ONLY IN NIGERIA! Abuja Court Sends Man To Jail for Roaming About The Street

ONLY IN NIGERIA! Abuja Court Sends Man To Jail for Roaming About The Street

 

An Abuja man has been held to account by a judge and sent to prison… for walking down a street!

Kado grade 1 area court in Abuja has sentenced a 27-year-old man, Sunday Vincent, to three weeks imprisonment for the crime of public nuisance.

 

The judge, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq, however, gave Vincent the option of paying a N3,000 fine and warned him against committing any other crimes in the future.

 

The convicted man, of no fixed address, was convicted for wandering around the streets alone and failing to provide a satisfactory explanation about what he was doing to the arresting police officers.

 

Earlier, the prosecutor, Zeerah Doglass, told the court that the convict was arrested by a police patrol team attached to Ademola Adetokunbo street, Wuse two, Abuja, and taken to Kado Police Station on January 1.

She said that the offence is punishable under Section 198 of the Nigerian Penal Code.

 

At present, there is no information on whether the convicted man was arrested in a state of intoxication, however given the relative severity of his sentence this was unlikely to have been his first offence.

 

It is also unknown whether Sunday had any plans to commit other public nuisances than walking down the street.

Delta Monarch Kidnappers Demand N100 Million Ransom

The gunman who kidnapped the Obi of Ubulu-Uku Agbogidi Akaeze Ofulue from Aniocha South Local Government Area (LGA) of Delta State have demanded N100 million as ransom for his release.

 
DSP Celestina Kalu Information NG 
 
A police spokesperson, DSP Celestina Kalu, who also confirmed the development, said that the kidnappers called the monarch's family late Wednesday evening.

"We learnt this morning that the kidnappers called the family late Wednesday to demand a ransom of N100 million,” Mrs. Kalu said.

"However, the police is working around the clock to track down the criminals and rescue the royal father unhurt," she added.

INEC Says December 5th Mistakes In Bayelsa Won’t Reoccur

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) assured the public that it was ready to prevent a repeat of incidents that occurred during the Bayelsa State rerun election on December 5th, 2015, according to the Public Relations Officer for INEC speaking yesterday in Yenagoa, the State capital.

 
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman 
 
The spokesperson, Mr. Timidi Wariowei, whose comments came three days before the supplementary elections in the State also announced that the distribution of election materials has already commenced for the January 9th poll.

His statements come in the midst of accusations by both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) that they are sponsoring militant groups to commit violent acts.

Mr. Wariowei said INEC received the sensitive election materials on Wednesday and distribution had commenced beginning with the Ekeremor LGA on Thursday.

“Of course, all the material area now in our custody; the materials are ballot papers, result sheets among others,” he said.

Due to the widespread concerns about electoral malfeasance the distribution of materials will begin for “Southern Ijaw Local Government Area early morning of Saturday,” he disclosed.

Describing the situation in more detail Mr. Wariowei stated “you know that the real focus is the Southern Ijaw and we do not want what happened on December 5, 2015 to repeat itself again in the area; INEC is prepared to conduct free, fair and credible election for the betterment of the people.”

Mr. Wariowei also stated that INEC has more than 100 polling units ready to conduct the election and that some changes to the adhoc staff have been made “to ensure that the election is conducted freely.”
On security matters he stated "we have been collaborating with the Police and Army to ensure peaceful election in Bayelsa."

NIMASA Collected Revenue In Dollars, Remitted Naira – FG

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on Wednesday, said the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency had not been remitting the revenues generated to the government’s coffers.

   
Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance 
 
The immediate past Director-General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolkemi, is currently facing 40 counts of fraud and money laundering to the tune of N34.5bn.

Adeosun specifically stated that in some instances, NIMASA collected revenue in dollars but paid naira into the government’s account.

The minister said this while addressing journalists after the first Federal Executive Council meeting of the year inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

She explained that the requirement was that such money should go to the Central Bank of Nigeria which would convert the money to naira.

Adeosun said while the government had stopped NIMASA from doing so, an audit was being carried out to identify other agencies.

This, she explained, was why the government was doing a full audit of all those accounts and to ensure that all those revenues were converted in accordance with the extant procedures and guidelines.

The minister added that it was also discovered that some of the agencies spent government money without control.

When asked what would be the fate of the heads of the MDAs under whose purview government funds were diverted in the past, the minister said she would not want to pre-empt the outcome of an audit that would be commissioned by the government.

She, however, said that in a situation where it is clear that financial procedures had been breached, there was a process for dealing with the culprits.

Adeosun said, “The principal discussion in our meeting today was the initiative by this administration to plug revenue leakages in our MDAs that generate revenue. The presentation to FEC was to remind ministers who supervise these revenue-generating boards of their responsibilities under the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

“Let me remind you that under the FRA, these boards and corporations who generate revenue are supposed to generate and operate surplus, 80 per cent of which is to be credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“But we have discovered that many agencies have never credited anything and never generated any operating surplus including some whose salaries, overheads and capital are paid by the Federal Government.
“In addition to that, they generate revenue which they spend without any form of control.”

Adeosun said one of the initiatives adopted by the government was the directive to all the agencies that they must all submit a budget that must be subject to approval and they must operate within that budget so that the surplus that is meant to come to the Federal Government could be seen to be used appropriately.
Adeosun ruled out the possibility of any ministry inflating its budget when there was no revenue
She said, “There can be no inflation of budget when revenues are so thin and one of the things that I think that the budgeting process is doing is pruning down unnecessary expenditure.

“Let me also mention that we have set up the efficiency unit that is going to look into how we spend money and look at how we make savings because the money just isn’t there.”

Adeosun said the Federal Government had discovered that many revenue-generating agencies had not been remitting the revenues generated to the government’s coffers.

She explained that these are revenues of government in non-oil economies but the government had not been looking in the direction of the MDAs in the past because the country had a lot of oil money
She disclosed that a circular had been issued to the agencies in their hundreds in December 2015 requesting that they send their budgets.

“What we discussed today (Wednesday) was the responsibility of the ministers to ensure that whether those agencies have boards or not, those budgets are prepared and that the Ministry of Finance is going to sit down with the supervising ministers and the boards concerned where necessary, to go through their budgets and make sure that they are reasonable and that the costs are not inflated.

“We also discussed that in some cases, because some agencies have a track record and history of making sure that every naira they earned was spent, we will go in and audit agencies under Section 107 (8) of the Financial Regulations.

“The Accountant-General, who is under the Ministry of Finance, has the power to go in and make inquiries about how public money is spent, so we will be sending in auditors to some agencies where we believe their cost is simply excessive and not in tandem with our expectations.

“The expected outcome of this is that the Internally Generated Revenue which the new budget is banking on will actually become a reality. So, that was the principal discussion and everybody in the cabinet endorsed the initiative.”

Sylva Accuses PDP Of Plotting Violence During Bayelsa Elections As Tensions Continue To Rise

On Wednesday, the former Governor of Bayelsa State and the candidate of the All Progressive Party (APC), Timipre Sylva mocked Governor Seriake Dickson, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, over the alleged plot to disrupt the January 9th supplementary election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area (LGA) and the other 101 units.

 
Seriake Dickson And Timipre Sylva 
 
Mr. Sylva’s accusations come amidst fears that tensions are rising in Bayelsa State as the supplementary election approaches. A war of words has emerged between the two candidates with both accusing the other of fomenting violence ahead of the supplementary polls.

Earlier this month SaharaReporters published a story regarding Governor Dickson’s claims that the APC was attempting to use the security services to rig the supplementary elections.

As tensions continued escalating on Tuesday, the PDP reported that several gunboats of armed men stormed the Peremabiri Community in Southern Ijaw LGA which were claimed to be sponsored by the APC.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State, Mr. Sylva stated that intelligence reports gathered by the APC noted that there were indications of the stockpiling of dangerous arms. The purpose of this weapon stockpiling, according to Mr. Sylva, is the disruption of the Southern Ijaw LGA supplementary elections.  

“Therefore, the PDP government knows it is on its way out and are plotting to perpetuate violence in Southern Ijaw LGA.

“Governor Dickson has shown that his desperate accusations against the APC are actually plots set in motion by the PDP,” Mr. Sylva explained.

However, Mr. Sylva has yet to provide copies of these intelligence reports to the media with specifics about the threats APC agents found.

Continuing his attacks upon Governor Dickson, Mr. Sylva accused the governor of fabricating reports about APC-led violence in Southern Ijaw LGA.

“All the problems that Mr. Dickson is crying about ahead of Saturday poll are in his head, hence, he needs to have his head examined, ” Mr. Sylva stated.

The former Governor expressed misgivings about the redeployment of State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Baritor Kpagih, claiming that local representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are corrupted by the PDP.

“The manner in which INEC in Bayelsa State was constituted by the outgoing President [Goodluck Jonathan], was designed to deliver the State to the PDP,” he stated.

These accusations have raised fears that the violence witnessed in Southern Ijaw LGA during the December 5th elections will be repeated this Saturday.

Fresh Violence Hits Peremabiri Community In Bayelsa

Tensions are mounting in the Peremabiri Community of Bayelsa State following reports that armed men attempted to attack ex-militant Eris Paul (AKA Ogunboss). Community youths were able to arrest one of the attackers, Mr. Attitude Ebi, after a hot pursuit.

 
Eris Paul, ex-militant leader of MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) 
 
The suspect was subsequently turned over to Naval officers who delivered a brutal beating to the man.
Following his beating, Mr. Ebi was formally arrested for attempting to cause mayhem in the Peremabiri Community. He confessed that he was told by a friend that he would be paid N50,000 if he came to the community to cause trouble and vote.

Numerous community youths are now said to be patrolling the area armed with sticks, cutlasses, and clubs.

EFCC Arrests Buhari’s Associate, APC Chieftain, Jafaru Isa

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Wednesday night arrested a former military governor of Kaduna State and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Lawal Jafaru Isa.  

Jafaru Isa 

Mr. Isa is the first chieftain of the APC arrested by the EFCC since the beginning of a sweeping probe into the alleged diversion of $2.1 billion meant for arms purchase by officials of the immediate past administration.
Mr. Isa, Military Administrator of Kaduna State from December 1993 to August 1996 during the military regime of General Sani Abacha and one-time governorship candidate of the defunct CPC in Kano State, is a close friend of the embattled former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

Mr. Isa, also a close political associate of President Muhammadu Buhari, was arrested at his Abuja residence located at Ajayi Crowther Street, Asokoro.

A witness told PREMIUM TIMES that operatives of the anti-graft commission invaded his residence around 9 pm, and then whisked him away a few minutes later.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that Mr. Isa, a retired brigadier general, was invited last week to appear before the commission on Wednesday (yesterday) to clear the air on “some questionable receipts” from the former NSA.

Investigators believe the retired soldier received over N100million from Mr. Dasuki.
Rather than honoring the invitation, sources said, Mr. Isa wrote a letter to the EFCC through his lawyer, seeking a postponement of his appearance date on the grounds of the death of a relative.

Apparently dissatisfied with his excuse, the EFCC, however, arrested him to clarify the “questionable receipts”.

The spokesperson of the EFCC, Wilson Ujuwaren, could not be reached Thursday morning for‎ comments on the arrest.

But a top official of the commission confirmed the development.
”He has been wasting our time, and we just have to pick him up for our investigation to continue,” the official said.