Justice Ibrahim Bubba, of the Federal High Court in Lagos, has
ordered the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to vacate the
residence and properties of Senator-Elect Buruji Kashamu. Mr. Kashamu
has been under House Arrest since the early hours on Saturday morning,
when the NDLEA swarmed around his house.
Mr. Kashamu is currently wanted by the United States on charges of
narcotics trafficking. He was incarcerated on similar charges in the
United Kingdom, but released before his extradition to the United
States.
The NDLEA issued press statements saying that Mr. Kashamu was placed
under House Arrest so that it would be certain that he appear before the
court on Monday May 25, for a ruling whether an extradition process to
the United States would begin. However, the NDLEA was unable to bring
Mr. Kashamu to court on Monday.
Mr. Kashamu’s lawyer, Ajibola Oluyede, spoke with SaharaReporters
today and said that “the court order is a direct result of the motion I
submitted yesterday, telling the court that what the Attorney General
and NDLEA were doing was unlawful.” The motion stated that the Attorney
General, Mr. Adoke, and the Chairman of the NDLEA were in violation of
Mr. Kashamu’s human rights.
“We have now issued charges against the Attorney General and the
NDLEA for criminal conduct for how they carried themselves,” Mr. Oluyede
told a SaharaReporters correspondent.
He added, “they must now return to court on June 4th to answer these charges.”
Mr. Oluyede also stated that “it is clear that the original purpose
of this invasion was to kidnap him [Mr. Kashamu] and ship him off to the
US, in violation of the Extradition Act.”
“No arrest warrant was issued by the court, which means they [the
Attorney General and NDLEA] never intended to follow legal procedure,”
he said.
Mr. Oluyede then revealed that he received information that, “their
[the NDLEA and Attorney General] first plan was to abduct him on
Saturday and ship him off to the US. It was only when this failed that
they started talking about taking him to court.”
Mr. Oluyede also told SaharaReporters that it is obvious that former
President Olusegun Obasanjo was behind the latest efforts to arrest
Senator-Elect Kashamu. “Prince Kashamu is the political nemesis of
Obasanjo, who has now lost relevance in the South West.”
“Obasanjo is now a paper weight electorally in Nigeria, he may have
international clout but he cannot get votes for people in Nigeria,” Mr.
Oluyede said.
The NDLEA Head of Public Affairs, Mr. Ofoyeju Mitchell, told
SaharaReporters that “the NDLEA has not received any court order to
vacate Mr. Kashamu’s residence and we believe any order to vacate his
residence is diversionary.”
Mr. Mitchell also stated that “the NDLEA refuses to be distracted by
his court maneuvers and advises that Kashamu respect the law by
submitting himself to the due process of the law.”
Mr. Mitchell also stated that it is false to suggest that the NDLEA
has acted unlawfully, “we received a provisional warrant from the
Federal High Court.”
Wednesday 27 May 2015
APC Denies Zoning Senate President to North-Central The statement, which was issued in Abuja by the APC’s national secretary, Mai Mala Buni, disclosed that the party was deeply embarrassed by the report. It speculated that the report was apparently planted in the media to sow the seeds of instability in the party.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has denied a report that its
National Working Committee (NWC) met on Monday night and decided to zone
the presidency of the Senate to Nigeria’s north central zone and the
Speaker of the House of Representatives to the southwest.
In a statement released today, the party said nothing of the sort reported by some media happened.
The statement, which was issued in Abuja by the APC’s national secretary, Mai Mala Buni, disclosed that the party was deeply embarrassed by the report. It speculated that the report was apparently planted in the media to sow the seeds of instability in the party.
“The NWC never discussed the issue of zoning at its meeting,” the statement remarked. It added, “Therefore, the report of its decision on zoning is a figment of the imagination of whoever concocted the story.”
The party said nothing had changed, adding that President-elect Muhammadu Buhari had indicated his readiness to work with anyone from any part of the country who earns any of the principal offices of the incoming National Assembly, including the Senate Presidency and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
In a statement released today, the party said nothing of the sort reported by some media happened.
The statement, which was issued in Abuja by the APC’s national secretary, Mai Mala Buni, disclosed that the party was deeply embarrassed by the report. It speculated that the report was apparently planted in the media to sow the seeds of instability in the party.
“The NWC never discussed the issue of zoning at its meeting,” the statement remarked. It added, “Therefore, the report of its decision on zoning is a figment of the imagination of whoever concocted the story.”
The party said nothing had changed, adding that President-elect Muhammadu Buhari had indicated his readiness to work with anyone from any part of the country who earns any of the principal offices of the incoming National Assembly, including the Senate Presidency and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Tuesday 12 May 2015
A Vietnamese court has sentenced two nigerian men Christian Nnadike, 34, and Collins Deke, 37, to 12. years imprisonment each
A Vietnamese court has sentenced two Nigerian men, Christian Nnadike, 34, and Collins Deke, 37, to 12 years each in a Vietnam prison for hacking into emails of local companies, contact the company’s foreign partners and swindle them of their money.
The men along with a Vietnamese female accomplice, Le Thi Kim Quyen, 35, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison and another Nigerian, de facto husband of the Vietnamese lady, Mark Mamado Abdallah, 39, who is currently at large, ran a scamming syndicate in Vietnam.
At the court hearing which took play in April, the men and their accomplice were also found guilty of another fraud scheme in which they pretended to be a British friend of two Vietnamese women on Facebook and asked them to send money as shipping fees to receive gifts.
According to prosecutors, the group defrauded many unsuspecting victims of over VND3.3 billion (US$150,000) between April and August 2013. Most of this came from the email hacking scheme.
Prosecutors said over the four months, the vietnamese woman, Quyen and her Nigerian husband, Abdallah hacked into the emails of several Vietnamese companies doing business with foreign companies. They gave the information to Nnadikwe and then Deke, who would later transfer it to another Nigerian man living in Malaysia. The unknown man in Malaysia then used the compromised email accounts to contact the victims’ foreign partners, asking them to send payments to a bank account opened by Quyen and Abdallah.
The men along with a Vietnamese female accomplice, Le Thi Kim Quyen, 35, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison and another Nigerian, de facto husband of the Vietnamese lady, Mark Mamado Abdallah, 39, who is currently at large, ran a scamming syndicate in Vietnam.
At the court hearing which took play in April, the men and their accomplice were also found guilty of another fraud scheme in which they pretended to be a British friend of two Vietnamese women on Facebook and asked them to send money as shipping fees to receive gifts.
According to prosecutors, the group defrauded many unsuspecting victims of over VND3.3 billion (US$150,000) between April and August 2013. Most of this came from the email hacking scheme.
Prosecutors said over the four months, the vietnamese woman, Quyen and her Nigerian husband, Abdallah hacked into the emails of several Vietnamese companies doing business with foreign companies. They gave the information to Nnadikwe and then Deke, who would later transfer it to another Nigerian man living in Malaysia. The unknown man in Malaysia then used the compromised email accounts to contact the victims’ foreign partners, asking them to send payments to a bank account opened by Quyen and Abdallah.
Monday 11 May 2015
Fadolapo shola blog: BEN MURRAY'S and the hypocrisy of a nigerian polit...
Fadolapo shola blog: BEN MURRAY'S and the hypocrisy of a nigerian polit...: By Elvis Iyorngurum I read Senator-elect, Ben Murray-Bruce’s piece, “It Doesn’t Matter if the Cat is White or Black,” published in Thisday’...
BEN MURRAY'S and the hypocrisy of a nigerian politician
By Elvis Iyorngurum
I read Senator-elect, Ben Murray-Bruce’s piece, “It Doesn’t Matter if the Cat is White or Black,” published in Thisday’s edition of April 29, 2015. In the article, he criticised President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari’s composition of his Transition Committee. He feels it is an inappropriate assemblage and questioned the General’s ability to constitute a productive team to support him in running his government. He also advised General Buhari to cut the cost of governance, beginning from Aso Rock, by reducing the overhead cost of the executive and persuading the legislature to do same.
Recently, Senator Murray-Bruce has been using his Twitter handle to further promote his prescriptions for our ailing economy. He asked General Buhari to use made in Nigeria Peugeot as his official car and also reduce the number of cars in the presidential fleet.
Senator Murray-Bruce is a man I had a lot of respect for. I heard him speak several times when he was campaigning for the Governorship of Bayelsa state. No doubt he is a brilliant and eloquent man and I had wished Bayelsans would give him the opportunity to lead them as their Governor and when that did not happen, I was deeply disappointed. Now much of that respect has eroded because of the Senator’s recent statements. His statements have a lot of substance I must admit, but they raise a lot of questions over his motive and his reputation.
The Senator had these brilliant ideas on how to run Nigeria and structure our financial and public service system, yet he failed to bring them forward until now, because his own, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has been the president. Now there’s an incoming president who is not from his region so he suddenly feels the need to come public and show he has a loud mouth. He criticised Gen Buhari’s constitution of his Transition Committee and it makes me wonder if he has ever felt it is helpful to our country that President Jonathan has had the likes of Doyin Okupe, Abba Moro, Diezani Alison-Madueke and Musiliu Obanikoro in his government. What did he say when Jonathan appointed Ahmadu Ali as his campaign DG and Fani Kayode as his campaign spokesperson? Talking about the cost of governance, why did he not ask President Jonathan to use made in Nigeria Peugeot car? Why did he not advise Jonathan to cut the overhead of the executive? Why did he not speak out when Stella Oduah bought two armoured cars with 225million Naira of unbudgeted public funds?
His ideas are brilliant and he has the right to state his own opinion on issues of governance. It is also well within his rights to criticise General Buhari and I do not intend to contest that. My concern is the attitude of seeing nothing wrong in a leader’s action if he is from your own part of the country and especially if you are benefiting from him. Clearly the Senator enjoyed Jonathan’s patronage and that can account for his emergence as a Senator. President Jonathan has ran the most incompetent, corrupt and despicable government any society can be cursed with. All through his five years of destroying this nation, one bit after the next, there was a man named Ben Murray-Bruce, a close confidant of the President who saw nothing wrong in all the president did or perhaps was too cowardly to say a word of caution to him. Now the same man wants us to see him as a brilliant saint who has the wisdom to advise a president on good leadership.
It is shameless hypocrisy for Senator Murray-Bruce to suddenly have the zest to criticise and condemn General Buhari for actions that he condoned when Dr Jonathan was the president. If he felt silence is golden for five years, he should accord it the same attribute now.
We must develop the value of standing for the truth regardless of who is on the side opposite of it. It is inevitable that if we must advance as a people, we must also grow beyond sentiments and selfish considerations and stand for the collective good of our society, no matter who it will pitch us against. The attitude of keeping quiet when someone from your region, religion or ethnicity is doing wrong and only speaking against the person from the other side is most unhelpful and unacceptable. It makes me question the integrity of Senator Murray-Bruce and the motive of his present sermonisations. He owes it to Nigerians to first of all explain why he kept quiet for five years while President Jonathan was strangling this nation to its death and also give us sufficient reasons to trust his character. The change we have instituted in our national culture is deeper than mere political change. It includes a new resolve to hold every public figure accountable for their actions and inactions and Senator Murray-Bruce can’t be an exception. Until he gives me reason not to, I believe he has been a beneficiary of the corruption in the present government that is why he never came out to criticise all the misdeeds of the government. On account of that belief, he lacks the moral authority to make the statements he is making now and he is a perfect example of the kind of character that we cannot condone in anyone who aspires to be called a public figure in the emerging Nigeria. God bless Nigeria.
I read Senator-elect, Ben Murray-Bruce’s piece, “It Doesn’t Matter if the Cat is White or Black,” published in Thisday’s edition of April 29, 2015. In the article, he criticised President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari’s composition of his Transition Committee. He feels it is an inappropriate assemblage and questioned the General’s ability to constitute a productive team to support him in running his government. He also advised General Buhari to cut the cost of governance, beginning from Aso Rock, by reducing the overhead cost of the executive and persuading the legislature to do same.
Recently, Senator Murray-Bruce has been using his Twitter handle to further promote his prescriptions for our ailing economy. He asked General Buhari to use made in Nigeria Peugeot as his official car and also reduce the number of cars in the presidential fleet.
Senator Murray-Bruce is a man I had a lot of respect for. I heard him speak several times when he was campaigning for the Governorship of Bayelsa state. No doubt he is a brilliant and eloquent man and I had wished Bayelsans would give him the opportunity to lead them as their Governor and when that did not happen, I was deeply disappointed. Now much of that respect has eroded because of the Senator’s recent statements. His statements have a lot of substance I must admit, but they raise a lot of questions over his motive and his reputation.
The Senator had these brilliant ideas on how to run Nigeria and structure our financial and public service system, yet he failed to bring them forward until now, because his own, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has been the president. Now there’s an incoming president who is not from his region so he suddenly feels the need to come public and show he has a loud mouth. He criticised Gen Buhari’s constitution of his Transition Committee and it makes me wonder if he has ever felt it is helpful to our country that President Jonathan has had the likes of Doyin Okupe, Abba Moro, Diezani Alison-Madueke and Musiliu Obanikoro in his government. What did he say when Jonathan appointed Ahmadu Ali as his campaign DG and Fani Kayode as his campaign spokesperson? Talking about the cost of governance, why did he not ask President Jonathan to use made in Nigeria Peugeot car? Why did he not advise Jonathan to cut the overhead of the executive? Why did he not speak out when Stella Oduah bought two armoured cars with 225million Naira of unbudgeted public funds?
His ideas are brilliant and he has the right to state his own opinion on issues of governance. It is also well within his rights to criticise General Buhari and I do not intend to contest that. My concern is the attitude of seeing nothing wrong in a leader’s action if he is from your own part of the country and especially if you are benefiting from him. Clearly the Senator enjoyed Jonathan’s patronage and that can account for his emergence as a Senator. President Jonathan has ran the most incompetent, corrupt and despicable government any society can be cursed with. All through his five years of destroying this nation, one bit after the next, there was a man named Ben Murray-Bruce, a close confidant of the President who saw nothing wrong in all the president did or perhaps was too cowardly to say a word of caution to him. Now the same man wants us to see him as a brilliant saint who has the wisdom to advise a president on good leadership.
It is shameless hypocrisy for Senator Murray-Bruce to suddenly have the zest to criticise and condemn General Buhari for actions that he condoned when Dr Jonathan was the president. If he felt silence is golden for five years, he should accord it the same attribute now.
We must develop the value of standing for the truth regardless of who is on the side opposite of it. It is inevitable that if we must advance as a people, we must also grow beyond sentiments and selfish considerations and stand for the collective good of our society, no matter who it will pitch us against. The attitude of keeping quiet when someone from your region, religion or ethnicity is doing wrong and only speaking against the person from the other side is most unhelpful and unacceptable. It makes me question the integrity of Senator Murray-Bruce and the motive of his present sermonisations. He owes it to Nigerians to first of all explain why he kept quiet for five years while President Jonathan was strangling this nation to its death and also give us sufficient reasons to trust his character. The change we have instituted in our national culture is deeper than mere political change. It includes a new resolve to hold every public figure accountable for their actions and inactions and Senator Murray-Bruce can’t be an exception. Until he gives me reason not to, I believe he has been a beneficiary of the corruption in the present government that is why he never came out to criticise all the misdeeds of the government. On account of that belief, he lacks the moral authority to make the statements he is making now and he is a perfect example of the kind of character that we cannot condone in anyone who aspires to be called a public figure in the emerging Nigeria. God bless Nigeria.
german chancellor meets russian president
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Moscow on Sunday to lay a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin and held talks with President Vladimir Putin, a day after the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of WW2 victory.
Merkel did not attend a military parade on Red Square. The event was shunned by Western leaders angered by Russia’s role in the conflict in Ukraine.
It is planned that the leaders of Russia and Germany will discuss the crisis in Ukraine.
Merkel and French President Francois Hollande helped broker a ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and Pro-Russian Separatists in Eastern Ukraine, but it has been violated many times.
NO ROAD Motorist and resident continue to groan.
By fadolapo sola
NO ROAD!—Motorists and residents continue to groan under the unending traffic chaos at the Mile 2 end of Oshodi-Apapa Expressway caused by petroleum tankers.
You may never fully understand the malady at the Mile 2/Apapa end of the Oshodi-Apapa expressway until you visit there. This is the ill-luck President Goodluck Jonathan apportioned the residents and workers in that area; it grew incrementally worse in the last two years.
Tankers, as they are called, waiting to load Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, have defied every suggested solution. It was so bad sometime last year that President Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Project Monitoring, Professor Sylvester Monye, came to Lagos but was not able to get to the point of the road where a proper assessment could be made. Why? Because the tanker drivers are the lords of the road!
If you are a resident of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, just imagine the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, as the loading depot. Then imagine a five-lane queue of tankers – highly combustible, with unruly drivers – from the airport all the way to Lugbe Estate.
If you are a resident of Ibadan, imagine a five-lane queue of these same articulated vehicles from Iwo Road roundabout all the way to Ibadan Tollgate, by Lead City University. If you live and work in Enugu, imagine same from the Enugu Airport all the way to Government House, Enugu, where Governor Sullivan Chime presently resides.
Apapa Oshodi road completely shut down
For those living and or working in Kaduna, visualize a five-lane queue of these terrible tankers from Angwanrimi to Ahmadu Bello House; and if you are a Port Harcourt person, imagine same from Pipeline Junction to Mile 1 Flyover.
The reason for this voyage is that unless and until you experience this madness, the story would sound distant, very distant.
Yet, that same road leads to Nigeria’s port, one of the busiest in Africa, yielding billions of naira but enmeshed in this murkiness. For a distance of less than 400metres in-between and depending on which part of this stretch is your house or office, you could be stranded on the road for eight, yes, eight hours. It could be worse.
Even a revered Man of God, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, when he visited Vanguard in December 2013, could not but express bewilderment at the will-power of residents and workers in this seemingly God-forsaken part of Lagos. Vanguard has had to open an ultra-modern outlet in Ikeja for ease of business regarding advert placements. The madness is egregiously complemented by craters on this federal highway, which makes driving crazy.
Jonathan is on his way out. Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s next President and Commander-in-Chief would inherit this mess.
If there is any part of Nigeria requiring urgent CHANGE, it is this part of town. Nigerians are waiting. 18 more days cannot be as bad as the years of neglect.
NO ROAD!—Motorists and residents continue to groan under the unending traffic chaos at the Mile 2 end of Oshodi-Apapa Expressway caused by petroleum tankers.
You may never fully understand the malady at the Mile 2/Apapa end of the Oshodi-Apapa expressway until you visit there. This is the ill-luck President Goodluck Jonathan apportioned the residents and workers in that area; it grew incrementally worse in the last two years.
Tankers, as they are called, waiting to load Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, have defied every suggested solution. It was so bad sometime last year that President Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Project Monitoring, Professor Sylvester Monye, came to Lagos but was not able to get to the point of the road where a proper assessment could be made. Why? Because the tanker drivers are the lords of the road!
If you are a resident of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, just imagine the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, as the loading depot. Then imagine a five-lane queue of tankers – highly combustible, with unruly drivers – from the airport all the way to Lugbe Estate.
If you are a resident of Ibadan, imagine a five-lane queue of these same articulated vehicles from Iwo Road roundabout all the way to Ibadan Tollgate, by Lead City University. If you live and work in Enugu, imagine same from the Enugu Airport all the way to Government House, Enugu, where Governor Sullivan Chime presently resides.
Apapa Oshodi road completely shut down
For those living and or working in Kaduna, visualize a five-lane queue of these terrible tankers from Angwanrimi to Ahmadu Bello House; and if you are a Port Harcourt person, imagine same from Pipeline Junction to Mile 1 Flyover.
The reason for this voyage is that unless and until you experience this madness, the story would sound distant, very distant.
Yet, that same road leads to Nigeria’s port, one of the busiest in Africa, yielding billions of naira but enmeshed in this murkiness. For a distance of less than 400metres in-between and depending on which part of this stretch is your house or office, you could be stranded on the road for eight, yes, eight hours. It could be worse.
Even a revered Man of God, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, when he visited Vanguard in December 2013, could not but express bewilderment at the will-power of residents and workers in this seemingly God-forsaken part of Lagos. Vanguard has had to open an ultra-modern outlet in Ikeja for ease of business regarding advert placements. The madness is egregiously complemented by craters on this federal highway, which makes driving crazy.
Jonathan is on his way out. Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s next President and Commander-in-Chief would inherit this mess.
If there is any part of Nigeria requiring urgent CHANGE, it is this part of town. Nigerians are waiting. 18 more days cannot be as bad as the years of neglect.
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