The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will arraign businessman Chief Cletus Ibeto alongside his company, Ibeto Energy Development Company, on Thursday, October 5, on a 10-count charge bordering on allegations of obtaining by false pretences, fraudulent conversion of property, criminal breach of trust, forgery and deception. The duo are to be arraigned before Justice Ismail Ijelu of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, alongside another company linked to ibeto, Odoh Holdings Ltd. Channels Television obtained a copy of the charge which was signed in April 2023 by the Head, Legal of the EFCC, Gbolahan Latona. Count 1 of the charge says that Chief Cletus Ibeto, Ibeto Energy Development Ltd and Odoh Holdings Ltd between June 2016 and May 2017 within the jurisdiction of the court by false pretence and with intent to defraud, obtained from Dozzy Oil & Gas Ltd and Sir Daniel Chukwudozie, the sum of N4.8bn purporting same to be consideration for 22.6536 hectares of land which he claimed to have at the end of Reclamation Road Layout, Port Harcourt, Rivers State by a deed of sublease executed by Odoh Holdings and Ibeto Energy Development Ltd when he only had 7.9 hectares of the said land. Count 2 states that the defendants obtained N2.5bn from their victim as consideration for a non-existent 14.1 hectares of land while count 3 claims that they forged certain documents. In Count 3, the defendants on or about January 30, 2018, allegedly with intent to defraud forged a Deed Of Sublease between Odoh Holdings Ltd and Ibeto Development Ltd purportedly, registered as No 47, Page 47, Vol. 280 of the Lands Registry, Rivers State wherein they claimed that Odoh Holdings Ltd acquired leasehold interest in respect of 22.6536 The offences are contrary to Section 1 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act 2006, Section 365(3d) and (e), and Section 366 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.   The offence carries a punishment of no less than seven years and no more than 20 years imprisonment without the option of a fine.

  State governments borrow about N46.17bn from three banks to pay salaries between January and June 2023, according to findings by The PUNCH. The findings were based on an analysis of the half-year 2023 financial statements of Access Bank, Fidelity Bank, and Zenith Bank Group. The PUNCH observed that the states borrowed the most from Access Bank in six months, with a record of N42.97bn loan. It was followed by Zenith Bank (N1.78bn borrowed) and Fidelity Bank (N1.42bn borrowed) within the six-month period. According to the H1 2023 financial statement of Access Bank, the outstanding balance on the salary bailout fund was N58.84bn by June 30, 2023, from N101.81bn in December 2022. The amount of N58,842,651,795 represents the outstanding balance on the state salary bailout facilities granted to the bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria for onward disbursements to state governments for payments of salary of workers of the states. The facility has a tenor of 20 years with a 2 per cent interest payable to the CBN. The bank is under obligation to on-lend to the states at an all-in interest rate of nine per cent per annum. From this creditor, the bank has nil undrawn balance as at 30 June 2023,” Access Bank noted. For Fidelity Bank, the H1 2023 financial statement showed that the outstanding balance on the salary bailout fund was N80.65bn by June 30, 2023, from N82.07bn in December 2022. The bank noted “FGN Intervention fund is CBN Bailout Fund of N80.65billion (31 Dec 2022: N82.07bn). This represents funds for states in the Federation that are having challenges in meeting up with their domestic obligation including payment of salaries. The loan was routed through the bank for on-lending to the states. The bailout fund is for a tenor of 20 years at 9 per cent per annum.” It added, “The bailout fund is for a tenor of 20 years at 7 per cent per annum and availed for the same tenor at 9 per cent per annum until March 2020, the rate was reduced to 5 per cent for one year period due to Covid-19 pandemic to March 2021 after which it was extended to February 2023. CBN on August 17 2022 further reviewed the rates in response to economic outlook and approved the following order; All intervention facilities granted effective July 20, 2022 shall be at 9 per cent per annum while all existing intervention facilities granted prior to July 20, 2022 shall be at 9 per cent per annum effective September 1, 2022.” According to the H1 2023 financial statement of Zenith Bank, the outstanding balance on the salary bailout fund was N125.14bn by June 30, 2023, from N126.92bn in December 2022. The bank noted, “The Salary Bailout Scheme was approved by the Federal Government to assist state governments in the settlement of outstanding salaries owed their workers. Funds are disbursed to banks nominated by beneficiary states at two per cent for on-lending to the beneficiary states at 9 per cent. The loans have a tenor of 20 years. Repayments are deducted at source, by the Accountant General of the Federation, as a first line charge against each beneficiary state’s monthly statutory allocation. This facility is not secured.” The PUNCH findings show that the loans occurred despite the slight increase in the revenue allocation to states. The PUNCH had earlier reported a N540bn increase in the amount shared between the Federal Government, states, and Local Government Areas. This was according to an analysis of the communiqués issued by the Federation Account Allocation Committee between January to July for 2022 and 2023. In 2022, a total of N4.96tn was shared for the first seven months of the year. By 2023, a total of N5.5tn was shared for the first seven months of the year. However, The PUNCH has also reported that about 25 states in Nigeria suffered a drop in their internally generated revenue and battled cash crunch in the first quarter of 2023. Data obtained from the budget implementation report of each state showed that 25 states earned N182.26bn in Q1 2023. This was a shortfall of 3.07 per cent or N5.77bn from the N188.03bn made in Q4 2022, based on a quarter-by-quarter analysis. Although there are 36 states in Nigeria, Rivers and Sokoto have no data for Q1 2023 yet; Akwa Ibom has no data for Q1 2022, while Kwara, Edo, Kaduna, Lagos, Bauchi, Zamfara, Yobe, and Ogun have no data for Q4 2022. Therefore, the figure for IGR was limited to 25 out of the 36 states in the country. The PUNCH findings showed that the 25 states projected an IGR of N219.56bn for Q1 2023 but only made about N182.26bn, which means that they had a revenue performance of 83.01 per cent. This also means that the revenue underperformed by 16.99 per cent as it failed to hit the states’ revenue target.

  The Nigerian naira is among the worst-performing currencies in Africa, the World Bank has said. It noted that the currency weakened by nearly 40 per cent against the US dollar since a mid-June devaluation. The global bank explained in its report titled, ‘Africa’s Pulse: An analysis of issues shaping Africa’s economic future (October 2023 | Volume 28).’ It stated that, “So far this year, the Nigerian naira and the Angolan kwanza are among the worst performing currencies in the region: these currencies have posted a year-to-date depreciation of nearly 40 per cent. The weakening of the naira was triggered by the central bank’s decision to remove trading restrictions on the official market. For the kwanza, it was the decision of the central bank to stop defending the currency as a result of low oil prices and greater debt payments.” Other currencies with significant losses so far in 2023, according to the World Bank, included South Sudan (33 per cent), Burundi (27 per cent), the Democratic Republic of Congo (18 per cent), Kenya (16 per cent), Zambia (12 per cent), Ghana (12 per cent), and Rwanda (11 per cent). It noted that parallel exchange market rates are also compounding inflationary problems for some countries in the African region. In June 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria directed Deposit Money Banks to remove the rate cap on the naira at the official Investors and Exporters’ window of the foreign exchange market, and allow the free float of the naira against the dollar and other global currencies. Since then, the naira had fallen from N473.83/$ to around N800/$ officially. Highlighting the widening difference between the parallel and official exchange rates of the naira, the bank stated that this had been the case from March 2020 until June 2023. It said the parallel rate premium increased to 80 per cent in November 2022, and then to about 60 per cent in June 2023, as the Central Bank’s interventions to restrict foreign exchange demand and keep the exchange rate artificially low were met with declining FX supply from oil revenues. The unification and liberalisation of the exchange rates in June 2023 allowed the NAFEX rate to converge to the parallel one, closing the gap, it said. It added, “However, resistance toward the increasing pressure on the Nigerian naira coupled with limited supply of FX at the official window has led to the reemergence of the parallel market premium.” Nigeria’s growth rate would decelerate from 3.3 per cent in 2022 to 2.9 per cent in 2023, the Washington-based bank highlighted It stated that the country’s oil production had remained below OPEC+ quota amid capacity issues and lower international oil prices and while non-oil economic activity, particularly industry and services still supported growth, policy actions to remove fuel subsidies and unify the exchange rates might be weighing on these activities in the short term. The World Bank noted that activity in Nigeria’s manufacturing and services sector contracted in August. “Weak business confidence and rising input costs are driving the contraction of activity,” it said. It stresses business confidence appears to have weakened in Nigeria. Commenting on the recent reforms of the new administration of Bola Tinubu, the global bank disclosed that purchasing power of households was expected to suffer in the short term. It said, “The incoming Tinubu administration implemented a series of reforms that included the removal of fuel subsidies and the devaluation and unification of the exchange rate system. Petroleum prices have more than tripled since the subsidies were lifted at the end of May. “The naira has weakened by nearly 40 per cent against the US dollar since the mid-June devaluation. Although these measures are intended to improve the fiscal and external accounts of the nation, their inflationary effects in the near term can erode the purchasing power of households and weigh on economic activity.”

  The presidency has dismissed claims that the certificate President Bola Tinubu presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2023 elections was forged. Chicago State University (CSU) had released the academic records of President Bola Tinubu to his political opponent, Atiku Abubakar, on Monday, following the order of a court. Powered By VDO.AI Video Player is loading. PauseUnmute Fullscreen ad Atiku, the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 election, had requested the documents to back his allegation of forgery of CSU certificate against Tinubu. The allegation of forgery was one of those dismissed by the presidential election court in the suit Atiku filed to challenge the election of Tinubu. Despite the court’s ruling, Atiku continued his case at the US court, hoping to get official documents to back his claim and possibly include them in his appeal at the Supreme Court. Through his lawyers, Atiku sought these key things – an example of a CSU diploma issued in 1979; Tinubu’s diploma issued in 1979; example of a CSU diploma that “contains the same font, seal, signatures and wording” as Tinubu’s diploma issued in June 1979 and CSU documents certified and produced by Jamar Orr, an associate general counsel at CSU at the time. The university registrar had made an oral deposition of the documents, but there were different interpretations. Reacting on Wednesday, President Tinubu’s media aide, Temitope Ajayi, argued that CSU affirmed under oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the institution and that the school does not handle replacements for lost certificates. He said there was no truth in the forgery claim, adding that no person can forge a certificate he already has. Taking to his account on the X formerly known as Twitter, the presidential media aide wrote: “We should be clear. “In the deposition made by the Chicago State University, there was nowhere the University said the certificate presented to INEC by President Tinubu is fake. The University insisted under oath that President Tinubu graduated with honours and even at that, replacements for lost certificates are done by vendors not the University. “The claim that President Tinubu submitted fake certificate to INEC does not make sense. A man can not forge the academic records he possesses. You can only forge what you don’t have.”

  The Nigeria Railway Corporation has suspended members of staff who were caught negotiating with passengers on the Lagos-Ibadan Train Service without obtaining tickets. A long viral post had trended on the social media showing the yet-to-be-identified staff collecting money from passengers who did not obtain tickets prior to the take-off of the train. A post by one Daramola E. Adenike @Dara4Enjoyment on X (formerly Twitter) had trended for days on the microblogging site and WhatsApp where the user narrated how several passengers in one of the coaches did not obtain tickets but the NRC officials collected cash from them. The post read: “On my way to Lagos from Ibadan today, some NRC employees lured us to board the train without tickets. Initially, they acted like they were taking us to the ticket counter only for them to lead us to the railway without official ticket. They collected cash on transit. On 2nd October 2023, my friends and I were going back to Lagos after a weekend getaway in Ibadan. “We arrived at the Train Station around 03:40pm. While we were walking to the entrance of Obafemi Awolowo Train Station Ibadan, a uniformed NRC official approached us. “He asked if we had the tickets and I told him we were on our way to get tickets. He then asked how many we are and I told him that we are five (5). “He told us to follow him. We were confident we could trust him because he was wearing a uniform and identified as a staff. My friends and I followed him thinking he was leading us to the ticket counter only for us to pass through screening and head towards the railway. “I immediately told him that we do not have tickets to board the train but he said I shouldn’t worry that it would be sorted. “He handed me over to another uniformed staff who led us to Coach 7. I told the lady the same thing that we do not have tickets and she said she was aware and it would be sorted. “While pacing and looking for a staff, I saw new people come into the train and I approached one of them. I asked him if he has a ticket and he said yes. I asked him when he got the ticket and he replied, ‘just now’ This ruled out my assumption that we were too late. I saw the uniformed staff that led us into the train and asked him about the tickets. His response was that we are a group of 5 so if we go to the counter to purchase the tickets we would not be able to sit together. “I was shocked. He couldn’t even make something believable up. I went back to my seat. I still had my money with me so I would wait and see what happens next. “Few minutes after the train started moving, they started collecting cash from people on Coach 7. I paid N18,000 cash for 5 persons. Over 60 persons paid N3,600 each without tickets.” Our correspondent reports that the practice has been rampant with the staff collecting cash from some passengers who arrive a little late to the train station. Meanwhile, the NRC has suspended the officials involved pending an investigation into the case. Spokesman of NRC, Mahmood Yakub in a statement said the NRC frowned at the act of the staff and said an in-depth investigation had commenced. He said, “The public is invited to note that the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) seriously condemns such act of misconduct which is a flagrant disobedience to laid down rules and utter betrayal of the confidence reposed on such workers, especially at this time that the Federal Government is making all efforts at revitalising and modernising the Corporation. This misconduct is regrettable and unacceptable as it negates the tenets and norms of the Corporation. The Corporation has therefore placed the identified erring officers on immediate suspension pending the outcome of the in-depth investigation already on-going by the Management Committee set up to look into the issue. “Our esteemed passengers and the general public are assured that this unwholesome attitude and image dent to the Corporation by any staff will not be tolerated nor treated with any levity. Accordingly, disciplinary proceedings in line with the Extant Rules citing relevant sections of the NRC General Rules and Public Service Rules (PSR) will definitely be visited on all those found wanting or connected to this irresponsible act. The management of NRC wishes to use this medium to enjoin all our intending passengers on LITS and other train corridors to insist and demand for boarding ticket(s) after making appropriate payment at the designated stations or book online appropriately. Please note that the electronic ticketing system is been deployed and will be available on both the Lagos – Ibadan Train Service and the Warri – Itakpe Train Service (WITS) by end of October, 2023.”

  A new report has raised concerns about Nigeria’s central bank digital currency, eNaira, indicating potential risks to financial stability despite its success in narrowing the country’s financial inclusion gap. Launched nearly two years ago under the stewardship of former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele, eNaira is set to mark its second anniversary in October. While the CBN championed eNaira for enhancing financial inclusion and expanding the size of banks’ deposit base, its report, titled “Economics of Digital Currency” obtained by The PUNCH, warns about stability risks due to the conversion of bank deposits into eNaira. The report noted, “Since its inception, bank deposit conversion to e-naira has exhibited an average monthly growth of 78.3 per cent and totalled about N1.66bn [$2.1 million]. “Furthermore, eNaira in circulation as a ratio of average banking system liquidity has averaged 0.1 per cent, reaching highs of 0.2 per cent in each of May and August 2022,” the CBN report noted. According to the report, the impact arises from the fact that funds converted by customers into eNaira are held within wallets domiciled with the CBN, rendering them unavailable for lending activities by commercial banks. As of December 2021, the CBN minted a total of N2bn in eNaira. This milestone, coupled with the nuanced challenges faced by commercial banks due to the eNaira’s issuance and exchange processes, has sparked discussions within the financial sector. It noted that the sluggish growth is attributed to the slow adoption rate among individual users, evident in the low number of active consumer wallets, totalling 10,420. The report revealed that the number marked an improvement from previous months, reflecting 187,190 wallets activated for use as of July 2022. Despite these efforts, challenges persist, hindering the broader adoption of the eNaira in Nigeria’s digital financial landscape. Further, the apex bank noted that eNaira can also negatively affect banks’ overall profitability via reduced non-interest income. The CBDC also comes with increased cyberattack risks, the report said.

  The Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Essien Udim have sentenced two brothers – a pastor and a motorcyclist – to death by hanging for killing a farmer over a parcel of land. The convicts are Uduak Udo Umoren, 48-year-old pastor and his 34-year-old brother, Emmanuel Udo Umoren, popularly called ‘okada’. They were found guilty for the murder of one Iboro Akpan Joe, a 45-year-old farmer and trader from Ikot Otu in Essien Udim Local Government Area of the state. It was gathered that Joe had accompanied his sister-in-law in Adiasim Ikot Ekon to her late husband’s farm to assess how much she could sell the land and use the proceeds for his burial. While on the farm, Emmanuel’s wife reportedly saw them and invited her husband to the land on the claim that someone was trying to bury a charm on their family land. Emmanuel alongside his wife, her son and brother in-law were said to have attacked Joe with a machete and stabbed him on the farm. Joe was said to have been beaten to a stupor and dragged to his family compound close to the farm, despite pleas from his sister-in-law and his wife, who heard him cry for help and rushed to the scene. It was learnt that at the family compound, the two brothers continued to beat Joe until the Youth President of Adiasim Ikot Ekon Village and other members intervened, and rushed him to a hospital in Ikot Ekpene, where he was reportedly rejected. He was taken back home and died three days after. The presiding judge, Justice Winifred Effiong, found the two brothers guilty of murder and sentenced them to death by hanging. The court ruled that the prosecution team from the state Ministry of Justice proved the case beyond reasonable doubt that the brothers intentionally killed Joe.