Justice Alexander Owoeye granted the order following a motion exparte brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking arrest of the manager.

When the case was called on Thursday, Mrs Bilikisu Buhari, announced appearance for the EFCC.

She then informed the court of an application brought by EFCC pursuant to Section 35(1) (c) of the 1999 Constitution and Section 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.

The counsel consequently moved the application seeking an order to issue a warrant of arrest against the manager.

She said that the warrant would be to compel the manager’s appearance in court to answer to criminal offences he allegedly committed.

Buhari submitted that if the commission would not be able to arrest the manager, it would bring public summons to declare him wanted.

The court granted the application, and adjourned the case until Jan. 24, for arraignment of the manager.

In an affidavit in support of the application, EFCC averred that it received a petition from Chinwo against the manager.

The affidavit was deposed to by Mr Michael Idoko, an investigator with the commission.

It averred that the gospel singer alleged that the manager was receiving royalty on all her digital platforms and events without disclosure.

According to the EFCC, the gospel singer claimed that the manager diverted about 345,000 dollars without remitting her share.

It said that efforts to arrest the manager failed, necessitating the application for a warrant of arrest.

The court adjourned the case until Jan. 24 for arraignment of the manager.

The post Alleged diversion of $345,000: Court orders arrest of Mercy Chinwo’s manager appeared first on NEWSVERGE.

Our correspondent reports that the court had, on July 1, granted an order of interim forfeiture in relation to 46 property, including houses and parcels of land, suspected to be owned by Olejeme.

The 46 property are said to be located in states like Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Abuja.

Justice Taiwo granted the order in a ruling on a motion ex-parte brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In a suit number: FHC/ABJ/CS/538/2020 argued by the EFCC’s Counsel, Ekele Iheanacho, Taiwo ordered the commission to publish the order in a national daily to enable anyone who was interested in the affected property to show cause within 14 days why the assets should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

The judge then fixed July 27 as the return date.

Although the matter could not come up on July 27, when the court sat on July 29, the NSITF claimed the ownership of the 46 property seized from the agency’s former chairman by EFCC.

The management of the agency, through its Counsel, Okereke Ezechi, appeared before the court to claim ownership of the property.

Ezechi, who filed a motion to that respect, urged the court to pass the property to NSITF should they be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

He said that NSITF was the principal victim of the alleged crimes purportedly committed by Olejeme, who served as the chairman of the agency’s management board between 2009 to 2015.

The lawyer stated that the property suspected to have been acquired through proceeds of crime, were allegedly acquired with funds stolen from the organisation.

At the resumed hearing on Monday, although EFCC’s counsel and other lawyers were in court, Justice Taiwo was absent.

The matter was second of the 12 cases scheduled on the cause list.

The court registrar informed that the judge, who sat during the annual vacation of the Federal High Court, had proceeded on leave.

It would be recalled that the Federal High Court annual vacation, which began on July 27, ended on Sept. 28.

The court, however, fixed Dec. 2 for continuation of trial.

The post Alleged fraud: Absence of judge stalls ex-NSITF Chair, Olejeme’s trial appeared first on NEWSVERGE.

Our correspondent reports that Justice Taiwo had, on July 8, adjourned hearing till Oct. 20 and 21 Oct. due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was also reported that Oyo-Ita was, on March 20, arraigned before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on an 18-count charge bordering on fraud to the tune of about N471, 633, 291.

Her Special Assistant, Ubong Effiok, and a businessman, Garba Umar are among the defendants.

Other defendants are Frontline Ace Global Services Limited, Asanaya Projects Ltd, Garba Umar Slopes International Ltd., Gooddeal Investments Ltd, U & U Global Services Ltd, which is linked to Effiok and Prince Mega Logistics Limited.

They all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
At the resumed hearing on Tuesday, although counsel to all the parties, including the defendants, were in court, Justice Taiwo was absent.

The court registrar informed that the judge, who sat during the annual vacation of the Federal High Court, had proceeded on leave.

It would be recalled that the Federal High Court annual vacation, which began on July 27, ended on Sept. 28.

The court, however, fixed Dec. 1 and Dec. 2 for continuation of the trial.

The post Alleged Fraud: Absence of judge stalls Oyo-Ita’s trial appeared first on NEWSVERGE.

Although Justice Abang and Maina were not in court for the day’s proceeding, Sen. Ali Ndume, who is standing as surety for the ex-pension reformed boss, was in court.

Our correspodent reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Maina (1st defendant) before Justice Abang, on Oct. 25, 2019, alongside his son, Faisal; and firm, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd.

Although Maina is facing 12-counts bordering on money laundering, he had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

It would be recalled that the former pension reformed chair was recently released from Kuje Prison nine months after he was able to produce the senator who deposed to an affidavit to always bring the 1st defendant to court at every adjourned date or forfeit the N500 million bail bond.

I was also reported that Ndume, who represents Borno South in the National Assembly, had told the court, on Oct. 2, that he did not know the whereabouts of Maina after the 1st defendant was absent from court for the third time.

The judge, in the last sitting, had ordered Ndume to produce Maina unfailing at today’s (Monday’s) proceeding or he would be forced to grant the EFCC’s prayers to revoke Maina’s bail and issue a warrant of arrest against him.

Besides, the anti-graft agency had also prayed the court to make an order for the lawmaker to forfeit the N500 million bail bond to the Federal Government and be remanded in prison pending the time he was able to meet the pledge.

At the resumed trial on Monday, counsel to the parties and Sen. Ndume were all in court at about 9am but Justice Abang and Maina were not in court.

Maina’s case was number two on the course list.

The court registrar, after litigants in cases scheduled for the day had waited for over an hour, announced that the day’s sitting would not be holding.

“The court is indisposed and all criminal cases slated for today will be adjourned until tomorrow, Tuesday, including the case between the Federal Government and Abdulrasheed Maina,” the registrar said.

All efforts to interview Sen. Ndume were unsuccessful as the lawmaker said he would not speak since the court did not sit.

The post Alleged pension fraud: Absence of judge, Maina stall trial appeared first on NEWSVERGE.

The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in the state, Chief Donatus Nwankpa, said in an interview with our reporter that he was disappointed and angry with the judgment.

Nwankpa, who was a member of the Abia House of Assembly when Kalu was governor, said that the judgment was not fair.

“The party will meet to take a position on the judgment but as an individual, I am very saddened by the judgment.

“I am not convinced that judgment was given,” he said, adding that the court’s verdict sustained his doubts about the integrity and objectivity of the nation’s judiciary.

Nwankpa said that he never had the confidence that Kalu would get judgment, “considering the utterances of the judge.”

“I’m highly convinced that something went wrong. The judgment is not fair,” he said.

Conversely, the Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council in Abia, Mr Ceekay Igara, described the judgment as “good precedence.”

According to him, “if Kalu was found wanting as governor of the state, he should face judgment.

“It is a normal thing and goes to prove that nonody is above the law.

Igara, who is the state Chairman of the Labour Party, said that the judgment was supposed to teach two lessons.

He said, “The first lesson for those who are in government and second for others who intend to take over is that whatever they do, there is always a judgment day.”

Mr Maduka Okoro, the South-East Media Aide to Kalu, told NAN that Kalu would appeal the judgment “to allow other judges and a higher court take another look at the case.”

Okoro said that Kalu was not bothered by the judgment but considered it as one of the travails that every leader must experience “before becoming what God wants him to be.”

He expressed optimism that the judment would be reversed by a higher court, adding that Kalu would be acquitted at last.

He said that as governor, Kalu administered Abia transparently and never defrauded the state.

Kalu was Abia governor from 1999 to 2007 and won election to the Senate in the 2019 election, after three attempts.

The post Mixed reactions trail Kalu’s conviction over N7.65 bn fraud appeared first on NEWSVERGE.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had preferred an 11-count charge against the musician bordering on conspiracy, possession of counterfeit Credit Cards, and Fraud.

Also mentioned in the charge is one Yad Isril, who is said to still be at large.

The Popular “Is a goal” singer was arraigned on May 20 before Justice Nicholas Oweibo, but he denied the charges.

Following a bail application by defence counsel, Mr Olalekan Ojo, (SAN), the court had granted Fashola bail in the sum of N2 million with sureties in like sum.

When trial resumed on Wednesday, an investigator with the EFCC, Mr Nuru Buhari, narrated how the commission retrieved “damning evidence of credit card fraud from Naira Marley’s IPhone and laptop.

Buhari, told the court that he works in the EFCC’s Forensic Department.

He said that an analysis of Marley’s laptop showed that he frequented top five most-visited websites which dealt in buying and selling stolen credit cards.

Responding to questions from the prosecutor, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, the witness said that during analysis, the cache file and history file revealed that the most frequently visited sites by the user of the computer included:

“arder007.org, Zuni.sa, nationwidecheckbalance.co.uk, ferunshop.net AND cocoa.co.uk,”

According to him, analysis of the websites revealed that:

“Web 1 is where stolen card information is being sold to intending fraudsters, web 2 is for stolen credit cards specifically for the UK, whereas web 3 is an online website designed for UK cardholders to check their balance wherever they are around the world.

He continued: “Web 4 is a dark web meaning an underground tunnel in the Internet where stolen credit card information are sold and traded, web 5 is an online shopping mall where members are given discounts for shopping from certain shops.”

The witness told the court that his team also found a file named, Select BIN 101.txt and .txt., and after opening the file they discovered it contained “stolen credit card information with special status that allows transaction up to 12,000 dollars without a pin or physical card.

“When we ran the BIN code search for the first six digits of the cards, it revealed they are Visa cards issued by Barclay’s bank, Sandander UK plc,” he sajd.

He said that analysis of installed apps on Marley’s laptop showed that two of them, IP VANISH and TOR Browser, enabled the owner of the computer to disguise his identity and location.

“The TOR Browser is sometimes called the Onion; most of the criminals cover their tracks with various layers just like an onion using this app to make it near impossible for a tracker to track their location.

“The IP VANISH is a virtual private network, which provides that the actual computer and location of usage cannot be identified. It also gives the user the ability to change their location.” he said

According to the charge, the defendant allegedly committed the offences on different dates between Nov. 26, 2018, Dec.11, 2018, and May 10,

The charge alleges that Fashola and his accomplices conspired to use different Access Bank ATM Cards to defraud their victims.

It said that the defendant allegedly used Access Card number 5264711020433662 issued to another person, in a bid to obtain fraudulent financial gains.

He was said to have possessed these counterfeit credit cards, belonging to different cardholders, with intent to defraud, which also amounted to theft.

The offences contravenes the provisions of Section 1, 23 (1) (b), 27 (1}, 33, 33(9) Cyber Crime (Prohibition) Prevention Act, 2015.

The judge adjourned the case till Oct. 24 for continuation of hearing.

The post We retrieve damning evidence of fraud from Naira Marley’s IPhone, laptop – EFCC appeared first on NEWSVERGE.

EFCC acting spokesman, Mr Tony Orilade, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.

A copy of the charge was also made available to our correspondent.

It was signed by Rotimi Iseoluwa ESQ, I. A Mohammed ESQ, U. U Buhari ESQ and A. O
Mohammed (Prosecuting Counsel).

One of the counts read: “That you Afeez Adeshina a.k.a Naira Marley, and Yad Isril (still at large) on or about 26th November 2018, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court conspired amongst yourself to use Access Card No. 5264711020433662 issued to persons other than you.

“In a bid to obtain gain and you thereby committed an offence contrary Section 27 (1) (b) of the cyber crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, ECT) Act 2015 and punishable under Section 33(2) of the same Act.”

Marley, a Nigerian musician, and four others were on May 10, quizzed by EFCC in its Lagos Zonal office for alleged internet fraud.

They were also arrested in connection with alleged case of money laundering and cyber-crime offences.

“At the point of arrest, the commission found and recovered a number of items, including laptops, from the suspects.

“However, reports had shown that Omoniyi Temidayo (a.k.a Zlatan), was released few days after alongside his crew members, Tiamiu Kayode, Adewunmi Moses and Abubakar Musa.

The post EFCC to arraign Naira Marley on Monday on 11-count charge appeared first on NEWSVERGE.

The money was removed from the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) without relevant approval.

Report says that the withdrawal of the cash was ostensibly to fight kidnapping and other security threats in the Niger Delta.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan is reported to have given the approval to qDiezani Alison-Madueke.

The withdrawal was neither authorised by the National Assembly nor the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The former Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is also believed to be unaware of the deductions from the NNPC accounts.

Diezani Alison-Madueke is reported to have only relied on a memo from ex-President Goodluck Jonathan without recourse to the board of the NNPC.

A former Group Executive Director, Finance and Accounts of NNPC, Mr. Bernard Otti, has been quizzed by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) detectives over the money.

Otti is said to have also made available to the EFCC some documents, including approvals to withdraw the $1.3 billion by Mrs Alison-Madueke.

In two other instances, Jonathan wrote on two other requests mandating the former minister to take part of the cash from either NNPC Security Vote Account or from the “Gas Fund”.

The post Diezani Alison-Madueke in another $1.3b mess appeared first on NEWSVERGE.