AFR Business

February 9, 2016

A Federal High Court, in Lagos has fixed March 2 for the arraignment of executive directors of a distressed bank, Nigeria International Bank Limited, , Chief(Dr.) C. S Sankey, a former Commodore of Lagos Motor Boat Club and 15 others over alleged N2.6 billion fraud belonging to MicMerah International Agency Limited.

They are to face 20 counts bordering on Conspiracy, intent to defraud, falsification of document, fraudulent alteration and diversion of over N2. 6 billion.

The arraignment of the accused persons before Justice Ibrahim Nasir Buba could not go on today (Tuesday) due to inability of the prosecution to effect service of the charge on some of the accused persons.

Those charged alongside Chief C. S Sankey include; Peter Harris, Adekunle Oladosun, Okechi Egwu, Lulu Ndubuka, Oyowole Ariyo. UKabiru Bello, and J.E Eriagbon; Samson Ebie, Steve Obodomechine, Mikky Dons Nigeria Limited, Mark Anaele, Ariyo Odunala, Peter Oriade, Olusola Fagbure and Obianwa Chuba.

At the resumed trial of the accused, the prosecutor, Mr. Chukwudi Chikelue, who stood in for Mr. Gordy Uche, SAN, informed the court that the prosecution has not been able to effect service of the charge on other accused persons.
Consequently, he urged the court for a very short adjournment.

Lawyer to the bank, Mr. Niyi Adegbonmire, SAN, did not oppose the prosecutor call for adjournment.

Consequently, the presiding judge, Justice Buba adjourned the matter till March 2, for the accused bank and persons’ arraignment.

Justice Buba had earlier ordered that the second to 17 accused persons should be served with the charge before the next adjourned date.

In the charge, the accused were alleged to have conspired among themselves to induce MicMerah International Agency Limited, to deliver the said sum to them, to be used for offsetting a fraudulent import finance facility scheme.

They were also alleged to have falsified documents to fraudulently secure the release of four Volvo luxury buses and two 40 feet containers from the Nigeria Custom Service.

They are also to face a charge of obtaining property by false pretence, as well as corruptly enriching themselves.

The offence is said to have contravened the provisions of sections 1(1) (a),1(3), and 8 (a), of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related offence Act, 2004. And sections 161, and 162 of the Custom and Excise Management Act, Section 516 of the Criminal Code Act, 2004 as well as sections 2, 2(1) and 10 (1) of the Recovery of Public Property Act, 2004.

Amendment of NDLEA Act ‘ll bolster Nigeria’s drug control efforts – Fagbemi, Marwa
. Charge stakeholders to renew energy, resolve against substance abuse, illicit drug trafficking
Minister of Justice and Hon. Attorney General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN and Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) have expressed hope that the recent amendment of the NDLEA Act by the National Assembly will bolster Nigeria’s drug control efforts when eventually signed by President Bola Tinubu.
They stated this in their remarks during the opening ceremony of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Drug Control meeting in Abuja on Wednesday 28th May 2025. According to the minister who delivered the keynote address, “In the past four years, we have witnessed unprecedented efforts by the NDLEA. These achievements include arrests and seizures, convictions, elaborate evidence-based drug demand reduction interventions, using the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) social advocacy platform to sensitize communities on the dangers of drug abuse. Consistent gains have been recorded within the global space, by fostering international cooperation and building strong partnerships. NDLEA has sustained the fight with renewed energy and vigour, giving hope to the once hopeless situation.
“The Federal Ministry of Justice has worked together with the NDLEA to ensure that our national legal system effectively supports the drug control efforts of the agency. We are at the last lap of finalizing the amendment of the NDLEA Act, which will significantly enhance the organizational capability of the agency to control the menace of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking in Nigeria. The Ministry is also providing appropriate support in the area of proceeds of crime management, essential to dismantling the financial networks of drug traffickers.”
While acknowledging the contributions of other law enforcement agencies and stakeholders to the country’s drug control efforts, the minister who was represented by the Director, Public Prosecution of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, noted that “the work of this Inter-Ministerial Committee has been crucial in coordinating a whole-of-government approach to this top burner issue. By bringing together critical stakeholders, we have been able to develop and implement more comprehensive and balanced strategies, applying the collaborative spirit which the NDCMP promotes.”
He commended state governments that have established their own drug control committees and the civil society organisations working at the community levels to ensure more holistic outcomes. He charged the gathering to expand prevention programmes to address the root causes of drug abuse, targeting the youths, women, the vulnerable and marginalized persons in communities. “Let us leave this meeting with renewed commitment to protecting our youth, securing our communities, and building a healthier, safer Nigeria for generations to come. The commitment made by NDLEA, the IMC and other stakeholders, holds the promise for a drug-free Nigeria”, he added.
In his welcome remarks, Marwa said despite the funding challenges that affected the full implementation of the National Drug Control Master Plan (NDCMP 2021–2025), the Agency remained undeterred in the pursuit of its goal. “Instead, we stay resolute, drawing strength from our shared vision, commitment, and collective responsibility to overcome this limitation. Encouragingly, certain developments promise to bolster the achievement of our objectives. One such step is the amendment of the NDLEA Act, which is expected to significantly strengthen the Agency’s institutional capacity in drug supply reduction. I am pleased to inform this esteemed assembly that the Amended Act has been passed by the National Assembly and is currently awaiting Presidential assent.”
While charging all stakeholders to redouble their efforts, the NDLEA boss said “I urge us all to renew our energy and resolve to deliver the impact and value needed to confront Nigeria’s evolving and multifaceted drug challenges. Let us bring our voices, passion, and optimism to bear in our deliberations. May we remain open and forthright in pursuit of our shared goal: the enhancement of health and security for all residents of Nigeria, in line with the aspirations of the NDCMP 2021–2025.”
Assessing major programmes implemented across the strategic pillars of the NDCMP in 2023 and 2024, Marwa said “I can confirm that we have collectively made commendable progress on the Fourth National Action Plan, in comparison with previous iterations. Under the Supply Reduction pillar, our operational efforts and strategic offensives led to the arrest of 31,334 drug offenders, of whom 6,839 were convicted. We also recorded the seizure of 4,333,636.9 kilograms of assorted illicit drugs and undertook the destruction of 426.46724 hectares of cannabis farms.
“Under the Drug Demand Reduction strategic pillar, we provided counselling and rehabilitation services to 19,033 individuals. By accelerating our WADA sensitisation activities across states, local government areas, wards, and communities, we have been able to intentionally disseminate awareness of the dangers of drug abuse to diverse population groups. This has, in turn, fostered a sense of shared ownership and collective commitment in the national effort to curb substance abuse, trafficking, and proliferation across the country.”
Also speaking at the ceremony, UNODC Country Representative, Cheikh Ousmane Toure represented by Dr. Akani Ibanga said Nigeria stands at the crossroads of public health and security sector when it comes to the drug response, adding that “the urgency of the mission that we have today cannot be overstated. Drug use, as we know, is associated with various things from health to safety to productivity to cohesion and, in fact, to how we respond at the level of our community.”
Tasking the gathering, he said “as we gather, we must be guided with data, and I’m glad how the chairman has, detailed the responses that have gone on in the different sectors, both in terms of supply reduction, demand reduction, and when it has to do with access to medications. And I think that where we have a country where at least three million people are said to be suffering from drug use disorder, when we did this calculation and you have 39.5 million in the world, that means we’re contributing 7.5 percent to that data as a country. That’s worrisome, and it calls for us to continue in this last leg of implementing the NDCMP to ensure that we are able to follow through with all the commitments that the drug control master plan have laid out for us to do, that we may address these issues that we face.”

NDLEA busts syndicate sponsoring pilgrims with cocaine to hajj, arrests 3 kingpins in Kano
. Nabs 2 Saudi-bound pilgrims, businessman going to Iran for ingesting 155 cocaine wraps; intercepts N9.3billion worth of opioids in Rivers

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have uncovered and dismantled a syndicate that sponsors hajj pilgrims who also serve as couriers to move cocaine to Saudi Arabia during pilgrimage. This followed the arrest of leaders of the cartel in Kano.
The arrest of the kingpins: Abubakar Muhammad, Abdulhakeem Muhammed Tijjani, and Muhammad Aji Shugaba on Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th May 2025 in Kano was a follow-up to the arrest of two pilgrims: Ibrahim Umar Mustapha and Muhammad Siraj Shifado at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano on Monday 26th May during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airline flight ET 940 to Jedda, Saudi Arabia. The interdiction of the intending pilgrims at the NDLEA final screening point at the Kano airport was based on credible intelligence. When they were taken for scanning, the result confirmed ingestion of illicit substances. They were subsequently placed on excretion observation during which they excreted 45 wraps of cocaine each, bringing the total for both to 90 pellets with a total weight of 1.04kg.
Investigation soon unraveled their sponsors as leaders of a notorious drug trafficking network, which specializes in trafficking illicit drugs to Saudi Arabia. A swift follow-up operation was carried out, and the trio of Abubakar Muhammad, Abdulhakeem Muhammed Tijjani, and Muhammad Aji Shugaba were arrested on Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th May 2025 in Kano.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives at the Kano airport on Wednesday 28th May intercepted a 60-year-old businessman Chinedu Leonard Okigbo during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR1432 to Iran. His body scan confirmed he ingested illicit substances as a result of which he was placed on excretion observation during which he excreted 65 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.41kg.
At the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers state, no fewer than seven watch-listed containers were positioned for joint examination by NDLEA officers, men of Custom Service and other security agencies between Wednesday 28th and Friday 30th May, during which 825,200 bottles of codeine based syrup and trodol worth Five Billion Seven Hundred and Seventy Six Million Four Hundred Thousand Naira Only (N5,776,400,000) in street value were seized while a total of Five Million One Hundred Thousand (5,100,000) pills of opioids especially tapentadol 225mg worth Three Billion Five Hundred and Seventy Million Naira Only (N3,570,000,000) were recovered. This brings the combined street value of the opioids to Nine Billion Three Hundred and Forty-Six Million Four Hundred Thousand Naira Only (N9,346,400,000.00)
In another operation in Kano, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Kano- Maiduguri road Friday 30th May intercepted the duo of Abubakar Hussein, 42, and Sahabi Adamu, 53, with Nine Hundred Thousand US dollars ($900,000) cash suspected to be counterfeit. The suspects and the exhibit will be transferred to the appropriate agency for further investigation.
While a total of 390 compressed blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis weighing 275.300kg were recovered from a parked Toyota Sienna vehicle marked YLA-408GG along Ngurore – Yola road, Adamawa state on Tuesday 27th May, NDLEA operatives in Kwara on Saturday 31st May arrested a notorious female drug dealer, Alhaja Mutiat Abdul-Fatai at Oja Oba area of Ilorin where various quantities of opioids including tramadol, flunitrazepam and codeine-based syrup were seized from her.
The War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, social advocacy activities by NDLEA Commands equally continued across the country in the past week. Some of them include: WADA sensitization lecture delivered to students and staff of Government Day Senior Secondary School, Kwasarawa, Katsina; Corpus Christi College, Achi, Enugu; Epignosis Standard College, Onitsha, Anambra; Government Girls Secondary School, Utai, Wudil LGA, Kano; and Government Girls Secondary School, Calabar, Cross River, among others.
While commending the officers and men of MAKIA, PHPC, Kano, Kwara, and Adamawa Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for pursuing a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.

Babajide SANWO-OLU – The Tinubu debacle

I had thought everything had died down. The news of the ‘wahala’ my favourite Governor was going thru with the powers that be had left the front pages and I had thought the worse was over.

The lady was granted the fastest bail ever and had scurried back into obscurity and there was seeming peace in the land

Then Baba forgot or refused to shake his hands in a line up of his people at an event

Sanwo had taken a deep bow like his peers and stretched out his hands and the President in a very un presidential manner ignored it and moved to the next person

The clip has gone viral and a lot of furore has been made on the presidential snub

This is not looking good for SANWO-OLU at all levels the least being the optics

This shows him as a light weight and not in the good books of the President and may have been frozen out

My question at this point is what happened at the Airport when Baba arrived.

As it is customary, the Governor is to receive the President upon arrival

Did that happen and did he shake him? Was he also snubbed at the Airport?

Was he also part of his entourage through out Babas touring of Lagos?

With that snub, the answers to tge above no longer matter to me and we must fashion out a clear strategy for our man before he is turned into mince meat and chewed out

From my point of view, options opened to SANWO-OLU are dual

He either goes for broke and calls the Presidents bluff and honker down and prepare for the consequences which can be anything from impeachment to prosecution after tenor or even exile

The second option is to intensify the begging cos its looking like the begging thus far is not working.

Before I advise him on which of the positions he should take, let me make a brief analysis

Remember we do not really know what is causing all of these beyond piecing things together from the snippets we are getting both from official and unofficial sources and as such our position can not be factually binding.

That said, lets look at the character of the man SANWO-OLU.

By nature, he is not a Wike or a Fayose or a Dino who are born stubborn and would fight to the end and danm the consequences

Remember how Fayose fought Buhari to the last day of his stay in office and appeared at the EFCC with a tshirt – we are here.

SANWO-OLU is a different kind of person. He is sophisticated, non confrontational, consensus building and a docile party man

Who or what distracted him to this point needs to be studied

On the other hand, the President is at full strength.

Lagos has been rescued, everybody is decamping even as far as Akwa Ibom, National Assembly is safe, Judiciary is malleable and those who control legitimate force are in line

This is the person that we have gone to look for their trouble

So can SANWO-OLU at the height of any kind of madness attempt a full throttle fight?

He will be like those midgets that we see on American wrestling struggling with Andre the giant – he will be torn apart that we will be picking various parts of his body in different parts of Lagos

Now the begging.

Should he intensify the begging working with people that Baba can listen to with the hope that just maybe he will get a soft landing?

With these he also has to be careful. He must think of his image, political future and all before he will now go and beg his way into irelevance.

So If I were SANWO-OLU what would i do

Simple. A little bit of both.

The elephant in all its might is afraid of the rat.

Call Babas bluff for a bit. Walk out of the venue after the humiliation, show no fear for impeachment and send signal that na person dey enter prison no be ghost

They will be wondering who or what is behind him.

There is a way someone will be beating you that it will get to a point where you sef wil say – Ahhhh kilode gan

For the incident to have happened publicly, then we can imagine what would have been happening outside of public glare

Yes SANWO-OLU is a ‘boy’, yes they ‘put’ him there, he is still the Executive Governor of Lagos and he must at all times carry himself in that regards no matter what.

Would any President do that to Saraki as Gov of Kwara, or Wike as Governor of Rivers or any of the Northern Govs or even El Rufai no matter what

He should strategically ‘yari’ and send a signal that he can fight back after all Zelensky is still fighting years after.

While fighting he would continue to try to open the doors for reconciliation and pushing strategic people thru that door.

I can see him doing that with the Thisday article of this morning and the attack on Peter Obi the other day.

These cannot get him any where, he needs to uproot first class Obas, captians of industry, foreign heads of states and those Lebanese brothers who live in France for this job.

All of these is as a result of the wayo democracy we are running which has personified power and weakened institutions

The President of the Federal Republic is The President and the Governor of Lagos is the Governor which one is all that grovelling and prostrating all over the place.

Its cos the boundaries have been blurred and we now have mercurial leadership that runs the stable within its whims and caprices.

Its really sad that we have gotten here where a cult of personality have subsumed institutional power in our democracy

Whatever it is that SANWO-OLU has done or not done, he certainly does not deserve that kind of treatment.

That was not really necessary.

Thank you and you may come and beat me

*Duke of Shomolu*

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Star striker Viktor Gyokeres helped to lead Sporting Lisbon to its second consecutive Portuguese league title after Benfica was held off on the final day of the season on Saturday.

Gyokeres and Pedro Goncalves delivered goals in a 2-0 home win over Vitoria SC to ensure the title stayed with the green and black of Sporting and leave its crosstown rival as runner-up.

Benfica drew at 10-man Braga 1-1. That left Sporting with 82 points and Benfica with 80 after 34 rounds.

Goncalves opened for Sporting in the 53rd and Gyokeres sealed the win in the 82nd when he controlled a loose high ball in the box and dribbled around a defender and the goalkeeper before slotting inside the post. The Sweden striker yanked his shirt over his head and flexed his muscles while shouting out as the home fans celebrated.

His goal took his massive tally to 39 goals in 33 league appearances, to go with another six goals in the Champions League. He is in the running for the European Golden Boot award for top domestic league scorer.

That tally improved on last season’s 29 league goals to lead Sporting to the 2024 title. He is considered one the hottest prospects in European soccer for a big money move this offseason. Arsenal has been reported in Portugal to be a front-runner for him.

“It was our goal all season and to finish it off on the last day is incredible,” Gyokeres said, while adding about his future that “you never know what is going to happen.”

It was Sporting’s 21st league title.

Sporting and Benfica arrived to the final round level on points but with the defending champion owning the head-to-head tiebreaker. Sporting needed only to match Benfica’s result, while Benfica needed Sporting to stumble and then to better its result.

The title race went to the last day after Sporting and Benfica drew 1-1 in a derby last weekend when both had a chance to clinch the title.

Sporting’s and Benfica’s games on Saturday were played simultaneously.

Benfica fell behind early at Braga when Rodrigo Zalazar converted a penalty in the 23rd. Vangelis Pavlidis leveled for Benfica in the 63rd after substitute Angel Di Maria set him up shortly after going on.

Braga was reduced to 10 men three minutes later when midfielder João Moutinho got a second yellow card, but Benfica couldn’t get a winner.

The league ended a day before Portugal holds national elections.

Sporting and Benfica will meet again in the Portuguese Cup final next weekend. That could be Gyokeres’ last game for Sporting with bigger European clubs eager to get his goals.

“We want to win that game but right now we want to celebrate right,” Gyokeres said about the cup final.