The Old Bailey on Friday, May 5th, sentenced former Deputy Senate President of NigeriaIke Ekweremaduto nine years and eight months in prison over an organ trafficking plot,BBC Pidgin reported.
The United Kingdom court also sentenced Ekweremadu's wife, Beatrice, to four years and six months while the doctor who assisted them, their medical 'middleman' Dr Obinna Obeta, bagged 10 years jail term, and the court also suspended his medical license.
Ike Ekweremadu with his wife Photo credit: Ike Ekweremadu Source: Facebook
This verdict is coming after the court convicted Ekweremadu, his wife and Obeta in March 2022 over the organ-trafficking plot, noting the couple and the doctor brought one 21-year-old man to the UK from Lagos.
The court convicted Senator Ike Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, saying they conspired to exploit the man for his kidney, in the first of such case under modern slavery laws.
The Old Bailey, a central criminal court in the United Kingdom (UK), was set to deliver a verdict today in the landmark case involving Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice and Dr Obeta, who were convicted for organ trafficking in March.
This verdict is the first of its kind in the UK criminal court system.
Earlier, the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) appealed to the Government of the United Kingdom for leniency in the sentencing of Ekweremadu, alongside his wife Beatrice and Dr Obinna Obeta.
Ambassador at Large and Head of Diplomatic Mission to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, H.E. Ambassador (Dr.) Duru Hezekiah said Ekweremadu is a patriotic Nigerian who has served the Nigerian Senate thrice since 2003.
The Supreme Court has put to rest the controversies and confusion over the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)'s naira redesign policy.
Today. The Supreme Court invalidated the naira redesign policy.
The court made the declaration while delivering judgment in a suit instituted by three states of the federation.
A seven-member panel of the apex court held that the old N200, N500 and N1000 remain valid legal tender until December 31, 2023.
Some state governors had dragged the federal government to the apex court as Nigerians suffer the effect of the policy.
Supreme Court judgement on the CBN's Naira redesign policy today, Friday, March 3. Photo credits: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP, Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto Source: Getty Images
At least three state governors, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna , Yahaya Bello of Kogi and Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle who alsoarrived the Supreme Courtfor the crucial verdict are present in the court.
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Moody’s Investors Service, an International rating agency had devalued nine banks in Nigeria following its downward review of the country’s rating last week.
Credit: Damina Source: Getty Images
The agency downgraded the nine banks from B3 to Caa1, the long term deposit ratings, issuer ratings as well as the senior unsecured debt ratings, according to a statement by the Moody on Tuesday, January 31, 2023.
Moody’s also changed the banks’ outlook on the long term deposit ratings; issuer ratings as well as senior unsecured debt ratings.
The New York-based agency stated that the devaluation of the the long term ratings of the banks shows a combination of two reasons - the weakening operating environment, reflected in the agency’s rating of Nigeria’s economy from ‘Very Weak to Very Week+, and the link between country’s creditworthiness from B3 Caa1 and the banks balance sheets based on their holdings of sovereign debt securities.Per the statement by Moody’s, the revised Macro profile for Nigeria reflected its expectation that depressed and uncertain oil production outflows in the face of flight to quality and government’s expenses will be affected.
Moody’s rating comes amid report that fraud from payment channels in Nigerian banks have surged by 208 per cent in three months.
The total amount of money lost to fraudulent transactions and activities in Nigeria has increased in the three months ending September 2022.
The report courtesy of the Financial Institutiosn Training Centre (FIITC) stated that the amount increased from N1.2 billion in previous quarter to to N3.6 billion in the third quarter and the amount involved went up to N9.62 billion.
The report said:
“There was an increase reported in both the total amount involved in and the actual or expected amount lost to fraudulent activities,” it said.
The e-naira is the primary source of fraud within the banking system, adding that there was sustained increase in the amount lost in bank braches, according to a report by Businessday.
Other channels of fraud in the banks are PoS, ATMs, Web and Mobile bank apps.
Breaking down the report, FIITC said fraud from ATMs accounted for N222 million, bank fraud increased to N3,71 billion, mobile fraud N1.67 billion and PoS accounted to N393 million.
The bank customer deposits by top banks in Nigeria grew by 33.53 per cent to N49 trillion in the first nine months of 2022 from N37 trillion in the year before, data extracted from the Nigerian Exchange Group reveals.
A BusinessDay report on listed banks on Nigerian Exchance Limited shows that Access Holdings, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Zenith Bank, UBA, First Bank FCMB, Union Bank and Sterling Bank reported the highest value of customer deposits in the first nine months of 2022.
Top Nigerian lenders are competing to attract about N2.7 trillion outside the formal sector, leveraging the six weeks window provided by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to replace old naira notes.
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Following the ruling of the Osun state governorship election petition tribunal and the discrepancy that followed the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), theIndependent National Electoral Commission(INEC) has spoken.
The tribunal sacked Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after removing over-voting and adding new votes for Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress.
Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, a former director of the Voter Education and Publicity of INEC, disclosed this on Monday, January 30 while speaking on the Channels Television Programme, Sunrise Daily.According to him, the discrepancy should not have come up in the 2022 governorship election in Osun state.
According to Osaze-Uzzi, a certified copy of the initial server report was obtained by the APC before the transmission of the initial data report by the BVAS hardware.
He also pointed out that the tribunal ruling was not a unanimous judgment.
He said:
“The second [tribunal] member – the honourable justice who dissented from his two colleagues – said, ‘I would rather use the primary source of this information, and the primary source of this data is actually the machine itself,'” the INEC official said.
“It is basically a computer. So, rather than go to the server where it transmitted data, I would use the printout from the machine itself.
Kenya Airways was hit by a pilots' strike in November. Photo: Simon MAINA / AFP/File Source: AFP
Trading in Kenya Airways shares has been suspended for another year, the local stock exchange said Wednesday, as the troubled national carrier battles to return to profitability.
Last month, Kenyan President William Ruto said the government was ready to sell its entire stake in the airline, which has been languishing deep in the red for years.
Kenya Airways shares have been suspended since July 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic that devastated global air travel.
"The extension of suspension seeks to enable the company (to) complete its operational and corporate restructure process," the Nairobi Securities Exchange said in a statement.
The government owns a 48.9 percent stake in Kenya Airways, while Air France-KLM has 7.8 percent.
"I'm willing to sell the whole of Kenya Airways," Ruto told Bloomberg News last month during his first visit to the United States as Kenyan president.
"I'm not in the business of running an airline that just has a Kenyan flag, that's not my business," said Ruto, who reportedly met executives from US carrier Delta Air Lines during the trip.
Kenya Airways' woes were exacerbated in November when pilots staged a days-long strike that led to hundreds of flight cancellations and thousands of passengers stranded.
Kenya Airways shares were first suspended in 2020 as lawmakers were considering a plan -- since dropped -- for the state to take full ownership of the carrier.
The airline, whose slogan is "The Pride of Africa", was founded in 1977 following the demise of East African Airways and now flies more than four million passengers to 42 destinations annually.
But it not made a profit since 2012, and the government has pumped in millions of dollars to keep it afloat.
Last month, in announcing a new $447 million loan for Kenya under a 38-month aid programme, the International Monetary Fund called for progress on structural reforms in the East African country.
The IMF highlighted that "addressing vulnerabilities" at Kenya Airways as well as the majority state-owned utility Kenya Power was "urgent".
In August, the airline reported a $81.5 million half-year loss citing high fuel costs, though this was a marked improvement on the $94.6 million loss in the period the year before.
Local media reports, citing a letter from Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung'u to the IMF at the end of December, said Kenya Airways would get an additional state bailout of about $280 million in a mini-budget expected this month.
Source: AFP
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A man in Uyo is making a name and fortune for himself by the uniqueness of his dresses to a common product known as Agidi
The tray on his head gives him away, else he would be mistaken for a big salary earner in Nigeria.
24-year-old Eteng from Uyo in Akwa Ibom State dorns a neat suit and well-fitted tie daily as he goes to work hawking corn flour jello, popularly called Agidi in Nigerian languages.
Moses Eteng, hawking on the street of Uyo Credit: Premium Times Source: UFC
The Agidi carefully wrapped and placed on the tray on his head sells for N100 each and he has N20,000 worth on it.
Many consider the trade a low-class business and those who hawk it are not usually accorded respect because of their dress sense.
But Moses Eteng has cut a niche for himself by his unique dress style.
Premium Times reports that Eteng chose the type of dressing in order to woo more clients and stand out from the pack of hawkers on the streets of Uyo.
Eteng told the newspaper that in order to get customers, he has to study people and understand what they like.
He says what he is doing is appealing to people and that many hawkers like it but are unable to and that makes him different. According to him, he dresses to promote his brand.
He said anyone who looks at him will understand his products look like him. He says his neat dressing boosts his business
Eteng has also cut a name for him himself as educated Agidi among those who patronise him,
He is a self-sponsored secondary school leaver and has sold the product for another person for 10 years.
He began his own business in 2018 after he was sent back to the village when he fell out with his proprietor.
The Yankurr Local Government Area indigene said he served a woman who treated him shabbily and when he returned back to Uyo, began to make and sell his own Agidi.
According to Eteng, with the business, he was able to see himself through senior secondary school.
Eteng employs a rigorous process in making the Agidi in order to ensure good hygiene.
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TheCentral Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has increased the maximum weekly limit for cash withdrawals across all channels by individuals and corporate organisations to N500,000 and N5 million, respectively.
The CBN has increased the maximum weekly limit for cash withdrawals by individuals and corporate organisations to N500,000 and N5 million, respectively. Photo credit: Central Bank of Nigeria Source: Facebook
"The maximum weekly limit for cash withdrawal across all channels by individuals and corporate organizations shall be #500,000.00 and #5,000,000.00 respectively," the letter signed by Haruna B. Mustafa, the director of banking supervision read.
The CBN explained that it made the decision based on feedback received from stakeholders.
The apex bank warned that any bank that aids and abets the circumvention of the policy will be severely sanctioned. The new police takes effect nationwide from Monday, January 9, 2023.
The CBN further gave room for withdrawals above N500,000 and N5 million in "compelling circumstances".
In such situations, the apex bank said the withdrawals will be subject to a processing fee of 3% and 5% for individuals and corporate organizations, respectively.
Also, to process such withdrawals, banks and other financial institutions must obtain some relevant information from the customers and upload the same to the CBN portal created for the purpose.
The information includes:
a. Valid means of identification of the payee (National ID, International Passport, or Driver's License).
b. Bank Verification Number (BVN) of the payee.
c. Tax Identification Number (TIN) of both the payee and the payer
d. Approval in writing by the MD/CEO of the financial institution authorising the withdrawal.
Giving further directives, the CBN said third-party cheques above N100,000 shall not be eligible for payment over the counter.
The apex bank added that the extant limit of N10 million on clearing cheques still subsists.
According to the CBN, monthly returns on cash withdrawal transactions above the new specified limits should be rendered to the Banking Supervision, Other Financial Institutions Supervision and Payments System Management Departments as applicable.
It reminded banks that compliance with extant AML/CFT regulations relating to KYC, currency and suspicious transaction reporting etc. is mandatory in all circumstances.
The CBN also directed banks to encourage customers to use alternative channels (internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions.
The CBN further noted that it recognised the importance of the roles that Bank and Mobile Money Agents play in the financial system, which include enabling access to financial services in underserved and rural communities.
"They will continue to perform these strategic functions, in line with existing regulations governing their activities.
"The CBN recognizes the vital role that cash plays in supporting underserved and rural communities and will ensure an inclusive approach as it implements the transition to a more cash-less society," the letter read.
Nigerians woke up on Tuesday, December 6, to the news of the policy by the CBN which directed banks to ensure that Over-the-Counter (OTC) cash withdrawals by individuals in a week stood at N100,000, while corporate entities must not exceed N500,000.
The policy, however, caused a nationwide uproar as financial experts, businessmen, politicians and other stakeholders stood against it.
Meanwhile, the CBN has said its governor, Godwin Emefiele, would not be appearing before the House of Representatives on Thursday, December 22 as expected.
The apex bank stated that Emefiele would be represented by the deputy governor on financial system stability, Aisha Ahmad.
The CBN governor had been summoned by the lawmakers to give an explanation about the new cash withdrawal policy
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Doyin Okupe, the director general of Peter Obi's presidential campaign council, has been sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for money laundering.
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the federal high court in Abuja found Okupe guilty of 26 of the 59 charges the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had preferred against him.
Court sentences Okupe to prison. Photo Credit: Nigerian Lawyer Source: TwitterThe former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan will serve the sentence concurrently, thus, he will spend 2 years in jail.
His son and wife, Adesunkanmi and Omolola Okupe, had pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy.
However, the court ruled that Okupe is at liberty to pay a sum of N500,000 fine for each of the charges, which is a total of N13 million.
His wife and son had spoken as witnesses soon after the court reconvened following Okupe's conviction.
Okupe was earlier convicted for breaching the money laundering act, he was found guilty to have contravened sections 16(1) and (2) of the act.
The EFCC has dragged Okupe before the court for receiving hundreds of millions in cash from ex-national security adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (Rtd).
According to Ashade, Okupe received the money to mobilise members of the party for Peter Obi's presidential campaign rally billed to hold in Oyo, but the leader only remitted N4m for the state chapter.
The state chapter of the party had earlier suspended Okupe for some gross misconduct but the national body of the party stepped into the matter.
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