Tag: Nigeria

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Christopher Musa has said that Okuama community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State is still not accessible because the army is conducting a cordon-and-search. 

 

Appearing on Arise TV on Wednesday, April 3, Musa said the operation is still ongoing and the army wouldn’t want people to come in and be shot or mistaken for antagonists. 

 

He said; 

 

“When we finish the cordon and search operations (which is searching every nook and cranny within the community); because we know they have a lot of weapons bought from crude oil theft.

“During the disarmament exercise that was conducted, a lot of them didn’t hand over their weapons. And also, due to closeness to reviverine areas with other countries, they’ve found ways to bring in weapons.
“Their access to weapons made them able to perpetrate the crime. It’s for us to thoroughly clean the community to ensure no weapons or explosives are left behind and no one is hiding.

“At the end of it (cordon-and-search), the communities will go back and rebuild. We’re working together with the community; nobody is doing anything to infringe on their rights. Also, since it’s an ongoing operation, we wouldn’t want them to come in and be shot or mistaken for antagonists. We’re duty-bound to protect them. As soon as we’re done with the cordon-and-search, they’ll go back.

“Those communities (residents) know the criminals. And some of them benefit from these acts of criminality. If they say they don’t know them or are not aware of them, they’re far from the truth. Investigations will unravel this. The cordon-and-search is temporary and will be over soon.”

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has reportedly sacked its top prosecutors for allegedly receiving bribes to sabotage the Malibu OPL 245 fraud case.

 

The Gazette reported the Mr. Offem Uket who earlier handled cases involving former federal lawmaker, Senator Stella Oduah, Peter Nwaoboshi and Sambo Dasuki, was one of the sacked prosecutors.

 

Officials managing the situation said that the EFCC authorities moved quickly to castigate Uket as the wellspring of untold humiliation the agency suffered in court after he suddenly said there was no inculpatory evidence to send former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke and another suspect Abubakar Aliyu to jail or foist criminal liability on Eni and Shell.

 

Multiple officials briefed on the matter said that Uket’s service was reportedly terminated because the EFCC chairman, Ola Olukoyede, was particularly incensed by the prosecutor’s alleged misconduct.

 

An official of the EFCC familiar with the situation was quoted as saying that “He was sacked because extensive internal investigation revealed he compromised the case. But this may not be the end of the matter.”

 

The anti-corruption commission received a severe reprimand from Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court last week during a verdict on the criminal bribery case involving former attorney-general Bello Adoke, the proprietors of Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd, and multinational giants Eni and Shell.

 

Justice Kutigi threw out the case, which the EFCC first filed in 2020 before the FCT High Court, Abuja, saying the EFCC wasted four years yet was still unable to prove key elements of its indictment.

 

However, the official said the EFCC planned to fight to resuscitate the case through an appeal process because there was enough evidence against the suspects and Uket went rogue in his submission declaring otherwise before the court.

 

The anti-graft agency initially tried to save the case in Justice Kutigi’s courtroom, but Adoke and Wole Olanipekun who is the defence counsel for Abubakar filed opposing motions and the judge said it was already too late.

 

Meanwhile, prior to his controversial submission that led to the granting of the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case, Uket had reportedly told some of his office that he was under pressure to accept bribes from Messrs Adoke and Olanipekun, officials said under anonymity to discuss an active investigation.

 

Another official was quoted as saying that “He reported to the office that he was under pressure of financial inducement from Bello Adoke and Wole Olanipekun over the case.”

 

“But we thought he was just following internal ethical compliance by informing the office, we didn’t know this would happen.”

 

One of the officials said Uket’s contract was not renewed as part of the fallout from the botched trial, adding that he departed on a good note with the agency’s executives.

 

One official said that “His contract expired around the time he was accused of sabotaging the Malabu case,” adding that “That’s why it was amicably decided that he should not be granted a renewal.” 

 

However, officials did not immediately convey whether or not the probe would remain limited to Uket or be expanded to include those suspected of having offered bribes to the ousted prosecutor.

 

Whereas Olanipekun have reportedly declined comments on the matter, Adoke has denied offering bribes to the EFCC official.

 

Adoke accused the EFCC of being out to further besmirch his reputation after beating the agency’s charges in several courts in and out of Nigeria.

 

He was quoted as saying, “Not in this world would I offer Uket bribe or anyone for that matter. It is unfortunate that anyone would come up with such a lame excuse. I have no reason to offer Uket or anyone bribe.

 

“Don’t forget that they lost their cases in London and Milan, and the U.S. Department of Justice and SEC found nothing wrong with the transaction, and ditto the Dutch government. The claim is utterly ridiculous, cynical, and irresponsible.”

Boxing promoter, Eddie Hearn has revealed that Anthony Joshua will fight Tyson Fury later this year, but warned the Gypsy King must beat Oleksandr Usyk first.

 

 

Hearn disclosed this while answering a question about darts prodigy Luke Littler during a recent interview with Piers Morgan. 

 

 

A Battle of Britain bout between the two heavyweight superstars has been talked about for some time now and it finally looks set to happen. 

 

 

Joshua is said to be waiting to announce his next opponent after knocking out former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou last month. 

 

 

‘Because the darts Championship happens in December and January, I’m gonna say that Fury vs AJ happens this year,’ he said.

 

 

‘So I’m gonna say Fury vs AJ [happens first].’

 

 

Joshua and Fury had both previously signed off on a fight, but it was later cancelled as talks between the two camps eventually broke down and Fury instead fought Deontay Wilder in a trilogy showdown.

 

 

Meanwhile, Usyk shocked the division by twice beating Joshua to claim the Brit’s previous championship belts.

 

 

‘Everybody wants to see this fight and on August 12, Anthony Joshua will fight Dillion Whyte, after that he will fight Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia and then after that it has to be Tyson Fury’ said Hearn.

 

 

Tyson Fury turned down the Usyk fight, the mort important fight in boxing, the undisputed heavyweight worl d championship to fight an MMA fighter who has never had a fight before in his life.

 

 

‘We have to be honest, Fury cares about one thing only, the money.’

 

 

The 44-year-old later explained that Fury must beat both Usyk and Joshua to be a true boxing great, adding: ‘He has to beat Usyk and he has to beat Anthony Joshua, particularly Usyk.’

 

 

 

 

#RevolutionNow convener, Omoyele Sowore has faulted the attitude of young Nigerians to challenge the old guards in the country for key political positions following the inauguration of 44-year-old Bassirou Diomaye Faye as the Senegalese president.

Sowore, the candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, however, cautioned people not to be quick to celebrate Faye’s political feat, saying time would tell if he would be a leader of the people.

According to Sowore, youthfulness is not the only criterion required to lead, especially considering how some youths had failed in leadership positions in Nigeria.

Faye was sworn in at the swearing-in event on Tuesday attended by several African leaders, including President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria, who was there as the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States in Dakar.

Sowore, who featured on Tuesday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today from New Jersey in the United States (USA), said, “This was where we were coming from. We started our political movement in 2018 and people were saying, ‘You need experience’, and we kept on saying experience is not gonna take you anywhere because it is experienced politicians that put Nigeria in the condition that it is today – experienced thieves, experienced murderers, killers, corrupt people.

“And now you’ve seen it in Senegal that you don’t actually need experience, you need leaders that have vision, people who are motivated to lead their people.”

He, however, cautioned people not to be overjoyed yet, saying, “I must make a caveat here that until we see the performance of this particular persons who have taken over power in Senegal, we should not celebrate too quickly because we have had young people in Nigeria lead.

“The guy that just left Kogi is very young and look at the way he left the state. This is what I have always said that my problem is not with old age, my problem is with old ideas of African leaders. They have no new ideas.

“We have had some young people with very difficult old ideas like the likes that we have had in Kogi, not just one, the senator from there, the governor there and several other persons so we have young people who are disgracing their youthfulness.

Stressing the need for political participation, the activist said, “Mr Faye and his colleagues set up a political party in 2014 and when he ran for election, they were thoroughly beaten, they only had one position in the local government or so in 2014 and they kept going and came back later, then came third and eventually now they have won power so political participation is necessary.

“Creating political parties that are not tainted by the old is also very important. But I must insist and agree with you here that just being young in numbers is not enough. You must be persons of character, you must have mission, you must have vision and you must have the will to work for the people of your country.

“The part about experience is also very important, you hear that from Nigerians. I know they do that for different purposes. This guy was a tax collector, that is the best thing he has ever done. He is not even known to have been an activist before now.

“It was him and his friends in the tax sector that came together and defeated the old guards but this is not the first time in Senegal that old guards have been defeated and that is why I said earlier that we should be careful.

“Even the guy whose candidate was defeated, Macky Sall, was also seen as a reformer when he came years ago. In fact, he was saying he didn’t want to spend more than four years in power.

“Then he came to power, got used to it and became a terrible dictator himself so it is very important but the question is: ‘What is our young people doing?’ That is the question.

 

“Our young people are doing what I call ‘tag along,’ they are more interested in becoming Special Assistants to governors or senators. I have not seen that clear aspiration on the part of our young people to go and become the leaders of their country and most of the time, it is these young people that are pulling down a few young people who are courageous enough to say it is time to turn the corner.

“I don’t see myself as youth anymore but I look youthful. And I can always defend my youthfulness but that is not the reason why I want to become the president of Nigeria.

“It has never been the reason, it has always been that I have such a background in making sure that we fix our country and that is what drove me into running for office, first in 2019 and then in 2023.

“So this is a lesson because our young people also have the tendency to praise other young people who are making this kind of difference in other places but when it comes to their country, they kind of self-sabotage.

“You remember in 2018, there was this law – Not Too Young To Run. And I challenged it at that time, why would you need a law for young people to run. You take power, nobody would give power to you via any constitutional amendments or laws and four years later, how many young people has that (law) produced in the most important sector of the country which is the presidency?”

He urged the youths to be driven to take over power from the old guards with old ideas, saying, “You cannot be young, mission-driven, and a visionary and go and hide your bushel under some of these old people who have no idea of how to even operate a phone.”

 

“Youthfulness is also important in the sense that you need leaders that are alert and capable and responsive and do not have to spend half of the time in the hospital,” he added, using former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Tinubu as examples.

 

 

 

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