Monday, April 4, 2016

Nigerian forces capture leader of Islamist extremist group Khalid al-Barnawi

The leader of al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group Ansaru has been arrested in Nigeria, authorities there say.

A military spokesman said Khalid al-Barnawi was captured in Lokoja, capital of the central state of Kogi.

The US had placed a $5m (£3.5m) bounty on his head after branding him one of three Nigerian "specially designated global terrorists" in 2012.

Ansaru is a splinter group of Nigeria's largest jihadist group, Boko Haram, known for kidnapping foreigners.

Ideologically aligned to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, it is also accused of killing a number of Westerners.

Ansaru said it carried out an attack on a maximum security prison in the Nigerian capital Abuja in 2012, freeing dozens of inmates.

"Security agents made a breakthrough on Friday in the fight against terrorism by arresting Khalid al-Barnawi, the leader of Ansaru terrorist group in Lokoja," military spokesman Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar said.

"He is among those on top of the list of our wanted terrorists."

Panama Papers reveals hidden family assets of Bukola Saraki uncovered in tax havens

At least four assets belonging to the wealthy and famous Saraki family of Nigeria, all tucked away in secret offshore territories, have been uncovered.

But the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, failed to declare them to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) as required by Nigerian laws.

This revelation, made possible by internal data of the Panama-based offshore-provider, Mossack Fonseca, obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with PREMIUM TIMES and over 100 other media partners in 82 countries, could worsen Mr. Saraki’s case as he battles to extricate himself from allegations of corruption.

Mr. Saraki is yet to respond to PREMIUM TIMES’ request for comments. His spokesperson, Yusuph Olayinonu, did not return calls or respond to a text message seeking comments.

But in a written response to ICIJ, the Senate President insisted, through his UK lawyers, that he “declared his assets properly in accordance with the relevant legislation,” and that the charges against him “are both unfounded and politically motivated.”

Last September the CCB slammed false asset declaration charges on Mr. Saraki, accusing the Senate President, among other things, of failure to declare his assets in full.

Under the code of conduct law, a public office holder is required to declare his own assets, those of his wife as well as assets in the names of his children below the age of 18.

In his declaration form, Mr. Saraki listed property owned by his wife, Toyin Saraki, to include a plot of land at Lekki valued at N5 million, which he said was a gift he received in January 1989.

Mrs. Saraki was also listed as owner of a property at 15 Bryanston Square, London W1 and 69 Bourne Street, London.

While the first, which rental income was put at £48,000 with a value of £900,000, was acquired in January 1989, the second, which value was put at £2m and had rental value of £150,000, was acquired for business in April 2000.

However, a fresh investigation by PREMIUM TIMES and its media partners, has uncovered a hidden London property in the name of Toyin Saraki but which was left out among the assets declared by the Senate President.

The hidden property is located at #8 Whuttaker Street, Belgravia, London SW1W 8JQ. It has title number NGL802235.

Similarly, the Senate President stated in his assets declaration form that his wife held an account in Eco Bank Broad Street, Lagos, where she had N1.5 million at the time he became governor in 2003.

She also maintained an account in Coutts & Co Strand, London, where she owned £450,000 and $125,000 in addition to $3 million in Northern Trust International Banking Corporation Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner.

Mrs. Saraki was also listed as maintaining substantial shares in European and American Trading Company, Tyberry Corporation and Eficaz Limited just as she held 500,000 shares, valued at £500,000, at P.C.C (U.K) Ltd. He was however silent on the number of shares the former first lady had in Haussmann and Tiny Tee (Nig) Limited.

Elaborate as the declaration in the name of Mrs. Saraki appeared to be, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report that apart from the undeclared London property, three additional overseas assets in the name of the wife of the Senate President were hidden from the authorities and are missing from the assets declaration form.

Our investigations reveal that Mrs. Saraki owns secret companies in some notorious tax havens.

The hidden assets

The first, Girol Properties Ltd, was registered on August 25, 2004 (a year after Mrs. Saraki’s husband became governor of Nigeria’s north-central state of Kwara) in the British Virgin Island (BVI).

Company documents show that Mrs. Saraki owns 25,000 numbers of shares with a par value of US$ 1,00 each, and was appointed the first and only director of the company.

It however remains unclear what businesses Mrs Saraki transacted with the company. Mrs Saraki however, in a letter to ICIJ, through her lawyers, denies ever owning any shareholding in Girol Properties.

The second company, Sandon Development Limited, was registered in Seychelles Island on January 12, 2011 and has Mrs. Saraki and one Babatunde Morakinyo, (a long-term personal aide and friend of Mr. Saraki) of 11 Okeme Street, Lagos, as shareholders.

While incorporating that company, documents show, Mrs. Saraki bought a curious service from Mossack Fonseca & Co, the Panamanian firm that helped her to register the firm.

Perhaps to avoid being identified as the beneficial owner of Sandon, the Senate President’s wife asked Fonsecca to provide nominee directors for the company. Nominee directors are sometimes used in tax havens to conceal real owners of companies and assets.

She then made an undertaking indemnifying the Panamanian company “in respect of all claims, demands, actions, suits, proceedings, costs and expenses whatsoever as may be incurred or become payable by you in respect of or arising out of any member or employee or associate of your company or associated companies holding any office, directorship or shareholdings in the company or by reason of or in consequence of any act or decision made by any such person or company in connection with the management and/or administration of the said company.”

Shortly after the company was incorporated, Mrs. Saraki used it, in July 2011, to buy the property on Whuttaker Street, Belgravia, London SW1W 8JQ.

The property, acquired from Renocon Property Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Island, was never disclosed to Nigerian authorities as required by the country’s code of conduct law.

The third hidden company in the name of Mrs. Saraki is Landfield International Developments Ltd., a company registered in the British Virgin Islands on April 8, 2014. It’s registration number is 1819394 while its registered office is 1 Akara Blog., 24 De Castro Street, Wickhams Cay 1, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Island.

According to Mossack Fonseca, the registered agent of the company, Mrs. Saraki, at least until January 27, 2015, was sole shareholder and beneficial owner of the company which had two nominee directors – Glaisd Alie Limited and NewGombe Limited – both appointed on September 2, 2014. Its agent says Landfield is authorized to issue a maximum of 50,000 no par value shares.

“In so far as is evidenced by the documents filed at the Registered Office, the Company is in existence and, in good standing,” Mossack Fonseca recently said of Landfield in response to an enquiry by one Laura Templeman, a Senior Associate for Ogier Group, a law firm based in the British Virgins Island. “According to the documents filed on the Company’s file as at 27th January, 2015, there are no actions, pending or threatened against the Company and no action has been taken to wind up the Company or to appoint a receiver or manager.”

Mrs. Saraki said she sold her shares in the company to a third party in January 2015, but PREMIUM TIMES is yet to sight any document to that effect.

In July 28, 2015, Mrs Toyin Saraki, who was the first lady of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011, was interrogated by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in relation to awards of contracts during her husband’s tenure as governor.

The EFCC has not taken further actions since her interrogation, and nothing has been heard of the case since then.

A troubled husband

Mrs Saraki’s husband, Bukola, who is Nigeria’s third most powerful official by virtue of his position as Senate President, is facing a 13-count charge of alleged false declaration of assets.

He is being tried by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, a special court that tries public officers for any contravention of the Code of Conduct for Nigerian public officers as spelt out in the Fifth Schedule of the Nigerian constitution.

The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) were established to enforce “a high standard of morality in the conduct of government business, and to ensure that the actions and behaviour of public officers conform to the highest standards of public morality and accountability.”

The Code of Conduct Bureau had on September 16, 2015 slammed charges on Mr. Saraki, accusing him of offences ranging from anticipatory declaration of assets, to making false declaration of assets in forms he filed before the Bureau while he was governor of Kwara state.

The Senate President was also accused of failing to declare some of his assets, acquiring assets beyond his legitimate earnings, and operating foreign accounts while being a public officer – governor and senator.

The offences, the charge said, violated sections of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.

Mr. Saraki is also said to have breached Section 2 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act and punishable under paragraph 9 of the said Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.

The Senate President has denied wrongdoings, saying the case was politically motivated and that he was merely being persecuted for emerging the President of the Nigerian Senate against the wishes of his political party, the ruling All Progressives Congress, which preferred a different candidate.

But this fresh revelation regarding hidden assets in tax havens might fuel the allegations against Nigeria’s third most powerful official and strengthen the prosecution’s case against the politician.

The Saraki family and ownership of offshore companies

Apart from Toyin Saraki, another member of the Saraki family popped up repeatedly as PREMIUM TIMES and its partners conducted a year-long investigation into the leaked Mossack Fonseca internal documents, which contained 2.6 TB files, involved 214,488 entities, and revealed hundreds of details about how former gun-runners, contractors and other members of the spy world use offshore companies for personal and private gain.

Laolu Saraki, brother to Senate President Saraki, also has several footprints in offshore financial havens, documents show. A number of shell companies are connected to the younger Saraki.

He is sole shareholder in some of the companies while sharing ownership with some business partners in others.

For example, documents show that Laolu is the owner of Polly Capital Holdings Ltd registered in Niue, a small island nation in the South Pacific Ocean.

Another document showed that after some years, Laolu brought in another person as co-owner. The company is now co-owned with a certain Richard Pembroke, who has 25,000 equity shares, just like Laolu.

Laolu’s other offshore companies are co-owned with his associates. Among the co-owners are Kojo Annan, son of former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan; Obi Asika; Olufela Ibidapo who are all known figures in Nigeria.

Laolu and Kojo Annan hold equal shares of 25,000 in Blue Diamond Holding Management Corp. The duo, along with Mr. Asika, also own Sutton Energy Limited, registered in the British Virgin Island.

Mr. Asika owns 15,000 units of shares, the same amount owned by Laolu Saraki and Kojo Annan. Mr. Asika was a Senior Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan, and is closely connected to the Sutton Group.

Mr. Asika’s profile on the website of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), of which he is Board member, refers to him as Founding Partner & Executive Director, Sutton Group from June 1999 to October 2002.

The connection between Mr. Annan and Mr. Asika seems clear, as Mr. Annan sits on the Board of Mr. Asika’s another company,Dragon Africa. Additional documents show that the trio – Laolu, Kojo and Asika – also co-own Sapphire Holding Ltd., a company located in Samoa, a tiny Island of an estimated 194,320 people in the South Pacific.

Company documents also indicate that Ensol Limited (Environmental Solutions), registered in the Republic of Seychelles, with registration number 028376, partly belongs to Laolu.

The company is co-owned with Ama Annan, a relative of Kofi Annan (former UN Secretary General), who was appointed director on May 19, 2006 but ceased to be director on July 2, 2008.

Another Nigerian, Olufela Ibidapo, was then appointed to replace her on January 4, 2010.

Mr. Ibidapo is the current Head of Corporate Affairs at Heritage Bank, a successor bank to the defunct Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria, largely owned by the Saraki family but whose operational license was revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria in January 2006 following the re-capitalisation policy in the banking sector.

The bank however returned with a new name (Heritage Bank) in 2012 following the order of the Federal High Court, compelling the central bank to restore its operational permit after it declared that it had amassed the required capital base to return to business.

It however remains unclear why the Saraki’s incorporated the offshore companies linked to them or what businesses they transacted with the entities.

While that may not be the case with the Sarakis, some business people in Nigeria and elsewhere are known to have created Shell companies offshore for a host of dodgy business reasons, which include hiding assets, avoiding tax or as fronts for illegal deals. Shell companies are however not entirely illegal, and not all owners use them for dubious purposes.

We have done nothing wrong – the Sarakis

Mr. Saraki and his wife denied any wrongdoing.

Responding to separate written demands for comments, the couple maintained that it is not illegal to hold shares in offshore companies.

In a letter to ICIJ by the London-based law firm of Discreet Law, Mr. Saraki said he declared his assets properly in accordance with the relevant Nigerian legislation.

Mrs. Saraki, in a separate letter to the ICIJ through another London-based law firm, Harbottle & Lewis, also insisted that she “made all required disclosures in relation to her shareholdings.”

In their separate letters, the couple threatened to sue should the ICIJ and its partners proceed to publish information about the undeclared offshore assets, with Mrs Saraki saying any publication concerning her private financial information infringes on her privacy and breaches the Data Protection Act 1998.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Boko Haram kidnapped 300 children in addition to the 200 schoolgirls still missing

Boko Haram militants kidnapped some 400 women and schoolchildren in a remote Nigerian town over a year ago, and the world barely noticed.

Unlike the kidnapping of some 200 schoolgirls from Chibok a year earlier, there was no international outcry, no hashtags, no rallies and no U.S. drones scouring the Nigerian forest after the Islamic extremist group’s abductions in Damasak, in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno.

Human Rights Watch released a harrowing new investigation into the abductions this week. At least 300 elementary school children are among those still missing, the international nonprofit organization said.

Boko Haram seized control of Damasak in November 2014 and held it for several months, locking the town’s women and children in a primary school and shooting any residents who tried to escape. Troops from the neighboring countries of Chad and Niger discovered hundreds of strewn dead bodies when they recaptured the town in March 2015. But Boko Haram had already fled with hundreds of women and children that they had captured, relatives told Reuters. “[Boko Haram] said, ‘They are slaves so we’re taking them because they belong to us,’” Souleymane Ali, a trader in Damasak whose wife and three daughters were kidnapped, told the news agency. Yet Nigeria’s government denied the kidnapping had taken place.

Several months earlier, government denials and defensiveness over another kidnapping had fueled a vociferous Nigerian protest movement, that eventually caught international attention.

Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency in northeast Nigeria escalated during 2014. Amid a string of massacres and mass abductions, the militants’ night raid on a girls boarding school in Chibok in April of that year stood out as a particular calamity. Goodluck Jonathan, who was president at the time, came under severe criticism in Nigeria and internationally for his response to the Chibok kidnappings, and failure to — as the viral hashtag urged — #BringBackOurGirls.

In March last year, a few weeks after mass kidnappings in Damasak, Nigerians elected Muhammadu Buhari as their new president. At his inauguration in May 2015, Buhari vowed his government would do “all it can” to rescue Boko Haram’s captives. “We cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage,” he said.

During his first year in office, Nigeria and its neighbors have recaptured territory from the militant group and reportedly freed hundreds of captives. But there is still no sign of the Chibok girls, and the Nigerian government has never acknowledged the kidnapping in Damasak.

In the wake of this week’s Human Rights Watch report, parents of the abducted children finally began to speak out. They said they had been too afraid of the government to push their case.

“We kept quiet on the kidnap out of fear of drawing the wrath of the government, which was already grappling with the embarrassment of the kidnap of the Chibok schoolgirls,” a local administrator whose seven-year-old child was kidnapped told Agence France Presse news agency on Wednesday.

“Three hundred children have been missing for a year, and yet there has been not a word from the Nigerian government,” said Human Rights Watch Nigeria researcher Mausi Segun in a statement. “The authorities need to wake up and find out where the Damasak children and other captives are and take urgent steps to free them.”

Human Rights Watch said the Damasak kidnapping is Boko Haram’s largest ever documented abduction of schoolchildren. Yet, the chilling question remains — how many more other Chiboks and Damasaks are there?

A local Nigerian senator told the BBC at the time of the Damasak kidnapping that such mass abductions were typical of the region, and many hundreds more children were missing.

A full count of Nigeria’s missing is incredibly difficult. Towns have repeatedly changed hands, and many families are on the run following Boko Haram’s rampage. Few journalists reach Nigeria’s isolated and impoverished northeast, and news about attacks often takes time to travel outside of the region, if at all.

Amnesty International estimated last year that the Islamic extremist group had kidnapped more than 2,000 children forced many into combat or sex slavery. Some 2 million have been displaced and 20,000 killed in the insurgency.

Buhari claimed in December that Boko Haram had been “technically defeated,” after troops from Nigeria and its neighbors pushed Boko Haram out of several strongholds. But the group continues its deadly campaign of suicide attacks and militant raids, and some residents say the militants still control parts of northeast Nigeria.

After the Chadian and Nigerian troops withdrew from Damasak, Boko Haram came back to repeatedly attack the town. Damasak is now back in the militants’ hands, displaced residents told Human Rights Watch.

Friday, April 1, 2016

Video - Assessing Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari's administration a year on



It's exactly one year since Nigerians elected Muhammadu Buhari as their President ending 16 years of uninterrupted rule by candidates from the Peoples Democratic Party. Mr. Buhari and his party campaigned on a platform that can be summarized in one word: "change". CCTV's Deji Badmus looks at what the Buhari Presidency has done, 12 months on, in Africa's largest economy.

Jose Mourinho is appointed new coach of Nigeria Super Eagles



The ex-Chelsea man has been named the new Super Eagles’ handler, as he affirmed he was pleased to coach the three-time African champions.

Jose Mourinho has been named the new head coach of Nigeria following the departure of interim Samson Siasia.

Mourinho signed a four-year contract to take charge of the Super Eagles, while Mutiu Adepoju, Kanu Nwankwo and Peter Rufai join him as his backroom staff.

The former Chelsea coach will be tasked with qualifying Nigeria for the 2018 World Cup having missed out of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations billed for Gabon.

The 53-year-old had been linked with Manchester United job but has agreed a deal with Nigeria which is due to last until 2020, after Sunday Oliseh quit his post on February 25, 2016.

"I have the pleasure to confirm I have committed to a legendary African side, with the massive challenge of qualifying for the Russia 2018 World Cup," Mourinho told Goal.

"I am lucky because for years I had the fortune to coach big teams like Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid, and now I have the opportunity to coach another big team like Nigeria. It is an honour and I want to keep winning.

"We have a duty to prove we are the best team in Africa and also do well at the 2018 World Cup.

“I’d like to thank the Nigeria Football Federation for believing in me and with their backing, I am confident that we can build a stronger Super Eagles,” he concluded.

Mourinho will be presented at a media conference on Friday at the Abuja National Stadium.

Happy April Fools!

GOAL

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