The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has decried its inability to secure convictions in corruption cases, including high-profile ones, attributing it to frivolous court judgments.

The spokesman for the commission, Wilson Uwajaren, in an interview with journalists in Kaduna State, highlighted some of the challenges impeding the speedy prosecution of corruption cases and securing convictions.

According to him, the losses are due to what he described as frivolous court judgments based on technicalities rather than the facts and national interest, as well as arbitrary adjournment of corruption cases, among other factors.

Uwajaren, who shared the insight at a one-day workshop for media practitioners on Effective Reporting of EFCC activities held in Kaduna State, also disclosed that the commission secured about 7,700 convictions across the country in 2022.
In his remarks, the acting Chairman of the commission, Abdulkarim Chukkol, expressed concern over the rising internet-related fraud among the youth in Kaduna State.

The EFCC boss, who was represented by the acting Zonal Commander in the state, Aisha Abubakar, lamented that the active involvement of youths in internet-related frauds had the tendency to smear the image of the country and consequently discourage hard work and legitimate means of livelihood.
He urged the media to beam its searchlight on the menace of internet crimes and adequately inform the public about the activities of such criminal elements in order to safeguard them from falling victim to fraud.

Chukkol also restated the “unwavering” commitment of the EFCC towards eradicating all forms of economic and financial crimes in the country, noting that such efforts had led to the conviction of over 100 financial crime offenders in the Kaduna zonal office alone.

it's a rumour, Shaibu's CPS reacts

The feud between the Edo Governor, Godwin Obaseki and his deputy Comrade Philip Shaibu is getting messier daily, following the reported evacuation of the office of the deputy out of the state Government House by Obaseki.

The office of the deputy governor which was hitherto located inside Government House in Benin, it was gathered has been relocated to the state government-owned building, an alleged abandoned property along Dennis Osadebey in GRA, Benin City, the Edo State capital.

It was gathered the new office of the embattled Philip Shaibu, is now at No. 7, Dennis Osadebey Avenue, with a conspicuous signpost erected at the front of the building.

The signpost has an inscription as: “Office of the Deputy Governor; NO 7, Dennis Osadebey Avenue, GRA, Benin City”.

When contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to Shaibu, Comrade Musa Ebomhiana, told our correspondent that he had yet to get an official correspondent to that effect.

“I don’t know how true it is, but I still see it as a story in the realm of rumour. I have not been informed officially and I don’t believe in rumour but substance.

“This is weekend and we are here in Edo North for the election (Local Government Council election)

“And we plan to resume on Monday when the picture would be clearer. As I speak to you now, we are in an election in Edo North and I don’t want to comment on something I don’t know. It is on social media and I have also read about it,” he said.

Recall that Comrade Shaibu recently approached a Federal High Court in Abuja, and sought amongst others, an order restricting Governor Obaseki, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Chief Judge of Edo State and others from commencing his alleged impeachment processes.

The development according to political observers had led to the redeployment of the Permanent Secretary of the State Sports Commission, Mrs. Sabina Chikere, an in-law of the deputy governor to the state, Government House.

The deputy governor’s press crew prior to its recent disbandment by Governor Obaseki was sent out from the venue of the 60th anniversary celebration of Midwest Referendum venue in Benin.

Also, the deputy governor was recently prevented from going close to his principal Obaseki by a security detail attached to the governor during a recent function in Benin.

says Tinubu wants to rebuild the economy

Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has urged Nigerians to stop complaining about the current hardship, saying all policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government are to revive the economy.

Since Tinubu’s inauguration in May, his government has taken a series of decisions including removal of subsidy on petroleum as it pushes for reforms in major sectors of the economy.

The moves have triggered criticisms from several Nigerians and recently led to nationwide protests by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other labour unions.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Friday, Uzodinma said Nigerians must “reduce lamentations and agitations” regarding the policies of the Tinubu administration.

The Imo governor said the desire of the president to “recover the economy” is “so strong and impeccable”, adding that “every reasonable mind” in the country should support the president.

“Time has come for us to begin to wear our thinking cap. To think differently and positively. Reduce lamentations and agitations and then confront the challenges before us as a people. It is not about government or Mr. President,” he said

“It is about our country. Collectively, we must decide to recover our country. You may not like the face of the man in power. You may not like the face of the President but you should listen to him to understand whether he is making some sense or committed.

“The commitment I have seen from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his desire and passion to recover the economy of this country and drive this country forward on the path of growth is so strong and impeccable that every reasonable mind in the country must jump and follow.

“And this is how many days? Just less than 70 days as president and people have started lamentations here and there. I think we should be positive thinkers and think correctly as citizens.”

Uzodimma, who is seeking re-election in November, also promised to fish out masterminds of the insecurity in the South-East state within weeks.

“In a few weeks’ time – what we have deployed now, we will soon unravel those behind the killings and insecurity in Imo State,” he added.

The governor equally restated his claims that members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are the major victims of insecurity in Imo State.

“I have told the security to tell me the reasons behind it. It is not a coincidence that many people who are being killed are members of my party, APC. A child cries in the night and in the day it is lying lifeless.

“It is not also a coincidence that only lately, prominent members of my party that they participated in the last election – their houses are being attacked. Some traditional rulers that I have sympathy for our party, their party were also being attacked,” he added.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has recalled all ambassadors and non-career ambassadors serving in different parts of the world

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, disclosed his Special Assistant on Media and Communications Strategy, Alkasim Abdulkadir on Saturday.

He said: “Sequel to the inquiries on the letter recalling the Nigerian ambassador to the UK, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, has reaffirmed that all career ambassadors and non-career ambassadors have been recalled on the instructions of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Ambassadors as representatives of the country they serve at the behest of the president and it’s his prerogative to send or recall them from any country.”

The ambassadors are expected to commence the winding down of their affairs in their countries of deployment, take formal leave of the host government within 60 days and return to Nigeria by October 31, 2023, at the latest.

The minister, while thanking them for the service they have rendered in their capacity while representing the country in their host countries, said he is looking forward to welcoming them in Abuja on their return.

The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in charge of Economic Policy, Dr. Kingsley Obiora, has been released by the Department of State Services (DSS).
This development was confirmed yesterday afternoon by a source close to Obiora, who also admitted that the apex bank’s deputy governor spent some days with the DSS.

The source, who is an official of the CBN, said he had no knowledge of what transpired between Obiora and DSS while in detention.
He said the deputy governor’s release from detention was welcomed by the staff of the apex bank, many of whom were already worried that they were being specifically targeted.

The CBN official said the Jim Obaze-led Special Investigations Panel had “requested for several documents from many departments as part of its investigation to unravel what transpired in the CBN under Godwin Emefiele”.
He also disclosed that the Special Investigation Panel had requested for documents from Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) and the NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (NMFB).

Following the arrest of Emefiele, President Tinubu appointed a special panel led by Jim Obazee to investigate the CBN.
As part of this ongoing audit, the panel has been questioning the deputy governors of the CBN and other senior officials of the bank.

Former Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia, has admitted how terrible he feels being away from football, Saturday PUNCH reports.

Siasia was banned from all football activities for life in August 2019 by the world football body FIFA and fined $50,000 for agreeing to ‘the manipulation of matches’ for betting purposes.

According to FIFA, Siasia’s ban emanated from an extensive investigation into matches that Wilson Perumal attempted to fix.

But in 2021, after an appeal, his ban was reduced to five years by the Court of Arbitration for Sports which lapsed in August 2024 and the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations winner can’t wait to return to football.

“I thought I was going to be free by this year (2023) and I was so excited,” Siasia said in a radio interview on Kennis 104.1FM monitored by our correspondent.

“But I had to look through the document that FIFA served me, and I found out that it was going to be next year.

“By next year, in August 2024, I will be free from the FIFA ban, and hopefully I will be back to football.

“Irrespective of what happened, I have learned my lessons, but FIFA, who initially gave me a life ban in football, could not prove anything wrong with what they claimed I did. But they had to reduce it to a five-year ban, and it will expire next year. I thank God for that.

“It has been terrible to be away from football for five years, but I am preparing myself to come back to football, so I have to prepare myself so I can start ‘running’ once I resume by next year.”

Siasia also recounted the ordeal his men’s U-23 team went through prior to the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The Nigerian team overcame several challenges to arrive Rio on matchday before defeating Japan 4-3 in their opening group game.

He said, “We were abandoned ahead of our opener (against Japan), but we came into Rio on the same day, played Japan the same day, and won our opener the same day by 4-3.

“The Japanese billionaire, Dr. Katsuya Takasu was so amazed and wanted to see the coach of the team and handed me a cheque for $200,000″. “He also appreciated the team as a whole.”

Siasia also urged the country’s sports administrators to celebrate medal winners at major tournaments.

“My bronze medal is still in my house in the United States of America, but it’s so sad that Nigeria does not appreciate those who win laurels at the Olympics,” he continued.

“It must not be gold always, but once an athlete win either silver or bronze, they ought to be appreciated.

“Our bronze at the Rio Olympics was the only medal Nigeria won at that Olympics, but it was not celebrated.

“We were not received at the airport and no one appreciated us or talked about it. It’s shameful and not fair.

“Wwe have to first celebrate the medals won before looking forward to winning another, so that the younger ones who see athletes being appreciated will look forward to winning for Nigeria, and that is how it should be,” Siasia said.

[Punch]

Siasia is the only Nigerian coach to have won two Olympic medals with the U-23 team at two different Olympics.

The 56-year-old won the silver with the dream team at Beijing 2008 and also won the bronze at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Gabon’s coup leaders have announced a re-opening of the country’s borders, three days after soldiers seized power from President Ali Bongo.

Speaking on national television on Saturday, the army spokesperson said the reopening of the border is because the junta was “concerned with preserving respect for the rule of law, good relations with our neighbours and all states of the world” — and wanted to keep its “international commitments”.

The land, sea and air borders would be reopened “with immediate effect”, the army spokesperson said.

The military officers led by Brice Oligui Nguema, former head of the country’s presidential guard, had cited institutional, political, economic, and social crises as reasons for the coup.

After announcing that they had seized power, the soldiers, who identified themselves as members of the Committee of Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI), said they were dissolving “all the institutions of the republic”.

The soldiers also announced the closure of the country’s borders.

The coup — the eighth in West and Central Africa in three years — has raised concerns about a contagion of military takeovers across the continent, painting a picture of democratic regress.

Oligui is due to be sworn in as the transitional president on Monday.

[TheCable]

Human rights activist, Aisha Yesufu, has reacted to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) decision to engage the services of popular social media influencer, Adedamola Adewale, a.k.a. Adeherself, to sensitize serving corps members on the dangers of cybercrime.

DAILY POST recalls that the EFCC had in June 2020 arrested Adeherself for cyber fraud and was granted N500,000 bail by an Ikeja Special Offences Court in July.

In February 2023, the Commission rearraigned the social media influencer before an Ikeja High Court over an alleged N7.9 million internet fraud. On a three-count charge of conspiracy to obtain money by false pretences, attempt to obtain money by false pretences and retention of proceeds of criminal conduct.

However, the EFCC unveiled the defendant as a stakeholder in its anti-graft war and further engaged her to admonish corps members to shun cybercrime.

In a post on its official X, the anti-graft agency said Adeherself was a speaker during a sensitization programme organized by the commission at the NYSC orientation camp in Iyana Ipaja, Lagos.

Aisha Yesufu, reacting to the development on her official X, stated that “In Nigeria, crime is not the issue as long as it is done big time. Petty crime is what is criminalized.”

[DailyPost]

Following the tension generated by the threat of military intervention and the stand-off between the Niger junta and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the statement by Nigeria’s President and ECOWAS Chairman Ahmed Bola Tinubu on Thursday in Abuja, appears to indicate a positive movement and compromise on how to restore constitutional order in Niger.

“…General Abdulsalami Abubakar (a Nigerian former military Head of State) instituted a nine-month transition programme in 1998, and it proved very successful, leading the country into a new era of democratic governance,” Tinubu told a delegation of Islamic leaders, adding: that he “…sees no reason why such cannot be replicated in Niger, if Niger’s military authorities are sincere.”

The Brig.-Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani-led Niger junta, which toppled his former boss President Mohamed Bazoum, had announced a 36-month transition programme, which has been rejected by ECOWAS.

President Tinubu’s statement in an indication that ECOWAS is open to negotiation for a shorter transition timetable, while keeping the military intervention option open.

Tchiani and his colleagues should, therefore, seize the opportunity and agree a negotiated and more acceptable timetable of say 9-18 months. This is enough time to organise a credible election, under an ECOWAS-led support and guidance by the international community.

However, the involvement of external powerful interests, particularly France and the U.S. have complicated matters in Niger.

In fact, the latest Niger coup (the country has experienced several since independence from France in 1960), has further exposed the hypocrisy, inconsistency, double standards, if not perfidy of the West in its relations with Africa.

Scholars and commentors who argue that after more than six decades of independence, African countries should stop citing slavery and colonialism as excuses for the continent’s backwardness or underdevelopment do have a point given the level of corruption, resource mismanagement and governance failures under the watch of post-independent African leaders.

Even so, imperialism and neocolonialism still constitute a dangerous clog in Africa’s wheel of progress and development.

The Niger coup was the seventh successful one in four former French colonies in West Africa in three years with two each in Mali and Burkina Faso, and one each in Mali, Guinea and Niger.

These are all member States of the 15-nation regional bloc, ECOWAS.  Before the 2020 coup in Mali, all ECOWAS members operated one form of civilian administration or another.

International reactions to the coups in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso followed a similar pattern – condemnation, suspension of membership from ECOWAS and the African Union, imposition of sanctions and then negotiated political transition programmes, which are being implemented by the juntas.

In neighbouring Chad, another former French colony, which is in Central Africa and not a member of ECOWAS, international reaction to the unconstitutional change of government there, is markedly different.

In April 2021, the President of Chad, Idris Derby Ito, was assassinated by Chadian rebels and against provisions of the country’s constitution, his son, army General Mahamat Kaka seized power, in a manner many described as a coup.

Surprisingly, French President Emmanuel Macron was one of the few dignitaries that graced the inauguration ceremony of Mahamat Derby to succeed his father.

In contrast, France has been among the most vociferous in condemning the coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger, but not in Chad, perhaps because the principles of democracy does not matter in Chad.

Relations between France and the Mali junta have deteriorated so badly that the French Ambassador and French troops have been expelled from Mali, with the expelled troops moved to Niger.

Then fast forward to the coup in Niger and the unusual outrage and reactions by Washington and Paris.

As expected, France is worried that it is losing grounds in its former colonies in Africa, where anti-French sentiments are openly expressed accompanied by sporadic street protests.

Similarly, U.S., and its Western allies fear that Russia, China, and other emerging interests would move in once they are kicked out of the coup countries.

Furthermore, the palpable diplomatic frenzy in the French and American capitals, is a demonstration that Niger is unlike Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso.

America and France have military bases and along other Western allies, maintain an estimated combined troop strength of 3,000 in Niger.

Niger is also rich in uranium, craved by nuclear power countries such as France, which sources more than 50% of its power from the Niger uranium mines, while more than 80% of Nigeriens remain in darkness, and mining host communities suffering health hazards from radiation.

In the estimation of France, America and their Western Allies, Niger is of strategic importance, but the interests/wellbeing of Niger’s estimated 26 million poverty-stricken and long-suffering people do not matter in the geopolitical equation.

The American constitution frowns at relations with coup-produced regimes, so Washington is still undecided whether the Niger army takeover is “a coup” or “an attempted coup,” but America’s newly appointed ambassador, arrived in Niger recently amid growing tension over possible use of military force to restore constitutional order in the country.

Relations between Niger and France have taken a turn for the worse with the junta expelling the French Ambassador and demanding the departure of French troops from Niger.

President Macron has rejected the junta’s demand, insisting that the French ambassador should stay put because the junta lacks legitimacy.

This has raised tension and made Niger a dilemma for ECOWAS, with its new management at the Commission determined to arrest the drift and leadership failure of the past decade, when the organisation ignored or tolerated “constitutional, ballot box, human rights and anti-rule of law coups” without consequences.

Some ECOWAS leaders blatantly altered national constitutions and rigged elections to obtain or retain power while clamping down on the opposition and protesters against their undemocratic behaviours.

ECOWAS has intervened militarily in several member States in the past including in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and Guinea Bissau, under various protocols and instrumentalities acceded to by the member States.

But Niger presents a unique challenge with the ECOWAS response, especially the possible use of force being subjected to various interpretations.

ECOWAS officials insist the regional bloc is acting independently, but critics say it is being teleguided or stampeded into a proxy war in Niger by Western powers.

The popular opinion in Africa is that America, France, and their Western allies, should leave Africa out of their geopolitical battles with Russia and China.

The military coups in former French colonies could be related to opportunism on the part of the military coup makers, but the discontent and disaffection towards France among citizens of these countries cannot be ignored.

Former French colonies such as Cameroon, Togo, Rwanda, and Gabon have either applied or have been granted membership of the British-led Commonwealth Organisation.

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, a long-time ally of France, was conspicuous in his attendance of the second Africa-Russia summit in St Petersburg last July.

The policies of foreign countries toward Africa, particularly France toward Africa are unravelling and require recalibration to ensure mutual respect, based on equal partnership, justice, and fair play instead of a master-servant relationship.

The jury is still out on the success or otherwise of the presence of external forces purportedly fighting terrorism in West Africa and the Sahel region. The idea of military bases in African countries should also be reviewed to ensure that they are not inimical to the interests of the host countries.

Anti-French protests on the streets of West African countries may have been engineered by the juntas, but the truth is that the citizens are fed up with decades of unbeneficial policies and toxic relationships that have kept Africa backward.

French President Macron’s bellicose, condescending, and patronising stance and comments such as insisting that the French ambassador in another sovereign nation, who has been expelled and stripped of diplomatic immunity must stay put, are not helping the ECOWAS course either.

It is the neighbouring countries, and not France, that will bear the heaviest burden of a military intervention in Niger, with the attendant humanitarian disaster and other unpredictable consequences of instability in West Africa and the Sahel region.