The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday sentenced a former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, to seven years imprisonment on corruption charges regarding his activities preceding the 2015 presidential election which his party lost.
Justice Okon Abang delivering judgment at the proceedings which lasted over six hours convicted Metuh on all the seven counts, including the fraudulent receipt of N400m from the Office of the National Security Adviser in November 2014 and use of the money for political activities of the PDP and for his personal purposes.
The court also convicted Metuh for transacting with a cash sum of $2m without going through a financial institution.
The judge agreed with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission successfully proved that the transaction violated the anti-money laundering law which pegs the maximum cash transaction an individual undertake outside a financial institution at N5m.
He imposed sentenced Metuh to seven years imprisonment for counts 1, 2, 4 and 7, five years imprisonment in respect of count 3, and three years in respect of counts 5 and 6.
He, however, ruled that the sentences shall run concurrently which implied that he would only spend the highest number of years of jail term, which is seven, in prison.
The judge also directed Metuh to pay a fine of N375m to the Federal Government.
He also ordered Destra Investments to pay N25m to the Federal Government.
He ordered the accounts of Destra in Diamond Bank and Asset Resource Management to be closed and their proceeds forfeited to the Federal Government.
The Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, on Tuesday, announced the disbandment of the Zonal Intervention Squad, Obada-Oko, Ogun State.
The disbandment followed the death of a player of Remo Stars Football Club, Tiyamiyu Kazeem, allegedly caused by operatives of ZIS SARS, Obada-Oko, Abeokuta.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Criminal Investigations Department Force Headquarters, Peter Ogunyonwo, made the announcement on behalf of the IGP when he accompanied the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, on a condolence visit to the parents of the deceased in Sagamu.
Ogunyonwo added that the ZIS office would be handed over to the Ogun State Police Command.
Kazeem was killed by a hit-and-run vehicle after he was allegedly thrown out of a moving operational vehicle of SARS on the Abeokuta-Sagamu Expressway on Saturday.
Kazeem was until his death, the vice-captain of the Remo Stars Football Club.
The Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Ohanaeze Ndigbo have warned the Federal Government that creating an agency for ex-terrorists as proposed by some lawmakers is an attempt to disintegrate Nigeria.
The groups said incentivising terrorists through an agency would mean an approval of the killings, maiming and kidnapping of Nigerians by the group.
The leaders of the zones viewed the development as capable of compounding insecurity and dividing the country, while some youths saw the development a step to fast-track the realisation of a Biafra republic.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which accused the Federal Government of promoting ‘divisive tendencies” by its body language to insecurity caused by Boko Haram insurgents, insisted that granting amnesty to the group would encourage other self-determination groups to become armed.
The President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, said the group does not believe that the captured Boko Haram members truly repented, and he added that certain forces beyond such members might have forced them into submission.
Nwodo said, “The president continues to confirm that he shares some ideological affinity with Boko Haram. How can you offer amnesty to captured aggressors whose remorse is induced by hopelessness rather than genuine change of mind?
“How can you categorise armless IPOB as terrorists and give amnesty to unrepentant aggressors? This duplicity of standards and undisguised bias betray his oath of office and deepens our divide in the country.
“If Boko Haram is granted amnesty, other self-determination groups are being indirectly encouraged to become armed and militant.”
The Executive Director, Civil Liberties Organisation, Ibuchukwu Ezike, agreed with Ohanaeze, stating that captured Boko Haram members had not shown remorse or surrendered willingly to earn amnesty.
“When somebody truly repents of his actions and you are giving amnesty to him or her, it is acceptable. It is not acceptable when somebody continues to inflict pains on the people and commits all kinds of evil against the society and you want amnesty granted to such a person.
“Again when somebody is motivated to take an action against the state or the people, there is something that you can say is making the person to take up arms against the state and you will begin to talk of doing something to assuage his anger. In this case, nobody has told us why they took up arms. They set homes and communities on fire without justification and have made millions of widows in the society as well as made several people live in asylum,” he said.
MASSOB leader, Uchenna Madu, also said that the ploys by the Federal Government to treat the Fulanis, Boko Haram members and the criminal bandits operating in core northern states as “beloved children of Arewa must lead to break up Nigeria.”
He said: “The move to introduce the bill for the establishment of a national agency for repentant Boko Haram terrorists by Moslem-dominated Senate of Nigeria is another grand plot of Islamic northern caliphate to transfer more Boko Haram trained terrorists with their terrorist activities to southern part of Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, the Niger Delta Self-Determination Movement (NDSDM) has called on governors of the South-South region to immediately set up a regional security network that could aid the “overstretched” established security agencies in combating insecurity across the Niger Delta region.
In a letter addressed to the chairman, South-South Governors’ forum, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, NDSDM said a regional security network had become imperative considering attacks on the Niger Delta by herdsmen.
A powerful public memorial service was held at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles Monday to honor NBA great Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, nearly one month after the helicopter crash that took their lives.
Former teammate Shaquille O’Neal told the 20,000 mourners that “Kobe and I always held a deep respect and love for one another,” calling him “Heaven’s MVP.”
Also among the speakers was Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, who emotionally opened up about her memories of her husband and daughter.
Christina Aguilera sang a stirring rendition of “Ave Maria” and the Staples Center fell silent as Alicia Keys performed Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”
Beyonce’s rendition of XO and Halo had the whole place in tears:
President Muhammadu Buhari will tomorrow visit Ondo State to commission some projects executed by the Governor Rotimi Akeredolu administration.
The President, who will be received by Governor Akeredolu, will commission the flyover bridge constructed on the Benin-Ore express road and the industrial park in Ore, headquarters of Odigbo Local Government Area of the state.
The national leader or the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is also expected to accompany the President on the visit.
The six governors of the South-West, southwestern members of the Federal Executive Council and members of the National Assembly from Ondo State are also expected to join the President
The commissioning is part of activities to mark the third-year anniversary of the Akeredolu administration.
Meanwhile, Mr Akeredolu has approved that Tuesday be declared a public holiday in honour of the President’s visit.
He said the public holiday is necessary for the state to welcome the President in a grand style.
Mr Akeredolu expressed appreciation to God for the course of his administration, even as he enjoined all to take advantage of the period to participate fully in the series of activities lined up for the celebrations.
The state Commissioner for Information, Mr Donald Ojogo, said all arrangements have been concluded to give Mr Buhari a rousing welcome.
Fast and furious, the song and drums roar like a crash of thunder in rainy season and she dances wildly like fire. Like a devil resisting deliverance, she jumps and gyrates with the skill of a striptease dancer. She dons a white Versace wear. She’s a famous gospel music evangelist. She chews widely on a piece of gum as her mouth sings His praise but her feet shuffles excitedly to that worldly dance step, zanku, mixed with a sprinkle of shakushaku, twisting and turning. She’s a disgrace to Christendom. She’s evil; nail her to the cross, they chorus.
I wasn’t a Tope Alabi fan. Not until I listened to her monster hit, ‘Mo ri ‘yanu’, a couple of years ago. That song changed my perception of her as a colourless gospel artist assaulting the ear with monotonous dogma, devoid of talent, artistry and grace. I think ‘Mo ri ‘yanu’ is to Tope Alabi what ‘Ketekete’ – (The Man, the horse and the son) is to Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey. It’s what ‘Eri okan’ (Conscience) is to King Sunny Ade. While ‘Ketekete’ cements the legendary of Obey as a foremost philosopher, ‘Eri okan’ affirms the genius of KSA as an unsurpassable, multi-talented artist of his generation. The brilliance that produced ‘Mo ri ‘yanu’ belongs in the evergreen realm.
Until I listened to ‘Mo ri ‘yanu’, I had been put off by Tope’s alleged sex scandal with her late pastor, Prophet Elijah Ajanaku. The suspicion in which I hold self-professed men and women of God and the monologue that dominate her works had also caused me to see her songs as predictable and commonplace. In ‘Mo ri ‘yanu’, Tope acknowledges the humbling birth of Lord Jesus and His predestined supremacy. She also preaches about the Holy Trinity and the ultimate ability of God, the Father, to do all things.
But with the zanku plus shakushaku dance steps she skilfully exhibited in a music video that went viral last week, not a few busybodies feel she should be tossed into a lake of fire.
The hoopla that trailed the video is rooted in Nigerians’ monstrous penchant to idolise religious and political leaders and sit them on the same throne with God. But Tope is just a two-legged mortal with a head, two eyes and a beautiful body susceptible to arousal when lovingly caressed by her husband, Soji Alabi. Though a celebrity, Tope is vulnerable to the vicissitudes of life like any other mortal – a reason why when death came knocking on the door of her father, neither her powerful voice nor her depthless compositions could turn death back.
For those who frowned on Tope Alabi’s zanku dance, here are a few sore points that they feel fall against the grain: Why should Tope Alabi, a 49-year-old married woman and mother, deftly ‘gbe bodi’ and dance like an uncircumcised teenager to Christian songs during the burial of her father? Why should a gospel singer, Christian leader and an entertainer dance so raunchily in public?
I won’t go to Israel to recall the curse placed on Michal for criticising King David, her husband, who danced in an ‘undignified manner’ before the Lord when the Ark of the Covenant was taken to Jerusalem during a religious procession. I shall limit my opinion to the realities of our Nigerian sensibilities. I watched the video over and over, and I came to the realisation that folks averse to Tope’s controversial dance did so because they couldn’t come to terms with the personalities of the hitherto dove-like Tope and the new eagle-like Tope. The sharp contrast between the two Tope Alabis, I think, was a major reason for the condemnation. If Tope had been known in the past to dance with reckless abandon, there would’ve been no room for the criticism. Having buried my mother at the unripe age of 62, I know there’s a sense of gratitude felt by children who have the privilege of burying their parents. I think that the sense of gratitude, joy and fulfilment felt by Tope birthed that dance.
It should be pointed out that Tope wasn’t dancing to salacious Naira Marley’s ‘Tesu mole’, she was dancing to a live Christian worship song performed by up-and-coming younger artists, who had come to support a big sister burying her father. To show solidarity with the younger musicians, I don’t see anything wrong with Tope doing the youthful zanku or shakushaku dance steps. Tope, who’s almost 50, should even be commended for having the stamina to compete with the youth in their own dance. Also, I see a dose of chauvinism in the criticism because I strongly feel that if the artist was a male, no eyebrow would have been raised. I’ve seen a number of popular male gospel artists do zanku and shakushaku dance steps in their music videos and no one has cast the first stone at them.
For being true to herself by openly showing her unrestrained dancing skills, Alabi shouldn’t be condemned. Her dance is in total contrast to the hypocrisy of the Nigerian political leadership typified, in this instance, by the House of Representatives which just ordered from overseas 400 brand-new Toyota SUVs for its members. It’s shocking that the House of Representatives could shun indigenous auto assembly plant, Innoson Motors, and ferry boatloads of foreign exchange to Japan to buy 2020 edition of Toyota SUVs when the Federal Government failed to transport Nigerian amateur boxers to Senegal for Olympic Games qualification trials – on account of paucity of funds. The callous Federal Government had shamefully turned down the request by some of the boxers, who had been in camp for several weeks without camping allowance, to sponsor themselves for the qualifying event. The boxers had been raining blows on one another in the hope of earning Olympic tickets in the different weight categories only for the Sunday Dare-led sports ministry to murder their hopes in cold blood. Giving the most absurd of excuses, the sports ministry said boxers would be sponsored to compete for Olympic tickets at the world boxing qualifiers in France. Nigerian leaders are surely walking with their heads upside down. Transport to France will cost much more dollars. Qualifying from France will be like putting the camel through the eye of the needle. Why go to France when you can get qualification tickets in Senegal? Are some people waiting to exploit the country for estacodes?
If the Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) regime calls on Nigerians to fasten their belts tight, officials of government should also be seen as doing so. It’s wrong for misdirected customs officials to break into poor folks’ family kitchens in search of imported rice, turkey and toothpicks while Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, and House of Reps Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, their families and cohorts living on taxpayers money, eat foreign food, ride exotic foreign vehicles and treat the masses with indignity.
Even if it’s to score a cheap political point, it never occurred to the Gbajabiamila-led House to take up the sponsorship of just three of the boxers to Senegal by buying 399 SUVs instead of 400. These lawmakers have the latest state-of-the-art vehicles costlier than the incoming acquisitions. The Buhari-led executive appears not to have time for any other thing at the moment; it’s busy with ensuring ‘repentant’ Boko Haram members are treated with dignity, honour and love befitting of royalty. This is the change promised.
NB: Congratulations to the World Boxing Council new heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, the Gypsy King, whose victory I predicted. Fury’s victory is down to belief, passion and courage – virtues lacking in the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government headed by Buhari, a Fulani herdsman.
Sanni Abubakar, a principal witness in the death of a Remo Stars Football Club player, Tiamiyu Kazeem, has narrated how operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad allegedly caused his death.
He countered the claim by the police that the late defender jumped out of the vehicle while attempting to escape.
Kazeem, aka Kaka, was crushed by a hit-and-run driver on the Sagamu-Abeokuta Expressway while being taken to the SARS office on Saturday.
While the police claimed he jumped out of the vehicle and was crushed by an oncoming vehicle, the friend said he was pushed out.
Abubakar told PUNCH Metro that the policemen arrested him and the deceased in Sagamu where they had parked their vehicle to buy engine oil.
He noted that the operatives, who were in a Sienna vehicle, seized their phones.
He said, “We were going to his (Kazeem) father’s house, when he parked at Ita-Oba Roundabout, Sagamu, to buy engine oil for his car.
“After he left, the SARS guys parked in front of the car. They started interrogating me. They asked who I was, what I was doing there and who owned the car. I told them the car belonged to my friend, and they asked where he was. I told them that he went to buy something.
“They took my phone and my friend’s phone from me; they did not explain anything to me. The SARS guy handed the phones to another guy in the Toyota Sienna.
“Afterwards, my friend returned from where he went to buy the engine oil; they grabbed him and pushed him inside their Sienna and started driving. They said they were taking us to their headquarters.”
Abubakar explained that one of the officers drove Kazeem’s car and trailed the police operational vehicle, where his friend was held.
He noted that after the vehicles passed the area command’s office at Sagamu, he queried the cop, who insisted that they were going to the SARS headquarters.
The victim’s friend said after passing the Sagamu Interchange, the policemen parked at a junction and continued to interrogate them.
He said the SARS officer with him (Abubakar) opened the boot of the deceased’s car and when he (Abubakar) attempted to get out of the vehicle, the cop threatened to shoot him dead.
“Then they started driving again. I just saw the door of their Sienna opened; they pushed my friend out of the moving car onto the road.
“A car coming behind us hit him. After hitting him from the lane, Kaka jumped to the other lane. I came out of the car, shouting and crying for help.
“We put him inside his car because they did not want to put him in their vehicle. We took him to a nearby hospital, but he was rejected.
“They asked us to take him to the General Hospital, Owode. When we got to the general hospital, we could not find the Sienna vehicle where the other SARS officers were; they had run away.
“I then saw the SARS guy that drove us making calls and asking his colleagues to come that he was in the hospital. I observed that he was moving towards the gate and I ran after him.
“We dragged each other as I insisted that he was not going anywhere and he must kill me like they killed my friend.
“The hospital workers came out and held him for me, while I went to call the police, the parents of Kaka and our manager.”
However, the police said the deceased caused his own death by jumping out of the vehicle while being taken to a police station for interrogation.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement said only one SARS operative from the Zonal Intervention Squad, Obada, Abeokuta, was involved in the incident.
According to Oyeyemi, the operative went to arrest the victim after a complaint over his alleged harassment of some residents with army uniform.
He explained that Kazeem was arrested and was being taken from Sagamu to the ZIS office at Obada when the police operational vehicle developed a fault on the road.
While the vehicle was being fixed, the suspect, according to the PPRO, jumped out of the vehicle and fled.
He said he was crushed to death by an oncoming vehicle.
“He was not shot as being insinuated; his vehicle is at Owode Egba, intact,” Oyeyemi added.
Meanwhile, the state Governor, Dapo Abiodun, has promised to investigate the death.
Abiodun, who described the killing as unfortunate, urged all residents of the state to remain calm.
The governor, in a condolence statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, on Sunday, urged players, management and supporters of the club to be calm, adding that the killers would be brought to justice.
Abiodun said, “A proper, transparent and independent investigation would be launched to know what transpired with a view to bringing persons responsible to justice.”
He described the late player as a young man with great potential for the development of the state and the nation.
Concerns about the safety of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole in Benin, the Police have beefed up security around his Okorotun residence in the Edo State capital on Saturday.
It was learnt that despite the tight security mounted at the Benin Airport last Friday to prevent mobilised political thugs from attacking the former Edo State governor, the thugs were still able to hauls stones at his convoy.
But that was only the first hurdle, as the APC national chairman found it difficult to access his house. The Okorotun Street was blocked on both ends with two Edo State Waste Management trucks.
Some tyres of the trucks were deflated to make it impossible for anyone to tow them.
Besides, it was gathered that there was real threat of explosive devices to be hauled at the APC national chairman’s premises on Saturday night, even as credible sources disclosed that there was a plot to burn one of the trucks and hang it on Oshiomhole.
Following the threat, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, was said to have directed the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Jimeta Lawal, to beef up security around Oshiomhole’s house.
Consequently, the commissioner, according to sources, complied with the IGP directive and personal visited the APC national chairman’s house to assess the security situation.
This is even as Oshiomhole was said to have been inundated with telephone calls by well wishers seeking to enquire about his safety.
But on Sunday morning, one of the two trucks used to block access to his residence had been burnt by yet-to-identified persons.
Meanwhile, the Edo State government has denied involvement in the attacks on the APC national chairman at the airport and the siege to his residence.
“We don’t know anything about these, our concern is that the national chairman came to Edo State and did not inform the government about his presence.
“He is the national chairman of our party and courtesy demands that he informs the government about his presence and like I said before, the state government does not have anything to do with the airport incident,” Governor Godwin Obaseki Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie said.
Oshiomhole was in Benin at the weekend to attend the burial ceremony of Cecilia Agbonyinma, mother of former Egor/Ikpoba-Okah Constituency House of Representatives member, Ehiozuwa Agbonyinma.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar lll, has declared that God was using insurgency in the Northern part of the country to punish Nigerians for their sins.
Abubakar said Nigerians must learn to adhere to the teachings of the Quran and the Bible to escape God’s wrath.
The monarch stated this at the 5th International Conference on “Love and Tolerance: Countering Violent Extremism for Peaceful Coexistence” in Abuja, on Thursday.
Represented by the Emir of Jiwa, Dr. Idris Musa, the Sultan of Sokoto stated that the challenge of insurgency would come to an end when Nigerians stop committing sin.
He said: “The security challenge is our problem. The Holy Quran is a message to mankind. The Holy Bible is a message to mankind. If we cannot listen to what the Bible and Quran have taught us and we continue in our bad ways, what do we expect?
“It is part of the punishment we are receiving based on our sins. If we can stop committing sin and abide by God’s words, things will change.
“It is part of the punishment we are receiving based on our sins. If we can stop committing sin and abide by God’s words, things will change.”
The monarch urged Nigerians to live in harmony and stop creating problems for themselves.
Abubakar, who urged Nigerians not to be afraid, stressed that the country has all it takes to defeat insurgency.
He added: “We are appealing to everyone to live together and be our brother’s keeper and live in harmony. We should not create problems for each other.
“We can win the fight against insurgency. Everyone is afraid of each other, but I am sure that we are going to win the war. Today, it has reached a situation where a senior citizen is running away from the common man, because, he is thinking that he would lose his life, why?”
British Airways has said it will compensate its passengers whose flights were diverted to Accra, Ghana due to the inclement weather in Lagos.
The General Manager, West Africa, British Airways, Mr Kola Olayinka, on Thursday, apologised to the affected passengers.
Olayinka said in a statement that the situation was as a result of delays and diversions of flights occasioned by the inclement weather that caused poor visibility at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos as well as a number of factors outside the airline’s immediate control.
He stated that the decision to delay or divert flights was made by the airline’s pilots who were trained to handle such situations in consideration of the safety and security of the passengers and crew.
He said, “We regret the frustrations experienced and the disruptions it would have had on earlier-planned engagements of our esteemed customers.
“We would also like to use this opportunity to encourage passengers to send receipts of expenses incurred during this period to our customer relations team on standby to process the reimbursements and also attend to queries.”
Olayinka stated that during the period, the airline ensured that its customers were accommodated in hotels where adequate rooms were available, meals, refreshments, and transport to and from the airports were provided for their movement at the different airports in Accra, Abuja, and Lagos.
He said, “Regrettably, in this unique case, most hotels were taken up by passengers of airlines that were earlier diverted to Abuja. The direct result was the inadequacy of accommodation.
“To resolve this, we booked all 157 available rooms and accommodated 157 passengers.
“We also ensured the safety of the remaining passengers by accommodating them in a dedicated area provided by Sheraton where we provided meals and drinks.”
According to Olayinka, the Accra incident was markedly unpredictable as the delay lingered for two days due to the persisting weather condition.
He explained that the airline chartered a Boeing 767 from Euro Atlantic to convey passengers from Accra to Lagos, adding that a number of passengers however opted to make personal arrangements for their return.
