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Case begins tomorrow in Ibadan Six centralBank of Nigeria (CBN) officials and 16 others from some commercial banks are to face trial for alleged N8 billion fraud, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said yesterday. The suspects, the agency alleged, stole and recirculated defaced and mutilated currencies. A statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said: “The suspects drawn from various business units of the apex bank are to be arraigned by the anti-graft agency before a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State, from Tuesday June 2, 2015 to Thursday June 4, 2015. “They include Patience Okoro Eye (Abuja), Afolabi Olufemi (Lagos), Kolawole Babalola (Ibadan), Olaniran Muniru Adeola (Ibadan), Fatai Yusuf, Adekunle (Head, Security, CBN, (Ibadan) and Ilori Adekunle Sunday (Akure). “The remaining 16 suspects are drawn from various commercial banks who were found to have conspired with the CBN executives to swing th...

A former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, and a former assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle corruption as his first order of business. In a jointly written piece by Albright and Carson, which was published in US-based magazine, TIME, on Thursday, May 28, the authors noted that Buhari must tackle corruption “because it is a poison in any democracy.” In the piece titled, ‘Why Change in Nigeria Matters to the World,’ Albright and Carson noted that, Buhari campaigned on a promise to address alleged multi-billion dollar corruption scandals, which stemmed largely from mismanagement of the country’s oil reserves. “These kinds of scandals weaken Nigeria’s legitimacy both domestically and abroad. Its oil reserves are tremendous, but if mismanaged they threaten to undermine the country’s political authority. “Corruption must be addressed at the institutional level by strength...

The RIVERS State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, said on Sunday that he would stay away from the Government House in Port Harcourt for the next three months as a result of the vandalisation of the property in the place by the immediate past administration. Wike, who spoke at the post-inauguration thanksgiving service in Port Harcourt, disclosed that all the vehicles in the Government House had been taken away. The governor disclosed that he noticed that the bullet proof doors, furniture, cars, crested carpets, curtains and windows were not left behind by the former administration. Wike explained that he was able to observe the missing items during an inspection of the Government House after he was sworn in as the state’s chief executive. He said, “As I speak with you, everything has been vandalised. I will not enter the Government House in the next two or three months. There is no vehicle in Government House, not even one. Yet the former governor (Rotimi Amaechi...

The Youth Say Yes Initiative has urged Cross River youths to emulate the dogged spirit with which Hon. Usani Usani has continuously displayed in his political career if they want to succeed in politics. The group in a statement signed by the State Secretary of the Youth Say Yes in Cross River state Mr. Joel Eju said Hon. Usani showed strong sense for political development by playing credible opposition politics while other politicians were busy jumping ship in order to get immediate gain. Hon. Usani a former Commissioner in Cross River state, has since the inception of the present democracy, virtually remained in the opposition party in the state. He contested the February 12 2012 Cross River state Governorship. The group while eulogising Usani said he will be receiving its Achievement award for 2015, it stressed that it decided to honour Hon. Usani because he displayed a strong sense for credible opposition despite the allure of being in the winning party and the threats...

In a few days from now President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will be handing over the reins of leadership of this country to General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress APC. The 29 th of May which is the day for the handover promises to be remarkable in the political history of our country. Whether our President will be smiling his customary smiles that day or boning will be immaterial but what promises to be a certainty is the fact that Nigerians’ expectations on the incoming administration will be the highest any administration will receive considering the gale of promises the Nigerian masses received from them. Trust our Nigerian people, it won’t take long before they start reminiscing the good old days of President Jonathan when things used to be very wonderful. I have sympathy(?) for our   dear General who in the course of desperately wanting power promised Nigerians a lot both real and imaginary. But the way and manner they succeed will be measured by th...

The Senate Minority Leader and front-line contender in the race for the Senate Presidency, Senator George Akume,  on Friday disagreed with the Pioneer National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress,  Chief Bisi Akande and a leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, over their declaration that zoning arrangement won’t be used to determine the next Senate President. Akume, who spoke with journalists in his Abuja residence on Friday evening, maintained that the party,  before now, had adopted a zoning arrangement which favoured the emergence of the president of the 8th senate, from the North Central,  being his geopolitical zone. Akande had, in an interview with The Punch earlier this week,  said the party would not employ the use of zoning to determine the next senate president and that  anybody was free to fight for the position. He had said, “We want the best man to occupy the position. But the trouble is that some people have b...