Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Tuesday 25th February 2020

Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Tuesday 25th February 2020

Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 25/02/20

E2%80%94falae Nigeria Running Quasi-military Government Under Buhari —Falae

Former SFG Olu Falae

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Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, has posited that insecurity was getting worse under the President Muhammadu Buhari government.
Falae, who spoke on Monday at a public hearing on laws establishing the Ondo State Security Network, ‘Amotekun’, said the issue of security in the country needed to be tackled by government.
The public hearing holding at the Babafunke Ajasin Auditorium in Akure was organised by lawmakers of Ondo State House of Assembly.
The former SGF noted that herdsmen were running rampage in the country.
He said, “It is unfortunate that under the present administration, Nigeria is being run like a quasi-military government and there seems not to be security anywhere in the land.
“But it’s impossible to leave our father’s land for those who came from far away to meet us here. We must all be masters in our land
“This issue of Amotekun is no longer about playing politics, it is about our collective freedom and our people need to walk safely in their own land.”
According to the elder statesman, the creation of “Operation Amotekun” to fight the issue of kidnapping and incessant killings in the South-West region, was one of the best approaches to end the menace in the region.
He added, “Safety is number one priority in any society and I am sure that the aim for the formation of Amotekun is freedom for the Yoruba nation.”
Among those that have made inputs to some of the sections in the bill include Afenifere, Christian Association of Nigeria, Nigeria Bar Association, Nigerian Union of Journalists, human rights and civil society organisations.

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E2%80%99s-killing Ogun Youth Accuse Police Of Attempting To Cover-up Footballer’s Killing

Late Tiamiyu Kazeem

Youths in Ogun State have condemned the Nigeria Police Force for spewing lies to cover-up facts in the killing of Tiamiyu Kazeem, a footballer, by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
Kazeem, Assistant Captain of Remo Stars Football Club, was murdered by SARS operatives on Saturday.
Angered by the killings and reaction of the Ogun State Police Command, the youth under Remo Youths Forum, claimed that the police were trying to sweep the truth of Kazeem’s killing under the carpet.
The group claimed that the police had failed in their task to protect lives and properties of citizens of Ogun State.

JUST IN: PDP Seeks Review Of Supreme Court Judgment On Presidential Election Tribunal

The Peoples Democratic Party has revealed that it has asked the Supreme Court to review its judgment on the 2019 presidential election petition.
Spokesperson for the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja.
The party said, “Consequently, the National Working Committee of the @OfficialPDPNig, after comprehensive consultations, states that our party has no choice left, given the manner with which the @OfficialAPCNg has conducted itself than to ask for a review of the judgment of the Presidential election petition tribunal, where the issue of certificate forgery and or presentation of false information in aid of qualifications was clearly established against the @OfficialAPCNg and her presidential candidate.”
PDP also said its national working committee had decided to seek the review of governorship election cases where it lost out.
FLASH: @OfficialPDPNig Demands Review of The Supreme Court Judgment of The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal Over Certificate Forgery And Presentation of False Information By The @OfficialAPCNg— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) February 24, 2020

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North Has Destroyed Itself, Destroyed Nigeria, Separation Is Only Way Forward! By Bayo Oluwasanmi

Bayo Oluwasanmi

The ever blunt plain speaking Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi recently warned that the North will destroy itself if it doesn’t change.
Apparently, Sanusi was referring to the northerners who had ruled Nigeria longest since independence. He sounds like the Old Testament prophet of doom with a thundering denunciation: “The rest of the country cannot be investing, educating its children, producing graduates and then they watch us, they can’t get jobs because they came from the wrong state, when we have not invested in the future of our own children.”
“You cannot be happy,” continues Sanusi, “about 87 percent of poverty in Nigeria being in the North. You cannot be happy with millions of Northern out-of-school children. You cannot be happy with nine states in the North contributing almost 50 percent of the entire malnutrition burden in the country. You cannot be happy with Boko Haram problem. You cannot be happy with all the issues,” Sanusi explains.
Sanusi concludes by predicting dire consequences for the north: “If the north doesn’t change, it will destroy itself. The country is moving on. If we don’t listen, there would be a day when there would be a Constitutional amendment that addresses these issues of quota system and federal character.”
There’s no one more eminently qualified than a northerner to decry the incapacity of his Northern brethren that had ruled and ruined Nigeria for almost a quarter of century since independence. Of course, the northerners remain the most impoverished in Nigeria.
We can all agree that all the different ethnic groups that had ruled Nigeria past and present, military dictators or civilian presidents, failed abysmally to transform Nigeria. We are witnesses to the fact that those from the north are the worst military dictators and the most ill equipped civilian presidents. It’s not that the north will destroy itself as Sanusi warned. The fact is, the north had destroyed itself and destroyed Nigeria!
Here is how the North destroyed itself and destroyed Nigeria: Governance is the way a country manages its affairs politically and the way power and authority are exercised. The influence of a good government or a bad government on the poorest and the most vulnerable is profoundly telling. The northerners who ruled us have repeatedly aided and hastened the failure of government institutions that would have prevented conflict, ensure security, and provide basic services.
They have presided in large part, over government that prevented generations of poor Nigerians from lifting themselves out of poverty. These poor Nigerians have been incapacitated from growing economically. Nigerians have been constrained by the outmoded Constitution foisted on us by dictator from the North named Ibrahim Babangida.
The Northerners including the present president Muhammadu Buhari, don’t understand governance. They cannot figure out that governance is central to achieving development. They have no clue that politics is connected to development. Development is key and central to politics. The politics of poverty practiced by the northerners makes them the greatest enemies to our economic growth that allows Nigerians to escape cycles of poverty.
They have proved over and over again that they are not accountable to the people. They have made politics their only profession where they can illegally amass wealth. We are yet to fully retrieve billions of dollars stashed away by Abacha. Northerners don’t regard other sections of the country as co-equal power-sharing citizens.
They have deliberately pursued politics that creates inequalities which fuels conflict. They failed to solve socioeconomic problems facing the poor and vulnerable families with no access to education and healthcare – the important routes out of poverty. Citizens are not part of service delivery. Services delivery targeting the poor which can reduce political tensions and improved security are not in place.
The northerners believe politics is an abstract concept, hence they don’t see it as an essential determinant of development goals. They cannot connect politics to governance that produce better educated, healthier, and prosperous citizens. They cannot fathom that development is germane to evidence of politics as the “driver of change.” They have failed to use politics for people’s security and access to justice. They can’t grasp the fact that political relationships between ruling elites and citizens dictate delivering development through poverty reduction and by addressing social justice and extremes of inequality.
The regime of Buhari, another northerner, is mired in a crisis of credibility. He has failed woefully to end Boko Haram and herdsmen terrorism. His regime is corrupt and divorced from the will of Nigerians. Nigerians rising demands and expectations are outpaced by the capacity of Buhari to respond. He and others in his regime have amassed enormous wealth and power. Buhari and northerners before him destroyed or eroded our democratic institutions by non-compliance with democratic rules.
The tragic irony is that unlike many other African countries, Nigeria has the resources – human capital and natural resources – it needs to develop and transform the country. Though the Northerners have proved grossly incompetent to govern, they stubbornly cling to power at the centre. They now see themselves as kingmakers who decide which geopolitical zone will produce the next president. They believe It’s their sacred duty to choose, screen, and select candidates.
There’s nothing one can point to that portrays the Northerners as agents of change. Instead, they are reactionaries to progressive and revolutionary ideas that can transform Nigeria. Few recent approaches of northerners to governance will suffice:
1. The senator who sponsored the hate bill that’s capable of wiping out our freedom of speech to air our views on national issues, to criticize our government and hold those in power accountable is from the north, Senator Sabi Aliyu Abdullahi, Niger North senatorial district).
2. Ibrahim Gaidam from Yobe senatorial district introduced the bill that will create agency for repentant Boko Haram terrorists.
3. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa from Kano, majority leader, House of Representatives came to House of Reps with his four wives, boasting that the four wives have produced 27 children and still counting.
4. $100m of Abacha loot was surreptitiously funnelled by Buhari to Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu. Needless to say, all the four instances cited, there’s no correlation between the examples and good governance.
How long shall we continue to allow imbeciles and fools to rule us? How long are we going to sheepishly follow spectators as managers of our nation, resources, and people? Why do we have to subject and submit ourselves to the reign of economic and political terror of a section of the country that lacks capacity, capability, intelligence, integrity, wisdom, and vision?
We have been held captive of northerners’ politics of poverty and insanity far too long. The urgency of now demands immediate withdrawal or separation, or secession, of Yorubas from Nigeria. This I believe is the only and best way forward.

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Bayo Oluwasanmi

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National Security Adviser, Monguno, Shuns Meeting With Service Chiefs After Leaked Memo Indicating Buhari Not In Charge

NSA Monguno

Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (retd), has shunned a ‘special meeting’ conveyed by President Muhammadu Buhari and service chiefs in the country on Monday.
Monguno in a memo obtained by SaharaReporters had accused the President’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, of making security decisions without Buhari’s consent or approval.
In the scathing document addressed to Buhari and other service chiefs, Monguno explained that Kyari’s meddlesomeness was worsening the security situation in the country.

E2%80%99s-minister-humanitarian-affairs-sadiya-farouq-urges-staff-pray-fast-against-boko Nigeria’s Minister Of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Farouq, Urges Staff To Pray, Fast Against Boko Haram

Sadiya Umar Farouk

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, has urged staff of the ministry to pray and fast for the people of Borno State.
The directive was contained in a statement by the Assistant Director, Information, in the ministry, Rhoda Iliya.
The statement reads, “The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, the Permanent Secretary, Directors and staff of the Ministry have resolved to fast and embark on special supplications to the Almighty in solidarity with the government and people of Borno State.
“In a notice issued to staff, the minister urged them to voluntarily fast on Monday and pray for a quick end to the carnage caused in Borno State and other parts of the North-East by Boko Haram terror group.”

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E2%80%99s-killing JUST IN: Inspector General Of Police Orders Investigation Into Ogun Footballer’s Killing

Inspector-General of Police (IG-P), Mohammed Adamu

Nigeria’s Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has ordered a probe into the death of Tiamiyu Kazeem, a football player allegedly killed by operatives of Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Sagamu, Ogun State.
The incident, which occurred on Saturday, triggered protests on Monday, leading to the deaths of at least three others.
In a tweet on Monday, Adamu said, “Unfortunate death of Tiamiyu Kazeem in Sagamu, Ogun state: The IGP orders DIG FCID to take over investigations.”
The soccer player with Remo Stars Football Club was said to have been pushed from a SARS van on motion and onto a speeding car, which eventually killed him.
This was shortly after SARS operatives allegedly seized him from his car and labelled him an Internet fraudster (Yahoo boy).
Media Officer of the football club, Dimeji Oshode, in a statement confirmed that the incident occurred on Saturday.
Residents of Sagamu, who spoke with SaharaReporters on Monday, said that the entire town remains tensed following the incident.

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Executive Hypocrisy And Parliamentary Inanities By Emmanuel Onwubiko

The British parliamentary system of government is assumed to be the global reference point in the area of administration of operational funds for the work of law making in such a way that transparency and accountability are deeply enshrined.
The law makers of Great Britain are paid by the people of Britain and are therefore expected to justify the payments. Parliamentarians render proper accounts to their constituents and run open offices in their constituencies.
The democratic institutions of checks and balances are so viable that for every expense, the legislators are expected to show cause and indeed retire those expenditures through a verifiable mechanism.
The British government is a very transparent institution so much so that a citizen does not need to first of all file a freedom of information request before a response can be offered on the expenses spent to run the government.
These critical financing information are broadly uploaded on a publicly funded website.
So what exactly does a British parliamentarian earn?
This information is necessary before we can holistically analyse the Nigerian setting in which the financing of parliament is opaque and there is no transparency or accountability.
The basic annual salary for an MP from 1 April 2019 is £79,468. MPs also receive expenses to cover the costs of running an office, employing staff, having somewhere to live in London or their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has set and administered MPs’ pay since 2011.
Further, we learnt that since the May 2010 General Election the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has been responsible for the regulation and payment of expenses to Members of the House of Commons.
The official website of the British Parliament also states that the House of Commons provides cash limited sum per year for the provision of postage paid envelopes and House of Commons stationery to all Members; this sum is in addition to any costs that may be reimbursed under the IPSA expenses scheme.
The beauty of British politics is manifested in the fact that precisely in June 2009 more than a million documents and receipts were made available to the public online. These related to MPs’ claims dating back to 2004/05 and up to 2007/08.
Relatedly, on 24 May 2011 the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) was made responsible for determining MPs’ pay and setting the level of any increase in their salary. IPSA is also responsible for the oversight of the MPs’ pension scheme.
In the Commons, some MPs are paid more because of the special jobs they hold. For example, the Speaker and the Chairs of committees receive an extra salary.
Most MPs who are also ministers in the government are paid an extra ministerial salary.
The MPs’ Pension Scheme is part of the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund. Further information about the scheme can be found on the PCPF website, so says the officials running the website.
To ensure that plural democratic institutions are alive to their responsibilities to the people, we are told that some money is paid to those political parties represented in Parliament who are not in government. This is to help ensure that the Opposition and minority parties have enough funds to carry out their parliamentary role and to put across their views. The amount given to each party depends on how many people voted for them at the last general election and how many of their candidates were elected. In the House of Commons this is known as ‘Short Money’; in the House of Lords it is known as ‘Cranborne money’; (
Why do I have to dwell extensively on the British parliamentary system and the peculiarities of their ways of transparently administering public fund?
This is done because Nigeria gained political independence from Great Britain in 1960. The British spent well over a century governing Nigeria and so it is expected that as rational beings we have no reason why we can’t be transparent and accountable. Why is Nigeria accursed with thieving political elite when the British that gave us independence are very much practicing transparency?
Nigeria is also practicing partly British parliamentary system and the United States of America’s presidential system of government.
The United States of America is also a bastion of transparency and accountability. Then I ask, since we practice both British Parliamentary system and the USA presidential system of administration why don’t the political elite borrow those values of transparency and accountability?
How come then that it took the courage of an ‘internal rebel’ like Senator Shehu Sani who represented Kaduna Central senatorial constituency for Nigerians to know what each national law makers earn.
What then is the role of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, which is statutorily charged with fixing remuneration of public office holders?
Why are there wide disparities between what is allowed by this statutory body as payments for the legislators and the actual benefits they draw from the public fund?
Why would one senator for instance draw as much as N36m as monthly take home payment? This amount is almost the entire yearly salaries of half dozen university professors.
The skewed payment module adopted for the National Assembly members is actually one of the painful inanities of the current parliamentarians.
Other inanities are the humongous amount of public fund to be funnelled by the National Assembly to renovate the National Assembly complex and to purchase foreign sold exotic automobiles for these legislators.
Perhaps, it was in a bid to attempt to divert our attention from the huge financial wastages in running the National Assembly that prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to publicly defend the criticisms that the Federal law makers are overpaid. The President however shot himself on the leg because available statistical data shows that Nigeria pays more to run the National Assembly than even advanced economies like Britain and the USA.
As if Nigerians are imbeciles, president Buhari asked us to stop accusing the legislators of over paying themselves.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) said it is wrong for Nigerians to perceive the National Assembly as being “highly overpaid” for doing little.
He said the lack of trust in the lawmakers had made their critics not to see the enormous work they were doing for the country.
Buhari said this in Abuja last Wednesday when the House of Representatives launched The Green Chamber Magazine, a publication by the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs.
Buhari, speaking through Lai Mohammed, said the parliamentarians did not share money without working.
He said, “Hitherto, the public perception of the National Assembly is that of a bicameral legislature where overly comfortable and highly-overpaid members merely stuff wads of currency notes into their pockets for little work done. This wrong perception has resulted partly from the lack of understanding of the enormous work of lawmakers, especially outside the glare of television cameras.
“But with a magazine that will be the authoritative source of anything that goes on in the House – motions being moved, bills being passed, national issues being discussed and constituency projects – the public will be better informed on the activities of the House, and this will in turn reflect in an improved public perception.
“In addition, it will help the House to tell its own story, rather than relying on others to take charge of their narrative. It is said that no one can tell your story better than you.”
Even from that venue there emerged strong disagreements. The Guest lecturer seems to be saying that these legislators are motivated by cash. Just like the guest speaker said, Nigerians know that the legislators see Nigeria as a cash cow.
Perhaps, that true reflection of the National Assembly as being cash driven informed the mindset of the former Director of Kenya’s Anti-Corruption Commission and Director of the Kenya School of Laws, Prof Patrick Lumumba, who was a keynote speaker at the event, who then asked if the lawmakers were following the footsteps of Nigeria’s founding fathers who, he said, had a clear vision for the country.
He said, “I read your great founding leaders. I read the works of Nnamdi Azikiwe and I listened to him in those early days. He was as eloquent as he was passionate in telling Nigerians and Africans – because he was called the Zik of Africa – that leadership is about service. This magazine is an occasion for you to demonstrate to Africa that you are servant-leaders.
“I did not only read about Nnamdi Azikiwe, I also read about Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in his younger days – eloquent and passionate about Nigeria. You may not have agreed with all that he said and did, but you cannot deny the fact, the clarity of vision and the need for marshaling the people as the only antidote to the problems that have afflicted Nigeria, and by extension Africa.
“Now that you have been given the honour and privilege of serving Nigeria, now that Nigerians and Africans refer to you as honourable members, the question is: are you honourable members or horrible members? The question as to whether you are honourable members is determined by the service that you render to the people.”
The answers to the above interrogatories are notorious.
This is self-evident because over 90% of Nigerians view the current federal government officials as being very dishonest. So, the citizens simply laughed at the president for the above statement.
Yes! Mr. president’s statement defending the huge funding commitments to meet the running costs of the National Assembly does not meet the threshold of honesty because if you look at the decision of president Buhari to deprive Nigerians of the opportunity to buy foreign rice and then watch the same president allow the national assembly to buy multimillion dollars’ worth of foreign cars, all that you can say is that political hypocrisy is a religion amongst Nigerian political elite.
How can President Buhari banned importation of rice but permit importation of cars?
Why protect the agro-allied local industry but at the same time turn a blind eye to the need to protect the local automobile industry?
This is even as Kaduna and Nnewi in Anambra state have successful brands of strong automobiles but the National Assembly prefers to patronize foreigners rather than encourage local car builders to grow.
Look at this executive and legislative hypocrisy as follows: President Muhammadu Buhari last year, directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to block food importers’ requests for foreign currency in a bid to boost local agriculture in Africa’s most populous country.
It is a continuation of a policy that the president began after coming to office in 2015, when he banned the use of foreign exchange to import dozens of items including the staple food, rice.
Since then, domestic rice production has increased, says BBC Africa business, but the policy has been criticized for not taking the low capacity of local farmers into consideration.
The policy has also coincided with a rise in food prices, which has been blamed on insecurity in some of the country’s main food producing areas.
Then the annoying hypocrisy of the President shows up when it emerged that the Nigeria’s house of Representatives has concluded plan to purchase 400 exotic cars at the price of N12.6.646.800.00 each, which is $35,130 equivalent.
The lawmakers will purchase the cars abroad, with a clear rejection of the country’s local vehicle.
The cars which are 2020 Toyota Camry will serve as their official vehicle.
Insider sources say the lawmakers rejected patronizing the locally manufactured cars, describing them of low quality.
The idea to purchase the cars from Innoson motors Manufacturing, a Nigerian brand based in Nnewi, Anambra State, was rejected by the lawmakers who argued that the Innoson brand of cars do not have the kind of quality they prefer, and, hence opted for foreign cars.
However, checks on the Toyota website shows the 2020 Camry model cost averages between $25,000 (N9, 000,000 at N360 to a dollar) and $35,000 (N12, 600,000). (Says West Africa Reporters.)
The cost does not include shifting and delivery.
This is even as 14 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado Jeeps have been given to principal officers of the house. Another monumental inanity is the plan to renovate the National Assembly complex with humongous cash that can build the same housing assets many times over. A usually intellectual online newspaper has even compared this wastage to the negligible amount of money approved for strategic national infrastructures. These approvals by President Muhammadu Buhari for the pliant national assembly is said to be a bribe to keep them as hostages of the powerful office of the President and the unelected cabal in Aso Rock.
In the 2020 budget signed recently by President Muhammadu Buhari, the renovation of the National Assembly complex is set to gulp ?37bn.
Details of the spending were first given by the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, who said Mr. Buhari approved the amount after lawmakers met with him to explain the poor condition of the legislature building in Abuja.
The plan to spend the equivalent of $100m on repairing just one building at a time key infrastructure, hospitals and schools across the country remain in terrible shape, has angered many Nigerians, says Premium Times.
Many Nigerians have questioned how much would be required to build a new National Assembly if mere repairs cost that much.
For comparisons, while National Assembly votes that much for its own building, all that is earmarked by the government for capital projects by the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) — the agency saddled with repairing broken federal roads across Nigeria — is ?36.6bn.
While the Federal Ministry of Works oversees the building of all federal roads, it is FERMA that is in charge of their repairs. Both agencies have struggled with poor funding over the years and have left hundreds of roads in the country in disrepair (see Premium Times; December 18, 2019). The education ministry got just N42bn.
This executive hypocrisy and legislative inanities stand absolutely condemnable and are hereby condemned. Nigerians must wake up and protect this democracy from being hijacked by cash-and-carry politicians populating the Presidency and the weak national assembly.
*Emmanuel Onwubiko is the Head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria

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E2%80%99s-petroleum-agency-dismissed-34-citizens-create-employment-president REVEALED: How Nigeria’s Petroleum Agency Dismissed 34 Citizens To Create Employment For President Buhari’s Daughter, Children Of Elites

Despite efforts by persons in government to deny the employment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Hadiza, into Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, fresh facts have emerged on how the secret recruitment took place.
Earlier in February, some contract staff of the PPPRA raised the alarm that Hadiza had been employed into the agency as deputy manager along with children of other top and highly influential persons in the country.
After the news hit the airwaves, the Presidency swung into action, denying that the claim was “untrue, malicious, and meant to cast aspersions on the first family”.
However, SaharaReporters has now gathered that Hadiza’s employment was facilitated by the new Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Abdulkadir Umar Saidu.
To clear the way for the employment of Hadiza and others, Saidu had to sack at least 34 contract staff, who had worked with the agency for over seven years.
Before the appointment of Saidu as Executive Secretary of PPPRA, the former occupant of that office, Mrs Sotonye Iyoyo, had secured an approval to regularise the employment of 134 contract staff and also employ more qualified Nigerians into the agency.
However, as is the norm in most federal ministries and agencies in Nigeria, management and board of PPPRA decided to share the slots amongst themselves and cronies rather than throwing it open to the general public.
The employment slots were allocated to powerful individuals in the executive, legislature, and judiciary arms of government in the country.
Further investigations revealed that the reason why no management staff was willing to challenge the present Executive Secretary on most of his obnoxious policies and high-handedness was because of an issue of money laundering and covert fraud of N2bn withdrawn from the agency’s coffers by the General Manager Admin/HM – V.Z Shidok, who acted as ES at a time.
Insiders revealed to SaharaReporters that Shidok withdrew the said sum and shared it among his fellow general managers, Mr Teddy Okonkwo (GM Corporate Planning), Soji Soloye (GM Operations), Mr Olasupo Agbaje (GM Gas and Energy Renewal), Mr J.T Peter (GM Finance), Mr Kimchi Apollo (AGM Corporate Services), Mr John A. Egundebi (AGM Audit), and Mr Jar’ far Abubakar (Head Legal/Board Secretary).
The windfall also got to members of the board led by Alhaji Muhammad Lawan Buba, who all went on an all-expense paid trip to Singapore on the agency’s bill.
According to findings, some members of the National Assembly also benefited from the largesse as Saidu spent a lot of money to have them confirm him as substantive Executive Secretary of PPPRA.
It was also revealed that Saidu, a native of Daura in Katsina State, runs the agency like his personal enterprise.
He regularly boasts to staff and management executives that he was President Buhari’s nephew and therefore can run the agency as he wants.
A staff, who spoke with SaharaReporters, disclosed that the sacked workers were treated badly despite serving the organisation diligently.
“The affected staff constantly appealed to the management of the agency to regularise their employment for eight years but they were always told to be patient.
“They were subjected to working to ensure that the agency met its mandate, while generating revenue for the agency and of course the country in general.
“In spite of this, they were verbally booted out on September 25, 2017 with deceitful assurances that they will soon be contacted to resume back to work,” the staff revealed.
Speaking further, the staff said, “Mrs Iyoyo’s son and son-in-law were both employed to ensure that she does not speak about the corrupt acts going on at PPPRA.
“Mua’zu’s three brothers were employed, two senior staff and a junior staff.
“A director with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mrs Rose Ekawu’s daughter was favoured as it was hinted that the director always kept the agency abreast of happenings in the commission and helped out with financial fraud issues concerning the agency.”
Also, the leadership of PENGASSAN, both national and branch executives, were also favoured with slots, and that is why they have been turning a blind eye to the injustice meted out on the sacked employees.
As a result of the development, staff of PPPRA have called on government to investigate all past and present heads of the agency and especially look into their academic qualifications.
“Some of the managers and top staff at PPPRA are working with forged results.
“We want anti-graft commissions in the country to launch an investigation into happenings at this agency to unravel the extent of corruption going on here,” one staff said.

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Court Fixes March 27 For Ruling In EFCC $54,000 Forfeiture Case

The Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed March 27, 2020 for judgment on a motion on notice filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission seeking the permanent forfeiture of the sum of $54,000 found in the domiciliary account of a firm, Asej Global Services, operated by one Ojo Temitope Francis.
The anti-graft agency told Justice Muslim Hassan that the funds were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of cyberfraud.
In a 20-paragraph affidavit filed in support of the motion on notice, an investigative officer with the EFCC, Peter Chimdinma, said the anti-graft agency commenced action against Asej Global Services following a petition against the firm and Francis by First City Monument Bank.
FCMB, according to the investigator, reported the firm and Francis to the EFCC following an inflow of $54,000 into the firm’s account with number: 4445389020 domiciled in FCMB.
Chimdinma said, “The petitioner, First City Monument Bank, enquired about the nature of the funds and the account holder (Francis) claimed that they were from his friend and associate, George Edwards Cook, residing in the United States and that the funds were for the purchase of properties on behalf of the said friend and business associate.
“That upon further enquiry, the suspect provided a copy of the driver’s licence of a white man, purporting that it belonged to the said friend and business associate residing in the United States and could not provide information on the nature of their business.
“That in the course of investigation, a letter of request for assistance was sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist in locating and interviewing the said business associate, Mr George Edward Cook.
“That in response to the letter of request for assistance sent to the FBI, it was revealed that the said George Edward Cook had been flagged by the US Department of Treasury and US Banking Financial Security Network as a known fraudster.
“Investigation further revealed that as of December 2017, George Edward Cook utilised counterfeit cheques to deposit $44,480 but was denied and is currently unable to secure any new US-based bank account under his name due to his ban by FINCEN.
“That so far, the team has been able to establish that one Ojo Temitope Francis, hiding under the cover of the suspect, Asej Global Services, operated a domiciliary account in FCMB and received funds from George Edward Cook, who has been identified as a US-based fraudster.
“That the whereabouts of the said Mr George Edward Cook is unknown and he is likely trying to transfer his ill-gotten funds from the US to Nigeria through the domiciliary account of the suspect.”
Following an ex-parte application by the EFCC, Justice Hassan had earlier made an order for the temporary forfeiture of the $54,000 to the Federal Government.
On Monday, counsel for the EFCC, S.I. Suleiman, said the anti-graft agency had last year August published the interim forfeiture order in a national newspaper for anyone interested to see and come to court.
Suleiman said as no one had come forward to oppose the application for the permanent forfeiture of the funds, the judge should order same forfeited to the Federal Government.
After hearing the lawyer out, Justice Hassan fixed March 27 for judgment.

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