Nigeria’s anti-graft agency has recovered more than $2 trillion of stolen public funds in the last 12 years, the country’s justice minister said on Tuesday, Nigerian newspaper Vanguard reported.
Abubakar Malami, the Nigerian Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, said that the funds had been stolen by “criminal groups and public office holders” and praised the work of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)—which was established in 2003—in recovering the funds.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has made tackling corruption a key priority of his administration, and the EFCC is playing a prominent role in his anti-corruption drive. An EFCC report in 2015 found that more than $2 billion of government funds earmarked for procuring arms to fight Boko Haram had gone missing since 2007.
The report has led to a wide-ranging investigation and a number of high-profile arrests, including ex-national security advisor Sambo Dasuki and former defense minister Bello Haliru Mohammed. Nigerian authorities reportedly raided the office of former vice-president Namadi Sambo on Saturday in connection with the arms scandal.
Speaking at an anti-corruption event in Abuja on Tuesday, Malami said that the Buhari administration is committed to recovering “the fortunes that criminals have made illegally by returning every penny that belongs to the Nigerian public.” Malami also estimated that the country’s former military ruler, the late General Sani Abacha, had alone laundered around $2 million before his death in 1998.
A December 2015 report by corruption watchdog found that 75 percent of Nigerians believed that corruption in the government had increased over the previous 12 months.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was established in 2003 and investigates financial fraud in Nigeria. The agency is currently engaged in a wide-ranging investigation into an arms corruption scandal, which saw more than $2 billion of funds earmarked for procuring arms to fight Boko Haram.
Newsweek
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Helicpoter crash in Nigeria - All crew and passengers survive
Crew members as well as passengers aboard a chartered Bristow helicopter which crashed Wednesday while flying from Port Harcourt to Lagos survived the accident, the Accident Investigations Bureau has said.
Tunji Oketunbi, the spokesperson for the Bureau told PREMIUM TIMES on telephone that all occupants of the craft survived the accident.
“They all survived, they all survived,” the AIB spokesperson said when contacted for updates.
Mr. Oketunbi said search and rescue were apace and that his agency was in the process of circulating a detailed statement about the crash.
An official of Bristow Helicopter had earlier confirmed the incident to PREMIUM TIMES but declined to provide details.
The official said the company was still collating details of the incident and would make same public at the end of the exercise.
Initial reports said about 13 passengers were on board the craft at the time of the incident.
The identities of the affected passengers were unknown at the time of this report.
The new crash occurred less than six months after another helicopter belonging to the same company crashed in Lagos.
The chopper had on August 12, 2015 plunged into the Lagos Lagoon, killing six of the 12 persons on board.
Premium Times
Tunji Oketunbi, the spokesperson for the Bureau told PREMIUM TIMES on telephone that all occupants of the craft survived the accident.
“They all survived, they all survived,” the AIB spokesperson said when contacted for updates.
Mr. Oketunbi said search and rescue were apace and that his agency was in the process of circulating a detailed statement about the crash.
An official of Bristow Helicopter had earlier confirmed the incident to PREMIUM TIMES but declined to provide details.
The official said the company was still collating details of the incident and would make same public at the end of the exercise.
Initial reports said about 13 passengers were on board the craft at the time of the incident.
The identities of the affected passengers were unknown at the time of this report.
The new crash occurred less than six months after another helicopter belonging to the same company crashed in Lagos.
The chopper had on August 12, 2015 plunged into the Lagos Lagoon, killing six of the 12 persons on board.
Premium Times
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Nigerian military kill 100 Boko Haram fighters and rescue 1,200 hostages
Nigerian soldiers had Monday rescued over 1200 captives in Borno border communities after a heavy gun battle at a local market where Boko Haram insurgents go to trade every week, officials and witnesses said.
The insurgents had held captive more than 2000 villagers from various communities around the border areas of Borno state for more than two years running.
Soldiers acting on a tip off by local security operatives stormed Boboshe village where the insurgents usually converge every Monday to trade. The insurgents who mostly go to the market armed began to exchange fire with the soldiers.
The soldiers had the day as more than a hundred corpses of the insurgents were gathered at the end of the battle.
After the victory in Boboshe, soldiers moved into Garindawaji and Mamawarhi communities where over one thousand civilians were being held captives to set them free. Many women of ages 30 and 18 were among the rescued.
Falmata Kalli, who is in her early 30s, said Boko Haram gunmen took her away from Marte village about two years ago after they had killed her husband.
She now had a baby out of a pregnancy she got while being sexually abused by Boko Haram insurgents.
“I saw them kill my husband by shooting him”, said Falmata. “After that, they dragged me away with them, my two children were left with my aged mother in-law, but I don’t know what becomes of them now: it has been two years now since they attacked our town, Marte.”
In tears she looked at her one year old child and said “I got him while being in the captivity of Boko Haram terrorists…I cant say who his father is, honestly; but he comes out of me and he is my child, I must love and care for him even though I will never forgive those that did this to me.”
Deputy Governor of Borno State, Usman Mamman Durkwa on Tuesday visited Dikwa border town where the rescued villagers were being camped by soldiers.
Soldiers in Dikwa briefed the deputy governor that most of the villagers had been under the captivity of the insurgents for nearly two years.
The deputy governor who went to the border town with luxury buses ordered that the rescued persons be immediately conveyed to Maiduguri where they would be accommodated in some of the IDP camps.
TODAY
The insurgents had held captive more than 2000 villagers from various communities around the border areas of Borno state for more than two years running.
Soldiers acting on a tip off by local security operatives stormed Boboshe village where the insurgents usually converge every Monday to trade. The insurgents who mostly go to the market armed began to exchange fire with the soldiers.
The soldiers had the day as more than a hundred corpses of the insurgents were gathered at the end of the battle.
After the victory in Boboshe, soldiers moved into Garindawaji and Mamawarhi communities where over one thousand civilians were being held captives to set them free. Many women of ages 30 and 18 were among the rescued.
Falmata Kalli, who is in her early 30s, said Boko Haram gunmen took her away from Marte village about two years ago after they had killed her husband.
She now had a baby out of a pregnancy she got while being sexually abused by Boko Haram insurgents.
“I saw them kill my husband by shooting him”, said Falmata. “After that, they dragged me away with them, my two children were left with my aged mother in-law, but I don’t know what becomes of them now: it has been two years now since they attacked our town, Marte.”
In tears she looked at her one year old child and said “I got him while being in the captivity of Boko Haram terrorists…I cant say who his father is, honestly; but he comes out of me and he is my child, I must love and care for him even though I will never forgive those that did this to me.”
Deputy Governor of Borno State, Usman Mamman Durkwa on Tuesday visited Dikwa border town where the rescued villagers were being camped by soldiers.
Soldiers in Dikwa briefed the deputy governor that most of the villagers had been under the captivity of the insurgents for nearly two years.
The deputy governor who went to the border town with luxury buses ordered that the rescued persons be immediately conveyed to Maiduguri where they would be accommodated in some of the IDP camps.
TODAY
Former Nigeria Vice President Namadi Sambo raided by EFCC
Nigeria's anti-corruption agency has raided the offices of ex-Vice-President Namadi Sambo, the BBC has learned.The raid was carried out on Saturday by agents from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as part of a probe into an arms deal, a source said.
Mr Sambo is the most senior member of the former government to be targeted by the EFCC since President Muhammadu Buhari took office last May.
The former vice-president has not yet commented on the raid.
He was believed to have been out of the country when his office in the capital, Abuja, was targeted.
Mr Sambo is not the first ally of former President Goodluck Jonathan to come under scrutiny from the anti-corruption watchdog.
In December, Nigeria's former national security advisor, Sambo Dasuki, was charged over an alleged $68m (£47m) fraud. He denied any wrongdoing.
A wider investigation is currently under way into the disappearance of $2bn of government money, which was meant to be spent on the fight against Boko Haram Islamist militants.
The Islamist militant group has killed thousands in north-eastern Nigeria in its six-year campaign.
Mr Sambo served as vice-president for five years, until the People's Democratic Party (PDP) was defeated in elections last April.
Mr Buhari took office with a pledge to tackle corruption in Africa's most populous state and biggest oil producer.
BBC
Militants in Nigeria hijack merchant ship and demand release of activist
Nigerian militants have hijacked a merchant ship and threatened to blow it up with its foreign crew if authorities do not release a detained leader agitating for a breakaway state of Biafra, according to officers in the military.
The vessel – which has not been identified – was hijacked on Friday and the navy is pursuing it, the officers said.
The hijackers have given the government 31 days to free Nnamdi Kanu, the director of the banned Radio Biafra, who was detained by secret police on 17 October and accused of terrorism.
The ultimatum was given at the weekend by a militant identified by the nom de guerre of Gen Ben. A leader of a Biafran separatist movement, Uchena Madu, said Ben was not a separatist but “some Niger Delta militants have shown interest in working with us”.
The hijacking indicates the separatists could be working with Niger Delta militants blamed for recent bombings of oil pipelines in the oil-rich south, escalating conflict in a country already burdened by Boko Haram’s deadly Islamist uprising in the north-east and violent ethno-religious confrontations between farmers and herders in central Nigeria.
Africa’s biggest economy and oil producer has also been affected by plummeting petroleum prices.
Nigeria’s Igbo people prosecuted a civil war to create a separate state of Biafra in the south-east that killed a million people in the 1960s. Many Igbos claim they still suffer discrimination.
Guardian
The vessel – which has not been identified – was hijacked on Friday and the navy is pursuing it, the officers said.
The hijackers have given the government 31 days to free Nnamdi Kanu, the director of the banned Radio Biafra, who was detained by secret police on 17 October and accused of terrorism.
The ultimatum was given at the weekend by a militant identified by the nom de guerre of Gen Ben. A leader of a Biafran separatist movement, Uchena Madu, said Ben was not a separatist but “some Niger Delta militants have shown interest in working with us”.
The hijacking indicates the separatists could be working with Niger Delta militants blamed for recent bombings of oil pipelines in the oil-rich south, escalating conflict in a country already burdened by Boko Haram’s deadly Islamist uprising in the north-east and violent ethno-religious confrontations between farmers and herders in central Nigeria.
Africa’s biggest economy and oil producer has also been affected by plummeting petroleum prices.
Nigeria’s Igbo people prosecuted a civil war to create a separate state of Biafra in the south-east that killed a million people in the 1960s. Many Igbos claim they still suffer discrimination.
Guardian
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