Key players in the Nigerian justice system have scored the courts, lawyers and the government low over the prolonged trial of some former state governors, ministers and other Nigerians for acts of corruption several years after they were arraigned in courts.

In some cases, the prosecution of the former elected officials, especially state chief executives by the anti-corruption agencies, have lasted for more than a decade without any hope of deciding their fate in the near future.

In fact, a reasonable number of the accused have died without the cases of alleged corruption brought against them concluded in any law court.

There are also others, whose cases are still pending in court but have been elected into the National Assembly (NASS) or serving as cabinet members in the current administration.

When LEADERSHIP Sunday sought the views of some eminent lawyers and members of civil society organisations (CSOs) on the fight against corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the non-conclusion and conviction of the former governors, they blamed their lacklustre prosecution on judges, lawyers and the government.

A breakdown of the former governors whose cases have not been concluded showed that the North Central Zone has four, North West (4), North East (3), South East (5), South South (4) and South West (3).
Speaking with LEADERSHIP Sunday on the issue, the director of a Lagos-based CSO, Justice and Human Rights Reforms Initiatives (JHRRI), David Babajide, criticised lawyers for significantly contributing to delays in prosecuting criminal cases in court.

Babajide accused some of the country’s senior lawyers of facilitating corruption by undermining the prosecution of corrupt individuals through “orders of interlocutory or perpetual injunctions” that favour those embezzling public funds.

He said that in developed societies, lawyers are obligated to uphold the law above all individuals regardless of their status noting however that in Nigeria, many lawyers have placed wealthy and powerful individuals above the law.

Babagide said, “Several senior lawyers have been manipulating the criminal justice system to the detriment of society. They do this by using their expertise to assist clients in ways that violate legal standards.

“This behaviour contravenes paragraph 15 (2) of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, which specifies that: In representing a client, a lawyer must adhere strictly to the law, regardless of any contrary instruction from the client. If the client insists on breaking the law, the lawyer must withdraw their services.”

Babajide therefore called on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to investigate and discipline ethically-challenged lawyers found to be involved in manipulating the judiciary.

In his reaction, a professor of law, Ernest Ojukwu (SAN), expressed sadness at the failure of the Nigerian criminal justice system to indeed dispense fair and timely justice.

Prof Ojukwu said while the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA or laws for states) was designed to expedite criminal proceedings, its implementation has faced various obstacles.

He identified excessive adjournments, poor investigations, gaps in prosecution, lack of technology and adequate infrastructure, resource constraints, and inadequate training of judicial officers as some of the reasons why criminal cases linger in court.

Prof Ojukwu stressed that for the problems of protracted trials to be solved, there must be rigorous adherence to the provisions of ACJA on trial timelines and a limit on the number of adjournments.
He said, “Courts must introduce or strengthen pre-trial case management conferences to identify issues early, streamline the scope of the trial and set clear timelines.

“We must implement electronic filing systems and digital case records to reduce paperwork. We must ensure law enforcement officials receive ongoing training in investigative techniques, case organisation and evidence management and encourage police and prosecutors to collaborate from the outset, ensuring thorough investigations and well-prepared cases before reaching the courts.

“Recruiting and regularly training more judicial officers and adequately staffing courts can help address chronic backlogs. Judges can be more assertive in holding parties accountable for delays that lack valid justification.”

On his part, human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), said the problem of delay in criminal justice administration is a combination of several factors such as lack of funding of the judiciary “whereby we still have the same number of courts, to handle the upsurge in crimes and criminalities.”

Adegboruwa pointed out the lack of infrastructure and facilities as a significant issue. “For instance, there are situations where the court is ready to proceed with a case, with lawyers prepared and waiting, but no vehicle is available to transport the suspect from prison custody to the courtroom. Additionally, there are times when the suspect is present, but there is no power supply in the courtroom, leading to the adjournment of the case for that reason alone.

“In other cases, the investigating police officer is unavailable due to other official duties or outright transfer away from the trial court’s jurisdiction.

“However, the most prevalent of these factors is the lack of judicial personnel to handle the deluge of cases being heaped upon the courts daily. ACJA cannot cure all these issues.

“The search for effective criminal justice administration should, therefore, be holistic so that we do not achieve success in one area, and then failure in other areas still holds us down.

“Criminal cases should generally be given priority attention, given that the life and liberty of the defendants are involved and the cost to society of the criminal act and its prosecution,” he said.

Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, speaks on the state’s annual budget performance, the gains of his administration’s focus on agribusiness and his focus ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

YOU recently presented the 2025 Oyo State Budget. What can you say about the budget?

I have the responsibility to make life meaningful for the people of Oyo State. But of course, you have impact from whatever is happening at the federal level. I cannot, from Oyo State, dictate the fiscal policies for the country. I don’t determine the exchange rate of naira to the dollar, but I will have to get bitumen in US dollars to tar roads in Oyo State. That is how these things are linked. However, for us in this state, you can go back to even 2019, we came in on May 29. Immediately, we realigned the budget and you can also check previous administrations and check their budget performance, which used to be about 30 to 35 percent.

When we came in 2019, we brought down the figure and by the time we got to the end of the year, we improved the budget performance to about 45 to 48 percent. But our first full budget as an administration was in 2020 and two months into the implementation of that budget, COVID-19 hit the world. At the end of the year, we still achieved almost about 65 percent. From that point, we have been performing up to about 70 percent. What it means is that if you look at the Oyo State budget, whatever you see in there, you have a 70 percent chance that they will get done. That is why, for us, you will notice that we have had stability in terms of how our projects are executed. And, in terms of liveability how our people are living, we are not concentrating projects within a certain group only. Market women, artisans and others are all doing far better than before.

When we talk about inflation, people will go out there and be brandishing figures and be saying that food inflation in Oyo State is high and all of that. But recently, I was coming from the Passing Out Parade of the Amotekun Rangers in Iseyin and I decided to stop by Psaltery Farms to see what they were doing and I passed through Ibarapa to check the progress of the Ido-Eruwa road. We saw many trailers of cassava not heading to anywhere in Oyo State but going to neighbouring states. What does that mean? It means that you have freedom of movement in Nigeria, so we cannot say that people should not move freely.

After the experience, I told my people that, now, we are producing for all these states and people will tell me there is food inflation in Oyo State. So, I said they must return to produce posts. I am not saying that outsiders should not come here to buy cassava, but if you are taking cassava from Oyo State to another state, it means we are doing some things right here and you must pay. We will tax them. But we have not gotten to that point.

Let me also give you another example; some days ago, I met a farmer and I asked him. How come what we are producing in high quantity here have not saturated our markets in Oyo State and he told me that farmers are selling to those from neighbouring states, because they are paying more and things like that. It means the farmers are making more money, but we are subsidising land clearing for farmers and providing other benefits. So, I said to them that we will all sit down and agree on how Oyo State would benefit first and foremost before other states.

It is a free market and we need to think things out with our farmers. We give you inputs and subsidy on land clearing and it is time for harvest, you want to go to the highest bidder wherever they may come from? No. That is causing dislocation for us. There are different schemes we are looking at, but the most important thing is accurate data on what is going on. Once we can wrap our heads around the data, we can think out the best solution.

Many people have been talking about the state of the education sector in Oyo State. Would you say you are doing well and are you happy as far as education sector is concerned in the state?

The policies and practices in the past towards infrastructure development in the education sector were faulty. But we have corrected that now. We carried out a study which discovered that the infrastructure deficit in education was around N60 billion. We were spending about N3 billion yearly both on our own counterpart and UBEC funding. If you have a N60 billion gap and you are spending N3 billion, it will take you 20 years to close that gap. That was why this year (2024), we were able to pull through. We validated those data and I appointed Suraj Abiodun Tiamy as a Special Adviser on Education Intervention, because, to bridge that gap, we must be spending N10 billion to N15 billion yearly. That will allow us to bridge the gap in four years to turn things around and we are well on track. We are trying to rearrange our resources, such that we can do more for the education sector.

I should also add that it is not for fun that since I came into power, in every budget year, we have exceeded the 20 percent UNESCO recommended figure for education. Education is in three layers – the primary, secondary and tertiary. As for the tertiary, I can say that we are doing very well and I am satisfied with what we are doing in that direction. For secondary and primary, we still have a lot more to do.

The deaths of 35 children in a stampede during a private funfair organised in Ibadan last December has remained a topical issue. What is your reaction and what is the state of things now?

When I look at the children, I think in my mind that it would have been better if we go and those children are still here with us since some of us have achieved some things. Among them, there were potential presidents, ministers, governors and all that, but those dreams are dead. We had potential inventors among them. So, looking at all of that, I said that celebrating birthday should be the last thing after that tragedy. People may think death happens, but this is totally different because of the people involved; they were very innocent and also because of the fact that this is something that could have been avoided if those involved had played their roles well and lived responsibly. That is why I said there won’t be birthday for me this year (2024), because we are seriously mourning. It’s very sad.

You have continued to use the word avoidable. Can you expatiate a little bit on this?

It was avoidable. If the organisers and all that were involved had done what they were supposed to do, it would not have happened. No crowd control, no contact with the security agencies. There was no plan in place. And when this started, the Commissioner for Health sent me the message and the Chairman of the Hospital Management Board, but it was already too late. By that time, corpses of those children were already going to the mortuary. So, it is just so unfortunate and it is something that we have to really learn from.

In 2024, two major avoidable incidents that led to loss of lives happened. On 16th of January, 2024, there was an explosion in Bodija, which was caused by some people who stored explosives in a residential area, and the residents had been seeing these things. Meanwhile, we have said if you see something, say something and put the blame on the authority if we cannot do something about it. Also, two weeks to the end of the year, the stampede incident came up.

You took some steps after the Bodija explosion to provide shelter for those affected and carried out an integrity test on the remaining houses to see how some could be fixed or demolished for rebuilding. But what is the latest development on the matter?

After the explosion, we took those steps immediately. The people that allowed the bad incident to occur are still being investigated. The wheel of justice grinds slowly, but I can assure you that nobody has been let off the hook. The security agencies are doing their work to ensure that justice is served.

And for those whose properties were affected, I will say it openly that we took the Nigerian Society of Engineers to the site. They did their report. I mentioned the fact that the affected people would be supported, and not compensated. There is a difference. Yes, it is their government and if anything happens, the government can come in to support. But when people have entitled positions, it is not good enough.

According to the evaluation report carried out by the NSE, the destroyed properties are worth over N3 billion. I said let us look for over N3 billion for them so that they can get things moving again for themselves. But some people came back and said that they heard that the Presidency gave Oyo State a particular amount of money, about N5 billion. And, I said to them, you can’t run the government for us.

We have already inaugurated a relief disbursement committee comprising residents of the affected area, NSE, NBA and NUJ representatives. We have also done other things such as awarding contracts to fix all the roads in the axis.

Looking back at 2024, what are the highlights of what you were able to achieve?

I didn’t want to come back into government in 2023. It took me much time to think about this and decide. You know there is an insinuation that governors do not do well in their second terms; that they only retain the office to enjoy themselves and all that. I am sure that the people of Oyo State were afraid that I would act the same way.

So, when I became convinced that I would continue with the things we had been doing, I approached the people to give me another opportunity to serve them for a second term. The way I will look at it is that the people gave me the opportunity. From this media chat, I want to know from the people what they expect us to do, which we are yet to touch or we are not looking at. That is exactly why I am here. I don’t want people to tell me what I want to hear.

I have said it several times that I don’t want to be remembered for construction of roads, this and that. These are not the legacies I want to leave. I want to be remembered for the institutions we are building and how they are impacting the lives of the people and how they will guarantee that Oyo State will continue to experience good governance well into the foreseeable future.

Some people are complaining from the Circular Road end about land-grabbing. Are you a land grabber?

I am not a land grabber. But I am a firm believer in the saying that it is only an idiot that will continue to do the same thing the same way and be expecting a different result. Who are the people behind the accusations against me? I can say it boldly that it is the land grabbers that are calling me a land grabber.

We approached some people that we needed to relocate them because of the airport upgrade we are trying to do, and before we knew it, they started calling me names in the social media. Even this BCOS where we are hosting this programme, in 1982 in this same studio, I came here for a programme that was called Word Power. Then, there used to be an estate for the workers here. Fast forward to when I became governor, it had already become something else. I asked myself what do we do? I felt we should use the place as a first example of how we can mobilise private money to build infrastructure. Today, we have the Lere Adigun GRA. Men and women have brought their money and they are living there. Did I grab the BCOS land? If you see a plot belonging to Seyi Makinde in here, bring it out with proof and I will sign it off to anyone who does so.

The concept of the Circular Road is yet to be understood by people. They thought it would be like Iwo Road to Beere. No. It will be the very first motorway in Nigeria. It was because of that misconception that some people are saying they want the Circular Road but they don’t want the corridor, because they thought that from the land close to the circular road, some will bring their driveway into the road. We can’t be spending this kind of money to build a road like Iwo Road to Beere. No. We are building a motorway not just for Ibadan but for the majority of the local government areas around that place. The 32km stretch from TECH-U to Badeku will only have two exit points. If you like, put your estate where you don’t have exit points, it only means you won’t have access to the road. So, the concept of how you want to develop the place requires that you must get a corridor.

And, it would be a road that you will have a minimum speed limit; nobody would go less than 80km per hour. They will break the law even if they are going on 20 or 30km per hour. When you want to do something like that, you need people to know that there is a need for a corridor.

People are saying that many of the places you are opening up are not for the downtrodden, as poor people don’t have access to them. What is happening?

What is the concept of development? Do we want to be like the crab to say, look, if I cannot get up, no one should get up? I believe we are not supposed to use poverty to flatten everyone. I don’t think that is what we want to do. In order to expand your economy, you have to provide opportunities for the downtrodden to also rise above poverty, but you won’t play politics with them by saying, oh, all of these places should be given to you because you don’t have money. No. You only create opportunities for them such that they can take themselves out of poverty.

People don’t seem to understand your standpoint on local government autonomy. Are you criticising the judgment because you are in the PDP or what?

On the local government autonomy matter, I am still of the firm belief that the brouhaha is just a distraction, because in Oyo State, the state government fixes federal roads. We did a complete reconstruction linking Oyo to Oke-Ogun zone through the Oyo-Fasola-Iseyin road. We spent N10 billion at that time. It used to take two hours from Iseyin to Oyo but it will take you about 25 minutes now. Our people are the ones plying the road because, for us, it has a big impact on our economy. The ordinary people don’t know whether a particular road is for state or federal or local government. Those creating the dichotomy are the ones who will love to benefit. I still insist that this is a convoluted arrangement.

Nigeria runs a federal system where we have three units federating instead of two. In Oyo State, before my time, they created LCDAs. The constitutionally recognised LGAs for Oyo State are 33, but the government of that time created 34 LCDAs. When I campaigned in 2019, I said that I would scrap the LCDAs and I was going to do it because I mentioned it when I was going around campaigning.

But when I came in, some elders and leaders came to me and said, “Look, we have LCDAs as development centres; let us leave them so that development could spread. Anyway, the vision of our forefathers that negotiated Nigeria’s federal arrangements was that the regions or the states would have control over their local governments. If in Oyo State, like the previous administration decided, we want to have 67 Local Development Centres, why can’t we have that? But the constitution of Nigeria says you cannot have more than 33 in the constitution. What is the uniqueness of that 33?

 The Attorney-General of the Federation is threatening governors that do not comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling. What’s your opinion?

The Supreme Court ruling said the Federal Government will pay directly to the local government. So, are governors the Federal Government? Why is the Federal Government not paying directly to the local governments? Did I not mention it that they would have issues to deal with? Are they not having issues to deal with now?

You have been vocal about local government areas being productive and not overly relying on federal allocation. What would you say the state government is doing to increase the productivity of the local government?

When we fixed the road between Moniya and Iseyin, you have the Akinyele LG in there; you also have Iseyin and part of Afijio LGs. We now have Fasola Agribusiness Hub already up and we have moved on to Eruwa Farm Estate. All of those will empower the local governments around the areas. So, once we are fixing our infrastructure, the local governments also benefit as they have things to do. Let us also take from Iseyin to Ogbomoso the state government spent about N42bn to build the road from the scratch. Now, I said we can have trailers pass through that place, but you must weigh them and they must pay. I have told the Iseyin and Ogbomoso Local Government chairmen to construct weigh bridges at both locations and the state will also contribute money to the project. Then, they can collect revenue from the trailers that will ply the road and at the end of the month, the LGAs can take 70 percent while the state government will take 30 percent. My position still remains that our problem is not that we don’t have resources. We were all in this country when a former Head of State said our problem is not money but how to spend it. At that particular time, the rest of the world was developing their infrastructure that would serve them for the next 50 years.

Now, our problem is lack of infrastructure that will expand our economy for the next 50 years, that will support what we are doing so that the children we are giving birth to now can have a place to thrive. So, I don’t have any problem with the Federal Government. But I will always speak the truth.

You recently commissioned the Ibadan Hybrid Power Plant. What other efforts are you making to make Oyo State self-sufficient in terms of electricity?

Yes, we started the IPP and we are discussing a 500 megawatts power project and it’s a lot of investment. You need conducive atmosphere for investors to come in. People think government’s pocket is limitless, but that is not true.

We have started and I commissioned the first phase of the IPP project a few weeks back. We already have a proof of concept on the next project and we now have interests coming on board.

Do you want to become Nigeria’s president in 2027?

I have a big work that the people of Oyo State have given to me. I have done some and still have quite a lot to do. My focus is not to become president in 2027, but to deliver on the mandate given to me by Oyo State people.

[Nigerian Tribune]

Ogaga Dickson, a Sapele-born leader of an armed robbery gang, who, along with his members killed a Divisional Police Officer in Delta State Police Command, has disclosed how he joined a gang of thieves before he upgraded his criminal activity to involve snatching of vehicles at gun point.

Dickson also spoke on the robbery operation that led to an encounter with the police, resulting in the killing of the DPO of Agbarho Division, CSP Hassan Jega, on October 14, 2024, saying his gang knew when the police officer fell during the gunfire exchange, but didn’t know he was a DPO.

However, operatives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Nigeria Police Force proved their mettle in intelligence gathering and tracking suspects as they arrested Dickson on November 1, 2024, less than three weeks after the killing of the DPO. Also apprehended was the buyer of the stolen and snatched vehicles, Chibike Umeh.

The suspected cop killer was among the suspects paraded on Monday, January 6, by the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, to showcase the achievements of the police in cracking criminal gangs and arresting suspects.

Parading the suspect, the Force PRO disclosed that Dickson, aged 35, was the leader of a notorious armed robbery syndicate responsible for the death of the DPO, Agbarho Division in Delta, CSP Jega, who was killed during a fierce gun battle between a team of police officers, led by the deceased DPO, and the assailants.

ACP Adejobi said that the operatives had earlier stormed the gang’s hideout and engaged them in a fierce gun duel, leading to the neutralisation of four of the gang members.

He added that the police recovered one AK-47 rifle, one English pistol, one locally-made pistol, ammunition of various calibres and six exotic vehicles.

In an interview, Dickson narrated how he got into the crime world: “I was a welder before my friend, John Linus, introduced me to stealing cars from where they are parked. I met him in Sapele. I had money issues in my welding job because I joined a welder like me to work. My salary was reduced and I left. Before the issue, I had met John. We closed from work one day and I was with John when his car broke down. We helped him and we exchanged numbers. We became friends, and he would give me money whenever I called him for financial help.

“When I lost my welding job, I called John and told him to help me get another one. He invited me to come to Warri where he was domiciled. He asked whether I could drive and I replied in the affirmative. He said he wanted to give me car to deliver somewhere.

“The first time, John didn’t let me know it was a stolen vehicle. It was the second time that he opened up to me that he was using master key to open parked cars at night and steal them. I had no choice but to follow him because I had no job again then and I believed something good would come out of the operations.

“After about two months, I was provoked by the way John was spending the money he was making from sale of the stolen vehicles. I was thinking one would not be able to have anything in life if John continued to spend lavishly in clubs after sale of the vehicles. Before then, he had taught me how to use the master key. He had also introduced me to buyers of the stolen vehicles. So, I left him and started the robbery operation on my own.

“An Ijaw friend, Ebimoh, joined me. He was staying in Bayelsa State, but I knew him in Sapele. In November 2023, we started stealing parked cars in Sapele and Warri, like we did when I was with John. After some time, Ebimoh asked me whether the buyers would be interested in exotic vehicles. He pointed out that a master key could not be for such vehicles, and I told him that it meant we would need guns to snatch them from their owners. I agreed with his idea.

“After some days, Ebimoh left and returned at night with three guns–an AK-47 rifle, an English pistol and a locally-made pistol. He also brought three fully-loaded AK-47 magazines and 40 ‘seeds’ (bullets) for the pistols. That was how we started car snatching in January 2024.

How we carried out our first armed robbery operation

“It was in Abraka that we snatched the first car at 9pm. Our style was to check the number of people in the targeted vehicle. If they were more than two, we would not accost them, but if it was only the owner or he had a female friend, we would follow them to their destination.

“At Abraka, we snatched Lexus 350 Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) at gun point. The vehicle owner was with his girlfriend. We followed him in my Toyota Corolla car which I stole with master key. When he got to the gate of his house, we went to him before the gateman could open it. Immediately the vehicle owner saw us, he just came down with his girlfriend, raising his hands in submission when he saw our guns.

“We collected the vehicle key, his phone, and that of his girlfriend. I knew that he could demobilise the vehicle’s tracking device through his  phone. We left for Warri, and I searched the vehicle, found the tracker and demobilised it. I had learnt about removing tracking devices in vehicles, so I did it effortlessly. I also did it with cars stolen from where they were parked.

“I sold the Lexus 350 for N9 million to the person later arrested by the IRT. Ebimoh and I shared it equally after removing money for fuel and other expenses. After the operation, Ebimoh, who had prepared his papers, left Nigeria for Canada, so I went to get a friend, Gabriel, who also called one Samson that he knew to join us. In the second operation, we snatched a Mercedes Benz GLE SUV. The buyer paid N10 million.

“My last operation was in October 2024, and it landed me in trouble. We snatched one Toyota Hilux from the owner in Sapele and went to Agbarho in Warri. I was searching the vehicle to remove the tracker when Gabriel and Samson who were on guard sighted a police van. They quickly alerted me.

“As the police van approached us, Gabriel and Samson started shooting at them. I ran into the bush nearby. The police and my gang members had an exchange of gunfire, and my gang members’ bullet hit one of the police officers. At that time, we didn’t know it was the DPO. When the operatives noticed that one of them had been hit, they retreated. We quickly got inside the Hilux and drove off.

“We sold the Hilux for N10.5 million for another buyer, a woman. She knew we snatched it. I knew her to be a buyer of stolen vehicles. She was the one used to arrest me.

How I was arrested

“Before the last operation, I had been preparing to travel out to Canada. After snatching the Hilux, I relaxed from the armed robbery operation and my papers were almost ready. Before that time too, I had snatched one Lexus 330. I sold the Corolla I was using to someone in Bayelsa. The woman who bought the Hilux asked me to sell the Lexus for her. When my papers were complete to travel, I went to bury the guns used by my gang and went to Bayelsa, planning to take flight from there to Lagos State.

“I asked the person who wanted to collect the Lexus from me to meet me the following morning. Unknown to me, he was arrested with the Hilux, and the woman was also arrested. She called me and said she would come for the Lexus in Bayelsa. However, it was IRT operatives who came, and I was arrested.”

The buyer of the stolen and snatched vehicles, Umeh, who hails from Abia State and aged 39, also narrated his involvement thus: “I live in Enugu State. I was into jewelry sales. I started buying stolen vehicles two years ago. One of my customers, Kingsley, who was a military man, linked me with John Linus. I don’t know if he is still in the job. I told him that a friend needed a vehicle and the ones we were seeing were very expensive. That was when he told me that he had a friend who would sell for me at a cheap price. He opened up to me that the vehicles sold by John were being stolen through the use of master key.

“Kingsley was the one who got a man to register the vehicle and prepare the documents. When I spoke with John on the need for a Toyota Corolla car, he took me to Warri and sold the car for N1 million. I sold it to the person who needed it for N1.8 million and gave the soldier N200,000 as his share and N100,000 to get necessary documents. I took N500,000.

“That made me take up car sale business. At a time, John was arrested, I stopped buying. Last year, Dickson came to me and asked if needed a vehicle. I told him that I needed them. He started bringing Toyota Corolla cars to me once in a while, and I was buying them.

“When he brought an exotic vehicle, I noticed that it couldn’t have been removed with a master key from where it was parked, but I bought the first and second one. After that, I gave him a video call and I saw him carrying an AK-47 rifle while sitting on a chair; he was smoking. That was when I stopped buying from him. I had yet to sell the two vehicles I bought from him when I was arrested in Anambra.

“There was one Toyota Corolla he gave me and I took it to a painter. I was accosted by Anambra police who said I was selling stolen vehicles. I didn’t know Dickson had been arrested.”

Sunday Tribune gathered that Dickson’s other gang members, Gabriel and Samson, had also been arrested by the Delta Police Command.

The United Kingdom (UK) has over the years experienced an increase in its migration rate and this has led the nation to implement significant changes to its visa system, which will ultimately affect employers and prospective international employees. 

In this article are some of the modifications made to its work visa.

1. Increased Salary Thresholds

As of April 2024, the minimum salary requirement for the Skilled Worker visa in the UK rose from £26,200 to £38,700. The Skilled Worker visa refers to the main work visa for overseas nationals in the UK. It allows employers to sponsor non-UK nationals to work in the UK in eligible, skilled roles. 

Applicants are now expected to meet this new threshold or the specific salary dictated by their position, whichever is higher. 

2. Replacement of the Shortage Occupation List

The Shortage Occupation List is a list that shows roles/professions that are in short supply in the UK. The jobs that appear on this list are given some benefits within the UK Immigration Rules to make it easier for employers to hire employees through the Skilled Worker visa route. 

The Shortage Occupation List (SOL) has now been replaced with the Immigration Salary List (ISL) since April 2024. This comprises roles deemed appropriate for a discounted salary threshold. 

3. Adoption of Updated Occupational Codes

The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) is a coding framework used in the UK to classify occupations, enabling comparisons of occupations across different datasets. 

The UK Home Office has transitioned to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Skills Occupational Codes 2020 system, replacing the 2010 version. This update necessitates employers to reassess and possibly adjust the occupational codes used for sponsoring employees, ensuring alignment with the new classification system. 

4. Restrictions on Dependants for Care Workers

Care workers and senior care workers under the Health and Care Visa are no longer permitted to bring dependants to the UK effective March 2024. 

Additionally, only Care Quality Commission (CQC)-registered providers in England can sponsor Health and Care Visa applicants. 

5. Expansion of the ETA Scheme

The United Kingdom Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) is an advance travel permission required from foreign nationals who intend to visit or transit the United Kingdom without a visa.

The UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme expanded in November 2024 to include all non-visa nationals except Europeans, who will be included by April 2025. The scheme requires applicants to hold a valid national passport and meet specific criteria.

In summary, the UK’s recent alterations to its work visa system reflect a strategic shift towards attracting higher-skilled labour while managing migration numbers.