Nigeria's anti-corruption agency has arrested six senior central bank officials over an alleged $30m (£20m) currency fraud.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) also held 16 private bank workers for the "mega scam".
The suspects stole "tonnes of defaced naira notes", which were meant to be destroyed, it said on its website.
Newly-installed Nigerian President Muhammudu Buhari has pledged to make tackling corruption a priority.
The suspects allegedly filled boxes supposed to contain damaged currency with bits of newspaper cut into the shape of naira notes, before sending them to branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria for destruction, according to the EFCC.
The actual banknotes were held back so that they could be reused, it adds.
The EFCC said the fraud had contributed to the failure of the government's policy of reducing inflation in recent years.
BBC
Monday, June 1, 2015
Nigeria hit by bomb attacks after inaugeration of new president Mohammadu Buhari
Bombing attacks killed nearly 30 people in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri over the weekend, according to reports.
At least four people were critically injured -- with one losing an arm -- when an improvised explosive device detonated in the Gamboru Market in Maiduguri on Sunday, according to Nigerian media.
The blast occurred less than 24 hours after a suicide bomber detonated in a mosque at the Monday Market in the same city, killing 26 people and injuring 28.
Militant Islamic group Boko Haram is suspected of the attacks, which follow Friday's inauguration of President Mohammadu Buhari. A former military officer, Buhari won Nigeria's late-March election over former President Goodluck Jonathan and last week said he would move the Nigerian military's command and control center from Abuja to Maiduguri "until Boko Haram is completely subdued."
Buhari condemned the weekend attacks and expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
Reports indicate that barely 12 hours prior to Saturday's mosque explosion, the Nigerian military repelled Boko Haram gunmen from portions of Maiduguri, which is the capital of Borno state in the country's northeast, in a firefight that killed 16 people. The insurgents also reportedly attacked the village of Malari, which is in the same province, with rocket-propelled grenades, car bombs and anti-aircraft weapons, killing 15.
Boko Haram has since 2009 sought an Islamic government in Nigeria, targeting Maiduguri several times, including in a failed assault on the city earlier this year and through multiple suicide bombings, many utilizing young women as perpetrators . Experts have speculated the group might be using abducted children to conduct some of the attacks.
UPI
At least four people were critically injured -- with one losing an arm -- when an improvised explosive device detonated in the Gamboru Market in Maiduguri on Sunday, according to Nigerian media.
The blast occurred less than 24 hours after a suicide bomber detonated in a mosque at the Monday Market in the same city, killing 26 people and injuring 28.
Militant Islamic group Boko Haram is suspected of the attacks, which follow Friday's inauguration of President Mohammadu Buhari. A former military officer, Buhari won Nigeria's late-March election over former President Goodluck Jonathan and last week said he would move the Nigerian military's command and control center from Abuja to Maiduguri "until Boko Haram is completely subdued."
Buhari condemned the weekend attacks and expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
Reports indicate that barely 12 hours prior to Saturday's mosque explosion, the Nigerian military repelled Boko Haram gunmen from portions of Maiduguri, which is the capital of Borno state in the country's northeast, in a firefight that killed 16 people. The insurgents also reportedly attacked the village of Malari, which is in the same province, with rocket-propelled grenades, car bombs and anti-aircraft weapons, killing 15.
Boko Haram has since 2009 sought an Islamic government in Nigeria, targeting Maiduguri several times, including in a failed assault on the city earlier this year and through multiple suicide bombings, many utilizing young women as perpetrators . Experts have speculated the group might be using abducted children to conduct some of the attacks.
UPI
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Nigeria's contreversal National ID card in legal limbo
The current legal logjam hovering over the project was occasioned by what the Managing Director of Chams Consortium Limited, Demola Aladekomo, described as an abuse of office and executive highhandedness by the Director General of NIMC, Chris Onyemenam.
Chams, which was the initial concessionaires of the project, has therefore dragged NIMC to a Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking an order to stop further implementation of the programme. It is also asking the court to order the Federal Government to pay N44 billion in damages.
In interviews with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr. Aladekomo said his company was awarded the concession in a transparent bid process that involved 65 international companies in 2007, following the recommendations of a 2006 Presidential Implementation Committee, headed by the then Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nasir El-Rufai, on how to deliver on a project that has gulped several billions but has remained largely in limbo for decades.
Other notable members of the committee were the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Managing Director of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia and Chairman of Heir Holdings, Tony Elumelu, Mr. Aladekomo said.
He said trouble soon started after Mr. Onyemenam started dilly-dallying in getting the concession agreement ready. He said it took the NIMC chief executive three years to prepare the concession agreement.
“Unfortunately for us, the DG NIMC just got a law degree a year before he was appointed,” Mr. Aladekomo told PREMIUM TIMES in his office in Lagos.
“He then used us as guinea pigs to practice his law. From May 24th when the contract was signed it took him to July 26, 2010 that he signed the concession agreement. He became more Catholic than the pope. He became more civil servant than the civil servant. He asked us to draft the concession agreement we drafted one and gave it to him. He appointed a law firm, Banwo Ighodalo and Co. He said what they drafted was not good. He now started to write the concession agreement himself in 2008 and finished in 2010.”
He explained that in-between that time the company had invested upwards of N7.1 billion into setting up the facilities for the kick-off of the project.
“Meanwhile, because we have promised the president that we were going to deliver in 2009 and he said ‘don’t wait for the concession agreement, start work’. We invested. We did an IPO, raised N8.4 billion, spent N7.1 billion on the project. One of the things we got out of the project was the Guinness World Record for the Chams City that we built. We built a switch that could handle 100 million Nigerians. We built a card plant that could produce 1.7 million cards a day in Abuja for national ID. We spent 7.1 billion of shareholders money preparing for the take off so that we can do consumer finance and credit bureaus, this man was busy writing concession agreement,” he explained.
Mr. Aladekomo said by the time the concession agreement was ready for signing, Mr. Onyemenam had another surprise waiting for Chams.
“By the time the concession agreement was ready we said let’s start he said. ‘No no no, I want to see all your designs, I want to see all your partners’. We gave him all our designs and showed him all our partners and had a big meeting in Abuja. We gave him our final design and showed him all our partners in 2012.
“The day we showed him all our partners and gave him all our design that was the last day he spoke to us. The same night we introduced our partners to him in Abuja he went to all their rooms in the (Transcorp) Hilton that they should be dealing with him directly,” he said.
When contacted Mr Onyemenam said he was not interested in engaging in media debate of the issue with Chams as it is a subject of an ongoing litigation.
“As of today I am under advise to not speak on the concession which has been cancelled and over which Chams has gone to court and the next hearing has been fixed for sometime in June 2015,” he said in an email.
A black hole
The current controversy surrounding the project is not unprecedented. In fact, it is just another chapter in the troubled history of the Nigeria national identity card project. Since 1981 when the first contract was signed by the Shehu Shagari administration, the project has been a prime waster of taxpayers’ money.
It is a financial black hole that consumes everything thrown at it without a trace. Like a compromised slot machine, it consumes but never regurgitates. From then to date, more than N121 billion has been spent on the project, meant to authenticate the true identity of every Nigerian, with nothing to show for it.
An extensive review of government papers, contracts, court documents, newspaper articles and interviews with people who knowledgeable about the deals and agreements by PREMIUM TIMES shows that the project has been repeatedly torpedoed by executive high-handedness, mind-boggling corruption, sheer irresponsibility of government officials and asinine abuse of power.
But how come a project that would have been immensely beneficial to Nigerians as the national Identity card project ends up stymied every step of the way.
The answer could be traced to its corruption-laden beginning.
The Stillbirth
In 1976, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, then a military head of State, first conceptualised the national identity card project. However, the kick-off of the project didn’t happen until 1981 after Mr. Obasanjo had transferred power to a civilian elected government headed by Mr. Shagari.
The project was rigged to fail from the beginning. According to a 2001 TELL magazine report, six companies originally bided for the project but the contract was awarded to Avant Incorporated, a company disqualified by a technical committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for its inability to provide a performance bond and its annual reports for three previous years.
But the absurdity had only just begun. The project had a price tag of a $100 million, an amount too high for the government of the time to raise. So it ran to politically connected Arab-Jew, Nessim Goan, who brought in Optife of Switzerland, a company where he is major shareholder. While Avant handled the procurement and supply, another company owned by Mr. Goan, Afro-Continental, was to build the infrastructures across the country. By this calculation, Mr. Goan became the financier and the executor of the contract.
The Shagari government also naively signed a loan repayment agreement that was not tied to the completion of the project. Though the contractors had 18 months to deliver the project, it became clear that Afro-Continental didn’t have the requisite know-how about identity card technology. Also not a single computer was even supplied.
In a scramble for it to deliver on the project, which by this time was way past its deadline, Mr. Goan sublet the infrastructure phase of the contract to French technology heavyweight, Sagem. The arrival of Sagem marked another phase in the sordid history of the identity card project. Meanwhile Mr. Goan wasn’t done with Nigeria yet.
Before Sagem could unpack its bags after it arrived the shores of Nigeria, the Shagari government was overthrown in a military coup. The identity card project was abruptly discontinued by the Muhammadu Buhari-led military junta.
But after the Buhari regime was overthrown in 1985, the Ibrahim Babangida regime went back to doing business with Mr Goan. In fact, it ironically compensated Afro-Continental for not delivering on its earlier contract by awarding the company a new contract worth N70.7 million to refurbish containers for shipping goods to Nigeria, upgrade some of the computer supplied by Avant in 1982, install equipment as well as construct 20 computer centres across the country.
This contract also fell through following alleged sharp practices between civil servants and officials of Afro-Continental. As if the old cow hasn’t been over milked already, in 1992, Afro-Continental was awarded another $73.4 million contract for the procurement of Automatic Finger Print Identification System (AFIS) and the re-activation of the computer centres across the country.
Again, in 1998, the Abdulsalami Abubakar regime called for tender that would kick-start the national identity card project from scratch. This time, a consortium, led by a Nigerian company, Chams Limited, was awarded a $38.4 million contract to produce 52 million cards within four years. In April 1999, Chams delivered a pilot of 1 million cards.
The era of Sagem
In 2001, as Chams was waiting for the government to fulfil its obligations such as the purchase of four personalisation machines as stipulated in the contract for the second phase of contract to begin, the Obasanjo administration called for the submission of tenders for the printing of a new 70 million identity card. The administration explained that it meant to harmonise the identity card project so it can be used for voters’ identification during the 2003 general elections and for the 2006 population census. But it soon became clear that the entire process was actually set up to hand the contract to one company – Sagem.
According to the Mr. Aladekomo, the company immediately informed the Obasanjo administration of the subsisting contract it signed with the Abdulsalami regime to produce 51 million cards and the legal implications of continuing with the fresh call for tenders. But Mr. Obasanjo and other top ministry officials ignored several letters explaining the subsisting deal sent to them by Chams and went ahead with the fresh tenders.
In fact, the counsel to the government, F.B.I Egolum, testified at a Justice Kayode Esho arbitration hearing on the matter that officials of the Internal Affairs Ministry recommended that Chams should either be allowed to completely execute the subsisting contract or handed an upgraded one.
“At the end of the day, even the though the claimant [Chams] was recommended by officials of the Ministry for the award of the contract, the government in its wisdom decided to award it to someone else,” he said while answering questions during the arbitration hearing on why the deal was not awarded to Chams but to Sagem.
In the statement of his ruling on the matter, Justice Esho said the Obasanjo administration acted with unprecedented irresponsibility.
“The respondent [government] showed obvious legally indefensible irresponsibility on the part of a government which could not complain of lack of warning not of the knowledge of the legal consequences.
“The respondent intended to and did commit a breach of the agreement. They went on a curious voyage of governmental legal recklessness, probably unprecedented in a government wishing to be guided by law. They deliberately jettisoned the contract, which they had with the claimant,” he explained.
While ruling against the government, Justice Esho awarded total damages of $410,390.60 to Chams. The government appealed the arbitration judgment and the case dragged up to the Appeal Court before it eventually settled for an undisclosed negotiated settlement with the company.
The Sagem contract turned out to be another fiasco. The company managed to print only 35 million cards. Along the line, three ministers – late Internal Affairs, Sunday Afolabi, his successor, Mohammed Shata, former Labour Minister Hussain Akwanga – were implicated in a $2 million bribery scandal and the company was eventually blacklisted by the government.
In awarding the contract, Mr Obasanjo also ignored warning from Nigerian intelligence agencies that Sagem was too close to the French intelligence network and that there was no telling what it could do with the data gathered from the project.
Sources familiar with the behind-the-scene deals leading to the award of the contract to Sagem told PREMIUM TIMES that the French technology company had no business winning the contract in the first place. They claimed Sagem didn’t even make the initial shortlist from the bidding process.
“Sixty-eight companies bided worldwide,” one of our sources said. “It was an international bidding in 2001 but it took about a year and two months before the bid could be analysed because some people tried to compromise the process. Eventually the first six companies were invited. The first company was Chams followed by MINT [Nigerian Minting and Printing Plc], then a Nigerian company and an American company. Sagem was the fifth company. The way tender was done in those days was that only the one to three is called, but they took it to six because Sagem was in number five.
“At the end of the presentation to the exco, the companies retained their ranks but when the recommendation got to the president, some civil servants from internal affairs got Sagem to meet Obasanjo and said that the committee decision was wrong and that Sagem had made a lot of promises.
“The French foreign minister flew in on a Thursday night, met the president Friday evening. The president called the 16 ministries involved, including INEC and the National Population Commission to a meeting on Saturday morning, Late Afolabi was there, Shata, his minster of State was there, late Guobadia of INEC was there, Akwanga was there.
“The meeting held on Saturday 11 am, the president asked if anybody has taken money from Chams? They all said no that the process was transparent. The president said if nobody is confessing that they took money from Chams, he is going to give it to Sagem. That was how it was awarded to Sagem,” he added.
Premium Times
Related story: Nigerians outraged at new government issued electronic ID cards branded with Master Card
Asisat Oshoala wins Women's Footballer of the Year award
The 20-year-old forward is the first player to win the new award from the BBC World Service, voted for by football fans around the world.
She beat Spain's Veronica Boquete, German Nadine Kessler, Scot Kim Little and Brazilian Marta to the honour.
"I would like to say thank you to the BBC, to my fans around the world and to everyone who voted," she said.
The award is the first of its kind hosted by a global broadcaster.
Oshoala, who was the youngest player to be shortlisted, was the leading scorer at the Under-20s World Cup in Canada last summer and was voted the tournament's best player.
Her performances led Nigeria to the final, where they were narrowly beaten by Germany, and she was also a major influence in the senior Nigeria team who won the African Women's Championship in October.
That ensured their qualification for this summer's World Cup in Canada, which begins on 6 June with full coverage on the BBC.
Oshoala said the honour was a big lift for Nigeria before the World Cup and would help inspire young players in her homeland.
"It's a really good thing for us as a team because we now know that we have something great and now we want to go at the trophy," she said. "We can do it, we did it in 2014 we can also do it this year as well.
"There is going to be a lot of motivation for women's football in Nigeria now because of this award because there are a lot of fans out there.
"Support for women's football in Nigeria is now growing very high.
"I know my Liverpool Ladies coach is going to be happy right now. Before I left the UK he called me and said to me 'don't worry I hope you win the award and we're going to celebrate it when you come back'."
Oshoala signed for Liverpool Ladies in January 2015, becoming the first African to feature in the Women's Super League, with manager Matt Beard calling her "one of the world's top young footballers".
Mary Hockaday, controller of BBC World Service English, paid tribute to Oshoala.
"At still only 20, she's proved herself a formidable talent on the pitch," she said. "I'm proud BBC World Service is supporting the women's game and thrilled with the interest in the award."
BBC
Nigeria to pay $800 million to end fuel crisis
Nigeria's outgoing government has agreed to pay a debt of $800 million to resolve a months-long fuel crisis crippling the economy days before the inauguration of a new president in the country, oil suppliers said Wednesday.
Chaos reigned Tuesday at Nigerian airports where most flights were cancelled. Foreign airlines flew to other African countries to refuel. Cars and other vehicles formed queues two and three deep blocking roads for more than 2 kilometers (a mile) outside of gas stations. Attendants turned away people carrying yellow cans to buy kerosene for cooking. There was none.
Banks started closing at lunchtime on Monday and cell phone companies warned they would be forced to shut down service countrywide for lack of diesel to fuel generators.
Nigeria — Africa's biggest oil producer— generates more than 2 million barrels of petroleum a day but imports the refined product because its refineries are not maintained. A woeful national grid that offers only a few hours of electricity on a good day failed to generate any electricity recently because of shortages of thermal gas to fire its generators. That leaves all businesses and homes that can afford it dependent on diesel-powered generators. The country frequently suffers fuel shortages, but the disruption caused by the latest is unprecedented.
President-elect Buhari's party accused President Goodluck Jonathan's administration of sabotage to ensure it inherits "a nation in crisis."
Months of backlog mean the shortages still will be biting when dozens of presidents and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are scheduled to arrive for Friday's inauguration.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria said the finance minister agreed Monday to pay them $800 million. It said companies started distributing oil Tuesday and unpaid tanker drivers stopped striking.
There was no immediate statement from the finance minister, who accused the suppliers of holding Nigeria to ransom over the disputed debt, bemoaning "so much fraud allegations and scams in this business of oil marketing."
Nigeria's government, hit by halved prices for the petroleum that provides 80 percent of its revenue and a massive slump in its naira currency, has been borrowing to pay salaries.
Suppliers, hit by tightened credit lines and naira repayments to pay dollar debts, worried they would not be paid by the incoming government of Muhammadu Buhari, who has pledged to fight endemic corruption.
Buhari's party accused the outgoing government of President Goodluck Jonathan of sabotage to ensure it inherits "a nation in crisis."
AP
Related story: Fuel shortage in Nigeria
Chaos reigned Tuesday at Nigerian airports where most flights were cancelled. Foreign airlines flew to other African countries to refuel. Cars and other vehicles formed queues two and three deep blocking roads for more than 2 kilometers (a mile) outside of gas stations. Attendants turned away people carrying yellow cans to buy kerosene for cooking. There was none.
Banks started closing at lunchtime on Monday and cell phone companies warned they would be forced to shut down service countrywide for lack of diesel to fuel generators.
Nigeria — Africa's biggest oil producer— generates more than 2 million barrels of petroleum a day but imports the refined product because its refineries are not maintained. A woeful national grid that offers only a few hours of electricity on a good day failed to generate any electricity recently because of shortages of thermal gas to fire its generators. That leaves all businesses and homes that can afford it dependent on diesel-powered generators. The country frequently suffers fuel shortages, but the disruption caused by the latest is unprecedented.
President-elect Buhari's party accused President Goodluck Jonathan's administration of sabotage to ensure it inherits "a nation in crisis."
Months of backlog mean the shortages still will be biting when dozens of presidents and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are scheduled to arrive for Friday's inauguration.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria said the finance minister agreed Monday to pay them $800 million. It said companies started distributing oil Tuesday and unpaid tanker drivers stopped striking.
There was no immediate statement from the finance minister, who accused the suppliers of holding Nigeria to ransom over the disputed debt, bemoaning "so much fraud allegations and scams in this business of oil marketing."
Nigeria's government, hit by halved prices for the petroleum that provides 80 percent of its revenue and a massive slump in its naira currency, has been borrowing to pay salaries.
Suppliers, hit by tightened credit lines and naira repayments to pay dollar debts, worried they would not be paid by the incoming government of Muhammadu Buhari, who has pledged to fight endemic corruption.
Buhari's party accused the outgoing government of President Goodluck Jonathan of sabotage to ensure it inherits "a nation in crisis."
AP
Related story: Fuel shortage in Nigeria
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)