High Street

Taraba State Police command on Sunday morning confirmed the kidnapping of Hon. Hosea Ibi, a member of the Taraba State House of Assembly representing Takum I constituency. Commissioner of Police Taraba State, Mr. Dave Akinremi, who confirmed the incident in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Jalingo, said three men riding on a motorcycle accosted the lawmaker late last night and took him to an unknown location. “We got information last night that three men riding on a motorcycle accosted somebody whom we later confirmed to be the lawmaker representing Takum I, Hon. Hosea Ibi, forced him to climb the bike with them and took him away. “I quickly mobilised my men who are currently on the manhunt to close in on the kidnappers. The kidnappers have not yet established contact with anybody, but we are trailing them using our intelligence and we will surely rescue the lawmaker,” he said. An eyewitness, Mr. Rimansikpe Tsokwa told our correspondent that the three men broke into t...

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has called on the Federal Government to end the current fuel scarcity in the country rather than buying time and passing blame. Soyinka stated this on Saturday in a statement titled, “Blame passing: The New Year Gift to a Nation.’’ He also cited the clipping of the 1977 edition of the Daily Times when President Muhammadu Buhari, then a minister of petroleum and natural resources, was quoted as saying, “Fuel crisis may be over next year.” Soyinka said, “I recently ran the gauntlet of petroleum queues through three conveniently situated cities – Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan – deliberately, this Friday. Even with ‘unorthodox’ aids of passage, this was no task for the faint-hearted. Just getting past fueling stations was traumatising, an obstacle race through seething, frustrated masses of humanity, only to find ourselves on vast stretches of emptied roads pleading for occupation. As for obtaining the petroleum in the first place – the less said the bet...

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday was back at the Cedar Crest Hospital, Gudu District, Abuja, where his son, Yusuf, who was injured in a motorbike accident, was hospitalised. But the security situation around the hospital remained tense, as policemen screened those gaining entry into the medical facility. The President, who got there around 6pm, had on Thursday alongside his wife and Yusuf’s mother, Aisha, visited the hospital. A guard near the hospital told one of our correspondents that the First Lady was believed to have slept overnight till Friday. At about 5.30pm when one of our correspondents got to the hospital, the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, also arrived to check on Yusuf. The Kaduna State Governor spent about 20 minutes at the hospital. “The dignitaries have not stopped coming. We see luxury cars every 10 minutes, we see police escorts; I can’t mention everyone who has visited today. “But the wife of the President slept in the hospital. She is ...

Organised labour on Friday threatened to embark on strike if the ongoing fuel shortage ravaging the nation extends to next year. A press statement issued on Friday said it also hailed the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, for directing the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to cut short its recess and immediately convene industry stakeholders meeting in a bid to end the ongoing fuel crisis. A NEC member of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Issa Aremu, observed in Kaduna on Thursday that the protracted fuel crisis was a reflection of “crisis of corporate governance in the petroleum sector.” According to the labour leader, the bane of downstream sector was “abysmal absence of accountability, transparency and openness in the administration of the petroleum resources of Nigeria.” He said only the parliament can make a difference in “exposing the rot” in the sector. Mr. Aremu said the Senate leadership by urging relevant committee members to resume duty has shown that...

The leading governorship aspirant in Osun, Mr Kunle Adegoke popularly known as K-Rad has felicitated with Christians across the length and breadth of Osun State on the occasion of this year's Christmas celebrations. The session's greetings were conveyed through a statement personally signed and issued in Osogbo by the Osogbo-born politician. According to K-Rad,  Christmas being a season to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ should also serve as a period of sober reflection by all. "Apart from being the reason for this season, Jesus Christ is recorded to be loving, peaceful, selfless, forgiving and merciful, among other good qualities. So, while celebrating his birth, we should also reflect on our acts either as leaders or followers, parents or children vis-à-vis the extolled qualities of Jesus Christ. As we celebrate his birth therefore, I enjoin us all, irrespective of our religious leanings, to imbibe the remarkable qualities known with Jesus...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission says the sum of N27bn, which formed part of the proceeds of the sale of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, was shared among top government functionaries in 2014. The EFCC disclosed this in a court paper filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja on December 5, 2017. The total sum of N27,188,232,208.20, allegedly looted by the named officials was said to be meant for the settlement of the insurance premiums for disengaged members of staff of PHCN. Among the top government officials, named in the alleged scam, were the then Chief of Staff to the then President Goodluck Jonathan, Brig. Gen. Jones Arogbofa (retd.); the then Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla; and the then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Dr. Godknows Igali. Others also named in the scam are a cousin to Jonathan, Robert Azibaola; a former Director-General, Bureau for Public Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin Dikki; and a former Minister of State for P...

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris  has directed immediate commencement of stop-and-search operations during the Christmas and New Year celebrations. A statement by the Force spokesman, CSP Jimoh Moshood in Abuja on Saturday, said Idris directed all State Police Commands across the country to beef up security at flashpoints, black spots and vulnerable points on major roads and highways across the country. He warned that in order to ensure the free flow of traffic and ease movement of travellers, the operation should not be located at areas susceptible to traffic gridlock or vehicular hold-ups. “The Police teams on traffic control and observation patrols have been deployed to such points and sections to manage traffic and carry out Police observation duties,” he said. Moshood said that Idris further directed all Commissioners of Police to supervise police personnel deployed to these stop and search points to make sure that they are not turned to roadblocks. “Member...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has filed a four-count charge of fraud against Innocent Chukwuma, chairman of Innoson Motors, and Charles, his younger brother. This comes days after the anti-graft agency released him on bail after picking him in Enugu. The anti-graft agency accused him of obtaining containers of motorcycles spare parts by false pretence between 2009 and July 2011 in Lagos. The goods, said to be property of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, were allegedly obtained from Mitsui O.S.K Lines Limited in Apapa. The anti-graft agency said the duo “with intent to defraud induced the staff of Mitsui O.S.K and Maersk Line Limited to deliver”, to them through their clearing agents, the motorcycle spare parts, moulds of spare parts and steel structures and raw materials called polyvinlchlorid, imported from China. The accused were said to have falsely pretended that they were authorised by GTB to clear the goods and take delivery of them. Shortly after ...

The raging crisis over ownership of Obuh mines between cement manufacturers BUA and Dangote is far from over. BUA in a fresh revelations claim it is in possession of evidences detailing calculated attempts by Dangote to sabotage it’s operations. The statement which detailed the revelations read We are increasingly appalled by a new set of publications, actions and tactics by Dangote Plc and its staff which have been falsely attributed to the Federal Government, seeking to achieve what they couldn’t get through legal means or their “connections in Government”. These relate to the ongoing mining dispute between BUA and Dangote. We therefore wish to draw the attention of the general public, investing public and other stakeholders to these new set of malicious and misleading information which are in fact, being cooked up in the offices of Dangote Plc. These publications have, at various times, been falsely attributed to pronouncements made by the Federal Government represented by the Mi...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested Dr. Ngozi Olojeme, the Deputy Chairman, Finance Committee of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation in the 2015 presidential election, The PUNCH has learnt. The suspect, who served as the Chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund from 2009 to 2015, was, in June, declared wanted for allegedly diverting N69bn from the agency. Olojeme, who is also the widow to Felix Obuah, the late Chief Security Officer to Jonathan, was said to have fled the country shortly after her sacking by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. The suspect, who was also the convener of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme sub-committee on Public Works and Road Rehabilitation, finally reported at the EFCC on Monday after which she was detained. A detective at the commission stated, “After months of running, Mrs. Olojeme finally turned herself in. She is currently being detained and we have identified most of her properties.” The NS...

Dangote has churned out what BUA as labelled "bigger lies"" in the raging mines dispute between the two cement manufacturers. But BUA is insisting it's competitor should let the courts decide the ownership tussle. BUA restated it's position in response to fresh communication from Dangote in this statement Our attention has been drawn again to a new publication by Dangote group seeking to further its cycle of misinformation over the mining dispute between BUA and Dangote through falsehoods and bigger lies. BUA views with disdain, further attempts by the Dangote Group to play to the gallery in the dispute over our Mining Areas covered by Mining Leases ML18912 and ML18913. BUA wishes to restate without equivocation that it has never laid claim to ML2541 as our operations covered by ML18912 and ML18913 are in Obu, Okpella, Edo State and not Okene, Kogi State where Dangote’s license 2541 is sited. As Dangote has asserted, BUA’s licenses for ML18912 ...

President Muhammadu Buhari and his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, breached the provisions of the constitution in the recent reconstitution of the Board of Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), PREMIUM TIMES can report. The duo also showed disregard for court processes by ignoring the pending suits on the dissolution of the former Board of CCB at the Court of Appeal and the National Industrial Court (NIC). Mr. Buhari had, on November 29, forwarded the names of 10 nominees and copies of their curriculum vitae to the Senate for confirmation. The nominees and their states of origin are Muhammad Isah (Jigawa State, North West) who will serve as chairman; Murtala Kankia (Katsina, North West); Emmanuel Attah (Rivers, South-South); Danjuma Sado (Edo, South-South); and Ubolo Okpanachi (Kogi, North Central). The others are Ken Madaki Alkali (Nasarawa, North Central); S.F. Ogundare (Oyo, South West); Ganiyu Hamzat (Ogun, South West); Sa’ad Abubakar (Gombe, North East); and Vincent Nwanli (Ebonyi Sout...

 The Lagos State Government on Wednesday arraigned a property developer, David Olumide Aderinokun and a staff of the New Town Development Authority (NTDA), Balogun Adeniyi Abdul-Wakil before an Igbosere Magistrate Court over alleged conspiracy, forgery, stealing and property fraud on parcels of land in Lekki Peninsula estimated at 2678.068 square metres. Aderinokun, who is the husband of media personality, Stephanie Coker, was arraigned separately on an eight-count charge bordering on the offence before Chief Magistrate Olufolake Oshin, and alongside Abdul-Wakil on another eight-count charge before the same court. Aderinokun, trading under the name and style of Davade Properties, was alleged to have conspired with others now at large sometime in February 2016 to commit felony to wit stealing, forgery and obtaining money under false pretense. According to the charge, Aderinokun criminally “converted a piece of land measuring approximately 1764.44 square metres ...