out as target”.

According to Aiyetan, civil disobedience and riots appear easy tasks for the journalists but statistics show that it could be very risky. He disclosed that the first step was for journalists to first research their assignment.

“Do proper research before going into hostile environment. It provides you information about steps you need to take that might later save your life. Do a security assessment of your assignment and only then could you be prepared when risky situations stare you in the face on the field. Always carry a means of identification. If you require extra accreditation for identification, get one and if you have health conditions that require medication, always have enough to last you for your trip”.

The former editor further revealed that since after 9/11 bombing of the world trade centre, that the world has changed virtually everything in human interaction, including how people communicate. He explained that terrorists’ threats all over the world have also become a major threat to global piece and that the world has moved from one cold war to many cold wars.

“The Internet- it has changed the way news is reported disseminated and consumed. The Internet has also helped criminally minded persons become more efficient in committing crimes”. He said

“In Nigeria, all these as well as growing corruption, impunity and failure of the justice system have all increased risks in journalistic practice. He tasked media owners to provide resources, tools, insurance and medical.

According to him, giving proper training to reporters about the hostile beat or risky assignment could help.

“Newsroom managers must make contingency arrangements for his or her reporters in case he or she gets into danger. Some media houses adopt pseudonyms or just use by our reporters when publishing sensitive stories, and deciding if a story is worth it or too risky is very vital”. He warned.

“Don’t keep one reporter too long on dangerous beats. Crime and corruption are the most dangerous bits for journalists and 35 percent of journalists killed since 1992, covered crime and corruption. Research your subject(s) well. Learn as much as you can about who can help you and who might want to stop you and never work alone on dangerous assignments”.

The award winning journalist also added that journalists should make the subject of their investigation know that that are not working alone and must always keep their editors posted. Aiyetan stated that before going to interview a potentially hostile source, or enviroment that journalists must cover their ‘back’.

He counselled. “Familiarise yourself with high crime areas and residences and offices of dangerous sources you want to talk to and by knowing the entry and exit points etc. Always keep your mobile phones charged. In covering crime, terrorism and corruption, try and cultivate a senior law enforcement agency official you can rely on for emergency situations”.

“Do a good survey of the terrain including positions of protesters and the police as well as exit or escape routes in case things get out of control. Never get caught between police and rioters. Also walk on the outside of the crowd, never in the mix for it is better to work as a team covering riots.  Two journalists or more and a photographer will make them to cover each other’s backs”.

Speaking further, he cautioned journalists to chose clothes wisely by deciding  if they must wear what would make them blend into the crowd or if they need both protester and law enforcement officers to distinguish them.

“Wear shoes that you can run in if you need to make a retreat or escape”.

In reporting armed conflict, he emphasised on physical fitness, protective gear, and body armour, special vests, and helmets.

He disclosed that journalists should get basic security training in combat awareness and battlefield hazards by understanding the rules of war. However, he reeled out advantages and disadvantages of journalists in getting embedded.

“Journalists getting embedded in military operations became popular during the American invasion of Iraq and it has become acceptable means of reporting news. When you are embedded with an army unit you agree on some basic rules, including not doing anything to jeopardise the unit’s operations or disclose its locations or other operational information”, he added.

“Being embedded has its advantages and disadvantages and there are editors and media houses that will never allow their journalists to embed with a military unit”. According to Aiyetan in his lecture stated that when embedded the options are as follows.

“When embedded, you have exclusive access to frontline battle stories, but you see things from a limited perspective because you cannot see the impact of war on civilians for example. You stand the risk of being killed in battle. 9 embedded journalists were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. In Afghanistan six embedded journalists died between 2001 and 2011”.

“If you are in uniform, you are legally regarded as a soldier in the unit (Geneva Convention 1949). The opposing army can legally fire at and kill you and you can be arrested and detained as a prisoner of war. But then you enjoy the privileges of being a POW”. He said.

Aiyetan quipped that the journalists might not have enough access to report what happens in the battle ground or the frontline.

For independent journalists, he said. “You have a broader perspective of the war; you can report from a safe distance and can perhaps, also be more independent in your reportage because you don’t feel you owe anybody a favour. You can be charged with civilian crimes like espionage and If you are also arrested, you will be treated as a civilian and face the indignities of abusive prison conditions”, Aiyetan explained.

Speaking further, he advised on the use of fixers when travelling on assignment. But cautioned on vetting of the fixers the journalists would want to work with. He urged journalists covering hostile enviroment to be more confident and avoid familiar or intimate gestures such as hugging with people they are just meeting to know for the first time.

“Avoid spending too long with sources or support staff. In hotels, use locks in the room. You can put ‘do not disturb’ signs on your door and choose a hotel with security. In certain circumstances, for some assignments, editors should consider the sex of the reporter”, he stated.

REVEALED: Opposition Politicians Are Funding Boko Haram – Australian Negotiator

Dr. Stephen Davis, an international adviser based in Perth, Australia who has risked months of danger to secure the rescue of the over 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram extremists in Chibok, Borno state has made allegations that the major source of income for the sect are Nigerian politicians. An earlier report by Thisday newspaper had revealed that Dr. Davis was one of the key negotiators carrying out negotiations to secure the release of the Chibok girls from their captors.
Dr. Davis is in familiar terrain as he has previously worked with Nigeria with the  Archbishop of Canterbury and Head of the Church of England, Justin Welby, to negotiate the safe release of oil workers who were kidnapped in the Niger Delta.
Thisday reports:

Speaking on Wednesday, August 26, 2014 in an interview on ABC News, an Australian television station, Davis, 63, said he had realised the only way to stop the kidnappings was to stop the sponsors of Boko Haram.

While Al Qaeda was involved in training Boko Haram recruits, Davis said one of their major sources of funding – aside from raiding banks – was Nigerian politicians.

“That makes it easier in some ways as they can be arrested, but of course the onus of proof is high and many are in opposition, so if the president (Goodluck Jonathan) moves against them, he would be accused of trying to rig the elections due early next year,” he said.

“So I think this will run through to the election unabated. These politicians think that if they win power they can turn these terrorists off, but this has mutated.

“It’s no longer a case of Muslims purifying by killing off Christians. They are just killing indiscriminately, beheading, disembowelling people – men, women and children and whole villages.

“I would say it’s almost beyond the control of the political sponsors now. Terror groups are linking up in Somalia, southern Sudan, Egypt and we have fairly strong evidence they are talking with ISIS members.

“They will link up with ISIS and Al Shabaab and I think that what we are seeing in that region is the new homeland of radical Islam in the world,” he told his interviewer.

Davis, who returned to Australia after a four-month sojourn with rare footage of the intense fighting in Nigeria’s North-east, as Boko Haram stepped up efforts to establish an Islamic state, said he established extensive contacts with tribes and terrorist groups in Africa, including three small cells of Al Qaeda, while working as a troubleshooter for oil and gas company Shell in the Niger Delta.

When news broke in April about the girls’ kidnapping from a school in the village of Chibok, near the Cameroun border, Davis, who had recently moved to Perth from London, decided he could not sit on his hands.

During the journey in North-eastern Nigeria, his life was threatened more than once, but his Australian passport saved him.

“When confronted by groups with an AK-47 in my face they’d say, ‘you are American, we have to kill you’,” Davis said.

“When you say, no I’m not American, they think you are British, and say you will still die, but when I said I’m Australian, they said that’s all right. I have no idea why but it’s certainly been helpful.”

The devout Christian managed to smuggle out of the country footage of a handful of schoolgirls who escaped from Boko Haram.

They detail the atrocities they endured, including being raped almost on a daily basis.

Following media reports that nobody knew where the girls were, he decided to reach out to his contacts.

“I made a few phone calls to the Boko Haram commanders and they confirmed they were in possession of the girls,” he said.

“They told me they’d be prepared to release some as a goodwill gesture towards a peace deal with the government, so I went to Nigeria on the basis of being able to secure their release.”

Arriving in Nigeria, Davis quickly set up talks with commanders and he believed he had brokered a deal.

Fearing being arrested, the Boko Haram commanders – holding the girls across the border in Cameroun – had a list of conditions.

They wanted the military to stand down and promised to drop the girls in a village before phoning to give their exact location.

Davis said they lived up to their promise, but in a region ravaged by war and corruption, the rescue was sabotaged.

“The girls were there, 60 girls, there were 20 vehicles with the girls,” he said.

“We travelled for four-and-a-half hours to reach them, but 15 minutes before we arrived they were kidnapped again by another group who wanted to cash in on a reward.

“The police had offered a reward of several million naira just 24 hours before we went to pick them up.

“I understand, from the Boko Haram commanders I spoke to, the girls eventually ended up back with them.

“I don’t know what happened to the group that took them but I suspect it wasn’t good,” he disclosed.

Davis said a young man kidnapped by Boko Haram and used as a driver later helped a handful of girls to escape.

One kidnapped girl, who managed to avoid having her mobile phone confiscated by turning it off and hiding it in her bra, managed to call her family while hiding in bushes, but had no idea where she was or which direction she should be heading.

After being told to walk west by following the sunset each evening, the four girls managed to cross the border from Cameroun and into Nigeria before being reunited with their families.

So far they are the only girls to have escaped from a Boko Haram camp.

When Davis later tried to contact, via text, the young man who helped them, he received a sobering reply.

“The person you are trying to contact has gone on a journey from which there is no return,” the reply read. “He was an infidel.”

Davis said the longer he stayed in Nigeria the more it dawned on him the kidnappings would not end.

“It became very clear that if I was able to get 50 girls released, then another group would kidnap 70 or 80 more. So by freeing 50 you were consigning 70 or 80 more to the same fate,” he explained.

Davis said initially journalists from around the world including CNN, the ABC and BBC flocked into the country, but they concluded it was far too dangerous to send any crew into the North-east of the country.

He said since then, the violence in North-east Nigeria and the threat of foreign journalists being kidnapped and beheaded, there has been limited coverage of the crimes being committed by Boko Haram.

“Boko Haram used to telephone Nigerian journalists and give them a story, but that doesn’t happen anymore,” he said.

“They go straight to social media. They post their own material and they’ve learnt to become very savvy on social media and use it as an instrument to terrorise.”

Davis, who has a PhD in political geography, has worked as an adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

He also worked for Shell in Nigeria in an advisory capacity between 2002 and 2004.

SOURCES_------AFP, Naij.com news, Punch Nigeria, Yahoo!

NIGERIA TO GET A NEW DRUG CONTROL MASTER PLAN IN SEPTEMBER 2014

Nigeria will get a new National Drug Control Master Plan (NDCMP) in September 2014 when President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan endorses the final draft which will soon be sent to the presidency.

The implementation of the proposed Master Plan is expected to take effect from 2015 to 2019. This policy document which provides a road map for the nation’s anti-narcotic campaign is a product of elaborate deliberations and consultations by an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), departments, agencies and experts led by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

Chairman/Chief Executive of the Agency, Ahmadu Giade while applauding members of the committee for their diligence called for more support for drug control programmes. “I am pleased with the commitment of the committee members and the rich content of the draft plan. The Agency shall work with relevant organisations towards the full implementation of the Plan. We incorporated ministries, organisations and agencies because everyone has a role to play in the control of drugs”.

Giade thanked the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the European Union (EU) for their technical assistance to Nigeria’s fight against drug production, trafficking and use as well as related organized crimes.

NDLEA Director General, Mrs. Roli Bode-George presided over the meeting of senior representatives from thirty ministries, departments and agencies that ended last weekend in Lagos. The major task before the meeting was the formulation of a Master Plan that will run for the next four years beginning in 2015. The master plan will among other things provides a roadmap for the government of Nigeria and its ministries, departments and agencies to enhance the response to the drug situation in Nigeria. It seeks a balanced approach to improve the response to the supply or production of illicit drugs and efforts to reduce the demand for drugs.

According to Mrs. Bode-George “there is need for an evidence-based approach to the development of the Master Plan. Each ministry, department and agency must be deeply committed to the implementation of the plan by incorporating it into their respective operational plans. This will provide a wider platform for stakeholders to collectively address the complex drug problem”.

Two international experts, Dr. Ugi Zvekic and Professor Moruf Adelekan were also engaged by the UNODC in the drafting of the new plan. The meeting is one of the eight stages designed to develop a comprehensive drug control master plan for the country. This is sequel to  a bottom-up consultative engagement with stakeholders carried out and accomplished in the form of eleven (11) town hall style meetings across Nigeria, encompassing the six geo-political zones during the period of April and June 2014.

The master plan is designed around four strategic pillars and themes, namely: law enforcement responses; drug demand reduction; access and control of licit narcotics and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes; and coordination, implementation, along with monitoring and evaluation.

The meeting produced a draft plan which will be submitted to the Federal Government of Nigeria for endorsement in September 2014. Coordination and implementation of this plan was a key focus of this meeting, with the IMC resolving to establish an NDLEA-led National Coordinating Unit to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the master plan.

The development of the plan is an integral part of the European Union funded and UNODC implemented project “Response to Drugs and Related Organized Crime in Nigeria”.

Ofoyeju Mitchell

Head, Public Affairs

08034088136

Imo Elders Council alerts Presidency, cautions PDP chieftains over security breach

 Nnah Douglas, Abuja

The Imo state Council of Elders (IMSCE) has alerted the presidency even as it warns the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s stalwarts in the state for several security breaches and unwarranted attack on Governor Rochas Okorocha.

The Council has therefore called on President Jonathan to call his party men and women to order to avoid the escalation such security breaches especially as the 2015 general election comes close.

In a press statement made available to Daily Newswatch yesterday in Abuja, Chairman of the Council and a former Deputy Director General, State Security Service (SSS), Okey Israel Njemanze (Esq) however, exonerated President Goodluck Jonathan from the allegations, but called on him to take decisive steps to prevent the escalation of security breaches in the state as efforts to prosecute the culprits were always suffer setback.

Prince Okey Israel Njemanze (Esq), said although the security agencies in the state have performed creditably well to maintain peace, there is looming danger in view of the security breaches by some PDP politicians from the state.

On the Oguta inconclusive Local Government Poll, Prince Njemanze, blamed the Presidency for INEC’s refusal to declare the inconclusive Oguta election which remained only 5 out of 198 wards, noting that the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) the then Governor’s party had won the declared results with 2011 votes.

The IMSCE chairman wondered why INEC had refused to declare the results causing the area to remain unrepresented in the state Assembly for a period of three years.

Njemanze also called on President Jonathan to stop the abuse of siren and use of outriders in the state by some PDP faithful in the state as the country approaches the election year.

 The NSO Deputy DG equally expressed worry at the incessant attacks against Governor Okorocha and breaches of protocol in the state, citing the incident where a clash between the Governor Okorocha’s convoy and that of Senator Chris Anyanwu’s was merely averted.

He also alleged that several thugs loyal to the PDP candidate in the Oguta election had at one time accosted the Governor’s convoy, pulled down the outrider and disarmed a policeman attached to him.

The Elders also recalled another breach at burial of Justice Chukwudifu Oputa when a microphone was snatched from the governor’s hand while dignitaries present including the officiating Priest Bishop Hassan Kuka looked on.

According to the Elders Council, the presidency seemed to be backing the lawlessness of Eze Cletus Ilomuanya who despite being dethroned as the Chairman Imo Council of Traditional Rulers has continued to parade as a delegate to the national conference.

The IMSCE Chairman was of the view that if the situation persists as electioneering nears, there might be possible blood bath among aides loyal to different political giants in the state.