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Court orders FG, police to pay Sanusi N50m

April 3, 2014 9:35 pm / Leave a comment

The Punch on 03 April, 2014

A Federal High Court, Lagos has ordered the Federal Government, the State Security Service and the police to immediately release the passport unlawfully seized from the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The court, in a judgment delivered on Thursday, ordered the respondents, including the police, to pay N50m to Sanusi as exemplary damages for the unlawful detention and seizure of his passport.

Justice Ibrahim Buba delivered the judgment in the fundamental enforcement suit instituted by Sanusi following his arrest, detention, and seizure of his passports on February 20.

The judge, who earlier in his judgment, dismissed the respondents’ preliminary objection to the suit, held that the respondents, acting through the SSS “do not have power to forcefully withdraw and seize the applicant’s passport for any reason.”

He ordered the respondents to issue a public apology to the applicant for his “unlawful arrest, harassment, intimidation, withdrawal and seizure of his passport”.

Officers of the SSS had on February 20 arrested Sanusi and seized his passport at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

The police, through its counsel, Mr. David Abuo, had said they had no case against Sanusi and was not aware of any allegations against him.

Sanusi, who was on his way back from Niger Republic where he had attended a meeting of central bank governors of ECOWAS states, was suspended as CBN governor shortly before his passport was seized.

The court held that his detention “without any allegation of commission of crime or charge” amounted to restriction of his personal liberty and unlawful violation of his rights to personal liberty.

The court dismissed the allegation of terrorism financing levelled against Sanusi, describing it as an afterthought.

It agreed with Sanusi’s counsel, Mr. Kola Awodein (SAN), that the respondents gave conflicting reasons for the arrest of the applicant and for the seizure of his passport.

“The first (the Attorney-General of the Federation) and the third (the SSS) are not on the same page,” the court held.

It added, “The court observes that surely, there is no doubt that either there is no synergy between the respondents or the respondents are only singing discordant tunes as afterthought,” the judge held.
The court held that the respondents failed to put any material before the court to back the allegation.

It also held that the respondents had “nothing to offer” against Sanusi’s denial of financing terrorism.

World leaders must identify terror sponsors —Jonathan

April 3, 2014 7:25 am / Leave a comment

The Punch on 03 April, 2014

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday said world leaders have the collective responsibility of identifying sponsors and supporters of terror groups, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and other groups operating in the Sahel region.

He said such people should be held responsible for their actions aimed at destabilising Africa.

Jonathan made his position known in his remarks on peace and security at the opening of the on-going Fourth European Union-Africa Summit holding in Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

The summit brought together the Heads of State and Government of the EU and the African continent together with the EU and AU institutions.

The EU was represented at the summit, which has “Investing in people, prosperity and peace” as its theme, by the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy and President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.

While thanking the EU and other development partners for their assistance in addressing the menace of the terror groups, Jonathan insisted that a terror attack on one nation was an attack on everybody.

 He said, “The weapons of choice of these terror groups are the Small Arms and Light Weapons.

“Of recent, they have acquired the rapid propelled grenades and even surface-to-air missiles.  Where do they get these sophisticated weapons?  The total value of what these terrorists possess as individuals, in terms of what they wear, where they live cannot buy an assault rifle.

“We all have the collective responsibility to unearth their sponsors and supporters who are determined to destabilise Africa.  We should hold them responsible and accountable for their actions.”

The President said the issue of peace and security called for a holistic and integrated approach, as peace and development were two sides of the same coin.

Jonathan said it was based on the importance that Nigeria attached to the issue that he organised a summit on “Human Security, Peace and Development: An Agenda for the 21st Century” during Nigeria’s centenary.

He said the summit resolved, in part, that all countries must continue to strengthen existing mechanisms for national and international conflict management, and create new avenues for co-operation within and between peoples and nations.

Jonathan recalled that since 2000, the African Union had demonstrated sustained desire for the development of collective security arrangement among its member states and its regional economic communities.

He said the countries had established a security management system and the codification of standards within Africa’s peace and security architecture.

This, he said, included the Peace and Security Council, a continental early — warning system, the Panel of the Wise and the African Standby Force.

He said the union had also subscribed to modalities and action plans to confront these challenges and new threat of piracy in some maritime boundaries and curb the menace of oil theft.

In addition to these initiatives, the President said there were organs within the AU with mandates to strengthen the peace and security architecture.

He described the coming into force of the African Charter on Democracy, Election and Government, as a legally binding instrument to further reaffirm the  continent’s collective resolve at outlawing unconstitutional change of government in Africa.

He added, “Notwithstanding these initiatives, new and emerging threats that necessitate concerted and holistic focus have emerged. These include political conflicts that threaten hard-won peace and democracies, and worse still, the phenomenon of piracy and terrorism.

“In the face of these new threats and challenges, the Peace and Security Architecture needs to be strengthened and the African Standby Force needs to be fully operationalised.

“We need to give stronger impetus to capacity building and logistical support to boost Africa’s capability and preparedness to take pre-emptive steps to contain conflict situations, quell violence and deal with the scourges of terrorism.”

Reps insist N59.6 bn payment to NNPC for fuel subsidy missing in transit •As CBN, NNPC others engage in bulk passing

April 3, 2014 7:23 am / Leave a comment

Nigerian Tribune on 03 April, 2014

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday, insisted that a whopping sum of N59.6 billion purportedly released from the service wide vote by the Budget Office of the Federation to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 2006 as payment for fuel subsidy, was actually missing in transit.

 The committee, chaired by Honourable Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, who made the pronouncement at the resumed hearing of the whereabouts of the money in Abuja, on Wednesday, declared that all government agencies involved in the transactions remained liable until the committee got to the root of the matter.

The committee had, on Tuesday, summoned the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), the Director of the Budget Office, the management of the NNPC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to appear before Wednesday with some vital documents, including the copy of the Federation  Account from January till December 2006, stating all revenues accruing to the Federal Government and how they were spent.

However, it was another session of bulk passing among the NNPC, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), CBN and the Budget Office on Wednesday, when the agencies appeared before the committee as none of them could give satisfactory evidence as to the whereabouts of the missing money and there was authentic and verifiable documents to substantiate claims made by the agencies involved.

As a follow-up to the revelation made by officials of the NNPC denying receipt of the said amount from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation as approved by the Budget Office, the officials, led by the Executive Director, Finance, Mr Sambo Aliyu, again told the committee that the NNPC actually sought a letter of clearance from the Budget Office and the OAGF indicating that the N69.6 billion requested was never released to it as claimed, a request he said was turned down.

However,  the OAGF tendered an unsigned photocopy of a letter indicating  non-release of the money and return of same amount before the committee, but the original copy was missing from the correspondence file of the OAGF and a register with an entry made with pencil, devoid of any signature whatsoever.

This, the Director of Finance and Accounts in the OAGF, Mrs Fatima Nanamade, tried to substantiate the claim by saying that “the letter actually emanated from the OAGF, but the original copy of the AIE is with the Budget Office.”

The committee, not pleased with her submission, pointed out that as a matter of professional competence and effectiveness, the agencies should keep comprehensive document of correspondences  of transactions between them, while rejecting the unsigned photocopy presented to it and impounded a register in which she tendered alongside.

On the part of the Budget Office, the Director, Expenditure, Mrs Stella Toluwase, also informed the committee that the original AIE request sent to the OAGF was never returned as claimed, as the office did  not have it in its record and claimed  that the photocopy they came with was discovered after searching through the office archives, following the demand by the committee to see the document at the Tuesday sitting.

 However, the committee chairman, Honourable Olamilekan, expressed dismay at the conduct of the agencies and seized the correspondence register and file presented to his committee by the OAGF, saying  the documents would go along way in assisting the committee to unravel the whereabouts of the missing money.

According to him,“if for more than a month of investigation, none of you could come up with relevant documents to back up your claim of returning the still missing N59.6 billion, then you have betrayed the professions you all represent.

“ I cannot accept this letter that has no signature or stamp, because for all I care, this could have been written yesterday or last week. If this letter has an original copy, which is supposed to have, then we want to see it brought here for verification and documentation by our secretariat.

“I want to see all the certified true copies of all mandates issued by the Budget Office and sent to the OAGF and also relayed to the CBN for compliance from  January till December 2006, as well as a copy of the Federation  Account revealing all transactions within that year, so that at a glance, we can pick out where ever it is the fund has gone to,” he added.

House of Representatives, Committee on Public Accounts, N59.6 billion, Budget Office of the Federation, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Honourable Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, Director of the Budget Office, NNPC, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Director Expenditure, Mrs Stella Toluwase, Director of Finance and Accounts, OAGF, Mrs Fatima Nanamade