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INEC must use March 18 to redeem itself – ex-Director *Another failure will be fatal

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Nothing must make the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), relapse into the situation that gave its image a heavy blow in the last presidential election, but everything must be put in place to make amends and recover from its failures.

The admonition came from its former spokesman, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, who regretted that the profile of the commission, which had risen astronomically in the last two years or so, nosedived again, after the election of February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, adding that the electoral umpire must do everything in its powers to redeem itself.

Osaze-Uzzi, who was a guest of Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television, spoke against the technical glitches with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which INEC blamed for failure to upload of results to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), real time.

He said: “You could not envisage a situation with the tension of the country. With the uncertainty and all that has happened in the last 10, 12 day. I don’t think INEC could afford doing any wrong again. Things went awry last time around and confidence, I think, is at an all-time low. Some people may begin to get over it, but I think the vast majority of Nigerians are satisfied.”

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Hinting that the commission was not happy with the way things turned out, he, said: “Trust is a fragile thing. The trust the electoral umpire has managed to build over several election cycles has dwindled. INEC conducted elections in 1998, 1999 – people just wanted to get rid of the military, it wasn’t perfect but it was acceptable. In 2003, people were not happy and 2007 was the epoch of it all. Trust was next to zero.

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“With the changes in personnel and reforms brought into place, trust began to build up, reaching a crescendo in 2022. By the time you brought more technology, by the time you conducted Osun, Edo, Ekiti, Ondo, and then they saw the way technology improved the process, Osun was picture-perfect. People [said], ‘They could really do this.’

“Expectations were now high and people were ready to forgive the sins of the past. I think at that time, INEC became one of the most trusted public institutions.” He faulted the electoral umpire for its prioritisation of timing above process in its conduct of the presidential elections, saying: “There was a call to be made: Do you delay things and ensure you follow the process to the letter, even if it means delaying this thing for a week or whatever period of time?

“Or do you save time, save tension, just go ahead and bypass some of the processes laid down in your regulations? I think it took the former. This time around, I think process triumphed over timing?”

 

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Anjarwalla, Binance boss, bolted on Friday – FG *We’ll get him back – ONSA

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A manhunt to track down Nadeem Anjarwalla, Executive Manager of Binance for the African region, who escaped from detention in Nigeria, has been launched by the Federal Government, with other international security operatives combing the streets across the globe in collaborative aide to help bring him back to the country.

News of the escape of the fugitive, who was on a 14-day detention order by a Nigerian court, was broken on Monday morning, with reports saying that he bolted away from the facility where he was being detained before fleeing the country, on the eve of his appearance in court on criminal charges.

The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), from which he was said to have fled, while indicating in a statement on Monday that a worldwide manhunt had begun to bring him back to the country to answer to the crime of money laundering and tax evasion, called on the public and the international community to provide vital information that could help law enforcement agencies in apprehending him.

Zakari Mijinyawa, Head of Strategic Communication, said in the statement: “The Federal Government, like other governments around the world, has been investigating money laundering and terrorism financing transactions perpetrated on the Binance currency exchange platform.

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“Until his escape, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who holds British and Kenyan nationalities and serves as Binance’s Africa regional manager, was being tried by Nigerian courts. The suspect escaped while under a 14-day remand order by a court in Nigeria, and was scheduled to appear before the court again on April 4, 2024.

See also  Anjarwalla, Binance boss, bolted on Friday – FG *We’ll get him back – ONSA

“The Office of the National Security Adviser confirms that Nadeem Anjarwalla, a suspect in the ongoing criminal probe into the activities of Binance in Nigeria escaped from lawful custody on Friday, March 22, 2024. Upon receiving this report, this office took immediate steps, in conjunction with relevant security agencies, MDAs, as well as the international community, to apprehend the suspect.”

Mijinyawa, who said the federal government had reached out to the international police (Interpol) to help in arresting Anjarwalla, confirmed that the fugitive used a smuggled passport, to leave the country, adding that officers charged with ensuring the suspect did not flee had been arrested.

“Security agencies are working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant on Nadeem Anjarwalla. Preliminary investigation shows that Anjarwalla fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport. The personnel responsible for the custody of the suspect have been arrested, and a thorough investigation is ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to his escape from lawful detention,” the statement added.

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Why we shut down Jumia – Lagos gvt

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“The Jumia facility engaged the use of a submersible pumping machine to pump raw sewage from its sewage holding tanks directly into the environment on adjoining drainage outlets and road setbacks,” was part of the reasons the Lagos State Government, adduced on Wednesday, for the shutting down of a Jumia outlet on Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba.

Tokunbo Wahab, Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, who  revealed this through an official statement, added: “The Lagos State Government through the Lagos State Wastewater Management Office (LSWMO) @lswmomedia saddled with the responsibility of managing all wastewater activities in the state under the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources @LasgMOE today (Wednesday) sealed the Jumia outlet in Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba for illegal discharge of Sewage into the environment.

The commissioner vowed that the owners of the property “will be prosecuted in accordance with the provisions of the Lagos State Environmental Management Protection Law, 2017.”

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BREAKING: Umar-Farouq beats ultimatum, finally at EFCC *To undergo grilling over N37billion ‘fraud’

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After days of dilly-dallying, back and forth, and finally an ultimatum, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, former Minister of Social Development, Disaster Management, and Humanitarian Affairs, on Monday, finally took the hot seat at the Jabi headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in Abuja to tell operatives how some whopping amounts public money under her care suddenly developed wings.

The former Minister, whose name featured prominently in the later years of former President Muhammadu Buhari, for many wrong reasons, is being investigated over one of the many allegations levied against her, this time the handsome figure of N37,170,855,753.44, which was purportedly laundered when she was in charge through a contractor named James Okwete.

“I have, at my behest, arrived at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to honour the invitation by the anti-graft agency to offer clarifications in respect of some issues that the commission is investigating,” she wrote on her X handle.

After she failed to appear at the same office on Wednesday, on the ground of what her lawyers indicated was due to ill-health, she was eventually issued with a 72-hour ultimatum by the anti-graft agency to appear or be declared wanted, a deadline she had now beaten by showing up.

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