Campaign – Page 233 – Sahara Weekly Magazine

The Many Drama at the Just concluded Headies Awards + Full List of Winners

The headies awards 2016 took place yesterday, December 22, 2016 at the prestigious Eko Hotel, the event which has proven to be one of the...

Business9 years ago

Super Falcons releases AWCON trophy to Federal Government

The Super Falcons have finally released the African Women Cup of Nations trophy they won to the Federal Government. Nigeria’s senior female national team,...

Business9 years ago

Angry workers drag Accountant-General to bank over unpaid salaries in Ondo

Just three days to Christmas celebration, workers in Ondo State, Thursday forcefully dragged the Account-General (AG), Mr. Felix Ajibokun to bank to begin the...

Business9 years ago

‘Dollar will go as high as N600 to $1′ – Governor Fayose releases ’22 Prophecies’ for 2017

Governor Ayodele Fayose has made 22 prophesies about Nigeria in 2017 saying that it will be the worst budget in the history of...

Business9 years ago

President Buhari supports Governor El-Rufai to place curfew on Kaduna residents during Christmas celebrations

President Muhammadu Buhari has supported the move by Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai to place a curfew on the northern state during Christmas Day...

Business9 years ago

Panic as Delta Monarch commits suicide over allegation of Witchcraft

Tragedy hit the Umuachi-Ogo community of Ndokwa-East Local Government Area, Delta State, on Wednesday, when the traditional ruler of the community, HRM Onotuku...

Business9 years ago

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu supports IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, orders FG to release him

DEPUTY Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has called on the Federal Government to, without further delay, release the detained Radio Biafra Director and the leader of...

Business9 years ago

Tragedy as armed robbers hijack police van, kill officer in Ekiti

A tragedy hit the Ekiti State Police Command on Thursday as robbers killed a policeman, identified simply as Inspector Gada, and injured another cop...

The Nigerian political actors from 1999 to date sees politics and participatory governance as a means of acquiring humongous wealth while totally ignoring the real essence of serving the impoverished Nigerian people essentially starved of basic amenities of life in our various communities that make up the 774 local government structures created to empower Nigerians at the grassroots. It's on record that most of our crooked political actors just simply cook up the books when it comes to budget padding and wall-eye vision of implementation of their ideas of governance projects. The result is the mind bogling craze for material acquisition by our politicians. Conducting forensic analysis of our serial budgets in the country, it won't be a strange development to find budgets showing up in subsequent annual budgets of states or the federal government. Under the ex president, Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan and the present government, corruption has worked on 4 legs with regard to some dare davil acts of some State governors literily playing out James Bond motion pictures in their states. In Bayelsa, Plateau and Delta under the crooked leadership late so called Governor General of Nigeria, late Diepreye Alamieyesiegha, Joshua Dariye and James Ibori of Bayelsa, Plateau and Delta states respectively corruption stuck like a sour thumb. Late governor alamiesiegha was arrested at Heathrow airport in September 2005 and had his passport confiscated. He faced three money-laundering charges after police found £1m in cash at his London address and property in his name worth £10m. Having dramatically returned to Nigeria incognito, he forfeited a £1.25m bail bond he posted with the courts knowing that he is expected to be immune from legal action until the end of his term as governor in 2007. Mr Alamieyeseigha was coy and comical when asked how he evaded British controls to make it back to his village in the Niger delta. "I don't know myself. I just woke up and found myself in Amassoma." Nigerian newspapers quoted unnamed aides who described a journey in drag. Dressed as a woman, the governor is said to have taken a Eurostar train from London to Paris and then flown to Douala, a port city in Cameroon neighbouring Nigeria, where a speedboat took him home under cover of darkness. The disguise was helped by the fugitive's weight loss during his stay in Europe, which included a tummy tuck operation in Germany..Thousands lined the streets to cheer his cavalcade through the province but elsewhere several thousand people marched in protest at his return. Ibori, in 2012, had pleaded guilty to money laundering and other charges in a UK court and was consequently sentenced to 13 years imprisonment. Some of his associates were also convicted and sentenced to prison over similar charges. The UK is now set to return the first tranche of £4.2 million recovered from associates of Ibori to Nigeria.The UK and Nigeria signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Abuja recently to kick-start the process. Malami, who signed on behalf of the federal government, said in consonance with existing framework engaged in the management of previous recoveries, the Federal Executive Council had directed that the repatriated funds should be spent on completing the Second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano Expressway and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway under the coordination of the NSIA. The crystal matter of fact here is that there's hardly any precedent here from the assertions of our revered Attorney General, Abubakar to support his quest to use a coy legal mumbo Jumbo to "acquire" this £4.2millions on behalf of the FEC. This refund by the British Government is a proceed of crime committed basically against Delta State. You can't work in Delta State and receive your salaries in Abuja. It has never worked that way in any clime. The funds confiscated from ex Governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye in the UK was indeed recovered by the agents of the federal government, repatriated to Nigeria and remitted back to the coffers of plateau State without a fuss. The funds seized from the late Diepreye Alamieyesiegha in the UK was recovered by the federal government and remitted in strict compliance with section 42 of Nigeria's oft battered constitution. As a matter equity, all states of Nigeria are entitled to equal rights and opportunities. I am not from Delta State. I really don't have to come from the state to defend a noble cause. Malami can not rule on this matter or the FEC allowed to speak from both sides of their mouths on a matter that affects the goose and the gander. Unless this cross-fire between Malami and Delta State government, another tranche of £20 million that maybe repatriated soon will be a matter of another round of cross fire between Malami and Delta state. Malami's claim that the FEC authorised the disbursement of this £4.2 million on different ongoing projects in the country sounds like tragic comedy. You can't spend the money you don't have. The mention of the 2nd Niger bridge that's been the subject of serial budget allocations since 2015 is also a political gimmick and emotional blackmail to the Southeast region. The Lagos-Ibadan highway project has also been on from the ex president Jonathan era. Beyond the politics of funds repatriation, our lawmakers need to effectively collaborate with the new Czar of the efcc, 40 years old Abdulrasheed Bawa to review the Nigerian constitution that offers sitting governors and presidents immunity to illegally acquire stupendous wealth in office. A system that allows a holes in our banking and financial systems that allowed the likes of james Ibori the window to illegally acquire the following before he was arrested, jailed and released: a house in exclusive and reclusive house in Hampstead, North London worth £2.2 million, a property in Shaftsbury, Dorset worth £311,000,.a fleet of adored Range Rovers worth £600,000, a £120,000 Continental Bentley GT, a £3.2 million mansion in Sancton, near Johannesburg, a Mercedes benz Mayback bought for £407,000. The anti corruption fight needs to be reinvigorated in having a holistic second look at our Justice administration systems in Nigeria.

Campaign9 years ago

Man dies while celebrating James Ibori release in Delta

The last may not have been heard of the overwhelming jubilations and celebrations that rocked the cheery news of Chief James Ibori’s regained freedom...

Business9 years ago

Socialite, Babatunde Olaogun opens Royalty Lounge & Suites

Hospitality business in Nigeria is about to take a new dimension as Royalty Lounge & Suites is set for its grand opening in Ikeja, Lagos on...

Sahara Weekly Magazine

The Many Drama at the Just concluded Headies Awards + Full List of Winners

Super Falcons releases AWCON trophy to Federal Government

Angry workers drag Accountant-General to bank over unpaid salaries in Ondo

‘Dollar will go as high as N600 to $1′ – Governor Fayose releases ’22 Prophecies’ for 2017

President Buhari supports Governor El-Rufai to place curfew on Kaduna residents during Christmas celebrations

Panic as Delta Monarch commits suicide over allegation of Witchcraft

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu supports IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, orders FG to release him

Tragedy as armed robbers hijack police van, kill officer in Ekiti

Man dies while celebrating James Ibori release in Delta

Socialite, Babatunde Olaogun opens Royalty Lounge & Suites

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