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“When I was contemplating the struggle, I knew it was going to require a lot of energy, patience and money,” Ken writes in his prison memoirs A Month and A Day (which I am paraphrasing here since somebody has permanently borrowed my copy). Of those three things, Ken said he knew he had a lot of energy, that if he did not have patience he could cultivate it. But concerning the last one, money, he knew he had no money anywhere in the world. So, inst
ead of waiting to win a lottery, Ken became a business man. But because his foray into business was for a higher purpose, it could only be a transitory phase. He knew when his trading career had served its purpose and then, even though he had become a very successful business man, had to call it quits in order to devote his energy to the Ogoni struggle. He did not succumb to the joys of money making and its attendant greed and glories.
But the rudiments of the struggle were already stirring in Ken even as he served in 
different portfolios as a commissioner to the government of Rivers state. Indeed, much earlier than that, he had already started to question why the oil companies operating in his native village should be flaring so much gas and filling the whole place with obnoxious seethe. At that time he memorably wrote that “The flames of Shell are the flames of Hell.” This, admittedly was only innocuously lodged at the back of his mind at the time for he reportedly sought employment at Shell at a point. But as he grew in maturity the question began to haunt him. So it was no surprise that as a member of the Rivers state government he was becoming increasing vocal in his criticism of the shabby way oil producing communities were being treated. This led to his being unceremoniously sacked from that government. From that point on he knew that his work was cut out for him. But he had to do his homework thoroughly. That was when he realized that he needed mostly the three things I just mentioned a
bove.
Dr (Mrs) Cecilia Ibru(Fmr CEO,Oceanic Bank PLC) FHC, Ikoyi, Lagos. Justice Dan Abutu Arraigned on 25 state counts. Plea taken and case adjourned to Nov for trial N160.2 Billion Suspect remanded in EFCC custody, but granted bail on 14/9/09 - Commenced by Waziri on Aug 31 2009.
On-Going High Profile Cases ECONOMIC & FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION, EFCC ON-GOING HIGH PROFILE CASES 2007- 2009 NAME TRIAL COURT CASE STATUS AMOUNT INVOLVED STATUS OF SUSPECT (S) REMARK 1. Ayo Fayose(Former Governor of Ekiti State) Fed. High Court, Lagos Arraigned on 51 state counts. Plea already taken but defence lawyer keeps filing frivolous applications for long adjournments to frustrate and prolong trial. N1.2 Billion granted bail by court since 2007 - Inherited Case filed since 17th Dec.2007 .2. Adenike Grange(Former Minister of Health) FCT. High Court Maitama Arraigned on 56 state counts. Plea already taken. Defence lawyer often seeks long adjournments to prolong trial. Matter adjourned to Oct 27 N300 million granted bail by court since 2008 - InheritedCase filed since 2nd April.2008 .3. Joshua Dariye(Former Governor Plateau State) FCT High CourtGudu Arraigned on 14 state counts. Plea already taken but defence lawyer challenged court jurisdiction.Case stalled at HC while on appeal for stay of trial.This is part of calculated attempt to prolong trial N700 Million granted bail by court since 2007 - InheritedCase filed since13th July 2007 .
Kidnappers have abducted the popular Nigerian actor, Nkem Owoh. The president of the actors guild of Nigeria told channels television today that Mr. Owoh was kidnapped along Enugu-Port Harcourt express way.
The kidnappers are reported to have demanded 15 million naira ransom from Mr. Owoh’s family. 
Meanwhile reports reaching us say that the permanent secretary, youth and strategy in Niger State, Alhaji Adamu Umar has also been kidnapped along the Suleja Minna road. The kidnappers are reportedly demanding a ransom of thirty million naira.
No doubt, Nigeria parades the best set of Newspaper editors in Black Africa as aptly shown by the quality of awards received so far by many Nigerian Journalists across Africa. Just last week, the Sunday Trust editor, sorry, one of the nation’s longest serving Acting Sunday Editors Mr. Theophilus Abbah scooped for himself a fantastic award as Africa’s most outstanding editor in the year who published very controversial but objectively sound news material amid widespread pressure from certain quarters.That award was the first PANAFRICAN Journalism award of excellence. May I please ask the senior editorial and management staff of Daily Trust group of Newspapers why this exceptional and gallant editor Mr. Theophilus Abbah is still appearing on their masthead as ACTING EDITOR? Or is it a perfect case of a prophet not being sufficiently recognized in his homeland? Pardon me for this necessary digression because as journalists we owe ourselves a duty to say it as it is because we are worshippers in the temple of truth and objectivity. Thankfully, the motto of our beloved Daily Trust is TRUTH IS A BURDEN.
Federal prosecutors are seeking the harshest prison sentence ever handed out to a member of Congress for former Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), convicted of conspiring to bribe former vice-president Atiku Abubakar; arguing that his “stunning betrayal of public trust” warrants what could be a life sentence for the long-time lawmaker. 
The Justice Department is asking a federal judge in Alexandria, Va, to lock up Jefferson, 62, for up to 33 years, according to documents filed by prosecutors on Friday. That is far longer than the eight-year sentence given to former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) when he was sentenced in March 2006 for taking more than $2.4 million in bribes, as well as tax evasion and fraud.
The difference between the United States of America and Nigeria is stark; while Jefferson is heading to prison, his friend and co-conspirator, Atiku Abubakar is warming up to be elected the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Another crook, the former chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Chief Bode George and fi
ve other former members of the board of the authority who were convicted on October 26 by Justice Joseph Oyewole were sentenced to a mere two and a half years in prison .
Contrary to a report by The Guardian on Sunday of yesterday, November 8, erroneously stating that the trial in London of the three women associated with James Ibori had been postponed till November 16, 2009, the trial recommenced as scheduled today in London before Judge Christopher Hardy of the Southwark Crown Court.Last month, the case was adjourned to enable the Federal High Court in Asaba dispense of the application before it asking the court to quash the money laundering charge
s against Ibori, the former Delta State governor. The judge also deferred to the expected ruling from Asaba in adjourning the case today. On Sunday, the Nigeria Liberty Forum (NLF) had asked Nigerians in London to ignore the Guardian report and attend today's trial, describing the misleading report as a calculated attempt to confuse the public about the status of the trial today. Last Friday, the federal judge in Asaba, Justice Mercel Awokulehin, buckled under pressure from the public as it came to light that he had entered into a $5 million deal to quash 170-count ch
arge against Ibori.
Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda visited the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Emmanuel Ayoola (rtd), at the weekend.
The secret visit might not be unconnected with a petition on the alleged diversion of a N35billion loan the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the ICPC is probing.
Yuguda arrived at the ICPC headquarters, without the paraphernalia of office, at about 11.05am in a blue Honda car last Friday.
He headed straight for the office of the ICPC chairman.
It was gathered that a bewildered Justice Ayoola suspended his official duties for a closed-door 45-minute session with the governor.
Justice Ayoola repeatedly asked some of his close aides what informed the sudden visit, The Nation learnt.
After the exit of the governor, Justice Ayoola summoned some heads of department to find out if they were handling any case involving the Bauchi State government because he could not "fathom what informed the secret visit".
A source said the Head of the Unit told the ICPC chairman of an ongoing probe of a petition on the alleged diversion of a N35billion loan.
According to findings, the petitioner had alleged that the loan, which was meant for infrastructure, had been diverted "under the guise of security vote".
As the intensive moves to recover banks’ debt by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) continues, the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has condemned the CBN, EFCC and other security agencies for hiding under the guise of banks’ predicament to turn itself into a debt recovery agent.
But Nigerians are not surprised by this outburst seeing that the NBA has always aligned itself with the looters of the Nigerian economy.
The NBA further stated that transactions between customers and banks are contractual and that the security agencies should not term those in the transaction as criminals on mere imputation, and arresting alleged debtors without clarity.
In a communiqué issued at the end of its annual conference in Kaduna which was signed by SLP's Chairman, Funke Adekoya (SAN), it said, "The SLP deprecates the attitude of the EFCC and security agencies which have turned themselves into debt recovery agents.
With almost all the names of bigwigs in Nigeria’s corporate and political circles published in the list of Bad debtors in the country, the re-election of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2011 is in jeopardy due to massive mobilisation and underground gang up to ensure that he does not return to power after the first tenure. The list of biggest debtors in Nigeria includes top politicians, powerful retired military general, influential industrialists and public functionaries. While the central bank has bailed out nine of the country’s 24 banks to the sum of $4bn, nearly N600 billion the worth of the non-performing loans of the affected bank was N1.6 trillion. So far only about N150bn has been recovered while the banking stocks lost almost 50% of their monetary values. In the forefront of mobilisation against the re-election, Economic Confidential an online economic magazine gathered, are some powerful members of the Corporate Nigeria, a mafia-kind of an organisation that had funded the re-election of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003 with billions of Naira and made generous donation to Yar’adua’s election in 2007. There are also former elected and appointed public officers who have not been in the good book of the administration and ambitious politicians even within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) strategising for relevant in 2011’s election. The gang-up will see to a boycott of any campaign funding rally for Yar’Adua’s election. The aggrieved individuals have marshalled plans to teem up with opposition groups, especially the anti-government forces by funding their programmes and also working on some media to discredit the reform agenda on the economic front. They are also planning to host websites to play ethno- regional cards through different fronts.
The pedigree of Adokiye Amiesimaka in the Nigerian story is quite unique and exemplary. He is both an accomplished legal practitioner as well as a sportsman. As a lawyer in the service of his native Rivers State, he rose to become the state attorney general. As a sportsman, he played football for the National team even as a Law student (he was fondly nicknamed Chief Justice) and was a terror to opposing defenders on the left wing. This combination of National service on both the legal and sporting fronts is quite rare and very commendable.
Honourable Dimeji Bankole, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and his deputy, Honourable Usman Bayero Nafada, are said to have acquired nine bullet-proof cars each for their official use and in preparation for 2011 governorship elections in their respective states.
Bankole is from Ogun State while Nafada is from Gombe. Their governors are respectivel
y serving second terms and their seats will be vacant in 2011.
The Speaker had, on many occassions, denied eyeing the governorship seat, but sources in his state have continued to link him with a possible shot at the Ogun Government House. The multi-million naira vehicles are now in Abuja, while the presiding officers sometimes put some of the cars in their official fleet.
Sources confirmed in Abuja that each of the vehicles was acquired for between N50 and N85 million and that the deputy speaker, most of the times, acted as a catalyst for the acquisition.It was also gathered in Abuja that the cars are mostly parked at a rented apartment being used as a Guest House by the Speaker.
Saturda
y Tribune reports that the speaker acquired the first bullet-proof car shortly after he resumed office in November, 2007, adding that the car was in his fleet during his first official trip to Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.It was gathered that because of the sensitive nature of the cars, the National Assembly had, through the outgoing Clerk of the National Assembly (CNA), Alhaji Nasiru Arab, requested for End Users Certificate (EUC) from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to ensure the clearance of the first bullet-proof car acquired for the Speaker.
The time has come to disband the Federal House of Representatives in Nigeria. It one thing for it to be the utterly useless money-draining institution that I believe it is and another thing entirely for it to redefine its mission as Nigeria’s National Academy of Comedy and Comedians (NACCO). Pray, do these looting comedians in Abuja learn anything from their endless estacode-induced junketing around the world to mingle with their peers in other climes and observe how the legislative business is done?
A report in the November 6, 2009 edition of NEXT indicates that the House spent a considerable part of the legislative day debating vigorously whether or not to agree with reports that have recently labeled Nigeria a failed state! Unbelievable, isn’t it? But wait for this: Dimeji Bankole and Patricia Etteh even had a say in the matter. In a move indicative of what the Yoruba call “da bi mo ti da”, (I want you to be as wretched as I am), Dimeji Bankole rapturously recalled that he had been made privy to a case of bribery during a visit to Canada. His logic, I guess, is this: if pervasive bribery (i.e. runaway corruption) is one of the indices of a failed state and he was fortunate enough to witness or hear about an incident of bribery in Canada, that means we are not alone. Canada is also technically a failed state jare!
The Sierra Leone's president has sacked two of his ministers, one of whom has been indicted for corruption.
According to the BBC, Health Minister Sheku Tijan Koroma appeared in court on Wednesday charged with illegally awarding contracts.
He is the first minister to be charged with corruption since President Ernest Bai Koroma came to power two years ago. No reason was given for the dismissal of the other official, Leonard Balogun Koroma, who is minister in the vice-president's office.
Mr Koroma promised to crack down on corruption when he won elections in 2007
Correspondents say corruption is seen as one of the reasons for the outbreak of civil war in the country in the 1990s.
Comment: In the past one month, Corrupt Ministers have been sacked in Ghana, Liberia, Zambia and Kenya. As we have not heard of a sacked corrupt minsiter under President Yar'adua of Nigeria, Nigeria's minsiters must be whiter than white and his cabint the cleanest in the History of Nigeria, post-independence.
The federal high court in Asaba in the matter of FRN vs. Cheif James Onanefe Ibori and others sat early today amidst tight security in the 170-count charge criminal case of corruption and abuse of office involving James Ibori, the former governor of Delta State has adjourned ruling to 23 November, 2009.
Justice Mercel Awokulehin could not deliver his judgement today in the controversial sitting.The trial has been enmeshed in controversy following series of petitions against the Honourable Justice M. Awokulehin of the federal High Court in Asaba, presiding over the trial of Chief James Onanefe Ibori and others, including the recent publication in the Vanguard Newspaper published the 2nd of November 2009, credited to Chief Edwin Clark
'Culpable Bank executives should be in jail or even be shot dead' - Sanusi
This will shock you. Make you angry. Leave you at a boiling point and leave you thoroughly mentally and spiritually exhausted.
It is the story of how the former governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Chukwuma Soludo connived with the Bank executives to ruin the Nigeria Banking System and destroyed families and people’s investment and left Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to clear the rot. In the end, the story will help you to know you don't have to envy all those fools looting Nigeria blind and throwing their evil wealth around. Their end is nigh
Please help us collect the email address of all elected Lawmakers in Nigeria. We will launch a campaign to force our senators and Representatives to pass the Freedom of Information and the Whistle blowers Bill. Every concerned Nigerian should write to his senator, his Representative and ask: Where is our Freedom of Information Bill? Quote: "The business of bringing information to the people is vital to the sustenance of societal goals. Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light, the most efficient policeman. But publicity is the oil that greases the whee1s of democracy because only a well-informed citizenry can promote the cause of democracy". Ray Ekpu 
But to Nigerian fat and corrupt Lawmakers, the FOI Bill should be killed and "The reasons are obvious, and we know them. And because they are afraid”, says as a member of the House of Representatives Hon. Aliyu Pategi.
Hopes that the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill may be passed into law during the current session of the National Assembly dimmed yesterday as a member of the House of Representatives Hon. Aliyu Pategi said the bill was unlikely to scale through the numerous hurdles erected along its path.
The Senate yesterday indefinitely shelved consideration of the report of its ad-hoc committee which indicted Tony Anenih, a former minister of Works and former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees and other serving and former ministers of culpability in the misuse of N300 billion in the transportation sector during the immediate past administration.
Earlier the Senate ad hoc committee on transportation led by Heineken Lokpobiri (PDP Bayelsa State) that investigated alleged corruption in the transport sector since 1999 had subsequent submission of its report a fortnight ago.
The report is filled with revelations of alleged serial malpractices and shows how in 10 years, through multiple contract fraud, unhelpful connivance between contractors and government officials, N633 billion was spent on only 4,752 kilometres of road; short-changing the government of N47 million per kilometre of road.
Based on the report, between 1999 and 2009, the Ministry of Transportation, gave contracts for the construction and rehabilitation of 11, 591km roads at a cost of N1.7 trillion – about N87 million per km – and with only 24 per cent of the roads achieved, 64 per cent of the contract value has already been paid; about N133 million per km.
Senate spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze denied insinuations of underlying intrigues in the removal of the issue from the Senate agenda at a press conference yesterday.
The police in Anambra State this morning in Awka told journalists how abductors of Pa Simeon Soludo, father of former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Charles Soludo, released the old man last night. He was said to have been released at a location in Uga in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. According to the police, the kidnappers had earlier called the
A convicted rapist from Cleveland is charged with multiple murders after police found 10 corpses and a partial skeleton on his property.
ead of waiting to win a lottery, Ken became a business man. But because his foray into business was for a higher purpose, it could only be a transitory phase. He knew when his trading career had served its purpose and then, even though he had become a very successful business man, had to call it quits in order to devote his energy to the Ogoni struggle. He did not succumb to the joys of money making and its attendant greed and glories.
different portfolios as a commissioner to the government of Rivers state. Indeed, much earlier than that, he had already started to question why the oil companies operating in his native village should be flaring so much gas and filling the whole place with obnoxious seethe. At that time he memorably wrote that “The flames of Shell are the flames of Hell.” This, admittedly was only innocuously lodged at the back of his mind at the time for he reportedly sought employment at Shell at a point. But as he grew in maturity the question began to haunt him. So it was no surprise that as a member of the Rivers state government he was becoming increasing vocal in his criticism of the shabby way oil producing communities were being treated. This led to his being unceremoniously sacked from that government. From that point on he knew that his work was cut out for him. But he had to do his homework thoroughly. That was when he realized that he needed mostly the three things I just mentioned a
