Headlines
Lagos Taskforce arrests Property developer over illegal structure
Owolola Adebola
A property developer, Chief Moroof Owonla, has been arrested by the Lagos State Task Force officials and taken to their detention centre, Oshodi, Lagos.
His arrest was effected last week Friday afternoon when he was alerted to the fact that his property was a subject of vandalization at Etegbin, a community in the Ojo Local Government Area of the State.
Prior to the invasion and wanton destruction of his property, he had been involved in a running battle with the power brokers at Alausa over a sprawling property in the same community where his filling station was wantonly destroyed.
According to insiders, the victim businessman was said to have detoured his journey to Alausa where he had wanted to meet with the Commissioner for the Environment only for him to meet the men of Kick Against Indiscipline from the same Ministry, destroying his source of living.
He was said to have asked questions from the official vandals who apparently regarded his questions as an affront.
In the heat of the argument, he was reportedly manhandled by the officials who claimed that it was an order from the above.
“Aside from physical assault, Chief Moroof and one of his aides were arrested, detained without a formal charge, while his multimillion naira vehicle was destroyed.
Inquiries at Alausa, the Lagos seat of power, indicated that there had been a flurry of petitions against the location of the now vandalized petrol station by some community members on which the Ministry of environment relied upon to carry out the destruction.
However, Chief Moroof Owonla differed, saying that, the vandalization of his property was done with malice and afterthought.
According to him, “all the necessary documents needed or required by the law have been obtained legally.
”It is a way of calling a dog a bad name in order to hang him.
“It is a way of silencing me so that my initial case against the government,s person at Etegbin, which is pending at Abuja, would be frustrated.
I am a law-abiding citizen after all”.
Owonla revealed further that, immediately after his arrest, his photographs were splashed in the social media in an apparent move to paint him black. “All I need is justice. At the end of darkness, there must be light.
” Darkness cannot overshadow light. I am a child of the light “he said
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Headlines
Alleged N8.5bn Fraud: You Have Case To Answer, Lagos Court Tells NIMASA Staff, Ex-JTF Commander
Justice Ayokunle Faji of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Monday, April 22, 2024, told a former Commander of the Joint Military Task Force, Operation Pulo Shield, Major-General Emmanuel Atewe (rtd.), and a staff of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Kime Engonzu, that they have a case to answer in the alleged N8.5bn money laundering case brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Atewe and Engonzu are standing trial on a 22-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of N8, 537,586,798.58, which also involves a former Director-General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, and Josephine Otuaga, also a staff of NIMASA.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Patrick Ziadeke Akpobolokemi, Major General Emmanuel Atewe, Kime Engozu, and Josphine Otuaga, sometime in 2014, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Court, with intent to defraud, conspired amongst yourselves to commit an offence to wit: conversion of the sum of N8,537,586,798.58 property of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2012 and punishable under Section 15 (3) of the same Act.”
They pleaded “not guilty” to the charges, thereby prompting the commencement of their trial.
In the course of the trial, the prosecution called several witnesses and subsequently closed its case against the defendants.
However, the defendants, rather than open their defence, filed a no-case-submission.
Akpobolokemi had, in a no-case submission, filed by his lawyer, Dr. Joseph Nwobike, SAN, prayed the court for an acquittal without having him present a defence.
Ruling on the no-case submission on Monday, Justice Faji discharged and acquitted Akpobolokemi and Otuaga, the fourth defendant.
Headlines
EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukayode, threatens to resign if Yahaya Bello is not brought to justice.
According to the EFCC Chairman, he had a telephone conversation with Bello offering him ample opportunities to present himself for interrogation by investigators of the EFCC.
“On my honour, I put a call to him to honour him as a former governor.
He told the media executives that the Commission has recovered more than N120billion from fraudsters within six months and secured more than 1300 convictions.
He called on Nigerians to be more dedicated to the nation, insisting that patriotic Nigerians should offer more support to the EFCC because the Commission is crucial to the growth and development of Nigeria.
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