Flowerbud News

Month: October 2023

  • FBI Wanted List: EFCC Arrests ‘Notorious’ Internet Scammer In Ilorin

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested, Joseph Oyediran, one of the suspected internet fraudsters wanted by the United State’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI.

    Mr. Oyediran, 36, was arrested in Ilorin, Kwara State north central, Nigeria by the anti-graft agency.

    Zonal Head of the EFCC in Ilorin, Isyaku Sharu, who confirmed the arrest at a press conference on Friday, said the move was “as part of an international crackdown on a syndicate of cyber criminals.”.

    According to EFCC, “Three weeks ago, the U.S. authority had written to us for assistance in tracking and possible arrest and prosecution of two most wanted FBI suspects in Nigeria.”

    “Investigation conducted by the EFCC revealed that Joseph had benefited about N60 million from the loot via western union transfers,” a statement by the EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren quoted Mr. Sharu as saying.

    The Zonal head disclosed that in the last seven months, the EFCC in Ilorin has revved up efforts to rid the country of cybercrime resulting in the arrest of more than 50 persons involved in internet fraud.

    “We have also secured the conviction of 25 of them, recovered exotic cars from them, which were proceeds of their illegal activities,” he said, adding that money recovered from them running into millions of naira were forfeited to the Federal Government.

    He also revealed that some property linked to some of the cybercrime suspects, were traced to choice areas in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State.

    “They include supermarket, plaza, and so on, and the conservative value of the property cannot be less than N800 million to N1 billion,” he said.

    Recall that the FBI last week charged 77 Nigerians under a 252-count federal grand jury indictment, accusing them of participating in a massive conspiracy to steal millions of dollars through a variety of fraud schemes and launder the funds through a Los Angeles-based money laundering network.

    Consequently, the US law enforcement authorities arrested 14 defendants across the United States, with 11 of those arrests taking place in the Los Angeles region.

    The remaining defendants are believed to be abroad, with most them located in Nigeria.

    The indictment alleges that the defendants and others used various online fraud schemes – including business email compromise frauds, romance scams, and schemes targeting the elderly – to defraud victims out of millions of dollars.

  • PRAWA Lauds Buhari On Correctional Service Act

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) Director-General of the Prisons Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA),  Dr Uju Agomo, on Friday praised President Muhammadu Buhari for assenting to the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019.

    Agomo spoke in Lagos at a sensitisation workshop organised y PRAWA on the Act.

    She called for effective enforcement of the Act which she described as long awaited, saying that the enforcement would make the prison system better.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that bills sponsored by eight senators and members of the House of Representatives were harmonised to give birth to the Nigerian Correctional Service Bill.

    The lawmakers include, Sen. Shaaba Lafiaji, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu, Sen. Babajide Omoworare, Sen. Gershom Bassey, Mr Henry Nwawuba, Mr Ochiglegor Igagbor, Mr Danburam Abubakar and Mr Johnbull Shekarau.

    The draft harmonised bill of the 8th Assembly was reviewed by the Committee of Interior of the Senate in April 2018 and July 2018.

    In April 2019, Buhari  declined assent to the bill and called for  modification which was effected.

    In early August, the president assented to the bill.

    During the sensitisation workshop with some lawyers and journalists, Agomo expressed delight at the success of the bill, and harped on effective enforcement.

    “The new law aims to achieve many set objectives including compliance with international human rights standards and good correctional practices.

    “The Nigerian Correctional Service Act will tackle incidences of detaining petty offenders and proffer ways of channelling such offenders through non-custodial service.

    “This will save funds for the government and avoid low-risk offenders from being socialised into the criminal culture by hardened criminals.

    “It will also help fast-track implementation of the non-custodial provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of various states, by providing the needed support in terms of manpower for supervision.

    She said that PRAWA was satisfied with the provisions of the Act, including the provisions mandating separate facilities for young offenders and female inmates in all states of the federation.

    “There is need for implementation of the new law to achieve the desired results; it is important that all stakeholders turn toward supporting and advocating implementation of the new law.

    “There is need for sensitisation of all key stakeholders on the law so that they can better understand the rationale for each provision,” she said.
    (NAN)

  • Power Generation To Soon Receive Massive Boost-ICRC

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) The Director-General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) Mr Chidi Izuwah says power generation in the country will soon witness a massive boost.

    A statement issued by the commission on Friday in Abuja, said Izuwah gave the assurance during a consultative visit by Mr Lamu Audu, the Managing Director, Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited.

    Izuwah said that a multi stakeholder collaborative platform would be put in place to ensure that challenges in the sector were addressed on a sustainable basis.

    He said that lack of new investments was one of the several bottlenecks inhibiting smooth operations in the sector.

    The diector—-general urged the management of the company and other players in the power generation business to lay emphasis on capacity and energy charge.

    ‘‘All parties need to seek for solutions that work for government and at the same time support and encourage private investment in the economy,” he said.

    Izuwah also pledged total commitment of the ICRC in ensuring that  infrastructural transformation agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari, including the provision of stable power for Nigerians was realised.

    Audu, speaking on the purpose of the visit said  it was a follow up to a recent monitoring visit undertaken by a team from the ICRC to the company’s facilities in Jebba and Shiroro.

    According to him, presently, the company generates the cheapest power in the country  and is willing to make new investments including the development of an industrial cluster.

    He added that installed capacity for the power plant was 1,338 Megawatts (MW) while available power stood at 922 MW and stranded power on the other hand stood at 250 MW.

    Audu said  the company was at the verge of signing a 96 MW deal at Jebba.

    He, however, lamented that the operational environment was not conducive for further investment, putting the company’s outstanding receivable at N112 billion.

    He sought a review of  concession fees which was denominated in dollars instead of the local currency.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that ICRC was established to regulate Public Private Partnership (PPP) activities in Nigeria, to address physical infrastructure deficit which hampered economic development. (NAN)

  • Just In: Gunmen Kidnap Action Alliance National Party Chairman In Abuja

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS)  Gunmen have kidnapped the national chairman of Action Alliance (AA), Kenneth Udeze.

    Genevieve, the victim’s wife, while speaking with Premium Times said her husband was kidnapped early Friday outside a Zenith Bank branch in Dutse Alhaji, Abuja.

    The Action Alliance was the platform through which Uche Nwosu, son-in-law of former governor Rochas Okorocha, contested the governorship seat in Imo on March 9.

    According to Mrs Udeze, the AA leader received text messages on Friday indicating heavy withdrawals, which were not authorised, from his bank accounts.

    She said Udeze suspected his account had been hacked, prompting him to rush to the bank.He was subsequently kidnapped on arrival at the bank.

    She said Udeze was in the company of his driver and was taken away in a black SUV.

    Okorocha’s son-in-law had attempted to remove Udeze from his position.

    Udeze’s wife was quoted saying she suspected her husband’s abduction was politically-motivated.

  • Twitter Suspends Account Of BBOG Co-Founder, Aisha Yesufu

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) Twitter has frozen the account of the co-founder of Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement, Aisha Yesufu.

    The BBOG co-founder’s Twitter account was suspended with a notification that reads temporary restriction.

    “Caution: this account is temporary restricted. You are seeing this warning because there has been some unusual activity from this account,” the notification read on Thursday. CULLED LEAKERS.NG

  • Botswana, Chinese firms to build $2bn coal-to-liquids plant

    Botswana’s Shumba Energy says it has formed a joint venture with two Chinese companies to build a coal-to-liquids plant that will cost between $1.5 billion and $2 billion

    The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mashale Phumaphi, told Reuters in Gaborone that the coal-to-liquids plant was expected to produce 20,000 barrels of diesel and 5,000 barrels of gasoline per day when completed.

    Botswana has abundant coal reserves of around 212 billion tonnes but currently imports all its fuel needs of 1.2 billion litres per annum.

    Shumba has over the last few years progressed from being an exploration company to an energy development company.

    It sits on over 4.5 billion tonnes of thermal coal reserves in Botswana’s eastern coal fields.

    Shumba will hold an 80 per cent stake in the joint venture, CoPet, with partners PowerChina International Group, part of state-owned Chinese firm PowerChina, and Wison Group.

    “Our primary objective is import substitution, and to this end we have already had fruitful discussions with the largest fuel retailers in Botswana for off-take,” Phumaphi said.

    He said up to 75 per cent of the capital expenditure for the plant could be financed by debt, with Shumba hoping to use its relationship with PowerChina International and the Wison Group to borrow from Chinese lenders.

    The coal-to-liquids plant will require 3.2 million tonnes of coal per annum, which will be supplied by Shumba’s Mabesekwa coal mine, currently under development.

    Shumba aims to reach financial close on the project in the next two years, with construction taking a further four years.

  • 2019 presidential election results in tandem with our vote estimates- YIAGA Africa

    YIAGA-Africa, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) observed the 2019 presidential election said that the result as announced by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was consistent with its parallel vote tabulation results estimates.

    The Chairman of the Board of YIAGA-Africa, Dr Hussaini Abdu made this known while presenting the organisation’s report on the election on Friday in Abuja.

    “For the 2019 presidential elections, the official results announced by INEC were consistent with YIAGA AFRICA’s Parallel Vote Tabulation results estimates.

    “In other words, the results reflect the votes cast at the polling units.

    “Similarly, the INEC official turnout rate and rejected ballots figure were consistent with YIAGA AFRICA estimated turn out rate and rejected ballots based on reports from 1,491 98.4 per cent of sampled polling units,” he said.

    Abdu, however, said that YIAGA AFRICA’s findings revealed certain lapses and reports of malfeasance which impacted on the quality of the process in some polling units and states.

    He said that the report also revealed possible incidents of vote suppression as reflected in the percentage of cancelled ballots in some states such as Rivers, Nasarawa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Plateau, Kogi, Benue and Kaduna State.

    He said that Nigeria’s 20 years democracy was tested with the conduct of the 2019 general elections.

    Abdu said that the elections presented an opportunity for Nigeria to consolidate on the gains of the 2015 elections and deepen its democratic transition.

    According to him, although INEC introduces reforms to deepen electoral integrity and citizen’s participation, the elections are characterised by many of the same shortcomings that have marred previous national elections in Nigeria.

    The chairman said that as in past elections, INEC’s logistical challenges and misconduct by political parties undermined the integrity of the elections.

    He also said that the inability of some citizens to vote undermined public confidence in the electoral process.

    Abdu said that INEC overestimated its own capabilities and underrated the challenges with the management of logistics.

    “This was worsened by undue interference with the electoral commission functions by state and non-state actors as well as the release of election funds six weeks to the presidential elections.

    “This is in spite of its secured funding from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

    “The assault on basic rights and freedoms by state institutions especially security agencies coupled with failure to conclude amendments to the electoral legal framework indicated a lack of commitment to electoral reform and electoral integrity,” he said.

    Abdu said that the report contained evidence which made it clear that a lot was less than desired and that the overall outcome was not necessarily vindication of the process.

    He observed that Nigeria missed an opportunity to improve the quality of its elections as compared to the 2015 national elections.

    “The 2019 elections were not the elections Nigerians wanted, they were not the elections Nigerians expected and most importantly, they were not the elections Nigerians deserved.

    “Nigeria needs a national conversation on a new electoral design or framework that responds to prevailing socio-political and economic realities.

    “INEC must improve its capacity to deliver credible elections and political parties must play according to the rules as failure to do so could imperil Nigeria’s democracy,” he said.(NAN)

  • FG To Assess MDAs Through Website Ranking — DG, BSPR

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) The Federal Government has developed a scorecard for the ranking of websites of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), to help in rebranding  public service.

    The Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Engr. Dasuki Arabi, made the disclosure in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

    Arabi said that the main objective of the ranking was to open government to the citizens by providing information going by the evolution and current trend of information dissemination worldwide.

    He said the idea was in line with the Executive Order on “Ease of Doing Business” and Open Government Partnership commitment of  the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    “The media system is changing; websites are becoming very important and they have taken over what we do manually as the link of mam-to-man is being cut off.

    “If you are looking for anything now, just go to the website. We need to encourage our website administrators to work and that is why the scorecard came on board.

    “Basically, the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) was created in 2004 to serve as engine room for reforms at the federal level and as I said, we monitor, we initiate, we inform and we also evaluate reform activities in every facet of government at the federal level,” Arabi said.

    According to him, the reform and rebranding process in the public service will be holistic as it will affect different areas of governance.

    He said BPSR was already working with the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) to lead the rebranding process.

    “We are working with Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) to lead the rebranding process again and the rebranding we are looking at is not only looking at information management but rebranding the entire service.

    “We report to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and we have a steering committee on reforms that is chaired by the SGF and deputised by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

    “Permanent Secretaries of key agencies of government, including the chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, National Assembly Service Commission and the National Judicial Service Commission (are members) so that other arms of government could be carried along in this process.

    “We are talking about Public S

  • Supplementary Budget: Kaduna Govt. Earmarks N22.6bn For Education

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS)  The Kaduna State Government has earmarked N22.9 billion to the educations sector, representing 28.1 per cent of the N81.6 billion Supplementary Budget recently passed by the state’s House of Assembly.

    A breakdown of the supplementary budget obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Monday, shows that N65.4 billion of the budget was allocated for capital projects.

    It shows that of the N22.9 billion allocated to the education sector, N14 billion was allocated to the state’s Universal Basic Education Board to improve infrastructure, access and learning outcomes in basic schools.

    “The Ministry of Education and the Kaduna State University got N4.0 billion and N4.1 billion respectively, while N147.2 million was earmarked for the state’s Library Board.

    “Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria, got N492.6 million and Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya, got N110.8 million,” it added.

    The document further shows that the Ministry of Finance got N10.6 billion, the second highest after education, followed by Kaduna Road Agency with N9.8 billion.

    The health sector got N4.8 billion, out of which N2.0 billion was allocated to Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital for various capital projects.

    “Ministry of Health and the state’s Primary Health Care Development Agency got N1.1 billion each, while N228 million was allocated to Shehu Idris College of Health Sciences and Technology, Makarfi.

    “Ministry of Public Works and Infrastructure got N4.6 billion, state Legislature, N3.0 billion, Kaduna Geographic Information System, N2.3 billion and Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, N2.3 billion.

    “Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs got N2.2 billion, while Market Development and Management Company got N1.0 billion.”

    The document also showed that the agricultural sector got N197.8 million, Kaduna State Urban Development Agency, N200 million and Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources N95.4 million.

    Ministry of Business Innovation and Technology got N930 million, while N430.6 million was allocated to Planning and Budget Commission.

    A breakdown of the sources of the N81.6 billion shows that N53.9 billion was concessional multilateral loan from World Bank Performance for Result, through the Federal Ministry of Finance.

    It also shows that N9.4 billion was a refund of unremitted Pay-As-You-Earned taxes from some federal government agencies in Kaduna, while N3.6 billion was from Airport Refund from ministry of finance.

    According to the document, the amount was for some work executed by the Kaduna State Government in 2017 when Abuja Airport flights were diverted to Kaduna Airport.

    Also, N100 million was a partial refund on Operation Sharan Daji contribution, while N492.6 million was 2017/2018 Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) intervention for Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria.

    Similarly, N3.9 billion was 2017 to 2019 TETFund Special Intervention for Kaduna State University and additional N193 million from Presidential Needs Assessment under TETFund.

    Also, N8.0 billion was Universal Basic Education Intervention Fund, 2017 to 2019, while N1.9 billion was a World Bank grant for the implementation of Better Education Service Delivery for All project.

    NAN reports that the N81.6 billion supplementary budget, in addition to the N157.4 billion earlier approved for 2019, brings the budget size to N239 billion for the 2019 fiscal year.

    NAN also reports that in 2018, the budget was N216.55 billion. (NAN)