A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal Lagos division insist that the 60-year jail term bagged by a former Supervisor at Chrisland School, Adegboyega Adenekan, at Lagos State Special Offences Court, Ikeja, Lagos was in order.

Delivering judgment in the appeal filed by Adenekan challenging his sentence, the Court on Monday said his appeal lacked merit.

Adenekan was convicted by Justice Sybil Nwaka of the Lagos State Special Offences Court on October 24, 2019, for defiling a two year old female pupil of the school.

Aggrieved by Justice Nwaka’s verdict, Adenekan through his lawyer, Mr Olatunde Adejuyigbe (SAN), asked the Appeal Court quash it.

The Court of Appeal however affirmed the 60-year jail term stressing that his appeal lacked merit.

The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions had told the trial court that Adenekan had “unlawful sexual intercourse” with the minor in November 2016 in Lagos in contravention of Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

Adenekan had pleaded not guilty to the charges when he was arraigned in January 2018 but, in the judgment delivered on October 24, 2019, Justice Nwaka pronounced him guilty.

The judge said with seven witnesses, including the two-year-old victim, the prosecution succeeded in proving the charges against Adenekan.

During the 2018 trial, Child X, who was then now four-years-old, was two years and 11-months at the time the alleged defilement occurred serially in 2016 at the Victoria Garden City (VGC) branch of the school.

On Thursday 22nd March 2018, Child X, the pupil allegedly defiled by Adenekan, the 47-year-old School supervisor, testified at an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence court in Lagos and confirmed that she was abused.

The trial which was slated for at 2pm did not start until 3.26pm. It ended at 5.53pm.

Before Child X’s testimony, Justice Sybil Nwaka, ordered that members of the public vacate the public gallery of the courtroom. However, she allowed journalists and lawyers to witness the testimony.

When Child X was brought into the courtroom, the judge rose from her bench to sit by a desk opposite Child X.

Justice Nwaka engaging Child X in small talk said: “I love your shoes, we are all your uncle and aunties here. Do you like the building? Do you know why you are here?”

Child X said: “I’m here to talk about the bad things Mr Adenekan did to me.”

Justice Nwaka responding said: “You know you are here to tell the truth, Jesus loves children and what do your Sunday School teachers tell you?”

Child X: “Always tell the truth.”

Before Child X took oath as a witness, Justice Nwaka repeated to her not to be afraid to tell the truth and that the people in the courtroom are all her friends.

The judge warned journalists against taking photographs, making recordings or revealing the identity of Child X.

The prosecution led by Mr Jide Boye, the Chief State Counsel led the child in evidence by asking a series of questions and getting the following responses from her.

Prosecution: “How old are you?”

Child X: “Four”

Prosecution: “How many schools have you attended?”

Child X: “Two”

Prosecution:” What are the names of the schools?”

Child X: “Chrisland, Grange School”

Prosecution pointing across the room to Adenekan: “Do you know him?”

Child X: “No”

Prosecution: “Who is Mr Adenekan?”

Child X: “When I go to class after recess, I see Mr Adenekan after recess”

Prosecution: “What did Mr Adenekan do to you?”

Child X: “He put his mouth in my wee-wee, the first time he did that, he took me out of the class. The second time, I ran. I tried to report to my teacher but my teacher did not believe me, so I reported to my mummy.

“First time he did it was inside his office which was the toilet, the second time he did it was in the hall which was outside.

“I did not like what he did, he put his hand in my wee-wee, he put his wee-wee in my wee-wee and he put his mouth in my wee-wee.”

The prosecution at this point proceeded to show Child X three photographs, one of which was Adenekan’s.

Child X identified Adenekan’s photograph.

Child X said: “This is Mr Adenekan, I remember how he used to greet me but I don’t know where he is.”

Prosecution: “How did you feel when he was doing it to you?”

Child X: “I felt I should tell my mummy, I felt pain.”

Prosecution: “When he did it, what were you wearing?”

Child X: “My Chrisland School uniform.”

Prosecution: “Can you describe how he did it to you?”

Child X: “He put his hand under my uniform, he put his hand in my wee-wee, pull my uniform down and it was really really paining me.

“When it was really really paining me, I screamed and he covered my mouth like this (demonstrated with hand over her mouth).

“I couldn’t do anything because he covered my mouth. When I was trying to remove it (his hand) he tightened my mouth.”

Prosecution: “Describe his office”

Child X: “I cannot remember.”

The defence counsel, Mr Olatunde Adejuyigbe (SAN) opposed the tendering as evidence, the three photographs shown to Child X during proceedings. According to him, the prosecution did not comply with Section 86 of the Evidence Act.

In his submission Boye told the court that in accordance with Section 84 of the Evidence Act, photographs are no longer secondary evidence but primary evidence and as a result, the photographs should be admitted as evidence.

In a short ruling Justice Nwaka said: “I cannot agree more with the prosecution. These photographs do not have a certificate. I mark them tendered but rejected.”

While cross-examining Child X, Adejuyigbe asked her the following questions.

Defence: “Do you like to draw?”

Child X: ” I don’t know how to draw yet but I like to draw”

Defence: “You said something really really pained you, when you got home did you tell your mummy about it?”

Child X: “Yes”

Child X responding to Adejuyigbe’s questions, recalled some of her pre-school teachers at Chrisland School.

Defence: “Did anyone tell you before that he will kill you?”

Child X: “I don’t know what that means”

Defence: “Did you see Mr Adenekan today,?”

Child X: “I only saw him in the picture.”

Defence: “Do you know there are three tables in Mr Adenekan’s office? ”

Child X: “No”

Defence: “His office is not near your class, do you remember?”

Child X: “No”

Defence: “Have you entered Mr Adenekan’s office before?”

Child X: “Only when he did the bad things to me”

Defence: “Did he take anyone else with you?”

Child X: “No”

Defence: “Did you take your mummy to any corner?”

Child X: “No when I told her what happened to me, she changed my school.”

Defence: “Does your aunty (name withheld) bath for you?”

Child X: “Sometimes her but everytime my mummy.”

Defence: “Have you seen the police before?”

Child X: “I have seen them guarding the door at the gate before I enter my school gate.”

Defence: “Is there a doctor’s office at your school? ”

Child X: “Yes”

Defence: “Do you go to the toilet alone in school? ”

Child X: “When I want to go by myself they (teachers) still follow me”

Defence: “Did anyone tell you what to say when you get here?”

Child X: “No”

Earlier during the cross-examination of Child X’s mother, the video in which Child X was portraying her alleged defilement at a clinical psychologist’s office was replayed in court by the defence.

The mother (name withheld) admitted to the defence that some parts of the sessions of Child X’s interview with the clinical psychologist were not recorded.

“At the time she started drawing the private part, I can confirm to you that I was in the corner of the room and I only asked my child questions regarding the defendant’s name,” she said.

The mother also told the court that she reported to the police that the defendant took her child to a corner in the school where he allegedly defiled her.

“I mentioned the corner to the police and it is in my statement. Like I said before, I initially wanted to cover it up.

“I mentioned it to the school authorities but I later told them to forget it that it never happened.

“I was afraid of people like you (pointing at the SAN), it is a shameful act,” she tearfully said.

In early April this year, the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) released a Request for Proposals to be submitted by the 14^th of April 2020 from experienced technology specialists in a bid to select a company to serve as IT consultant for the upcoming NBA national elections.

According to a source close to the ECNBA, various companies sent in their proposals, including a certain Inits Limited, whose Chief Technology Officer is Femi Taiwo. It would be recalled that Mr Femi Taiwo and his company hosted the server for the most recent Nigerian national elections conducted by INEC and were the butt of controversy around the now deleted INEC server that contained evidence of the results being collated electronically.

This, however, is not where the story ends. While the ECNBA was seeking proposals from the public through an open procurement system, a source close to the NBA Presidency reveals that the incumbent President of the NBA, Mr. Paul Usoro, SAN informed the ECNBA that a platform had already been built for the elections by a certain Tavia Technology. We discovered that this Tavia Technology is the Technology Advisor for Access bank, a bank where Mr. Usoro, SAN sits as Director on the Board. Our source further revealed that Mr. Usoro, SAN had requested Tavia Technology to build and run a platform that would be used amongst other things, for e-voting. Tavia had however turned him down, stating that it was not in the business of conducting elections, so it only built the platform.

Our sources reveal that Mr. Usoro, SAN, in spite of the open procurement system sought to be carried out by the ECNBA, then approached Inits, the company of Mr. Femi Taiwo- on which the INEC server controversy still looms- to run and manage the platform built by Tavia Technologies. The platform in question has repeatedly been flagged since then by various IT security experts as being vulnerable to manipulation and rigging.

It is even further questionable that with less than 72 hours to the NBA elections, the ECNBA had not granted a meeting with the candidates ever before, and only granted a meeting with the candidates this evening for the first time. Furthermore, at the time of publishing this item, the electorate do not know how they would vote or even how the voting will be conducted, and we all know that voter education is key in any election. The candidates also do not understand the structure, operation or modalities of voting on the platform. Even worse, the ECNBA has remained mute on the vulnerabilities of the platform that has been pointed out by various IT security experts.

This brings up many questions: What indeed is the plan of the ECNBA? Why is Mr. Usoro, SAN, very heavily involved in the election process, especially considering that the charges recently filed against two individuals that allegedly rigged the election that brought him to office bring his occupation of the position into question? Why is the ECNBA acting all cloak and dagger with elections that are meant to be transparent, free and fair? Is the ECNBA out of their depth with the 2020 NBA national elections? Can we trust the ECNBA to be fair and independent? Can we trust them to conduct free and fair elections? Is there a grand plot to rig the NBA elections? Can Mr. Usoro, SAN remove his hand from the election cooking pot? And between the ECNBA and Mr Usoro, SAN, who is truly running the elections?

These questions should bring the ECNBA to the table again, if not for anything, for the sake of ensuring free and fair elections, and ensuring that the votes of the electorate count. If lawyers are to be given any respect in society, lawyers must lead the way in an activity like this.

An oil trading firm, Samano Sa De CV, has written a letter to the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, demanding five per cent reward for exposing the diversion and theft of 48 million barrels of crude oil

At the current price of global crude oil which is $43 per barrel, the stolen oil is expected to be worth $2.06bn by today’s standard.

The alleged theft took place in 2015.

The allegations are contained in a letter signed by lawyer, Gboyega Oyewole, on behalf of the whistleblower dated July 23, 2020.

The letter is titled, “Formal Request for the Payment of five per cent Whistleblower Compensation For Information Furnished In Respect of Crude Oil Stolen from the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

In the letter, it was stated that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, the late Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Abba Kyari; and Mr Umar Mohammed were all informed of the stolen crude and were expected to take action.

A subsequent letter written to the President by the whistleblower, was, however, prevented from getting to him.

The whistleblower said in October 2015, the stolen crude was moved from China without the knowledge of President Buhari and sold illegally by some government and NNPC officials with the proceeds not remitted to the government’s coffers.

When the whistleblower pushed for the agreed five per cent cut of the sale of the crude for exposing the theft, its officials were harassed and issued death threats.

The letter read in part, “Sequel to this policy, our client, being a reputable and credible company, promptly brought to the knowledge of the Nigerian Government, information as to criminal activity involving the NNPC and the stolen product.

“This information was given to high ranking officials of the Nigerian government to wit; Mr. Mele Kyari, the Managing Director of NNPC; Mr. Abba Kyari, the then Chief of Staff to the President; and Mr. Umar Mohammed.

“Consequently, it was agreed that an investigation into the stolen product should be made to ascertain the veracity of the information and garner more facts as to the fraudulent activities.

“It was also agreed that if the information is found credible, the perpetrators of the offence would be apprehended and that compensation due to our client for the information brought forward would be awarded.

“Further to the above stated discussions, our client through its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Jose Salaza Tinajero (its representative) wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari notifying him of the stolen products as advised by the high ranking officials.

“It was also agreed that if the information is found credible, the perpetrators of the offence would be apprehended and that compensation due to our client for the information brought forward would be awarded.

“Further to the above stated discussions, our client through its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Jose Salaza Tinajero (its representative) wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari notifying him of the stolen products as advised by the high ranking officials.

“The said letter was delivered to Mr Umar Mohammed, who to the surprise of our client, failed to deliver it to the President.”

Attached to the letter were several documents including bank transfers, names of vessels and their captains to show that the stolen products had been illegally sold by some top government officials in connivance with the NNPC. The firm also attached chats between some of the principal players.

When contacted, NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Kennie Obateru, said the oil firm was aware of the accusation but would not respond now.

“We won’t respond to it now, but at the appropriate time we will make our position known to the public,” he said.

SOURCE: PUNCH

THE Senate will engage the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) over the six per cent Stamp Duty on rent, lease and others the agency recently introduced.

Most Nigerians see the introduction of the new tax as a further burden on the already impoverished society.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central), told reporters in Abuja at the weekend that even if FIRS had the mandate to generate revenue for the Federal Government through taxes, it cannot afford to be “arbitrary” in doing so.

Bamidele said there is a limit to which the FIRS could exercise discretion in introducing taxes.

He noted that since the Senate Committee on Finance is already mandated to interface with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), he believes the new tax regime would form part of their discussions.

Bamidele said: “FIRS has a mandate to generate revenue for the country within the extant laws and the Act establishing the agency. In doing that, they cannot be arbitrary.

“There is a limit to the discretion they have. I’m convinced that FIRS knows well enough not to do anything outside of their mandate.”

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has withdrawn the registration certificate of Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and other socio-cultural groups in Nigeria.

Disclosing this at the weekend in Abuja, the Registrar General of CAC, Mr Garba Abubakar, said the measure was part of the reforms the Commission was putting in place to subject such applications to thorough scrutiny following security threats that may arise from such registrations.

The RG noted that the reforms are a measure put together to sanitise the Commission operations which lead to the recent withdrawal of the certificate of registration earlier issued to Ohaneze Ndigbo General Assembly.

He said: “Yes, we have withdrawn the certificate of Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly because the certificate should not have been issued in the first instance.

“We have an established protocol that all organisations; ethnic, religious with political implication should be referred for security clearance before such organisations are registered. In 2017, a similar organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide applied to be registered and security agencies rejected it.

“It would have been a double standard to allow another organisation to be registered. Up till now, Arewa Consultative Forum is not registered because they were not given security clearance, we have South-South Youth Forum, NorthEast Youth Forum and so many organisations that have not been allowed to register.

“What we have done after withdrawing the certificate (of Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly), we now referred the application for security clearance, if at the end of the day we are advised that this object is consistent with what the law says, and the trustees are fit and proper, then we will go ahead, but till then, we have withdrawn the certificate and they have threatened to go to court, we are lawyers, we will meet them in court.”

He also lamented at the proliferation of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Nigeria including foreign ones, noting that such new organisations would have to secure the consent of the Registrar General of the Commission before allowing registration.

“The security agencies have been raising concerns, and you will agree with me that some organisations are purely political. we don’t register political association, some in their activities constitute a threat to national security, so we took the decision that every application will be properly scrutinised to the level of Registrar General, so the applicant must submit an application of consent by providing the names of trustees, the objects of the association. The application will be scrutinised and recommendation will be made to Registrar General and it is only the approval of the Registrar General that the name will be approved,” he said.

On the recent protest by Customers in regard to the new policy on mailing and courier delivery services in the process of company registering, Abubakar said the mailing system, which began in Abuja on Friday, has put to an end the regular visit of customers to the Commission’s office.

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has said that there is no going back on its decision to ensure that pre-incorporation certificates are delivered to customers through designated courier companies.

The Commission said the policy which came into force on Friday, put to an end the situation where customers visit its Lagos and Abuja offices for the collection of the certificates.

He noted that the move would guard against the spread of coronavirus, reduce the burden on overstretched CAC staff occasioned by the COVID-19 guideline which stipulates that only level 14 officers and above should resume work.

“We have a total workforce of 1,310 staff, only 221 of such staff fall into the category of officers from level 14 and above. Every Monday to Friday we attend to nothing less than 500 customers.

“But if you are dealing with mailing company, every certificate we can produce by 2:00 pm, we hand it over to the courier company the same day and the customer can pick it, this system was introduced on Friday and I can assure you between the time it was introduced till now over 400 certificates have been dispatched by the courier companies.

“In the past, some customers will wait for one month without getting the certificate, to the extend some were even accusing our staff of corruption, that our staff were collecting money. The mailing system won’t stop at certificate dispatch, it will extend to all other processes,” he stated.

The RG said the elimination of manual searches by customers as one of another reform measures put in place in the commission.

“In the past we allowed customers to handle our documents. Customers can apply for documents and we will bring out the file, give it to him, he searched, extract the information he needs and return the file. That is compromising the integrity of the information. In so many occasions, we have apprehended lawyers that have stolen particulars for companies that are under investigations or that have disputes among the shareholders.

“Only two weeks ago, a lawyer was apprehended for forging signatures. His specialisation is when documents are queried for irregular signatures, he signed again for these customers,” he explained.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has clarified the categories of stamp duties to be paid by tenants.

The FIRS on Wednesday mandated landlords and property agents to charge 6 percent Stamp Duty on all tenancy and lease agreements.

This decision has generated a strong debate among Nigerians on social media.

However, on Saturday, Director, Tax Policy of the FIRS, Mr. Mathew Gbonjubola during a webinar conference put clarity to the rates.

Mr. Gbonjubola explained that “the 6% stamp duty is for tenancy above 21 years while 7 to 21 years lease or tenancy attracts 3% and less than 7-year tenancy is below 1%.”

Mr. Femi Oluwaniyi, Coordinating Director, Tax Operations Group of the FIRS told our correspondent that stamp duty on rent or lease only applies to new agreements and not to renewals.

According to him, “if a new agreement is drawn up at renewal, that document should be stamped, just like initial Agreement. If, however, the renewal terms are already in the initial Agreement such that no new document is prepared but just payment of the rent for renewal, then no stamping is required.”

During the virtual conference, the panellists said that “Nigerians should accept the fact that the country can no longer rely solely on revenue accruing from its natural resources to fund the budget, hence the need to embrace taxation as the new normal of national fiscal policy.”

Taiwo Oyedele of PriceWaterhouseCoopers in his twitter account stated that “stamp duty on most rent agreements is at the rate of 0.78%, not 6% as being widely circulated.”

According to Oyedele, “based on the Stamp Duties Act, stamp duty on lease or rent agreement is payable as follows: If the lease term is less than 7 years, stamp duty rate is 0.78% (e.g. N780 on N100k rent). For a term of 7+ to 21 years, stamp duty rate is 3% (means N3k for N100k rent). For a term above 21 years, stamp duty rate is 6% (e.g. N6k for N100k rent)

He noted that “given that most people enter into rent agreements for less than 7 years, the applicable stamp duty rate to most people will be 0.78%.”

Oyedele further explained that “if you are an individual renting from another individual, your stamp duty is payable to the state tax authority such as LIRS if you are resident in Lagos. If either the tenant or the landlord is a company, then the duty is payable to FIRS.”

He reiterated that “the obligation to pay stamp duty on rent rests with the tenant. However, FIRS is seeking to appoint the landlord as the agent to collect and remit the tax.”

Some other Stamp Duty types and their rates are Appraisement or Valuation of Property, 1.5%; Certificate of Occupancy, Partnership N1,000 flat rate; Gift of Land, 1.5%; Legal Mortgage, 0.375%; Legal Mortgage (Upstamping), 0.375%; Deed of Conveyance or Transfer on Sale of Property, 1.5%; Memorandum of Understanding (Related to Land, Sales, Joint Venture, Surrender, Subdivision Agreements, 1.5%; Power of Attorney (Irrevocable/Land Related), 1.5%; and Sales Agreement, 1.5%.

By Ella Makondo

Mountain of Fire and Miracles ( MFM) Ministries has threatened to sue the publishers of an online article for libel for publishing falsehood against its General Overseer, Dr. Daniel Kolawole  Olukoya.

The article titled: SCANDAL! General Overseer, Mountain of Fire And Miracles Ministries, In Big Mess in US published under the link, https://Ik.phx.ninja/Nkup was published on July 19, 2020.

In a statement issued on Sunday by the Media Aide the General Overseer of MFM,  Mr. Collins Edomaruse, the church described the article as a malicious falsehood and a mere attempt to attack a man of God.

According to the statement, the publishers of the article have not only opened themselves to a suit in libel but have also commented on a matter which has been judicially determined by a court of competent jurisdiction in the United States of America.

“What the publisher of this falsehood is attempting to portray as recent events is actually the feeble defence of some renegade pastors presented in 2017 to a Court Case commenced in 2017 at the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County of Maryland, USA by Mountain of Fire & Miracles Ministries against Pastors Lawrence Adetunji, Ronke Adetunji.

“Also eleven former members of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Bowie, Maryland USA and Christ The Truth Ministry to recover possession of property and monies belonging to MFM international which those renegade Pastors and the eleven (11) conniving members had sought to snatch upon breaking out from the MFM Fold to form a Christ the Truth Ministries.

“The Circuit Court for Prince George’s County of Maryland delivered judgment in that case in 2019 in which it disbelieved the lies of the Defendants, and granted MFM’s claims in their entirety.”

“It is pertinent to note that  the false publication of those very same stories by Sahara Reporters in 2017 has earned it two suits for Libel – one in the United States of America and the other here in in the High Court of Akwa Ibom State, Uyo, Nigeria.

“Also, that a similar publication by ThisDay newspaper of the same false stories citing Sahara Reporters as its source, as has been done in this present instance, has also earned the publishers of that newspaper a civil suit to recover N500bn as aggravated damages for libel. The matter is currently at trial stage in the High Court of Rivers State, Port Harcourt,” it stated.

The statement noted that the publishers of the recent story which it described as falsehood would be charged to court, noting that the publication was a  breach of  Journalism ethics and would be redressed at the appropriate time.