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Ejiro Henry, a 19-year old cocaine trafficker, currently standing trial for his involvement in the illicit trade, has been arrested again for peddling hard drugs.

Mr Henry, who was apprehended the second time on his way to Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at the Murtala Muhammed Airport 2, was found with 167 wraps of powdery material that the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) confirmed as cocaine, weighing 2.45kg. “The suspect was first arrested on May 25, for allegedly ingesting 73 wraps of substances that tested positive to cocaine weighing 1.285kg during screening of Alitalia passengers to Italy,” said Mitchell Ofoyeju, spokesperson for the agency. He also added that the suspect was subsequently charged to court and granted bail on September 6. According to him, the agency confiscated the international passport of the smuggler at the time and documented his Italian resident permit for safe keeping.

Premeditated action

Mr Ofoyeju explained that the cocaine was found in a polythene bag inside the suspect’s luggage, adding that he was equally in possession of a valid Air France ticket, with which he intends to “immediately” travel to Italy the same day. “Also in his possession was another international passport, as well as an Italian resident permit, as the travel document recovered from him in May is still in the custody of the agency,” he said.

The suspect, in a statement from the anti-narcotics agency, blamed his involvement in illicit trade this time on the devil, as he explained that his first attempt was as a result of his financial difficulties. “I actually needed money to settle my bills when I was first arrested but I cannot explain this one; I think it is the devil,” he said..

Blame the courts

Ahmadu Giade, the Chief Executive of NDLEA, said that the granting of bail to accused persons allow smugglers to go back into the criminal trade. According to him, the next bail trial date for the first charge against the suspect is to come up on November 4, 2010. “Bail encourages long adjournment, thereby prolonging litigation period,” he said. “It also provides a leeway for accused persons to go back into the illegal trade. When they are in detained in prison custody, cases are decided within a short time because they are usually agitated for their cases to be fast tracked.”

Hamza Umar, the Lagos airport commander for the agency, however, commended officials of Federal Airport Authority for detecting the drug and reporting it to the NDLEA, describing the collaboration as healthy for effective security and safety in the country. According to Mr Ofoyeju, preliminary investigations revealed that the accused was adequately prepared for the crime, as the current passport found with him was issued in March before his first arrest. “The new resident permit also suggests that the accused has established contacts in Italy and he will soon be charged to court in connection with the latest arrest while he will be appearing from NDLEA custody in the on-going trial,” he said.

Ex Plantashun Boiz member, Faze has featured his former band mates 2face and Blackface on a track Best of the Best.The song which was produced by Spankie will be included in his forthcoming album titled Relate due for release next month.

A few months back Faze had dropped singles Relate and Gear one as a build up to his album release. The Plantashun Boiz was one of Nigeria’s foremost boy band who held sway in the 1990’s.They have been dubbed as the foundation of modern-day Nigerian music; serving as the bridge between the older and newer generations..

Provabs drops new single

Provabs follows up his previous single - Hope. Aina Olasubomi Anthony a.k.a PROVABS is a song writer and rapper who has infused rap into different genres of music, ranging from classical to hardcore, hiphop and jazz. Having collaborated with several artists like Jedi, Ige, Dekunle Fuji, Contemporary urban Gospel artist, Provabs is set to launch out on his own and he does that with a brand new single titled Bless Me (Dey Go). The single is a follow up to his previous single Ko Si and Swagger.

Tyler Perry tests box office draw with ‘Colored Girls’

Filmmaker Tyler Perry has had no trouble claiming financial success when audiences flock to his comedies, but this week his box office pull will be tested with the dark drama, ‘For Colored Girls’. Currently America’s most successful African American film director who often attaches his name to movies adapted from his own stage plays, Perry has raked in more than $450 million at box offices, mostly in the United States. But his new movie, ‘For Colored Girls’, opening on Friday, is far removed from the comedic fare for which he first gained fame, including ‘Diary of a Mad Black Woman’ and ‘Madea’s Family Reunion’. ‘For Colored Girls’ tackles issues such as abuse and abortion, and is adapted from poet and playwright Ntozake Shange’s,

‘For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf’. “This was the most intimidating work I have ever taken on,” Perry told reporters in a recent news conference. “I walked away from it many times.” Yet the intertwining stories of nine women facing trials in their everyday lives kept pulling him back, and for his adaptation, Perry has updated the 1970s-era play with a film presentation of modern black women living in New York City who face troubling dilemmas and decisions.

Helping the movie’s box office potential is its long roster of high-profile female actors and performers, including Janet Jackson,

Whoopi Goldberg, Phylicia Rashad, Kerry Washington, Thandie Newton and Macy Gray. But Carl DiOrio, a box office analyst for The Hollywood Reporter, said while pre-release interest was “high”, the actresses alone were not enough to guarantee popularity. “It’s a solid cast but the cast itself won’t necessarily drive the opening. If there is a star in the mix it’s Tyler Perry,” he said. “There is no doubt that he delivers a fan base. (But) because of the turn into much grittier fare that he takes with this film, it remains to be seen how it plays over subsequent weekends.”

The film is projected to make Perry’s usual opening haul of around $20 million based on tracking surveys, said DiOrio, but the long-term box office was unclear as “it’s hard to market this like a typical Tyler Perry movie.” Adding to that are questions over whether Perry can handle translating Shange’s poetic monologues and capture her feminist sensibilities. Early critical reaction has been mixed.

“While Perry’s craft has slowly but surely improved with each successive film, this latest project seems to fall beyond his reach,” said Variety in its review. Shange, who met with Perry several times to discuss his script, has said she is “75 percent” happy with the screen adaptation, after becoming used to various adaptations.

“This is an opportunity for her work to be presented to a much wider audience,” her associate Claude Sloan told Reuters. “She looks at that as a benefit, but she has trepidation as any artist would at being at the hands of another artist.” Perry, who produced, directed and wrote the film told reporters he was satisfied with the end result: “I did the best work I could do at this time in my life.”

Taylor Swift pays tribute to fans for record sales Country-pop singer

Taylor Swift thanked her fans on Wednesday for buying more than one million copies of her new album ‘Speak Now’, making it the biggest first week seller in five years. “I... Can’t... Believe... This... You guys have absolutely lit up my world. Thank you,” Swift said in Twitter message. Official Nielsen SoundScan figures showed that ‘Speak Now’ sold 1,047,000 copies in the United States during the week ended October 31.

It was the biggest sales week for an album since rapper 50 Cent’s 2005 album ‘The Massacre’ sold 1,141,000. The critically well-praised album --the third from the 20 year-old singer-songwriter --also notched up the second-largest sales week of any country album since 1991.

The bumper numbers, helped by a massive promotional push including TV appearances, advance digital releases of some of the new songs and free concerts by Swift, came after years of music industry gloom over declining album sales and piracy. Swift, who won four Grammys earlier this year, has carved out a distinctive niche over the past two years for songs that address adolescent heart-break and the social perils of high-school. Her album ‘Fearless’ was the biggest selling record of 2009.

In ‘Speak Now’, she delivers a forthright commentary on several men who have broken or messed with her heart. The album includes songs widely believed to refer to singer John Mayer, pop star Joe Jonas, rapper Kanye West, ‘Twilight’ actor Taylor Lautner, and music industry critics who slammed her shaky vocal performance at the 2010 Grammy Awards.

Nashville music industry writer David Ross, editor of MusicRow, said Swift’s success flies in the face of conventional wisdom about the dire state of the recording industry. “Unlike many of the top-charting female artists of today, Ms Swift eschews tabloid behaviour and asks fans to focus on her music,” Ross said on Wednesday. “In some universal way, her life contests connect with similar moments that have brushed the fabric of others as well,” Ross added.

Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה‎, literally "head of the year," Israeli: Hebrew pronunciation: [ˈʁoʃ haʃaˈna], Ashkenazic: ˈɾoʃ haʃːɔˈnɔh, Yiddish:[ˈrɔʃəˈʃɔnə]) is a Jewish holiday commonly referred to as the "Jewish New Year." It is observed on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar.[1] It is ordained in the Torah as "Zicaron Terua" ("a memorial with the blowing of horns"), in Leviticus 23:24. Rosh Hashanah is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), or Asseret Yemei Teshuva (Ten Days of Repentance) which are days specifically set aside to focus on repentance that conclude with the holiday of Yom Kippur.

Rosh Hashanah is the start of the civil year in the Hebrew calendar (one of four "new year" observances that define various legal "years" for different purposes as explained in the Mishnah and Talmud). It is the new year for people, animals, and legal contracts. The Mishnah also sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical (shmita) and jubilee (yovel) years. Jews believe Rosh Hashanah represents either analogically or literally the creation of the World, or Universe. However, according to one view in the Talmud, that of R. Eleazar, Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man, which entails that five days earlier, the 25 of Elul, was the first day of creation of the Universe.[2]

The Mishnah, the core text of Judaism's oral Torah, contains the first known reference to Rosh Hashanah as the "day of judgment." In the Talmud tractate on Rosh Hashanah it states that three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah, wherein the fate of the wicked, the righteous, and those of an intermediate class are recorded. The names of the righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of life, and they are sealed "to live." The middle class are allowed a respite of ten days, until Yom Kippur, to repent and become righteous; the wicked are "blotted out of the book of the living."[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah

For secular Jews

It would happen each fall around the Jewish new year. At the very time when renewal was in the autumn air, Arnold Barnett, an engineer from Moorestown, would go into a mild funk. His wife eventually figured it out: He was less than enamored with high holiday synagogue services.

"He simply wasn't engaged by what went on inside our Reform synagogue, or with the traditional approach to Judaism," said Ellen, 70. "I knew he was struggling. So sometimes, I would just go to services alone."

Then last year, the Barnetts saw a small notice in a local Jewish newspaper about a recently formed group in South Jersey. "We went to a meeting that was focused on Jewish history," Arnold, 71, recalls, "and that was something I could relate to. It was much more appealing."

And so the Barnetts will celebrate Rosh Hashanah, which begins Wednesday at sundown, by meeting Sunday with like-minded members of South Jersey Secular Jews - a group of people who may or may not believe in God, but do believe in caring about the world and one another, respecting and understanding Jewish history, and celebrating a culture that has meaning and emotional pull.

"The most important aspect of secularism is the survival and continuity of the Jewish people," said Paul Shane, a native New Yorker now living in Philadelphia and married to the daughter of Holocaust survivors.

Shane, 75, a member of the more established Philadelphia Secular Jewish Organization, believes humans are responsible for what happens on Earth. The here and now is central, and actions speak louder than words.

That philosophy resembles traditional Judaism. But secular Jews and traditional Jews part company when it comes to accepting religious dogma.

If you're secular, God is optional. (Traditional Judaism has "God at its heart. That's not an option," said Rabbi Ethan Franzel of Main Line Reform Temple Beth Elohim in Wynnewood.) Also, life-cycle events are handled individually - for instance, there are no set burial or wedding traditions in secular Judaism.

Of course secularism, in which one adheres to cultural norms rather than religious ones, is hardly new. During the Renaissance, from 1450 to 1600, and the Enlightenment in the 18th century, many Jews shed the God-oriented elements of their Jewishness, according to Shane, a professor of social policy at Rutgers University in Newark. That shedding also continued in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

What's different today is that a growing number of secular Jews are finding one another, forming groups, and practicing the social responsibility Judaism requires - minus the synagogue.

Rifke Feinstein, executive director of the national Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations, says there are approximately 2,000 affiliated secular Jews in the United States. But because seculars typically are unaffiliated, and therefore uncounted, estimates for the entire American secular population range from 8,000 to 40,000.

In the Philadelphia area, there are six such organizations for secular Jews - including the five-year-old South Jersey Secular Jews - all under the local umbrella cooperative venture called Kehilla for Secular Jews.

For many people, discovering that such an organization exists has been a relief.

" 'I thought I was the only one!' is what people often express when they discover that they are not alone in their secular relationship to their Jewishness," said Larry Angert, 59, a member of 11-year-old Shir Shalom: A Havurah for Secular Jews. "The Jewish tent is big, and there's room for all of us in it."

Some local secular groups, like Philadelphia's Sholom Aleichem Club, which started in 1954, and Philadelphia Workmen's Circle, founded nationally in 1900 to aid Jewish immigrant workers and to promote Yiddish, have graying memberships. Bob Kleiner, 85, of Elkins Park, a retired sociology professor at Temple University, and his wife, Frances, a teacher of Yiddish, both long active in the secular movement, lament that younger people are not actively involved in these historic groups.

But the formation of new groups, such as South Jersey Secular Jews, is evidence the movement still has traction.

Credit Naomi Scher, 64, of Cherry Hill, whose children attended the Jewish Children's Folkshul, another Kehilla group, which is a parent-run cooperative held at Springside School in Philadelphia. About 100 children receive their Jewish education, not in a traditional Hebrew school but in classes that nourish social justice and individual responsibility. Bar and bat mitzvah aspirants undertake personally meaningful projects that they ultimately share with the entire Folkshul community.

Although Scher formed relationships with parents of her children's classmates, commuting to Philadelphia became burdensome once her children graduated, and in 2005, the retired social worker decided to start a secular group closer to home.

What began as a gathering of eight to 10 people now regularly attracts 30, meeting monthly with speakers who address social and political concerns, Scher said.

Deborah Chaiken, 74, of Palmyra is delighted to have a group close to home. "In the formal Jewish community, I felt that I didn't really have a voice. Here, I know that I do."

Dues are $25 a year, and participants are asked to bring food for potluck dinners. Meetings are held on the second Sunday of the month at Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill..

South Jersey Secular Jews members Cary and Bilha Hillebrand of Cherry Hill call the group a welcome addition to the local landscape. For Bilha, 54, the philosophy of the group is more in keeping with that of her native Israel, where the majority of the population leads a more secular lifestyle.

"We are not in any way antireligious," says Cary, 60. "We hold the belief that we are responsible for what happens to ourselves and to the world. And to us, that's the essence of what religion is, and should be."

Delta Airlines on Monday said a female passenger was found dead on one of its flights from Atlanta, United States to Lagos.

Delta sources said the 57-year-old passenger was accompanied by her son when she died on Monday. The Associated Press quoted the American carrier’s Corporate Communications Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Ms. Olivia Cullis, as saying that the passenger was found unresponsive early Monday aboard Delta Flight 53, about an hour out of Atlanta and about 11 hours from the time it took off.

Delta said it could not provide the passenger’s identity due to privacy restriction laws. Cullis added, “Approximately an hour from Atlanta, the crew of Flight 53 alerted flight operations that a passenger was unresponsive and had no vital signs. The flight landed normally and we are coordinating with medical authorities. Delta extends its sincere condolences to the passenger’s family.”

A statement by the Senior Manager, Media Relations, Delta, Susan Elliot, said the airline was working with medical authorities to determine the facts in the case..

AP quoted Atlanta’s police spokesman, Otis Redmond, as saying that foul play was not suspected. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner’s investigator was sent to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, according to the report.

Atlanta police spokesman Otis Redmond told AP that foul play was not suspected in the woman’s death. Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said the woman’s body was taken to a crime laboratory for an autopsy.

Bankhead said the FBI was investigating the matter because the death occurred on an international flight.

Five months ago, a friend of mine, who edits a national daily, sent me a text message agreeing substantially with my column, ‘The Punch and the rest of us’, except the generalised conclusion that “all (journalists) have sinned and fallen short of the glory of the profession”. There are still some journalists, he submits, who toe the narrow path of integrity. Of course I knew where he was coming from, but I also knew the context in which I had made that statement.

I revisit that statement in light of the stories spewing out of the political beat, specifically on the race for the 2011 presidential elections and how it affects the integrity of news.

As part of the effort to sell his candidature for the presidency, former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) invited as many as 40 journalists to his Minna home on August 14 for an interview. I have heard questions asked about why he should invite journalists to his home instead of a public place if he didn’t have an ulterior motive, and why he should offer monetary gifts to the journalists in the name of paying for their transportation.

One news medium, which has championed this opposition in the open, is the online agency, Sahara Reporters. According to SR each of the journalists received N10 million for heeding Babangida’s call on his presidential ambition. That is N400 million just for one night’s interview from an aspirant yet to win his party’s nomination if it were true. But it was not. When some of the journalists complained about the fictional sum, SR changed the story on August 19, saying it was just “a paltry N250, 000 each”. Rather than admit its initial error SR simply said, “our accountants have told us that going by the number of 40 journalists in attendance, we are still around the same ballpark of N10 million”. So much for credible reporting!

Three days later, SR followed up with ‘IBB and his Rogue Journalists’, accusing the journalists of roguery and professional misconduct; roguery, because they collected money from two sources—their employers who presumably authorised and funded the trip and their news source, IBB; misconduct because it is unethical for them to demand/receive gratification from news sources for their services.

And on August 23 in ‘IBB Nocturnal Press Parley: Punch fires Editorial board Chairman’, SR stayed on top of the story by reporting that Adebolu Arowolo, editorial board chairman of the Punch, had lost his job for going on that trip without his management’s approval..

NEXT:

Workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), on Wednesday, begin an indefinite industrial action.

The workers are protesting the nonpayment of their monetisation arrears among others. The workers, under the aegis of National Union of Electricity Employees, had on Monday, released a memo instructing all members to lock all the gates to PHCN's offices and installations nationwide..

The workers' strike is coming two days before President Goodluck Jonathan is scheduled to unveil his power generation and distribution blue print. The workers are also protesting the procedure that government plans to adopt in the privatization of power distribution.

Mr Jonathan had, on Monday, approved the sale of 11 power firms, which are subsidiaries of the power company. The government insisted that this move will help to checkmate the high aggregate technical, commercial, and collection losses suffered in the course of electricity generation and distribution in the country.

VANGUARD:

Just after the recent Renewal of The Dangote Otedola crises read here http://bit.ly/beAnsZ

another one has arisen from the ashes so to say ?

The police said in Abuja on Thursday that two persons suspected to be behind an alleged attempt to kill the Chairman of African Petroleum Plc, Mr. Femi Otedola, and six directors of the company had been arrested.



Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, who disclosed this at a press conference, said the suspects were being interrogated by the police.



Onovo said that Otedola and the six directors were trapped in the lift at the AP Plaza in Lagos on July 25, while on their way to an emergency meeting of the board of the company.



The IG explained that Otedola and his team entered an empty lift, but were trapped for more than two hours.



Onovo, who addressed journalists at the Force headquarters through the Deputy Inspector-General, Force Criminal Investigation, John Ahmadu, said that three elevator engineers that examined the lift to ascertain the possible cause of the incident concluded that it was tampered with.



“The chairman was ushered into an empty lift with six other members of his team. Soon after they entered the lift, all the seven occupants were trapped for over two hours,” he said.



He explained that the experts, who inspected the lift, discovered that its safety switch was pressed down, leading to the halting of the facility and trapping of the AP chairman and the others for about two hours.



The suspects, according to the IG, were in charge of the lifts supplied by Otis Lifts Limited, and he gave their names as Celestine Ononobi and Moses Oluremi.



Otedola and the directors were to attend an emergency meeting of the board of AP where crucial decisions affecting the company were to be taken on July 25, 2010 when they were trapped in the lift.



The incident was believed to be in connection with the infighting among the management team, which resulted in the sacking of the managing director and the suspension of an executive director as well as the company secretary.



The case was being handled by the Lagos State Police Command before Onovo directed that it should be taken over by Force CID for diligent investigation.



He stated that the lift was powered by a 625KVA generator at the time of the incident and should not have had any problem, since it was installed barely one year ago and was regularly serviced by technical staff of Otis Lifts Limited.



He IGP said, “The technical experts who examined the lifts after the incident found out that the lift was tampered with because the safety switch was pressed down.



“The moment they depressed the switch, the lift started working again perfectly, indicating that the incident was an act of sabotage and an attempt to murder its occupants.”

Femi Otedola Goes into Exile as "attempt" on his life escalates literally

The crisis rocking the oil marketing firm, Africa Petroleum (AP), has led to the self exile of its chairman, Femi Otedola, NEXT has learnt.

Mr. Otedola, whose company, Zenon Petroleum and Gas limited, is the major investor in AP, is currently in England to avoid another attempt on his life. This is according to a senior official of AP who spoke to NEXT on condition of anonymity.

The businessman, who was named by Forbes magazine as being among the world's richest billionaires last year, first alleged threat to his life when an elevator in his company's headquarters malfunctioned mid-way with him in it.

The management of AP reported the incident to the police alleging sabotage with fingers pointed towards another senior official of the company Clement Aviomoh, who is the executive director, finance and information technology.

Mr. Aviomoh, in a press statement, however denied any involvement in the incident explaining that the incident was caused by the actions of Mr. Otedola.

"On the 5th of July 2010, there was a scheduled board meeting of AP Plc; the chairman stormed the venue with 150 armed mobile police men. He entered the lift with too many security operatives thereby overloading the lift. Thereafter the lift got stuck and we got a report from CFAO and the maintenance engineer that clearly stated that there was no foul play," Mr. Aviomoh stated.

Our source, however, said the police have concluded a forensic examination of the lift and it is clear that it was tampered with. According to the source the police will soon make public their findings and also effect the arrest of those implicated in the plot.

Conflicting police statements

NEXT could, however, not get an independent verification of the claim. In fact, the police yesterday gave conflicting reports on their investigation of the incident.

Emmanuel Ojukwu, the police public relations officer at the force headquarters in Abuja stated that though he was aware of the case, the matter was being investigated in Lagos and so was under the Lagos State Police command.

"It (the case) can be moved from Lagos to force headquarters, Abuja, but I am not sure it has been moved," Mr. Ojukwu said.

The Lagos police spokesman, Frank Mba, however, claimed ignorance of any investigations saying, I don't know anything about it; I don't have any information about it.

NEXT learnt that Mr. Otedola had expressed his distrust of the Lagos State police command, which made the police transfer the investigation to the force headquarters in Abuja.

While the police are being economical with the truth over their investigations, two members of the board of AP: Osa Osunde, the Vice Chairman; and Nebolisa Arah, a director; on Wednesday secured an injunction from the federal high court in Lagos restraining the Inspector General of police, the commissioner of police, Lagos State, and the Special Investigation Unit from "incessant invitation to the police station, threatening to arrest or further arresting, impeding the liberty ... of the applicant pending the determination of the application." The injunction was granted by O. Abang, the presiding judge.

The AP crisis was first brought to the fore in July last year when Access Bank, one of the company's creditors asked a court to wind up AP following its inability to pay its debt.

"The company is insolvent and unable to pay its debts. In the circumstances, it is just and equitable that the company should be wound up," a statement by the bank said.

Following Access Bank's statement, other creditors, as reported by NEXT on Sunday in previous stories, started asking for their money fearing the worst for AP. The company however challenged some of the banks including Access Bank of refusing to pay their own debt to the company.

Things got worse when Mr. Aviomoh, the finance director, alleged among others that "in 2009, African Petroleum plc made a loss of about N15 Billion, this was due to the fact that the Chairman's companies (Zenon Petroleum and Gas Company Limited, Platinum Fleet Limited and Fineshade Energy limited) started selling products to African Petroleum Plc at Higher prices than normal, at times higher than the retail pump price at gas station."

Mr. Aviomoh, who has now been suspended by the AP management, accused Mr. Otedola of mismanaging AP to the benefit of his own companies.

Our source in AP however said there is no truth in the allegation and that it is a campaign orchestrated by those who bought AP shares and have been unable to pay. ''They are angry that our Chairman is insisting on payment and want to damage him by peddling lies," the source said.

Who will be promoted & who will join Bode George ? Who is your favourite mallam ?

Former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nasir El-Rufai, yesterday told a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, that it lacked the power to try him over allegations of abuse of office as minister. He said that the proper court to try him was the Abuja High Court.

Counsel to the former minister, Akin Olujimi, filed a preliminary objection saying that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Matters Commission (ICPC) Act of 2000, which his client had been charged on, had been repealed and so the federal court lacked the jurisdiction to try the matter. “The prosecution acknowledges that the charges stand on nothing,” said Mr Olujimi. “The effect of a repealed law is that it is a nullity, and no charges founded on it can stand.”

In response to the preliminary objection, the prosecution said that the court could assume jurisdiction in the matter because it involved an agency of the federal government and a former minister in the federal cabinet. Trial Judge, Adamu Bello, adjourned ruling on the case to 13th October.

Mr. El-Rufai and two others were accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of illegally allocating land in the FCT to friends and relatives, some of whom included Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, the daughter of former president Olusegun Obasanjo. The other accused persons are Altine Jubrin, former director general of the Abuja Geographical Information System, and Ismail Iro, former general manager of the agency. All three men pleaded not guilty.

AC Ribadu & Oshiomole ticket : as Asiwaju Tinubu Drops Vice Presidential Ambition

If he had held Fash close to his breast who knows as Alamiyesegha is reaping the rewards of patient GodFatherhood


Bola Ahmed Tinubu is no longer interested in the vice presidential race and is, instead, strategising on how the Action Congress (AC) would team up with another party to claim the presidency as well as win all the South Western States, Sunday Independent can reveal.

It also emerged that AC may have concluded plan to field the former anti-graft czar, Nuhu Ribadu as its presidential candidate, with Edo Governor and former Labour leader, Adams Oshiomhole, as his running mate.

That appears to be a fantastic political masterstroke, designed to woo the disenchanted Northerners who appeared certain to lose the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential ticket to President Goodluck Jonathan and draw the organised Labour and younger elements who see Ribadu and Oshiomhole as emerging leaders they could count on.

Tinubu, former Lagos Governor and AC foremost financier, has long been rumoured to be in alliance talk with Muhammadu Buhari to float a joint presidential ticket, a very risky arrangement that would have repeated the Social Democratic Party (SDP)’s Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 1993 presidential ballot.

Late Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe were Muslims, but the ticket won a landside across the country widely split along ethno-religious lines.

Tinubu’s rumoured VP ambition has seen him criss-cross the length and breadth of Nigeria in the last two years to build bridges as he consulted with top opposition leaders and political parties, including the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

He is said to have resolved to sit back and map out strategies for the AC to regain all its lost states in the Yoruba-speaking South West geopolitical zone as a bargaining chip for the party in its merger talks with other political parties in the country.

This agenda is believed to enjoy the backing of the five former governors of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) with whom he had been involved in series of mobilisation for the new party to be consummated from the years of consultations.

He was also said to have revealed the new move to his political associates and groups in the South West and across Nigeria in the last one month, a decision believed to be behind the lull and change of strategy in the political consultations among the opposition parties.

Sources close to the godfather of Lagos politics said he backs the decision by AC to support a younger element from the North with a running mate from the oil-bearing South South geo political zone, a deft move to dwarf the influence of Jonathan whose support base political scientists say is weak.

Tinubu and AC favour the candidature of Ribadu and Oshiomhole, two fellows whose support bases they believe could jolt the PDP in the ballot, sources said.

The choice of Ribadu over some other young Northerners like former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nasir El Rufai, is said to have been informed by the high profile and public sympathy over his performance in the anti-corruption crusade, regardless of his romance with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and allegations that the latter used him to hound adversaries.

The choice of Oshiomhole as a running mate, sources added, flow from his coming from the same region as Jonathan and his wide appeal among Nigerians who relished his presidency of workers’ movement, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

1.MY ADVICE TURN OFF INTERNET BANKING ON YOUR ACCOUNT !

2.ATM Withdrawals Have one account for only Daily transactions of minimal amounts

Customers have expressed dissatisfaction in the manner in which some banks have been handling reported fraud cases on internet banking and Automated Teller Machines (ATM).

Tochukwu Onyiuke, a lawyer at Punuka Attorneys & Solicitors, said of the over 1,000 internet banking fraud and ATM scam cases his firm is handling, “none of the banks involved has shown genuine interest in rendering assistance to the victims.”

Mr. Onyiuke said many of these victims are customers of Intercontinental Bank, Bank PHB, and Union Bank.

Moses Adeogun, a postgraduate student in a university in the United Kingdom and an Intercontinental customer, recently narrated how he lost all his savings of N429, 000 in the bank to online fraud.

“On Tuesday, 27 July, I just discovered that all my savings at Intercontinental Bank to the tune of N429, 000 had been stolen through internet banking,” said Mr. Adeogun.

“I have two accounts at the bank, one is current and the other is savings. I have been using these two accounts since 2008. I activated internet banking on both of them so that I can have access to my accounts while I am away for studies,” Mr. Adeogun said.

He said, “It happened that I was trying to log into my account on 27 June; a Sunday night, but I couldn’t. So I kept on trying until the account was locked. I then sent a mail to the internet banking office that my access has been locked.. The following day, I got a message from the office that my account has been unlocked. That was on Monday, 28th of June.”

However, he said that on 4 July, somebody transferred N100, 000 from his account to another person’s account named Olufunmi Olusanya. Two days later, another N100, 000 was removed. It went on until the last N29, 000 was removed on the July 14.

Mr. Adeogun said while all these was happening, he didn’t receive any alert from the bank as he usually do on any transaction. He said he didn’t touch his account after it was unlocked until July 27 when he tried to confirm his statement of account after transferring money into it that he discovered all his money had gone. “I have mailed the bank severally since it happened but all I get from them is we are investigating. I was hoping that the matter would be resolved on time so that I can use my money. But as it stands, the bank is only dragging the issue,” he said.

Pushing blames

Experts say the perpetrator must have had access to Mr. Adeogun’s username, password and transaction code -the three details needed in internet banking -before money could be successfully transferred from his account.

Meanwhile, the victim said he never disclosed any of those information to anyone as “all these details are only known by me and the internet banking office.”

Findings revealed that the Olufunmi Olusanya’s account belongs to a female youth corps member. A transaction was made from Mr. Adeogun’s account to hers and she later withdrew the money through an ATM.

However, Mr. Onyiuke said how fraudsters managed to get into people’s accounts through internet banking is a question banks should answer since the position of law says “banks have a mandatory duty to protect customer’s fund.”

The legal practitioner said banks are to protect their customers’ money by ensuring that there is no manipulation on customers’ account or unauthorised withdrawal. “In the event that customer losses money, or occasions that the bank fails to protect the fund, the customer can bring a legal action of a breach of contract against the bank,” he said.

“Banks in Nigeria are fond of pushing blames to the customers even before investigating. Banks always claim that the customers compromised their passwords. But most times, we have discovered through investigations, that the claims were false,” said Mr. Onyiuke

Contacted over Mr Adeogun’s allegation, after several phone calls and electronic mails to the Intercontinental Bank went unreturned, Bridget Chinasa, a receptionist at the bank front office who tried to cover her name tag, said a reporter cannot speak to any official in the bank’s Corporate Communication office since no appointment was made. “Just keep trying the office number to book an appointment,” Ms. Chinasa said.

Suspicious move

Meanwhile, Mr. Adeogun said he suspects insider abuse. “I really believe that she (Ms. Olusanya) colluded with someone at the Internet banking office to get into my account for the reasons being that the person who unlocked my access on the 28th of June failed to attach his or her name,” he said, adding that “most times when I receive messages from the bank, there is usually the name of the sender attached to the message. But the message I got after unlocking my access just read: Good day, your account has been unlocked now. Thanks. Internet Banking Unit, Web Services/I-Mobile Dept., Intercontinental Bank Plc... Happy Customer Happy Bank.”

Another suspicious act, according to Mr. Adeogun, was that the perpetrator disabled the alert on his transaction so that he won’t get any message while the theft was going on. “All these can only be done by an insider with priority access,” he said.

Last October, at a consumer advocacy forum, Akeem Awe, a business man and a customer of Zenith Bank, also shared his experience on how he lost his savings of v1. 06 million to an ATM fraudster in less than 20 minutes, and how the bank failed to fully investigate the matter.