Court orders NDLEA to produce Baba Suwe

A Lagos High Court, in Ikeja, on Wednesday ordered the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to produce Nollywood actor, Babatunde Omidina, popularly known as Baba Suwe, in court on Tuesday, to allay the fears of his family members over his state of health.
Omidina  on Friday, sued the NDLEA, demanding N100m from the agency for allegedly violating his fundamental human rights.
He  contended that the anti-drug body violated his right by keeping him in its custody for more than the constitutionally-allowed 24 hours since October 12.
Justice Yetunde Idowu ordered the NDLEA to produce Omidina “physically in court” on Tuesday following an application by his counsel, Mr. Bamidele Aturu.
Idowu said the actor’s physical presence in court would allay the apprehension of both his family and the public over his state of health and his safety in the NDLEA custody.
The NDLEA, represented by its Director, Prosecution and Legal Services, Mr. Femi Oloruntoba,  acceded to the prayer  seeking that Baba Suwe be produced in court at the next adjourned date. Oloruntoba however, raised concern about the security challenges likely to be introduced by  the crowd which Baba Suwe’s presence in court might attract.
But Idowu, dismissed any fear concerning security, saying “we have to consider the mind of the family.”
She assured that measures would be put in place to ensure security by keeping such a crowd away from the court premises.
 Written by  Ade Adesomoju               Courtesy Of: Punch

Tinubu questions tribunal’s jurisdiction on foreign accounts trial

Former Lagos Governor  Bola Tinubu on Wednesdayin Abuja said the Code of Conduct Tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to try him for allegedly operating foreign accounts while in office.
Speaking through his lead defence counsel, Mr. Wole Olanipekun, Tinubu denied  he was  invited for questioning by the Code of Conduct Bureau like other former governors excluded from trial.
But Tinubu, through Olanipekun, is asking the Justice Danladi Umar-led panel to quash the charges and/or strike out the three counts asamended filed on September 20 against him by the complainant/respondent.
While moving the application accompanied by an 11-paragraph affidavit and predicated on 10 grounds, Olanipekun said the CCT was not known to the 1999 Constitution.
He said, “The mandatory conditions precedent for the referral of complaints by the Code of Conduct Bureau to the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the subsequent exercise of jurisdiction by the said tribunal has not been complied with.”
Olanipekun referred to Section 3 of the CCB and Tribunal Act, stating that “where the person concerned makes a written admission of such breach or non-compliance no reference to the Tribunal shall be necessary”.
He said, “What the prosecution is doing is to put something on nothing; they want it to stand, it will not stand – it will collapse like a pack of cards.
“Where a person can make a written admission, there will be no need for trial, the applicant must be invited; there is no short-cut about this, it is paramount, it is fundamental. The CCB said it invited those other governors, if it is sauce for the goose of those governors it must be sauce for their gander.”
The applicant’s counsel also challenged the venue for the trial, saying it should have been in Lagos, the place where the alleged offence was committed.
He cited the case of former Delta Governor James Ibori when the Court of Appeal said trial should take place in the state and not anywhere else.
But the prosecution counsel representing the CCB, Mr. Alex Izinyon,  opposed the application, arguing that the CCB has discretion on who to invite and who not to invite.
However there was a hot argument on whether Tinubu should be in the dock or not.
As soon as the tribunal’s clerk mentioned the case and Tinubu indicated his presence, the chairman of the tribunal  ordered him to enter the dock but his counsel, Olanipekun objected, saying that the applicant was objecting to the charge preferred against him.
He added that since he had not taken any plea, he could not be in the dock.
 Written by  Friday Olokor, Abuja            Courtesy Of: Punch

N15bn scam: Doma, others yet to fulfil bail condition

There were indications on Thursday that former Nasarawa State Governor Aliyu Doma and eight others had yet to meet the bail terms granted them by Justice Marcel Awokulehin of a Federal High Court in Lafia.

 

Doma and the other accused are facing trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on 17 counts of laundering stolen state funds estimated at over N15bn.

EFCC sources told our correspondent that 24 hours after being granted bail none of the accused had been able to meet the conditions and as such remained in detention.

But when contacted to ascertain if the accused were still in the commission’s custody, the spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said he was not aware that any of them had been able to fulfil their bail conditions.

Awokulehin had while ruling on their bail application granted Doma bail in the sum of N300m and two sureties in like sum.

The eight others were granted bail in the sum of N200m each and two sureties in like sum.

While one of the two sureties must own property in any metropolis within the jurisdiction of the court, the second surety must be a civil servant in either in the federal or state government service not below Level 15.

All the accused were told by the judge to deposit their passports with the court.

They are also to remain in EFCC custody in Abuja pending the perfection of their bail conditions.

The former governor and eight others were arraigned on October 18, 2011.

Doma was arraigned along with Senator John Dangoyi, Abdulmumin Jibrin, Timothy Anjide, Dauda Egwa, Suleiman Ibrahim, Broworks Ltd and Green Forest Investment Ltd.

The charges filed against two other accused, John Aigbakhode and Incapint Nig Ltd, who are still at large, were stepped down.

The case was adjourned until December 6 and 7, 2011, for the substantive trial.
 Written by  Friday Olokor                  Courtesy Of: Punch

‘Afenifere’s visit to Daniel set bad precedence’

The Afenifere Renewal Group on Thursday, flayed Afenifere leaders’ visit to former Ogun State Governor Gbenga Danel, saying they had set a bad precedence.

 

The Afenifere leaders led by Chief Reuben Fasoranti, offered Daniel solidarity when they visited his Sagamu home on Wednesday.

Daniel is currently facing a 16-count of corruption against him by the Economic and the Financial Crimes Commission.

But the ARG said the leaders should have waited until Daniel was cleared by the court before reacting and showing solidarity.

The spokesman for ARG, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone, said the visit was inappropriate.

He said, "There is also the question of morality and value. Elders are supposed to be custodian of truth. Elders should not intervene when a case is still in court. If there should be any visit, it should be from Daniel to explain what is going on and not from the elders.

"I am not saying that Daniel is guilty; the elders should allow the judiciary to run its course. If he is pronounced innocent, the elders can then speak. What they are doing now sets bad precedence and sends wrong message to the young ones that when they grow up and anything goes wrong, they could expect elders to show solidarity."

The ARG Chairman, Mr. Wale Oshun, however, declined comment.

He said, "We decided to renew because we felt that things could be done in a more efficient manner."

The Ogun State deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the April election, Mr. Tunde Oladunjoye, said the Yoruba elders that visited Daniel were not representing their people but themselves.

"These people are contractors. They have benefitted directly and personally from Daniel and their visit was not a surprise in any form. But they should have waited for the court of law to make its judgement before jumping the gun," said the former Ijebu East Local Government chairman, who spoke to THE PUNCH on the telephone.

"They should also know that their pronouncements were contrary to the conditions on which Daniel was granted bail."

However, a leader of the PDP in Ogun State, Chief Bode Mustapha, said Daniel was the architect of his own misfortune.

Mustapha, a former member of the House of Representatives, also dismissed the allegation by Daniel’s camp that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was behind the former governor’s travail.

Written by  Sesan Olufowobi             Courtesy Of: Punch

SWF: Okonjo-Iweala denies friction with governors

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has denied the existence of a conflict between the Federal Government and the state governments over the controversial Sovereign Wealth Fund.

 

Okonjo-Iweala, who is also the coordinating minister for the economy, on Thursday said the Federal Government had implemented the plan after extensive consultations with the governors.

Okonjo-Iweala made the clarification in Abuja at a conference organised by the Economist Conferences, a division of The Economist Group, publishers of The Economist newspaper.

At another forum in Benin, Edo State, Governor Adams Oshiomhole, confirmed that a few state chief executives were consulted before the Federal Government launched the SWF with a N150bn initial deposit.

"The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to be fair to her, consulted a few of us governors before the Sovereign Wealth Fund was launched. We gave our support for the launch of the Sovereign Wealth Fund. It was done with our consent, and it wasn’t done in spite of us," Oshiomhole said at the opening of the 15th Annual Conference of the Institute of Nigerian Stockbrokers in Benin City.

The finance minister told participants at the Abuja conference that the Federal Government viewed the SWF as a strong instrument for saving and investment and so would continue to discuss with those who hold opposing views on the fund.

She said, "We need to think of saving for the future and that was why in the beginning, we started the Excess Crude Account.

"We discovered that that account was not underpinned on legislation and we built on that for the SWF. We have been discussing with the governors who said they have needs to meet.

"When we started the Excess Crude Account, there was debate too. If not for that account, the country would not have made through the financial crisis of 2007/2008."

She insisted that fuel subsidy weighs heavily on the budget and it does not benefit the poor.

Okonjo-Iweala, however, lauded the ongoing debate on the desirability or otherwise of the removal of the subsidy, saying that the best decision would be taken at the end of it all.

She assured stakeholders that whatever resources accrued to the government based on the removal would be spent on things Nigeria could see.

The minister said that the government was working hard to reduce recurrent expenditure from the current 74 per cent to less than 70 per cent.

She said biometrics was currently being used to weed out ghost workers and ghost pensioners.

She explained that the money freed up in the process would be spent on infrastructure.

Earlier, the Africa Editor, Economist Intelligence Unit, Katharin Pulverinacher, had identified the SWF, minimum wage, crime, corruption and inflation as some of the current challenges facing the country.

Pulverinacher observed that dire state of infrastructure had continued to constrain growth in the manufacturing sector.

She however said that many of the constraints identified could be weakened with political will and improved technology.

This, she added, would enable Nigeria to achieve her dream.

In Benin, Oshiomhole said that a more sustainable approach to saving should involve deducting an agreed percentage of national revenue, irrespective of fluctuation in oil price, for future development.

"Saving only when there is excess crude money is not sustainable," he said. "It is an ongoing discussion. I believe the matter will still be discussed at our next joint meeting."
Written by  Olalekan Adetayo               Courtesy Of: Punch

Tribunal throws out Akunyili’s petition against Ngige

The Anambra State Election Petitions on Thursday struck out the petition filed by Prof. Dora Akunyili and the All Progressives Grand Alliance against the election of Senator Chris Ngige of the Action Congress of Nigeria in the Anambra Central Senatorial election.

The tribunal’s decision was based on an application filed by the counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mr. Osita Nnadi seeking to strike out the petition by Akunyili and APGA on the grounds that they failed to file Form TF008 with the tribunal.

Form TF008 is required to be filed by parties in a petition, if they intend to be part of the pre-trial hearing in the petition. Form TF008 contains the list of questions that must be answered as a party in an election petition.

 

Though INEC and counsel for Ngige and the ACN had argued that the form was not filed with the tribunal or served on the parties. But counsel for Akunyili and APGA insisted that the form was filed, as indicated by the records of the tribunal.

But the legal team could not explain why they did not serve the other parties in the petition with the form. They alleged that the form from their own file was stolen in their hotel.

The ACN legal team led by Chief Emeka Ngige urged the tribunal to invite the police and the State Security Service to investigate the manner through which filing of the form got into the records of the tribunal.

In a considered ruling, the tribunal chaired by Justice Onajite Kuejubola, said having established that the petitioner failed to file the form, it was withdrawing its jurisdiction to hear the pre-trial of the petition.

 Written by  Emmanuel Obe             Courtesy Of: Punch

Oyo road rehabilitation

Oyo State Government has started the second phase of its road rehabilitation programme, with an assurance that it will tackle the decay of infrastructure in the state.

 

The ceremony, which took place at the Aleshinloye Market, began with the asphaltic improvement of NIHORT-Idi Ishin-Forestry-Aleshinloye Junction Road.

Governor Abiola Ajimobi assured that after the completion of the rehabilitation of all the deplorable roads, his administration would commence the construction of new ones, adding that all roads leading to the state capital would be dualised.

He said the road from the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway overhead bridge to the Challenge area of Ibadan would be dualised and overhead bridges constructed in Challenge and Mokola areas.

The governor said the projects had been captured in a supplementary appropriation bill forwarded to the state House of Assembly for approval.

Written by  Ayodele Oluwagbemi            Courtesy Of: Punch