Buhari, APC plot to frame, arrest Atiku – PDP | Nairalaw

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged plan by the All
Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government to frame up and
arrest its presidential candidate in the February 23 election,
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Part of the plot, the party said, was the resort to unfounded
claims by aides of President Muhammad Buhari to link Atiku with a
foreign lobby group, as well as the sponsorship of Atiku campaign
posters, to portray him and the PDP as being desperate to subvert
the Nigerian constitution.

PDP in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, stated that the orchestrated plot
against Atiku and the PDP by agents of the Federal Government,
officials of the presidency and the Buhari Media Organization
(BMO), was to cause tension in the country and ultimately derail
the ongoing petition against Buhari and APC, at presidential
election tribunal.

The party, however, said that no amount of fabrications, attempt
at frame up as well as veiled and open threats by the Federal
Government could stop its presidential candidate from reclaiming
his mandate at the tribunal.

According to the statement, the call for Atiku’s arrest was
inciting, noting that such has brought to the fore the unwholesome
intention of the APC-led administration against Atiku for seeking
to retrieve his mandate at the court.

“Such orchestrations are also targeted at instilling fear, cause
apprehension in the citizenry and create an opening to further
suppress genuine public opinion and the course of justice in the
quest by Atiku Abubakar and the PDP to restore the will of the
people.

“Part of the motive is to use lies, fabrications, threats and
sponsoring of Atiku campaign posters to portray Atiku Abubakar and
the PDP as being desperate and ready to subvert the rules in the
pursuit of our mandate; and by so doing, discredit our candidate in
the eyes of the judiciary and the public in general.

“This explains why agents of the APC-led government fabricated
and pushed into the public space, bogus and laughable claims that
Atiku Abubakar paid $30,000 to a US lobby group to assist in the
quest to reclaim our mandate only for the Federal Government and
the presidency to turn around to feast on the fabrications with
threats against Atiku Abubakar,” the party said.

PDP stated that Atiku does not need any foreign lobby group to
prove his case before the tribunal, adding that he has overwhelming
evidence before the court to do so.

It called on Nigerians to take copious note of threats by the
presidency through the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu
Buhari on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, to jail Atiku based on
trumped-up allegations, who, the party noted, also described Atiku
as “one who is lucky to be walking free”.

PDP said Nigerians should hold APC responsible should any harm
come to Atiku, his family or any member of the PDP Presidential
Campaign Organization (PPCO) in the course of the pursuit of the
mandate at the tribunal.

It advised the Federal Government to allow the tribunal to
judiciously carry out its responsibilities without let or hindrance
as well as stop the plots to overheat the system and derail the
course of justice as such would all come to nought.

University, EFCC in Partnership to Curb Cybercrime on
Campus

The management of the University of Ibadan, UI, Oyo State has
promised to partner with the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, in its campaign against criminal tendencies among
students of tertiary institutions across Nigeria.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abel Idowu
Olayinka, gave the institution’s commitment on April 11, 2019, when
the Zonal Head of the EFCC’s Ibadan office, Friday Ebelo, led
officers of the Commission to pay him a courtesy visit.

Describing the EFCC’s mandate of waging war against all forms of
economic and financial crimes as “a difficult national assignment”,
the UI helmsman noted that the nation’s foremost anti-graft agency
deserves the support of everyone.

Worried by the rising cases of involvement of young
undergraduates in financial crimes, the EFCC had written to seek
partnership with the premier university in mapping out strategies
to stem the trend, especially in institutions of higher
learning.

In recent times, the Commission had secured arrests and
convictions of a number of young men engaged in financial crimes of
different kinds. Most of them, according to records, are either
undergraduates or fresh graduates of higher institutions of
learning.

“The nature of arrests and convictions our Commission secures in
recent times, in which a large number of culprits are youth who are
supposedly our hope and future as a nation, has made it more
pressing for us to engage our higher institutions of learning in
thinking out strategies to stem the disturbing trend.

“As the premier university of our dear country, we believe it
will be of great significance to start this campaign with a visit
to the leadership of this leading ivory tower,” the Commission
stated in a letter written to the university to initiate the
partnership.

While declaring the essence of his team’s visit, Ebelo told the
university management that the time had come for the agency to
foster strategic partnership with major stakeholders in the
management of youths with a view to dissuade them from going into
crimes, adding that higher institutions’ administrations have
critical roles to play.

He requested the university to avail the Commission the avenue
to meet with the students of the institution to educate them on the
dire consequences of crime and criminal activities on the lives of
the perpetrators and the nation as an entity.

While responding to the demand, Prof. Olayinka described the two
institutions as brothers, having been designated as agencies of the
federal government of Nigeria.

“We are brothers. We are both agencies of the federal government
created to carry out special functions for the growth and smooth
running of our dear nation,” he said.

He pledged the readiness of the university to partner with the
EFCC in all possible ways, saying “the partnership will bring about
a win-win situation for both, and secure a better future for the
country.”

He added that the university will give the EFCC a slot in its
radio station, Diamond 101.1 FM, to be used to inform the
university community on its mandate and educate them on issues
bothering on economic and financial crimes and the
consequences.

He also said the university will create a space for the
Commission in its forthcoming orientation programmes for the new
intakes and see to how this will be a permanent feature in the
annual exercise.

Tony Orilade
Ag. Head, Media & Publicity
………………………..

Businessman Remanded in Prison Over N4.6m Fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Kaduna Zonal
Office has arraigned one Tasiu Abubakar before Justice Mohammed
Tukur of the state’s High Court sitting in Kaduna on a three-count
charge bordering on criminal breach of trust to the tune of N
4,645,500 (Four Million Six Hundred and Forty-Five Thousand Five
Hundred Naira).

Tasiu’s problem began when one Abdulrazak Yusuf petitioned the
EFCC alleging that the defendant told him that he had an allocation
from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Kaduna Depot
in regard to CCC Construction Nigeria Limited and the complainant
should pay for the allocation and the product will be loaded in a
week time.

The complainant deposited the sum of N4,645,500 into Tasiu’s
bank account, for the purpose of lifting the said product at the
NNPC Depot, Kaduna.

He further alleged that the suspect subsequently gave him a bank
teller and payment receipt as evidences of the payment, but on
reaching the NNPC account office in Kaduna depot it was discovered
that there was no such payment in their system.

Count one reads: “That you, Tasiu Abubakar, sometime in April
2018 in Kaduna within the Judicial Division of the High Court with
intent to defraud obtained the sum of N4,645,500 from Yusuf
Abdulrazak under the false pretence that you have allocation for
Bitumen from NNPC Kaduna depot, a pretence you knew to be false and
you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1) of the
Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offence Act 2006 and
Punishable under Section 1(3) of the Same Act.”

He pleaded “not guilty” to the charge when it was read to
him.

Prosecuting counsel, Onyeka Ekweozor, therefore urged the court
to fix a date for commencement of trial while the defendant be
remanded in prison pending trial.

Defence counsel, A.H. Maigauta, however, prayed the Court to
grant his client bail.

Justice Tukur in his ruling ordered the defendant to be remanded
in prison pending the perfection of bail application while fixing
June 26, 2019 for trial.

Tony Orilade
Head, Media & Publicity