News
How Diri hid N100billion derivation fund *Shared N21billion council funds to politicians
How come a governor that conducts monthly briefings on the financial status of the state including monetary receipts and expenditures, failed to tell the same people how a whopping N100billion accrued to the state under his watch and instead, went to the bank to borrow money.
This was the major question the All Progressives Congress (APC) is asking to prove the allegation that the money had found itself into the wrong places, including members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as it threatened on Tuesday to get Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri to account for the money to the last kobo, including dragging him before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to do so.
Specifically, the governor is being accused of frittering away N21billion, the local government component of the withheld 13 per cent oil derivation refunds ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari to the oil-producing states, broken down to N3billion for each of the seven councils in the state.
Dennis Otiotio, APC Chairman in the state, told reporters in the state, at a parley with Correspondents’ Forum of the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bayelsa State Council, in Yenagoa on Tuesday, the disappearance of the money was evidence of the bad governance suffered in the state since the arrival of Diri.
Bewailing what he said was the untold hardship on the people of the state despite the huge monthly revenue allocation from the Federation Account, including the 13 per cent oil derivation funds, in the past three years, Otiotio said the APC was working hard to end the suffering by wresting power from PDP under Diri, who came into power not because of popular votes of the people, but through the courts, which destroyed the overwhelming mandate given to the APC in the 2019 governorship election.
Hear him: “We are told that about N3billion accrued to each of the local government areas of the state from money that was withheld from 13 per cent derivation, but we are aware that as we speak, there are no elected officials manning the local governments in the state because the governor is unable to conduct local government election.
“And since there are no elected officials at the local government councils, how did they manage this N3billion? I hear they are sharing the money with candidates to go and do an election. We are going to write to the EFCC to investigate that money; the money was given to the local governments. They (the state government) should explain to Bayelsans how they spent the money when there are no elected officials at the local governments.
“Coming to the state, they got over N100 billion from that 13 per cent refunds from the record we have seen. Meanwhile, a month after they got the money, the governor went to the state Assembly with a loan request. Why are they collecting loans when they have over N100 billion from the Federal Government?
“It is unfortunate that even the various transparency briefings they have been holding, they have not deemed it necessary to disclose that they have collected over N100billion from the Federation Account. That is the money that PDP led-Federal Government then withheld, but APC led-Federal Government released it to the PDP states and the governors unanimously concealed it, if not the revelation by Governor Nyesom Wike.
“Governor Diri needs to give us a proper account of how the money was spent and stop this shady transparency briefing they are doing because it is clear that this transparency briefing is a farce. If at the time they did the transparency briefing, they did not inform Bayelsans that Federal Government has released the withheld money, but six months after, they came out because there was a revelation.
“We can see that Governor Douye Diri’s administration has brought suffering to the people of Bayelsa State, our resources have been mismanaged, and the people cannot enjoy the dividends of democracy; the essence of governance is to create enabling environment for businesses to strive.”
Diri had on November 22, 2022, while receiving the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Barry Ndiomu, on a courtesy visit, told the retired General and his team that the 13 per cent oil derivation funds accruing to the state were being prudently spent, mostly on infrastructure development.
The governor also claimed in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, that his administration had nothing to hide and that the state’s monthly allocations from the Federation Account had always been made public through its monthly transparency briefings.
Justice Usman Na’abba of the Kano State High Court, on Wednesday, granted an ex-parte motion forbidding Abdullahi Ganduje, embattled National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from parading himself as a member of the party, worsening the case of the former Governor of the state, who assumed the leadership of the ruling party, last year.
The order, which also included that Ganduje should desist from presiding over all affairs of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, is the outcome of an application filed on Tuesday through a motion ex parte Ibrahim Sa’ad on behalf of two executive members of Ganduje’s ward, Dawakin-Tofa Local Government Area, the Assistant Secretary, Laminu Sani and Legal Adviser, Haladu Gwanjo (plaintiffs), who were part of the nine ward executives who suspended Ganduje on Monday.
The court directed the four parties (respondents) joined in the matter, including the APC, NWC, APC Kano State Working Committee, and Ganduje, to henceforth, maintain status quo ante belum as of April 15, 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit on April 30, 2024 and also stopped the State Working Committee (SWC) of the party in Kano from interfering with the legally and validly considered decision of executives of Ganduje ward, essentially on action endorsed by a two-thirds majority of the executives as provided by the party constitution.
Specifically, the court, granted: “An order is hereby granted directing all parties in the suit APC (first), APC National Working Committee (second), Kano State Working Committee APC (third), Dr. Abdullah Umar Ganduje (fourth), to maintain status quo ante belum as of April 15, 2024.
”The order thereby restraining the first respondent (APC) from recognising the fourth respondent (Ganduje) as a member of APC and prohibiting the fourth respondent (Ganduje) from presiding over any affairs of the NWC and restraining the state Working Committee from interfering with the legally and validly decision of the ward executives of Ganduje ward.
”The order thereby restraining the first respondent (APC) from recognising the fourth respondent (Ganduje) as a member of APC and prohibiting the fourth respondent (Ganduje) from presiding over any affairs of the NWC and restraining the state Working Committee from interfering with the legally and validly decision of the ward executives of Ganduje ward.
“That the fourth respondent (Ganduje) is prohibited from parading himself as a member of APC or doing any act that may portray him or seem to be a member of APC pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.”
Nine members of the Ganduje ward proclaimed the suspension of the National Chairman of the APC over the allegation of corruption slammed on him by the Kano State Government, on the ground of a supposed petition written by one Ja’afaru Adamu, a member of the APC from the former governor’s polling unit, over allegations of corruption charges against him, which he prayed the ward leaders to investigate, “to redeem the dented image of the party and the implication on President Bola Tinubu’s fight against corruption.”
Although the chairman and secretary of the ward failed to act on the petition filed on April 8, 2024, nine members of the executives, led by the legal adviser, acted upon the petition, thus validating the decision that led to Ganduje’s suspension.
Five days after the invasion of Oyo State Secretariat in Ibadan, authorities of the Oyo State Police Command, on Wednesday, commenced the trial of members of the “Yoruba Nation” agitators, arrested in respect of the incident, with 29 of them brought before the Chief Magistrate Court in the state capital for arraignment.
The number of the suspects, which was initially put at 21, has however increased by eight persons when they were brought to the court for trial over the incident, which occurred at the Oyo State Government Secretariat on Saturday, April 13, when the culprits attempted to hoist a flag of what they said was a new republic for the Yoruba people.
The police are slamming the suspects on a seven-count charge bothering on treasonable felony, unlawful society, illegal possession of firearm, going armed and conduct likely to cause breach of peace, in the case marked Mi/520c/2024 in which the Commissioner of Police is cited as the complainant.
The offences, according to the Investigative Police Officer, Bakare Rasaq, an Inspector with the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, Ibadan is contrary to and punishable under Section 516 of the Criminak Code, Cap 38, Vol.II, Laws of Oyo State of Nigeria, 2000.
Unlike Idris Okuneye, Nigeria’s popular crossdresser, otherwise known as Bobrisky, who did not put up a fight by pleading guilty to the four-count charge of abusing the Naira, Nigeria’s local currency, for which he was handed a six-month jail term, last Friday, Pascal Okechukwu, popularly known as “Cubana Chief Priest” has decided to toe an opposite line.
He pointedly told the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), who arrested him and is currently handling his prosecution after successfully putting Okuneye away, that he could not be tried, while pleading not guilty, during his arraignment before a Federal High Court in Lagos, on Wednesday.
Chukosolo Ojukwu, his lawyer, in addition to opposing his trial, also argued for the court to grant him bail in liberal terms, which was acceded to by Justice Kehinde Ogundare, after Okechukwu, also known as Celebrity Barman was finally arraigne on three counts bordering on abuse of naira by allegedly spraying and tampering with the nation’s currency at a social event, contrary to the provisions of the Central Bank Act of 2007.
Part of the charges read: “That you, Okechukwu Pascal on 13th Feb. 2024, at Eko Hotel, within the jurisdiction of the court, while dancing during a social event, tampered with funds in the denomination of N500 (Five Hundred Naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying same for two hours, and you thereby committed an offence, contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act 2007.
“That you Okechukwu Pascal sometime in 2020, in Lagos during a social event, tampered with funds in the denomination of N500 (Five Hundred Naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying same for two hours, and you thereby committed an offence, contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act 2007.
“That you Okechukwu Pascal sometime in January 2024, in Lagos during a social event, tampered with funds in the denomination of N500 (Five Hundred Naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying same and you thereby committed an offence, contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act 2007.”
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