FORMER FIRSTLADY USED DRIVERS,ETC TO OPEN DOLLAR ACCOUNTS.

   The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested four domestic servants, including a driver and a houseboy, whose names were used to open bank accounts for Mrs Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Sources within the anti-graft agency said on Sunday that the companies’ accounts were opened at Skye Bank. The companies are Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Globus Integrated Service Limited. The four companies’ accounts, which have since been frozen by the EFCC, have a balance of about $15m while another account, which bears Patience Jonathan’s name, has $5m. Mr. Sammie Somiari, who deposed to an affidavit on behalf of the ex-President’s wife, said the former First Lady was the owner of the money in the accounts. She had revealed that she gave millions of dollars to the then Special Adviser to the President on Domestic Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa, to open accounts for her. Somiari, however, claimed that Dudafa opened five accounts for Patience and that only one of the accounts was in her name, while the other four were opened in the names of companies belonging to Dudafa. A detective at the EFCC, however, revealed that Dudafa used his domestic servants’ names to open the four other accounts and then deposited the money into the accounts. The operative added, “We were investigating Dudafa when we stumbled on those four companies’ domiciliary accounts opened at Skye Bank with a balance of about $15m. On further investigation, we were able to identify the directors of the companies. “When we detained the directors, we found out that they were Dudafa’s domestic servants. One of them was a houseboy while another one was a driver. Their photographs were used in opening the accounts and their signatures were forged. “We found out that these domestic servants were completely innocent because they had no access to the accounts. We have since released them. The sole signatory to the accounts was Patience Jonathan and she was issued with a special card, which is accepted worldwide. She has a separate account, which was opened in her name and has a balance of $5m.” The detective said a lawyer, Amajuoyi Briggs, who allegedly helped Dudafa to perpetrate the fraud, would also be arraigned. It was learnt that two Skye Bank executives, Demola Bolodeoku and Dipo Oshodi, who helped Dudafa to open the accounts on March 22, 2010, were also being investigated. The detective added, “This is a clear case of fraud and there is no way the bank officials will say they did not know what was going on. They are under investigation and those found culpable will be arraigned.” The EFCC operative said he could not immediately confirm if the transaction was reported to the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit. He explained that the commission had discovered a trend which politicians used in laundering and concealing funds, saying it was becoming more rampant due to the operation of the Bank Verification Number which links all accounts owned by an individual. He added, “What we have noticed is that in order to conceal funds, what politicians and top civil servants do is to open bank accounts in the name of family or friends and then make themselves the sole signatory to the account. “Don’t forget that we traced about 17 bank accounts to the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.). “Often times, they do this in connivance with bank officials and that is why the EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has said henceforth, whenever we are investigating a bank official, we will probe the entire bank as well because these officials usually act under the instruction of their superiors.” Jonathan’s wife has, however, sued Skye Bank for freezing her bank accounts and giving the EFCC vital information about her finances. She also wants the court to order Skye Bank to pay her damages in the sum of N200m for what she termed a violation of her right to own personal properties under Section 44 of the 1999 Constitution.

PDP' S WASTED YEARS- BUHARI

  President Muhammadu Buhari says the Peoples Democratic Party which ruled Nigeria for 16 years, accomplished nothing. Buhari said this while addressing journalists in Daura on Monday after attending Eid prayers, according to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu. He said, “I want Nigerians to realise that what this government inherited after 16 years of the PDP government was no savings, no infrastructure, no power, no rail, no road and no security.” The President, however, argued that within a year, his government was able to crush Boko Haram. He said he had intensified the war against corruption as those who diverted public funds had started returning the money. The President further maintained that his war against corruption was not one-sided. Buhari said, “Nigerians can see what we have done on Boko Haram and what we are doing to resolve the problem in the Niger Delta. Before the elections, we identified three major problems confronting our country. “The first is security; we need to sufficiently secure our country to manage it well. The second is economy, especially job for the youths and fighting corruption which is continuous. ‘‘For the youths, graduates and non- graduates who are interested in agriculture, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the CBN are doing something to provide employment for them.” The President thanked Nigerians for supporting the Federal Government’s policies, programmes and actions aimed at improving security, revamping the economy and combating corruption. ‘‘We should thank God this year, the reports I’m getting, which is very pleasing, is that we will have a bumper harvest this year. President Buhari is observing this year’s Eid holiday in his native home in Daura, Katsina State and will return to Abuja after the two-day public holiday.

RICE PRICE MAY SKYROCKET BY DECEMBER.- MINISTER.

   The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has said that Nigeria spends about $22bn a year on importation of food. Lokpobiri made this known on Saturday at a town hall meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. He said the development had led to the astronomical rise in price of rice and other commodities, stressing that if Nigerians failed to produce some of the items being imported, before December the price of rice would skyrocket to N40,000 a bag. He said there was a projection that by 2050, Nigeria’s population would be 450 million, wondering what would happen then if the people could not feed themselves now. Lokpobiri said, “For your information, we spend about $22bn a year importing food into Nigeria. We know how many more dollars … and that is why you see the price of rice going up. “Price of rice was N12,000 some months ago, but it is now about N26,000 and if we don’t start producing, by December it could be N40,000. “Rice matures in three months. So, this is a wake up call for Bayelsa people to take the four farms we have seriously. The federal government has four farms in the state in our records. The average land you see in Bayelsa can grow rice, so the colonial masters were not wrong in their assessment when they said Niger Delta could feed not only Nigeria but the entire West Africa sub-region. “Unfortunately, agriculture till today, is not a priority of the Niger Delta as far as the state governments are concerned because of oil.” He said the states in the Niger Delta had yet to give priority to agriculture the way the North-West states such as Kebbi, Jigawa, Kano as well as other states like Lagos, Ebonyi, Anambra, have prioritised it. He said Anambra State for instance, was not owing salaries despite the fact that it does not have oil but raking in money by exporting vegetables.

CHIEFTAINCY LAW TO BE PASSED IMMEDIATELY- ORTOM

Benue state Governor, Dr Samuel Ortom has assured the people of the state that the chieftaincy law recently passed by the state assembly will be passed into law without much delay.
The Governor stated this today in Gungul at a thanksgiving service organized in honour of the special adviser on politics, Hon Saawuan Tarnongu by st Marys Catholic church, Gungul.
The Governor stated that the quick passage of the bill will ensure selection of credible people and called for support by the people.

HOW DID YOU GET YOUR BILLIONS,MRS JONATHAN- SAGAY

The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), has said with the fresh admission by Patience Jonathan that she owns the $5m traced to her accounts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, means the anti-graft agency has the right to probe her.

According to him, if the former first lady is claiming that she owns the money then she must explain how she earned it.

The discovery of the additional amount, in the former first lady’s Skye Bank account, by the EFCC brings to $20m the total amount so far traced to her.

As part of investigations into a money laundering case against a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to ex-President Jonathan, Waripamowei Dudafa, the EFCC had traced four company accounts to him with a balance of $15m.

The EFCC subsequently charged Dudafa and the four companies with money laundering.

The four companies, whose accounts have since been frozen, are Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Globus Integrated Service Limited.

A source at the EFCC said, “While we were investigating Dudafa, we traced the four companies to him. The companies have domiciliary accounts at Skye Bank with a balance of about $15m. So, we obtained a court order and froze the accounts.

“We then traced the directors of the companies who then denied ownership of the accounts. It was later that we were informed that the accounts belonged to Patience Jonathan and that she is the sole signatory to the accounts. She was given a special card which she used in making withdrawals across the world.

“We, therefore, wondered why the accounts were not opened in her name if she had nothing to hide. In fact, we later found out that her personal account, which bears her name, has a balance of $5m. One wonders where a person, who has never held a government position, got the money from. She was not our initial target but she certainly has questions to answer.”

Reacting to the development, Sagay told one of our correspondents on the telephone that the Act establishing the EFCC gave the anti-graft agency the power to investigate anybody who is seen to have more wealth than he ought to have.

The senior advocate wondered how Patience, who was a civil servant and never held any government position, could have billions in her bank accounts.

He said, “The EFCC and ICPC Act have provisions under which they can ask the court to freeze the account of a person if a person’s capacity to earn is below the amount of money that the person appears to have.

“If you are living a lavish lifestyle and it appears you don’t have the means to have acquired the property and the wealth you have, the EFCC is free to probe you.

“If she is claiming the money belongs to her, she has put herself in a position where she must explain how she earned it.”

Attempts to get the comments of the wife of the former president were not successful.

Repeated calls and a text message sent to the Media Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr Ikechukwu Eze, were also not responded to as of 8:45pm on Saturday.

TODAY IS ARAFAT DAY

Over two million pilgrims from all over
the world, including Nigerians, will today
converge on Mount Arafat (the mount of
Mercy) as this year’s hajj climaxes in
Saudi Arabia.
The 9th Day of Dul-Hijjah is usually
designated as the Arafat Day when
millions of pilgrims gather at the plain of
Arafat as an obligatory ritual of Hajj. It
commemorates the finality of revelation
of the Holy Qur’an, as well as the
completion of the Ḥajj pilgrimage.
The gathering at Arafat is the largest
assemblage of human beings of diverse
races, status and languages. It is a
reminder that everyone is fully
accountable for their deeds and Allah
(God) will take every person into
account.
According to Islamic tradition, the Mount
Arafat was the spot where Adam and Eve
united after Allah expelled them from
Paradise. Fasting is recommended for
the Muslims on the Day of Arafat.
According to the Prophet (peace be upon
him), “Fasting on the Day of Arafat (9th
Dul-Hijjah) is an expiation for (the sins
of) the previous year and an expiation for
(the sins of) the coming year.” (Muslim).
Following the Arafat gathering, Muslims
around the world will tomorrow observe
Eid al-Adha, an Islamic festival to
commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim
(also known as Abraham) to follow
Allah’s (God’s) command to sacrifice his
son, Ishmael.

MTN SELLS DATA ON CREDIT

MTN Nigeria, is now selling data on credit. Remember, the communication network use to sell airtime on credit.
All you need to do is dial .606# and you are done on airtime or data.