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Nigerian Court Dismisses $12.5B Oil Windfall Suit Published on Thursday, 29th November, 2012 by pmnews By Nnamdi Felix / Abuja Justice Gabriel Kolawole on Thursday finally delivered the much awaited judgment on the controversial $12.5 billion oil windfall recorded by Nigeria under the leadership of retired General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida between 1985 and 1993. The money was alleged to have been misappropriated  in a report  of a panel coordinated by the respected economist, Dr. Pius  Okigbo. Okigbo Panel was set up by the Federal Government in 1994 after the exit of Babangida, to investigate the activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria and recommend measures for the re -organization of the apex bank. In the course of its assignment, the panel discovered that the 12.5 billion US Dollars in the Dedicated and Special Accounts had been depleted to a mere 200 million US Dollars by June of 1994. In the judgment delivered by Justice Kolawole, the court held that ...

Court overrules AMCON on Capital Oil's Ubah Nnamdi Felix / Abuja Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, on Thursday failed to stop a Federal High Court siting in Abuja from varying an interlocutory injunction it earlier granted restraining Capital Oil and Gas Industries limited and it’s managing director, Mr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, from interfering in the company’s assets and funds in 21 banks listed in the order, including Citi Bank Plc. The court had granted the order upon a motion exparte brought before it by AMCON for the purpose of securing the properties of Mr. Ubah who is owing the corporation a huge amount in debts. At the resumed hearing into the matter Mr. Uba’s lawyers led by Mr. Lawal Rabana, a senior advocate of Nigeria, told the court that they have an application before the court seeking to set aside or discharge the order made against Ubah and his company, Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited which was calculated to prevent Amcon from disposing ...

EFCC, ICPC Oppose Suit Against Security Votes Published on Wednesday 21st November, 2012 by pmnews Nnamdi Felix/Abuja Must Nigerian governors continue to vote for themselves billions of Naira that they do not account for, in the name of security? Two years after the suit challenging the constitutionality of the policy of security votes deductions by the governors of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT minister was instituted by an Abuja based human rights lawyer, Chief Akpan Nkereuwem Udofia, a Federal High Court siting in Abuja on Wednesday adjourned till 18th February, 2013 to deliver judgment on the matter. Chief Akpan had dragged all the states governors before the court seeking for a declaration that the governors lack the power to deduct monies from the statutory allocation made from the Federation Account to each of the states of the federation and the FCT under the guise of security vote. He wants the court to declare that by the provision of section 16 of ...

Swearing In of Female Justice of Court of Appeal To Go On, NJC Rules Published on Wednesday 21st November, 2012 by pmnews Nnamdi Felix / Abuja The controversy surrounding the non swearing in of an appointed female Court of Appeal Justice on the ground of her state of origin was on Wednesday laid to rest by the National Judicial Council after an emergency meeting held over the matter in Abuja. In a press statement made available to journalists after the meeting, the Council’s Deputy Director of Information, Mr. Soji Oye, the Council noted that the matter of the appointment and swearing-in of Justice Jombo-Ofo as a Justice of the Court of Appeal, has generated so much controversy in Nigeria and that the Senate had, without any consultation with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, who is also the Chairman of the National Judicial Council, proceeded to pass a Resolution on 7th of November, 2012, directing the CJN to swear-in Justice Jombo-Ofo as a Justice of the Court of Appeal. The se...

Ex-governor Sylva moves to stop trial Published on Tuesday, 20th November, 2012 by pmnews Nnamdi Felix / Abuja Former Bayelsa state governor, Chief Timipre Sylva on Tuesday mounted a legal campaign to stall his trial before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja where he is standing trial on a six count charge involving the sum of N2.5 billion. The scheduled trial was foiled as the former governor’s lawyers remanded the court that they had a pending application seeking to quash all counts of the charge brought against Sylva by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. The lawyers led by Prince Lateef Fagbemi, a senior advocate of Nigeria, reminded the court that the record of the court shows that their application to quash the charge against the former governor was earlier fixed for hearing last September but that it was never heard as the court did not seat that day. The matter was thereafter adjourned for today for their application to be taken. The court however...

New Man Joins Tussle Over Ibori's $15m Bribe Money Nnamdi Felix / Abuja Published on Monday, 19 November, 2012 by pmnews More drama played out on Monday before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja as the court presided by Justice Gabriel Kolawole adjourned till Friday, 23rd November, to rule on an application brought by a Lagos state based technician, Mr. Olalekan Bayode, who wants the court to join him as an intervener in the controversial $15 million bribe money allegedly given by former Delta state governor, Mr. James Ibori, to former chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam  Nuhu Ribadu The anti graft agency had last July approached the court with an application seeking the forfeiture of the alleged bribe money, which had been in the custody of the Central Bank of Nigeria, to the Federal Government. No sooner had the court granted a temporary forfeiture of the money to the Nigerian government, with an order for any interested party to come...

Boko Haram's offer of a conditional ceasefire throws up more questions than answers By Nnamdi Felix Published by TheNEWS Magazine on 11th November, 2012 About a forthnight ago, the violent fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram, waved some sort of an olive branch when it issued conditions for a ceasefire to the federal government. The group has been behind the killing of over 2500 people and unfettered destruction of properties in the northern part of the country. Nigerians, who had become traumatised with the wave of violence, heaved a sigh of relief at the prospect of an end to the menace of the sect and the untold hardship it had engendered. Many citizens happily raised their voices in support of the call for negotiations by the sect. The peace offer is, however, fraught with questions. The source of the offer, one Abu Muhammad Ibn Abdulazeez, in a teleconference with some journalists in Maiduguri, said the group was willing to lay down its arms and dialogue through intermediarie...

Discrimination Mars Swearing In of Court of Appeal Justices Nnamdi Felix / Abuja The swearing in ceremony of some Court of Appeal Justices at the Supreme Court complex in Abuja on Monday was marred by the discrimination meted out to one of the female justices whose name was removed on the basis of a controversial petition against her on the grounds that the state she represents is not her state of origin. A list of twelve Justices was initially released by the apex court for the swearing ceremony but the inclusion of Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo, who was appointed a High Court judge on 4th November 1998 following her call to Bar in 1979, as representing Abia state where she had served for many years after her marriage to Mr. Jombo- Ofo, an indigene of the state, drew the ire of some indigenes of the state. Information gathered from the apex court indicate that a petition was forwarded to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, alleging that Justice Jombo-Of...

Clark wants EFCC boss sacked over Ibori's money Published on Thursday, 1st November, 2012 by pmnews Nnamdi Felix /Abuja The war of words raging between Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde and elder statesman and leader of the Niger Delta, Chief Edwin Clark, over the controversial $15 million bribe money offered by former governor of Nigeria’s oil rich Delta state to former chairman of the EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, continued Thursday as the elder statesman restated his call for the sack of Lamorde from the agency. In a media briefing at his Abuja home, Chief Clark blasted the EFCC chairman over his application before a Federal High Court siting in Abuja asking that Clark, be summoned before the court for making prejudicial statements over ongoing proceedings in the alleged bribe money still at the custody of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The anti graft agency had approached the court seeking for the forfeiture of the money to the feder...

Amnesty International Accuses Nigeria of Abuse on Terror War Published on 1st November 2012, by pmnews Nnamdi Felix / Abuja The Amnesty International on Thursday in Abuja released its report on the observed atrocities carried out by the dreaded Islamic fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram as well as the serious human rights violations perpetrated by Nigerian security operatives in response to these acts of terrorism, including enforced disappearance, torture, extra judicial executions, torching of homes and detention without trials. The report titled Nigeria: Trapped in the circle of violence, documents these violent acts by Boko Haram and the response of the Nigerian security forces against persons suspected to be members of the sect. Presenting the report to the public in Abuja, the Secretary General of the global body, Mr. Salil Shetty, noted that the cycle of attack and counter attack had been marked by unlawful violence on both sides, with devastating consequences for the human...