Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Thursday 26th November 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 26/11/20
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Court To Hear Ndume’s Bail Application After Spending Days In Prison
Senator Ali Ndume
The Federal High Court in Abuja will on Thursday hear the bail application filed by Senator Ali Ndume for standing surety for Abdulrasheed Maina, ex-Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team.
Ndume has been in detention at the Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja, after Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered him to be remanded when Maina absconded from trial.
Senator Ali Ndume
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Federal Court Orders Remand Of Senator Ndume Over Disappearance Of Maina
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The judge revoked the bail of Maina and his son, Faisal, when they both failed to appear in the N2bn fraud case against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
At the commencement of trial of the case in absentia, Ndume’s lawyer, Marcel Oru, informed the court that he had applied for the bail application of Ndume.
The judge acknowledged the application noting that it will be heard on Thursday.
The notice of hearing has been served on the counsel for the EFCC in the case.
SaharaReporters had reported that the judge also ordered Dangaladima, who is standing as surety for Maina’s son, to show cause by December 4 why he should either not forfeit the N60m he pledged while taking Faisal on bail or be sent to prison until he was able to produce the defendant.
Also at the hearing of the case on Wednesday, Adeola Adedipe, lawyer representing Abdulrasheed Maina, applied to withdraw his representation from all corruption charges against his client.
Adedipe, who is representing Maina’s company – Common Input Property and Investment Ltd, told the court he was withdrawing over his client’s failure to pay him.
Ruling, Justice Abang, who on the previous day held that by being absent in court Adedipe had abandoned proceedings, noted that the notice the lawyer claimed to have filed was not in the court’s file.
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Court Commences Trial of Maina In Absentia As Ndume Passes Night At Kuje Prison
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PHOTONEWS: Students Of Government Secondary School Kwaru-Badarawa, Kaduna North, Sit On Bare Floor To Write NECO Exams
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Argentine Football Icon, Maradona, Is Dead
Diego Maradona in Buenos Aires in 1994.
Argentine football icon, Diego Maradona, is dead.
He was 60 at the time of his death from heart failure.
Diego Maradona in Buenos Aires in 1994.
Rafael Wollmann/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
The World Cup winner was in November hospitalised following poor health.
After initially being discharged from hospital to continue treatment from home, the soccer legend died on Wednesday morning after suffering from cardiac arrest.
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WATCH LIVE: Tackling Corruption In The Nigerian Oil Sector: An Appraisal Of Nigeria’s Most Important And Opaque Industry
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REVEALED: Despite Corruption Allegations, Accountant-General Of Federation, Ahmed Idris, Lobbies President Buhari For Tenure Extension
Ahmed Idris
Amidst controversies regarding his acquisition of multi-billion naira worth of properties in his home state of Kano, Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, has launched a strong lobbying for his tenure extension.
Idris, who clocked 60 years on 25th of November 2020, is frantically pulling strings in the Presidency to secure an extension of his appointment beyond the legal limit, a source told SaharaReporters.
Ahmed Idris
The source said Idris had engaged the services of highly placed persons including governors, senators and emirs to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to give him an extension.
The move is against the civil service rules, which states that a career civil servant must disengage from service either after attaining 60 years of age or having worked for 35 years, whichever comes first.
It is also against a recent circular from the office of the Head of Service to all agencies of the Nigerian Government which says, “For avoidance of doubt and in order to maintain discipline and integrity of the extant public service rule which prescribed 60 years of age or 35 years of service for mandatory retirement, should strictly be complied with.
“Accordingly, the following guidelines shall apply. (I) that career officers who take up tenured appointment should at the point of taking up the appointment retire from service to ensure they run their term uninterrupted.
“(II) that career officers who have not retired from service before the commencement of their tenured appointment must leave office on attainment of mandatory age/years of service for retirement and
“(iii) that career officers who are currently holding tenured appointment are required to retire from service with immediate effect and continue to run their term. Failure to do so would mean that they would vacate office on attaining the mandatory age or at the expiration of their term which ever comes first.”
However, knowledgeable sources in the OAGF and the Presidency informed SaharaReporters that Idris was doing everything within his capacity to manipulate the extant laws and regulations to remain in office.
“He is stopping at nothing to achieve his aim, which will eventually deny others in the system their career progression. The AGF is also speculated to be aspiring to become the next governor of Kano State in 2023, and is believed to be mobilising a formidable financial war chest for that purpose,” a source said.
SaharaReporters had earlier exposed how Idris acquired several properties whose value run into many billions of naira since being appointed by President Buhari as the administrative head of the treasury in June 2015.
EXCLUSIVE: Accountant-General Of Federation, Ahmed Idris, Corruptly Acquires Multi-billion Naira Properties In Kano | Sahara Reporters pic.twitter.com/jyVsjdsFKA— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) November 25, 2020
A visit to Gezawa Commodity Market Limited and Gezawa Integrated Farms Limited owned by Idris lend credence to the allegations made by concerned citizens and some stakeholders on how and where the AGF got the money he used in acquiring the multi-billion naira firms, both in Kano through his direct family members.
The shareholdings of both firms indicate a spread of Idris family members on the official board.
There have also been questions asked about how the AGF bought ‘Sokoto Hotel’ in Kano with N500m cash.
SaharaReporters gathered that Idris upon acquiring the hotel, ordered its immediate demolition with the intention to build a multi-billion naira shopping mall on the property.
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Adamu Garba Absent In Court During Case Against Twitter CEO
Former presidential aspirant, Adamu Garba, has absented himself from court in a suit against Twitter Chief Executive Officer, Jack Dorsey.
Garba had dragged Dorsey to court for endorsing and supporting the recent #EndSARS protest in Nigeria.
Tope Akinyode, a lawyer, who joined the suit to defend Twitter, revealed that both Garba and his lawyer were not in court, forcing the judge to adjourn the case.
BREAKING: I was at the Federal High Court today to defend Adamu Garba’a lawsuit against @jack and @Twitter. However, @adamugarba & his lawyers failed to show up in Court without given reasons & the Court has now adjourned case to 22nd April, 2021.— Tope Akinyode (@TopeAkinyode) November 25, 2020
Announcing his joining of the suit against Twitter and its CEO, Akinyode said, “I’ve filed court processes to challenge @adamugarba’s lawsuit against @jack and @Twitter. Jack’s support for Nigeria’s cause is commendable. We’ll protect our freedom of expression and resist the move to ban Twitter in Nigeria.”
In the notice of joinder filed in the case, Adamu Garba v. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and nine others, Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/1391/2020 and sighted by SaharaReporters, Akinyode said he was an avid user of the online microblogging platform, Twitter, adding that it had been a significant avenue for him and other Nigerians to air their opinions and exercise their freedom of expression.
The lawyer said his tweets and that of many other Nigerians have formed a bedrock of public discourses, which have shaped and are still shaping government decisions.
Garba had instituted a $1bn lawsuit against Twitter and its founder, Dorsey, at the Federal High Court Abuja, over his role in the #EndSARS protests, which had led to violence across the country, resulting in the destruction of properties and loss of lives.
Jack was accused of actively supporting the funding of the #EndSARS protests across the nation as disclosed by Adamu Garba through a series of tweet posted on his official Twitter handle on Tuesday, October 20, 2020.
The motion on notice was brought pursuant to order II Rules 1, 2, 3 of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009 and Sections 34(1), 35(1) and 41(1), and 43 of the 1999 constitution.
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E2%80%93finance-minister Nigeria To Reopen Land Borders Soon –Finance Minister
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said that government may reopen land borders soon.
In October 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the closure of land borders to check smuggling of goods and arms into the country after a partial closure of the Seme Border in August 2019.
The closure was, however, greeted by mixed reactions from professional organisations, economists and individuals.
Heads of countries like Ghana and Benin Republic had also appealed to the President to reconsider the closure but Buhari maintained that the borders would remain closed until the final report of the committee set up on the matter was considered.
Speaking with journalists on Wednesday, Ahmed said the committee had completed its job and recommended the reopening of the borders.
She said the committee would soon submit its report to President Buhari following which a formal pronouncement would be made on the matter.
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E2%80%99s-son-within-nine-days-or-go-prison-court-tells-nigerian-lawmaker Produce Maina’s son Within Nine Days Or Go To Prison, Court Tells Nigerian Lawmaker
Sani Umar Dan Galadima
The Federal High Court in Abuja has asked a member of the House of Representatives, Sani Umar Dangaladima, representing the Kaura-Namoda Federal Constituency of Zamfara State to produce Faisal, son of Abdulrasheed Maina, who have jumped bail.
Justice Okon Abang in his ruling on Wednesday ordered Dangaladima to show cause by December 4 why he should either not forfeit the N60m he pledged while taking Faisal on bail or be sent to prison until he was able to produce the defendant.
Sani Umar Dan Galadima
The judge had on Monday sent Maina’s surety, Senator Ali Ndume, to jail for his inability to produce him in court.
Faisal, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on a three-count of money laundering and false declaration of assets, was admitted to bail on November 26, 2019 in the sum of N60m with one surety in like sum.
The surety, the judge ruled, must be a Nigerian and a serving member of the House of Representatives from any of the six geopolitical zones of the country. This saw Dangaladima volunteer as Faisal’s surety.
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Court Commences Trial of Maina In Absentia As Ndume Passes Night At Kuje Prison
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Between Buharism And Recession By Ozodinukwe Okenwa
SOC Okenwa
Retired General Muhammadu Buhari is in his fifth eventful years in Aso Rock Villa as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. He came in 2015 soundly defeating the then incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan, who speedily accepted his fate in good faith.
Jonathan was a relatively timid President who commanded with little or no impact on the lives of Nigerians — be it economically, politically or security-wise.
During the GEJ giddy years insecurity was so pronounced that we collectively lived dangerously; the national condition deteriorated to the extent that towns and villages up north were seized with relative ease by certified terrorists!
SOC Okenwa
Then (much like now) poverty and hunger stalked the land as corruption balooned astronomically affecting every facet of our miserable lives. Yet GEJ feigned criminal ignorance of the national dispossession confusing issues and giving another meaning to graft.
Today, more than five years after he was electorally trounced and sent packing from the villa GEJ is living happily as an ex-President commanding international acclamation as a democrat who handed over power upon his defeat without any resistance. His successor, PMB, has not done any better than GEJ in every security or corruption or economic indices.
Buharism has muddled up things making them even worse! While the propaganda machinery of both the President and the misruling APC daily pumps out lies and half-truths to defend the obvious indefensible we know that our country is not doing well in every sector.
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Drama As Lawyer Dumps Maina, Applies To Quit Case
Abdulrasheed Maina
Adeola Adedipe, lawyer representing Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, has applied to withdraw his representation from all corruption charges against his client.
Adedipe, who is representing Maina’s company – Common Input Property and Investment Ltd, told a Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday that he was withdrawing over his client’s failure to pay him.
Abdulrasheed Maina
The lawyer apologised to the court for being absent from proceedings during some of the recent adjournments.
Ruling, Justice Okon Abang, who on the previous day held that by being absent in court Adedipe had abandoned proceedings, noted that the notice the lawyer claimed to have filed was not in the court’s file.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is prosecuting Maina for alleged money laundering to the tune of N2bn.
On Monday, Justice Abang remanded Ali Ndume, Senator from Borno State, who stood as Maina’s surety when he was granted bail in November 2019.
He ordered that Ndume be held in Kuje prison until he produces the defendant or sells his N500m worth of property in Abuja, which was used as the guarantee for the bail bond.
The judge had also revoked Maina’s bail and ordered his arrest.
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