Three persons said to be workers of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, have been kidnapped in Ogun State by unknown gunmen.
They were abducted Wednesday evening at Kobape, a community under Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The abducted staff of Obasanjo Holdings in Kobape were reportedly accosted while driving on the road.
A source disclosed that the company’s Financial Controller, the Group Auditor and the Group Store Manager were the victims of the incident.
The source who craved anonymity, hinted that the trio were abducted around Seseri village after their Hilux vehicle was shot at by the gunmen.
They were reportedly dragged into the bush and taken to an unknown destination.
The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Abeokuta.
According to Oyeyemi, the incident happened around 6pm on Wednesday.
He said, “Yes, the kidnapping happened around 6pm on Wednesday. There is one Obasanjo farm around the area in Kobape.
“Our men have begun searching for them and we will ensure they are rescued.”
In the same vein, a retired lecturer of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State, Fasasi Olanigan, was also kidnapped along Abeokuta-Imasai in Ogun.
It was gathered that Olanigan was taken away by the kidnappers, who left his car by the roadside.
At the time of filing this report, our correspondent could not immediately confirm whether or not the kidnappers have reached out to the families of their victims for ransom.
A new United States Prosecutor has been assigned to take over the multimillion-dollar fraud case involving Olalekan Ponle, aka ‘Woodberry’.
Court documents from the Northern District of Illinois showed that John R. Lausch, Jr would take over future proceedings of Woodberry’s case from Assistant U.S. Attorney, Melody Wells, of the Northern District of Illinois.
Woodberry’s last court date was before Judge Robert W. Gettleman in August, when his lawyers, Michael Nash and Tom Durkin, applied for an extension to file pre-trial motions.
The next session is set for November 4.
Woodberry had been arraigned on a separate charge in Chicago in July. He was arrested in Dubai alongside Hushpuppi and charged in a U.S. District Court in Chicago with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
In July, the U.S government applied for a motion of dismissal without prejudice granted by Judge Gettleman.
A complaint had accused Woodberry of orchestrating “business email compromise” schemes to defraud several U.S.-based companies.
The court documents stated that “the schemes resulted in attempted or actual losses to victim companies in the tens of millions of dollars, including a Chicago-based company that was defrauded into sending wire transfers totalling $15.2 million.”
The jury’s eight-count charge of wire fraud still holds, meaning Woodberry stands to forfeit, to the U.S. government, any property derived from proceeds in his offences.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, has approached the National Assembly to move Valued Added Tax and other tax related matters to the exclusive list.
If successful, the law will grant the federal tax body exclusive rights to collect local consumption taxes in states of the federation, a move which will fulfil the agitation of Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari; Gombe State Governor, Inuwa Yahaya, and a few others from predominantly northern parts of the country.
In a letter addressed to the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase, the body requested a sponsorship of “A Bill for the establishment of the proposed Federal Revenue Court of Nigeria and the insertion of Value Added Tax under Item 58 of Exclusive Legislative List.”
“The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) further proposes for the amendment of Section 251(1)(b) of the Constitution of FRN 1999 (Amended) by removing the exclusive jurisdiction of Federal High Court only on anything connected or related to Federal tax matters since same would be vested on the proposed Federal Revenue Court,” the letter said, “The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) also proposes for the insertion of the Value Added Tax immediately after Stamp Duties under item 58 Part II. 2nd schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the FRN.”
The letter also asks the legislators to include tax disputes, including federal tax laws, companies income tax, petroleum tax, income tax, capital gain tax, stamp duty within the federal collector’s jurisdiction.
This development comes in the wake of tensions between the revenue collection body and state governments.
In August, a Port Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court ruled that states had the legal right to collect VAT and income tax within their jurisdiction and not the FIRS.
FIRS Chairman, Mohammed Nami, had asked companies to ignore the court ruling and appealed the judgement, asking businesses and individuals to continue remitting funds to it.
The Rivers State Government ordered the immediate enforcement of its Value Added Tax Law 2021 across the entire state, following the failure of the FIRS to secure a stay-of-execution order against the state.
Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, had criticised the judgement, saying it was unfair on other parts of the country and could amount to multiple taxation.
Like the FIRS, Governor Masari, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, had promised to block the implementation of the new VATruling by the court.
The landmark judgement has, however, set off a chain of events with Lagos State House of Assembly passing the Value Added Tax Bill through its second reading during a plenary on Monday.
Annie Idibia, wife of celebrated artist, Tuface, has cried out, alleging that her husband has secretly packed out of their matrimonial home to live with his baby mama, Pero Adeniyi, in the United States.
In a voice note that has now gone viral on Instagram and WhatsApp, Annie Idibia distressed voice can be heard lamenting the development and threatening to “scatter everything.”
The Nollywood actress said Tuface moved his belonging out of the house under the pretence of going for a shoot. She accused her husband’s cousin Frankie of orchestrating the move.
“I was with my husband today peacefully, nothing happened. My husband said he was going for a shoot today, only for him to pack his things and his stupid cousin – Frankie – helped him plan it. Innocent is on his way to America without telling me to see Pero,” she said in a distraught voice.
Annie proceeded to explain that her ten years’ marriage with Tuface has been a “living hell”, blaming his family for her woes.
“His family doesn’t love me, they hate me they have been giving me hell for ten fucking years,” she added.
On September 2, the actress publicly called out her husband on her Instagram for rekindling intimacy with his ex-lover, Pero, during a family vacation.
“I am going to scatter everything, nobody knows the wrath of an angry woman, I am going right now on Instagram live,” she now threatens.
“I am done,” she painfully laments as she wails inconsolably.
Tuface has remained mute through the controversy. His brother Charles did however cast slurs at Annie in the heat of the outburst.
Tuface and Annie have two children together, though the superstar artist has five children with other women.
The Federal Government has approved the National Policy on Fifth Generation (5G) Network for Nigeria, with immediate effect.
Dr Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant on Information Technology to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, made the disclosure on Wednesday in Abuja.
Mr Adeluyi emphasised that the 5G policy implementation would take immediate effect.
He explained that the national policy took a period of two years to develop because of the need for extensive stakeholders’ engagement and the need to ensure adequate public awareness and sensitisation.
He added that the stakeholders’ engagement was thorough and multi-sectoral in nature, adding that it also took into account the report of the three-month 5G trials that began on November 25, 2019.
Mr Adeluyi noted that the report critically reviewed and studied the health and security implications of deploying 5G in Nigeria.
According to him, the WHO and the International Telecommunications Union, an organ of the United Nations, confirmed that deployment of 5G networks leaves no adverse health effects.
“5G networks offer significant advantages over current technologies. Some of its advantages include much lower latency, higher bandwidth, greater device density, longer battery life for nodes and greater network flexibility.
“Several countries have already started the deployment of 5G and are enjoying its benefits. These countries include the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, South Africa and Lesotho, to mention a few.
“The National Frequency Management Council, chaired by Pantami, will soon release spectrum to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for Mobile Network Operators that meet all the required conditions.
“The NCC, as the regulator of the telecommunications sector, will continue engaging stakeholders with a view to developing the regulatory instruments required for the successful deployment of the new technology in Nigeria,’’ Mr Adeluyi added.
A UK-based technical services company, Prolifics Testing, had said Nigeria ranks among countries with the most scepticism for the deployment of 5G Internet network.
Nigerian evangelical leaders such as Pastor Chris Oyakhilome have also voiced their criticisms to the ultrafast connection, consequently drawing fines from UK broadcast regulator, Ofcom.
Nigeria has the least affordable internet service in the world, per a Surfshark report in February.
Peoples Gazette has reported that Nigerian opposition leader, Atiku Abubakar, paid $16.5 million (N8.7 billion in today’s parallel conversions) to an American firm to help him destroy his opponent’s campaign message and procure a visa to Washington in the run-up to the 2019 Presidential election, bolstering a long-held presumption that Nigerian electioneering was becoming more expensive to run even before illicit payments to electoral officers and voters are factored in.
Mr Abubakar, 74, used the money to enlist the services of K.M. Family Investment, LLC, a Texas-based public affairs consultancy run by Sada Cumber, a Pakistani-American diplomat and former U.S. Special Envoy to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) under President George W. Bush. The deal was facilitated by Legacy Logistics, an Abuja-based integrated services venture linked to Mr Abubakar’s associates Samuel Cornelius and Joseph Nzepuome.
Amongst other campaign ideas, Mr Cumber and his team accepted the $16.5 million deal to help the former Nigerian vice president lobby American politicians and bureaucrats for a visitor’s visa, coordinate advanced communications of his campaign and help build a structure tasked with the “destruction” of opposition messaging, according to the contract seen by The Gazette as part of compliance with the provisions of U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The deal was signed on October 26, 2018, three weeks after Mr Abubakar clinched the presidential nomination of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 2019 elections.
President Muhammadu Buhari
But the filings said Mr Cumber had contacted top Washington lobbyists Holland & Knight no earlier than September 20, 2018, seeking their services in helping Mr Abubakar procure a visa to the U.S.
Holland & Knight charged Mr Cumber $75,000 for the contract and promptly dispatched its personnel to liaise with Republican members of the U.S. Congress, as well as representatives of White House National Security Council and the State Department.
Mr Cumber, an influential Republican and ally of former President Donald Trump, started preparing his team for a trip to Abuja to meet Mr Abubakar’s campaign shortly after the deal was signed and the visa was all but guaranteed, The Gazette learnt.
It was unclear how much Mr Cumber charged Mr Atiku for the visa alone as part of the $16.5 million campaign strategy deal. A spokesman for his firm did not immediately return a request seeking comments from The Gazette on Tuesday night.
Sada Cumber
The contract said the agreed sum was exclusive of Mr Abubakar’s flight and accommodation to the U.S. and security and logistics for Mr Cumber’s team on their trip to Nigeria — indicating that the Nigerian politician paid out of his pocket when his entourage stayed at the Trump International Hotel in Washington during the trip.
In the contract agreement, Mr Cumber asked Mr Abubakar’s campaign to pay $16.5 million into an escrow account. The money would be depleted in three tranches at every milestone of the three phases of the project.
“The Escrow Agent shall disburse the Escrow Fund as follows:
“a) Five Million, Five-Hundred Thousand and NO/100 Dollars ($5,500,000.00) shall be disbursed by Escrow Agent from Escrow Fund to Firm immediately upon confirmation that the travel VISA for Mr. Atiku Abubakar has been issued by the United States government;
“b) Eight Million, Five-Hundred Thousand and NO/100 Dollars ($8,500,000.00) shall be disbursed by Escrow Agent from Escrow Fund to Firm immediately upon shipment of the book by Firm and release of the Op-Eds by Firm.
Former U.S. President, Donald Trump
“c) Remaining Two Million, Five-Hundred Thousand and NO/10G Dollars ($2,500,000.00) shall be disbursed by Escrow Agent from Escrow Fund to Firm thirty (30) days before the currently announced Election Day in Nigeria of February 16, 2019. This date shall not change even if Election Day is postponed.
“Funds may also be disbursed in accordance with the joint written instructions signed by both Firm and Client. On disbursement of all of the Escrow Fund, this Escrow Agreement shall terminate,” the contract said.
The contract was scheduled to last between October 2018 and January 2019, when the last $2.5 million was slated to be released from the escrow account. It also included a clause that said any postponements of the election will not affect the disbursement of the $16.5 million as scheduled in the agreement. The election was indeed shifted from February 16, 2019, to February 23, 2019.
The deal underscored how expensive Nigerian presidential elections have become over the past decade, and how politicians continue to contract foreign strategists to help direct their campaigns. In 2015, Mr Buhari’s APC awarded a similar contract to AKPD Message & Media, a strategic communications outfit headed by David Axelrod, who directed President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 and 2012.
Mahmood Yakub
The amount appeared to have been drawn from Mr Abubakar’s formidable campaign war chest and did not include other electoral expenses locally, including ad buys across traditional and digital media.
Nigerian politicians are also known to pay heavily to secure their parties’ tickets at the primaries, advance illicit payments to electoral officers and induce voters at the ballot box.
Mr Abubakar has carried a burden of corruption perception since he was accused of laundering about $40 million by the U.S. Senate in a 2010 probe. The probe uncovered how Mr Abubakar used his wives to launder the funds, including about $1.7 million in cash bribes from German technology giant Siemens. Siemens pleaded guilty to the charges in 2008 and paid about $1.6 billion in fines.
The main opposition chieftain was also named as an accomplice in a multinational bribery scandal of a broadband contract that sent his Democratic ally Jefferson to prison in 2005. Mr Abubakar denied all allegations of corruption and has not been formally convicted of graft, but the U.S. nonetheless found him unworthy of its visa and blocked him from getting one for years.
Mr Abubakar said in interviews that he applied for a U.S. visa repeatedly but was denied on administrative grounds, which consular officers did not elaborate.
But as his opponents were preparing to use his inability to enter the U.S. owing to unclear corruption claims, Mr Abubakar pinned his hopes on Mr Cumber’s steep ties across Washington, which paid off when he arrived in Washington on January 17, 2019, for the first time in over a decade, thereby crossing a major political hurdle that has haunted him for years.
Mr Cumber agreed to, as part of the deal, help Mr Abubakar write a book outlining his vision for Nigeria, hold talks with key players at the World Economic Forum in Davos, conduct opposition research and SWOT analysis of his ambition.
A campaign insider told The Gazette that Mr Cumber and his team helped put together the structure of his campaign, as well as the strategy document he launched in the run-up to the election. Still, it remained unclear whether the agreement was implemented in its entirety, especially as Mr Abubakar did not appear to have launched any book before the election.
A spokesman for the former Vice President did not return requests seeking comments about the contract.
Mr Buhari was declared the winner of the election amidst condemnation from election observers and protests from Mr Abubakar. The opposition leader argued the election was rigged after ruling party agents broke into the electoral commission’s database and changed votes, but lost at the tribunal and the Supreme Court.
An assistant Director of the National Biotechnology Development Agency, Christopher Orji, has allegedly committed suicide in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
He was, until his death, the coordinator of the agency’s Bioresource Centre in the Langtang Local Government Area of Plateau State.
According to a report by Daily Trust, the lifeless body of the deceased was found dangling with a rope tied to a ceiling fan at his residence in the Federal Housing Authority Estate, Lugbe, Abuja, at about 4pm on August 30.
Police homicide detectives were said to have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.
It was further learnt that the deceased had been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to report at its Abuja office on the day he was found dead.
However, one of the staff of the agency, who pleaded anonymity, said Orji could not have killed himself as no suicide note was found at his residence.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has said it does not award “preferential cut-off marks” to students who sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination from the northern part of the country.
The board also said the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, was wrong in saying that UTME candidates of northern extraction enjoyed special privileges or lower cut-off marks not benefited by candidates in other parts of the country.
JAMB’s Head of Information and Media, Fabian Benjamin, said this in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH on Tuesday in reaction to the governor’s comment on Monday.
El-Rufai, on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily breakfast programme on Monday, said students from the North should not be awarded lower cut-off marks, but should be made to compete with their counterparts from other parts of the country for them to be competitive.
But Benjamin said JAMB had not been setting the minimum scores for schools since its inception in 1978 as a government agency saddled with the responsibility of “conducting matriculation examinations for entry into all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the country and to place suitably qualified candidates in the available places in these institutions.”
The JAMB spokesman said, “We don’t give preferential or differential cut-off marks to candidates. Candidates are admitted on the scores as defined by institutions. As for the UTME, they sit for the examination and it is what they obtain that is the basis for their selection after the policy meeting has authorised the commencement of admission.
“There are no preferential cut-off marks for anybody. What people refer to as the cut-off mark is the minimum score and each institution sets its own minimum score; it is a function of performance in the UTME for the year, subscription to programmes and institutions that is how many candidates have applied to the institutions or for the programmes. These are what push the minimum score either up or down for institutions or programmes.
“The determining factor is the subscription to a particular programme or school. If the subscription is very low, technically, it will affect the minimum score for the programme.”
Tonto Dikeh, a Nigerian actress, said she would have killed her former husband, Olakunle Churchill, with ‘rat poison’ if they were not divorced.
Dikeh has been in a protracted feud with Churchill since they ended their short-lived marriage, a union that has birthed numerous allegations and repeated counterclaims.
In a leaked audio exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters and confirmed by different sources, the Nollywood actress said she burnt her former husband’s clothes on several occasions.
She said, “I dealt with him, if Churchill slap me once, I slap him ten times before the second slap landed. He didn’t know what was hitting him. If I see any bruise on my body, I’m burning his whole clothes and you know he likes designer (sic).
“I’ll burn down the whole cloth, burn down everything. In fact, there was a day I locked him outside, took his things outside. All his clothes with box outside my house, I snapped it and sent to all his family. I say tell your son to come and pick his properties. His mother started begging me.
“When my father heard, he said, ‘You are a mad woman, you mean you locked a man outside the house and his family members were begging you like this’. I say, ‘Daddy, you won’t understand’. If I’m still with Churchill till today, Churchill would have been dead. I will give him rat poison, simple as that, and I won’t feel bad nor guilty. I will walk away like a widow because it’s better that I became a widow than all these kind of things.”
Churchill had in 2020 filed a N500 million suit against Dikeh after she made some claims about him, which she said had prompted their divorce.
In 2019, Churchill also threatened legal action against the actress, petitioning the Inspector General of Police over her “illegal sale” of his N22 million Toyota Prada SUV.
Dikeh and Churchill got married in 2015 and the union was blessed with a son.
They, however, called it quits in 2017, following a series of heated quarrels and “irreconcilable” differences.
Authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, have dismissed a senior lecturer at the Department of English, Adebayo Mosobalaje, for allegedly sexually harassing a former student of the institution.
This is coming barely two weeks after an attempt by the university management to give Mr Mosobalaje softlanding based on the recommendations of the university’s senate to the governing council was reported.
The university announced the lecturer’s dismissal through a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon by its public relations officer, Abiodun Olarewaju.
The statement reads in part: “In its avowed determination to rid the university of any form of sexual intimidation, harassment and, or coercion, the Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has dismissed another lecturer who was found guilty of sexual demeanor against a female student.”
The statement added that the “decision to dismiss Dr Adebayo Mosobalaje of the Department of English Language in the Faculty of Arts, was taken by the University Council at its last sitting that was held on Monday and Tuesday, September 6 and 7, 2021.”
“Having exhaustively deliberated on the report of the Joint Committee of Council and Senate, which investigated the case of sexual harassment against Dr Mosobalaje, the University Council, unambiguously declared its zero tolerance for sexual harassment in any form or guise and, accordingly, applied the appropriate university sanctions for such an offence as contained in the university regulation,” the statement added.
Backstory
This newspaper had on August 25 reported the allegations against Mr Mosobalaje, who is popularly called “Mosob” on th campus, and how the institution’s Senate had attempted to circumvent the law by recommending lesser punishment for the indicted official.
The lecturer was specifically accused of breaching the provisions of the university’s Code of Conduct “in the manner he related with a student of the department, Rachel Momoh.”
A verdict passed by the university’s joint committee of council and senate noted that “in the process of its deliberations, the Committee FOUND Dr Mosobalaje culpable and was deserving of the highest punishment of dismissal.”
But in its recommendations, many feel the committee was lenient with the lecturer as his punishment included a warning letter, and forfeiture of cumulation of half of his salaries which have been continued to be held by the university since he was suspended.
The committee also said he should not be allowed to hold any management position on the campus for the next five years.
Also, he will not be promoted for two years.
These recommendations, which formed a subject of debate at the Senate meeting of the university three weeks ago, led to a division among members in attendance.
While some endorsed the recommendations, others queried the reasons behind the committee’s alleged inconsistency.
They asked why the committee allegedly ‘bent the rule’ when it already concluded that Mr Mosobalaje’s culpability “was deserving of the highest punishment of dismissal.”
Council Overrules Senate
In exercising its power as the supreme organ of the university, the university’s governing council under the chairmanship of businessman, Oscar Udoji, overruled the senate and opted for what many described as the deserving punishment for the lecturer.
Reports on the matter which had exposed the antics of some forces within and outside the university to bend the university’s rule was cited by many as part of the reasons for the governing council’s decision.
But the university in its statement claimed it also recently launched an anti-sexual harassment policy with the wives of the governors of Osun and Ekiti States, Kafayat Oyetola and Bisi Fayemi respectively in attendance.
A member of the university’s joint committee of the council and the senate which indicted Mr Mosobalaje in its report, Oluyemisi Obilade, was the keynote speaker at the event.
More Accusers Against Mosobalaje Emerge
Meanwhile, following the report by PREMIUM TIMES, some former students of the university, who also accused the lecturer of sexually harassing them, narrated their ordeal.
One of the fresh accusers, a journalist, who craved anonymity, told our reporter how she was forced to invite her sister and mother to the school to plead with the alleged randy lecturer.
“Surprisingly, when my parents visited him, they discovered that he was somebody known to them and we thought everything was over.
“But soon after they left, he just told me that he knew my sister separately and knew my mother separately, and so he must know me separately by having an affair with me. I was shocked. I kept on getting poor grades in his course. I cried many times but I made sure he never had his way,” the victim narrated.
Another former student, who said she eventually dated Mr Mosobalaje out of fear, also narrated her ugly experience.
She said she even reported the matter to a counsellor on the campus but “I couldn’t pursue the case because everyone was telling me that I would regret my action if I did. I was very young then.”
The visitim, who also does not want to be named, said; “I was 16 years old when it happened. Dr Mosobolaje was taking literature and a few other lecturers. He noticed me and started asking me out. I didn’t even realise it was trouble yet until he found a way to include my name in his tutorial group.
“On a good day, my name shouldn’t be there because it was arranged alphabetically. My name starts with the letter “A”, so I was supposed to be in another lecturer’s group entirely. I confronted him- yes, I did. He told me he wasn’t aware that it might be a mistake somewhere.
“I knew that was a lie. It dawned on me that I was in big trouble if I refused. And coming from a home where I didn’t have an iota of exposure and boldness to talk, I relied on my friends for counsel. What do you expect them to say? We all dreaded these people.”
She said her friends told her that the lecturers would not say anything but that she would not pass their courses.
The former student added: “And of all courses to fail in English, Literature is the worst especially if the failure isn’t from you but a randy witch-hunting lecturer. So, at a point, I was tired and fed up. I got to know a guy who tried to encourage me to see the school counsellor. I did but had to discontinue the visit.
“From what the counselor said, I foresaw big trouble and got scared. If anything had happened then, I wouldn’t have graduated. These people know how they frustrate female students out of school. They are like a cult. You don’t get to win over them.
”I’m glad steps are being taken now because during my time, the student in question is more in trouble than the randy lecturer. Do you know that if these people notice a particular guy around you all the time, that guy is also in trouble.”
Varsity Vows Zero-Tolerance For Sexual Offences
But the university management has said it would not hesitate to wield the big stick whenever anyone flouts its laid-down rules and regulations.
“At several fora, the Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, has reiterated the commitment of his administration to uphold the “Zero tolerance policy” for Sexual harassment and other social vices.
The Council of University Chaired by Mr Udoji has also pledged to support policies that promote mutual co-existence among all the members of the university community,” Olarewaju said in his statement.
