By Simeon Ndaji

CO-CHAIRMAN, National Consultative Front, Professor Pat Utomi, yesterday, expressed worry over the assault on freedom of expression in the country, urging Nigerians to resist a return to dictatorship.

Utomi, in a statement, said: “If we resisted the military, surely, the people can resist civilians bound towards fascism.

“My co-chair of the National Consultative Front, Mr. Ghali Na’Abba and Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, were invited by the Department of State Security, DSS, on account of remarks they made. For Dr. Mailafia, it was a second journey within a week.

“History shows us that such invitations bear ominous foreboding because freedom of expression is usually the first victim in the decent toward totalitarianism. Check the trends in the early days of Hitler’s East Germany.

“Much blood has been shed to prevent our country from under-served fate of a totalitarian order. That blood flow includes that of General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, the annulment of the elections of June 12, 1993, and the life of Chief MKO Abiola, who we have come to honour posthumously, including many undergraduates, like Kyle Adepeju of the University of Ibadan 48 years ago. Adepeju was shot by the police and probably would have been a grandfather today. Should his grandchildren be denied the freedom he gave his life for?

“These security harassments of citizens exercising their fundamental human rights to express themselves and request accountability from those who ostensibly represent them are coming one month to the day the United Nations set aside, September 15, to mark the International Democracy Day, leads me to call on the global community, from the Secretary General of the United Nations, the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court, and our development partners to note development in Nigeria, and prepare to act appropriately.”

Vanguard

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has lambasted the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Governing Council Chairman, Wale Babalakin.

ASUU told him that the hire and fire of a Vice-Chancellor was not his sole right.

The council had sacked UNILAG VC, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe and named Prof. Theophilus Omololu Soyombo (Faculty of Social Sciences) as replacement.

ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday insisted that due process was not followed.

“We are shocked not because we regard Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe as a saint but for the fact that all available evidence indicates that he was not taken through the due process.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Babalakin should be reminded that the knowledge of procedures and process for appointment and removal of Vice-Chancellors is not the exclusive preserve of legal luminaries,” NAN quoted him as saying.

The “legal luminaries” was a veiled description of Babalakin, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

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David Oyedepo, the Presiding Bishop, Living Faith Church Worldwide has shouted blue murder over the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA, that gives the supervising minister the power to remove the board of trustees of churches without recourse to the court.

In hos words: “In the document, they said the registrar-general can remove the trustees without recourse to the court. Don’t try it. This must be from somebody who woke up from the wrong side of the bed after dreaming. The person must have drafted that aspect in the bill as their custom is…I am 51 years old in this thing (Christianity), don’t try it. I have been with Jesus for some time and I am sent as a prophet to nations. That a minister can remove the trustees and close the accounts of the church is.”

Is there any difference between the core provisions in this CAMA amendment and that of the Charity act of the UK? Critics asked. According to Otunba Yemisi Shyllon, a lawyer and engineer, “Was it not the British that brought our Christian faith to us?”

According to Mr Ife Babalola, writer and public commentator who has experienced the Western and Nigerian worlds, argued: “There is hardly any difference between the core provisions of our laws and those of western democracies. The difference is in the failure of our institutions in enforcing those regulations as practiced elsewhere. My personal opinion has always been that with the multitude of religious organisations and other NGOs in Nigeria, the establishment of a Charity Commission independent of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is long overdue.”
Below, for example, according to him, is introducing The UK Charity Commission:

“We register and regulate charities in England and Wales, to ensure that the public can support charities with confidence. We are an independent, non-ministerial government department accountable to Parliament.

As registrar, we are responsible for maintaining an accurate and up-to-date register of charities. This includes deciding whether organisations are charitable and should be registered. We also remove charities that are not considered to be charitable, no longer exist or do not operate.”

However, Oyedepo, on Tuesday waved all arguments off, saying:“I told you, if I ever preach a message where there is no laughter, don’t listen to it. I’ve been laughing like this since 1976 till forever. Since I found Matthew 6:33, I’ve been laughing at the devil, smiling as I serve. You insult me, I enjoy it. You insult me and I stopped going to work because you insulted me, I will be a big fool.

“I am going to work and you say, “see his leg.” Yes, I thank God for my leg. “See his nose.’ He (God) made it and He did it beautifully. “See how short he is.” That’s the size He made me for so I can save more cloths.

“He that sitteth in Heaven shall laugh (Psalm 2:4). If you are not laughing, you are not one of them sitting in Heaven because in Heaven, he that sits there laughs and we are seated in Heavenly places, what should we do? Laugh
As you serve: laugh

“As they insult you: laugh; As they mock you: laugh; As they abuse you: laugh. Anybody insulting me is wasting his mouth: I didn’t hear (the insult). Even if I heard it, it won’t pain me. Anybody praising me is just expressing his opinion

“I didn’t hear it and if I heard, it won’t blow my head because if you praise anything in me, it is Jesus. The greater in me is the One you are praising and you think I’m the one. Thank God for the privilege of stewardship. Ask God for grace to maximize this awesome season in your life. God is changing people’s stories, He has you in mind.”

The federal government on Tuesday arraigned a British national, Mr James Nolan, before the Federal High Court, Abuja, over alleged complicity in the failed gas deal between Nigeria and an Irish firm, Process and Industrial Development (P&ID).

The failed deal entered in 2010 is threatening the seizure of Nigeria’s assets abroad to the tune of over $9 billion.

The British Arbitration Court, by a majority of two to one judgment in 2017 awarded the sum of $6.597 billion together with interest at the rate of 7 percent starting from March 20, 2013 until payment is made.

The 7 per cent interest reflects what P&ID would have paid to borrow the money or earned by investing the money in Nigeria.

Following Nigeria’s failure to pay the fine, the court on August 16, 2019, made an order enforcing the tribunal’s final award which now stands at about $9.6 billion.

In making this award, the court noted that the damages awarded were purely compensatory and not intended to punish the Nigerian government.

The court also confirmed that there were no public policy grounds on which the award should not be enforced. This decision converts the arbitration award to a legal judgment.

Nigeria however appealed the ruling and the appeal is currently being heard by a London court, where Nigeria is claiming that the deal was fraudulently entered into.

In Nigeria, the federal government last year commenced the prosecution of those suspected to have played one role or another in the P&ID alleged scam.

The federal government had arraigned Nolan, two directors of P&ID and a former director in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in different suits to bring to justice all those involved in the alleged scam.

Nolan, since his arraignment last year, has been in custody of the Nigeria Correctional Services due to his inability to perfect his bail.

However, the federal government on Tuesday arraigned him, two others said to be at large (Adams Quinn and Niel Murray) alongside six other firms.

Nolan, Quinn and Murray were charged as directors of the firms.

The six firms are Ecophoenix Nigeria Limited, Babcock Electrical Projects Limited, Marshpearl Nigeria Limited, L. I. R. Resources Nigeria Limited, Kristholm Nigeria Limited and Lurgi Consult Limited.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the six separate charges accused the defendants of failing to declare their activities as specified under the Money Laundering Act 2011 as well as failure to develop programmes to combat money laundering, amongst others.

While Nolan pleaded not guilty to all the charges in the six different suits, the trial judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, entered a not guilty plea for the six firms even when they were not represented by any lawyer.

Following his not-guilty plea, his lawyer, Mr Paul Erokoro (SAN), moved an oral application for his bail.

Erokoro informed the court that his client has already been admitted to bail by the same court in a sister case and urged the court to recognize the bail, particularly as varied by the Court of Appeal on July 7 this year.

The counsel to the EFCC, Mr Bala Sanga, however did not oppose the request for bail, stating that the major concern of the prosecution is the presence of the defendants in court throughout the trial.

In a short ruling, Justice Mohammed adopted the conditions as varied by the Court of Appeal in admitting Nolan to bail and adjourned till October 5, 2020 for trial.

Process and Industrial Development (P&ID), a company based in the British Virgin Islands, had on January 11, 2010, signed a gas supply and processing agreement with Nigeria.

The firm, according to the contract, was to build a gas facility in Cross River State where it would process wet gas supplied to it by Nigeria.

P&ID was expected to process the wet gas by removing natural gas liquids and return approximately 85 per cent of it to the government in the form of lean gas, to be returned at no cost to Nigeria.

Nigeria, on the other hand, was to construct pipelines and arrange facilities for transporting the wet gas to the facility to be built by P&ID.

However, trouble started when the Irish firm accused Nigeria of breach of contract and dragged the country to a London arbitration, where it claimed that it had invested $40 million in the project even though it had not acquired the land or built any facilities for gas processing.

It further claimed damages of another $6.6 billion being the amount of the net income it would have earned over the 20-year period of the agreement.

But in tackling P&ID, Nigeria stated that the firm never commenced building the gas processing facility in the first instance, adding that the entire agreement was a fraud.

A legal practitioner and social critique, Emperor Ogbonna, was on Tuesday admitted to bail by a Federal High Court, Abuja after six months detention by the Department of State Services (DSS).

Justice Taiwo Taiwo granted the applicant bail while ruling in a motion on notice argued by a foremost human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) and A. A. Malik (SAN) on his behalf.

Ozekhome had in the motion drawn the attention of Justice Taiwo to the fact that his client had been held unlawfully by the DSS since March 24, 2020

The senior lawyer argued that the offence of the detained critique was his alleged criticism of certain policies of President Muhammadu Buhari and his conclusion that citizens may revolt due to alleged harsh living conditions unless the federal government provides remedy.

Ozekhome, while pleading that the detained lawyer be admitted to liberal bail conditions, said that the fundamental rights of the detainee had been brutally breached with the six months detention.

He urged the court to invoke constitutional provisions which presume the applicant innocent until proven otherwise, so as to allow him go on bail.

Responding, the lawyer to the federal government, Mr Isah Abubakar, opposed the bail on the grounds that the applicant will escape justice in view of the gravity of his alleged offence.

However, in a bench ruling, Justice Taiwo agreed with Ozekhome that the law presumed the applicant innocent until found guilty by a competent court and that the fundamental rights of the applicant to freedom of liberty had been breached with his detention for more than the period prescribed by law.

The judge therefore admitted him to bail in the sum of N2 million with two sureties in like sum.

Among others, the sureties must provide evidence of tax payment and one of them must have property in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with verifiable documents.

He however ordered that the applicant be remanded in prison custody pending the time he will perfect his bail.

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Internet celebrity Ismaila Mustapha, aka Mompha, Tuesday demanded N5million from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for ‘unlawful re-arrest and detention.’

Mompha, on trial at the Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly laundering N33billion, was re-arrested last Friday by the EFCC.

The anti-graft agency explained that although Mompha was granted N100million bail last November, he was wanted in connection with fresh cyber fraud allegations.

But in a suit filed by his counsel Mr. Gboyega Oyewole (SAN) Mompha challenged his fresh arrest and detention.

He claimed that the Commission acted “without any plausible reason and/or explanation”, during his visit to the EFCC’s Ikoyi office, to retrieve several items seized from him last October 19.

The items – five wristwatches, one Apple Air pod, one iPhone eight mobile phones and one pair of sunglasses, were ordered to be released to him by Justice Mohammed Liman on the grounds that the EFCC did not list them as exhibits in court.

Mompha is praying the court to declare that his re-arrest and detention by the EFCC was unjustifiable and unlawful.

He is equally urging the court to declare that the continued seizure of the items violated his right to own property under Section 44 of the constitution.

He further prayed the court to order the EFCC not only to free him but also to give him back the seized items and pay him N5m damages.

A litigation officer in the office of his lawyer, Kayode Adeboye, contended that Mompha’s arrest was baseless because he had been granted bail by the court and never absconded.

According to Adeboye, in line with the bail conditions, Mompha had been reporting at the EFCC office fortnightly without defaulting.

The court has yet to fix a date to hear the suit.