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N319.8 Million Fraud: Court turns down Ecobank’s request to restrain NSA from arresting staff

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By Francesca Hangeior

Justice Inyang Ekwo of the
Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed a suit instituted by Ecobank Nigeria Limited, seeking to restrain the National Security Adviser from carrying out its threat to use the law enforcement agencies to arrest and harass members of its staff on the allegations of fraudulent disbursements of N319,830,000 from the federal government’s Niger Delta Amnesty Programme.

Delivering his judgement on the
the fundamental rights suit filed by the bank against the Attorney General of the Federation, the National Security Adviser (NSA), and the Federal Government regarding the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme, Justice Ekwo held that fundamental rights applications cannot be used to shield the allegations

Dismissing the suit, Justice Ekwo held that the banker-customer relationship remains a civil transaction as long as there is no element of criminality involved.

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The bank had asked the court to declare that the continuous invitations, intimidation, harassment, and threats to arrest and detain its staff by the respondents, in order to force it to pay N849,408,000—allegedly lost by the Amnesty Programme due to purported negligence—were unlawful, unconstitutional, and in breach of the applicant’s rights to operate as a corporate entity and maintain its corporate dignity.

Oladipupo, Regional Operations Head of FCT, Ecobank Nigeria Limited, testified in suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/469/2023 that on January 19, 2023, commercial banks, including Ecobank, were summoned to a meeting by the ONSA regarding the amnesty scheme.

At the meeting, he stated that the NSA informed bank representatives that some beneficiaries of the amnesty scheme had been receiving double payments by opening multiple accounts in several banks, and that the program had been paying funds to unknown individuals.

He said that afterward, the NSA sought the banks’ support in addressing these challenges and ensuring that the leakages were blocked.

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Oladipupo added that to the bank’s surprise, the NSA Permanent Secretary, Mr. Aliyu Mohammed, informed the banks that the Federal Government had purportedly lost N13 billion due to the leakages and demanded that Ecobank refund N849,408,000 within two weeks.

Oladipupo said the amnesty program’s solicitors later demanded the payment of N319,830,000 from the bank.

“Shocked by the demand and threat of arrest, the applicant requested time to audit their records and verify the claims of multiple payments in line with the instructions given by the Amnesty Programme.”

“The applicant refuted the allegations and denied liability for the said sum in its letter dated February 23, 2023. The applicant did not engage in any fraudulent activity regarding the funds paid to its customers either before or after opening the accounts,” Oladipupo submitted.

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The bank stated that the amnesty program, specifically the NSA, had been continually inviting its staff to pressure the bank into making the payment.

“The Amnesty Programme specifically threatened to use the DSS and Police to arrest, harass, and intimidate the top executives of the bank to force the applicant to comply with the unlawful request for payment of N849,408,000.

“The fundamental rights of the applicant, its directors, staff, or agents to liberty, freedom of movement, and the right to own movable property, especially its standing with the Central Bank of Nigeria, are likely to be infringed by the respondents,” he said.

However, Mr. Melvin Obiakor, a Reintegration Officer in the Presidential Amnesty Office, countered the bank in a deposition on behalf of all the respondents.

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Obiakor stated that under the Stipend Programme, each ex-agitator is entitled to one payment per month into their respective accounts opened and maintained with local Nigerian banks, including Ecobank, effective from 2010/2011.

He said that in September 2022, following an audit by the Presidential Amnesty Programme Office on the payment of stipends from the commencement to September 2022, irregularities and suspected fraudulent activities concerning stipend payments and operations of related accounts opened and maintained with the banks were discovered.

“Initial investigations by the Amnesty Office revealed multiple accounts linked to different beneficiaries with variations of their names. Hence, the need to inquire from the banks where these accounts were held for explanations and clarifications.

“From its internal audit of payments made to agitators, the Amnesty Office discovered that the sum of N849,408,800.00 was paid through Ecobank to eighty persons who had multiple account numbers linked to one particular BVN, contrary to existing CBN guidelines and protocols on the operation of bank accounts,” the deponent added.

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The deponent argued that the bank’s application is mischievous and, if granted, would cause grave injustice and hinder the ability of the respondents and law enforcement agencies to conduct full investigations into the wrongful and illegal payments under the Amnesty Programme.

The deponent accused the bank of attempting to thwart the Amnesty Programme’s efforts in resolving issues surrounding the fraudulent payments of stipends into flagged accounts.

However, Justice Ekwo in his judgement held that where there is any criminality in the transaction between a bank and its customer, the nature of the banking relationship changes, and the parties become subject to criminal liability.

According to the judge, the fundamental rights applications cannot be used to shield allegations of fraud between a banker and its customer.

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“It is my opinion that if a party intends to assert that the matter in contention is contractual in nature and that law enforcement should not be involved, that party has the obligation to substantiate the claim that the subject matter remained contractual throughout the relationship,” the judge stated.

The judge subsequently held that Ecobank failed to provide the court with sufficient grounds to support its allegation of a potential violation of its fundamental rights and that of its officers.

He declared that the respondents are entitled to investigate allegations of fraudulent disbursement of N319,830,000.00 by multiple illegal beneficiary accounts maintained and operated with the bank.

The judge added that “respondents may engage any relevant law enforcement agency to conduct investigations into the fraudulent disbursement of N319,830,000.00.”

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“I therefore make an order dismissing this case on those grounds”.

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Hon Nnamchi Grants 500 Youths Scholarships To Universities

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Five hundred youths drawn from various communities in Enugu East/Isi Uzo Federal Constituency of Enugu State have benefited from Hon. Professor Paul Sunday Nnamchi’s scholarship scheme.

The scholarship scheme was instituted by the Federal lawmaker who represents Enugu East/Isi Uzo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives to cater for indigent constituents in the constituency.

The beneficiaries who are currently on admission in various universities across the country are pursuing the following disciplines; microbiology, biochemistry, human physiology, and human anatomy.

Others are studying mass Communication, Business Education, Education Chemistry, Industrial Chemistry Computer Science and Civil Engineering among others.

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Their school fees amounting to millions of naira have already been paid by Professor Nnamchi for the current academic session not withstanding the challenges some of them had encountered in their performances.

The scholarship scheme was in fulfillment of Rep Nnamchi’s campaign promises of empowering of the youths of Enugu East/Isi Uzo Federal Constituency.

The scholarship according to him was to help those desiring to study at the tertiary levels but lacked the wherewithal to further their education after secondary schools.

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Trump’s declasification of JFK, MLK assassination files opens window into US most shocking crimes

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By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

A trove of long-classified government documents concerning some of the most politically charged killings in modern American history — including the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy — could finally be made available to the public.

But that’s just the start of the latest saga surrounding the killings, which have sparked fascination, conspiracy theories, and history-changing debate for decades.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at declassifying government documents related to the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, his brother and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. The order essentially requires the nation’s security organizations to create plans to release the records.

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The full findings of the government investigations into the three killings have been hidden for decades, sparking wide-ranging speculation and preventing a sense of closure for many Americans. All three men were national and international icons whose assassinations — and the theories swirling around them — became the stuff of books, movies, controversy, and the pages of history itself.

“A lot of people were waiting for this . . . for years, for decades,” said Trump in signing the release of the documents. “Everything will be revealed.”

JFK assassination, Nov. 22, 1963
The shock of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 still echoes more than half a century later.

Kennedy, known for both his glamour and steering the country through the closest it ever came to nuclear war, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was shot and killed as his presidential motorcade brought him along a downtown city street and as he waved to adoring bystanders from the open-roofed car.

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Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald less than an hour later. But Oswald himself was killed on live TV just two days later as police were transferring him to a county jail.

Oswald’s killer, Jack Ruby, acted alone on an impulse, the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known as the Warren Commission, concluded. The commission ruled that Oswald also acted alone.

The JFK assassination sent the nation into mourning and shook it to its core, as Americans searched for answers. Hundreds of books have been written and documentaries produced, with bits and pieces of information emerging to this day.

Many regard the commission’s work as a government-orchestrated coverup and doubts have been raised over who killed John F. Kennedy have persisted. Conspiracy theorists lay the blame on everyone from Cuba – at the heart of the nuclear missile crisis – to the CIA itself.

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The wide-ranging theories over Kennedy’s death – how many shooters were involved, how many bullets – became so ingrained in popular culture that they made it onto the comedy series Seinfeld.

MLK assassinated in Memphis, April 4, 1968
King, whose work furthering the Civil Rights Movement is honored with a federal holiday, was killed on the balcony outside his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Atlanta preacher was visiting the city to march alongside striking workers. On the evening of the assassination, he was preparing to leave for dinner at the home of a local minister.

He stepped outside to speak with colleagues in the parking lot below and was shot in the face by an assassin. James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old escaped fugitive, later confessed to the crime and was sentenced to a 99-year prison term.

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But Ray later tried to withdraw his confession and said he was set up by a man named Raoul. He maintained until his death in 1998 that he did not kill King.

A Memphis tavern owner and a former FBI agent both also claimed a figure named Raoul was behind the killing, according to the Department of Justice.

Loyd Jowers, a former Memphis tavern owner, claimed 25 years after the murder that he participated in a mafia-linked conspiracy to kill King. Jowers also linked Memphis police and Raoul to the assassination, the Justice Department said.

Donald Wilson, a former FBI agent, also claimed in 1998 that after King’s assassination he found some papers in Ray’s car that mentioned Raoul as well as figures linked to the Kennedy assassination.

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Wilson said the papers were stolen from him by someone who later worked in the White House, according to the Justice Department.

RFK killed in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968
Robert F. Kennedy never achieved the political heights of his older brother. But he was no less a beloved figure for his championing of civil rights.

He served as his brother’s attorney general and as a senator. He was killed in Los Angeles where he had gone for the California Democratic primary, just months after declaring his presidential candidacy.

The younger Kennedy spent the evening of the election at a suite at the Ambassador Hotel awaiting election results. He eventually went down to a hotel ballroom to thank supporters, then went through the hotel kitchen after being told it was a shortcut to a press room.

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An assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, killed him as he shook hands with a hotel busboy. Sirhan remains in prison.

But some believe the same elements behind the older Kennedy’s assassination also killed the former senator.

The presidential candidate’s son Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, has long maintained that Sirhan didn’t even shoot his father. The Trump cabinet pick believes Sirhan missed and that instead his dad was shot by a man linked to the CIA.

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Nigerian military silences 25 bandit gang members

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By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Nigerian troops have silenced at least 25 members of the gang led by notorious terrorist Bello Turji, the military said Wednesday.

Turji’s second-in-command Aminu Kanawa and about eight other commanders were killed as troops raided terrorist camps in the northwestern states of Sokoto and Zamfara from Monday to Tuesday, Edward Buba, the spokesman for the Nigerian military told a press briefing.

Buba said “the camp of Turji is in disarray” following the killing of Kanawa and dozens of others.

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“The death of Turji’s second-in-command, close allies, commanders, and combatants was a significant blow to the terrorists’ network in the northwestern part of Nigeria, as well as their fighting capabilities,” Buba said, noting this group of terrorists was responsible for numerous kidnappings and terrorist attacks across the region.

“Overall, troops are not relenting until these terrorists are destroyed,” said Buba.

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