The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos office, on Friday arraigned two person for conspiracy and stealing of N103.5 million.

They were arraigned at the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, before Justice Sherifat Solebo.

One of them, Arugba Micheal and his company, Gar Maritime Nigeria Limited was arraigned on three-count charge bordering on conspiracy to steal, transfer of properties and stealing to the tune of N96, 400, 000.

Similarly, the EFCC also arraigned one Disu Rafiu Adeigbe before Justice Solebo on eleven counts charge bordering on conspiracy to steal and stealing.

Adeigbe was alleged to have stolen dividend warrants valued at N7, 118, 901.00 belonging to one Dr. Abiola Havius Akinrele.

A two-storey building under construction has collapsed in Ikoyi area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

Officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA have raced to the scene to rescue trapped persons.

The building is said to have collapsed at Glover Court, Ikoyi.

Report had it that workers working on the building were trapped but the specific number of people on site is unknown.

Director General, LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu said the building collapsed around 4.10pm on Friday at Glover Court, Ikoyi .

“It is a two-storey building under construction. LASEMA already activated the Lagos Emergency Response Plan for all first responders to move to the site of the collapsed building.

“Similarly, Lagosians within the vicinity of the incident have been enjoined to stay calm and allow emergency responders to do their job,” Oke-Osanyintolu said.

The Economic and Finance Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it will extend its investigation to doctors that issue fake medical reports to those facing prosecution for alleged economic and financial crimes.

Acting Chairman of the commission, Mr Ibrahim Magu, disclosed this at an interactive session with newsmen in Abuja on Friday.

“We will extend our investigation to doctors who connive with criminals and give them fake medical report. We have to go after them and fight them.

“Those facing corrupt allegations go as far of getting fake reports from abroad. So, the practice of giving fake medical report must stop,”

Magu, who also said that most of the corruption cases were not properly reported during prosecution, urged journalists to help in fighting corruption in the country.

“Most of the cases during prosecution are not properly reported. The stories are not balanced. I don’t know how many people go to court to report the actual incident and the facts.

“That is why we have endless cases in court. We are seriously going back to the drawing board and we will call all the lawyers handling our cases to tell us the status of the cases ongoing.

“Some would win senate and present serial medical results that they can not appear in court. Some would be brought to the court room in a stretcher,” he added.

He, however, added that the commission was carrying out investigations into some Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) operating in the North-East as they were being used to move cash around. (NAN)

An Ado-Ekiti Magistrates’ Court on Friday ordered that a 52-year-old teacher, Davies Noel,who allegedly defiled his 12-year-old daughter, be remanded in a correctional centre, pending legal advice.

Chief Magistrate, Mr Abdullamid Lawal, who did not take the plea of Noel, ordered the police to duplicate the case file to the Ekiti Directorate of Public Prosecutions for legal advice.

Lawal adjourned the case until Nov. 11, for mention.

‎‎Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp. Caleb Leramo, told the court that Noel committed the offence between 2018 and October 2019.

Leramo alleged that the girl confided in an outsider at school, and narrated the incident to the confidant, who later reported the matter to the police.

He noted that the defendant confessed to the crime.

‎The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of Section 214 of the Criminal Code, Law of Ekiti State 2012.

Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has revealed how Ismaila Mustapha, better known as Mompha, allegedly laundered N14 billion through a firm.

Magu, said this on Thursday, October 31, revealing further that Mompha operates 51 bank accounts in Nigeria. Using these accounts, Magu, who spoke at an interactive session in Lagos, said the suspect acquired properties in Dubai.

"The recent arrests of a social media celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha, popularly known as Mompha, and his Lebanese collaborator, Hamza Koudeih, for their alleged involvement in internet-related fraud and money laundering remain a landmark achievement of the EFCC," he said.

Magu called Mompha and the other suspects high-value targets adding that their arrests have strengthened the anti-corruption war of the EFCC.

“I am sure you will be greatly shocked to know that five wristwatches valued at over N60 million were recovered from the suspected internet fraudster, Mompha, at the point of arrest," he said adding that they would soon be charged to court.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its proposed strike over Federal Government’s directive to enroll its members into the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that when President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2020 budget proposal before lawmakers on Oct. 8, 2019, he vowed that Federal Government Employees not captured on the IPPIS platform by 31st Oct. 2019 would no longer be receiving their salaries.

ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, in a phone interview, noted that the union had decided to maintain status quo, pending further meetings.

ASUU had at different fora rejected the deadline, stating that universities operated differently from the civil service and should, therefore, not be seen as appendages of ministries, departments and agencies of government.

“What we have been saying is that the reaction of our members will depend on what happens in the government. Our members will meet at the appropriate time to take appropriate decision.

“The Senate has intervened in the matter and we are engaging the Senate, the Senate has appealed to us for now, When they pay other workers, they pay them also.”

According to him, the union is proposing another template which would factor in the peculiarities of the universities and promote their interest.

“The point we are making is that we have visited the Senate President, told him that there is an alternative to IPPIS, the IPPIS as we see it, will not promote the interest of the university, there is no university or country in the world where the payment of university workers is centralised with the government.”

On the World University ranking, Ogunyemi stressed that enrolling its members would affect Nigeria’s status, and discourage visiting lecturers come into the system.

“IPPIS will affect our ranking, because now scholars from different parts of the world will not be encouraged to come to Nigeria.

“Imagine somebody come for short six months and because of IPPIS he is not paid from three to four months, whereas, if they are domesticated in the universities, ASUU will pay them.

“Any university can attract scholars from any part of the world and you do not expect scholars to come from India, China, Australia, America or UK and be coming into Abuja to enroll in IPPIS.

“It is ridiculous, and that is what the autonomy means, that universities should govern their personnel, and their pay role system.

“We are saying it is not safe, we are going to become a laughing stock among committee of universities.

“In Ghana, there is something like IPPIS, but universities are not part of it. There is nowhere in the world that payroll is centralised and managed by consultants.”

He, however, noted that what the union wanted was a “Governing Council’ that would govern and manage the payroll of ASUU members.

“If government does that, it is the council that the government will hold responsible, that is what the law says, and where a council is found to be corrupt, or incompetent, that council should be dissolved and another council should be put in place.

“Our proposal is that there should be a mechanism that will enable the government to monitor the payroll system and the personnel. At the appropriate time, we will release it to the Nigerian public.

“The mechanism, when we centralise the payroll system of academics in Nigeria, you are taking a risk, cyber criminals can break into it at any time.

“There is nothing you put on the internet that cannot be hacked and that is not accessible in any part of the world.”

He stressed that the IPPIS will erode autonomy of the union, noting that the universities are unique environment, and are called “universal cities, because they are universal market places of ideas.”

The acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, said he is baffled that mothers of cyber fraudsters, popularly known as Yahoo boys, are now organising themselves into an association.

Magu, made the statement on Thursday while addressing journalists at the Lagos office of the commission in Ikoyi.

He said such parents always justify their children’s activities with the arguments that they were supporting their families in the place of irresponsible, runaway or dead fathers.

Magu added that the role of EFCC was not just to arrest the Yahoo boys but also to see to their rehabilitation.

A trader, 26, Amizu Mohazu, who allegedly sold fake and expired cosmetics, on Thursday appeared in an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court.

The police charged Mohazu, who resides on No. 13 Alaja Street, Baruwa- Ipaja, Lagos, with five counts bordering on breach of peace, perversion of justice and possession of counterfeit goods.

Mohazu, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Police Prosecutor, Sgt. Adetutu Sanusi alleged that the accused committed the offence on Aug. 25 at 10 a.m. Sanusi alleged that some containers of creams and cosmetics suspected to be fake were recovered from the defendant’s shop.

He alleged that Mohazu conducted himself in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace by willfully resisting arrest.

“He willfully prevented a Police Inspector, Oluwole Akindele and his team from arresting and entering his shop upon information that he was selling adulterated creams and cosmetics. He produced, displayed, and sold expired body creams and cosmetics which were unfit for human use,” he said.

The prosecutor also alleged that Mohazu attempted to pervert the cause of justice by failing to honour police invitation after being released from police custody. He said the offence contravened the provisions of sections 97, 123, 160, 168 and 174 of the Revised Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2015.

Chief Magistrate E.O. Okpara admitted Mohazu to bail in the sum of N10, 000 with one surety and adjourned the case to Nov. 11 for mention.

The Oyo State Pilgrims Welfare Board says a female pilgrim, Ms Anifat Saheed, absconded in Jeddah during the 2019 Hajj operation in Saudi Arabia.

Prof. Sayed Malik, the Chairman of Muslim wing of the board made the disclosure on Thursday, in Ibadan, during the presentation of the 2019 Hajj report to Gov. Seyi Makinde.

He said she was one of the 914 pilgrims that took part in the 2019 Hajj from the state.

According to Malik, the disappearance of Anifat was noticed when the board was preparing the last batch of pilgrims for their journey to King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah on Sept.1 and all efforts to locate her proved abortive.

He explained that the board tried to locate the address of her guarantor in Sango Ibadan without success.

“Up till this moment, neither her guarantor nor any of her relations have come to ask questions about her,” he said.

The board chairman further disclosed that a total of N24,628,900.09 was refunded to the pilgrims before their departure to Saudi Arabia due to reduction in the Hajj fare.

He called for the renewal of the rent of the Oyo House in Makkah with effect from January 2020.

Malik urged Makinde to study the recommendations as contained in the report and act on them so as to have hitch-free operations in subsequent pilgrimage.

In his remark, the governor commended the chairman and other board members for a successful Hajj operation in spite of the fact that process started before his administration.

He assured the board that the recommendations would be studied and acted upon for smooth Hajj operation in 2020.

Nnamdi Kanu, Leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), on Thursday, told the Federal High Court, Abuja, that he was ready to face trial if his safety would be guaranteed by the court.

Kanu told the presiding judge, Justice Binta Nyako, through his counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor.

Ejiofor told the court that the application to restore the IPOB leader’s bail so that he could face his trial was filed on April 1.

“We have an application for bail filed on April 1, 2019, the application was served on the prosecution and it is ripped for hearing.

“We urge the court to restore his bail on the ground that the court will guarantee his safety when he comes back to the country to continue his trial,” he said.

On his part, counsel to the Federal Government, Labaran Shuaibu, who told the court that he was just seeing the process, opposed to the application.

Shuaibu urged the court to adjourn the matter to enable them filed the necessary processes.

Delivering the ruling, Justice Nyako, who adjourned the matter till Jan. 16, said the only way he could guarantee Kanu’s safety was to keep him in the prison.

She said even judges no longer safe in the country.

“Even judges are being abducted in the country. So prison is the only safest place for him,” she said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Nyako had ordered the re-arrest of the self-proclaimed leader of IPOB, Kanu.

The judge gave the order in a ruling after revoking the bail granted to Kanu.

She explained that the court gave the order because Kanu had failed to appear in court after his bail was granted in April 2017.

The judge also ordered that trial would continue in the absence of the IPOB leader and directed that a bench warrant be issued for his arrest.

NAN reports that Justice Nyako had granted Kanu bail on health grounds on April 25, 2017, and asked him to present three sureties, one of whom must be a serving senator, a Jewish religious leader and a highly respected person who must own a landed property in Abuja.

The judge warned the IPOB leader against granting press interviews, holding rallies or being in a gathering of more than 10 persons while on bail.

She had also warned him that the bail would be revoked if he flouts any of the conditions.