A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Lagos.
News correspondent learnt that the ex-minister, who rejoined the All Progressives Congress in September, was brought to the Lagos Zonal Office of the anti-graft agency.
The details of the allegations against him were sketchy but the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed Fani-Kayode’s arrest by operatives.
“I think something like that happened,” he said and declined to comment further.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, insisted that there was no “massacre” at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020.
Mohammed, who also described the leaked report of the Lagos State panel as fake, stated this at a press conference in Abuja.
The nine-member panel had in its leaked report alleged that at least nine persons were killed at the Lekki toll plaza when soldiers and policemen stormed the scene to disperse protesters on October 20, 2020.
However, Mohammed described the allegations as “tales by moonlight”.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said this, at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update in Abuja, stating that about 30 to 40 million Nigerians, who are the poorest in the country, would have access to the grant.
She said, “The subsidies regime in the [oil] sector remains unsustainable and economically disingenuous.
“Ahead of the target date of mid-2022 for the complete elimination of fuel subsidies, we are working with our partners on measures to cushion the potential negative impact of the removal of the subsidies on the most vulnerable at the bottom 40% of the population.
“One of such measures would be to institute a monthly transport subsidy in the form of cash transfer of N5,000 to between 30 – 40 million deserving Nigerians.”
“We are very optimistic that the recent developments in the oil sector, such as the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, hopefully, the full reactivation of the four public refineries in the country, and the completion and coming on stream of the three private refineries under construction in 2022, would significantly boost contribution from the sector to our economic growth efforts.
“I agree with the report that with the expansion of social protection policies during the pandemic, the government has an opportunity to phase out subsidies such as the PMS subsidy while utilizing cash transfers to safeguard the welfare of poor and middle-class households,” the minister added.
The Head of the Nigeria National Office, Mr Patrick Areghan, while announcing the result at the WAEC office said the examination, which was an international one, took place simultaneously throughout the five member countries of the Council – The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
He said, “The examination ended on October 8, 2021, and today, Monday, November 22, 2021 – 45 days after the conduct of the last paper, we are releasing the result.
“This is a record time, taking into consideration the fact that we lost a week to insecurity, during the marking exercise in the South East, occasioned by the heightened tension before and during the Anambra Gubernatorial election.
“It is, therefore, not true, as you can see, that WAEC delayed the release of the results of the WASSCE (SC) 2021 as being speculated in some quarters. We have kept to our promise, in spite of all odds.
“We should be praised rather than being vilified. Nothing can be faster or earlier than what we have done.
“We do not release results without marking the scripts and processing the scores. We are grateful to the examiners for doing a good job within the stipulated period.”
Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, made this known on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast programme monitored by newsmen.
The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters had on Monday, November 15, 2021, submitted a 309-page report to Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
In the leaked report, Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel noted that at least nine persons were confirmed dead at the Lekki toll plaza when soldiers stormed the tollgate to disperse EndSARS protesters on October 20, 2020.
“The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags and while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a massacre in context,” the report partly read.
Speaking on the television programme today, Adesina said the reports by the states’ panels won’t be submitted to the Federal Government.
When asked whether the states would submit the reports to the Federal Government, he said, “Not to the Federal Government. Under the law, Federal Government has no power to en-panel a probe by the states.
“What would happen is that when the state comes up with pronouncements on that panel reports, that would then be of interest to the Federal Government; it is not as if they would bring it to the Federal Government.”
Adesina said the Federal Government would then look into areas of interest in the report and address the areas.
Following the recent release of the Lagos State EndSARS Judicial Panel Reports, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has told the visiting United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, that his government will allow the system to exhaust itself, and will, therefore, wait for pronouncements from state governments which set up panels to probe police brutality in the country.
Buhari said this at State House, Abuja, while receiving in audience the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, disclosed this in a statement titled ‘Endsars probe panel report: we wait for the states, President Buhari tells Blinken, American Secretary of State.’
Speaking, he said, “So many state governments are involved, and have given different terms of reference to the probe panels. We at the Federal have to wait for the steps taken by the states, and we have to allow the system to work.
“We can’t impose ideas on them. Federal Government has to wait for the reaction of the states.”
This came as the Federal Government said it had commenced the procurement of four million meters meant to be distributed free of charge to unmetered power users nationwide.
It was learnt that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission would review the country’s power tariffs by next month, barring any unforeseen circumstance.
On the four million free meters being procured, the Deputy General Manager, Consumer Affairs, NERC, Shittu Shuaibu, described it as the phase one of the NMMP, which had commenced.
He said, “The programme is supposed to run in three phases which include phase zero, phase one and phase two. Phase zero was rounded up around the end of October. Phase one has actually commenced and it is another government intervention of about four million meters.
“So far we have deployed about 860,000 or close to 900,000 meters, which were part of the one million meters that was procured as part of government intervention. For the four million meters, the procurement process has commenced.”
The Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, made this known while appearing on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television monitored by our correspondent from Abuja.
He said, “The strike will not happen. For one, I know that the fund to pay with is there and the Ministry of Education has assured me that by Wednesday they would emanate letters to make sure that the disbursement reaches the accounts of the various universities. We are not paying the unions directly, it will get to the universities’ accounts.
“I will have a meeting with the Minister of State for Education who is the one in charge of the affairs now because the main minister (Adamu Adamu) is overseas on health grounds. I will evaluate the situation with him and we would make sure that the disbursement goes on.”
According to Ngige, one of the mandates of the ministry is to settle industrial disputes. “As far as we are concerned, we have hit the ground running, making contacts with their real employers – the direct employers of university teachers, which is the Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission,” he said.
When asked if the revitalisation fund was ready, Ngige said, “The fund is ready. The fund is in the account of the National Universities Commission and the Ministry of Education. They were doing what they called auditing of the earlier disbursed funds.
“Universities were supposed to retire the earlier funds given to them. As of the last meeting, 11 universities had not satisfactorily done that and, therefore, we gave a timeframe of two weeks to get those universities to conform and they would release the money.”
This is coming as the Senior Staff Association of Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities met today to deliberate next moves over the failure of the Federal Government to meet the union’s demands.
Speaking at the University of Abuja, the National President of the Union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, lamented the failure of the Federal Government to attend to the needs of the union which has left them with no choice.
“We are giving the Federal Government a three week ultimatum, if after three weeks they don’t meet our demands, we will be going on strike.
“We believe we have tried enough by giving them enough time.
Delivering the judgement, Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja also found him guilty of concealing his true identity as signatory to accounts opened in UBA and Fidelity Bank by using the identity of his family members without their knowledge.
These accounts were said to have cash deposits of N300 million, N500 million and N1.5 billion.
The court held that Maina stole monies meant for pensioners as he could not prove where he got same from.
Justice Abang also held that through Maina’s service as a civil servant, his salary and emoluments would not amount to the monies in these accounts.
The court further held that the prosecution (the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission), produced essential evidence through witnesses called, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Maina was also guilty of money laundering in sum of N171,099,000.
This formed part of the proceeds of unlawful act, the court ruled.
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