EFCC arraigns fake glo agent

A self appointed agent to telecommunications firm, Globacom, Khalil Bappah, was on Wednesday arraigned before a Federal High Court sitting in Gombe State by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

A statement by the EFCC spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said Bappah was brought before Justice Babatunde Quadri for offences bordering on obtaining under false pretences.

The offences were said to be contrary to and punishable under sections 1(2) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.

The EFCC said Bappa’s trouble began after a petition by one Yusra Babakusa, a female student of the Bayero University, Kano.

Messi mentally fatigued, says former Barca coach

Former Barcelona head coach Cesar Luis Menotti believes that Lionel Messi is suffering from mental fatigue following a poor run of form.

Messi has faced criticism for a lacklustre showing in Barca’s UEFA Champions League exit to La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid at the quarter-final stage last week.

The Argentina international also failed to reach his usual high standards as Barcelona crashed to a 1-0 defeat at Granada on Saturday – a result that severely hinders their hopes of retaining the Spanish title.

Barcelona sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta leapt to Messi’s defence earlier this week, insisting that all is well with the 26-year-old despite his slump in form.

FRCN Lacks The Power To Probe Me, Sanusi Insists

Deposed Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido on Thursday maintained that the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) lacks the statutory powers to investigate him.
In his originating summons on a suit he filed against FRCN and its executive secretary at a Federal High Court in Lagos, Sanusi accused the council of bias in its investigations of him, and therefore urged the court to halt the process.
As contained in the suit — filed by his Senior Advocate of Nigeria-lawyers, Professor Yemi Osibajo, Dr Kanyinsola Ajayi and Kola Awodehin — Sanusi requested the court to declare that by constituting itself into investigating body in the manner contained in newspaper advertorials of 24 March 2014, FRCN acted ultra vires.

UPDATE: APC Governors Shun Security Meeting Called By President Jonathan

All governors under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were conspicuously absent when the meeting convened by President Goodluck Jonathan started by 2.00pm at the First Lady Conference Room in the State House, Abuja, on Thursday.

Jonathan had on Wednesday summoned all governors and National Security Council to a meeting over rising security challenges in the country.
After the President met the Service Chiefs and the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar in his office earlier, they all moved to the First Lady Conference room where governors were already seated.

Again, PDP accuses APC of terrorist connections

The Peoples Democratic Party has reiterated its allegations that the opposition All Progressives Congress is responsible for the escalation of terrorist activities in Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, on Tuesday.

The party explained that inflammatory statements made by the leaders of the APC sparked off the hatred against the President Goodluck Jonathan-led PDP administration.

He urged Nigerians to stand up and resist those he called unpatriotic elements, whose actions and utterances had continued to fuel insurgency in the country.

According to Metuh, inflammatory utterances by certain “key politicians” against the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan sparked off hatred against the administration by their followers, while attracting impudent insurgents, who started demanding the ouster of the President with threats to cripple the system through acts of terrorism.

The statement partly read, “When the PDP, said that the APC is responsible for the spate of terror in Nigeria, many had an emotional response, but it is now time to dispassionately focus on the facts in order to stop the carnage on innocent Nigerians.

Soldiers, hunters comb bushes for abducted girls

Soldiers, policemen, local vigilantes, hunters and volunteers combed the bushes on Wednesday in search of over 100 schoolgirls abducted on Monday by Boko Haram Islamists in Chibok, Borno State.

The rescue teams, aided by surveillance helicopters, were said to have moved deeper into the vast forest that extends into neighbouring Cameroon and other states in the North-East.

A senator representing Borno South in the National Assembly, Ali Ndume, made this known to the Cable News Network just as President Goodluck Jonathan summoned military chiefs and governors to emergency security meetings on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Before the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, made this known, the Federal Government had said it was not yet in possession of full details of the abduction of the girls from   their hostel in the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok.

B’Haram link: Apologise or face litigation, Buhari tells PDP

A former head of state and a chief of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Peoples Democratic Party, to retract its wild accusation linking him with the Boko Haram terrorist acts, tender an unreserved public apology to him or face a legal action.

In a statement personally signed in Kaduna on Thursday Buhari said, “I cannot sit back and allow my image, and that of my political party be smeared by falsehood in the name of politics.”

He said the widely publicised and very serious allegations made against him by the PDP and its spokesman, Olisa Metuh, to the effect that his utterances were responsible for the current state of insecurity and terrorism bedeviling Nigeria, were absolutely without basis.

The former Head of State said, ”To support his claim, Metuh engaged in twisted logic and outright distortion – which he called facts – in which he said that I, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, beckoned on my ‘supporters to go on lynching spree’ should I lose the 2011 presidential election, as a result of which ‘an unprecedented violence broke out claiming the lives of hundreds of innocent people’.

SURE-P to support Bash Ali’s quest to break Guinness book of records

The  Chairman of the Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) Gen. Martin-Luther Agwai , on Wednesday assured Cruiserweight boxer Bash Ali of maximum support in his boxing quest for glory.

Agwai gave the assurance in Abuja when he met with Ali who was  soliciting  SURE-P’s  support for the Guinness Book of World Record fight.

The International Boxing Union (IBU) is demanding $1 million (N162 million) sanctioning fees to be paid latest April 30 or Nigeria will lose the hosting right.

Agwai, however, said Nigerians should see the Guinness Book of World Record fight as a national project and help the boxer to source for the money.

“If we can produce in every geo-political zone one Bash Ali, that means we are going to get at least six world champions.

Court overrules Anambra Election Petition Tribunal in Ngige’s suit

The Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu Tuesday  ordered the restoration of all reliefs struck out by the Anambra State Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Awka during the pre-trial stages of the case filed by Senator Chris Ngige and All Progressives Congress, APC, seeking the cancellation of the November 2013 governorship elections in the state.

The court also threw out the appeal filed by the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, gubernatorial aspirant in the election, Chief Chike Obidigbo against the state governor, Chief Willie Obiano.
The court in an unanimous decision dismissed Chief Obidigbo’s case number CA/E/08/2014 for lack of merit.

EFCC recovers N4.3b of N422b subsidy fraud

More than three years after the subsidy fraud that deprived Nigerians of over N422 billion of tax payers money, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC said yesterday that it had been able to recover a paltry N4.3 billion from the oil dealers.

Chairman of the commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, announced the figure when officials of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, visited him in his office.
The PPPRA officials were led by their Executive Secretary, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, who sought greater collaboration with the anti-graft agency for better performance of their duties.

Lamorde said the recovery of the amount from the oil firms indicted in the subsidy scam was made possible by the synergy between the EFCC and the PPPRA and called for more teamwork to retrieve more from the firms.