ICPC recovers jamb money allegedly swallowed by snake
A few years ago, there was an unbelievable story of how a snake swallowed huge sums of money in the Abuja office of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB. Meanwhile, recent news seems to have exonerated the innocent snake as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has caught the real culprit. The commission on Saturday, disclosed that it has seized 33 buildings, plots of land and a factory belonging to a former accountant with the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Dr Jimoh Olatunde. The ex-JAMB accountant was believed to have acted as proxy for Prof Dibu Ojerinde, a former JAMB registrar. The ICPC in an 18-count charge, accused Ojerinde of diverting public funds estimated at about N5.2bn while he was the head of NECO and JAMB.
Buhari’s dream refineries in the pipeline
Nigeria has spent over N16.9tn on the importation of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol within the last seven years. This is according to figures obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics. Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had claimed that the countries’ refineries are being revamped but Nigerians have been told this for the last seven years. In 2015, while campaigning for office, the president, Muhammadu Buhari, had promised to fight corruption and among other things, build at least six refineries which will put an end to the importation of petrol into the country, but that had not materialized. Instead, the countries’ refineries had been allowed to lie dormant and the ones that were working, such as the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries, have been allowed to deteriorate and die off. However, industry analyst and operators have decried the amount incurred by the country on subsidizing and importing petrol as alarming and advised that instead the country could look into revamping or building new refineries. According to the operators, rehabilitating a refinery would take up to $3bn but that is nothing compared to what it would cost the country to import and subsidise the product in a year.
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I used to be a striper – BBNaija Chichi
On a lighter note, Chinenyenwa Okoebor, popularly called Chichi, has opened up on her past as a striper. The former Big Brother Naija housemate spoke up recently about her experience as a professional striper. In an interview with Saturday Beats, Chichi disclosed that people’s judged her harshly as a striper and most times saw her as less human. Chichi was one of the most controversial housemates in the just concluded season of BBNaija reality TV show which ended months ago as she was fond of giving free lap dances in the house. She added that stripping is a career and stripers should be respected like other professionals. She said people’s opinions of her affected her negatively as she was always uptight and would not express herself freely for fear of being judged.
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Rich dad, rich kid.
To celebrate her 30th birthday, Femi Otedola, the Billionaire oil magnate has gifted his daughter, Florence, aka, DJ Cuppy, with a country home worth £5,000,000 (N2.6bn). On Friday, we reported that the popular disk Jockey took to her Instagram page to celebrate her 30th birthday in which she praised herself for everything she has achieved before 30. In the post, she also took the liberty to ask the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, for a free one month premium subscription on twitter as a birthday gift. However, his billionaire father had a separate plan for her as the Forte Oil boss had rewarded her with a home worth £5,000,000(N2.6bn) for being a good daughter. Like they say, rich dad, rich kid.
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Tinubu’s campaign activates plan B
On a more serious note, thepresidential aspirants of the All Progressive Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has activated the latest master plan in his electioneering campaign. The astute politician had kept his followers and enemies in the loop as to how he was going to fund his campaign which is expected to be cash loud if you have been following the Jagaban for some time now. And bearing in mind that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) limits the maximum spending of every candidate to N5b only, it would be impossible for the Jagaban to fund the toughest race the country has ever seen with such limitations on his budget. But Asiwaju would not be deterred by limits, instead, he has found a way to spend as much money as he wants without spending his own money or breaking INEC rules. In his latest plan, Tinubu has revealed that the campaign was going to be funded by the 22 APC governors, APC ex governors, senators, House of Reps members, and stakeholders. The report further states that the plan is structured in such a way that the state governor of every state would be the sponsor of the campaign taking place in his state. Meanwhile, another side of the plan is that since the APC is the ruling party, Asiwaju would have more funds, more supports, state apparatus and tools within his disposal as well. However, while pundits have praised Asiwaju’s master plan and astuteness, other political parties have kicked against it arguing that the plan looks like organized corruption.
LP fumes
The Labour Party (LP) has accused the APC of using state funds and state power to intimidate the opposition parties. This comes in the heels of the latest move by the APC to get the state governors to sponsor the presidential campaign. The Labour Party argues that there is no way the state governors would not misappropriate state funds and tax payers’ money if that were to happen. The Peter Obi led Labour Party further accused the APC of stashing public funds for the election and added that there have been sightings of bullion vans across the country belonging to the APC. However, the party spokesperson, Yunusa Tanko stated that even though Labour Party would not be able to match APC’s extravagant spending to avoid stretching their resources too thin, the APC would not match their wits and resourcefulness as they have the youths with them.
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PDP needs prayers now
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) needs serious prayers right now. There has been concerns about the health of the party and despite the members and stakeholders trying to patch their leaking roof, there appears many more holes in the umbrella. First, there is the disunity in the party as some aggrieved members of the party have withdrawn their support from the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and have refused to be appeased. The governors include the five governors who make up the G-5 clique. They include, Governors Nyesom Wike, Seyi Makinde, Okezie Ikpeazu, Samuel Ortom and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Rivers, Oyo, Abia, Benue and Enugu states respectively. Secondly, before the presidential campaign began, Atiku Abubakar had boasted that the funds for the campaign was not a problem. However, up till now, Atiku has not released campaign funds and the party is currently running behind other parties in the race. Furthermore, sources in the party had suggested that Atiku is being skeptical about releasing campaign funds as he is being guided by the 2019 experience in which he spent lots of money and still lost the election to Muhammadu Buhari of APC. But unlike other parties’ candidates who rely on their governors and ex governors, stakeholders, and supporters to raise funds, the PDP seems to have none of these advantages because of internal rife and lack of organizational structure. Meanwhile, the governors and stakeholders are waiting on Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate, to release funds for the campaign since he had boasted that funding was not a problem.