The Imo State Government, yesterday, described as wicked the speculation that wife of the governor of the state, Chioma Uzodimma, was abducted.
The state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, said that the sponsors of the rumour were “devils’ agents.”
Emelumba said that those who do not wish the state well were the same people behind the abduction rumour.
Meanwhile, palpable fear, yesterday, gripped residents of Imo State as gunmen forcefully enforced the sit-at-home directive of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Residents, shop owners, motorists and traders in Owerri capital city of the state and environs were forced to close shops and businesses in compliance with the sit-at-home order by IPOB.
The problem erupted when at about 10:00 a.m., traders in various markets, commuters and shop owners on various streets began to close and ran distances on hearing that the members of IPOB from neighbouring states had infiltrated the state to enforce the order.
The panic started from Ukwu-Orji to Ogbaku and Orogwe in Mbaitoli and Owerri West local councils of the state.
At Ehiogugu, Mbaise and Naze in Owerri North Local Council, shootings by gunmen were said to have scared residents of the place to return back to their homes.
Some of the tertiary institutions in the state also hurriedly shutdown amid the pandemonium caused by the gunmen.
Security operatives, including the police and soldiers, were quickly mobilised and armoured tanks deployed to strategic places in the capital city, including the Government House, Owerri entrance.
In another development, the IPOB has opposed the move by the management of the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri and Aladimma General Hospital to conduct mass burial for dead bodies in their facilities.
The medical facilities had last week indicated their intention to bury unclaimed bodies in their mortuaries to make room for others.
IPOB, in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, however, opposed the move.
It said that the bodies were innocent Biafrans killed in different parts of Imo State by security agencies, stressing that hurrying to bury them was an affront on the concerned families.
Civil rights groups on Monday berated politicians and the elites as 10 Nigerian politicians were implicated in the Pandora Papers for tax evasion.
They were among hundreds of individuals from other countries indicted by the papers for hiding their wealth and assets in offshore locations to evade taxes.
Civil rights organisations including Transition Monitoring Group and the Centre for Public Accountability, in separate interviews with The PUNCH, said report showed deep rooted corruption in Nigeria.
The Pandora Papers is an investigation based on one of the biggest-ever leaks of financial documents which exposed a hidden world of shielded wealth belonging to hundreds of politicians and billionaires.
Published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on Sunday, the papers listed 336 politicians, including nationals of eight African countries.
The project saw 600 journalists from 150 news organisations around the world poring through a trove of 11.9 million confidential files, contextualising information, tracking down sources and analysing public records and other documents.
One of those named is a former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, according to Premium Times which participated in the investigations.
Obi, a former Vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 election was said to have used a Monaco-based foreign company, Acces International to incorporate an offshore entity in one of the world’s most notorious tax havens noted for providing conduits for wealthy and privileged corrupt political elites to hide stolen cash to avoid the attention of tax authorities.
According to Premium Times, he allegedly paid Acces International to provide nominee directors for his company, Gabriella Investments Limited.
Gabriella Investment Limited was born on November 17, 2010, with registration number 1615538 while two figureheads – Antony Janse Van Vuuren and Lance Lawson — were appointed its first directors while ultimate control resided with Obi.
Efforts were made to get a response from the former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, without success.
Calls to his mobile telephone number were neither picked nor returned.
A response to a text message sent to him with respect to his response to findings listed against him in the Pandora papers was still being expected as of 10:09pm
When contacted earlier by Premium Times, Obi stated, “I don’t declare what is owned with others. If my family owns something I won’t declare it. I didn’t declare anything I jointly owed with anyone.”
The EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren did not respond when asked if the commission would initiate investigations into the allegations against Obi and other Nigerians mentioned in the Pandora Papers.
He did not respond to calls and to a text message seeking his comment on the development.
According to an interactive map of the leaked documents, five Côte d’Ivoire politicians were helped by foreign agents to stash money suspected to be looted away from public view.
Ghana has three politicians listed in the documents, which has been described as “An offshore data tsunami.”
Chad, Kenya and Congo Brazzaville have two politicians each listed in the infamous documents that had reportedly sent shivers down the spines of public figures globally; while Gabon has three politicians listed.
Angola has nine politicians listed in the document, while Zimbabwe and South Africa have two each; Mozambique has one.
But the Executive Director of the Centre for Public Accountability, Olufemi Lawson, said the Pandora Papers revelations only confirmed what many Nigerians already knew as far as the culture of transparency among the political class was concerned.
He stated, “Even though the revelations transcend the shores of Nigeria, particularly on how corruption has become a global phenomenal, we should be concerned that people whom our citizens regard as otherwise transparent and credible, do also lack the needed integrity to manage public institutions and resources.”
Also, the Chairman of Transition Monitoring Group, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, government fight against corruption was leaving a huge deficit and gaps by refusing to tackle political corruption.
He stated, “It looks like the government places more emphasis on political loyalty and political cover-up than the fight against corruption. This explains the silence on blocking leakages and taking strong measures to sanction official corruption in Nigeria.”
Former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, has said that the 17 Southern Governors should stop “ganging up” and “issuing threats” to get the 2023 Presidential slot.
Shekarau, who represents Kano Central District in the Senate, stated this on Monday while featuring on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast programme.
The All Progressives Congress chieftain said that the next President after the incumbent, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), should come from the Southern region of the country to give “a sense of belonging” to every Nigerian.
He also noted that the APC should zone its presidential ticket to a capable and credible candidate in the South in the next election which is about 18 months from now.
The two-term governor and former Minister of Education, however, knocked the Southern Governors for “ganging up” to demand Presidency in 2023.
As the 2023 general elections draw nearer, there have been intense political posturing, permutations and fireworks. The 17 Southern Governors had met twice in the year and demanded power shift to their region while the 19 Northern Governors also met last week, opposing such move and noting that the candidate with the highest votes will emerge as President in the next general elections.
Speaking on the television programme, Shekarau lamented that it was very unfortunate that the issue of zoning has degenerated to a point where democracy has been reduced to “regional gang-up”.
The Senator knocked the Southern Governors for their various meetings and “gang ups”, saying they should desist from instigating other groups in the country from making similar demands that would heat up the polity.
He said that the Southern Governors should make intra-party consultations and discussions, rather than make public declarations.
Shekarau said, “As far as the party I belong is concerned, the APC, my proposal is that now that President Buhari is from the northern part of the country and (after) he has done his eight years, let beam the searchlight to the southern part of Nigeria, not because we don’t have competent people in the north…that does not mean you are throwing away the issue of competence, credibility and so on.
“While I agree we should go for the best and therefore throw it open, regardless of which part of the country, but we must also be mindful of the aspect of the sense of belonging. We must be mindful of perception, to give some sense of belonging to every part of Nigeria.
“Where I disagree with the Southern Governors is coming together to gang up to say it must be our turn. I think this is purely a party affair.”
Continuing, he said, “We must not do this at the point of threat, that it must be me, it must be he, we need to come together. This is more of a political party issue.
“My point of disagreement with the gang up groups like the Southern Governors is coming to gang up to say it must be our time, this is wrong, it is purely (a) party issue and the political parties should go into the boardrooms and sort this issue out themselves.”
“Today, the Southern Governors gang up, tomorrow, another group would gang up and say it must be us,” he said.
“Governors are very prominent people in the scheme of things, they are leaders, so, they must be careful coming together to make some pronouncement that would amount to instigating the general public to take a stand and see it as a regional fight,” Shekarau added.
Facebook owner, Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth has fallen by nearly $7 billion in a few hours, knocking him down a notch on the list of the world’s richest people, after a whistleblower came forward and outages took Facebook Inc.’s flagship products offline.
This is just as Facebook’s co-messaging apps, WhatsApp and Instagaram remained down after four hours of global outage which has upset businesses and disconnected billions of people around the world.
According to Bloomberg, a selloff sent the social-media giant’s stock plummeting around 5% on Monday, adding to a drop of about 15% since mid-September.
The stock slide on Monday sent Zuckerberg’s worth down to $120.9 billion, dropping him below Bill Gates to No. 5 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He’s lost about $19 billion of wealth since September 13, when he was worth nearly $140 billion, according to the index.
On September 13, the Wall Street Journal began publishing a series of stories based on a cache of internal documents, revealing that Facebook knew about a wide range of problems with its products — such as Instagram’s harm to teenage girls’ mental health and misinformation about the Jan. 6 Capitol riots — while downplaying the issues in public. The reports have drawn the attention of government officials, and on Monday, the whistleblower revealed herself.
In response, Facebook has emphasized that the issues facing its products, including political polarization, are complex and not caused by technology alone.
“I think it gives people comfort to assume that there must be a technological or a technical explanation for the issues of political polarization in the United States,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, told CNN.
The Delta State Police has confirmed the recovery of the decomposing body of 23-year-old Delta State-born comedian and social media influencer, Onomuakpokpo Ogheneochukome, popularly known as Brakin Face.
The Police Public Relations Officer for Delta State Command, DSP Bright Edafe, told journalists that the popular comedian was found dead in his apartment on Sunday morning.
According to the PPRO, after three days of fruitless search, the decomposing corpse of the comedian was discovered by his sister at his apartment on Otomiewo Street, Ekpan in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State.
He stated that the Warri-born comedian was not seen to come out of his apartment since Friday while his mobile phones had also not been reachable since Friday, thus prompting friends and family members to embark on a search for him.
The search team was said to have reached out to other colleagues of his who claimed they had not heard from him.
His apartment had been under lock and key since Thursday with no one suspecting he had died.
After searching to no avail, friends and family members visited his house and broke into the apartment where they found his already decomposing body.
One of his colleagues, however, said there was no mark or injury on his body but they suspected he might have been poisoned. Meanwhile, Brakin Face’s remains have been deposited at a morgue awaiting autopsy.
It was gathered that the deceased was billed to host his first show titled “Outsyd with Brakin Face” on November 27th, in Warri with A-list artistes expected to attend.
Several of his friends and associates including Yung6ix, Kevino, Mr Jollof and Isokoboy have since taken to social media to mourn his death.
Pep Guardiola is one of the names that has appeared in the Pandora Papers, a publication by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
More than 600 journalists from 117 countries have spent the last two years analyzing 11.9 million leaked documents from 14 firms of lawyers specialising in creating offshore companies in tax havens.
According to La Sexta and El Pais, the Manchester City coach held a current account in Andorra until 2012, as he took advantage of a tax amnesty that had been introduced by Mariano Rajoy’s government to regularise his fiscal situation.
Until that point, Guardiola had not declared this current account to the Spanish Tax Agency, Marca reports.
A source close to Guardiola has stated that the account, which belongs to the Banca Privada d’Andorra, contains the salary from his spell with Al-Ahli, who he represented as a player between 2003 and 2005.
When he took advantage of the tax amnesty, he regularised around 500,000 euros, paying the 10 percent tax levy that had been stipulated by Cristobal Montoro, the minister of the Spanish Tax Agency.
According to the investigation, Guardiola appeared to run a registered business in Panama, Repox Investments, between 2007 and 2012, which were the years he worked at Barcelona, first as coach of the B team and then the first team.
He used this business to ‘safeguard his identity’ in a measure on the initiative of the Andorran bank.
In 2015, following the strong criticism he received from the Spanish minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernandez Diaz, Guardiola made an eye-catching statement.
“I believe that the minister [Fernandez Diaz] is slightly wrong, I have paid my taxes from the first day until the last, something that many parties cannot say,” said Guardiola.
Former Publicity Secretary of the APC in Lagos State, Joe Igbokwe
Simon Ekpa, the Finland-based self acclaimed disciple of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu has alleged that a Lagos chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Joe Igbokwe is one of the financiers of unknown gunmen terrorising the South-East region.
Ekpa, a former Radio Biafra broadcaster said this while reacting to Igbokwe’s statement that IPOB members burnt his house in Nnewi, Anambra state on Sunday.
Igbogwe, the special adviser on drainage and water resources to Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, claimed that members of the pro-Biafra separatist group invaded his house on Sunday.
In his posts on Facebook, the politician said no life was lost in the incident.
He said the closed-circuit television (CCTV) in his house captured the activities of the arsonists.
Igbokwe wrote, “IPOB invaded my house in Nnewi about now. I am sure they (razed) down my house, (given) the jerrycans of petrol I saw being offloaded from their Sienna car via CCTV. To God be the glory. I am still alive.”
The APC chieftain also shared a video from the aftermath of the attack, with an accompanying caption that reads: “Here it is. My Home in Nnewi has been sacrificed. No life was lost. To God be the glory.”
Reacting on his verified Twitter page, Ekpa said Igbokwe’s statement vindicated IPOB members.
He alleged that Igbokwe burnt his own residence to tarnish the image of the secessionist group.
Ekpa tweeted, “Joe Igbokwe’s comment that ‘my house in Nnewi has been sacrificed’ vindicated IPOB, it is also a confirmation that he is part of the sponsors of unknown gunmen in the southeast by sacrificing his own house, burning it down just to dent the image of IPOB & ESN.”
A suspected fake soldier, Hayatu Galadima, and his accomplice, Hamisu Adamu, have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency while allegedly conveying drugs, ammunition and communication equipment to bandits in Kaduna State.
They were reportedly arrested by a patrol team of NDLEA officers on Gwagwalada Expressway in Abuja on Friday, September 30, 2021.
A statement on Sunday by the spokesperson for the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, said 21 RLA 7.45mm ammunition concealed in water bottles; 16 packs of new two-way radios (walkie-talkie), and four army head masks, were among items recovered from Galadima.
Others were a wallet containing an army ID card; one USD, two FCMB, one First Bank, one Ecobank, one UBA, and one Skye Bank ATM cards; wraps of cannabis sativa; tablets of tramadol; three MTN, two 9mobile and one Airtel SIM cards.
According to Babafemi, one iPhone 12 Pro; one Samsung A31; one Nokia phone; seven NA pass letters; five handbags and one Bagco bag, containing personal belongings, as well as a gallon of palm oil, were also found on him.
While Galadima claimed to be a Lance Corporal serving in Ibadan, Oyo State, the suspects said they were taking the exhibits to Kaduna and Kano.
Babafemi said, “Preliminary investigation, however, indicates that the suspects may have contact with bandits in the North-West and were possibly moving the ammunition and the two-way radios to bandits who are presently excommunicated due to the suspension of telecommunication services in Zamfara, Sokoto and Kaduna states.”
Meanwhile, a final-year student of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Mario Okiwelu, has been arrested for allegedly importing from the United States of America five variants of liquid cannabis weighing 49.6grams.
According to the NDLEA, Okiwelu was arrested through a controlled delivery along with his accomplice, Precious Awuse, on Monday, September 27, 2021, around the NIPOST area, Port Harcourt.
Also, narcotic officers of the NDLEA attached to some courier firms in Lagos reportedly seized different sizes of illicit drugs, including 40g of cocaine concealed in a University of Uyo degree certificate, and going to Australia.
Other items were 280g of cannabis hidden in body cream bottles going to Cyprus; 400g of tramadol tucked in plastic bottles heading for Australia and 1kg of Methamphetamine concealed in auto parts with Hong Kong as its destination.
Operatives in Kaduna were also said to have arrested a widow, Aliya Idris, on Saturday, September 25, in the house of a wanted drug dealer, Shamsu Boda, on Joji Road, Tudun Wada, Zaria.
Babafemi said, “She was arrested during an operation at Shamsu Boda’s house. Found in her possession were 30 bottles of cough syrup with codeine and 20 sachets of Rophynol with a gross weight of 4.2kg and 77.5g, respectively.”
A new global investigation exposing the offshore hideaways of some of the world’s most powerful personalities launched yesterday (Sunday) after two years of discreet work by investigative journalists around the world.
The project, known as Pandora Papers, is facilitated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, ICIJ, which obtained a trove of 11.9 million confidential files.
The ongoing reporting involves 600 journalists from 150 news organisations around the world, Premium Times reports.
The journalists spent two years studying and sorting files, contextualising information, tracking down sources, and analysing public records and other documents.
It revealed the financial secrets of not less than 35 current and former world leaders, more than 330 public officials in more than 91 countries and territories.
The leaked files were reportedly retrieved from 14 offshore services firms around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore entities for clients, many of which are influential politicians, businesspersons, and criminals, seeking to conceal their financial dealings.
The stories will also reveal how some of the most influential Nigerians, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, current and former state governors, past and present lawmakers, businesspeople, a popular pastor, and many others, set up shell companies, and sometimes warehouse huge financial assets, in notorious secrecy jurisdictions.
It will further reveal how these individuals flout extant laws and legislation as they hide these assets, some of which have attracted the interest of law enforcement agencies in the UK and elsewhere.
ICIJ explained that “the Pandora Papers investigation provides an unequalled perspective on how money and power operate in the 21st century and how the rule of law has been bent and broken around the world by a system of financial secrecy enabled by the U.S. and other wealthy nations.”
“In popular imagination, the offshore system is often seen as a far-flung scattering of palm-shaded islands. The Pandora Papers showed that the offshore money machine operates in every corner of the world, including financial capitals of the richest and most powerful economies,” the ICIJ added.
The Pandora Papers investigation will reveal the secret owners of offshore companies, anonymous bank accounts, private jets, yachts, mansions, and artworks by Picasso, Banksy, and other masters around the world.
According to ICIJ, “It provides more information than what’s usually available to law enforcement agencies and cash-strapped governments.
“Large numbers of public officials and mega-wealthy individuals who in some cases are one and the same use the offshore system to manage, move and, often, hide their wealth. They play by different rules from the rest of humanity, in a game of intrigue and privilege that fuels crime and corruption and entrenches the power of the world’s economic and political elites.
“The Pandora Papers investigation is larger and more global than even ICIJ’s landmark Panama Papers investigation, which rocked the world in 2016, spawning police raids and new laws in dozens of countries and the fall of prime ministers in Iceland and Pakistan.
“The Panama Papers came from the files of a single offshore services provider: the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The Pandora Papers shine a light on a far wider cross-section of the lawyers, middlemen, and fixers who are at the heart of the offshore industry.
“The Pandora Papers lay bare the finances of many more country leaders and public officials than did the Panama Papers and provide more than twice as much information about the ownership of offshore companies. In all, the new leaks uncover the real owners of more than 29,000 offshore companies the owners come from more than 200 countries, with the largest contingents from Russia, the U.K., Argentina, China, and Brazil.”
The Panama Papers series will be launched just five years after the Panama Papers Revelations which were published in 2016.
That investigation exposed offshore companies linked to more than 140 politicians in more than 50 countries – including fourteen world leaders.
It also uncovered offshore hideaways tied to mega-banks, corporate bribery scandals, drug kingpins, Syria’s air war on its own citizens, and a network of people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin who shuffled as much as $2 billion around the world.
In the course of that investigation in Nigeria, more than 30 stories with damning details revealing the secret offshore asset of many prominent Nigerians, were published by Premium Times.
It is not illegal for Nigerians who are not public officers to own offshore accounts, and many prominent businesses do have them.
However, some public officials found to have accounts did not disclose them as expected by law.
This newspaper’s investigations revealed the secret offshore assets of Senate President Bukola Saraki and his wife Toyin; as well as those of Mr Saraki’s predecessor, David Mark.
It also revealed how the late governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, began looting his state and hiding public funds in offshore structures and how a former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, organised the stealing of the oil-rich state’s fund via offshore companies.
The investigations also revealed a network of shell companies in offshore tax havens linked to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and his brother, Sayyu Dantata; as well as the offshore companies of Wale Tinubu, the chief executive of Nigeria’s biggest indigenous oil company, Oando Plc, among others.
Similarly, the stories also exposed the secret offshore company of one of Africa’s most influential televangelists, Temitope Joshua, popularly called T.B. Joshua, who died in June.
Other prominent Nigerians named in the investigations were former Minister of Defence and billionaire businessman, Theophilus Danjuma; businessman, Hakeem Belo-Osagie; Globacom CEO, Mike Adenuga; Governor Abubakar Sadiq Sani Bello of Niger State; the late Ooni of Ife, Okunade Sijuwade; former Arik Air Chairman, Joseph Arumemi-Johnson and his wife, Mary, as well as two then-serving senators – Andy Uba (Anambra) and Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto).
Other top businesspersons, politicians, and their family members were also found in the infamous database, including those who were then holding public offices.
The revelations sparked outrage across Nigeria, with activists, civil society organisations, the labour movement, and the general public calling for extensive probes of those mentioned. But none of the violators has so far been prosecuted or sanctioned.
Whitemoney has been declared the winner of the Season 6 of the Big Brother Naija reality television show themed ‘Shine Ya Eye’, leaving Liquorose as the first runner up.
At the grand finale on Sunday, housemates evicted were Emmanuel, Angel, Cross, and Pere; leaving Whitemoney and Liquorose as the top two housemates battling for the N90m grand prize.
Born Hazel Onou, the 29-year-old contestant is one of the fans’ favourite. Fondly known as Whitemoney, the reality TV show star was born on July 6, 1992 and hails from Enugu State where he spent his early days before moving to Lagos.
During the show, Whitemoney had mentioned in several instances that he had it rough growing up. At a point, he had to sell food with his mother at a young age.
The TV star has also mentioned that part of his hustle included commercial photography, fixing generator sets, among others.
Leveraging the BBNaija platform, Whitemoney, who is an entrepreneur, has seized the opportunity to ‘sell his market’, hence viewers of the show see him as a ‘typical Igbo man’ and an astute businessman.
On the show, Whitemoney also won some money. He recently won N1m during the Johnnie Walker contest; during the BuyPower contest, he and Liquorose won N500,000 each.
