News
Ararume sues Buhari over removal as NNPC board chairman
- Claims N100bn damages, reinstatement
A leader of the All Progressive Congress from Imo State, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, has instituted a N100 billion suit against President Muhammadu Buhari, alleging that he was unlawfully removed as a non Executive Chairman of the newly Incorporated Nigeria National Petroleum Company.
He is asking the court to reinstate him as the board chairman with all the privileges in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/691/2022, which he filed through a team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs led by Chief Chris Uche and Ogwu Onoja.
Ararume listed four issues for the Federal High Court in Abuja to determine in his favour.
He asked the court to determine whether in view of the provisions of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the NNPC, Companies and Allied Matters Act 2010 and the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the office of the non Executive Chairman of the NNPC is not governed and regulated by the law.
He urged the court to determine whether by the interpretation of section 63 (3) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, President Buhari could lawfully remove him as non Executive Chairman of the NNPC for any reason outside the provisions of the law.
As well as, whether the President could sack him without compliance with expressly stated provisions of the Articles of Memorandum of Association of the Company, section 63 (3) of the PIA Act 2021 and section 288 of the CAMA Act 2020.
Besides, he is praying the court to determine whether his purported removal vide a letter dated January 17, 2022, without compliance with expressly stated provisions of the law, was not wrongful, illegal, null and void and of no legal consequence whatsoever.
Upon determination of the issues, the plaintiff, wants the court to declare that by the provisions of section 63 (3) of the PIA Act, CAMA Act and Memorandum of Association of the NNPC, the President could not, by will, remove him from office as non Executive Chairman without following due process of the law.
Aside from seeking to set aside his removal from office, Ararume asked the court to reinstate and restore him with all the appurtenant rights and privileges of the office of the NNPC non Executive Chairman.
The plaintiff further demanded for the nullification and setting aside of all decisions and resolutions the NNPC Board has made in his absence, starting from January 17, 2022 till date, and another order restraining the defendants from removing his name as Director of the Company.
In a 75 paragraph affidavit that was filed in support of the suit, Ararume, told the court that upon the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the former NNPC and its subsidiaries were unbundled to become Nigeria National Petroleum Company registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, with number 1843987.
He told the court that on October 20, 2021, President Buhari approved his appointment as a non Executive Chairman for a period of initial five years and his name subsequently registered in the Memorandum of Articles of the Company with the appointment announced to the whole world.
According to him, based on the appointment, he attended the 23rd World Petroleum Congress in the United States of America, USA.
Ararume said he was surprised that President Buhari, on January 7th, 2022, inaugurated the NNPC Board without a recourse to him, while another person was named in his place.
He said he was subsequently notified by a letter dated January 17, 2022, of the withdrawal of his appointment without any reason adduced to justify the action against him.
The plaintiff told the court that he was not guilty of any pre-conditions for removal and was never declared bankrupt or adjudged medically unfit for the job.
He said the President’s action, by unlawfully sacking him from the position, fuelled public suspicion and rumours against his person, insisting that he has suffered loss of credibility, goodwill, untold emotional, mental and psychological trauma as well as public humiliation and degradation.
Consequently, he demanded for his reinstatement and the award of N100bn to him as compensation.
When the case was called up on Wednesday, Justice Inyang Ekwo ordered that the CAC should be joined as a party in the matter.
The matter was later adjourned till December 15 for mention.
News
Security men open fire to arrest Yahya Bello at Abuja residence
Security men open fire to arrest Yahya Bello at Abuja residence
There were gunshots on Wednesday in Abuja when Governor Ahmed Ododo of Kogi State was leaving the residence of his predecessor, Yahaya Bello.
Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had laid siege to Bello’s residence located at Wuse Zone 4, to arrest him in connection with a fraud case.
The security operatives had to call for reinforcement with backup from the police and Department of State Services (DSS) when it was becoming clear their mission would not be actualised after many hours.
The plan was to forcefully arrest the former governor as they cordoned off the residence on Benghazi Street.
They allowed Ododo into the residence. But by time he drove out, there were hints that Bello was in the car with tinted glass.
This made the security operatives to open fire.
The EFCC, in a statement later by its spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, warned that it is a criminal offence to obstruct officers of the commission from carrying out their lawful duties.
“Section 38(2)(a(b) of the EFCC Establishment Act makes it an offence to prevent officers of the commission from carrying out their lawful duties.
“Culprits risk a jail term of not less than five years,” it stated.
News
BREAKING: EFCC operatives storm ex-Gov Yahaya Bello’s Abuja residence over N84bn fraud case
BREAKING: EFCC operatives storm ex-Gov Yahaya Bello’s Abuja residence over N84bn fraud case
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has barricaded the house of Yahaya Bello, the immediate former governor of Kogi State, in Wuse, Abuja.
According to SaharaReporters, the EFCC siege is coming days after the former governor held a meeting with President Bola Tinubu, at the State House.
It was gathered that there is currently no movement in and around the house located at Benghazi Street, Wuse Zone 4 in the nation’s federal capital.
On Wednesday, a top source shared the photograph showing how operatives of the EFCC barricaded the access road to the Bello’s house.
The source said: “EFCC barricades Bello’ house in Abuja. No movement in the area as EFCC barricaded the house. They are yet to gain access.”
Although there was no immediate information available to the reason while the anti-graft agency stormed the former governor’s residence, it may be connected with the N84 billion fraud case against him which the EFCC is prosecuting.
The EFCC had charged the former governor with financial fraud to the tune of N84 billion.
The anti-graft commission in an amended charge, accused Bello of diverting N80 billion of state funds in September 2015, four months before he assumed office.
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Recall that the EFCC had arraigned Bello’s nephew, Ali Bello, before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, for alleged money laundering to the tune of N10 billion belonging to the State government.
The State Government faulted the charge describing it as “ridiculous” and “laughable”, argued that it is impossible, as the former governor was not yet in a position to access or misappropriate state funds at said time.
The state government in a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, had on February 7, 2024, accused the EFCC of being “infested with persons whose intents disagree with the noble intention of ‘Mr. President’ to defeat corruption in Nigeria.”
Recall that the EFCC had dragged former Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja for alleged N84 billion money laundering.
EFCC, which joined Bello’s nephew Ali Bello, Dauda Sulaiman and Abdulsalam Hudu as co-accused, had said it is prosecuting them on an amended 17-count charge of money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of fund to tune of N84, 062,406,089.88.
The anti-graft agency had claimed in the amended charge that former governor Bello is still at large.
Count one of the charges reads: “That you, Ali Bello, Dauda Suleiman, Yahaya Adoza Bello (still at large) and Abdulsalam Hudu (still at large), sometime in September, 2015 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired amongst yourselves to convert the total sum of N80,246,470,089.88 (Eighty Billion, Two Hundred and Forty-six Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand, Eighty-nine Naira, Eighty-eight Kobo), which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of your unlawful activity to wit: criminal breach of trust and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(b) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended,” the EFCC said.
“While ex-Governor Yahaya Bello and Hudu are still at large, Ali Bello and Suleiman, first and second defendants respectively, who were present in court “pleaded not guilty” to all the charges when they were read to them.
BREAKING: EFCC operatives storm ex-Gov Yahaya Bello’s Abuja residence over N84bn fraud case
News
EFCC has no powers to prosecute people over naira abuse – Odinkalu
EFCC has no powers to prosecute people over naira abuse – Odinkalu
Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has argued that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) lacks the powers to prosecute naira abuse.
To the professor of law, spraying of the naira does not fall within the commission’s prosecutorial purview.
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Odinkalu stated: “The law that establishes the EFCC defines ‘economic and financial crimes’ to mean ‘non-violent criminal and illicit activity committed with the objectives of earning wealth illegally either individually or in a group or organised manner thereby violating existing legislation governing the economic activities of government and its administration.’ “
Socialite and barman Pascal Chibuike Okechukwu, popularly known as Cubana Chief Priest, is set to challenge the charge filed against him by the EFCC, having pleaded not guilty.
He was arraigned on Wednesday at the Federal High Court in Lagos and granted N10million bail.
EFCC has no powers to prosecute people over naira abuse – Odinkalu
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