The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, at the weekend said he has written to President Muhammadu Buhari over the Stamp Duty dispute between the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), a subsidiary of his ministry, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to draw the President’s attention to a glaring act of injustice being perpetrated by the FIRS against NIPOST. Fielding reporters’ questions at a media briefing in Abuja, to mark his one year in office, the minister said the controversy was needlessly contrived to undermine the mandate of NIPOST.

“On the issue of Stamp Duty between NIPOST and FIRS, I have engaged the Minister of finance on that issue.

I went to her office twice, and I have written a letter to that effect to the minister, I have written to my boss, Mr President around December and I sent another one around January or February.

“I think it is an official issue and I think it has to be treated as such, and so because of this, I do not want to open another chapter of controversy.

Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited has expressed concerns over what it described as the continuous depletion of Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves.

The multinational stressed that the situation portends serious danger to the nation’s future economic sustainability.

The Managing Director of Total E&P Nigeria, Mr. Mike Sangster, said this while delivering a keynote address during a recent virtual Technical Session of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE).

NAPE had in October last year warned that the reduction in hydrocarbon exploration and steady depletion of the oil and gas reserves would drive Nigeria into “risks of long-term disruption to oil and gas supplies, power generation, collapse of industries and significant loss of revenue”.

Sangster, however, attributed the oil reserves’ depletion to uncertain fiscal and regulatory regimes, policies that make new investments unattractive and uncompetitive, and low oil prices, amongst others.

“As a body of explorationists, you, like every keen observer of the industry, should be concerned that as we deplete our oil and gas reserves as a nation, there are no proportionate exploration activities to ensure long term sustainability and replenishment of the resource that accounts for more than 90 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

“Combination of factors which include uncertain fiscal and regulatory regimes, policies that make new investments unattractive and uncompetitive, low oil prices, etc, are easily to blame for this development,” Sangster said.

He said Total, as a key stakeholder in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, was prepared to work with the government, partners, and other stakeholders to address the bottlenecks to new exploration investments.

According to him, “I expect this session to also focus on these issues, even if this is not the topic of today’s technical meeting.”

Sangster reiterated the oil major’s commitment to continue supporting Nigeria always, particularly in this time of COVID-19 pandemic.

He said: “We are all aware of the raging COVID-19 pandemic which has held the world hostage for several months now. The adverse effect on lives and businesses, especially the oil and gas industry cannot be overemphasised.

“Total rose to the clarion call of the federal government along with its partners, led by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), by contributing to a donation of N21 billion in support of the federal government’s COVID-19 efforts.

“Total’s contribution was $3.2million (N1.2billion). The company also supported the Lagos State Government with critical supplies and medical equipment. In Rivers State, we reached out to our stakeholders by providing medical supplies and support for our host communities and the state government.”

He disclosed that their downstream company, Total Nigeria Plc, donated N50million as part of a combined contribution from the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), under the auspices of the NNPC and provided the Lagos State Government with fuel for logistical support during the pandemic,” he said.

He said Nigeria remains crucial to the Total Group, as the country accounts for around 10 per cent of its equity production, explaining that Total has also invested approximately $10billion in the country in recent years.

Following the order of Justice C.J. Aneke of the Federal High Court, Lagos division, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has taken over assets belonging to Mr. Joshua Abiodun Faleye, the chief promoter of Jabfal Enterprises Limited, over an indebtedness of over N440million.

According to a statement by AMCON, in total compliance to the order and having met all other due processes for an effective enforcement, the corporation before the weekend took effective possession of two properties through its receiver, Benson Reeds Legal Practitioners.

The assets which the government agency took over included properties situate at Plot 9, Block XIV Okuta Elerinla Residential Estate, Akure, Ondo State, and Plot 3, Block IV, Residential Layout, Okuta Elerinda, Akure in Ondo State.

The case between AMCON and Jabfal Enterprises Limited and its promoter has been a protracted litigation issue since the loan was taken during the first and second phases of Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs) purchase from Unity Bank Plc and Intercontinental Bank (now Access Bank Plc) almost 10 years ago.

Since then, AMCON has offered the obligor a good measure of olive branches and explored all avenues to resolve the matter amicably, but the obligor, and his company, Jabfal Enterprises Limited, have remained recalcitrant and unwilling to repay the huge debt to the corporation.

Confirming that AMCON had enforced on the assets in line with the order of the court, Head of Corporate Communications Department, AMCON, Jude Nwauzor, said: “Yes, we enforced on the properties as ordered by the court.”

Providing more insight into the case, Nwauzor said in securing the credit facilities (the term loan and overdraft), the respondents had pledged as securities the properties belonging to Mr. Joshua Abiodun Faleye and executed deeds of legal mortgages in that regard.

According to the statement, sometime in 2010, AMCON, by virtue of a loan purchase and limited service agreement effective on December 31, 2010, was assigned the absolute rights, title, interest, benefits arising and connected with the term loan and overdraft due for the debtors to pay having become due and payable, and they (Jabfal and its promoters) failed, neglected and refused to pay the debt to AMCON.

The AMCON spokesperson said despite their failure to pay the outstanding balance on the term loan and overdraft of N290, 255, 896.77 and N126, 485, 340.27 respectively, the debtors were still in possession of the properties used as collateral for the credit facilities until Justice Aneke’s order, which has made it possible for AMCON to take over the assets.

DEPUTY Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege has urged the Federal Government to shelve alleged plans to scrap the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

He called on Niger Delta people to hold their leaders accountable.

Omo-Agege spoke in Abuja at the weekend when a socio-political organisation, New Era Forum, visited him.

A statement by his media aide, Yomi Odunuga, described alleged moves to scrap the programme as premature, ill-timed and capable of truncating the fragile peace in the region.

The statement reads: “I don’t think the timing is right for the Amnesty Programme to be scrapped. We have challenges right now in the Northeast, the ravages of Boko Haram, banditry in Northwest and Northcentral.

“These are enough challenges. I don’t believe this is the time to reawaken the militant agitation in Niger Delta; it is premature and ill-timed.

“That is not to say this programme must stay in perpetuity. But I don’t believe the goals set have been completely achieved.”

Omo-Agege also urged the people to hold their leaders to account.

According to him, leaders in Niger Delta have failed in utilising funds released for the region’s development.

“I have been privy to all budgetary estimates that were passed in the eighth and in ninth Assembly. All that we are entitled to as a region has been given to us, but we have failed Mr. President because we have not held those entrusted with the resources accountable.

“It is left for us to ask questions on how funds released for our region’s development have been utilised. It is left for us to identify the projects that we believe will best meet our people’s needs…”

Group leader Sunday Onyewonsa called for a security summit to fashion out solutions to challenges facing the region.

He stressed the need to declare a state of emergency on Niger Delta roads.

Onyewonsa called on Omo-Agege to prevail on the Federal Government not to scrap Amnesty, saying it should rather be overhauled to run till end of the administration.

The Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has described the recent closure of hundreds of shops belonging to Nigerians in Ghana by the Ghanaian authorities as a clear case of official endorsement of xenophobia.

Abaribe, in a press release that was issued yesterday by his Spokesman, Mr. Uchenna Awom, stated that the latest acts against Nigerian traders in Ghana were also criminal and very disturbing.

He said that Ghana’s action against nationals of other countries, particularly Nigerians, points to state endorsement of xenophobic attacks.

“The authorities in that country needs to prove us wrong by putting a halt to further closure of the shops and attacks on Nigerians in compliance to the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) protocol,” he said.

According to him, the latest actions of the Ghanaian government called to question their real intentions towards Nigeria and Nigerians, despite the fact that Nigeria had through her Foreign Affairs Minister, reached an agreement with Ghana Investment Promotion Council on this matter.

“And now they are reopening the matter. So, what has changed? Nigeria, I believe, has done her best in the promotion of good neighbourlines. It is now Ghana’s turn to reciprocate and allow our people in that country to carry out their legitimate businesses unhindered,” Abaribe stated.

He described Ghana’s recent regulations, which stipulated that retail trade is the exclusive preserve of Ghanaians, as a willful denigration of sub-regional brotherhood and one that is in clear conflict with ECOWAS protocol.

“So, what’s the point having a economic community if at the end of the day each country resolves to make laws and regulations that are in contradiction with the binding protocol. This is quite absurd as it negates the spirit that propelled the formation of ECOWAS in the first place”, Abaribe added.

The ranking senator urged the ECOWAS secretariat to brace up and come clear in the prevailing circumstances in order to address the member-country’s behaviour and it’s far reaching implications in its protocol, particularly the issue of free trade and movement among the peoples of the West African sub-region.

By Olayinka Abdurrazzaq

The rule of law and democracy has become the major features of any civilised society, without which anarchy and tyrant may delve in which can call for unrest and distruption of a nation.

In Nigeria, the problem of law is lesser than that of convention. It has gotten to the extent that law is no more in active where the convention is acting. The illustration is the exact of what is happening in Nigeria and it is really affecting the practice of democracy.

Convetion and Law are two different things. Convention should be passive where the law is active. But it is pathetic that the reverse is the case in the country of ours. The fear of not violating a non-enforceable convention has made us dust the face of law which its enforcement is beyond a doubt.

This system has become rampant in Nigeria. If the grundnorm (Constitution) is not saved from the punishment of convention, what will be that of NBA Constitution? The one that receives its validity from the grund norm.

Though there is no provision in the NBA Constitution which provides that an NBA’s president must a SAN, yet the convention and custom that NBA’s president must be a SAN has made us forget the settled provision of constitution that provides for universal suffrage for almost 30 years.

The victory of Akpata is not only a victory but a memorable history. His victory can be likened to that of President Buhari, who defeated a party rulling for 16 years of unprecedented. NBA has been rulling for thirty years by SANs. Change has now come to reset the long time history and set new goals for the young lawyers.

This result represents a sudden change in the order, as Akpata is  the first non-SAN to lead the Nigerian Bar Association in years. Jubilations and rejoice from members of the NBA indicate that there has been a long-standing hunger for a paradigm shift. And now it appears many of the association’s members have a good reason to be excited.

Congratulations, dear boss. I wish you an outstanding success in this assidous task you are about to head. May God lead you through to have a breakthrough administration. Once again, congratulations Olumide Akpata. Esq, the new elected President of the NBA.

• Olayinka Abdurrazzaq is a 300 level law student, University of Ilorin/ Writer.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Chinonye Obiagwu, believes it is unnecessary for the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to apologise to Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, after he was disinvited as a speaker in one of the panel sessions at the lawyers’ conference.

Obiagwu, who is also a member of the NBA National Executive Council (NEC), stated this during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

In addition to this, he recommended that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice and some other government officials should be barred from attending the event.

“I must say that the apology of the present NBA is completely unnecessary because NEC has taken a decision; making an apology does not arise at all,” the senior lawyer said.

He added, “I will have gone further to disinvite people like the Attorney General of the Federation because we have on record more than 50 orders of the court that have been disobeyed by this government and how will you get the Attorney General of that nation to come to NBA conference; the Attorney-General that says national security takes precedence over the rule of law and human rights.”

According to Obiagwu, NBA is a pressure group and the motto of the association is to promote the rule of law.

He explained that the NEC did not just disinvite Governor El-Rufai because of the killings in Southern Kaduna, but the decision was taken also because of his alleged consistent disobedience to court orders.

The legal practitioner insisted that it was the right step to take, stressing that NBA should not allow in its fold, any government official that consistently disobeys court orders.

On the lingering crisis that has claimed many lives in Southern Kaduna, he stressed that the basis for disinviting the governor was ‘very substantial’.

He stated that the situation could be considered as genocide, wondering why the government, in its second term, and “has done little or nothing to curtail the killings”.

Obiagwu said, “We don’t have records of people who have been properly investigated or prosecuted for huge, massive, and systematic massacre going on in Southern Kaduna.”

“It is very appalling that a village will be razed down in a state where a Chief Executive is the Chief Executive Officer and we don’t see the concerted effort, a commitment to bringing to justice those responsible for those massacres.

“So, how will NBA, as a pressure group, justify bringing a Chief Executive that has taken no stand?” he questioned.

Culled from ChannelsTv

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to freeze all transactions in 65 bank accounts linked with 12 firms and a man suspected to be involved in the manipulation of the nation’s foreign exchange market.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed gave the order while ruling was on the motion ex-parte marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/979/2020 filed in the name of the Governor of the CBN and argued by former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mike Aondoakaa (SAN).

Justice Mohamed, in the ruling, granted the CBN 90 days, in the first instance, to investigate the activities firms, who the CBN Governor alleged were involved in the importation of goods not eligible for foreign exchange.

The CBN Governor further alleged t activities of the firms and an individual identified as Adekunle Olusola Alonge are “the cause of the current volatility and imbalance in the foreign exchange regime in Nigeria with the attendant negative impact on the economy.”

In the ruling, Justice Mohammed said: “An order is made freezing all transactions in the bank accounts of the defendants/respondents listed on the motion paper, for a period of 90 days in the first instance, pending the outcome of the investigation currently being conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“It is also directed that, if the applicant could not conclude investigation and its inquiry within the 90 days given by the court, it can seek an extension of the order, upon an affidavit filed to show the extent of the investigation and the need for the court to extend the period.

“It is further ordered that any person who is affected by this freezing order may apply to the court to be heard in this matter.”

Justice Mohammed then adjourned till November 25 for report of investigation.

Listed in the motion as owners of the affected accounts are: Adekunle Olusola Alonge; Armadillo Integrated Services; FTM Capital Management Limited; Sonora Asset Management Limited; Sonora Capital & Inv Ltd; Sonora Capital Investment Limited; Sonora Capital & Investment Limited and Sonora Capital and Investment Limited.

Others are: Sonora Capital Investment Limited; Sonora Consult; Sonora Energy & Allied Services Limited; Sonora Energy and Allied Services Limited; VIP Impress Hollywood Limited and Vlisco Nigeria Limited.

Aondoakaa had, while arguing the motion, said the affected firms belonged to some Chinese nationals, who were able to access foreign exchange with the invention of the highest levels of governments in Nigeria and China with the promise to engage in the production of textile materials in Nigeria.

He stated that after accessing the foreign exchange, the firms allegedly resorted to smuggling textile materials from neighbouring countries into Nigeria.

The ex-AGF said the investigation being conducted by the CBN was in collaboration with authorities of the Benin Republic, which he said, were also conducting similar investigation.

Aondoakaa had prayed the court for 180 days but had 90 days granted in the first instance by the judge.

A Deputy Manager in the Governor’s Department, CBN, Innocent Okocha stated, in a supporting affidavit, that “the investigation being carried out concerns what has been discovered to be serious infractions by the defendants/respondents in connection with some transactions, and non-documentation by the defendants/respondent in violation of the CBN circular TED/FEM/GEN/01/010 on “Inclusion of some imported goods and services on the list of items not valid for foreign exchange in Nigeria’s Foreign Exchange Market” of June 23, 2015.

“More specifically, there is a grave allegation that the defendants//respondents are engaged in accessing/procuring of foreign exchange from the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market in furtherance of the smuggling/importation of goods which fall under goods and services prohibited under the circular referenced in paragraph (b) above.

“The aforesaid transactions undertaken by the defendants/respondents using their bank accounts can cause significant financial loss to members of the public if Ieft unchecked.

“A freezing order of this honourable court in respect of the defendants/respondents’ aforesaid accounts would also enable the CBN to investigate the activities of the defendants/respondents to a logical conclusion.

“The activities of the defendants/respondents being investigated are the cause of the current volatility and imbalance in the foreign exchange regime in Nigeria with the attendant negative impact on the economy.”

A cleric, Bishop Godfrey Onah, has blamed Christians in the National Assembly (NASS) for recent passage of the 2020 Companies and Allied Matters Bill (CAMA) signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Onah, who is of the Nsukka Catholic Diocese, said in a remark during the Sunday Mass that if Christians in NASS had opposed the bill it would not have been passed into law.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on Aug. 7, signed the CAMA bill into law, giving provision for religious bodies and charity organisations to be regulated by the registrar of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), and a supervising minister.

“The question many Christians have been asking is, where are Christian legislators during the debate of this bill and its passage in the National Assembly?

“Because, if they had opposed this bill on the floor of the house it will not have been passed and sent to the president for assent.

“I blame Christian legislators for doing nothing and allowing the passage of the 2020 CAMA Act,” he said.

The cleric, however, wondered what Federal Government wanted to achieve in monitoring how the finances of churches in the country are managed when it contributed no dime to the church.

“Government should focus and monitor its ministries, agencies and other government institutions where it budgets billions of Naira annually and not church offerings.

“Had it been that government gave allocations to churches and decided to monitor its usage, nobody will question government,” he said.

Onah urged government as a matter of urgency to withdraw the law and amend it, since the 2020 CAMA posed a threat to churches in the country.

“It is unfair that the church is grouped among Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), in the country that should be monitored and controlled by Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

“The most annoying part of it is that the act empowers the CAC to suspend board of trustees including those of churches suspected to have mismanaged its finance and appoint interim managers to manage their affairs.

“If this law is implemented, what it means is that churches in the country have been reduced to ordinary secular organisations,” the cleric noted.(NAN)

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the weekend said it would continue to sustain the ongoing strike until the Federal Government addresses all its demands.

Speaking at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, said the government must first implement the report of the need assessment it conducted in 2012.

Ogunyemi, who spoke during ASUU’s interactive session with critical stakeholders to enlighten public on the struggles of union, said their demands were genuine and in the interest of the nation.

He said students would be the major beneficiaries of their demands and appealed to them to show understanding.

He said: “Students who are our children and partners in progress should show understanding, what we are asking from the government are in their interest and the interest of the nation, good hostel accommodation, good classroom blocks that can engender effective learning, laboratories where cutting edge research can be carried out and offices that can drive the process of quality university education.

“So what we are asking of the government are not baseless things, but those things that in 2012, the government conducted during a needs assessment survey and found out that there is widespread rot and decay in the university system. We are asking that the government implement its own report of 2012.”

Ogunyemi lamented lecturers were still receiving the same salary scale of 2009 in 2020, vowing if such issues were not addressed, the strike would continue.

He said: “Salary issues are still there, we have not fully addressed that, it appears that some forces in government are bent on suffering our members by withholding their salaries. But we believe that once we sort out the issues of Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution, other issues will fall in place.

“The 2009 agreement we had with government stipulates that that agreement would be reviewed every three years, but since then, we have not been able to review the salary scale and that is why we are saying that the negotiation we started with government in 2017 ought to have been completed and with the completion of that negotiation process.

“A new salary scale should be in place and we are insisting that the process is completed before this ongoing strike is suspended among other things.”