Ex-PDP Chairman Toyo Accuses Akpabio Of Squandering N4T

Otu Ita Toyo, the former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Akwa Ibom state chapter, has accused former governor of the state Godswill Akpabio of squandering N4trillion during his administration.

Speaking in an interview with Premium Times, Toyo said Akwa Ibom state is broke.
He said: “Today we are broke. Is that possible, after N4 trillion?
“If you have N4 trillion and you become broke, it means you’ve not been doing something right.
“There is so much want in Akwa Ibom. There are real men who have lived a life of contentment in the past, but today they can’t feed their family.
On his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Akpabio said what he was witnessing now wasn’t the kind of Akwa Ibom he envisaged when he conducted the governorship primary that produced Akpabio.
“I was looking for an Akwa Ibom where the state chairman of our party will call the government and say ‘listen, our party wants to achieve this, we are not here to build big houses and undergrounds and swimming pools, and local government chairmen buying 20 cars and building houses all over the country.
“If the Supreme Court says we should go for a re-run of the governorship election in Akwa Ibom state, I have no doubt that the APC will win the election.
“The people voting for APC will be largely PDP people who are unhappy with the way they were treated in the PDP.
“And that puts the blame squarely on the head of those who ran the party in the state in the past eight years, and those who ran the government in the last eight years.”
Toyo added that he would not support Udom Emmanuel who won the 2015 governorship as a candidate of the PDP.

Otu Ita Toyo, ex-pdp chairman alleges Godswill Akpabio squandered N4trillion

According to him, his problem with Emmanuel was that he was the cause of the political dispute that brought division and tension in the state.
“It is not his making. I wish they had not dragged him into this. They have probably abandoned him and gone up to the senate.
“He’s got to manage it and he doesn’t even have the capacity in terms of experience to manage it.”
The ex-chairman also criticised the attempt by the PDP to resurrect the argument on the zoning of the governorship seat in Akwa Ibom state.
He said it was fraudulent in the first place for the PDP to have used senatorial district basis, instead of linguistics groupings, to zone the governorship of the state in the 2015 election.
“They are not true to the PDP zoning system which we all subscribed to many years ago. And they did not inform anybody when they changed the format, and therefore that cannot by any stretch of imagination be the subsisting PDP zoning system.
“This business of zoning on senatorial district is an afterthought by a fraudulent cabal who wants to hoodwink the people of the state and come in (to government) through the back door.
“Even if we come to Eket Senatorial District and we want to choose a governor from there, will you go to Awa which has had a governor before? Is that zoning? Chief Clement Isong was from Awa, in Onna local government area.
“Okay, let’s continue to push the senatorial district argument. If you were to choose on senatorial district basis, a deputy to a governor from Eket Senatorial district, where would that deputy come from? Is it not Uyo Senatorial District, given that the immediate past governor was from Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District?
“How come the deputy governor is from Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District?
“Their argument is that ‘Oh, we don’t want two Ibibio persons to occupy the offices of the governor and that of the deputy governor’. How come you are talking about linguistic grouping in the deputy governorship position, but you use senatorial district when talking about the governorship?”

Chief Otu Ita Otoyo had defected to the APC yesterday, January 10, alongside a former senator, Aloysius Etok, and a former member of the House of Representatives, Eseme Eyiboh.
The decampees including the ex-chairman of Ibesikpo Asutan local government area and many others were received into the party at a prayer summit and reception held in honour of Obong Umana Umana, the APC candidate, in the last governorship election.

SwitzerlandTo Return $300m Abacha's Loot To Nigeria

Switzerland’s government has concluded plans to transfer to the Nigerian government, the sum of $300 million recovered from the family of former military dictator, General Sani Abacha.

Switzerland’s government has concluded plans to return Abacha’s loot

This disclosure was made known by the minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama on Monday, January, 11.
The fund to be transferred is said to be part of an estimated $5 billion stolen and kept in foreign accounts by the late military ruler.
So far, the country had reportedly received over $1 billion in the past 10-year from the Swiss and American governments and the recovered funds had been a subject of controversy as past administrations were reportedly said to have misappropriated the fund.

According to Premium Times report in December 2015, the former minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, with the approval of ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, allegedly authorized the diversion of N61.4 billion($300 million and £5.5 million) from the funds recovered from Abacha, to the office of the national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, about three weeks before the 2015 presidential elections.
Okonjo-Iweala had said that the fund which was not approved by the National Assembly was meant for the purchase of arm to prosecute the war against insurgency.
Meanwhile, a fresh report showed that Jonathan reportedly left N13.6 billion loot recovered from f Abacha in the Nigerian treasury.
This new fact was disclosed by Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom in a chat journalists at the end of the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the state house, Abuja.

CBN Lifts Ban Cash Deposit Of Dollars, Others

In order to stem the tide of growing foreign exchange crisis, the Central Bank of Nigeria has finally lifted the ban stopping commercial banks from accepting cash deposits of foreign exchange from customers.

File photo of CBN governor,Godwin Emefiele

This announcement was made by the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, in Abuja on Monday, January 11, saying that the new directive takes immediate effect.
He added that the CBN discontinue its sales of foreign exchange to Bureau de Change (BDC) operators.
The CBN governor accused the BDCs of excessive greed and rent-seeking practices, Premium Times reports.

He stressed further that  BDC operators will now have to source for their foreign exchange from autonomous sources.
Emefiele disclosed measure will be put in place so that no operator violate the country’s anti-money laundering laws, stating the CBN would deploy more resources to monitor closely the sources of foreign exchange by the BDCs.
He said: “These measures are not intended to be punitive on anyone or any group,” the CBN governor explained.

“Rather it is meant to ensure that the CBN is better able to carry out its mandate in an effective and efficient manner, to guarantee the preservation of our scarce commonwealth, and that our hard-earned financial system stability remain intact to the benefit of all Nigerians.”
Meanwhile,the fiery preacher and general overseer of The Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, had released his state of the nation address tagged ”Roadmap to successful change”.
Bakare, who was the running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 presidential elections under the banner of the Congress for Progressive Change , called for the prosecution of the CBN governor, Emiefiele, because of the role of the apex bank in the widely publicised ongoing arms probe deal.

EFCC Boss Explains Why GEJ Hasn't Been Arrested

Ibrahim Magu, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has finally explained why former president Goodluck Jonathan has not been arrested over $2.1 billion arms deal.

Ibrahim Magu has explained why former president Goodluck Jonathan has not been arrested over $2.1 billion arms deal.

The fund, which was managed by the office of former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, has led to the questioning, arrest and detention of many prominent Nigerians. However, some people are still wondering why the ex-president, who is believed to be the principal actor in the unfolding scenario, has not been arrested or summoned for questioning.
The Eagle Online reports that Magu gave the explanation on Monday, January 11, speaking at a gathering of online news publishers under the aegis of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers in Lagos.
The EFCC boss said that no document has been traced to Jonathan giving any approval for the disbursement of the money for any other purpose than arms purchase.
He further noted that all those questioned so far in connection with the money were people who disbursed or collected it for reasons other than the purchase of arms and ammunition.

“All approvals by former president Jonathan did not mention that it was for political purposes.
“All the memos approved by him was for the purchase of arms,” he said.
Magu said that Jafar Isa who was arrested for receiving N170 million from Dasuki has already refunded N100 million and signed an undertaking to refund the balance. However, he added that despite the refund, Isa would still be prosecuted.
Speaking about Olisa Metuh, the EFCC boss revealed that the national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party said he would rather go on hunger strike than refund the N400 million he allegedly collected from Dasuki.
Maga also said that Patrick Akpobolokemi, a former boss of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, was recently re-arrested after new evidences of alleged embezzlement of N34.5 billion and another N600 million were linked to him.

The EFCC chairman stressed that the war against graft was not selective and assured Nigerians that his agency was not teleguided in the ongoing anti-corruption fight.
He called on the media to join the EFCC to win the anti-corruption war and noted that the victory would be for the benefit of the next generation.
Meanwhile, there are indications that some prominent Nigerians might soon be invited by the anti-graft agency.
According to sources close to the EFCC, the people on the list include ex-Board of Trustees chairman of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Chief Olu Falae, the former Oyo state governor, Rasheed Ladoja, and a few others.