Sahara Reporters Latest News Saturday 4th May 2019
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 04/05/19
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E2%80%94-how-come-boko-haram-and-bandits-have-taken-over target=_blank>Kukah: Sharia Was Supposed To Bring Joy — How Come Boko Haram And Bandits Have Taken Over?
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, is worried about the mounting insecurity in many parts of the North despite the introduction of Sharia to widespread Islamic acclaim.
Kukah was speaking in Abuja on Friday during a lecture titled ‘Optimising Public Relations Strategies for National Cohesion’, which he delivered at the 2019 Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).
He urged the Nigerian government to interrogate the governors who introduced Sharia Law in 1999, on the emergence of Boko Haram sect.
He said the insurgents’ areas of operation are contiguous with the areas where the Sharia declarations were made.
“To create a much better, just and fair society, hypocrisy has to stop,” he said according quotes reported by TheNation.
“Now it is virtually impossible to travel from Sokoto to Zamfara by road because of insecurity in the country. In 1999, Sharia Law was declared in Nigeria, and almost all the 19 northern states joyfully, exuberantly adopted it.
“According to the principles of Sharia, we are supposed to be seeing joy, happiness and equity and so forth. Well, those who brought the Sharia should tell us why Boko Haram and bandits have now taken over our country.”
Kukah also expressed concerns about how Nigerians voted along regional and ethnic lines in the 2019 general election, warning that if the trend persists, the capacity for managing the nation’s diversity would continue to shrink.
“We are practising politics of very poor quality,” he said.
“The politics is so regionalised, factionalised. Whenever I look at the map of the last elections, I don’t feel proud as a Nigerian.
“That you have an election in which very clearly the country is divided into two and the lines are precise means what the North is saying and thinking is different from the South is saying and thinking. They are not realities; they are perceptions. And if this is the kind of country that we have, how do we develop the capacity to manage diversity?”
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target=_blank>For Falsifying His Age, Court Sacks Adamawa APC Federal Lawmaker-Elect
The Federal High Court, Abuja has fired Abdulrauf Modibbo as lawmaker-elect representing Yola South/Yola North/Girei Federal Constituency of Adamawa in the National Assembly.
Justice Inyang Ekwo also ruled that Modibbo is replaced with Mustapha Usman to represent the All Progressives Congress at the lower chamber of the assembly.
Usman, who finished as the runner-up at the primary election conducted on October 7, 2018, had approached the court to remove Modibbo because he was ineligible to contest.
He told the court that Modibbo falsified his age, hence he should be disqualified by the court as ineligible to contest the primary as well as the 2019 elections that he won.
Joined in the suit were the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Granting the prayer of Usman, Justice Ekwo said that the complainant, Usman, had proven to the court that Modibbo falsified his age before the primary elections.
Justice Ekwo noted that Modibbo submitted a forged certificate and used same to contest in the elections while also noting that because he was yet to complete his compulsory National Youth Service Corps when he contested the elections.
Therefore, the court ruled that INEC should remove Modibbo as the winner of the APC primary and replace him with Usman as representative of Yola South/Yola North/Girei Federal Constituency of Adamawa.
Giving the ruling, the judge said: “A person who is a lawbreaker cannot be a lawmaker; this illegality is one that cannot be wished away.”
INEC was also directed to issue Usman with the certificate of return.
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target=_blank>Nigerian Government Holds Closed-Door Meeting With Herdsmen Over Insecurity
A Federal Government delegation on Friday met with the national leaders of Miyetti Allahh Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) as part of efforts to curtail security challenges in the country.Abdulrahman Dambazau, the Minister of Interior, who led the delegation to Birnin Kebbi, said it was part of regional action plan on security challenges.
“It is part of steps we have taken to curtail the issue of insecurity and clashes between herdsmen and farmers,” he said.
“You should not forget the fact that we have extended the meeting as a regional one when the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) hosted a conference on this.
“These kind of issues were discussed, and part of it was to provide national action plan on security challenges and solutions by all the members of the ECOWAS Commission and to present them for consideration.“That is the main reason we have come to Kebbi State to dialogue with leaders of herdsmen as part of the process. The criminals have infiltrated into the crisis, and we should cooperate and deal decisively with the culprits, hence we called for this interaction. Those criminals that are beyond redemption, will be dealt with and brought them to book.”
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target=_blank>Bandits Relocating To Niger, Kaduna, Kano To Escape Army’s ‘Scorpion Sting’
Bandits fleeing Operation Harbin Kunama III (Scorpion sting) in Zamfara State are now taking refuge in Kaduna, Kano and Niger states.The alarm was raised by Tukur Buratai, a Lietenant-General and Chief of Army Staff, while addressing a press conference at the Army Headquarters, Abuja, on the ‘Reorganisation of Exercise Harbin Kunama III’.Buratai said the movement is due to successes recorded by the army in troubled areas such as Zamfara and Katsina states.He thereafter announced that the army would be conducting the special exercise in the affected areas to rid them of the bandits and other criminal elements.The army had launched Harbin Kunama III on April 1, 2019.SaharaReporters can report that despite the operation, killings have continued with the latest in the series being an attack on Government Girls Secondary School, Moriki, Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State on Wednesday night.
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target=_blank>The Chateau Overlooking Lake Geneva Was Bought For Peter Bosworth For $31m
Boasting a “superb view over Lake Geneva and the Alps”, seven bedrooms, a cinema room and extensive grounds with tennis courts and a swimming pool, the 19th-century château in Switzerland was advertised as an “exceptional country estate”.
In the summer of 2011 it was bought by Peter Bosworth, then chief executive of Arcadia Petroleum. The oil trading company transferred $31 million to lawyers in Switzerland to purchase the “sumptuous” property for Mr Bosworth, according to documents obtained by Finance Uncovered and seen by The Times.
Neither Mr Bosworth, 55, nor Arcadia Petroleum are household names, even within the oil industry. However, both are facing increasing scrutiny after being identified in multiple court cases as recipients of millions of pounds originating from an allegedly corrupt $1.3 billion Nigerian oil deal.
The deal involved Shell and Eni acquiring what is possibly the biggest untapped oil resource in Africa, Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245, in April 2011. A series of subsequent transfers ultimately resulted in $11 million being paid to Arcadia Petroleum and about $5 million to Mr Bosworth personally, court filings and leaked documents show. Neither Mr Bosworth nor Arcadia are parties in any of the litigation over the deal, and both deny any wrongdoing.
The Nigerian government has said in a High Court filing that it is investigating the reasons for the payments to Mr Bosworth and Arcadia Petroleum, and that it reserves the right to take action to try to recoup funds originating in the deal.
Mr Bosworth and Arcadia, which he left in 2013, both declined to explain the payments when approached by The Times and Finance Uncovered.
Leaked Arcadia files appear to link the funds from the Nigerian deal to Mr Bosworth’s house purchase. They show that two payments Arcadia received, totalling almost $8.5 million, were marked against Mr Bosworth’s debts to the company. His debts at the time appear to include about $6 million he had yet to repay from the purchase of the Swiss property.
Nigeria’s investigations into the payments are likely to focus on links between Arcadia, Mr Bosworth and Dan Etete, a convicted money launderer who was at the heart of the 2011 deal. These links are revealed in a vast cache of documents amassed by prosecutors in Italy that have been obtained by Finance Uncovered and seen by The Times.
Mr Etete, 74, was Nigeria’s oil minister in 1998 when he awarded the promising offshore oil block called OPL 245 to Malabu Oil and Gas, a company that it later became clear that he controlled.
Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil major, bought into the block in 2001 but became embroiled in years of ownership disputes with Malabu and the Nigerian government.
In April 2011, a deal was struck in which Shell and Eni, the Italian oil company, together paid $1.3 billion to the Nigerian government for ownership of the block. Nigeria then transferred more than $800 million of this to Malabu.
Shell and Eni are on trial in Italy over alleged corruption in the deal, which they deny. Nigeria is also now suing Shell and Eni in London. Mr Bosworth and Arcadia are not party to either proceedings.
Nigeria alleges that corrupt officials in the 2011 administration effectively allowed the government to be used as a middleman to avoid Shell and Eni having to deal directly with Mr Etete, who in 2007 had been convicted of money laundering in a separate matter.
It alleges that the companies knew or should have known that Mr Etete had corruptly awarded the block to himself in 1998 and that the deal would result in the payment of bribes and kickbacks to government figures including Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president at the time. The companies also deny wrongdoing, as do Mr Etete and Mr Jonathan.
The former oil minister Dan Etete stayed at Le Bristol hotel in Paris, with the £174,000 bill paid by Mr Bosworth’s companyALAMY
In its London court filings, Nigeria claims that some of the money Malabu received was transferred to Rocky Top Resources, another company linked to Mr Etete, and then on to Mr Bosworth and Arcadia. Mr Bosworth and Arcadia are not parties in this case. Nigeria says that it is “investigating the reasons for these” payments.
Leaked Arcadia emails and records show that about $11 million was transferred to Arcadia Petroleum in three tranches between November 2011 and November 2012 and $5 million to Mr Bosworth directly at a bank account in Lebanon in November 2011.
About $2.5 million of the cash Arcadia received from Rocky Top was set against expenses it attributed to the company, many of which were for Mr Etete. Payment records show Arcadia had been incurring expenses for the former oil minister since at least late 2009 and continued to do so until 2013. These included lengthy stays booked by Mr Bosworth’s personal assistant for Mr Etete at the luxury Le Bristol hotel in Paris, amounting to £174,000 between November 2009 and December 2010. A number of meetings related to OPL 245 were held at this hotel in 2010.
Leaked emails also appear to show that in August 2010 Mr Bosworth advised Mr Etete on his dealings with Diezani Alison-Madueke, then the Nigerian oil minister, over OPL 245.
An Italian judge, ruling in a separate case in which two middlemen were convicted of corruption over OPL 245, also referred to this email. The judge said that the email showed the involvement of Mr Bosworth and Arcadia “in the negotiations for the sale of OPL 245”. This is disputed by Mr Bosworth, who was not a party to this case.
Another leaked email, in November 2010, suggests that Arcadia appears to have held account-opening documents for Mr Etete’s bank account in Lebanon, which was the intended recipient of the proceeds from the OPL 245 deal.
In an email to Mr Bosworth’s PA, Mr Etete writes: “Pls, tell. Pete. That. Am. Going. Close. The. Transaction. On. Friday. With. Italians. Will. The. Bank. Details. As. Well. As. Original. Acct, opening. Documents. Want. To. Talk. To. Him, pls.”
This appears to relate to an earlier attempt to close a deal directly with Eni over OPL 245.
In addition to OPL 245, Arcadia also appears to have been pursuing a potentially significant LPG gas project on land owned by Mr Etete in the Niger Delta, although the project never materialised.
Goodluck Jonathan, a former Nigerian president, is embroiled in the scandalAFOLABI SOTUNDE/REUTERS
Mr Bosworth resigned as chief executive of Arcadia in March 2013. Leaked emails show that later that year, and nearly two years after Arcadia first received payment from Rocky Top Resources, senior officials at JP Morgan contacted the company asking it to explain the payments.
Arcadia responded that it did “not have a business relationship with Rocky Top Resources”, saying that the receipts were “reimbursement for expenses & costs paid/incurred and repaid to Arcadia by Rocky Top Resources”.
Pressed for further details of what services it had provided, Arcadia responded that these included “legal fees, fees, travel costs and expenses”, which were incurred “in relation to a number of potential business opportunities and infrastructure projects in the energy industry”, including in crude oil and LPG plant construction. These projects were not being pursued, it said.
Internal emails suggest that it had, however, been unable to find receipts for $8.5 million of the payments.
Mr Bosworth confirmed that he knew Mr Etete and had “some knowledge of the OPL 245 transaction”, but said he was not directly involved in it. He said that he had helped Mr Etete with a requested introduction to an international bank, which he believed was in connection with the transaction, and gave Mr Etete “some advice on an informal basis when asked”.
“Given the knowledge as I had it at the time, I had no reason to believe anything was either unlawful or corrupt about it,” he said, citing the involvement of big international banks and “two highly reputable international oil companies”. Mr Bosworth did not address questions over the payments. A lawyer for Mr Bosworth said that no proceedings had been brought against him in relation to OPL 245.
Arcadia Petroleum said that it “denies any wrongdoing with respect to the OPL 245 matter”. It did not answer questions about the payments.
In February 2015 Arcadia began legal action against Mr Bosworth and another former executive over an alleged $335 million fraud, which is not related to his dealings with Mr Etete. Mr Bosworth and the other man both deny wrongdoing.
Arcadia said that it had “ongoing proceedings against Mr Bosworth and another former senior executive (who remained with the company in the period up to late 2013)”. It said that it had been and would continue to “co-operate with relevant authorities” and in the circumstances was unable to comment further.
JP Morgan said that it believed it had “complied with its legal and regulatory obligations”.
A Shell spokeswoman said that the 2011 agreement had been a “fully legal transaction with Eni and the Federal Government of Nigeria” and it did not believe there was a case to answer. Shell said that if improper payments were proved to have been made by Malabu or others, then “none of those payments were made with Shell’s knowledge, authorisation or on its behalf”.
She said the Nigerian government was a necessary party to the agreement, as it had created the ownership dispute between Shell and Malabu, but it would not comment on the claims made by Nigeria while the proceedings in Milan were continuing.
Eni said it “continues to strongly reject any allegation of impropriety or irregularity in connection with this transaction from any source”. The company added: “Eni reaffirms that it signed a commercial agreement in 2011 for a new licence for OPL 245 with the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company and the contractual consideration for receiving a new licence free and clear from claims and disputes of the past was paid directly to the Nigerian government in accordance with legal and valid contractual terms.
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target=_blank>Gowon Slumps During David Ejoor’s Burial In Delta
Yakubu Gowon, former Military Head of State, on Friday slumped during the funeral of David Akpodiete Ejoor, former Chief of Army Staff, in Delta State.
Guests were at the grave side of Ejoor in Ovwor-Olomu Community, Ughelli South Local Government of the state, when Gowon collapsed.
He was promptly rushed by military officials to a special tent for emergency resuscitation.
Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of the state, and James Ibori, former Governor of the state, were some of the concerned faces in the tent while the resuscitation went on.
Military and Delta State ambulances were immediately stationed in front of the tent should they be needed to relocate the elderstatesman to the hospital.
According to NAN, Ibori and Okowa were later seen exiting the special tent, an indication that the former army general had recovered.
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target=_blank>Iyaloja Of Computer Village And The Tragedy Of A Nation Resistant To Development By Bright Ogundare
All over the world among countries with sane leaders and proactive citizens, there is an apparent competition; a competition to lead the way in development and innovations, playing second fiddle has therefore become dreaded. To achieve this, unproductive systems are abolished for the productive ones. This is the opposite in Nigeria the self acclaimed giant of Africa.
Days ago, the media space was awash with the appointment of Iyaloja and Babaloja for the fast growing Nigerian technology hub popularly called “Computer Village” by the Iyaloja of Lagos, Mrs. Tinubu Ojo. At first, it seems to me that it was a comedy as I couldn’t fathom appointing feudal overlords for a technological hub, how ridiculous it would be to read about Iyaloja of Silicon Valley or the Babaloja of Wall Street. It wasn’t until I confirmed from several sources the authenticity of the news that the tragedy of this appointments dawned on me.
The world has become a global market where mostly ideas are traded which in turn translates to goods and services. This is why Nigeria ought to invest in its technological markets, in a sane society traders in a place like computer village would be showered with credit facilities, state of the art facilities and research grants for collaboration with our ivory towers; all these are apparently lacking. However, computer village is vast making progress inspite of the shortcomings and irresponsibility of the government.
What could have prompted this development? Is it for economic benefits? The Iyaloja and Babaloja system has over the years developed a new species of individuals who benefit and fatten their pockets from the markets by collecting royalties and patronages from market men and women without any obvious improvement in the welfare of the traders. Credit facilities are obviously not available and when provided by some agencies they come with high interests and oppressive conditions (these credit schemes have nicknames such as Gbomu le lantern which translates as putting the woman’s breast in lantern fire, a reflection of the horrors of such credit facility). Considering these, the imposition of Babaloja and Iyaloja on computer village with the huge money flowing in the market is an attempt to enrich those benefiting from the hardships of millions of Lagos traders while adding the traders to the list of their victims.
We might also consider the political aspect. Computer village is one of the strongest opposition to the political overlords of Lagos. It is believed that because of the ethnicity of most of the occupants of the village (being Igbos), the village has remain one of the opposition strongholds and must be annexed or their activities regulated by proxy. It is my belief that the Iyaloja of Lagos, who is a blood relation to the self acclaimed emperor of Lagos has started the move to infiltrate the opposition hold. To achieve the task, the Lagos ruling class (who survived the 2019 election by playing the ethnic card) has started mobilising ethnic sentiments to defend the action.
That the Iyaloja of Lagos, a post not recognised by the constitution could threaten citizens of the country given rights by the constitution is a farce. The traders in computer village should be commended for protesting against this insanity. The battle is not only for them because in reality, it is a battle between the move to 21st century ideals and a feudal bureaucracy that has stunted the country’s development. The victory of the feudal Forces is a murder of development. To support the new Iyaloja and Babaloja is to support the move to kill technological progress but alas! Many are supporting them because ethnic sentiments and political sentiments. This is all too common a problem with Nigeria, and as the Late Chinua Achebe puts it ” What has consistently escaped most Nigerians in this entire travesty is the fact that mediocrity destroys the very fabric of a country as surely as a war—ushering in all sorts of banality, ineptitude, corruption, and debauchery. Nations enshrine mediocrity as their modus operandi, and create the fertile ground for the rise of tyrants and other base elements of the society, by silently assenting to the dismantling of systems of excellence because they do not immediately benefit one specific ethnic, racial, political, or special-interest group. That, in my humble opinion, is precisely where Nigeria finds itself today”.
Computer village is a system of excellence and we must defend it against the forces of mediocrity and banality. Bright Ogundare is a social commentator and can be contacted via email ( brightogundare@gmail.com)
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target=_blank>Rising Above Oppression By SOC Okenwa
Prince Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was in his best opposition element, last weekend, when he addressed a world press conference in Abuja. He had hit the Buhari regime so hard that one was surprised at the virulent tone he employed in taking down the administration. Emboldened by the manifest failures of the man from Daura who is currently on medical tourism once again in London to attend to his fragile health Secondus sought to score the maximum point by asking rhetorically: “Do we still have a government? The apparent incompetence of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the handling of affairs of governance has continued to take a huge toll on the nation?”
Claiming that the executive “arm-twisted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) into tampering with the will of the people in the February 23 Presidential and National Assembly Elections” Secondus railed at the continuing attempts by the federal government at “exerting all its energies and resources planning nefariously how to undermine democratic institutions.”
The PDP Chairman was unsparing of the ruling All Progressives Congress for their apparent lack of ideas on how best to tackle the escalating security issues around the country. From galloping insecurity he moved to the ‘humiliation’ of the judiciary whose fallen head, Walter Onnoghen, had been tried by the Code of Conduct Tribunal and found guilty of false assets declaration. President Buhari, PDP alleged, must have moved against the ex-CJN for other reasons and motives than what he was officially accused and convicted of. He decried the wilful desperate efforts to ‘hijack’ the legislature by imposing figures they could easily control.
Days after the Abuja world press conference the PDP leadership sought to up the ante by an alarming statement released by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, alleging that about 14 trillion Naira (!) has been stolen under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. He broke down the figures by saying that 9 trillion Naira was allegedly stolen from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, as detailed in the leaked Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s memo; the over 1.4 trillion Naira alleged oil subsidy sleaze and the 1.1 trillion Naira worth of crude allegedly diverted using 18 unregistered companies.
Ologbondiyan listed other avenues through which funds were looted to include 33 billion Naira NEMA funds and others. He went on to condemn the unbridled borrowing by the Buhari administration that has led to the monumental increase in the nation’s debt profile from 12.12 trillion Naira in 2015 to 24.39 trillion Naira in 2018. Mind-boggling figures indeed!
And earlier this week Comrade Omoyele Sowore, human rights activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 presidential election was a guest of the Arise News TV’s ‘The Morning Show’. In the programme the ‘SaharaReporters’ Publisher declared that “unless a revolution happens in this country same way they had in Sudan or probably Algeria, it’s going to be difficult to have free and fair elections”. He maintained that unscrupulous politicians had “destroyed the basis for any progressive politics”.
And on May Day rally in Lagos Sowore upped the ante by makng it clear that “elections are over and the sufferings of Nigeria have just started and everybody has come to the realization that we have no hope with the current political leadership in the country”. Harping on the urgent need for a revolution he enjoined every Nigerian to “start preparing yourselves, preparing your neighbourhoods, preparing your children for a revolution in this country; nothing but a revolution will solve Nigeria’s problem”.
The opposition PDP is doing what any responsible opposition elsewhere does: opposing the opposable and pointing to the way forward. The tragedy of our nation is that those entrusted to show us the way lead us instead into the abyss suffocating us all in their tenebrous endeavours.
The PDP Chairman hit the bull’s eye by his strong declarations. And majority of Nigerians are agreed that the political status quo whose legitimacy is still being contested has all but accentuated division among our people, deepening mistrust, fostering corruption and impoverishing the people. The embattled Buhari regime has failed to secure the lives of Nigerians and such singular failure which constitutes the primary purpose of any government ought to interrogate our sense of national values.
Yet it bears underscoring here that the PDP are among the class of oppressors we are up against! Combatting the ruling APC and exonerating the PDP from the tragedy that has befallen our nation is like exonerating the devil from the first celestial coup d’etat in heaven! For sixteen odd years the PDP smart guys were in the saddle Nigeria never fared any better. They wasted billions of Dollars (including the 16 billion wasted by Baba Obasanjo on power) on frivolities rather than development. They enriched their members making corruption thrive in the process and boasting of an ambition to rule for sixty years! Now in opposition the PDP position on national issues is hard to appreciate given the generalized failure of the political class.
As a people oppressed we must rise above ethnic fault lines fully convinced that our fundamental natural problem derives from leadership failure. We must, therefore, demand for a revolutionary change in the way and manner we have been governed for decades on end. Collectively, therefore, the time is now for us to rise against the oppressive tendencies of those we put in power whose political stock-in-trade remains the abuse of democracy and its beauty. Doing otherwise could sentence us all to more years of servitude.
If it could be done elsewhere (and recently in Sudan and Algeria) then it can be replicated in Nigeria. With unity and determination our country can still be saved from herself!
We conclude by quoting verbatim the immortal words of the great late Walter Rodney, the prominent Guyanese historian, political activist and academic: “The human spirit has a remarkable capacity of rising above oppression.” And we concur! And add that a people united by any goal can never be defeated by any force!
SOC Okenwasoco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr
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target=_blank>Simi Emotional As She Parts Ways With ‘Father’ Steve Babaeko’s Xtreme Music
Nigerian singer and songwriter Simisola Ogunleye has officially announced her exit from Xtreme Music, the record label that brought her mainstream success.
The singer, who started her career as a gospel singer, scored her first commercial hit in 2014 for her single ‘Tiff’, which was released upon her signing with the Steve Babaeko-led Xtreme Music.
Simi took to her Instagram handle to pen an emotional note to her record label and boss Steve, whom she described as her “Father”.
It is still not known what her next move might be, but from all indications she may choose to set up her own platform or seal an international record deal.
Announcing on her Instagram handle, she wrote: “For the platform, for the support, for the freedom to express, for the trust, for the opportunity to live my dreams, for the growth, for the teamwork, for letting me be a part of the family, I thank you deeply.
“I appreciate you endlessly. I love you truly. x3mmusic has been a beautiful part of my journey and I hope you believe me when I say I will never ever take for granted the blessings you brought me.
“An especially intense thank you to my forever boss, mentor steve babaeko who has been more than a boss to me. You’ve been there for me even more as a father than as a CEO. And that’s saying a lot. This is bittersweet for me and my heart is heavy. As far as I’m concerned, my win is your win boss, and I hope I’ll always be able to come to u when I need you. More than anything, I’d like that. This is not goodbye. You’re just sending your daughter to do great exploits like you sent me to my husband’s house. Lol.
“My heart is counting on your continuous support, prayers and love. Don’t forget me dad, cos I could never forget you. I love you. Cheers”
In a response to her note, the record label thanked the singer for what they described as five beautiful years with the singer.
Also Steve Babaeko who was obviously short of words writer on his Instagram handle “Came to us a Princess, leaving as a Queen.”
Simi now joins a growing list of female singers who are leaving their record label, with Tiwa Savage having announced her exit from Mavins Global on Thursday.
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Four Kwara Government Officials Remanded In Prison For ‘Laundering N20.3m’
A Federal High Court in Ilorin, Kwara State, has ordered the remandment of four Kawara State government officials in prison.
The four — Abubakar Ishiak, Permanent Secretary; Shina Mudasir Akorede, Director of Administration and Finance; Rasaq Momonu, Controller Finance and Account, and Hafees Yusuf, Cashier — were arraigned on Thursday before Justice Babangana Ashigar by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for money laundering.
The officials were accused of making illegal cash transfer of N20,300,000 (Twenty Million, Three Hundred Thousand Naira) from the coffers of the state government.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Abubakar Ishiak, being the Permanent Secretary, Kwara State Government House, Shina Mudasir Akorede, being the Director of Administration and Finance, Rasaq Momonu, being the Controller of Finance and Account, Kwara State Government House, and Hafees Yusuf, being the Cashier of Kwara State Government House on or about the 14th day of February 2019 at Ilorin, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did make a cash payment of N20,300,000 (Twenty Million, Three Hundred Thousand Naira) only to one Energy Multi-Trade Unique Interbiz Limited through the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Jimoh Sarafadeen Kolade for services rendered to Kwara State Government House, which cash sum exceeded the limitation of N10 million payable to a body corporate and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1 (b) and Punishable under section 16 of the same Act.”
Justice Babangana Ashigar refused the plea of the defence counsel to grant the officials bail.
Christopher Mschelia, the prosecuting counsel, prayed the court to keep the officials in prison pending a day for trial is fixed.
Mschelia said: “A date for trial to commence as the EFCC was prepared to prove its case against them.
“We are asking your lordship to order that they should be remanded in prison.”
With the defendants pleading not guilty, lead defence counsel, Abdulwahab Bamidele, however, made an oral application for bail.
Mschelia urged the court not to grant the request, insisting that “the substantive bail application is not ripe for hearing”.
In his ruling, Justice Ashigar refused the oral application for bail, and ordered the defendants to be remanded in EFCC custody.
The case has been adjourned to May 8 for a hearing of the formal bail application, while the trial is to commence on June 6.
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