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
I was never in charge of maritime industry —Saraki

Eyewitness reporter
It could also be recalled that Amaechi had made a couple of visits to the Lekki deep seaport, even on a Sunday, before the presidential visit, none of which Saraki attended.
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” Gbemi is also made of sterner stuff given her role in the “Otoge” political tsunami in Kwara which eventually swept off Bukola Saraki, her blood brother, from the political dominance in Kwara politics, a role which earned her the present position in the present dispensation.
“Today is my fifth week of assuming the leadership of the Ministry of Transportation”, she declared last week Friday in Lagos.
“We came to take stock of the sector. We had taken the stock of the Road sector,” she said.
Giving her summation of her findings at the end of the tour, she declared” Apapa and Tin Can ports are in terrible need of repairs.
“We will go and come back for repairs.
“We have the short, medium, and long-term plans for this. We need to start with rehabilitation here. Another problem here is power”
The Minister met various groups who are stakeholders in the industry.
Among them are women groups in maritime, terminal operators, stevedores, maritime workers union groups, haulage, and transport operators, maritime lawyers, freight forwarders, and maritime press.
Headlines
We have political will to ensure CVFF is disbursed—-Saraki

The Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Rukayyat Gbemisola Saraki has expressed willingness to muster the necessary political will to ensure the controversial Cabotage Vessels Financing Funds (CVFF) are disbursed before she leaves office.
“In the course of this visit, I have also interacted with so many stakeholders, including the indigenous ship owners.
“It is really a shame that this fund has not been disbursed, I learnt the value is $350 million now and I am not sure any part of it is missing.
She added that the disbursement would follow the approval by the National Assembly after beneficiaries must have been shortlisted.
Headlines
P&ID fraud : Court convicts, winds up Marqott Nigeria Limited.

Owolola Adebola
Justice D.U Okorowo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has convicted and wound up Marqott Nigeria Limited, one of the 30 companies associated with the Process and Industrial Development Limited, P & ID, for money laundering.
The company was convicted on Thursday, June 16, 2022, after being found guilty of four-count charges bordering on money laundering preferred against it by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Count one of the charges read: “That you, Marqott Nigeria Limited, being a designated Non-financial Institution; and Giovanni Beccarelli, Valentina Fantoli, and Dimitri Duca, being directors of and signatories to the bank account of Marqott Nigeria Limited, sometime in September 2014, in Abuja, within the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, failed to comply with the requirements of submitting to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, a declaration of activities of Marqott Nigeria Limited contrary to Section 16(1) (f) read together with Section 5(1)(a)(ii) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011(as amended and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 16(2)(b) of the same Act.”
Count two read: “That you, Marqott Nigeria Limited, being a designated Non-financial Institution; and Giovanni Beccarelli, Valentina Fantoli, and Dimitri Duca, being directors of and signatories to the bank account of Marqott Nigeria Limited, sometime in September 2014, in Abuja, within the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, failed to develop programs to combat money laundering and other illegal acts, to wit: failure to designate at management level a compliance officer within any strata of Marqott Nigeria Limited, contrary to Section 16(1)(f) read together with Section 9(1)(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 16 (2)(b) of the same Act”.
At the point of the first arraignment on February 7, 2022, the defendant pleaded “not guilty” to the charges, setting the stage for a full trial.
In the course of the trial, the EFCC presented many witnesses and tendered many documents as exhibits.
In his judgment, Justice Okorowo found Marqott Nigeria Limited guilty of all the four-count charges and convicted it accordingly. He also ordered that the company be wound up and its entire assets forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Marqott was first arraigned on Monday, February 7, 2022, for being an accomplice in the $9.6bn Gas Supply and Processing Agreement between the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and P&ID.
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