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National Assembly berates transportation ministry for poor implementation of 2022 budget

—–as Sambo seeks approval for N92.6 billion budget for 2023 fiscal year
The Eyewitness reporter         
The Ministry of Transportation has come under scathing attacks from the National Assembly over poor implementation and utilisation of the 2022 approved budget for the ministry.
Expressing the disappointment of the lawmakers on the matter, the Chairman, the National Assembly Committee on Land and Marine, Sen. Danjuma Goje, noted that the budget was not implemented within the budget year despite early approval by the National Assembly.
Senator Goge made this observation Thursday during the presentation of the 2023 budget of N92.6billion of the Ministry of Transportation by Mu’azu Jaji Sambo.
“You see, the National Assembly has been able to achieve approval of the budgets within the budget circle; for three years, we have been able to approve these budgets by the end of December.
” But surprisingly, the implementation of the budget does not correspond with the urgency to which we attach in approving these budgets”, he said.
Earlier, the Minister has presented a budget of Ninety Two Billion, Six Hundred and Thirty-Three Million, Six Hundred and Eight Thousand, Two Hundred and eighteen  (N92,633,608,218) Naira to the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives on Land and Marine Transport for the Ministry and its agencies for 2023 fiscal year.
The Minister who made this known at the budget presentation on Thursday at the National Assembly in Abuja, also presented the 2022 Budget Performance, of the Ministry which was N147,549,080,677 out of which N52,134,727,253.22 representing
35.33%  has been released and  N38,904,208,345 has been utilized as of 25th October 2022.
Also, he informed the senators that the Ministry through the support of the Joint Committee is implementing the Nigeria Railway Modernization project and progressively expanding the Railway Network through yearly budgetary appropriations, following the challenges being faced in securing counterpart funding through loans.
Furthermore, he disclosed that the implementation of the Kaduna – Kano, Port Harcourt- Maiduguri and Kano-Maradi segments of the Railway Modernization is ongoing with the  Federal Government counterpart funding in the 2022 appropriation while expecting the Federal Ministry of Finance to conclude negotiations of the loans with the Infrastructure Development Finance Institutions of the Chinese, Portuguese and Turkish origin to implement the projects.
While soliciting for favourable budget consideration, the Minister said: “Permit me to also report that the Lagos – Ibadan segment of the Lagos – Kano and Itakpe to Warrii railway project are fully operational and receiving patronage from the general public.
” To reach practical completion on these projects, some aspects of works, including the construction of  Overpass Bridges, connection to the National Grid and other ancillary provisions have to be completed.
” Therefore, adequate funds need to be provided in the 2023 budget to facilitate the practical completion of the projects”.
On the unfortunate incident on Abuja- Kaduna bound train, the Minister said:
“while recording successes achieved in the Railway Subsector, permit me to also mention the sad occurrence of the Abuja – Kaduna Rail incident.
” With the release of those abducted, the Ministry plans to commence operation on the line, but not without taking proper precautions by installing necessary security gadgets to monitor the line and forestall a reoccurrence.
” It is our hope that Distinguish Senators and Honourable Members would assist the Ministry in achieving this plan”.
The Minister used the opportunity to further emphasize that the Ministry as part of its mandate has continued to pursue the implementation of Government policies in the Land Transport Sub-sector in the country, including issues relating to the  Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) protocols and conventions entered into in respect of the Subsector.
Speaking on the National Freight Offices at Iiela, Sambo said: “we have achieved significant progress in completing the ongoing National Freight Offices at Iiela Jibiya and Idiroko in addition to other Land Transport Projects and with your support, the capturing of all these projects and programs as proposed before you in the 2023 Budget proposal will assist us further towards actualizing the desired goals”.
However, Senator Goje assured that the Committees will support the Minister and the agencies to succeed.
He also enjoined them to see that the budget is implemented faithfully “to deliver government intentions and democracy dividends to Nigerians”.
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Alleged N8.5bn Fraud: You Have Case To Answer, Lagos Court Tells NIMASA Staff, Ex-JTF Commander

The Eyewitness Reporter 

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.

 He, however, ruled that Atewe, the second defendant, and Engonzu, the third defendant, should open their defence in counts 12 to 22 of the charge.
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EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukayode, threatens to resign if Yahaya Bello is not brought to justice.

Ola Olukayode, EFCC Chairman
The Eyewitness Reporter
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,  (EFCC) Mr Ola Olukoyede has expressed his determination to bring the fleeing former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello to justice, vowing to resign if he fails to do so.
The EFCC boss made the pledge on Tuesday in Abuja while addressing media executives at the Corporate Headquarters of the commission.
Bello has been on the run and declared wanted by the anti-graft agency over an allegation of money laundering to the tube of N80,246,470,089.88 (Eighty Billion, Two Hundred and Forty-Six Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand and  Eighty Nine Naira, Eighty Eight Kobo).
The EFCC boss declared that the fleeing former Kogi State Governor can only run but cannot hide.
He also revealed how he made personal efforts to invite the suspect to respond to investigations regarding his alleged involvement in money laundering allegations.

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 said, I can’t come, claiming that a certain lady has surrounded the EFCC with over 100 Journalists to embarrass or intimidate him and all that stuff.
“I said if that is your fear, I will make you come directly to my floor. I will invite my operatives to interrogate you in my own office.
” What could be more honourable than that? Do you know what he said? ‘Can’t they come to my village?’ My Director of Investigations also sent a message to him”, he said.
The EFCC’s boss said he was worried at the report of larceny available to the EFCC concerning the former governor.
 “A sitting governor, because he knew he was going, he moved money directly from the government’s account to a bureau-de-change to pay his children’s school fees in advance, $720,000, in anticipation that he was going to leave government house”, he said.
He denied the claim that he was being used against Bello, saying he inherited the case file on the suspect.
Olukoyede also disclosed that the EFCC, in its bid to ensure the safety and stability of the foreign exchange market, has uncovered a new fraudulent scheme called P2P, peer to peer trading scheme.
The platform, according to him, is operating outside the official banking and financial corridors, with more than 300 (Three hundred) accounts linked to it already frozen by the EFCC.
He disclosed that if the EFCC has not moved against these Ponzi operators, the Nigerian economy would have once again crashed.
He reaffirmed the commitment of the  Commission to the economic growth and development of the country,   promising that the EFCC would not relent in the exercise of its mandate.

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.

‘’If you support the EFCC, you are working for the growth of Nigeria. We all have stakes in the well-being of our nation”, he said.
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EFCC denies disobeying court order on Yahaya Bello

Ola Olukayode, EFCC Chairman

The Eyewitness Reporter 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) has denied the widely held claim that it flouted a court order restraining it from arresting or harassing Yahaya Bello, the former Governor of Kogi State.

The EFCC said this clarification became necessary against the backdrop of arguments and counter-arguments on whether the anti-graft agency has disobeyed a court order concerning the botched arrest of the former governor of Kogi State.

In a Press Statement signed by the EFCC’s Acting Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, the Commission clearly pointed out that though Bello sought refuge in a fundamental rights enforcement action through an order granted by  Justice Isa Jamil Abdulallahi of the Kogi State High Court, the order did not vitiate or nullify an order made by the Federal High Court for the arrest of the former governor for the purpose of his arraignment.“The enrolled Order of the Kogi State High Court only granted an order to enforce Bello’s right to personal liberty and freedom of movement, it didn’t preclude the Federal High Court ‘to make any Order as it may deem just in the determination of the rights of the Applicant and the Respondent as may be submitted to her for consideration and determination”,  he said.

He further stressed that “The Order made by the Federal  High Court for the arrest of Mr. Yahaya Bello for the purpose of his arraignment is not in conflict with the Order of the Kogi State High Court.

“The case before the Federal High Court is a criminal charge which is different from the fundamental rights enforcement action that is the subject of an appeal”.

Uwujaren pointed out that the EFCC had a shining track record in the prosecution of politically exposed persons and would continue to exercise its mandate in the overall interest of the nation.

” He admonished Bello to turn himself in and answer to the charges preferred against him by the Commission.

He called on all patriotic Nigerians to lend their voices in support of the Commission stressing that ” the EFCC will not relent in its quest to wrestle corruption to the ground”

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