Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) on Monday, said the resignation of Justice Tanko Muhammad as the Chief Justice of Nigeria was not enough to clear him of corruption allegations levelled against him by the 14 justices of the Supreme Court.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, demanded the immediate arrest, investigation and if culpable then prosecute the retired CJN Tanko by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission.
Recall that the 14 Supreme Court justices recently petitioned Tanko and alleged that he diverted their welfare funds.
“In the past, justices were nominated to attend two to three foreign workshops or training per annum with accompanying persons for reasons of age. Since your Lordship’s assumption of office, Justices only attend two workshops in Dubai and Zanzibar. They were not accorded the privilege of travelling with accompanying persons as was the practice.
“Your Lordship totally ignored this demand and yet travelled with your spouse, children, and personal staff. We demand to know what has become our training funds, have they been diverted, or it’s a plain denial,” the justices had asked.
Though Tanko denied the allegations, HURIWA earlier asked the National Judicial Council and the Code of Conduct Tribunal to probe him over the weighty allegations by the Supreme Court justices.
On Monday, news filtered in that Tanko has resigned as the CJN as confirmed by his Special Assistant on Media and Communication, Yusuf Isah.
“The latest information is that the CJN has resigned; I spoke with somebody very close to him and he said he has resigned,” Isah said.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), immediately sworn in Justice Olukayode Ariwoola as the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria.
Reacting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko applauded the swift action of the President to have sworn in Ariwoola as the acting CJN.
He, however, said, “The resignation of Justice Tanko Muhammad as the Chief Justice of Nigeria is not enough; the EFCC and the ICPC must swing into action, investigate then if a cause if Acton is ascertained, then arrest and prosecute him over the corruption allegations levelled against him by the 14 justices of the Supreme Court if a prima facie evidence exists .
“Jistice Tanko must be prosecuted just as his predecessor, Walter Onnoghen, who was probed and later removed on a controversial note following some allegations against him which was probed by both the NJC and the CCT.
“The investigation and probable prosecution of Tanko if indicted, will set a precedent that Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade is not a joke unless it is a joke. Tanko’s prosecution if found culpable of those sets of allegations will also serve as deterrent for any proven corrupt justices that the judiciary won’t be a haven for scoundrels.”
June 27, 2022
Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
“The alleged arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Mr. Lanre Sanusi, who is contesting for Amuwo Odin Federal Constitutiency House of Representatives under the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) over fraud–related crime after a logistics company, called 4runner limited made a petition against him should be of interest to the ruling All Progressives Congress so someone with a baggage ethically and morally is not presented as a candidate for a very critical position of a National law maker”.
This is even as the Prominent Civil rights advocacy group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) through its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko has asked the national hierarchy to probe the report that a company known as 4runner Limited, which is a shipping company, alleged that they had a deal with Mr. Lanre to transport COVID-19 materials, including face masks; hand sanitizers, amongst other items for a sum 33,000 United States Dollars even as information made available alleged that after the shipment arrived Nigeria from the United States of America, Sanusi Lanre allegely refused to pay the company by not picking their calls and not responding to their text messages.
HURIWA affirmed that if it is verified that the shipping company also stated in their petition to the EFCC that it later found out the covid-19 relief materials were illegally diverted from Dallas City Government Hospital with the aid of Sanusi Lanre’s accomplice who were truck drivers at the hospital and that 4runner Limited lamented to the anti-graft agency that Lanre’s alleged fraudulent activity has affected the company’s reputation and cost it huge monetary damage, then the All Progressives Congress should substitute his name with the legally allowed person with the next highest number of votes at the party primary election.
HURIWA said it is preposterous if the APC will sponsor someone with such a huge crime related allegations hanging on his neck to seek for elective post to become a National law maker just as the Rights group said may be the APC is not aware that millions of Nigerians are fed up with political corruption such as this.
HURIWA said it appears that the National leadership of APC did not investigate why the Lagos Assembly rejected his Lanre Sanusi’s alleged nomination for commissionership in 2019. This is because we think that the character and reputation of candidates should be of concern to a ruling party like APC that wears the toga of integrity and credibility. Why did the party looked the other way when Prince Lanre Sanusi appeared before the party’s screening committee?
HURIWA said: “The candidature of this man allegedly in conflict with the law shows that certain forces working within the APC’s National headquarters may be fraudulent and compromised. How would you defend this before the politically conscious Nigerians? Clearly the Party’s screening exercise was cosmetic and pure deceit. How would electorates trust your party?”
“The height of the fundamental issues bedevilling the said Lanre Sanusi’s political aspiration is the recent report in some sections of online media and various media organisations. This is presently destroying the party and will definitely affect the chances of your party at all levels. Going into election with a damaged image candidate would cost your party the victory expected, assuming the allegations are verified”.
“As Civil Rights practitioners, we in HURIWA monitored the party’s screening from the federal,state and NASS to come to a conclusion that your party is a fraudulent and criminally minded unless and until the National hierarchy can take steps to ensure that persons with questionable characters or persons in conflict with the law are not presented and sustained as candidates in the 2023 poll in Nigeria until they get clean bills of records”, HURIWA affirmed.
Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) on Sunday, described as an absurdity, the obsession of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to probe his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, over an alleged N96 billion fraud.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, stressed that Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party is on a mission to witch-hunt and embarrass Amaechi because he is a member of the opposition in the state, the All Progressives Congress.
The group also said it was an irony how that Wike has been hell-bent to humiliate Amaechi through a phantom probe of Amaechi’s eight-year term as Rivers governor but the same Wike has allegedly been shielding the 2023 PDP governorship candidate in Rivers, Siminialayi Fubara, from being arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission despite that Fubara, the immediate past Accountant General of Rivers, and three other top state government officials, had been declared wanted by the anti-graft agency for alleged N117 billion fraud.
HURIWA frowns upon this double standards by Wike and called the governor to act in the interest of justice, fairness and equity and not to be moved by political animosity and hatred.
Recall that the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by Amaechi, an ex-Minister of Transportation, seeking to stop his probe over an alleged N96 billion fraud but the nation’s Apex court categorically ruled that the Commission of Inquiry set up by the Rivers State’s governor Mr. Nyesom Wike has no power in law to make indictment because it has no prosecutorial powers.
The Commission of Inquiry hurriedly set up by Wike has an agenda to look into the lawfulness or otherwise of the alleged sale of Rivers State’s valuable assets, such as Omoku Gas Turbine, Afam Gas Turbine, Trans Amadi Gas Turbine, Eleme Gas Turbine, Olympia Hotel and the award of contract for the execution of the Mono Rail project.
Reacting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “Whilst we do not support any form of unaccountability and transparency just as we believe that the probe of any serving or past government officials is sacrosanct, HURIWA frowns upon double standards by Governor Nyesom Wike.
“It is an eyesore that the governor is pursuing a witch-hunt agenda against his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, for obvious reasons and he (Wike) failed to reckon that he has been allegedly shielding the 2023 PDP governorship candidate, Siminialayi Fubara, from being picked by the EFCC.
“Wike has not also deemed it fit to advise Fubara to surrender himself to the anti-graft agency but continue to watch on as the governorship candidate evade arrests brazenly.
“Fighting corruption must be entire and not selective. Wike should stop his clandestine agenda and ensure what is good for the goose is good for the gander.”
HURIWA said the decision to drag Mr.Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi to the Rivers State High Court few hours after the Supreme Court’s verdict that stated that the board of Inquiry by Governor Nyesom Wike has no power to indict anybody and then Nyesom Wike said that Rivers State’s elders will decide if his Administration will sue Mr Rotimi Amaechi the immediate past Rivers State Governor, shows that the reason for this sham prosecution of the former Transportation Minister is just a show of shame and a misapplication of the judicial powers to achieve predetermined politically tainted end. “When did the Rivers State’s elders voted to compel Nyesom Wike to go to court? Who were the elders that voted and why subject the court system in Rivers to ridiculous manipulation? If the Rivers State’s governor has convincing evidence of committal of any crime by the immediate past administration in Rivers State, is it for the elders to decide whether going to court was right or wrong? What all the dramas show is that the ongoing legal action against Rotimi Amaechi is spurious, politically motivated, unnecessary and is a product of hate politics and politics of animosity. We are asking Governor Nyesom Wike to stop stoking up tension in his own State and follow due process of the law by surrendering his officials wanted by EFCC for alleged heist of humonguous amount of public fund right under his nose.”
June 25, 2022
Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Monday, urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, over his alleged ownership of two-year-old Titan Trust Bank which recently acquired 104-year-old Union Bank.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, stressed that the anti-graft agency must prosecute Emefiele should he be found culpable of the allegation levelled against it by an online newspaper, ENigeria Newspaper.
The group noted that Emefiele would have acted in contrary to Sections 9 and 11 of the CBN ACT 2007 that stated expressly that the apex governor must cease to be in office if he fails to devote his entire time to his duty.
Recall that Titan Trust Bank Limited, a subsidiary of TGI Group, which started operations in October 2019, recently acquired 104-year-old Union Bank, becoming one of the most remarkable acquisitions in the Nigerian Banking space after STB acquired UBA in the landmark 2005 deal.
Titan Trust Bank subsequently raised $300 million from Afreximbank to fund Union Bank takeover. Union Bank reportedly had a total asset value of $4.9 billion as of December 2021.
But ENigeria Newspaper reported that the fact that Titan Trust Bank’s National Banking License is the first National Banking License that the CBN has granted in over a decade since the CBN enacted the N25bn capitalisation funds directive for national banks in Nigeria warrant investigation.
The publication further alleged that there were indications that Emefiele is one of the shareholders of Titan Trust Bank. This line of affiliation by this newspaper is not however the view of HURIWA which is why we are asking that EFCC should investigate the allegation and take action.
Reacting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The allegation of ownership of Titan Trust Bank levelled against CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, should not be swept under the carpet because it is a heavy allegation given the many unethical moves of the apex bank governor in recent times including his alleged attempt to contest the presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress.
“Expressly, Section 9 of the CBN Act 2007 states thus: ‘The Governor and the Deputy Governors shall devote the whole of their time to the service of the Bank and while holding office shall not engage in any full or part-time employment or vocation whether remunerated or not except such personal or charitable causes as may be determined by the Board and which do not detract from their full-time duties’.
“Also, Section 11 of the same Act states thus: ‘A person shall not remain a Governor, Deputy Governor or Director of the Bank if he is a member of any Federal or State legislative house; or if he is a Director, officer or employee of any bank licensed under the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act’.
“HURIWA calls for the arrest of the CBN governor by EFCC if the story is true after a quick investigation by EFCC because this violates the terms of his engagements in addition to his earlier breach by getting involved in politics despite CBN Act that bans that.
“Should the CBN governor be found to be the owner of the bank, then he should be sacked, arrested and prosecuted for such unethical action. HURIWA however doubts if EFCC can be as swift as it normally does when students are fingers in ‘small small yahooyahoo crimes’ since this allegation of ownership of a multimillion dollars business concern is allegedly linked to one of the dreaded wealthy citizens in Nigeria. HURIWA is therefore tasking EFCC to show that it can also bark and bite big men who are regarded as ‘sacred cows’.
“Also, the EFCC needs to address Nigerians on the allegations against the suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, and give us update because of insinuations that cases involving government officials are swept under the carpets.” HURIWA similarly applauded EFCC for achieving some unprecedented legal victories against some crooks across Nigeria.
June 20, 2022
Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) on Saturday, warned the Federal Government not to hand over 17 of the nation’s airports to cronies under the guise of phantom concession.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, feared that the outgoing Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, might want to give out the airports to incompetent families and friends as parting gift as his tenure as a cabinet member ends in less than 11 months.
The group warned that such approach to concession of the nation’s airports won’t be tolerated and therefore challenged the minister to make the process as transparent and fair so that competent concessionaires would take over the nation’s airports since the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has demonstrated failure in all aspect of governance including the maintenance of the nation’s critical infrastructure.
The minister had during the week said at least 17 airports under the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria that are currently not up for concession are going to be given to concessionaires.
The concession process for Nigeria’s four international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano is currently ongoing while FAAN manages 21 airports on behalf of the Federal Government.
But HURIWA’s Onwubiko warned the minister, FAAN, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and the National Policy on Public-Private Partnership as well as all those involved in the concession process to be guided by the principles of justice and transparency.
Onwubiko said, “The move to concession the country’s 17 airports yet to be concession is testament to the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed in the management and maintenance of Nigeria’s critical assets which he met on ground when he came into office in May 2015.
“Sadly, seven years later, the President and his appointees including the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, have moved to hand over Nigeria’s assets to private individuals.
“Whilst HURIWA reckon that the gains of concession if done rightly are undeniable, we call for the integrity of the process which is highly questionable going by the notoriety of this government’s knack for massive corruption and theft of public fund with many top officials accused of fraud.
“Electricity distribution companies that were privatised were sold to cronies of government officials and today Nigeria’s power supply system is the worst globally.
“HURIWA fears that these airports may be sold to cronies of this government and there is no way of knowing because there are no opportunities for credible civil society organisations to understudy those companies that may bid for concession of these national assets. The aviation industry must stop being opaque and the poor transparency records must be corrected.”
June 18, 2022
Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) on Tuesday, expressed profound trepidation and worry that a lot of critical minded members of the public in Southerm Nigeria have accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of ethnic profiling against Igbo notable sons in the last few months.
HURIWA also strongly recommend to the hierarchy of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to adopt transparent and accountable methodology of operation irrespective of whether it is Northern or Southern Nigeria so they are not permanently perceived as a group of people who have deviated from the time honoured and time tested mandates of anti -corruption crusade devoid of Ethnic or religious profiling.
“The idea that whenever Igbo youths may be due to exuberance are shown on videos to appear to be spraying HUMONGUOS amount of cash at social or religious functions such as funeral rites or weddings, the next day the principal characters seen in the videos who are Igbos are profiled and arrested at the airport or just somewhere and the next day the newspapers are awash with propaganda demonising the arrested citizens of South East origin. But the same EFCC officials are never seen arresting or profiling Northern youths similarly captured during high profile social or religious functions like the weddings of Sons of prominent Northern politicians who obviously treated like sacred cows”.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the field officers of the anti-graft agency under the leadership of Abdulrasheed Bawa must be probed for allegedly picking up innocent Nigerians in Gestapo style, sometimes in the middle of the night, after invading their residences and hotels.
The group described as witch hunt, the arrest and humiliation of popular socialite, Pascal Okechukwu, known better as Cubana Chief Priest; his associate, Obinna Iyiegbu, known as Obi Cubana; ex-Anambra State governor, Willie Obiano; amongst other prominent sons of Ndigbo locked up on unproven allegations of tax fraud and money laundering whereas suspects of Northern origin even hitherto charged to courts for alleged heist of billions of public fund are suddenly left off the hooks and progressively railroaded into influential national political offices only because of their Ethnic affiliations with those presently wielding political powers in Abuja.
Reacting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko urged the EFCC under Bawa to thread softly and carefully, and quit launching attacks on prosperous Igbo sons. HURIWA thinks the EFCC should operate within the confines of the law so Nigerians will.be able to know when armed robbers have struck.
“The indiscriminate arrests of Igbo notable sons by overzealous and discretion-less EFCC operative is worrisome. The show of shame and commando-like raids being branded as legitimate operations that is a pastime of EFCC agents was aptly captured in a PUNCH Editorial dated September 1, 2021 (https://punchng.com/efccs-gestapo-raids-on-hotels-residences/).
“The earlier the EFCC comply with rules of engagement and desist from ethnic profiling of the Igbo the better. Also, the anti-graft agency should investigate its field officials who are alleged to be extorting school children by arresting, detaining and forcing them to part with a lot of money.
“In as much as we condemn advanced fee fraud, we condemn any activity of the EFCC that is deemed inimical to constitutional democracy and norms and principles of rule of law and due process.”
Aprll 5, 2022
Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
Leading civil Rights Advocacy Group:- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has carpeted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) latest round of forum shopping and targeted political persecution of the most senior South Eastern Political office holder in the current dispensation –the chief whip of the senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Senator Orji Uzor Kalu. HURIWA said it is inconceivable that the anti-graft agency will devote a lot of man-hour and resources chasing shadows because it has a preconceived political agenda to demarket the most influential political leader of the National ruling party who is a pole’s position to clinching the prestigious Presidential flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress in a sinister plots to deny the Igbo religion of the historic opportunity of becoming an executive President of a United Nigeria. “The latest application made by the EFCC praying the Abuja division of the Federal High Court to transfer the fresh trial of former Abia State governor over alleged N 7.1 billion fraud to Lagos State smacks of desperate forum shopping by an agency that is so much in a dead hurry to politically harass the chief whip of the senate to quit his presidential aspiration in favour of the political Godfather of some powerful forces embedded within the hierarchy of the EFCCA”. HURIWA also tasked the EFCC to tell Nigerians What the logic is in seeking to transfer the trial of a matter alleged to have happened in Abia State, South East of Nigeria to Lagos State as if the South East has become the outpost of the South West of Nigeria? This is provocative as well as vexatious. ” “We in the civil Rights Community hereby condemns the hierarchy of the EFCC for the undue interest and desperation to terminate the political rise of a phenomenal political leader who had previously been cleared by the nation’s apex court of having anything to do with this politically coordinated and calculated persecution to rubbish the presidential ambition of the most prospective candidate of Igbo origin”. HURIWA recalled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC on Thursday last week asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to transfer to its Lagos division, the fresh trial of former Abia State Governor, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and two others in an alleged 7.1 billion naira fraud. The motion on notice seeking the transfer was brought pursuant to sections 18, 19, 22 and 45 of the Federal High Court Act 2010 and section 93 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015. The motion prayed for an order of the Federal High Court in Abuja, transferring the case with charge number FHC/ABJ/CR/56/2007 between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Orji Uzor Kalu and two others to the Lagos division of the court. Two others on the motion paper are Jones Udeogo and Sloks Nigeria Limited, an alleged family company of Senator Kalu. Oluwaleke Atolagbe, counsel to EFCC said the motion was predicated on 5 grounds among which are that the Abuja division of the Federal High Court lacked the requisite territorial jurisdiction to entertain and try the defendants in the instant charge. Another ground for seeking transfer of the trial was that the charge was preferred against Orji Uzor Kalu, Slok Nigeria Limited and Ude Jones Udeogu at the Federal High Court Abuja sometime in number 2007 by the EFCC, following an investigation by the commission. The motion further indicated that after taking their plea, the defendant brought an application challenging the competence of the charge and contending that there was no prima facie case against them. It was also contended that following the decision of the Supreme Court that many of the ingredients of the offences against them occurred in Lagos and even most of the witnesses who are bank workers reside in Lagos, the EFCC applied to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to transfer the matter to Lagos. Satisfied that many of the ingredients of the offences occurred in Lagos the Chief Judge transferred the case to the Lagos division of the court where the defendants were prosecuted and judgment delivered in the matter. He, therefore, asked Justice Ekwo to issue an order transferring the trial to Lagos in compliance with the Supreme Court order. When the matter came on Thursday, Justice Inyang Ekwo said that he would not be able to take the application in view of the approaching Easter holidays. The Judge consequently fixed May 17, 2022 for determination of the application. At the proceedings, Prof. Awa Kalu SAN stood for former governor Kalu, Mr Solo Akuma SAN stood for Jones Udeogu while Goddy Uche SAN, stood for Slok Nigeria Limited. HURIWA said it was worried that the EFCC is seeking to prosecute the Chief whip of the senate twice over the same matter in which a Judge who got elevated to the Court of Appeal chose to hang on as a Federal High Court judge and ended up passing a preconceived verdict against the former governor of Abia State senator Orji Uzor Kalu- a judgment that was torn into shreds by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
A serving member of the House of Representatives, Gabriel Saleh Zock was on Thursday at a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja arraigned over alleged advanced fees fraud.
Zock who represents Kachia Kagarko Federal Constituency of Kaduna State in the House of Representatives was put on trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 2-count charge of allegedly defrauding his victim to the tune of N185 million.
The House of Representatives member was said to have swindled one Adeyemi Kamar of the amount under alleged false pretences.
He had promised to assist the victim influence the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT to secure the Right of Occupancy (R of O) for his property at the Guzape area of Abuja.
However, when the charges were read to him, the lawmaker pleaded not guilty.
EFCC’s counsel, Maryam Aminu Ahmed asked the court to remand the federal lawmaker in prison pending the hearing and determination of his bail application.
The lawmaker who was brought to court from EFCC custody has no legal representation to make case for hearing of his bail motion already filed.
In a bid to rescue him, Justice Halilu Yusuf appointed one Adebara Adeniyi as counsel for him for the purpose of arraignment and bail.
The EFCC counsel, however, stood her ground that the application of the defendant filed on February 9 was not ripe for hearing and that she needed to study and respond to all the fundamental issues raised in the bail motion.
Although Adeniyi made an oral application for the bail of the federal lawmaker with cogent reasons, Justice Yusuf overruled him on the ground that a written application had already been filled by another lawyer.
The Judge subsequently ordered that the lawmaker be remanded in the EFCC’S custody till February 16 when his bail motion would be ripe for hearing.
The charge read in part “That you, Gabriel Saleh Zock sometime in 2015 at Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (N 150,000,000 00) from one Adeyemi Kamar under the false pretence that you will facilitate and obtain title documents (Right of Occupancy) from the Federal Minister of the Federal Capital Territory for a parcel of land at Guzape District, measuring approximately 1 5Ha (Hectare) which pretence you knew was false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other a Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3 of the same Act.
“That you, Gabriel Saleh Zock sometime in 2015 at Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of Thirty-Five Million Naira (N 35,000,000.00) from one Adeyemi Kamar under the false pretence that you will facilitate and obtain title documents (Right of Occupancy) from the Federal Minister of the Federal Capital Territory for a parcel of land at Guzape District, Cadastral Zone A09, measuring approximately 1,500sqm which pretence you knew was false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.
Abuja railway operators have defied the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government’s directive on free train rides for the Yuletide season, as they have continued to sell tickets at exorbitant prices to passengers, Peoples Gazette has learnt.
The Nigerian Government had announced the free train service in a notice issued by the Nigerian Railway Corporation with reference number PRO.14/TROPS/VOL.1/50, and signed by the Deputy Director, Public Relations, NRC, Yakub Mahmood, on Friday.
The free train service was approved by the Federal Ministry of Transportation, according to the NRC, as it stressed that the gesture was for all its passenger train services across the country.
The NRC had said, “The Federal Government through Ministry of Transportation has in the spirit of Christmas declared passenger trains across the Nigerian Railway Corporation system free of charge during the Christmas period to enable Nigerians to travel and celebrate Christmas.
“All the passenger trains on both standard and narrow gauge lines, which include Abuja to Kaduna, Lagos to Ibadan, Warri to Itakpe, Kano to Lagos, Minna to Kaduna, Aba to Port-Harcourt routes are now all free from today Friday, December 24, 2021 to Tuesday, January 4, 2022 inclusive.”
Operators at the Idu Train Terminal in the early hours of Saturday sold out tickets to passengers aboard the Abuja-Kaduna train at the rate of N12,000 and N8, 000 on Friday evening which ordinary cost about N2,000 normally.
“This morning on Christmas Day, corrupt railway officials are still selling ‘FG Free Train Tickets’ at IDU Train Station in Abuja as high as N12,000 for Nigerians. Obviously, the Ministry of Transportation and NRA aren’t doing enough to curb this inhuman act,” Deji Adesogan, a notable political commentator on Twitter said.
Adesogan also noted that the travelers who had relied on the means of travelling “massively” purchased the tickets.
But another Twitter user, @Bizzylyks, also claimed that passengers paid N8,000 for the ticket as of Friday evening.
“My aunt’s child and some of their mates went for a football trial in Abuja, they paid for tickets today, they suffered before they even got the ticket for 6:00pm. I even informed them that it’s free today,” he wrote as of 8:50pm on Friday.
Another user, Maclams wrote, “Abuja to Kaduna Train ticket is N8,000. State of the country! My sis came in today and some other friends and that’s what it cost them.”
Meanwhile, users confirmed that passengers from Lagos to Ibadan were not charged for boarding the train.
Prominent pro-democracy and Civil Rights Advocacy Group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has carpeted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for lying that it never invaded the Maitama home of the Supreme Court of Nigeria Justice Mrs. Mary Odili for over 5 hours.
The Rights group said telling lie about the exercise in which EFCC participated as disclosed by report from the Chief magistrate court makes the EFCC a tool for political WITCH-HUNT. HURIWA also condemns the federal ministry of justice for cooking up lies which deceived the Chief magistrate in Abuja to issue a search warrant at the home of the reverred jurist of the highest court in the land. HURIWA wonders why this federal government has continued to embarass, harass, intimidate and torture justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria by using armed security forces to invade their privacy with the aim of getting them to become afraid and to do the bidding of the executive arm of government.
In a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) condemns the raid on the premises of the Supreme Court’s Justice Mrs. Mary Odili whose husband, former Rivers State’s governor Mr. Peter Odili belonged to the main opposition political party- Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and who had only just defeated the Nigerian Immigration Service in the competent court of law and retrieved his international travelling document which was seized at the International Airport Abuja.
Reacting to the news of the siege at the home of Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili the Rights group said it was unfortunate that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has become a full blown dictatorship going by the patterns of horrendous attacks of persons perceived as not pliable or amenable to be used as instruments of vendetta and political witch hunt.
The Rights group said Mrs. Mary Odili may have been targeted not just for being the wife of a prominent elder of the main opposition political party of the Peoples Democratic Party but most likely because of her consistency in giving sound, qualitative, merit and law based judgments at the Supreme Court of Nigeria particularly in some cases that the ruling All Progressive Congress may have vested interest.
“We think the military invasion was aimed at harassing her into playing the role of the good puppet of the President because the officials of the Federal government are aware of her pedigree and her reputation as a no nonsense judge who renders judgement based on facts, evidence and the laws “, HURIWA affirmed.
Besides, HURIWA condemns the federal government for authorising the raid and the dangerous siege at the home of the reverred jurist of the highest court in the land going by the disclosure made by the Chief magistrate in Abuja to the effect that the Justice ministry in Abuja lied to obtain a search warrant which the armed agencies relied upon to collectively invade the home of the Supreme Court Justice in Maitama Abuja and interrupted the free flow of traffic of hundreds of Nigerians.
Citing media report, HURIWA recalled that a Chief Magistrates’ Court had revoked a search warrant granted to the Joint Panel Recovery unit of the Federal Ministry of Justice to search the home of Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili.
HURIWA recalled that the panel, which comprises the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigeria Police Force and the Ministry of Justice, had obtained a search warrant from the magistrates’ court after a so called whistleblower, Aliyu Umar, claimed to have observed illegal activities going on at No. 9, Imo Street, Maitama, Abuja.
Umar’s affidavit dated October 13, 2021, read in part, “I have observed some illegal activities going on in those houses within Abuja are illegal and hereby report the said matter to the law enforcement agency. “I hereby state that all information provided by me to the EFCC is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.” in a second affidavit deposed to by a senior police officer, CSP Lawrence Ajodo, the panel applied to the chief magistrate in Abuja seeking a search warrant to search the house.
HURIWA recalled that the Chief Magistrate, Emmanuel Iyanna, who subsequently approved the search warrant on October 29, 2021 later revoked it claiming that the Applicants for the search warrants deceived him into issuing the search warrants going by what he termed misrepresentation.
Similarly, HURIWA condemned the EFCC who through its spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said, in a statement, that the commission had no hand in the matter and advised members of the public to disregard any news to the contrary.
The statement read in part, “The attention the EFCC has been drawn to claims in a section of the media that operatives of the commission today, October 29, 2021 stormed the Maitama, Abuja home of a Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Mary Odili, purportedly to execute a search.
“The commission, by this statement, wishes to inform the public that the report is false as it did not carry out any operation at the home of Justice Odili. If there was any such operation as claimed by the media, it was not carried out by the EFCC. The commission enjoins the public to discountenance the report.”
HURIWA has therefore called on the EFCC to apologise publicly to Nigerians for lying that it never participated in the raid because the information made available to the Nigerian public from the Chief magistrate shows otherwise that the EFCC was in the team of armed security invaders of the home of Justice Mary Odili.
HURIWA is therefore demanding that strong sanctions are slammed on the individuals who lied under oath to obtain by trick the search warrant that the armed team relied on to invade the premises of the Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria just as the Rights group said if the Federal government fails to charge for perjury the persons who got the search warrant on the basis of falsehood, it will then become notorious that we now have a bunch of persons in the Federal Government who are not only professional liars but are persons who are totally unfit to occupy any position of responsibility in the twenty first century Nigeria.
