metro

DSS invites MURIC Founder for questioning, body kicks

Published

2 years ago

December 17, 2022

Professor Ishaq Akintola

The Ogun State Chapter of the Muslim Rights Concern has said that its attention has been drawn to recent invitations by the Department of State Service to its Founder, Prof. Ishaq Akintola.

According to the Islamic human rights organisation, Akintola was told to report at the DSS office in Ibadan, Oyo State.

A statement issued by the Ogun State Chairman of MURIC, Alhaji Tajudeen Jimoh Alao, and State Secretary, Olaleye Rasheed Damilare, on Friday confirmed the development.

The statement said: “We are particularly disturbed by the insistence of the officers of Oyo State D.S.S Office that Professor Ishaq Akintola, the director of MURIC, must report to their office in Ibadan, Oyo State, for questioning despite Professor Akintola’s poor health which he explained to the DSS.

“Although the caller agreed that our director could report in their office within one week, we still find this disturbing because they refused to tell him his offence.

“Our guess is that he is being invited in connection with a press release of Monday, 6th of December, 2022 in which MURIC cautioned Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State against the repression of Muslim students and teachers who were forced to sing Christmas carol in St. Annes School 1 senior, St Annes School 2, and St Annes Junior school, Molete, Ibadan.

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“In the statement, MURIC asked Muslims in the state to vote out Makinde in the coming election in the State.

“MURIC repeated in the statement that it is not averse to having a Christian Governor as long as the governor is just to all and as long as he respects the rights of all.

“If for this the D.S.S. in Oyo State is now being used as a tool to intimidate, harass, distract and silence MURIC, we alert Nigerians to the emerging tyranny in Oyo State.

“Professor Ishaq Akintola is a law abiding citizen of this country. We are not aware of any crime that he has ever committed.

“MURIC refuses to be distracted and intimidated for speaking in the interest of Nigerian Muslims.

“After all, we have videos of pastors who have uttered incriminating and provocative statements on the 2023 elections and nothing has happened to them.

“Ordinarily, the D.S.S has the right to invite people to their offices for questioning, but the question begging for answer is ‘How sure are we that the person who called our director is a member of D.S.S.? What if it is a ploy to get him out of his comfort zone in order to assassinate or kidnap him?’

“This is a man people have been threatening to kill. Professor Ishaq Akintola has been threatened on many occasions and the telephone call may have been made by any of his prospective assailants.

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“This is a man, who has been publicly molested for speaking up for the Muslims by people who are against social justice, security and peace.

“This is a man that has escaped series of assassination attempts by miscreants and hoodlums. Assassins have been sent to Akintola’s home. They shot his wife in the stomach and she spent weeks in the hospital. How can the DSS invite a man who has suffered such fate just by ordinary telephone call.

“Going by the above, we advice Oyo State DSS to invite our director professionally in writing for the sake of security. Another alternative is for the DSS to come and pick him in Lagos on condition that Muslim lawyers must be present during the questioning. Any attempt at illegal detention will be resisted with every legal means available. At least that will give Nigerians the guarantee that he is in the hands of the DSS. But we warn that nothing must happen to Akintola.

“Although he is based in Lagos, the DSS Oyo State wants him to report in Ibadan, Oyo State. It is therefore a cross-state invitation and we see it as very dangerous in present-day Nigeria where there is insecurity everywhere. We are particularly concerned when the caller rejected Akintola’s suggestion that he was ready to report at the DSS Lagos office and they insisted that he must come all the way to Ibadan.

“We remind Governor Seyi Makinde that the current president of Nigeria has been criticized and abused by many yet he never ordered the security agents to invite, arrest or detain any of his critics. Many state governors have also experienced criticism and they tolerated it. But Seyi Makinde has set the state security personnel against a Muslim non-governmental organization for daring to interrogate the intolerance of school authorities who forced Muslim students and teachers to sing Christmas carol. It is executive recklessness. We reaffirm that we will not succumb to intimidation.

“Governor Seyi Makinde never cautioned Christian school authorities who persecuted Muslim students but he wants to use the DSS to harass the leader of an Islamic human rights organization that has been exposing the excesses of christian principals and teachers in the state.

“We insist that peace, justice and tolerance can only be achieved, if only we respect the rights of ordinary citizens.”

Eagle

metro

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

Published

11 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

The federal government has unveiled a proposed budget of N47.9 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year.

Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, disclosed this to journalists on Thursday following the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu.

Bagudu revealed that the council had approved the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2025-2027.

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According to the minister, the government has pegged the crude oil benchmark at $75 per barrel, with an oil production target of 2.06 million barrels per day (bpd).

The budget also sets the exchange rate at N1,400 per dollar and aims for a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6.4%.

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

metro

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

Published

11 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) told FIJ that they have arrested Timber Wabote, the former executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCMB), on the grounds of a failed $35 million Bayelsa refinery project fraud.

Dele Oyewale, the EFCC’s spokesperson, confirmed this to FIJ on Thursday.

“It is true,” Oyewale responded to FIJ’s inquiries.

Wabote is accused of misappropriating public funds for a refinery project that should have improved local energy production.

Vanguard reported that the NCDMB under Wabote paid $35 million to support the development of energy infrastructure in the Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa, yet there was nothing to show for it.

The EFCC picked Wabote up following the arrest of Akintoye Adeoye Akindele, the Managing Director of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, for alleged misappropriation, money laundering and diversion of $35 million in public funds.

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“NCDMB under the watch of Wabote allegedly paid the $35 million to Akindele to build a 2,000 barrel per day (BPD), refinery, jetty, gas plant, power plant, data centre and tank farm at Brass free trade zone (FTZ), Okpoama Community in Brass LGA of Bayelsa State,” a source with the EFCC had explained.

Since December 2020 when the payments were made, Akindele abandoned the project with little or nothing to show for the huge sum he received.

Preliminary investigations showed that Wabote’s NCDMB financed 17 different projects, including the 2,000 BPD refinery in Brass LGA.

There has been a series of public fund misappropriation cases in the energy sector in recent times.

FIJ earlier reported that members of the House of Representatives summoned three ministers to defend how over $2 billion was spent on renewable energy with not much to show for it.

A recent FIJ report also recently detailed how residents of Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, have not had power in their homes since July due to the vandalisation of the Ahoada-Yenagoa transmission towers caused by unidentified persons.

The Bayelsa state government told FIJ it was the federal government’s responsibility to provide electricity for residents. The state has no renewable energy options reliable enough to power its capital despite the multi-million-dollar NCMB energy project.

Transparency in the energy sector has become necessary at a time when Nigerians have suffered power instability due to frequent grid collapses.

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

metro

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

Published

11 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

Yahaya Bello

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has requested an adjournment in the new case against the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, stating that the 30-day window for the previously issued summons is still active.

The commission has granted administrative bail to his co-defendants, Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, and asked the court for an extension of time for Bello to appear.

At the resumed hearing before Justice Maryann Anenih of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, EFCC Counsel Jamiu Agoro noted that the court’s order from October 3rd had not yet expired.

“In that wise, we feel it will not be appropriate for us to take proceedings while that 30 days is still running. So we have discussed and agreed to come back on the 27th day of November, 2024, my lord,” he told the court.

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He also mentioned that the previously set date of November 20th was not convenient for the prosecution counsels.

Counsel to the second defendant, Aliyu Saiki, SAN, confirmed that his client had been granted administrative bail by the prosecution and had no objection to the adjournment request. The third defendant’s counsel, ZE Abass, concurred.

The prosecution counsel also requested the court to allow the notice of hearing to be pasted on the last known address of the first defendant.

After hearing from all counsels, the judge granted the EFCC’s application for adjournment and the issuance of the hearing notice.

“I have considered the application for adjournment by the complainant and issuance of hearing notice and the submission by the second and third defendants. The application is granted,” she said.

Justice Anenih then adjourned the case to November 27th for arraignment.

The former governor, alongside Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, are being prosecuted as 1st to 3rd defendants, respectively, in a fresh 16-count charge instituted against them by the EFCC.