..suspect providing other supports to terrorists

A ‘repentant’ Boko Haram terrorist who has been reintegrated back to Bama community in Borno State has been caught on his way to Sambisa Forest to supply various logistics to Boko Haram terror group.

According to a counter-insurgency publication, Zagazola Makama, the suspect was apprehended alongside two other collaborators at Barraram Village also known as Daula Merket.

“The three repentant terrorists who were residing in Bama community have been providing support ranging from food items, fuel, motorcycle tubes and tyres as well other Logistics to the terrorists. Bama town has recorded many of such incident of repentant collaborating with terrorists against the NA troops,” the report said.

In a related development, no fewer than eight Boko Haram terrorists have surrendered in the Bama Local Government Area of Borno State following a weeklong sustained offensive by the troops of Operation Hadin Kai in Sambisa forest.

Bama is about 60km from Maiduguri, the state capital.

The terrorists from Birnin Abuja Village in Sambisa forest laid down their arms to the troops of the 21 Armoured Brigade on Friday.

The militants, Julebeb, Munkaila, Zarkawi, Sadiq, Baba, Abu Harira, Hamza And Bakura, who were active fighters loyal to the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād, Boko Haram faction, surrendered their AK-47 rifles.

It was learnt that they surrendered due to the troops’ onslaught as well as the Boko Haram-ISWAP infighting.

One of the surrendered terrorists said they lost hope in the fight. as the forest became inhabitable and their people were dying due to harship, bad living considitons and diseases.

“Every day we keep asking ourselves who are we fighting and why are we fighting. We keep killing ourselves. There is no joy in Boko Haram.

“Many of our people are tired, they want to surrender but they are scared. They think that when they come out they will be killed. We also have the same thought. But they did not kill us,” he said.

Recall that over 100,000 terrorists with their families have surrendered to troops of Operation Hadin Kai within the last year.

Former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai’s rumored withdrawal from consideration as a minister in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government because high-tensile inter-elite intrigues torpedoed his senate confirmation and caused the president to sour on him is the bluntest, crudest, most double-dyed political treachery I’ve seen in a long time.

Sure, El-Rufai is a detestable, self-important, unfeeling, overweening, and divisive political villain whom I once called the most dangerous Nigerian politician alive, but he is more central to Tinubu’s emergence as president than the people on whose behalf Tinubu has thrown him under the bus. 

El-Rufai left everything aside to galvanize support for Tinubu among northern governors, which was crucial to Tinubu’s win in APC’s primary election. He stood up to Muhammadu Buhari’s cabal on Tinubu’s behalf at a time when few people within the circles of power were willing to stick out their necks for a presidential wannabe.

When the Central Bank of Nigeria rolled out its damagingly birdbrained naira recoloring policy to stymie Tinubu’s chances at the polls, El-Rufai launched an all-out, scorched-earth, no-holds-barred rhetorical blitzkrieg against the CBN and honchos of the Buhari regime. Tinubu got tremendous sympathy and persuasive mileage from the knowledge that the hurt Nigerians were undergoing in the days leading up to the election was engineered to get at him, and no one enabled this awareness more than El-Rufai.

Additionally, Tinubu himself visited Kaduna and publicly implored El-Rufai to shelve his planned doctoral studies abroad and work with him.  During his public appeal, Tinubu infamously said El-Rufai had the uncanny competence to turn "a rotten situation into a bad one.” At the time I wondered if it was a Freudian slip (which means he unintentionally let out what was in his mind), a targeted missile, or an innocent verbal mishap.

 Now, that description of El-Rufai has assumed a whole new meaning, especially if you recall that Bayo Onanuga, celebrated journalist and former spokesman for the Tinubu presidential campaign, had said that Tinubu’s unflattering characterization of El-Rufai was "a mere Freudian slip." Given his level of education and exposure, it’s unlikely that Onanuga doesn’t know what a Freudian slip is.

A Freudian slip, as I pointed out earlier, is a mistake that unintentionally reveals an uncomfortable truth that we wish to suppress. In other words, Onanuga said Tinubu actually secretly thought El-Rufai had a special knack for transforming rotten situations into bad ones but only unconsciously revealed this unpleasant truth in an unguarded moment.

 Maybe Onanuga’s revelation that Tinubu’s statement was a “mere Freudian slip” was itself a Freudian slip. That means even Onanuga believed Tinubu’s horrid character portrait of El-Rufai, and inadvertently betrayed it in his statement defending his boss.

Anyway, because I cherish the virtues of honor and integrity, betrayal even to a scoundrel activates vicarious unease in me. Public humiliation isn’t a just reward for the efforts El-Rufai invested in contributing to Tinubu’s ascendancy to the presidency.

Nonetheless, truth be told, as a person, El-Rufai doesn’t deserve anyone’s pity. What he is going through now is mere karmic payback. Treachery is the currency of his politics.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar brought El-Rufai from obscurity to the national limelight by giving him a job as the DG of the Bureau of Public Enterprises. But he turned against Atiku and publicly denied any debt to him for his political rise. 

But in cables WikiLeaks exposed, he confessed to American embassy officials that Atiku indeed gave him his first public service job. In a 2006 cable, Ambassador John Campbell quoted El-Rufai as telling him that “he had entered government service by working for the Vice President.”

On December 31, 2002, according to U.S. Embassy in Nigeria cables published by WikiLeaks, El-Rufai ran to US officials to give them foreknowledge of his plan to resign as DG of BPE in early 2003. He spoke approvingly of Atiku and was severely censorious of Obasanjo during the meeting.

 “El-Rufai said the VP (chair of the National Council on Privatization, the policy-making body that oversees BPE) had pressed for further information on why he wanted to return to the private sector.  El-Rufai responded that President Obasanjo's commitment to privatization and greater transparency had collapsed under the pressures of politics,” Ambassador John Cambell wrote.  “Trying too hard to please those who could never be placated, Obasanjo was sacrificing the precepts of a sensible economic agenda in the interest of getting re- elected.” 

 El-Rufai later betrayed Atiku about whom he spoke glowingly in meetings with U.S. officials. He found a new benefactor in Obasanjo whose unethical practices he’d said compelled his resignation as DG of BPE. 

On September 21, 2006, for instance, El-Rufai met with the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and the UK High Commissioner "under instruction" from President Obasanjo to inform them of and seek their blessing to deny Atiku Abubakar the chance to succeed his Obasanjo. That’s a wild change of loyalties.

“After opening pleasantries in which el-Rufai noted that one of his children is an American citizen, the Minister emphasized that his call was at the explicit instruction of the President; he would also be seeing the British High Commissioner, similarly on instruction,” Campbell wrote. “The President's purpose is to brief the representatives of Nigeria's ‘closest allies’ on his strategy for ensuring that the Vice President may not run for the presidency in 2007.  Rather than seeking the Vice President's impeachment for corruption by the National Assembly, El-Rufai continued, the President had appointed an administrative panel of his close political allies (El-Rufai was a member, as was Minister of Education Obi Ezekwesili, Attorney General Bayo Ojo and Minister of Finance Nenadi Usman) to investigate charges of corruption against Atiku.”

Of course, El-Rufai later betrayed Obasanjo—and everybody else that has propelled his career or extended favors to him. Obasanjo himself would later write about El-Rufai’s compulsive treachery and duplicity. Given his history, there is no question that El-Rufai would have been treacherous to Tinubu, too, in due course. He would have made Tinubu’s "a rotten situation into a bad one.”

El-Rufai seems congenitally incapable of being loyal to people who feather his aspirations. 

What’s happening to El-Rufai now actually pales in comparison to the depth of his serial betrayal of his benefactors. It’s a case of live by the sword, die by the sword.

Akpabio: A Buffoon as Senate President

It’s now obvious that Godswill Akpabio is a dimwitted, cognitively vacant man-child who holds a position that’s lightyears above his intellectual and emotional paygrade. He is a total airhead who has no business being in the senate, much less being the head of it. How did we get to the point that someone who is that nescient, that brainless, and that imbecilic is senate president?

The other day, he outraged the sensibilities of a hurting nation when he mocked the poor by ridiculing the phrase “Let the poor breathe,” an earnest, intense mantra that encapsulates the dire existential desperation of the vast majority of our people who are suffocating under the weight of hard-hearted, paralyzing economic policies.

Then this week, he was caught on live TV informing senators that the clerk of the senate had sent them unspecified sums of money to facilitate the enjoyment of their forthcoming parliamentary break at a time the poor are stripped of every subsidy and told to die by instalment in the interest of a “better” tomorrow that many won’t live to see—and that won’t materialize even if they manage to survive the ongoing crunch.

When smarter crooks in the senate alerted him to the callousness of his unsolicited assault on the psyche of the poor, he took back what he said and lied that he meant that he had sent prayers to the mailboxes of senators! How do you send prayers to mailboxes? Does Akpabio think everyone is a rude, crude, buffoonish, and vulgar rube like him? 

President Bola Tinubu has said his main focus at the moment remains the swift recovery of the struggling economy, assuring Nigerians that no stone will be left unturned to revive the economy and make it work for the greatest good of all.

He gave this assurance on Friday at a meeting held with the Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Professionals Forum led by former Bauchi State Governor, Mr Isa Yuguda.

At the gathering held at the State House in Abuja, the President said to achieve this goal, all hands must be on deck.

“This economy must recover for the good and greatest number of Nigerians, and we are seriously committed to seeing through a change for the better,” he said.

To steadily ensure measured growth and enhanced public enlightenment on policy outcomes, President Tinubu said every effort across sectors will be documented and periodically reviewed for performance verification and public presentation.

“So far, we have taken some baby steps and pushed some aggressive positions,” he told the APC professionals, who had earlier pledged their support for the reforms.

While thanking Mr Tinubu for his bold interventions on the economy, Mr Yuguda said more than two million people had been registered as professionals in different fields since 2018 and stood ready to provide structures for mobilisation and sensitization on government policies.

“Foreign capital is a coward that does not move into unsafe areas, so with your successful interventions so far, we look forward to better security that will attract investors,” the former Governor added.

Senator Abdul Ningi has said that some lawmakers have gotten N2m as holiday allowance even though he is yet to see his own.

Recall that during plenary on Tuesday, August 8, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, was caught on tape telling the Senators to expect a “token” to enable them to enjoy their recess.

“In order to enable all of us to enjoy our holidays, a token has been sent to our various accounts by the Clerk of the National Assembly,” Akpabio said just as the lawmakers finished the ministerial screening.'

His comment elicited reactions from Nigerians with many condemning the Senators for living ostentatiously when many Nigerians are suffering and dealing with the economic hardship caused by the removal of fuel subsidy.

In an interview with Channels TV, Senator Ningi of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) confirmed that some lawmakers have gotten an allowance as mentioned by Akpabio.

“Nothing has come to my account yet. I heard that some people got N2m but for me, nothing yet. Hopefully [I would get], when they tidy up things,” he said

Ningi who represents Bauchi central in the Senate, faulted Senator Akpabio’s comment, describing it as unprecedented.

“Some of these things, if they happen, you don’t broadcast it the way he did. I think it is a huge embarrassment to the Senate President as a person and to the institution of the National Assembly. The Senate President should have gone further to say what the allowances are for. How did he come about the allowances? Who gave the allowances? Is it part of the remuneration?”

Senator Ningi admitted that people are bitter about the comment and he finds it “difficult to take” just like many Nigerians.

“I don’t know what N2m would do for a holiday. I find it very difficult to understand what this money is for,” he said

According to him, when the senators return to work, they need to know what the money is for since the lawmakers do not get recess allowance.

More facts have emerged on how the pact between President Bola Tinubu and a former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, for the latter to become a minister in the yet-to-be-formed Federal Executive Council crumbled.

Saturday PUNCH investigation revealed that El-Rufai had been promised to man the proposed Ministry of Power and Gas based on his numerous discussions with the President on how the country would have uninterrupted power supply in a few years.

Findings by one of our correspondents showed that the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory had told Tinubu during the presidential campaign that he would prefer to travel out of the country to live a quiet life, but he changed his mind after what a source described as “intensive discussions with the President after winning the election.”

It was gathered that El-Rufai told the President that the ministry of power should be made to include gas after telling the President that gas was a must-have product if the country was to have regular power supply.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the secret meetings, added that El-Rufai had started assembling egg-heads who had been briefing the President on how to achieve his major electioneering promise of providing uninterrupted power supply.

Members of the group of egg-heads, findings revealed, included Jimi Lawal; the Special Adviser to the President on Energy Matters, Olu Verheijen; Eyo Ekpo and Tolu Oyekan, among others.

The El-Rufai group believed that a combination of factors might have made the President to dilly-dally on his confirmation.

A source close to the group, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “Certain elements in the Villa might have felt threatened by El-Rufai. They don’t want him because they are already planning for the next election as the case may be and they see him as a potential threat to their aspirations.

“Some political foes like Senator Shehu Sani and some elements in the Christian Association of Nigeria and even some Muslim clerics are all part of the gang-up.

“Recall that during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, El-Rufai had issues with federal lawmakers when he alleged that some of them were demanding bribes from him. Obasanjo intervened and the matter was resolved and the Senate cleared him. So, if President Tinubu wanted El-Rufai, he would have insisted that the former governor be cleared.”

A source had earlier told our correspondent, “El-Rufai had met with the President on many occasions concerning how to build the new ministry. The President was told by El-Rufai that the Ministry of Power should also have gas added to it and President Tinubu agreed to that.

“He also asked that the National Energy Council be established to discuss and take positions on issues affecting power. The proposed energy council is to comprise ministers in charge of finance, environment, energy, justice and the office of the National Security Adviser.

“I think the President bought the ideas and had been listening to the former minister, who had also been visiting Aso Rock to brief the commander-in-chief on his findings and how to make progress.

“The President was assured that uninterrupted or partial interruption of power is possible in the next five to seven years.”

However, it was gathered that the bond between the President and El-Rufai based on the position taken by the former governor of Kaduna State during the crisis preceding the conduct of the All Progressives Congress presidential primary was what initially made Tinubu overlook the security report against the former minister.

Apart from this, it was also learnt that some influential members of the Tinubu kitchen cabinet were of the opinion that El-Rufai should not be allowed to wield enormous power in the government, alleging that it would be difficult to completely trust him. “So, his enemies won when the second security report on him was sent to the offices of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), President of the Senate and the National Security Adviser detailing the numerous reasons why El-Rufai should not be cleared for a ministerial position,” the source added.

In a covering letter signed by one Aminu Yusuf on behalf of the Director-General, Department of State Services, dated August 4, 2023, with reference number SV.8/1430 titled, ‘Re: Security Vetting’ and addressed to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), which was exclusively obtained by Saturday PUNCH, the secret police wrote, “Further to this Service letter S.V.8/1426 dated 1st of August, 2023, giving provisional security clearance to three (3) ministerial nominees, including Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, pending conclusion of vetting. (Appendix ‘A’ instructive).

“This Service wishes to state that further vetting and background checks conducted revealed some underlined issues which have negatively affected the nominee and as such, it is recommended that El-Rufai’s clearance by the Senate of the National Assembly be stepped down until the issues are cleared as investigation continues.

“Summary of the issues under investigation are (sic) attached as Appendix ‘B’ for ease of reference.

“Accept the assurances and esteemed regards of the DGSS please.”

However, Saturday PUNCH could not obtain the appendixes ‘A’ and ‘B’ attached to the letter detailing the issues for which El-Rufai’s clearance was put on hold.

Unconfirmed reports had emerged on Friday that the former Kaduna State governor had informed the President that he was no longer interested in being a minister following the request by the DSS that his clearance by the Senate should be put on hold pending further investigation.

El-Rufai was said to have informed Tinubu of his withdrawal on Tuesday when he and a former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, visited the President at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He was said to have informed Tinubu that he needed time to focus on his doctorate programme at a university in The Netherlands and reportedly suggested that Jafaru Ibrahim Sani, who served as a commissioner under El-Rufai in Kaduna State, be appointed as a minister in his place.

Saturday PUNCH gathered that El-Rufai travelled out of the country after the meeting with the President, but his destination could not be confirmed.

Four worshippers have reportedly died after a section of the Zaria central mosque in Kaduna state collapsed on Friday.

Seven other people were also said to have sustained injuries in the accident.

The incident occurred when the worshippers were observing prayers around 4 pm.

Ahmed Bamalli, Emir of Zazzau, confirmed the incident.

The emir said the walls of the mosque had developed cracks, noting that there were plans to repair them before the incident.

“We had earlier observed a crack on the wall of the mosque yesterday, and were planning to deploy a team of civil engineers to effect repairs when this unfortunate incident happened,” he said.

Bamali directed that prayers be held outside the mosque until the repairs are done.

He also instructed that the funeral prayer for the four victims be observed at 8.30 pm at the emir’s palace.

Shehu Nagari, a survivor, who narrowly escaped from being trapped said the worshippers were in the second “sujud of Asr prayer” when a portion of the mosque collapsed.

Nagari said the building collapsed on those seated directly at the section, killing the four victims.

He added that the collapsed section of the mosque, which was built with mud, had existed for over 150 years

Airtel Africa Plc’s Chief Executive Officer, Olusegun Ogunsanya, has offloaded shares worth £757 440 an equivalent of N720.59m to buy property in the UK.

The number of shares sold by the Nigeria is 666,174 .760 units at the London Stock Exchange on August 4, 2023.

A regulatory filing dated August 11 and seen by THE WHISTLER reveals that the CEO’s shares in Airtel has reduced to 4,325,282 Ordinary Shares.

Airtel said, “This sale of Ordinary Shares is to be used to fund a property purchase by Mr Ogunsanya. Following this transaction Mr Ogunsanya holds 4,325,282 Ordinary Shares in Airtel Africa.”

Ogunsanya who was appointed as CEO of the company sold the share at £1.137 per unit at the London bourse.

Before joining Airtel in 2013, Segun held top roles at Coca-Cola’s bottling operations in Ghana, Kenya and the CEO in Nigeria.

The Airtel CEO was also a managing director of Nigerian Bottling Company Ltd (Coca-Cola Hellenic owned) and head of retail banking operations at Ecobank Transnational Inc, covering 28 countries in Africa.

He is a chartered accountant and an engineer.

… FDI Drops Drastically To $399.9m In 2022

The cost of operating in the Nigerian economy took a toll on telecommunication operators as they spent more than half of their N3.85trn revenue on operating costs.

The players in the industry spent N2.1trn on operating costs according to the 2022 end-of-year performance report released by the Nigerian Communications Commission.

This operating cost represent a surge from the N1.72trn they spent in 2021. Their revenue in 2021 was N3.24trn.

The report seen by THE WHISTLER showed that the players in the telecommunication industry spent N785.7bn on capital expenditure.

The big names in the Nigeria telecommunication industry are MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, Airtel Africa Plc, Globacom Ltd, EMTS (formerly Etisalat), NTEL and Smile.

The report categorised the licenses by GSM, Fixed Wire, Internet Service Providers, Value Added Services, Collocation and Infrastructure Sharing, and other telecom operators.

During the period telecom operators generated N3.33trn revenue from GSM revenue services and spent N1.99trn of the earnings on operation cost. CAPEX for GSM services was N718.3m.

Revenue generated from fixed wire services was N385.1m while telecom service providers spent N841.7m on operating cost for the service. They spent N61.3m on capital expenditure.

Internet Service Providers generated N92.1bn and spent N71.2bn of the revenue on operating cost.

Operators providing Value Added Services earned N40.7bn revenue. They however spent N14.9bn on operating cost. Their CAPEX was N417.3m.

The total revenue generated from collocation and infrastructure Sharing by all the service providers was N3.2bn while N3.18bn was operating cost incurred in the course of providing the service.

Operators in the industry categorized as others generated N5.85bn revenue and spent N6bn. They also spent N524m on capital expenditure.

The report revealed that in 2022, Foreign Direct Investment dropped to $399.9m from $753m FDI recorded in 2021.

The NCC said, “Capital Inflow (Foreign Direct Investment) into the Nigerian Telecoms Industry in Year 2022 was approximately $399,905,531.38 against ,$753,044,446.35.

 Oluwatobi Seton, 28, of Bloomington, Indiana, has been sentenced to nearly 5.5 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to court documents, Seton conspired with partners in Nigeria to obtain unemployment and other benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic from state and federal governments by falsely applying for such benefits using the stolen identities of others.  Seton and her co-conspirators obtained personal identifiable information of their victims, which they used to open GoBank accounts and obtain debit cards. The conspirators then submitted false and fraudulent employment applications to unemployment agencies throughout the United States in the victims’ names and had the stolen benefits monies deposited into their fraudulent GoBank accounts and onto debit cards. Seton then used fake driver’s licenses in the victims’ names to access the proceeds of the fraud scheme. At the time of her arrest, Seton had over 1,400 GoBank cards and ten driver’s licenses with different names in her possession.

In total, the conspiracy resulted in at least $5,475,459.00 in actual and attempted losses to state unemployment offices and other state and federal agencies: Seton kept a portion of the proceeds for herself and sent the remainder to her conspirators, including her business partners in Nigeria. Investigators seized over $550,000 in cash and GoBank accounts linked to the scheme during the investigation.

“This international criminal enterprise conspired to steal millions of dollars meant to help our citizens as we fought through the unprecedented pandemic,” said United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, Zachary A. Myers. “Fraudsters like this defendant who sought to exploit the urgent need to provide pandemic relief must be held accountable. I commend the work of our partners at the FBI, Bloomington Police Department, and Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, along with our federal prosecutors, to identify criminals like this defendant and ensure that they pay the price for their crimes.”

“Profiting from programs meant to help those in need is a despicable and unacceptable crime in and of itself. But this defendant took it a step further and stole identities to perpetrate this fraud and caused those victims immeasurable time in an effort to clear their names,” said FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Herbert J. Stapleton. “The FBI and our local law enforcement partners will continue to identify and aggressively pursue those who commit fraud and ensure they are held accountable for their actions.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bloomington Police Department, and Monroe County Sheriff’s Office investigated this case. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Court Chief Judge, Tanya Walton Pratt. Judge Pratt also ordered that Seton be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for 1 year following her release from federal prison and pay restitution in the amount of $4,309,027.00.

U.S. Attorney Myers thanked Assistant United States Attorney MaryAnn T. Mindrum, who prosecuted this case.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID‑19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID‑19  can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form

[https://www.justice.gov/]