Abubakar Ahmad Sirika, the immediate younger brother of the former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Abubakar Sirika, has been arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He was apprehended by the anti-graft agency on Sunday, February 4 over investigation of the Aviation Ministry. While in office as minister, Sirika is accused of conspiracy, abuse of office, diversion of public funds, contract inflation, criminal breach of trust and money laundering amounting to N8,069,176,864. According to the Commission, the sum is for four aviation contracts from the former minister to a company known as Engirios Nigeria Limited, owned by his younger brother. The agency said apart from being listed as the company’s MD/CEO, Abubakar is the sole signatory to the company’s two accounts, domiciled in Zenith and Union banks. Sources within the EFCC said Sirika awarded the contracts to his brother Abubakar, knowing that the latter is a civil servant, a deputy director on Level 16 in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, where he has been working since 2000 till date. The first of the controversial contracts from the former minister to Engirios Nigeria Limited was on August 18, 2022 for the construction of Terminal Building in Katsina Airport, at the cost of N1,345,586,500. The second was awarded on November 3, 2022 for the establishment of Fire Truck Maintenance and Refurbishment Centre in Katsina Airport, valued at N3.8 billion. The third contract was on February 3, 2023 for the procurement and instalment of lifts, air conditioners and power generator’s house in Aviation House, Abuja, at the cost of N615 million while the fourth was awarded on May 5, 2023 for the procurement of Magnus Aircraft and simulator for Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria at the cost of N2.2 billion. The source stated that out of the total contract sum, the ex-minister paid out N3.2 billion to his younger brother’s Engirios Nigerian Limited, who upon the receipt of the payment, transferred it to different companies and individuals. There is no trace of work done on any of the contract items till date. According to the source, Abubakar Sirika is presently in the EFCC custody from where he is providing the additional information on the financial activities of the ministry under the supervision of his older brother Hadi Sirika.

  The Nigeria Police Force has confirmed the arrest of its officers who abducted a businessman in Abuja and extorted N29.9m from him in January. The force spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, confirmed the development on Tuesday through his X handle (@Princemoye1), while disclosing that the force had taken significant steps toward ensuring justice prevailed in the case. He said, “We are making a headway on this matter, and justice will be served, as some suspects have been arrested. Hakuna matata.” The businessman was reportedly abducted at one of his sites in Abuja by armed police officers who detained him until he transferred all the money in his bank account to them. Subsequently, they insisted that he call his relatives and friends to keep sending money before he could be released. In a video watched by Punch Online, a narrator had said, “I posted about the case of N29,900,000 police extortion in Abuja, Nigeria. Alright, I don’t know how to call it, whether it is police robbery, kidnapping or police extortion. But this is beyond extortion. This is criminal act and this is kidnapping and they collected from this young man is called ransom. “All right, this young man was driving yesterday going to his site because he has a building project in Abuja here and he was stopped by some police officers who were dressed in black with Ak-47 seven rifle magazines and they took him away. “So they took him round Abuja, took him round because some cases we have witnessed before before, that’s how they always operate. Took him to an unknown destination. Like he told me yesterday and at a point he was scared. Where were they taking him to? “So they started checking his phone, they saw his account balance, they saw his wallet and everything, and they told him to send all the money in his account to an account number they provided, they gave him two account numbers. One is Access Bank and one is Moniepoint. The man transferred all the money he has in his account and now started calling his friends, who were sending him three million, one million. “In Abuja currently, you have heard about kidnapping cases, robbery cases and nobody knows who are these people operating like this. Now this act of these police officers; how do you describe it? Is in the robbery? Is it kidnapping or is it professional or work like carried out by them? Remember, no complaint was made against this young man. No statement was taken. “You only forced him to make your video like other cases will be handling for years, they will force you to make a video to for you to indict yourself that you are either a fraudster or you are involved in cultism, you are involved in ritual, or you are member of IPOB, these are the trends from the cases we have handled for the past 9 years. This has been the trend of these rogue police officers.” In less than 24 hours, police operatives from the Federal Capital Territory command arrested a 20-year-old kidnap kingpin, Buhari Muhammad, and five others in a hotel in Abuja. The suspects, who were arrested following intelligence on their activities were said to have kidnapped one Joshua Eze. Eze who was abducted on January 27 was subsequently rescued unhurt by operatives of the command on January 28, 2024. Announcing the arrest of the suspects in a statement on Monday, the FCT command’s spokesperson, SP Josephine Adeh, stated that one AK-47 and N350,000 were recovered from the suspects.

  A British cargo vessel was attacked on the Red Sea on Tuesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said. The attack on the ship happened west of Hodeida in Yemen just after midnight. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but the Associated Press reports that suspicions are on Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The UKMTO said the ship’s master was “aware of a small craft on his Port side” before a projectile was fired at the ship. No crew member was injured in the attack. The vessel sustained small damages on its bridge windows, but the vessel was deemed safe to continue its journey. Earlier on Monday, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the UK would, if necessary, not hesitate to respond again, in self-defence, to Houthis in Yemen. He was updating MPs after the UK and the United States took part in joint airstrikes against Houthi rebel sites on Saturday. Mr Shapps said the attacks were in line with international law and in self-defence, adding that they had targeted three military facilities following “very careful analysis.” NAN

  Ayodele Oni, an energy specialist at Bloomfield LP, says Nigeria’s electricity grid has suffered 222 collapses in the past 12 years. On Sunday Nigeria witnessed first national grid collapse in 2024. The situation led to shut down of all 20 power plants, except Ibom Power with 31 megawatts. Discussing the development on Channels TV on Tuesday, Oni said, “Yes we have 222 grid collapses in the past 12 years.” Outlining the root causes and solutions to the problem, he said, “It is simple, technical issues, poor management; there should be an energy management system that will include supervisory quality and data acquisition system. “Also we need to have spinning reserve. This is what happens, when you have water pipe or water hose. If water leaves at its pressure, its pressure drop on one end. “So when you say you have 4,000 megawatts and one or two key power plant leaves, it all collapses, so we need to make sure we have what is known as spinning reserve, that is power plant that can be easily kick in once one goes off.   “We also need to constantly maintain our infrastructure, I understand that the TCN is working on that. I think that in the next one year or so it becomes something of the past, or there will be very rare occurrences.”