Review: Anxiety Over Tompolo’s Fate, Former Governor’s Bombshell On Corruption
The major newspapers today January 25, are awashed with the litany of allegations leveled against ex-Niger Delta militant leader Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday filed fresh 22 charges against Tompolo and 12 others.
The EFCC filed the charges bordering on stealing, advanced fee fraud and money laundering to the tune of N22,765,900,000 at a Federal High Court in Lagos.
Tompolo, also known as Government Ekpemupolo
The anti-graft agency came up with a list of 25 witnesses expected to testify against Tompolo and his 12 co-suspects when the trial begins.
The witnesses include seven EFCC investigators, officials of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, officials of the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, and officials of the Bureau of Public Procurement.
Punch reports that officials of four commercial banks: Access Bank, First Bank, Zenith Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc are also enlisted to testify.
Former director-general of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi and his four brothers – Victor, Nobert, Emmanuel and Clement are being accused of aiding the suspects to commit the fraud.
Other suspects are Kime Engozu, Josephine Otuaga, Rita Uruakpa and Pondi Kestin.
According to Punch, the suspects were said to have fraudulently converted various sums, running into over N22.7bn, stolen from NIMASA, to their personal use between December 12, 2014 and April 10, 2015.
Seven companies – Mieka Dive Training Institute Ltd/GTE, Oyeinteke Global Network Ltd, Wabod Global Resources Ltd, Boloboere Properties Estate Ltd, Gokaid Marine Oil and Gas Ltd, Muhaabix Global Services Ltd and Watershed Associated Resources are also enlisted in the suit.
In the same vein, The Nation’s version of the story added that EFCC, in the 40-count charge, said the suspects allegedly diverted N34 billion, which accrued from the public private partnership agreement between NIMASA and Global West Vessel Specialist Limited for personal use.
”The alleged offence contravenes Section 15 (1) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act,” The Nation added.
Meanwhile, former Sokoto state governor, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa gave an indication that 90 per cent of Nigerians are corrupt.
In an interview with Daily Sun, the former governor said corruption is embedded in the Nigerian political system from the grassroots to the local government level, state level to national level.
”The electorate will demand money before voting a candidate, no matter how good such is or the ideology she has. All that the voter wants is how much the candidate is ready to give.’Then he who is going for the election will first look for money, whether he borrowed from the bank or his godfather will sponsor him is immaterial. That is the beginning of corruption.
”The electorate are corrupt; the politicians are either corrupt or forced to be corrupt because when they get to the office they are elected for, their first concern is how to pay the money back. They cannot get this money without the collaboration of the civil servants, because governors do not write the memo or raise the voucher.The civil servants will collaborate in bringing out the money and then you can see how corruption spreads all over.” Bafarawa said.
To sustain the fight against corruption, Barafawa advised Buhari-led government to open an office for public awareness against corruption.
He however, enjoined Nigerians to team up with Buhari administration in the fight against corruption.
”Buhari cannot do it alone and the danger is that if corruption is ignored, it is going to swallow the country, because we can now see the danger of where we have found ourselves,” he said.
In another development, the federal government has officially removed subsidy on Kerosene.
The federal government through its agency increased the price of the product from N50 per litre to N83 per litre
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA , in its product pricing template released, weekend, however, stated that the N83 per litre price applies only to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), meaning that other petrol stations and dealers can sell higher than the stipulated amount, Vanguard reports.
There are anxieties as regard the timing and impact of the move on the consumers especially at a time when the price of crude oil had dropped to record low, with the price of petroleum products, such as kerosene, fuel and diesel, among others, dropping significantly in a number of countries, like the United States.
Giving a breakdown of the price, the PPPRA template put the landing cost of the product at N57.98 per litre, while the total margin due for middlemen was put at N14.30.
However, as oil price drops to as low as $22 per barrel, the minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu, Nigeria’s case is not hopeless.
The Guardian reports that the minister assured that Nigeria would still make profit even if oil drops to $20 as cost of producing a barrel of crude oil has been put at an average of $13 per barrel onshore.
”Lower outputs from Nigeria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia may have slashed the crude oil export of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in December, even as the cartel’s daily basket of 13 grades fell to $22.9 a barrel yesterday,” The report states.
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