Corruption files

Here are a look through of some of the supposedly alleged corruption cases making the rounds currently in the system. All i can say at this point is "God help us".  

Nigerians please we need to stop this abuse of power and position and just do the right thing and improve this country for ourselves and our generations yet unborn.... JCGOLD 

• NIGERIAN WONDER: N27bn pension thief gets N750,000 fine

• Ezekwesili asks FG to render oil revenue account

• Bank to discontinue London suit against Capital Oil

• Accused oil marketers’ settlement talks with EFCC fail

• Oni asks court to revoke MTN licence

NIGERIAN WONDER: N27bn pension thief gets N750,000 fine

Surprise  pervaded a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja  on Monday when  a  director of the Police Pension Office, Mr. John  Yusuf, was handed down only a two-year jail sentence for conniving with others to defraud  the office and pensioners of N27.2bn.

Yusuf admitted to stealing N2bn of the money.

But  he would not spend the two years in jail as  Justice Abubakar Talba gave  him an option of fine in the sum of N750,000 for the three offences he  pleaded guilty to.

Each of the three offences attracts a two-year jail  term.

The sentences run cuncurrently.

 Yusuf, who by his sentence becomes the first to be jailed in the ongoing trial of persons  involved  in the N38.8bn Police pension scam, will however forfeit 32 houses in the FCT  and Gombe as well as  N325m which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said were proceeds from the crime.

Many in the courtroom openly expressed their amazement with Talba’s judgment.

The exchanges among the gathering, which included lawyers, journalists, relatives of   all the  accused persons and observers, were  loud enough for the court clerk to call everybody to order.

The lenient nature of the sentence was underscored by the reaction of Yusuf’s lawyer, Maiyaki Bala, who said his client was ready to pay the fine immediately after the sentencing.

With EFCC lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), noticeably close to tears, Bala told journalists that they intended  to take up the option of fine immediately.

There were indications that Yusuf, who appeared calm and confident in a light green kaftan with a matching green cap, made the payment before leaving the premises of the court, located in Gudu.

Ezekwesili asks FG to render oil revenue account

A former Vice-President of the World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has asked the Federal Government to render a full account of oil revenues since 2007.

The former World Bank VP stated this in a statement in Abuja on Monday.

She said the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, failed to address issues she raised in her lecture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Ezekwesili, who is also former Minister of education said, “I have already asked the Federal Government to a public debate on the facts raised in my speech.

“Such an open debate of facts and figures of oil revenue since 2007 would help situate public accountability as the center point of our democracy.”

Ezekwesili had in a convocation lecture in the UNN said that the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and the President Goodluck Jonathan administrations squandered the foreign reserve of $67bn left by the Olusegun Obasanjo government.

But Maku at a press conference on Sunday described the former education minister’s statement as factually incorrect.

Maku had said, “The statement by the former World Bank vice-president that the governments of Presidents Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan have squandered $67bn in reserves (including $45 bn in external reserves and $22 bn in the Excess Crude Account) left by the Obasanjo administration at the end of the May 2007 is factually incorrect.

“At the end of May 2007, Nigeria’s gross reserves stood at $43.13bn, comprising external reserves of $31.5bn, $9.43bn in the Excess Crude Account and $2.18bn in the Federal Government’s savings”.

But in her statement, Ezekwesili insisted that the government should come up with a full disclosure of oil revenues.

She said, “I remain resolute in demanding full disclosure and accountability by the Federal Government on the issues of poor management of oil revenues, especially the Excess Crude Account and the Foreign Reserve Account.

Bank to discontinue London suit against Capital Oil

A Lagos High Court on Monday gave Access Bank Plc 48 hours ultimatum to discontinue a suit it filed at a London court against Capital Oil and Gas Ltd and its Managing Director, Mr. Ifeanyi Uba.

Justice Okon Abang, while ruling on Uba’s application, ordered that the suit be discontinued, saying it constituted disrespect for an earlier order granted by the court.

Abang ordered that the notice of discontinuance filed at the English High Court be exhibited before his court at the next adjourned date on February 4.

The order to discontinue the London case had arisen from a disputed N10bn loan facility the bank claimed to have granted Capital Oil that is before the Lagos court.

The judge expressed disappointment at the step taken by the bank to have instituted another suit before the English court, which obtained a worldwide freezing order against the applicants.

He therefore held that both applicants (Capital Oil and Uba) were at liberty to seek damages and pursue a contempt suit against the bank’s management.

Abang said, “The defendants are hereby given 48 hours to file notice of discontinuance of all processes before the English court. I hereby restrain them from enforcing the order made by the English court against the assets and business interest of the applicants (Capital Oil and Uba).

“The applicants are at liberty to seek leave of the court to commence contempt proceedings against the respondent (Access Bank and Coscharis Motors Ltd).”

The English court on November 9, 2012 had ordered the freezing of the asset worth $133.5m belonging to Capital Oil and Uba in England and Wales.

The English court’s order was said to be contrary to Abang’s order on the same day, restraining the bank and  Coscharis Motors from “interfering with the applicants’ properties and or business interest, pending the final determination of this suit”.

Uba’s counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), had argued that the freezing order obtained from England was “an attempt to undermine the judicial process in Nigeria”.

Uba, in his suit, is seeking among other reliefs, a declaration that there was no “privity or contract and or direct customer/banker relationship between him along with his company and Access Bank”.

Both Access Bank and Coscharis Motors had however urged the court to decline jurisdiction on the matter.

Accused oil marketers’ settlement talks with EFCC fail

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday told a Lagos High Court, Ikeja that its settlement talks with two oil marketers indicted for oil subsidy fraud had broken down.

At the resumed hearing of the matter before Justice Lateefat Okunnu, the anti-corruption agency’s counsel, Tayo Olukotun informed the court that the negotiation process had failed.

He said, “My Lord, I wish to inform the court that negotiation between the parties have broken down. We were informed on Wednesday, January 24 of this development.

“The defendants have filed a notice of preliminary objection, we would like to respond to this and would be applying for a short time to respond.”

The accused, Sunday Bamidele and  Abiodun Bankole , charged alongside their firm, A.B.S Investment Company Ltd, had at the previous proceedings told they were on talks with the EFCC in order to settle the matter out of court.

They were on October 15, 2012 arraigned on 18 counts of  obtaining about N1.3bn from the Federal Government under the fuel subsidy scheme by false pretence, conspiracy, forgery and uttering .

Oni asks court to revoke MTN licence

National Vice-Chairman, South West, of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Segun Oni, has asked an Abuja Federal High Court to order the Nigerian Communications Commission to revoke the licence of MTN Communications Limited.

Oni also asked the court to order MTN to pay him N150bn as general damages.

MTN and NCC are defendants in the suit.

Oni, a former governor of Ekiti State, accused MTN of frustrating investigations carried out by the National Judicial Council into the allegation of misconduct he leveled against some members of the Governorship Appeal Tribunal, Ilorin, which sacked him from office in 2010.

In the suit filed by his counsel, Mr. Olusegun Ilori, the former governor said MTN provided inadequate and incomplete call data records to the security agencies, which in turn transmitted the same to the Special Investigative Panel of the NJC for investigation.

He averred that the records MTN transmitted to the security agencies were different from those which the company released to the Police Area Commander, “Area G” Command, Ogba, Lagos.

Oni also accused MTN of frustrating his petition by refusing to provide the call logs spanning the period under investigation, particularly call records for the months of September, October and November 2010, on the excuse that its network capacity for data storage did not extend beyond three months.

He alleged that the call data records forwarded by MTN to the NJC panel covered only that of December 2010.

Oni informed the court that an MTN official, Rotimi Odusola, appeared before the NJC panel to deny the call data records the firm earlier released to the police, on which he (Oni) had anchored his complaint of misconduct against some members of the tribunal.

Following the MTN’s action, the PDP stalwart said the NJC panel declared the call logs earlier released to the police as lacking authenticity and as such, of no evidential value.

He averred that MTN’s actions constituted a serious breach of the duty imposed on it by the NCC Act, and undermined his quest to seek justice.