Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, is under scrutiny for reportedly disbursing a staggering sum of N107.2 billion to contractors for projects that either do not exist or remain incomplete. This revelation has sparked widespread concern and calls for accountability within the state government.
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A forensic audit conducted by an audit firm has revealed how the immediate past government of Abia State approved funds to contractors for the construction of non-existent state-owned Airport and other infrastructure.
The Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti made the revelation during a presentation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Washington DC, United States.
He spoke on the theme, ‘Dynamics of State Governance, Economic Transition and the Challenges of Seeking to Establish a New Order Amidst Multiple Constraints and Pushbacks.’
Otti said it is difficult to admit how some Nigerian leaders contest elections for reasons shrouded in corruption.
The governor who took over from Okezie Ikpeazu in 2023 explained that some politicians have abused the privilege of governance thereby impoverishing their states.
Otti explained how he engaged one of the top audit firms to examine the state accounts, adding that the auditor uncovered several deals that are shrouded in corruption.
He said, “Talking about corruption, I set up a forensic audit as soon as I took over last year in Abia so that there won’t be any argument, I called in one of the top three audit firms in the world, and not too long ago, they sent in their report and some of the things in the report are frightening.
Bashir El-Rufai, son of former Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna has tackled Governor Uba Sani for saying his father plunged the State into debt.
Recall that Governor Sani had on Saturday said the El-Rufai administration left a huge debt burden of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities for the state.
According to governor, the state was now finding it difficult to pay salaries as a result of the debt which is being removed from the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
Sani said, “Despite the huge debt burden of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities sadly inherited from the previous administration, we remain resolute in steering Kaduna State towards progress and sustainable development.
“We have conducted a thorough assessment of our situation and are sharpening our focus accordingly. It gladdens my heart to inform you that despite the huge inherited debt of the state, till date, we have not borrowed a single kobo.”
Reacting to Governor Sani, Bashir tackled the governor saying he was looking for a cheap excuse for his incompetence.
Bashir stated this in a post via his X handle on Saturday.
The El-Rufai said, “These guys have realised that they are wholly incompetent and the only way to mask the nonsense is to deflect. From a Governor that is always sleeping in Abuja to a litany of incompetent aides that were only rewarded for foolish political reasons.
“One would think that from all the FAAC allocations these unserious clowns have changed to dollars, debt would be the least of their problems,” he said.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has advised Nigerians to be wary of scanning QR codes from unfamiliar sources, as they could be used for identity theft and illicit transactions by scammers.
It disclosed this information on Saturday via its official handle on X, a social media platform. A QR code is a type of barcode that stores information and can be read by a digital device. It also grants quick access to information and actions.
According to NITDA, these codes can be exploited by malicious actors to deceive and lure unsuspecting users into scanning them and to perpetrate fraudulent activities.
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NITDA wrote:
“QR codes can be exploited by malicious actors to deceive unsuspecting users and perpetrate fraudulent activities. Scammers utilize QR codes in various ways to achieve their nefarious goals, including:
- Phishing scams: Phishing scammers can generate QR codes that point to malicious applications or phishing websites. Users scan these codes thinking they are genuine and end up having their information stolen.
- Payment fraud: Scammers can create QR codes that start illicit transactions or reroute payments to their accounts, rather than to the intended recipients.
- Data theft: Threat actors may embed malicious payloads like malware or data-stealing scripts within QR codes. By exploiting security vulnerabilities in users’ devices, they can steal private documents, financial information, and passwords among other sensitive data.
- Identity theft: Users personal information, including names, addresses and contact details can be collected using QR codes inserted in fake advertisements or online surveys. The information can then be exploited for identity theft or other targeted frauds.“
It also listed some measures that can be used to prevent falling victim to QR code scams.
According to NITDA, some of these measures are: verifying the legitimacy of QR codes and associated links before scanning them, updating devices with the latest antivirus software and security patches regularly and using reputable QR code scanning mobile applications with built-in security features.
Uba Sani, Governor of Kaduna State, has decried the amount of local and foreign debt Nasir El-Rufai, his predecessor, accrued for the state.
During a town hall meeting at the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Hall, Kaduna, on Saturday, Sani revealed his administration inherited a total of $587 million, N85 billion and 115 contract liabilities.
He said these commitments meant the government spent N7 billion of its N10 billion federal allocation on debt servicing and would be unable to pay salaries, which stood at about N5.2 billion.
These comments drew criticism from netizens, who perceived them as an attack on El-Rufai. Bashir, the former governor’s son, took to social media to mock Sani and his aides, claiming they were incompetent.
We now learnt that, as part of the ninth Senate, Sani was instrumental in securing a $350 million loan for the El-Rufai administration after three senators from Kaduna opposed the request in the eighth Senate.
‘HOLD ME RESPONSIBLE, SANI TOLD SENATE
Between 2019 and 2023, Sani represented Kaduna Central in the Senate, but before him, there was Shehu Sani.
Shehu Sani expressed disapproval of El-Rufai’s loan request, and his position was shared by Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North) and Danjuma La’ah (Kaduna South).
Shehu’s argument was that another loan would erode the economic viability of the state, which already had huge debt burdens to fund.
When the All Progressives Congress (APC) replaced Shehu with Uba on the 2019 ballots, it was the positive El-Rufai needed.
In March 2020, Shehu was no longer in the Senate, and Uba was chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions. The loan request topic came up for debate again, and Uba swore it was critical the state got it at the time and even asked that the nation hold him responsible if the then governor failed to utilise the loan of about $350 million properly.
“They were wrong in their assertion,” Uba said of the Kaduna senators who opposed borrowing. “Having checked the laws, the accounts and the performance of the Kaduna State Government, the World Bank was convinced that Kaduna State merited its support.
“Equally important is the integrity of the Governor of Kaduna State. While considering the request for the loan, the relevant committees in both chambers of the National Assembly factored in the unassailable integrity of Governor Nasir El Rufai to approve the loan request.”
Four years after, Uba has now complained of the economic viability of the state, as 70 percent of its allocation has gone into debt servicing while workers are yet unpaid.
The least may not have been heard about how “Aso Rock” used the erstwhile Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emiefele to soothe the untamed financial appetite of Dangote, Bua, and those linked to the powers that be within the corridors of power.
This follows a new revelation on how the then Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, through former Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun ordered the erstwhile Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emiefele to release the sum of N5,865,671,389.29 to Dangote, Floormill Nigeria, Bua Group, Golden Agri Input, and Wacot Limited under the guise of providing food to the internally displaced persons IDPs within the North-East Region.
According to a letter from the then Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun addressed to Godwin Emiefele dated 2nd June,2017, with Ref. No. HMF/FMF/CBN/FOOD/1/2017, directing him to release the said fund to the following beneficiaries: (1) Dangote Rice Ltd, Zenith Bank Account No 1014006586. Amount: N936,196,800 (2) Golden Agri Inputs Limited, GTbank Account No. 0198931211. Amount: N1,384,554,236.26. (3) Bua Rice Ltd, Sterling Bank Account No 0062487976. Amount N1,322,273,520. WACCOT Limited on the other hand received the sum of N453,674,296 and N939,946,081 into her First Bank Account No 2006409434 and Zenith Bank Account No 1010592718 respectively.
Recall that Godwin Emiefele has been under investigation for his reckless mismanagement of national funds when he held sway as the Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank.
His tenure as the CBN governor was characterised by the diversion of funds through cronies, especially the political associates of former President Muhammadu Buhari and others on the good books of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Many believe that the reckless mismanagement of the economy and finances led to the current economic depression that Nigerians are facing.
To ensure that some of these diverted funds are returned to the national treasury, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu hired a private investigator, Jim Obazee to dig up the whereabouts of funds looted from the national treasury.
Bola Tinubu has given the green light for the appointment of Oyetunde Oladimeji Ojo, his son-in-law, as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA)
Ojo, a former member of the House of Representatives, is the spouse of Folasade Tinubu-Ojo, the president’s daughter.
According to a statement by Ajuri Ngelale, the presidential spokesperson, Tinubu has also designated Mathias Terwase Byuan as the Executive Director (Housing Finance & Accounts); Umar Dankane Abdullahi as Executive Director (Business Development); Oluremi Omowaiye as Executive Director (Project Implementation); and Ezekiel Nya-Etok as Executive Director (Business Development and Portfolios) to join the management team of FHA.
Ngelale further revealed that the president has appointed Shehu Usman Osidi as the CEO of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).
Additional appointments to the FMBN management team include Ibidapo Odojukan as Executive Director (Finance and Corporate Services), Muhammad Sani Abdu as Executive Director (Loans and Mortgage Services), and Chinenye Anosike as Executive Director (Business Development and Portfolios).
In a comprehensive move to reposition the national housing and urban development sector, President Tinubu has approved the restructuring of the executive management teams of parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
The statement outlined the new leadership for FMBN and FHA, emphasizing the qualifications and experience of the appointed individuals. Shehu Usman Osidi, the new FMBN CEO, boasts over 30 years of experience in banking, including 13 years in mortgage banking, with academic credentials from prestigious institutions such as Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Housing Finance.
Oyetunde Ojo, the new CEO of FHA, is highlighted as a former Member of the House of Representatives with over a decade of experience in the housing and hospitality industries. He holds a Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom.
President Tinubu’s ambitious plans for the housing sector, including the establishment of Building Materials Hubs, a National Social Housing Fund, and land reforms, are expected to be spearheaded by the newly appointed executives. The president anticipates their swift action in delivering affordable housing to millions of Nigerians and creating numerous job opportunities for the country’s youth.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described US counterpart Joe Biden on Wednesday as more “predictable” than Donald Trump but said the Kremlin was prepared to work with whoever wins November’s election.
Asked by a journalist who Russia would like to see win in the likely contest between the Democratic incumbent and Republican frontrunner Trump, Putin said: “Biden, he’s more experienced. He’s predictable, he’s an old-school politician.”
Putin batted away questions about Biden’s age and health, with the president set to turn 82 just weeks after the election.
“When I met Mr Biden three years ago, it’s true, people were already talking about his inabilities, but I saw nothing of the sort,” said Putin, evidently referring to a summit in Geneva.
US polls show voters have strong concerns about Biden’s age.
The age issue has been compounded by two recent episodes in which Biden confused European leaders with dead predecessors.
The White House was forced to vehemently defend the president’s competence last week after a special counsel report described him as an “elderly man with a poor memory”.
Biden himself responded angrily to the accusation, but then compounded the problem by mixing up the presidents of Egypt and Mexico.
Trump, 77, has also mixed up people’s names recently, confusing his last rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Nikki Haley, with former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Putin, nonetheless, expressed strong opposition to Washington’s foreign policy under Biden.
“What we have to examine is the political position, and that of the current administration is extremely harmful and wrong,” said Putin.
A Group of Staff said to be loyal to the immediate past Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, Alh. Garba Abubakar has allegedly grounded online operations in the agency, making company registration and other corporate registration and payment impossible for weeks now. This has led to loss of revenue by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
LeadingReporters gathered that this move was one of the strategies by the staff loyal to the former RG to bring the current registrar general to a renegotiation table.
A discreet source that spoke to LeadingReporters on condition of anonymity said that this was not the first time a situation like this has happened.
“We experience issues like this each time a new leadership emerges in the agency. Saboteur staff would always align with their preferred boss and make a mess of the system for an incoming leadership.”
He said the trend began when CAC completed digitalization and online processing of its operations. He said the then registrar general had a deal with the company that completed the digitalization of the agency’s operations. He amassed so much money from the project and went ahead and put a structure that would continue to fetch him returns from the project, even after leaving office.
“When the then RG left and a new one was appointed, the then-incoming RG requested a cancellation of the agency’s ” deal ” with the former RC. All hell was loose. This situation led to the ICT company unplugging the database and CAC services grounded for weeks, if not months, until a renegotiation was done.
The source said that the problem is all about personal gratification by those who call the shot in the agency and those loyal to them.
“The suspension of CAC online operations is all about who takes what. It is the fight of the Titans and about their interests. They want to push the current RG, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji to negotiate with them. Unfortunately, the staff are the canon fodders.
Meanwhile the Federal Government has continued to lose revenue because of the internal fight and power play. Clients’ jobs are taking months to be delivered.
A comprehensive list of the 63 Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs) reveals significant revenue projections, expenditures, and remittances to the federal government for the year 2024.
Among these entities are prominent organizations such as the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, Corporate Affairs Commission, Federal Road Safety Corps, National Health Insurance Scheme, Nigerian Customs Service, and many more. Each GOE has outlined its specific financial plan for the year, with entities like the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria projecting to earn N903,080,000.00 in revenue, expend N1,808,190,693.00, and transfer N363,080,000.00 to the federal government.
Similarly, the Corporate Affairs Commission has projected earnings of N28,518,447,500.00, expenditure of N14,259,223,750.00, and a remittance of N11,407,379,000.00 to the Federal Government. GOEs play a crucial role in the country’s commercial landscape, with substantial financial resources at their disposal.
The detailed financial projections of these GOEs were disclosed in a budget proposal submitted to the federal government by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and accessed by Our Reporters. The National Assembly’s approval of the 2024 appropriation bill on December 30, 2023, resulted in an increased budget size from the initial N27.5 trillion proposed by President Bola Tinubu to N28.7 trillion. This adjustment, totaling N1.2 trillion, is attributed to the optimistic revenue forecasts from these government enterprise entities.
Among the 63 GOEs are Administrative Staff College Of Nigeria, Corporate Affairs Commission, Council For The Regulation Of Freight Forwarding In Nigeria, Federal Airport Authority Of Nigeria, Federal Competition And Consumer Protection Commission, Federal Housing Authority, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Federal Mortgage Bank Of Nigeria, Federal Road Safety Corps, Financial Reporting Council Of Nigeria, Industrial Training Fund, Joint Admission And Matriculation Board, Lagos International Trade Fair Complex Management Board, National Agency For Food & Drug Administration & Control, National Automotive Design And Development Council, National Broadcasting Commission, National Business And Technical Examination Board, National Examination Council, National Film And Video Censors Board, National Health Insurance Scheme, National Information Technology Development Agency, National Inland Waterways Authority, National Insurance Commission, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, National Lottery Trust Fund, National Office For Technology Acquisition And Promotion, National Pension Commission, National Space Research And Development Agency and National Sugar Development Council.
Others are Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Integrated Water Management Commission, Nigeria Meteorological Agency, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading, Nigerian Communication Commission, Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited, Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board, Nigerian Copyright Commission, Nigerian Customs Service, Nigerian Electricity Management Service Agency, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Nigerian Film Corporation, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, Nigerian Maritime Administration & Safety Agency, Nigerian Midstream And Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Nigerian Port Authority, Nigerian Postal Service, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Nigerian Television Authority, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Oil And Gas Free Zone Authority, Raw Materials Research And Development Council, Securities And Exchange Commission, Standards Organization Of Nigeria and Tertiary Education Trust Fund.