Ahead of the Benue South Senatorial rerun election scheduled for Saturday, February 20, former Senate President, David Mark has written a petition to the Inspector General of Police alleging move by his political opponents to send the deadly Black Axe Cult to eliminate him.
Senator David Mark alleged that the opponents, mostly in the All Progressive Congress (APC), have concluded plans to also involve another notorious cult group named ‘supreme Vikings squad’ from Jos, Plateau state as well as other terror groups to assassinate him.
A statement by Mark’s Media aide, Paul Mumeh, said that in a petition to the Inspector General of Police signed by Mark’s counsel, Mr. Ken Ikonne , the Senator said that one Okpokwu Ogenyi is the mastermind of the plot.
In the petition, Ikonne told the IGP: “It is obvious that Ogenyi knows more about the assassination plot than he has revealed. Our client has, therefore, instructed us to petition you( IGP) to as a matter of urgency apprehend and interrogate Ogenyi to throw more light on the details of this grave assassination plot before he and his associates carry out the dastardly plot.”
According to the statement, no reason was given for the unprovoked attack and no arrest has been made so far.’
Mumeh said: ”a couple of weeks ago, Benue State chairman of the APC, Mr. Abbah Yaro was quoted as saying, “if Senator Mark wants, let him win the election in seven out of the nine local government areas, but no returning officer born of a woman will dare declare him.”
”His PDP counterpart, Dr. Emmanuel Agbo had petitioned the Nigeria Police Command over the unhealthy political activities of APC in Benue state ahead of the election and asked the authorities to prevail on them to allow peace reign.” [myad]
Late last month, President MuhammaduBuhari sent two executive bills to the National Assembly that border on the government’s commitment to strengthen the fight against corruption. The two bills are the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Bill (2016) and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill (2016).
Coming this early in the life of the administration, and in the heat of the government’s momentous anti-corruption campaign, the submission of the two bills was not an ordinary government business. It was symbolic; it signposted, to some extent, the future of the war against corruption and the much needed political will to deal with this canker which hitherto had been lacking.
For many years, the bane of the war against corruption was the lack of commitment and political will at the highest political level to fight the menace. It is no wonder therefore that many enabling laws enacted to solidify the war against corruption, money laundering and other financial crimes, or to increase transparency in the system, remained almostcomatose.
Ideally, the two new anti-corruption bills should not only excite interest but accepted with garlands and fanfare as another commitment by the executive and also another weaponin the arsenal to take down one of Nigeria’s greatest maladies. Unfortunately, the new money laundering bill leaves a lot to be desired.
The new bill seeks to repeal an existing Money Laundering Act, “make comprehensive provisions to prohibit the laundering of criminal activities and expand the scope of money laundering offences”, according to the letter from President Buhari read by Senate President, BukolaSaraki.
Daily Trust of February 3, 2016, reported that with the bill now before the Senate, President Buhari “has set machinery for the establishment of Bureau for Money Laundering Control (BMLC) to tackle money laundering related cases in the country”.
First, there is a Money Laundering Act (first enacted in 1995 and amended in 2011) of which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is the co-coordinating enforcement agency. The current Money Laundering Act is also not known to have any fundamental flaws. Why then do we need a NEW Act and a NEW Agency? It is quite disturbing that the new bill seeks to establish a NEW anti-corruption agency to implement its provisions, if passed into law.
One wonders why a law that has been implemented for several years will now warrant formation of an independent agency to enforce it, more so when there are anti-corruption agencies empowered by the law to bring the Money Laundering Act into force.
Both the ICPC and EFCC laws have extensively covered financial crimes bordering on money laundering. In specific terms, the EFCC Establishment Act has listed the Money Laundering Act as one of the laws that the EFCC can enforce, under its powers. In fact, so central is this Act to the activities of the EFCC that it is the first to be listed in Section 7 (2) (a) of the EFCC (Establishment) Act 2004, before others such as the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act, the Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act, as amended, and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 1991, as amended, among others.
According to Daily Trust, “The Bureau, when established, would ensure that all designated businesses and professions comply with the provisions of the Money Laundering Act and exercise supervision.” This task is something that was and is still being done by government agencies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the EFCC. There is therefore nothing new that the BMLC will do in this regard.
Perhaps the framers of this new bill do not know, or have chosen to ignore, the existence of the inter-agency Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML) which has the statutory mandate of registering all designated non-financial business. TheSCUML “works in collaboration with the EFCC (the coordinating agency for Nigeria’s AML/CFT regime) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) – the national repository of financial disclosures of cash-based transaction reports, currency transaction reports and suspicious transaction reports.” It can’t get any better!Since its establishment in 2005, SCUML has taken the campaign and indeed enforced the registration of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), hotels and real estate business, car dealership, and other real sectors of the economy.
Clearly, a provision in the proposed money laundering bill has given some clue as to those pushing this agenda and the purpose. Daily Trust reported that, “The Bureau would be run through an advisory board to be headed by a chairman who will be appointed by the president on the advice of theAttorney-General of the Federation andMinister of Justice.” One can sense a level of self-aggrandizement to the detriment of the public good.
This new bill, obviously needless as it is, highlights the long standing rivalry that exists between the EFCC and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. And this rivalry is most probably being fueled by top civil servants who endlessly keep looking for more power and perquisitesoutside their legal means.
Similar machinations took place during the tenure of President Umaru MusaYar’Adua when the then Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa, went all out to pocket the EFCC. In the last dispensation, spurred by vested interest, the 7th National Assembly, predictably acting the same script, worked so hard to make the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) into a standalone agency. There is no difference between that distractive move and the current one on money laundering.
This move appears to be a clear affront to the work of the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies; perhaps, an attempt to weaken existing anti-corruption agencies to satisfy certain powerful personal interests.
The last thing the Buhari administration needs now that the anti-corruption war is gaining some traction is to get bogged down by this rivalry. This is one distraction it can ill afford. What benefit is it for the country to keep creating agencies at a time of acute financial stress, particularly for a government mouthing cuts in cost of governance?
All the relevant laws to fight corruption and economic malfeasance are there. The government only needs to empower the agencies mandated to enforce these laws and where necessary amend such laws if there are any deficiencies.
Former governor of Borno state and current senator of the Federal Republic, Ali Modu Sheriff has made it clear that he is comfortable in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and has no intention of returning to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a statement in Abuja, the Senator stressed that the information making the round that he planning to return to APC must be a figment of the imagination of the authors who are bent on denting his image.
Senator Modu Sheriff recalled that he was a founding member of APC, a founding member of the defunct ANPP, a former National Chairman of ANPP, a former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of ANPP who played different important roles in the efforts that culminated into the merger of ANPP with other political parties to form APC.
“It should be noted that Senator Modu Sheriff had remained a member of ANPP through thick and thin, good times and bad times, and never had to jump ship to another party despite pressure from political associates to do so. Senator Modu Sheriff is a believer in building up party structures from the scratch and is an avid grassroots politician not fazed by the short term gains or advantages prevalent in party politics.
“Senator Modu Sheriff’s decision to join Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was well thought out and a personal decision which was taken without external influences nor considerations of pecuniary interests but rather by the emergence of a strange kind of gang-up and sycophancy that presented itself in APC at that time.
“Let it be known that His Excellency Senator Modu Sheriff is a PDP stalwart and has no intention to leave PDP. In fact he is at peace in PDP and will do his utmost, along with other PDP chieftains, within limits acceptable by law and PDP’s constitution and regulations, to reposition PDP for greater service to Nigerians.
“It is pertinent to note that Senator Modu Sheriff garnered enviable record of achievements and accomplishments as the Executive Governor of Borno State which bears testimony to his sound leadership qualities and administrative competence.
“Notwithstanding the profound physical and social development and transformation of Borno State during his tenure as Executive Governor, Senator Modu Sheriff left a credit balance of more than N65 Billion in the coffers of Borno State at the time he handed over to his successor.
“For the records, Senator Modu Sheriff is not a sponsor of Boko Haram, and has never been cited or investigated for any such allegation as suggested by those unstable political hatchet men and their brown-envelop collaborators pretending to be journalists. It is not lost on Nigerians and indeed the good people of Borno State who the sponsors and kingpins of Boko Haram are, nobody is fooled by their antics of sponsoring false and wicked publications against innocent citizens.
“The authors of the mischievous article are merely recycling false and wicked information based on propaganda materials bandied around by infantile political jobbers and mercenaries with the intention of tainting the person of Senator Modu Sheriff and bring him to their despicable and ignoble level of engagement. They are afraid of their shadows and will continue to run even when nothing and nobody are chasing them but their own evil deeds.
“Modu Sheriff is a strong believer in “politics without bitterness”, and has always counseled that even in the interplay of politics and political contests there should be decorum and sense of dignity amongst gladiators. Politicians must know and should always remember that the ultimate goal is to develop Nigeria and improve the welfare of the citizenry.
“For those that have conscience, we leave them to their conscience but for the unfortunate jackals of Nigerian politics, whose souls have been sold to the devil for pots of pottage, be assured that your treachery and wickedness will find you out and your evil deeds exposed.
“Senator Modu Sheriff will not bother to respond to any such other false, wicked and desperate hatchet jobs.” [myad]
Senate leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume has confirmed that there is no move to impeach the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki. Senator Ndume told state House correspondents shortly after he had a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock, Abuja today that he was not aware of any move to impeach the Senate President. “I don’t know of any move to impeach the Senate President. As the Senate leader, no such thing should be conceived without my knowledge.” Senator Ndume said that some of the things that would engage the Senators as they resume plenary session tomorrow from a short break would be among others, the 2016 budget. The Senate leader who said that the date for the passage of the budget bill is not v ery important, insisted that a thorough work needed to be done on the budget to be able to stand the test of time. He said that there is no conflict between the executive and the legislature on the discrepancies that have been discovered in the budget, adding: “for the first time in history, the legislature and the executive are collectively working on the budget to ensure a functional appropriation.” Senator Ndume agreed that the budget was done by the executive in a rush, but that it is pardonable since this is the first time the new executive is preparing budget. He assured that at the end of the day, the two arms of the government would collectively give a befitting budget to the nation, even as he emphasized that time does not count in the passage of the appropriation. “I assure you that if we can complete a thorough job on the budget tomorrow, it will be passed tomorrow.” Senator Ndume said that other important bills the Senate would begin to consider when it resumes tomorrow are the ones on money laundering and criminal information sharing. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed a former member of the House of Representatives, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, as his Senior Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora.
Abike Dabiri, a former broadcaster, was very vocal during the 2015 election and she was renowned for her various roles in the All Progressives Congress’ campaign.
When she was in the 7th House of Representatives, she chaired the House Committee on the Diaspora.NShe was also the former Chairperson of the House Committee on Diaspora Affairs.
She was elected for the first time in 2003, and re-elected in 2007 and 2011. [myad]
In apparent response to the multiple scandals that attended his presentation of the 2016 budget, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s has sacked the Director-General of Budget, Yahaya Gusau.
In a state house statement today, President Buhari approved the appointment of Tijjani Mohammed Abdullahi as the Director-General of Budget to replace the sacked one.
Abdullahi, a fellow of the Certified National Accountants of Nigeria, and a banker of repute with experience in managing public finance is expected to work with the Minister of Budget and National Planning to efficiently deliver on the mandates of the Budget Office of the Federation.
The statement signed by the Special Adviser on media and publicity to the President, Femi Adesina said that President Buhari has also approved the appointment of Ben Ifeanyi Akabueze as the Special Adviser on Planning to the Minister of Budget and National Planning.
Akabueze, who is the immediate past Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget in Lagos State, has worked in senior management positions in Citi Bank, Fidelity Bank, United Bank for Africa, NAL Merchant Bank, Sterling Bank and BIA Consulting Limited, among others.
He is Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers; Fellow, Institute of Credit Administrators and Honorary Fellow, Chartered Institute of Bankers.
Buhari has proposed a record 6.1 trillion naira budget this year to help revive an economy reeling from the impact of the low price of oil, the source of two-thirds of government revenue. Brent crude, which compares with Nigerian oil grades, fell 0.3 percent to $33.21 as of 8:33 a.m. in London, down 42 percent this year. Additional spending will be funded through tax revenue and the deficit of 3 trillion naira through borrowing, according to the Finance Ministry. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has assured the World Trade Organization (WTO) that Nigeria is fully committed to free international trade, despite its present economic circumstances.
President Buhari who spoke at an audience in the Presidential Villa with the Director-General of the WTO, Ambassador Roberto Azevedo, said that Nigeria will remain part of the world market, in spite of the dwindling price of oil. “I am glad that you are aware of the position we’ve found ourselves, the state of our economy, our consumption pattern, and many others. Despite it all, we remain committed to the ideals of free international trade championed by the WTO,” the President said. The WTO boss expressed delight that Nigeria continued to work with multilateral organizations, adding that the trade group will soon start conversations on important issues for the country, including development of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), which he described as biggest employers of labour in developing countries.
“We want to bring the private sector close, so that we can understand the main challenges.
“Nigeria has a big part to play, though the times are difficult. Prices of oil are unprecedentedly low, emerging economies are slowing down, and commodity prices are shrinking. But majority of WTO members know that there is no gain in blocking goods.” [myad]
In far away China, a new year has just been celebrated. It is the year of the Red Fire Monkey. According to the Chinese five elements horoscope; the monkey contains metal and water. Metal is connected to gold while water is related to wisdom and danger. The predication is that, this year the Chinese will deal with more financial events because of the elements contained in the Red Fire Monkey year. These are also judged through the characteristics of the monkey who is seen as smart, naughty, wily and vigilant. However, its metal symbol, unlike that of the monkey, is an associate of the wind. These translates that events, mostly financial in the year of the monkey, will change quickly. This calls for caution to all would be investors into the Chinese economy. Businesses, career and even relationships, as those born in the year of the monkey cannot be trusted because of their chameleonic lifestyles. On the contrary, in the year of the rats, though people derogatorily consider them as not adorable, so many good things happen. The year of the rats ranks first on the Chinese zodiac signs. Rat has the characteristics of an animal with spirit, wit, and alertness. Although its a delicacy among the Tiv people in central Nigeria. Rats are known for flexibility and vitality. They are seen as quick-witted, resourceful and versatile. Having strong intuition and quick response to adapt themselves into a new environment. It’s further revealed that with their imaginations and sharp observation, rats can take advantage of various opportunities very well. A strong curiosity that makes them try their hands at anything and they can deal with it skillfully. It is the reason I have chosen this year, 2016 as the Nigerian year of the rats. But it is a different species of rats. Rats that apply their skills deceitfully and criminally in the presence of cats to pad up the budget of change. It is about soiling the new chapter of change with demonized faeces that seems to be sedating the glowing profile of the present administration. It infests it with maggots which unfortunately only chichidodos that hate faeces have the best knowledge of sanitizing. Until the Health Minister Isaac Adewole came up with the invisible rats slogan during his budget defense at the National Assembly, nobody knew that rodents could still be on the prowl when well equipped, highly trained, surveillance and dreaded cats are on duty in their natural habitats. What is it about 2016 appropriation bill? There is a lot about the budget; that is what you hear each time you dare to defend the bill and the All Progressive Congress administration in public places including beer parlors, saloons, sports betting shops and even while in commuter vehicles. There are plenty of unanswered questions and enquiries awaiting responses. Quite a number of people are in denial over the budget after applauding and adjudging it as the best thing that ever happened to Nigeria and Nigerians. Many other Nigerians are at the mercy of analysts who know it all based on what they are fed with on the radio, television and newspapers, depending on the biases of the mediums they defer to. However no matter how much we try to defend the budget it confronts us from all fronts with the seeming ineptitude and the ineffectual characteristics of this administration’s highly trusted civil service personnel and their temporal supervisors labeled today as noise makers. The arguments are centered on the so-called change mantra. Change, they say is a step up which should be for the better and not a retrogressive slide into the past. The reason we cannot be acknowledging that change is here when the first national assignment of its apostles is fraught with irregularities, errors, suspicious and wasteful proposals. Deviating from the principle with which the administration campaigned for votes just to start toeing the paths journeyed by previous administrations of the People’s Democratic Party. Before now, economic analysts, strategists and opinion poll held the government in contempt and scorn for its high degree of arrogance in predicating the 2016 budget on an oil benchmark of $38 despite lower oil price environment. The rats which are giving the health minister a real hard time with the outbreak of Lassa fever reared their heads again in his budget. Changing almost all that he inputted into it without due consultations with him. It would also be applauded if the rats who padded the budget are identified as soon as possible for the purpose of transparency and prosecuted in the same vein with its anti-corruption fight to fortify the regime against any such unwarranted embarrassment and avoidable distractions of the types that are already under probe. ‘As a man of such a way’ like my people always say, it’s better to be meticulous in everything we do than to come out crying foul over collective mistakes on collective responsibility. This is the height of hypocrisy.
The Philippines Government has seized jewelries worth $21.27 from the country’s former First Lady, Imelda Marcos and is set to auction them. The Presidential Commission on Good Government said today in Manila that the sale of the jewelries has been approved last week by an inter-agency Privatization Council. The PCGG Chairman, Richard Amurao, expressed the hope that the Filipinos would finally benefit from the proceeds of the collection, adding that the jewelries confiscated from the Marcoses remains a singular manifestation of the misguided priorities of the Marcos presidency during his reign. Amurao said that no date has been set for the international auction, but the auction houses, Christie’s and Sotheby’s, have appraised three sets of jewelleries seized from Imelda Marcos in November. The value of all three collections now amounts to a conservative estimate of at least $21.27 million (1 billion pesos). Amurao said the items include a rare 25-carat pink diamond, a range of necklaces, brooches and crowns made from Burmese rubies, other diamonds from India and South Africa, and emeralds from Colombia in various sizes. Amurao said some pieces were from renowned international jewellery makers such as Bulgari, Van Cleef and Arpels and Bucellatti, as well as wristwatches from Patek Philippe, Rolex and Cartier. He said the PCGG planned to put on show part of the jewellery collection before its international auction to remind the Filipino people of the excesses of the Marcos dictatorship. Ferdinand Marcos ruled for 20 years until he and his family were forced into exile by a four-day mass uprising in February 1986. Members of his family still face dozens of corruption charges for allegedly stealing billions of dollars from the country’s coffers. The family has made a comeback in politics with Imelda Marcos holding a seat in Congress. Her son is a senator and her eldest daughter is a provincial governor. Senator Ferdinand Marcos Junior is running for vice president in national elections in May. The commission was formed after the ouster of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos to recover assets allegedly stolen by his family and associates. [myad]
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The Money Laundering Act And Its Discontents, By Chido Onumah
Coming this early in the life of the administration, and in the heat of the government’s momentous anti-corruption campaign, the submission of the two bills was not an ordinary government business. It was symbolic; it signposted, to some extent, the future of the war against corruption and the much needed political will to deal with this canker which hitherto had been lacking.
For many years, the bane of the war against corruption was the lack of commitment and political will at the highest political level to fight the menace. It is no wonder therefore that many enabling laws enacted to solidify the war against corruption, money laundering and other financial crimes, or to increase transparency in the system, remained almostcomatose.
Ideally, the two new anti-corruption bills should not only excite interest but accepted with garlands and fanfare as another commitment by the executive and also another weaponin the arsenal to take down one of Nigeria’s greatest maladies. Unfortunately, the new money laundering bill leaves a lot to be desired.
The new bill seeks to repeal an existing Money Laundering Act, “make comprehensive provisions to prohibit the laundering of criminal activities and expand the scope of money laundering offences”, according to the letter from President Buhari read by Senate President, BukolaSaraki.
Daily Trust of February 3, 2016, reported that with the bill now before the Senate, President Buhari “has set machinery for the establishment of Bureau for Money Laundering Control (BMLC) to tackle money laundering related cases in the country”.
First, there is a Money Laundering Act (first enacted in 1995 and amended in 2011) of which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is the co-coordinating enforcement agency. The current Money Laundering Act is also not known to have any fundamental flaws. Why then do we need a NEW Act and a NEW Agency? It is quite disturbing that the new bill seeks to establish a NEW anti-corruption agency to implement its provisions, if passed into law.
One wonders why a law that has been implemented for several years will now warrant formation of an independent agency to enforce it, more so when there are anti-corruption agencies empowered by the law to bring the Money Laundering Act into force.
Both the ICPC and EFCC laws have extensively covered financial crimes bordering on money laundering. In specific terms, the EFCC Establishment Act has listed the Money Laundering Act as one of the laws that the EFCC can enforce, under its powers. In fact, so central is this Act to the activities of the EFCC that it is the first to be listed in Section 7 (2) (a) of the EFCC (Establishment) Act 2004, before others such as the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act, the Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act, as amended, and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 1991, as amended, among others.
According to Daily Trust, “The Bureau, when established, would ensure that all designated businesses and professions comply with the provisions of the Money Laundering Act and exercise supervision.” This task is something that was and is still being done by government agencies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the EFCC. There is therefore nothing new that the BMLC will do in this regard.
Perhaps the framers of this new bill do not know, or have chosen to ignore, the existence of the inter-agency Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML) which has the statutory mandate of registering all designated non-financial business. TheSCUML “works in collaboration with the EFCC (the coordinating agency for Nigeria’s AML/CFT regime) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) – the national repository of financial disclosures of cash-based transaction reports, currency transaction reports and suspicious transaction reports.” It can’t get any better!Since its establishment in 2005, SCUML has taken the campaign and indeed enforced the registration of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), hotels and real estate business, car dealership, and other real sectors of the economy.
Clearly, a provision in the proposed money laundering bill has given some clue as to those pushing this agenda and the purpose. Daily Trust reported that, “The Bureau would be run through an advisory board to be headed by a chairman who will be appointed by the president on the advice of theAttorney-General of the Federation andMinister of Justice.” One can sense a level of self-aggrandizement to the detriment of the public good.
This new bill, obviously needless as it is, highlights the long standing rivalry that exists between the EFCC and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. And this rivalry is most probably being fueled by top civil servants who endlessly keep looking for more power and perquisitesoutside their legal means.
Similar machinations took place during the tenure of President Umaru MusaYar’Adua when the then Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa, went all out to pocket the EFCC. In the last dispensation, spurred by vested interest, the 7th National Assembly, predictably acting the same script, worked so hard to make the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) into a standalone agency. There is no difference between that distractive move and the current one on money laundering.
This move appears to be a clear affront to the work of the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies; perhaps, an attempt to weaken existing anti-corruption agencies to satisfy certain powerful personal interests.
The last thing the Buhari administration needs now that the anti-corruption war is gaining some traction is to get bogged down by this rivalry. This is one distraction it can ill afford. What benefit is it for the country to keep creating agencies at a time of acute financial stress, particularly for a government mouthing cuts in cost of governance?
All the relevant laws to fight corruption and economic malfeasance are there. The government only needs to empower the agencies mandated to enforce these laws and where necessary amend such laws if there are any deficiencies.
conumah@hotmail.com; Follow me on Twitter: @conumah. [myad]