AFR Business Media

AFR Business Media

Ad example

AFR Business

Access Holdings secures license to operate in France

by

Access Holdings Plc has secured approval license to commence operation in France. Herbert Wigwe, the Group Managing Director who announced this at a Statutory Meeting of the shareholders of Access Holdings in Lagos also noted that the holding company in its bid to become Africa’s gateway to the world is set to launch a new company called Hydrogen.

He noted that with the launch of the subsidiary, Access Holdings would be supporting intra-Africa trade, adding that in partnership with some DFIs, Hydrogen would be responsible for payment across the continent.

“We share the fact with you that we wanted to be known as Africa’s gateway to the world and what that meant was that we are going to be responsible for payments across the entire continent, irrespective of where you are and where you’re transferring money from. We are going to support intra-African trade, which is a big problem today.”

“The bank cannot do this alone because these are very specialist skills and it will allow us to be able to ensure that there are settlements even in countries where we don’t have a physical presence. The idea is that wherever you are in the world, if you’re making a transfer to anybody across the continent, one out of every three transactions that come into the continent will be settled on Access Bank’s platform.”

Bank Of Industry’s Former Chief Rasheed Olaoluwa, Others To Be Arraigned on November 23

by

The absence of the former Managing Director (MD), Bank of Industry (BoI), Rasheed Olaoluwa, and three others, Tuesday frustrated their planned arraignment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe of the High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja.

Others expected to be docked before the judge, include: Sadat Abdullahi Aliyu, Mr Chibundu Edozie, and BGL Capital Limited.

They are to face 13 counts bordering on the alleged sale of BOI shares as slammed against them by the anti-graft agency.

In addressing the court, the Commission’s lawyer, Kehinde Adetoye, said though the case was slated for arraignment, the defendants were duly contacted that their arrangement would come up in court.

The counsel equally informed the judge that the defendants were granted administrative bail in 2020, and ought to be in court for their arrangement.

In his response, Olabode Iranloye, counsel to the 2nd defendant (Sadat Abdullahi Aliyu) tendered an apology for the absence of his client and gave the assurance that the defendants would be in court at the next adjourned date to take their plea.

Dillibe Onyeama: When Death Cuts So Deep By Omoniyi Ibietan

by

While I was in secondary school, as the editor of my school’s PRESS Club, I stumbled on a magazine, not sure if it is DRUM, but it was of that genre. Its title for that edition was ‘A Nigger at Eton’. Dillibe Onyeama’s picture was on the cover. I read it back to back, gleaned clinically, and I never suffered memory failure concerning what I read about him and his circumstances. Importantly, the name stuck to my memory.

Then, some years back, I saw the name on Facebook, I quickly had a mental recall. “Haaa…”, I exclaimed intrapersonally. “It is the same man”, I reasoned. I promptly sent him a friendship request, and he accepted. We became friends and continued to engage off Facebook. I became more fascinated to him when I found that he had devoted his latter years to book publishing. A lover of books. A very uncommon lover of book he was. Indeed, I carried his name and that of the late Dr. Arthur Nwankwo in a corner of my inerasable memory, never to be deleted.

They both represented a rare renaissance in education, book publishing, and therefore knowledge architecturing and infrastructuring in Nigeria, particularly in the South East Region. Nwankwo was the owner of Fourth Dimension Publishers, and Onyeama, Delta Publications. They both lived in Enugu.

Whereas as a student leader and activist I had reasons to meet Nwankwo as I ‘toured’ the campuses with my comrades because we had ideological bonding with Nwankwo. Nwankwo was a great ideologue of his location in the ideological spectrum, and I loved him and shared some of his views about remaking Nigeria. May God continue to rest his soul.

Sadly, I never met Onyeama in real life situation but we spoke regularly after we became friends on Facebook. I was quite excited to be his cyber acquaintance. We also chatted on WhatsApp every so often. I was relatively close to him, and we had planned to meet in 2020 in Abuja before COVID-19 disrupted the plan.

I was anchoring, pro bono, the book presentation he wanted to come to organise in Abuja and I became intimately involved in the processes. I later sold a few hundreds of copies of his books on his behalf, essentially as a social enterprise. He would courier books to me and I would sell and deposit the proceeds into his bank account. He would offer to give money and I would politely decline and emphasised the fact that I owed him for his services to the nation through his works, and so I considered my support to him an obligation to a patriot who is enriching our civilisation and social space in ways that are not readily quantifiable.

Later he insisted that I should have some money from this relationship, so he would send and offered discounts to me and tell me how much to remit to his account but I always remitted the total value. He was so pleased by our relationship and in one of the orders I placed last year, he responded in appreciation: “Omoniyi, Bless you and yours in abundance. Stay safe too as you carry out essential social services for the nation…”

Among the last set of the books he published, which sale I handled in parts of Abuja, is the fantastic novel, PRINCE OF MALI, written by Mukhtar Balewa, son of Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Mukhtar Balewa himself is a well-educated man. He had served the Obasanjo and Jonathan administrations as Special Adviser on Social and Economic Matters.

Our transactions on Balewa’s book was so great, and Onyeama had sent a thank you note to me, concluding: “…I want PRINCE OF MALI to go down in a big way, especially in the North. I should be grateful for your feedback. Best. DO.” Thankfully, I sold so many copies of the novel. As I had earlier noted, we had planned a big presentation of the book at the Idris Abdulkadir Auditorium at the National Universities Commission on Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama Abuja, but COVID-19 bungled it.

The PRINCE OF MALI was about the West African slave trade. Balewa captured the catastrophic relics and scars that inhuman trade left on its trails, just as he depicts the shameless act of those involved in the nefarious activities that spanned 400 years, and disreputably enriched lots of people, many of them supposed leaders of their people. Nothing can be crueler than selling your own people, nay anybody, in exchange for riches or some other articles of materiality.

So, Balewa insisted millions, perhaps billions: “Are still trapped in a futile struggle to free themselves” of the ‘residual agonies’ of slave trade. The novel was written with touches of mastery of the Communicative Arts, and underpinned by the younger Balewa’s experiences as an intentional traveller and social psychologist. And if you think the story of slave trade has been sufficiently documented and possibly now hackneyed, Onyeama rationalised Balewa’s perspective because plausibly, none of the curations of that tragedy had come in the manner Balewa creatively did. The novel is special because among other things the fate of Didier, the French slavemaster, speaks to Karma and paradoxes. Didier, having got kidnapped and enslaved in a village he had launched a siege on to kidnap people for sale, tells of retributive justice.

Onyeama, was born in Enugu in 1951. His father, Charles Dadi Umeha Onyeama, was a judge of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and at the International Court of Justice. Dillibe was the first black to have completed a study at Eton College in the United Kingdom. He had secured admission into the College after the son of Samuel Ladoke Akintola, former Premier of the Western Region, but the younger Akintola died before he could commence or complete his studies.

I am told severally that people are usually registered to study at Eton on the day they are born, or certainly long before they are due to commence actual study. It was a prestigious school but clearly discriminatory. Onyeama had written his traumatic experience in the school. The account was published in 1972 in the book, ‘Nigger at Eton’; and re-published based on Onyeama’s original essay under a new title, ‘A Black Boy at Eton’, by Penguin in 2022.

Michael McCrum, a former Headmaster of the School had banned Onyeama from entering the school because he exposed the infamy that he encountered at Eton. Onyeama later studied journalism at Premier School of Journalism. He returned to Nigeria in 1981 to start the book publishing business.

In 2020, the current Principal of Eton College, Simon Henderson, offered Dillibe Onyeama an apology for his agony while at Eton, an apology Onyeama accepted, and he actually planned to return to Eton to take the apology provided travel expenses would be paid by the College. I am not sure if he was able to do that. Yesterday (November 11, 2022), he suffered “a fatal heart attack” and transited to eternity, but he lives on for his principles and in the heart of people like me, who knew what he represented in the annals of Nigeria and the BLESSED (not BLACK) civilisation.

Onyeama was a rare humanist, writer, author, journalist and publisher. He also loved natural habitats in a special way and so, he was a silent environmentalist who loves to showcase nature and its wonders. Charles Dillibe Ejiofor Onyeama, good night sir, but this leaves a big scar.

My condolences to your beloved wife and the awesome children. May God rest your beautiful soul.

Former Ekiti First Lady Bisi Fayemi Petitions Police Over Cyber Bullying

by

Former First Lady of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, has petitioned the State Police Command demanding an investigation of a woman, Mrs Abimbola Olajumoke Olawumi, whom she accused of cyber bullying, cyber stalking, criminal, incessant and unabated social media attacks against her person.

Erelu Fayemi in the petition dated November 14, 2022 and addressed to the Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State Command, through her lawyer, Mr. Luke Ekene Mbam of Octodas Attorneys (Topmost Chambers), demanded a thorough investigation of Abimbola’s infractions, infringements and invasion of her privacy through nefarious, criminal, malicious and calculated posts capable of damaging her reputation.

The former First Lady who is invoking the provisions of Cyber Crimes Act 2015 stressed that Abimbola in spreading malicious falsehood against her had so far failed to come out with any proof or evidence noting that she was left with no option than to petition the Police to clear her name and protect her image and reputation which she had built over the years.

Erelu Fayemi maintained that Abimbola’s unprovoked attacks through the social media particularly her (Abimbola’s) Facebook account are in clear violation of the provisions of Section 24 of CYBERCRIMES (PROHIBITION, PREVENTION, ETC) ACT 2015, attaching the annexures of the culprit’s posts to the petition for Police investigation.

Abimbola had in several posts on her Facebook accused Erelu Fayemi of shielding “family members” from arrest and prosecution for alleged sexual offences. She also accused the former First Lady of money laundering to the tune of N500 million in Dubai and stealing a total sum of N710 million few weeks after the inauguration of her husband, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, as the Governor of Ekiti State in 2018.

The dates of many other grievous allegations contained in Abimbola’s Facebook posts against Erelu Fayemi were indicated in the petition with the former First Lady urging the Police to save her from further cyber attacks by the culprit and ensure that justice is done in the matter.

While asserting her innocence and defending her integrity, Erelu Fayemi said: “I have never had any personal dealings with this woman (Abimbola Olajumoke Olawumi). She has never been employed by my husband or myself and she is not a political associate of mine.

“I have had two meetings with her, once in 2018 when she came to introduce herself to me in Isan and last year when she came to seek my help when she wanted to become Chair of her local government.

“I have been told by several people that she should be ignored because she is mentally unstable. I have no medical qualifications to determine the mental state of anyone, this is why I have written a petition to the law enforcement officers.

“She has said many terrible things about my husband and I over the past four years. She has however decided to focus attention on me right now because of my connection with Mr Demola Obanise, the husband of my niece who is like a daughter to me.

“If Abimbola has facts at her disposal to back up all her allegations, she should not be afraid to present them to the relevant authorities. I have never written a petition against anyone in my life. I have never sued anyone. There is a first time for everything. After supporting my husband to serve Ekiti State for two terms, the least I can expect is peace of mind as a private citizen. She should come out of hiding and prove her dreadful allegations.”

Erelu Fayemi further stressed that deliberate criminal acts of tarnishing and causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety against her person by the Culprit has misled the general public to doubt her integrity and character subjecting her to an unwarranted public ridicule, odium, opprobrium, embarrassment, and unprecedented disrepute.

The petition reads: “Our Client (Erelu Fayemi) further informed us that as a result of the above and several other malicious, provocative, myopic, untrue, and ungodly reckless postings of this culprit against her person, she has been inundated with various calls from family and friends who are disappointed that she could soil her hands and regards her as a woman of injustice and a fraudulent person who siphoned public fund at the detriment of the people of Nigeria particularly Ekiti State citizens.

“Our Client further informed us that the said malicious post was read and viewed on her mobile phone and her laptop computer particularly. That most of her friends in and around Ekiti and other states in Nigeria and even outside the country have had reason(s) to point her attention to this mindless posts of the culprit against her person.

“Our Client informed us that the Culprit, Mrs Abimbola Olajumoke Olawumi with GSM Nos. 08035538673; 08145447153 resides in Ekiti State.

“In the light of the above, we have Our Clients’ clear instruction to make a clarion call to the Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State Command to use his good office to bring this culprit to justice by investigating her infractions, infringements and invasion of our Client’s privacy and save her and the society at large from the Culprit nefarious, criminal, malicious and calculated mischievous posts”.

In Defence of Rt. Hon Niyi Afuye By Femi Falana SAN

by

On June 8, 2014, the police had reportedly attacked the convoy of Governor Kayode Fayemi following the disruption of a peaceful rally embarked upon by members of the All Progressives Congress. In order to justify the illegal disruption of the rally the police arrested Niyi Afuye who was then the Ekiti State Commissioner for Information and Government Affairs.

Arrested with Mr. Afuye, were eleven other leaders of the APC. The suspects were Messrs Idowu Aladejebi, 68; Afuye Jide, 30; Anisulowo Kayode,46; Azeez Suleiman, 19; and Ajayi Idowu, 18. The other suspects were Babadi Ajayi, 35; Abiodun Omoniyi, 68; Oyedapo Olaoluwa, 29; Sunday Olalere, 27; Dapo David, 26; and Akinyemi Tayo, 25.

The suspects were taken to Abuja where they were detained at a notorious cell in the Federal Criminal Investigation Department at Area 3, Abuja. All efforts made by the Ekiti State Government to secure the bail of the suspects proved abortive. It was at that juncture that Governor Fayemi instructed me to handle the case and ensure the release of the suspects. I accepted to handle the case pro bono publico. I travelled from Lagos to Abuja for full briefing by the suspects. I had known Niyi Afuye as a decent and law abiding citizen since our undergraduate days at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University).

He denied the allegation on behalf of himself and the other suspects. I proceeded to request the police authorities to admit them to bail. But the application was turned down by the police on ground of “orders from above.” As the police could not justify the continued incarceration of the suspects the police alleged that the violent rally convened by the APC in Ado Ekiti had resulted in the death of one Peter Akin while many others sustained varying degrees of injury. As I was planning to file an application for the enforcement of the fundamental right of the suspects to personal liberty at the Ekiti State High Court where they were arrested and briefly detained before they were transfered to Abuja the police decided to file a charge against them at the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court.

Surprisingly, the police slammed a 3-count charge against them. In the charge, the police alleged that the accused persons conspired among themselves to commit an act of terrorism under sections 1(2)(d), 2(2)(h) and 17 of the Terrorism (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2013. The police also alleged that the accused persons shot and used dangerous weapons/devices “which resulted in the death one Peter Akin” and that the accused persons “incited, promised and induced other persons to commit an act of terrorism”, actions which the police allegeBiti d constituted an act of terrorism.

No doubt, the gravity of the terrorism charge scared the other suspects. But Niyi Afuye dismissed the charge and described it as a cheap blackmail designed to portray them as a bunch of dangerous criminals. His display of exceptional courage boosted the morale of other suspects. Niyi equally strengthened my resolve to deploy legal skills to take him and other suspects out of the lion’s den. Convinced that the monstrous charge could not be substantiated, I assured the suspects of my commitment to join issues with the police over the abuse of the prosecutorial powers of the State. However, the publication of the charge in the print and electronic media attracted odium for the Federal Government. Consequently, the authorities directed the police to withdraw the frivolous charge.

On the day fixed for the arraignment, I led a team of lawyers including Mr. Olasoji Olowolafe (now a Senior Advocate of Nigeria) to defend the suspects. To the utter chagrin of the defendants the police made a u-turn by applying for the withdrawal of the charge. Even though the defence team had no objection to the charge, I urged the trial court to warn all police authorities in the country to desist from filing frivolous charges for the purpose of intimidating the political opponents of the President and the various State Governors. The trial Judge struck out the case and discharged the defendants. As soon as they were freed, Niyi and his fellow political detainees returned to Ekiti State as heroes of democracy.

About 4 years later, Niyi Afuye reached the apogee of his political career when he was unanimously elected the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly by his colleagues. With his maturity and political sagacity, he ensured that the legislative house conducted its affairs in strict compliance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Rules of the House, to the pride of the entire people of Ekiti State. Although he served the Government meritoriously there was no public hospital equipped sufficiently to attend to the No 3 citizen in the State when he took ill recently. Hence, the tests conducted to aid the diagnosis of his ailment were carried out at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti. Regrettably, he passed away on October 19, 2022 due to lack of adequate medical facilities in the public hospitals in the State.

Having regard to the facts and circumstances of Niyi’s avoidable death the greatest tribute that can be paid to him is for the Ekiti State Government to upgrade and equip public hospitals with adequate medical facilities to save the precious lives of the people. No doubt, the entire members of the Ekiti House of Assembly have paid glowing tributes to him they should keep up the legacy of Rt. Honourable Niyi Afuye by shuning impunity in all its ramifications. In particular, the legislators should emulate the late Speaker by distancing themselves from invidious and insidious activities that can expose the House of Assembly to unwarranted ridicule.