Falana condemn NNPC unbundling

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana (SAN) condemned the unbundling of the NNPC. Falana said in a statement on Thursday, “It is pertinent to point out that the reforms being carried out by the NNPC GMD are illegal in every material particular. Section 2 of the Nigerian National Petroleum Act stipulates that the affairs of the corporation shall be conducted by the Board of Directors of the body. To that extent, it is the board of the corporation that is saddled with the responsibility to carry out the reorganisation of the body.

“The board of the NNPC shall consist of the Minister of Petroleum Resources; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance; the managing director of the corporation and three other persons appointed by the President. The minister shall be the chair of the board. By virtue of Section 3 of the Act, the managing director of the NNPC shall be the chief executive and shall be responsible for the execution of the policy of the corporation and the day-to -day running of its activities.”

According to him, since the board has not been reconstituted by President Muhammadu Buhari, the minister has usurped its functions and has been running the affairs of the NNPC like a sole administrator, adding that the combination of the posts of GMD of the NNPC and minister of state had compounded the illegality.

Falana stated, “It is an anomalous situation whereby the minister, as the chairman of the NNPC board, is supervising his own activities as the GMD of the NNPC. Whereas the GMD is required to carry out the decisions of the board chaired by the minister, Dr. Kachukwu has become the executor and regulator of the affairs of the corporation. The Federal Government should take advantage of this crisis to put an end to the incongruity.

“In the same vein, the body established by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency Act to regulate the supply and distribution of petroleum products in the country is equally run by a sole administrator contrary to the provisions of the enabling law.

“Whereas the agency shall have a board of 26 members, including the representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and the trade unions in the oil and gas industry, the body is run singlehandedly by the executive secretary. Despite the several calls by the Nigeria Labour Congress and other stakeholders, the Federal Government has not deemed it fit to reconstitute the board of the PPPRA.”

The lawyer added that with the perennial fuel crisis in the country, a litre of petrol was currently selling for between N200 and N300 contrary to the official price of N86.50 fixed by the minister pursuant to section 6 of the Petroleum Act.

“In an atmosphere of impunity, petroleum products are sold even though there is the Petroleum Equalisation Fund set up under the law to reimburse marketing companies for any loss sustained by them as a result of the sale of petroleum products at uniform prices throughout the country. Apart from the occasional sealing up of a few filling stations by the Department of Petroleum Resources for selling above the official price, the Petroleum Equalisation Fund has never been cautioned by the Federal Government,” Falana said.

He asked the President to direct Kachukwu to put on hold the so called reorganisation of the NNPC with a view to presenting it to the board of the NNPC whenever it is reconstituted, and called for the separation of the posts of the GMD of NNPC and the petroleum minister as envisaged by the NNPC Act.

“Furthermore, the board of the PPPRA should be reconstituted, while the PEF should be made to discharge its statutory duty of ensuring uniformity in the prices of petroleum products throughout the country,” he stated.

DPP exonerate seven alleged killers of NURTW chief

The seven suspects – Ahmadu Kazeem, 43; Ibrahim Afolabi, 37; Lawal Lateef, 27; Anthony Qudus, 33; Adeshina Ibrahim, 28; Adebayo Ogunjimi, 25; and Animashaun Olubodun, 33 – were discharged and acquitted on Thursday.
The seven suspects arrested and arraigned before an Ebute-Meta Chief Magistrate’s Court, Lagos, in connection with the alleged killing of a leader of the National Union of Road Transport Workers on the Lagos Island, Azeez Otun, aka Ashake, and two others, have been exonerated by the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.

The DPP, in its advice, called for the arrest and prosecution of five other suspects – Kazeem Oloko, Abass Adebola, Mustapha Akindele, aka Sego, Fatal Olori, aka Agbara, and Alli Balogun.

It was gathered that Ashake, Rilwan Saka and Obabiolorunkosi Nurudeen were shot dead by some political thugs after a rally of the Peoples Democratic Party on September 20, 2014, at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Onikan.

After the alleged killing, the police arrested the seven suspects and brought them before the Chief Magistrate Afolashade Botoku-led court, which granted the remand application brought by the police, pending the advice from the DPP.

However, in absolving the suspects of the alleged murder, the DPP in its advice with reference number LJP/HOM/2016/02/13, dated February 23, 2016, and signed by one M. T. Adewoye, an Assistant Director, stated that the prosecution failed in establishing the culpability of the suspects.

Senate President, Bukola Saraki False Asset Declaration Trial Kickoff today

All is now set for the trial of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal on 13 counts of alleged false assets declaration to begin today (Friday).

Saturday PUNCH had reported that the prosecution, led by Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had proposed 13 prosecution witnesses to testify in the case.

The Supreme Court, through its judgment delivered on February 5, 2016, had paved the way for the trial to begin after dismissing the Senate President’s objection to the validity of the charges and the jurisdiction of the CCT to hear the case.

The Danladi Umar-led tribunal subsequently fixed March 10 for the commencement of the trial, but it later shifted the date to March 11, following a request by Saraki’s new lead counsel, Mr. Kanu Agabi (SAN).

According to a statement issued on March 1 by the Head, Press and Public Relations of the CCT, Mr. Ibraheem Al-hassan, Agabi pleaded with the tribunal for a shift in the trial date to enable him to attend to other urgent matters.

The CCT spokesperson said Agabi conveyed his request to the CCT in a letter dated February 26, 2016.

Saraki was arraigned on 13 counts of false assets declaration on September 22, 2015.

In the charges instituted by the Federal Government, Saraki was accused of making false assets declaration in his forms submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau as a two-term Governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011.

The Senate President, who was said to have submitted four assets declaration forms investigated by the CCB, was allegedly found to have “corruptly acquired many properties while in office as the Governor of Kwara State but failed to declare some of them in the said forms earlier filled and submitted.”

He also allegedly made an anticipatory declaration of assets upon his assumption of office as governor, which he later acquired.

He was also accused of sending money abroad for the purchase of property in London and that he maintained an account outside Nigeria while serving as a governor.

Saraki initially refused to appear before the tribunal, prompting the CCT to issue a bench warrant against him.

He voluntarily submitted himself to the tribunal before the arrest warrant could be executed.

The tribunal rejected his request for the quashing of the 13 counts shortly after he was arraigned on September 22, 2015.

He appealed to the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, against the decision of the CCT to continue the trial.

But by a two-to-one split decision of its three-man bench, led by Justice Moore Admein, the Court of Appeal dismissed the Senate President’s appeal.

Saraki, in his further appeal to the Supreme Court, asked the apex court to quash the charges filed against him, citing among his seven grounds of appeal, that the CCT lacked jurisdiction to try him as it was constituted by two instead of three members.

But a seven-man panel of the apex court presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, unanimously ruled in its judgment on February 5 that Saraki’s appeal against the jurisdiction of the CCT and the competence of the charges lacked merit.

Justice Walter Onnoghen, who delivered the lead judgment, dismissed all of Saraki’s seven grounds of appeal, affirming that the charges instituted against him were valid and that the tribunal was validly constituted with requisite jurisdiction to try him.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, and other members of the full panel of the apex court, comprising Justices Tanko Muhammad, Sylvester Ngwuta, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Chima Nweze and Amiru Sanusi, also consented to the judgment.

Meanwhile, Justice Abdukadir Abdu-Kafarati of a Federal High Court in Abuja, had on March 1, fixed March 22 for his judgment in a fundamental human rights enforcement suit, through which the Senate President is asking for an order to stop his trial before the CCT.

But at the hearing of the case on March 1, Jacobs, who represented the Federal Government’s agents sued as respondents to the suit, urged the court not to grant Saraki’s prayer, as that, according to him, will amount to overruling the judgment of the Supreme Court.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, represented by Mr. Suleiman Abdukareem, also adopted Jacobs’ contention in opposing the Senate President’s suit.

But Saraki’s lawyer, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, urged the court to stop the CCT trial on the grounds that the Senate President’s right to fair hearing was breached during the investigation of the allegations leading to the charges preferred against him.

Oluyede argued that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission usurped the powers of the Code of Conduct Bureau to investigate the details of assets declared by the Senate President and filed charges relating to the infraction discovered.

Source: The Punch

CBN Suspend Officials Over Fraudulent Activities

The Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, stated on Thursday night that it had uncovered and aborted a highly sophisticated plot to defraud it by some criminally-minded elements.

The Central Bank of Nigeria said also it placed all key personnel involved in the transaction on suspension in order to ensure a full and unfettered investigation although it noted that preliminary investigations so far had not revealed any accomplices within the CBN.
 “This incidence has been reported to relevant authorities. The CBN wishes to assure the general public that the security of the bank remains intact.”

Lekki Gardens MD Arrested over Collapse Building

The Managing Director of Lekki Gardens, Mr. Richard Nyong, have been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command for the collapse of a five-storeyed building under construction on Kushenla Road, Ikate Elegushi, Lagos State. The collapse was said to have killed no fewer than 35 persons.

It was learnt that 34-year-old Nyong was apprehended on Thursday.

One of the contractors handling the project, Odofin Taiwo, was arrested on Wednesday.

The building had crumbled around 3am on Tuesday with several workers trapped in the rubble.

It was reported that the state government had sealed the building, which was originally designed to be a three-storeyed structure.

“In a brazen act of defiance and impunity, the owners of the building, Messrs Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited, the promoters of Lekki Gardens, criminally unsealed the property and continued building beyond the approved floors until the unfortunate incident of Tuesday which has led to loss of lives,” a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde had read.

The Lagos State Police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the arrest.

She said, “The MD, Lekki Gardens, Mr. Richard Nyong, has been arrested. He is in custody and will soon be charged to court.”