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Showing posts with label ICPC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ICPC. Show all posts

Scam Alert: TrustCoin Africa Limited, registered in South Africa out to defraud across the Continent

Scam Alert: TrustCoin Africa Limited, registered in South Africa out to defraud across the Continent





A Registered South Africa company

TrustCoin Africa Limited is out scamming across many countries in Africa and beyond. Notably the so called company is operating and receiving investments from unsuspecting citizens of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya  and South Africa among others.

 The company is registered in South Africa with number SA83377770, according to the website ( https://trustcoinafrica.com/about )


Aside receiving payments in a cryptocurrency Bitcoin, in Nigeria the scam TrustCoin Africa Limited is also receiving cash through a Sterling Bank account number: 8511001179. The Account Name is EDIRI VIGHOR.

For BTC, the company is using an account with Luno. It has three levels of investment circles: three days, seven days and thirty days.


TrustCoin Africa Limited claimed it's offices are located in South Africa and United States:

South Africa — 47 Openview Drive, Hogsfront, Eastern Cape, South Africa.


US —  8145 Beechwood Lane, Plymouth, MA 02360, Massachusetts, United States.

 Phone: +1 5143124165

Name of the Principal Officer: Francisco David.


Reliably gathered, the site has not been paying any investors for the past 4 weeks and still counting whatever current payment claims are just computer manipulations via algorithm.


All other online reviews by the Scam Alerts clearly revealed the organisation to be a scam as it offers unrealistic returns on investments .


The Nigeria's anti corruption agencies especially the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC ) should look into how to halt the activities of TrustCoin Africa Limited in Nigeria and through interpol bring the perpetrator (s) to book.



Latest News Plus 







A Registered South Africa company

TrustCoin Africa Limited is out scamming across many countries in Africa and beyond. Notably the so called company is operating and receiving investments from unsuspecting citizens of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya  and South Africa among others.

 The company is registered in South Africa with number SA83377770, according to the website ( https://trustcoinafrica.com/about )


Aside receiving payments in a cryptocurrency Bitcoin, in Nigeria the scam TrustCoin Africa Limited is also receiving cash through a Sterling Bank account number: 8511001179. The Account Name is EDIRI VIGHOR.

For BTC, the company is using an account with Luno. It has three levels of investment circles: three days, seven days and thirty days.


TrustCoin Africa Limited claimed it's offices are located in South Africa and United States:

South Africa — 47 Openview Drive, Hogsfront, Eastern Cape, South Africa.


US —  8145 Beechwood Lane, Plymouth, MA 02360, Massachusetts, United States.

 Phone: +1 5143124165

Name of the Principal Officer: Francisco David.


Reliably gathered, the site has not been paying any investors for the past 4 weeks and still counting whatever current payment claims are just computer manipulations via algorithm.


All other online reviews by the Scam Alerts clearly revealed the organisation to be a scam as it offers unrealistic returns on investments .


The Nigeria's anti corruption agencies especially the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC ) should look into how to halt the activities of TrustCoin Africa Limited in Nigeria and through interpol bring the perpetrator (s) to book.



Latest News Plus 



Ex— governor of Kaduna State Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to face Anti–corruption agencies for Abuse of office, diversion of public funds, money laundering

Ex— governor of Kaduna State Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to face Anti–corruption agencies for Abuse of office, diversion of public funds, money laundering

The House Committee recommends further probe of El-Rufai for abuse of office, money laundering.



The ad hoc committee set up by the Kaduna State House of Assembly to investigate all finances, loans and contracts awarded under the former governor, Nasir El-Rufai has submitted its report to the House.


Presenting the report during plenary on Wednesday, the chairman of the ad hoc committee, Henry Zacharia, said that most of the loans obtained under the El-Rufai’s administration were not used for the purpose for which they were obtained, while in some cases, due process was not followed in securing the loans.


Receiving the report, the Speaker of the Kaduna House of Assembly, Yusuf Liman, said that a total of N423 billion was siphoned by the El-Rufai’s administration while leaving the state with huge liabilities.


The committee, therefore, recommended the investigation and prosecution of El-Rufai, some other indicted members of his cabinet by security and anti-corruption agencies for abuse of office through the award of contracts without due process, diversion of public funds and money laundering as well as plaguing Kaduna State into heavy debt.


The committee also recommended the immediate suspension of the Kaduna State Commissioner of Finance, Shizer Badda, who also served in the same capacity under the El-Rufai’s administration, as well as the chairman of the state universal basic education board.


It also recommended thorough investigation of some key appointees of the last administration by appropriate law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies.


The committee set up by the Kaduna State House of Assembly was tasked with the assignment of examining loans, grants and projects implementation from 2015 to 2023 during which El-Rufai served as governor of the state.

The House Committee recommends further probe of El-Rufai for abuse of office, money laundering.



The ad hoc committee set up by the Kaduna State House of Assembly to investigate all finances, loans and contracts awarded under the former governor, Nasir El-Rufai has submitted its report to the House.


Presenting the report during plenary on Wednesday, the chairman of the ad hoc committee, Henry Zacharia, said that most of the loans obtained under the El-Rufai’s administration were not used for the purpose for which they were obtained, while in some cases, due process was not followed in securing the loans.


Receiving the report, the Speaker of the Kaduna House of Assembly, Yusuf Liman, said that a total of N423 billion was siphoned by the El-Rufai’s administration while leaving the state with huge liabilities.


The committee, therefore, recommended the investigation and prosecution of El-Rufai, some other indicted members of his cabinet by security and anti-corruption agencies for abuse of office through the award of contracts without due process, diversion of public funds and money laundering as well as plaguing Kaduna State into heavy debt.


The committee also recommended the immediate suspension of the Kaduna State Commissioner of Finance, Shizer Badda, who also served in the same capacity under the El-Rufai’s administration, as well as the chairman of the state universal basic education board.


It also recommended thorough investigation of some key appointees of the last administration by appropriate law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies.


The committee set up by the Kaduna State House of Assembly was tasked with the assignment of examining loans, grants and projects implementation from 2015 to 2023 during which El-Rufai served as governor of the state.

Exclusive: Admiral Group Nigeria, a Scam- Cardiff Office Confirmed, EFCC, others should note

Exclusive: Admiral Group Nigeria, a Scam- Cardiff Office Confirmed, EFCC, others should note

 The Admiral Group Nigeria which claimed to be a branch of the main Admiral Group headquartered in Cardiff, United Kingdom has been confirmed to be a scam.


The Admiral group (ADM) office in Cardiff earlier in an exclusive telephone conversation with the Group Admin of Latest News Dele Abiola said, the company has no branch in Nigeria and that the company has offered no online job opportunities for anyone. (The UK company was reached via it's public telephone number: +44 333 220 2062)


Also in a reply to the message queries on the Instagram page of the group, ADM  said it has no branch in Nigeria. The Cardiff company denied having anything doing with the website and app link (https://adm56.com) With which Nigerians have been offered online scam job.



However, while the Cardiff office denied having any branch in Nigeria and refuted the web and app link, the profile message of the scam site says otherwise.



(Updated)
The scam site has been using more than three different account numbers to collect money from those buying into their online scam job. Out of the three account numbers, only one looks company while the other two are individuals.

Company account

Individual account


Individual account

Another individual account


The ADM Nigeria which plans to celebrate it's 5th year anniversary in Lagos by January 15th 2022 account to the latest announcement on the website and app has been defrauding and collecting money from unsuspecting Nigerians base on it's designed VIP levels.



The NIGERIA ADM also assigned online daily tasks per each level to make it look real as each subscriber has a numbers of tasks and prices attached also per  each level:







The online site stopped honouring withdrawal request of it's online employees in December citing banks closures for  Christmas and new year holidays. (This against the internet banking services) It promised to resume payment by January 4th 2022.

 Instead of resuming payment on the said date, it cancelled all pending withdrawal orders of the employee subscribers. ADM then asked all employees to pay personal income tax of 7% upfront for three months before withdrawal can be made and honoured. According to the info on the online site and it's app, such was the request of an agency in the Nigeria's federal ministry of finance.


It also added that the verification of the individual app/web account will be done by the Nigeria's Central Taxation Bureau.

Latest News opened that these are unfunded and contrary to the direct taxation faced by employees as the said 7%VAT can be deducted even without the consent of the employees before the final payments are made into the individual employee's bank account. This is the usual practice in all governmental , public and private organizations in Nigeria.

Reaching out to most of the ADM Nigeria admins on phones and via WhatsApp messages for clarifications and request for the government's paper (s) for such their actions, while most of their phone numbers were perpetually switch off,  some refused to pick calls and one of them threatening to be an herbalist,  others who choose to respond have neither been able to provide any clarification or any government paper of instructions to such effect  as members of their groups were also demanding to see such information they received from Nigeria's Central Taxation Bureau as claimed by ADM.

 They further resulted to threatening their subscribers that their account balances will be wiped off should they not pay their personal income taxes before the deadline.




The least invested amount of money paid into those accounts to secure the said  online job  is #17,000 with the highest been #6,800,000


Some who have considered themselves been scammed have reached out to the EFCC on the Eagle Eye app.

While investigation still continues, Latest News  calls on the Nigeria's finance Ministry and central taxation bureau as claimed by ADM or FIRS to make public if their is any information as regards what Admiral Group Nigeria has been display both in the website and in it's app.

Also it has not been established that the Admiral Group Nigeria is registered by the Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)

EFCC and other appropriate anti graft agencies are hereby called upon to monitor and investigate the above bank accounts as well as the activities of the fake Admiral Groups in Nigeria.

 The Admiral Group Nigeria which claimed to be a branch of the main Admiral Group headquartered in Cardiff, United Kingdom has been confirmed to be a scam.


The Admiral group (ADM) office in Cardiff earlier in an exclusive telephone conversation with the Group Admin of Latest News Dele Abiola said, the company has no branch in Nigeria and that the company has offered no online job opportunities for anyone. (The UK company was reached via it's public telephone number: +44 333 220 2062)


Also in a reply to the message queries on the Instagram page of the group, ADM  said it has no branch in Nigeria. The Cardiff company denied having anything doing with the website and app link (https://adm56.com) With which Nigerians have been offered online scam job.



However, while the Cardiff office denied having any branch in Nigeria and refuted the web and app link, the profile message of the scam site says otherwise.



(Updated)
The scam site has been using more than three different account numbers to collect money from those buying into their online scam job. Out of the three account numbers, only one looks company while the other two are individuals.

Company account

Individual account


Individual account

Another individual account


The ADM Nigeria which plans to celebrate it's 5th year anniversary in Lagos by January 15th 2022 account to the latest announcement on the website and app has been defrauding and collecting money from unsuspecting Nigerians base on it's designed VIP levels.



The NIGERIA ADM also assigned online daily tasks per each level to make it look real as each subscriber has a numbers of tasks and prices attached also per  each level:







The online site stopped honouring withdrawal request of it's online employees in December citing banks closures for  Christmas and new year holidays. (This against the internet banking services) It promised to resume payment by January 4th 2022.

 Instead of resuming payment on the said date, it cancelled all pending withdrawal orders of the employee subscribers. ADM then asked all employees to pay personal income tax of 7% upfront for three months before withdrawal can be made and honoured. According to the info on the online site and it's app, such was the request of an agency in the Nigeria's federal ministry of finance.


It also added that the verification of the individual app/web account will be done by the Nigeria's Central Taxation Bureau.

Latest News opened that these are unfunded and contrary to the direct taxation faced by employees as the said 7%VAT can be deducted even without the consent of the employees before the final payments are made into the individual employee's bank account. This is the usual practice in all governmental , public and private organizations in Nigeria.

Reaching out to most of the ADM Nigeria admins on phones and via WhatsApp messages for clarifications and request for the government's paper (s) for such their actions, while most of their phone numbers were perpetually switch off,  some refused to pick calls and one of them threatening to be an herbalist,  others who choose to respond have neither been able to provide any clarification or any government paper of instructions to such effect  as members of their groups were also demanding to see such information they received from Nigeria's Central Taxation Bureau as claimed by ADM.

 They further resulted to threatening their subscribers that their account balances will be wiped off should they not pay their personal income taxes before the deadline.




The least invested amount of money paid into those accounts to secure the said  online job  is #17,000 with the highest been #6,800,000


Some who have considered themselves been scammed have reached out to the EFCC on the Eagle Eye app.

While investigation still continues, Latest News  calls on the Nigeria's finance Ministry and central taxation bureau as claimed by ADM or FIRS to make public if their is any information as regards what Admiral Group Nigeria has been display both in the website and in it's app.

Also it has not been established that the Admiral Group Nigeria is registered by the Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)

EFCC and other appropriate anti graft agencies are hereby called upon to monitor and investigate the above bank accounts as well as the activities of the fake Admiral Groups in Nigeria.

HOW LAI MOHAMMED, NBC HEAD FOR SHOWDOWN OVER N10 BILLION FRAUD, MINISTER IN HOT DEAL WITH INTERPOL MOST WANTED SUSPECT

HOW LAI MOHAMMED, NBC HEAD FOR SHOWDOWN OVER N10 BILLION FRAUD, MINISTER IN HOT DEAL WITH INTERPOL MOST WANTED SUSPECT


The levels and extents of monumental damages, economy sabotage and corrupt practices of the the Buhari led regime in Nigeria cannot be assertained while they are still holding the sway and presiding over the affairs of the country.


The APC regime since 2015 and till date has corruptly milked this country to the marrows than all the government's since Independent put together but only the demised of this current Regime will exposed it like that of the late Gen. Sani Abacha. Even then only Abacha loots we reconned with, not other generals and administrators who individually and blindly looted our common wealth.


Major General Muhammadu Buhari and his family are not saints in the affairs of this country. Buhari and his ministers are the worst thing that has ever happened to Nigeria in all fronts and sectors in the past 60 years.


The desperate attempts by Nigeria’s Information Minister, Mr Lai Mohammed to use the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to circumvent ongoing corruption investigations mounted against his person by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) may have ignited a simmering animosity between him and the leadership of the parastatal.


This is even as the Information Minister’s business relationship with Toyin Subairu has raised serious concerns amongst the leadership of the NBC. Subairu who was on the Interpol wanted list for fraud, allegedly launders funds for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, using his now moribund HiTV.


Last week (Thursday) the minister verbally directed the Director-General of the NBC Mr Balarebe Ilela to write to him demanding for the release of N10 billion illegally being kept by his Ministry since January but was coldly ignored by the DG. The money was a loan provided to the Commission by the Federal Government to enable it successfully prosecute the Digital Switch Over (DSO) which is an internationally mandatory protocol to digitize television broadcast in every nation of the world.


According to Pointblanknews.com, last week reported exclusively that rather than the money released directly to the NBC, Mr Mohammed used his influence with the Federal Ministry of Finance to divert the money to a private account where it is estimated to have generated interest already amounting to over One Billion Naira. Complaints from service providers to the project and a petition to the ICPC culminated in the anti-graft agency raiding the NBC and seizing files, software and computers.


Mr Mohammed is also accused of deliberately duplicating payment to one of the companies, Inview Nigeria Limited owned by his business partner Mr Toyin Subairu among several other dubious actions taken allegedly aimed at skimming the N10 Billion.


Besides,  all through last week the commission rigorously interrogated two main accounting officers of the ministry, the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Ngozi Ayanwuotaku and the Ministry’s Director of Finance, Mr Kayode  Musbau who was reported to have fainted,(foaming from the mouth) at a point on Wednesday and had to be rushed for medical attention. He was said to have been stabilized and returned for a continuation of the process on Thursday.


The testimonies of both officials according to ICPC sources thoroughly indicted Mr Mohammed as the sole mastermind of the fraud. Mr Musbau confessed to disbursing the money to some persons and companies on the directive of Mr Mohammed.


But Dr Ayanwuotaku who is the accounting Minister of the Ministry strongly denied any knowledge of the money coming to any bank accounts of the ministry either at the Treasury Single Accounts (TSA) or any other accounts held or kept by the ministry.


It was after Dr Anyanwuotaku’s testimony that Mr Musbau who reportedly sang like a canary was hauled in. Mr Musbau is a kinsman of the Minister from Offa in Kwara State was said to have been serving at the ministry of Police Affairs until 2019 when Lai Mohammed was reappointed for a second term lobbied the Office of the Head of Service to have him transferred to the ministry information. Mr Mohammed’s lobby for the transfer of Musbau to his office was seen as a move to secure his dealings which often got leaked and have been the source of many petitions to anti-graft agencies.

In the ICPC interrogation, which was video recorded, Musbau came in grandstanding. He claimed there was nothing wrong with the Ministry of Information warehousing the money for the DSO project as the supervising ministry of the NBC which he claimed had demonstrated overtime the propensity to mismanage public funds. He pointed out the controversy of a N2.5 Billion alleged fraud by a former DG of the Commission, Mr Ishaq Modibbo Kawu and an earlier one by another former DG Mr Emeka Mbah both of whom are standing criminal trials at the moment.


But Mr Musbau began to falter when the investigators asked him to provide the details of account where the money was been warehoused. Besides, when asked to provide his own personal Bank Verification Number (BVN) and National Identity Number (NIN) he claimed he could neither remember his BVN nor dial the shortcut on his phone because the line he came with wasn’t the line he used in opening his bank accounts. He also claimed he was yet to register for the NIN. But one of the investigators punched his laptop and printed out Mr Musbau’s NIN and BVN and cautioned him against attempting to tell any more lies in the course of the interview. “Theres nothing we are asking you that we don’t already know” they told him.


It was after this encounter that Musbau knowing he had been cornered decided to save his own neck and claimed that he was just a civil servant who diligently obeyed directives from his minister. He even disclosed to the investigators that most of the N10 Billion had been spent -directly disbursed by him on the instruction of Mr Mohammed to beneficiary companies namely Inview Nigeria Limited, Pinnacle Communications, Integrated Television Services (ITS) and Outsource Nigeria Limited. He said only a foreign company by name SES based in Luxembourg was yet to be paid as they were unable to reach “understanding” with Mr Mohammed.


He said Mr Mohammed had tried to get a consultant for SES which was not  registered in Nigeria  to help them facilitate their payment which cannot be “straight forward” because of their unregistered status, but “the white people mistook his good intentions for an attempt to arm-twist them into giving kickbacks and angrily rejected the money”. He said the money amounted to about $5 million USD or N2.4 billion. He furthermore disclosed that an excess of N600 Million which was earmarked for the NBC recurrent expenditure on running the DSO project had been substantially depleted by Lai Mohammed. He told the ICPC that Dr Anyanwuotaku wasn’t told of the money on the instructions of the  Minister because the woman was always ‘too rigid’.


On getting details of the indicting testimonies given to the ICPC by Mr Musbau and the Permanent Secretary, Mr Mohammed desperately reached out to the NBC DG to ask that the commission initiates a letter to him asking for the full DSO money. Besides he was said to have directed the DG and his management Staff to hold a press conference and deny Pointblanknews.com last week’s investigative report which exposed his scam  of diverting the money and the ICPC Probe. Aides of the Minister complained that the new DG has been rude and insubordinate refusing to cooperate with the Ministry to work as a team to address the current challenges


But the DG, Mr Illela who was appointed only two months ago was only being careful not to suffer the same fate like his two predecessors who were successfully sacrificed by Lai Mohammed who made them the culprits of his own scams when they were only following his directives.


The most recent was the N2.5 Billion scam where the NBC following Mr Mohammed’s verbal directive just like the one been presently ignored, asked the then NBC DG, Mr Kawu to bring a memo applying for N2.5 billion to be paid to Pinnacle Communications as seed money to build infrastructure for the DSO project. Mr Kawu carried out the directive and the money was paid to the company. But an outcry from players within the industry blew the scam wide open which brought the ICPC.


But Mr Mohammed claimed he was deceived by the same Kawu he verbally directed to initiate a memo and using his influence as a major stakeholder of the APC and the government, the ICPC was unable to rein him in and drag him before the courts to answer to his crime which was not only obvious from the approval he hastily gave to the memo to release the N2.5Billion but N150 Million was traced from Pinnacle Communications directly to the accounts of his son, Mr Folajimi Jubril Mohammed who is now a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly.


Besides, pointblanknews.com finding indicated that Kawu was in no place to deceive the Minister as there was no love lost between Kawu and Mr Mohammed because of the former’s rising popularity in Kwara State at the time . It was said the former DG was been pressured to run for governor. Kawu’s popularity in Kwara according to sources was said to have kindled Mohammed’s hostility. Thus the memo which Kawu acquiesced to writing which cost him his job and a prolonged prosecution which is still ongoing was actually an act of submission not to offend the minister who he believed was looking for excuse to deal with him.


Before Kawu, Mr Mohammed had also sacrificed Mr Mbah the DG he met in the NBC when he was appointed a minister in 2015 in similar circumstances. In 2016 Mr Mohammed was said to have convened a meeting between the service providers of the DSO Project, the NBC and himself where he suggested that to assure the contractors of timely payment for any contractors discharged the money earmarked for their payments will be kept in Zenith bank rather than deposit it in the TSA.


But when the anti-graft agencies got whiff of the deal and came calling Mr Mohammed washed his hands off. Not even his approval and the minutes of meetings he conveyed to take the decision produced by Mr Mbah was enough to extricate him and rein-in Mr Mohammed the mastermind.


With the benefit of knowing about these previously exploits where the DG of the NBC ended up carrying the cans when the chips were down, while Mr Mohammed always worked free despite his very filthy fingers, the new DG Mr Illela is said to be on the alert refusing to obey the implicating directives Lai Mohammed was churning out to escape the ICPC dragnet. Illela reportedly angrily complained that why does Mohammed now want to return the money when it has become a subject of investigation and when almost 75% of it had been unilaterally spent without recourse to the commission. Beside he was said to have grumbled to the hearing of staff loyal to Mr Mohammed that the role of the NBC does not include defending the person of the Minister from allegations or whatever.


These utterances. got to the Minister who is said to be now telling all that care to listen that the ICPC probe is a plot of the Hausa-Fulani Cabal in the APC Government led by the Attorney-General Abubakar Malami and  a nephew of the President one Tunde Sabiu to bring him down because of his perceived loyalty to former Lagos State Governor and self-styled APC National Leader Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But he has reportedly vowed to bring down the roof on those behind his travails as he claims to have evidence that some of them benefitted heavily from the N10 billion.


But a source informed Pointbanknews.com that Mr Mohammed is drowning and therefore clutching at any and every straw he could conjure. The source said The Attorney General and Mr Sabiu may not even be aware of the issue except they read it in the media. “I don’t understand why he’s looking for people to stain rather than face his demons” a presidency official told our reporter on Monday wondering if it was Malami and Sabiu that have been responsible for the several other allegations of corruption made against him since 2015.


Indeed, Mr Mohammed’s reign in the Information Ministry has been a glossary of allegations and tales of fraud and corruption. In his first tenure in 2016 he was implicated in a N200 million scam involving the dubious procurement of 18.5 KVA and 13KVA generators but in actual fact nothing was to be suplied. When the scam was exposed, Mr Mohammed and his officials retreated and blamed the contractor for misunderstanding. But the money was kept aside. When they thought no one was watching anymore on March 29, 2017 one Bunmi Morgridge said to be the Deputy Director of General Services at the time raised a memo asking for the supply of some urgent office equipment including five Ford Ranger pick-ups and computer hardware and software. The memo was sent to the then acting Permanent Secretary one Hassan Dayar who quickly recommended the procurement. At the end of it all, they conjured papers and vouchers and claimed a contract for the supply of office equipment worth N180 Million was awarded. But no such supplies were ever made. The money was allegedly shared by the Mr and his management.  The scam was exposed but neither the EFCC nor the ICPC ever prosecuted anyone involved in the glaring act of corruption.


Mr Mohammed’s influence was believed to have been at play once more.  Another mega fraud exposed  involved the immediate past Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs Grace Gekpe. A petition by one Clifford Ume addressed to the Special Presidential Investigative Panel (SPIP) claimed that money amounting to over N459 Million was embezzled by the duo of Lai Mohammed and Mrs Gekpe. The monies he said were proceeds of phantom appropriations for cultural centers in several Nigerian foreign missions which either do not exist or have been closed down since 2011.


The SPIP in its investigation and in an Executive Brief to President Buhari established that there have been several inflows and lodgments in Mrs Gekpe’s accounts which can only be the proceeds of corruption. The report noted that the total inflow into her UBA Savings Account amounted to N89,831,916.00 while her account in EcoBank had a total inflow of N299.385,428.92. Furthermore, she had lodgement amounting to N6, 971,265.00 in her Heritage Bank Account. Mrs Gekpe was also said by the panel to have a domiciliary Account worth $107,655.75 in her UBA Domiciliary Account.


Under interrogation by the SPIP the lady was said to have confessed that most of the cash were kept for her Honorable Minister, Mr Mohammed.


Indeed, Mr Mohammed’s track record of fraud and corrupt practices really stink. But so far the ICPC has been helpless. The more they dug into his grimy activities, the more powerful he would seem to have become. But investigators are hopeful that his magic wand to escape being held accountable for his sleazy crimes may have waned of late. His panic and desperate reaction to the exposure of his latest fraud and the investigative activities of the ICPC is seen as evidence that his wall of protection to loot with abandon is already caving in.

Lai Mohammed might be the next to go down....he has been fighting to bury his crooked ways


The levels and extents of monumental damages, economy sabotage and corrupt practices of the the Buhari led regime in Nigeria cannot be assertained while they are still holding the sway and presiding over the affairs of the country.


The APC regime since 2015 and till date has corruptly milked this country to the marrows than all the government's since Independent put together but only the demised of this current Regime will exposed it like that of the late Gen. Sani Abacha. Even then only Abacha loots we reconned with, not other generals and administrators who individually and blindly looted our common wealth.


Major General Muhammadu Buhari and his family are not saints in the affairs of this country. Buhari and his ministers are the worst thing that has ever happened to Nigeria in all fronts and sectors in the past 60 years.


The desperate attempts by Nigeria’s Information Minister, Mr Lai Mohammed to use the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to circumvent ongoing corruption investigations mounted against his person by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) may have ignited a simmering animosity between him and the leadership of the parastatal.


This is even as the Information Minister’s business relationship with Toyin Subairu has raised serious concerns amongst the leadership of the NBC. Subairu who was on the Interpol wanted list for fraud, allegedly launders funds for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, using his now moribund HiTV.


Last week (Thursday) the minister verbally directed the Director-General of the NBC Mr Balarebe Ilela to write to him demanding for the release of N10 billion illegally being kept by his Ministry since January but was coldly ignored by the DG. The money was a loan provided to the Commission by the Federal Government to enable it successfully prosecute the Digital Switch Over (DSO) which is an internationally mandatory protocol to digitize television broadcast in every nation of the world.


According to Pointblanknews.com, last week reported exclusively that rather than the money released directly to the NBC, Mr Mohammed used his influence with the Federal Ministry of Finance to divert the money to a private account where it is estimated to have generated interest already amounting to over One Billion Naira. Complaints from service providers to the project and a petition to the ICPC culminated in the anti-graft agency raiding the NBC and seizing files, software and computers.


Mr Mohammed is also accused of deliberately duplicating payment to one of the companies, Inview Nigeria Limited owned by his business partner Mr Toyin Subairu among several other dubious actions taken allegedly aimed at skimming the N10 Billion.


Besides,  all through last week the commission rigorously interrogated two main accounting officers of the ministry, the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Ngozi Ayanwuotaku and the Ministry’s Director of Finance, Mr Kayode  Musbau who was reported to have fainted,(foaming from the mouth) at a point on Wednesday and had to be rushed for medical attention. He was said to have been stabilized and returned for a continuation of the process on Thursday.


The testimonies of both officials according to ICPC sources thoroughly indicted Mr Mohammed as the sole mastermind of the fraud. Mr Musbau confessed to disbursing the money to some persons and companies on the directive of Mr Mohammed.


But Dr Ayanwuotaku who is the accounting Minister of the Ministry strongly denied any knowledge of the money coming to any bank accounts of the ministry either at the Treasury Single Accounts (TSA) or any other accounts held or kept by the ministry.


It was after Dr Anyanwuotaku’s testimony that Mr Musbau who reportedly sang like a canary was hauled in. Mr Musbau is a kinsman of the Minister from Offa in Kwara State was said to have been serving at the ministry of Police Affairs until 2019 when Lai Mohammed was reappointed for a second term lobbied the Office of the Head of Service to have him transferred to the ministry information. Mr Mohammed’s lobby for the transfer of Musbau to his office was seen as a move to secure his dealings which often got leaked and have been the source of many petitions to anti-graft agencies.

In the ICPC interrogation, which was video recorded, Musbau came in grandstanding. He claimed there was nothing wrong with the Ministry of Information warehousing the money for the DSO project as the supervising ministry of the NBC which he claimed had demonstrated overtime the propensity to mismanage public funds. He pointed out the controversy of a N2.5 Billion alleged fraud by a former DG of the Commission, Mr Ishaq Modibbo Kawu and an earlier one by another former DG Mr Emeka Mbah both of whom are standing criminal trials at the moment.


But Mr Musbau began to falter when the investigators asked him to provide the details of account where the money was been warehoused. Besides, when asked to provide his own personal Bank Verification Number (BVN) and National Identity Number (NIN) he claimed he could neither remember his BVN nor dial the shortcut on his phone because the line he came with wasn’t the line he used in opening his bank accounts. He also claimed he was yet to register for the NIN. But one of the investigators punched his laptop and printed out Mr Musbau’s NIN and BVN and cautioned him against attempting to tell any more lies in the course of the interview. “Theres nothing we are asking you that we don’t already know” they told him.


It was after this encounter that Musbau knowing he had been cornered decided to save his own neck and claimed that he was just a civil servant who diligently obeyed directives from his minister. He even disclosed to the investigators that most of the N10 Billion had been spent -directly disbursed by him on the instruction of Mr Mohammed to beneficiary companies namely Inview Nigeria Limited, Pinnacle Communications, Integrated Television Services (ITS) and Outsource Nigeria Limited. He said only a foreign company by name SES based in Luxembourg was yet to be paid as they were unable to reach “understanding” with Mr Mohammed.


He said Mr Mohammed had tried to get a consultant for SES which was not  registered in Nigeria  to help them facilitate their payment which cannot be “straight forward” because of their unregistered status, but “the white people mistook his good intentions for an attempt to arm-twist them into giving kickbacks and angrily rejected the money”. He said the money amounted to about $5 million USD or N2.4 billion. He furthermore disclosed that an excess of N600 Million which was earmarked for the NBC recurrent expenditure on running the DSO project had been substantially depleted by Lai Mohammed. He told the ICPC that Dr Anyanwuotaku wasn’t told of the money on the instructions of the  Minister because the woman was always ‘too rigid’.


On getting details of the indicting testimonies given to the ICPC by Mr Musbau and the Permanent Secretary, Mr Mohammed desperately reached out to the NBC DG to ask that the commission initiates a letter to him asking for the full DSO money. Besides he was said to have directed the DG and his management Staff to hold a press conference and deny Pointblanknews.com last week’s investigative report which exposed his scam  of diverting the money and the ICPC Probe. Aides of the Minister complained that the new DG has been rude and insubordinate refusing to cooperate with the Ministry to work as a team to address the current challenges


But the DG, Mr Illela who was appointed only two months ago was only being careful not to suffer the same fate like his two predecessors who were successfully sacrificed by Lai Mohammed who made them the culprits of his own scams when they were only following his directives.


The most recent was the N2.5 Billion scam where the NBC following Mr Mohammed’s verbal directive just like the one been presently ignored, asked the then NBC DG, Mr Kawu to bring a memo applying for N2.5 billion to be paid to Pinnacle Communications as seed money to build infrastructure for the DSO project. Mr Kawu carried out the directive and the money was paid to the company. But an outcry from players within the industry blew the scam wide open which brought the ICPC.


But Mr Mohammed claimed he was deceived by the same Kawu he verbally directed to initiate a memo and using his influence as a major stakeholder of the APC and the government, the ICPC was unable to rein him in and drag him before the courts to answer to his crime which was not only obvious from the approval he hastily gave to the memo to release the N2.5Billion but N150 Million was traced from Pinnacle Communications directly to the accounts of his son, Mr Folajimi Jubril Mohammed who is now a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly.


Besides, pointblanknews.com finding indicated that Kawu was in no place to deceive the Minister as there was no love lost between Kawu and Mr Mohammed because of the former’s rising popularity in Kwara State at the time . It was said the former DG was been pressured to run for governor. Kawu’s popularity in Kwara according to sources was said to have kindled Mohammed’s hostility. Thus the memo which Kawu acquiesced to writing which cost him his job and a prolonged prosecution which is still ongoing was actually an act of submission not to offend the minister who he believed was looking for excuse to deal with him.


Before Kawu, Mr Mohammed had also sacrificed Mr Mbah the DG he met in the NBC when he was appointed a minister in 2015 in similar circumstances. In 2016 Mr Mohammed was said to have convened a meeting between the service providers of the DSO Project, the NBC and himself where he suggested that to assure the contractors of timely payment for any contractors discharged the money earmarked for their payments will be kept in Zenith bank rather than deposit it in the TSA.


But when the anti-graft agencies got whiff of the deal and came calling Mr Mohammed washed his hands off. Not even his approval and the minutes of meetings he conveyed to take the decision produced by Mr Mbah was enough to extricate him and rein-in Mr Mohammed the mastermind.


With the benefit of knowing about these previously exploits where the DG of the NBC ended up carrying the cans when the chips were down, while Mr Mohammed always worked free despite his very filthy fingers, the new DG Mr Illela is said to be on the alert refusing to obey the implicating directives Lai Mohammed was churning out to escape the ICPC dragnet. Illela reportedly angrily complained that why does Mohammed now want to return the money when it has become a subject of investigation and when almost 75% of it had been unilaterally spent without recourse to the commission. Beside he was said to have grumbled to the hearing of staff loyal to Mr Mohammed that the role of the NBC does not include defending the person of the Minister from allegations or whatever.


These utterances. got to the Minister who is said to be now telling all that care to listen that the ICPC probe is a plot of the Hausa-Fulani Cabal in the APC Government led by the Attorney-General Abubakar Malami and  a nephew of the President one Tunde Sabiu to bring him down because of his perceived loyalty to former Lagos State Governor and self-styled APC National Leader Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But he has reportedly vowed to bring down the roof on those behind his travails as he claims to have evidence that some of them benefitted heavily from the N10 billion.


But a source informed Pointbanknews.com that Mr Mohammed is drowning and therefore clutching at any and every straw he could conjure. The source said The Attorney General and Mr Sabiu may not even be aware of the issue except they read it in the media. “I don’t understand why he’s looking for people to stain rather than face his demons” a presidency official told our reporter on Monday wondering if it was Malami and Sabiu that have been responsible for the several other allegations of corruption made against him since 2015.


Indeed, Mr Mohammed’s reign in the Information Ministry has been a glossary of allegations and tales of fraud and corruption. In his first tenure in 2016 he was implicated in a N200 million scam involving the dubious procurement of 18.5 KVA and 13KVA generators but in actual fact nothing was to be suplied. When the scam was exposed, Mr Mohammed and his officials retreated and blamed the contractor for misunderstanding. But the money was kept aside. When they thought no one was watching anymore on March 29, 2017 one Bunmi Morgridge said to be the Deputy Director of General Services at the time raised a memo asking for the supply of some urgent office equipment including five Ford Ranger pick-ups and computer hardware and software. The memo was sent to the then acting Permanent Secretary one Hassan Dayar who quickly recommended the procurement. At the end of it all, they conjured papers and vouchers and claimed a contract for the supply of office equipment worth N180 Million was awarded. But no such supplies were ever made. The money was allegedly shared by the Mr and his management.  The scam was exposed but neither the EFCC nor the ICPC ever prosecuted anyone involved in the glaring act of corruption.


Mr Mohammed’s influence was believed to have been at play once more.  Another mega fraud exposed  involved the immediate past Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs Grace Gekpe. A petition by one Clifford Ume addressed to the Special Presidential Investigative Panel (SPIP) claimed that money amounting to over N459 Million was embezzled by the duo of Lai Mohammed and Mrs Gekpe. The monies he said were proceeds of phantom appropriations for cultural centers in several Nigerian foreign missions which either do not exist or have been closed down since 2011.


The SPIP in its investigation and in an Executive Brief to President Buhari established that there have been several inflows and lodgments in Mrs Gekpe’s accounts which can only be the proceeds of corruption. The report noted that the total inflow into her UBA Savings Account amounted to N89,831,916.00 while her account in EcoBank had a total inflow of N299.385,428.92. Furthermore, she had lodgement amounting to N6, 971,265.00 in her Heritage Bank Account. Mrs Gekpe was also said by the panel to have a domiciliary Account worth $107,655.75 in her UBA Domiciliary Account.


Under interrogation by the SPIP the lady was said to have confessed that most of the cash were kept for her Honorable Minister, Mr Mohammed.


Indeed, Mr Mohammed’s track record of fraud and corrupt practices really stink. But so far the ICPC has been helpless. The more they dug into his grimy activities, the more powerful he would seem to have become. But investigators are hopeful that his magic wand to escape being held accountable for his sleazy crimes may have waned of late. His panic and desperate reaction to the exposure of his latest fraud and the investigative activities of the ICPC is seen as evidence that his wall of protection to loot with abandon is already caving in.

Lai Mohammed might be the next to go down....he has been fighting to bury his crooked ways

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