A notorious gang of fraudsters has been busted by the Nigerian Police. The group, which specializes in Bank fraud, was apprehended recently by members of the Nigerian Police force who have been trailing their activities through their special fraud unit. The syndicate is said to be responsible for most calls received by Nigerians who claim that the victims BVN has ran into administrative problems and will be ratified. Hey always give a dedicated phone number where the victim should contact bank officials to ratify the problem in question. Through this they are able to hack into the Automated Teller Machines, ATM, pin numbers.
The busting of the activities of the syndicate started on 19th April 2019, when a staff of Lagos state Neighborhood safety corps. According to him, he was contacted by the mobile number 08084480521. The caller requested his ATM details and account number, which he supplied to them. Unknown to him, the fraudsters have already acting swiftly, and when he went to the bank, he was told that the account has been blocked by the alleged criminals.
The force swung into action, and soon an arrest was made. Behind the activities were ENOHOMFOH Osagie Favour, a 2015 Parapsychology graduate of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra state and Ebong Christopher, a 2016 graduate of Computer science from Tansian University, Oba, Anambra State. The suspected were arrested as suspects in the case. Both were contract staff of Bright Star Limited, a company that is hired to deal with the Biometric verification of Lagos indigenes by the Lagos state Government Neighborhood Safety Corps, LSNC.
A combined team of Federal SARS and local police handled the investigations and arrest, and they soon obtained a confession from them. It was discovered that Osagie used phone numbetr08162236163, another suspect, Hope Dide, uses 08084480671 and 07081301881.
According to the police, the suspects will soon be charged to court.
On Tuesday, May 22, 2018, of the leadership of the Catholic Church in Nigeria mobilised mobilised its members out on a peaceful protest across the country. As early as 8 a.m, thousands of Catholic Church worshipers in Lagos and its environs had gathered at St. Leo, Toyin street, Ikeja for the peaceful protest over the insecurity problems in the country, leading to the killing of two priests and thousands of Worshippers in Benue and other sates of the Federation. The protest was led i Lagos by the Adewale Martins. the Archbishop of Lagos Diocese
The protesters had matched to Government House , Alausa, to meet Akinwumi Ambode, the governor of Lagos state to deliver their message to President Muhammadu Buhari to show the level of people’s anger in the country. In the message which was signed by Martin, the Archibishop of the Lagos Diocese, the Church decried the insecurity problems and the incessant killings in Benue, Taraba and other states in the Federation. some of the placards carried by the protesting Catholic Worshippers, reads: Bahari, facilitate the release ofLeah Kharmu, and the remaining Chibok girls who are still in Boko Haram custody. Appealing to Buhari to act as a matter of urgency, the Church said , ”it is the only to guarantee the unity of the country” .
Yakubu Yusuf and Uche Nwosisi,, followed the protesters from the St. Leo Catholic Church premises at Toyin Street to the Government House , Alausa, to cover the proceedings.
Catholics observing mass to honour the Benue victimscatholics on a peaceful protestLaw enforcement officers maintaing trafficSome catholic faithful carrying placards with different inscriptionsSome parishioners in a pensive moodCatholic faithful observing mass to honour the late Benue state victims
This appears to be a season of alarms by political office holders of plot of assassination them or unseat them from office with the active connivance of other government officials. One of such top government functionaries to have raised alarm in the recent time of plot to kill him by agents of state was Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state.
the alarm may not be unconnected with the frosty relationship between him and Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, a former governor of the state and now minister of Transport and the recent deployment of Akin Fakorede, an Assistant Commissioner of Police and Commander of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, to the state by Abubakar Idris , the Inspector General of Police, IGP .
Nyesom Wike: fears Being Killed By Agents Of State
There is no gain saying the fact that Wike had not been comfortable with the activities of the duo in the state, particular Fakorede because of his antecedents in the state. The SARS Commander had been linked by the aggrieved governor in cases of hostage taking , hijack of Electoral materials and physical attacks on Independent National Ectoral Commission, INEC, officials, ostensibly to give total victory to the rival All Progressive Congress, APC, in the last 2015 general election.
The governor fears that Amaechi and Fakorede may repeat what they did in 2015 in the 2019 general elections in the state. He was emphatic about the plot by the agents of state to rig the2019 election in favour of the opposition APC Candidate in the state, describing” Fakorede as an enemy of Democracy”. The governor averred that the police Authority had prepared the ground for the Rivers state, SARS Commander, Fakorede to manipulate the 2019 polls as their point man.
Giving a further insight into the alleged plot to assassinate him, Wike disclosed that the agents of state had planned to plant ”millions of dollars and AK 47 in his Abuja residence to give room to Idris, the IGP, to seek for a Court search warrant of the house, ostensibly to silence him.
The governor may have taken the opportunity of the third year anniversary of his administration and Thanksgiving at Living Faith Church in Port Harcourt to lambast the agents of the government of ”plotting to assassinate him in a public gathering and claim that it was an accidental discharge”. He disclosed that the plot became known to him through a ”credible intelligence, pointing out that he would never be intimidated as he remained committed to the defense of Democracy in Rivers state.But the Presidency had dismissed the Wike’s assassination plot, describing it as a figment of the governor’s imagination.
While Wike, the governor of Rivers state fears over his life because of the alleged plot by agents of state to eliminate him, President Muhammadu Buhari, on his part had revealed plot by some government functionaries, APC Lawmakers and others working with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to dislodge him from office in the 2019 general election. The Presidency had disclosed that the plotters had based their Campaign slogan of dislodging Buhari in the 2019 general election on the slogan ”Change the change.”
The Presidency was said to have named the Hameed Ali led Nigeria Cusms Service, NCS, the Police, Nigeria Immigration Service, NIMS, and Civil Servants as working with the aggrieved Lawmakers to unseat Buhari in the 2019 general election.
Malam Garba Shehu, a Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and Publicity named importers of diesel and generators as working assiduously with the aggrieved Lawmakers to unseat Buhari in office in 2019.
The diesel and generators importer may not be the only group who may be opposed to Buhari and thus Campaigning for a Change in the administration of this country. The importers of the 41 items including rice importers banned from accessing the official foreign exchange market are still not happy with Buhari for coming out with such a harsh economic policy and are ready to spend their last kobo in the 2019 general election to see that he was not re-elected by the electorate , describing him as a bad economic manager .
Giving a further insight to those opposed to Buhari re-election bid in 2019, Garba said the rooters of the Change slogan also include the efficiacies of the malaria eradication Campaign programme which had cost the Buhari administration about N132 billion , thussaving the nation 300,000 lives for the country annually.
Many believe that the Presidency may have been jittery because they have read the hand writing on the wall that Nigerians are no longer in support of the government which they welcomed with open arms in 2015 because of the much suffering in the land: no money, no work and no food to eat.
Political analysts averred that the naming of Customs, Police and Immigration officials as working with Lawmakers to dislodge Buhari in 2019 was an afterthought. They noted that the Presidency has no reason to raise alarm about these government agencies working against the President because he had appointed the Heads of these agencies, thus putting the entire security of the country under his control.
They cited the appointment of Mohammed Monguno, the National Security Adviser, NSA, Ali, a retired Colonel and Comptroller General of Customs, Idris, the IGP, Director Generals, Department of State Security Mamman Lawal Daura and Nigeria Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar and other top security agencies officials.
In spite of the fact that the Presidency had accused the Customs of being one of the government agencies, working against the re-election bid of Buhari in the 2019 general election, on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, the leadership of the Buhari Support organisation, BSO, for the 2019, Presidential election, led by Ali, the Customs Comptroller General, were at the villa to confer with the President. The BSO officials were said to have held a close -door meeting with the president, fueling speculations that the Presidency may have made the accusations against the agencies to force their helmsmen to prove their loyalty to him. This may have forced the Customs Comptroller General to rally round other leaders of the BSO to pay a courtesy call on the him to declare their loyalty and support for his re-election bid.
notwithstanding , President Buhari efforts to rally the support of Nigerians in his re0-election bid, the Catholic church, may prove a hard nut to crack. This is because of the unwanton killings in the country which the APC led government had failed to stop in the last three years. The Church had called on Buhari to suspend his re-election bid and attend to the country security problems which is getting worse daily because of the criminal activities of the Islamic Fundamentalists, Boko Haram, armed herdsmen and other bandits across the country.
Sampson Ayokunle, a priest and President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, had in a recent statement urged the President to suspend his re-election bid until he restores sanity in the country and the release of Leah Sharibu , the remaining Chibok girls and others still in Boko Haram custodyThe Association reminded the him of his two major electioneering Campaign promises in 2015, which includes fighting insecurity and keeping the country united to endeavour to keep to it.
On Tuesday, May 22, 2018, he the leadership of the Catholic Church in Nigeria mobilised its members nation-wide ona protest against the insecurity problems in the country. The protest had earlier been planned when scores of worshippers and two priests were killed in a Community in Benue state by armed herdsmen. It took the intervention of the Presidency and some well meaning Nigerians for the protest to be suspended but the killings in the country appeared not to have stopped.
It is not surprising why thousands of Catholic Church members , across the country took advantage of the call by the Catholic Church leadership to embark on the peaceful protest . Many haddescribed the protest as a loss of confidence on the Buhari Administration by the Catholic Church Community in Nigeria. The strike was said to grounded economic and social activities inmajor cities in the south including Kaduna state.
This is a big challenge to President Buhari to redeem his 2015 electioneering Campaign promises of solving the insecurity problems in the country to ensure a hitch-free 2019 election.
The South east is currently at its lowest ebb in the Nigerian police. Before now, of the 36 state police commands and the FCT, the zone was in charge of only two state commands-Imo and Borno. However, with the removal of Chris Ezike as the Imo state Commissioner of Police, the South east is now left with only Damian Chukwu, who heads the Borno state Command.
Ibrahim Idris, Police IG.
Also, keen followers of the ongoing recruitment into the Nigerian Police by the police Service Commission, PSC, lament that the exercise has further exposed and reinforced the skewed nature-in favour of the North-of the current political structure of Nigeria which they argue is utterly stacked against the South, particularly South east.
This magazine gathered that the exercise was to be conducted based on the equality of states, that is, candidates equally selected from the 36 states of the federation but intense pressure was to force the PSC to adopt local governments as units of recruitments thus giving the North undue advantage over the South, particularly South east which has least number of local governments among the six geographical zones.
For example Kano with 44 local governments has the lion share of the 6,000 candidates so far recruited. Kano is followed by Jigawa and other North west and North east states in that order. A retired Police Commissioner of Enugu state extraction who spoke to this Magazine on basis of anonymity bemoaned the fate of the South east in the force, alerting the region’s political leaders that the number of new police
Okiro, PSC Chairman.
intakes recruited from Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto alone far outnumber that of the five South east states combined. In the South South, Bayelsa is at the rear in the South with the lowest number of intakes. The imbalance in the police recruitment has prompted many in the South and Midldle Belt to demand a return to regional system of government in which each region will establish, recruit and fund its own police force.
Meanwhile, the PSC has announced the short listing of 37,062 candidates for examination in the ongoing recruitment out of 133,324.
After 22 years in the saddle as Arsenal FC coach, Frenchman, Arsene Wenger is leaving office to be occupied by former Paris Saint Germain and Seviall Coach, Unai Emery.
The Spaniard Emery was appointed as Arsenal’s first new manager in 22 years on Wednesday.
Here are three things the Spaniard must deal with to ensure a smooth transition from the Arsene Wenger era:
Solve the Ozil conundrum
Mesut Ozil’s diffident personality and alarming habit of drifting to the periphery of matches proved a major problem for Wenger. Emery must decide whether he can drag more committed and consistent displays from the German playmaker.
The 29-year-old signed a new £300,000 ($400,000) per-week three-year contract in January as Arsenal scrambled to hold on to one of their stars following Alexis Sanchez’s move to Manchester United. But the former Real Madrid midfielder continued to provide only occasional glimpses of the talent that persuaded Wenger to pay £42 million for him in 2013.
Early reports suggest Emery, having reviewed video of Arsenal this season, may not have much faith in Ozil, preferring to build around the more robust Aaron Ramsey instead. With the gifted Henrikh Mkhitaryan already in place at the Emirates Stadium, Ozil should be on notice that his performances must improve if the World Cup winner is to avoid being swept away by Arsenal’s new broom.
Plug Arsenal’s leaky defence
Wenger neglected Arsenal’s defence in his final years at the Emirates and Emery inherits a ramshackle unit that crumbles at the first sign of pressure.
They conceded 51 league goals this season — more than any other side in the top seven and only five fewer than bottom of the table West Bromwich Albion. Although Arsenal’s back four were let down by Wenger’s failure to drill his midfielders to properly protect them, they still made enough mistakes of their own to leave the demanding Emery surely convinced that new recruits are the only solution.
Renowned for providing players with video analysis of their own performances, Emery will have enough material to fill an entire hard drive as he surveys footage of the leaky Arsenal defence over the past 10 months.
With Laurent Koscielny set to miss the start of the season after ankle surgery, Emery will not want to be left with error-prone pair Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding as his first-choice centre-backs. The Gunners have already been linked with Borussia Dortmund centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos, while inconsistent Arsenal full-backs Hector Bellerin, Nacho Monreal and Sead Kolasinac could also do with a few of Emery’s rigorous defensive tutorials.
Unite Aubameyang and Lacazette
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made a blistering start to life with Arsenal following his club record £56 million move from Dortmund in January as the Gabon forward netted 10 times in 13 league games.
Aubameyang’s impact was all the more striking given the travails of the man he usurped in the starting line-up. Although he scored 17 times in 39 appearances in all competitions, Alexandre Lacazette endured an underwhelming first season after his £46 million switch from Lyon.
Where Aubameyang’s pace, movement and predatory instincts made an instant impact on a moribund Arsenal team, France international Lacazette allowed himself to be bullied out of games far too often.
Now Emery will have to chose whether he wants to start with both in his attack. If not, it seems certain Aubameyang would lead the line, consigning Lacazette to the bench.
Lacazette can point to a slightly more potent finish to the season as a sign he is beginning to adapt to the physical nature of English football. But, significantly, Aubameyang already has a strong connection with former Dortmund team-mate Mkhitaryan, who is likely to be tasked with supplying the chances for Arsenal’s strikers.
Olusegun Obasanjo, farmer and former president, has been at the forefront of the Buhari Must Go campaign, though he was one of those that supported his election bid in 2015. His current position has resulted in what analysts have described as Buhari breaking protocol to directly attack a former head of state and a retired General, a position that is uncommon due to the so called espirit-de-corps that exist between retired officers. Recently, where receiving his supporters at Aso Rock, Buhari obliquely referred to Obasanjo’s power project when he was in power, suggesting that there is nothing to show for the $16 billion dollar the Obasanjo pumped into the power sector. Though Obasanjo replied him by referring him to go and read his book to get details of how the money was spent, subtly alluding to the fact that President Buhari cannot read English but can only understand Hausa language. “If he cannot read the three-volume book, he should detail his aides to do so and summarize the chapters in a language that he will easily understand,” Obasanjo said. Almost simultaneously, the Catholic Church staged a nationwide demonstration against the government of Muhammadu Buhari, decrying the incessant Killings by Fulani Herdsmen, strategically fixed on the day the church is burying the dead priests that were killed. All over the country, there were demonstrations by the Catholics. Coming out in there millions, they caused so much traffic snarls in the country. And the Papal representatives were said to be part of the contingents to the Benue burials.
And within the same period, Arewa youths also insisted that both former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and President Buhari must step down on grounds of age as they do not want any candidate older than 70 years.
The altercations between Buhari and Obasanjo spell the next step in the silent war of the General. Obasanjo commands lots of international influence because he is said to belong to a small elite group in the world that decides the fate of world leaders. A few of these reside in Africa, and in Nigeria, the other members are said to be Alhaji Sule Gambari, General Ibrahim Babangida and Theophilus Danjuma. Obasanjo has been speaking with such confidence about overthrowing Buhari through the ballot box.
On the other hand, the Catholic Church is a formidable international organization that has tentacles within all intelligence bodies all over the world. They are slow to rouse, but for the directive to have come from Rome for the procession and open letter by the Bishops with a veiled threat, he Buhari government, no matter how much they feel secured, may as well watch it. The momentum may only gather as the 2019 election draws near. As Uche Ezechukwu, a social commentator puts it, Nigeria should do well to learn from the Philippine example. ”The Catholic Church does not rush into such decisions as protesting against a constituted authority and when it decides to move against the government,as the Church in Nigeria has reluctantly undertaken, it is because it has tried every other quiet strategy and failed. The Church is a universal entity with a central authority, hence the unanimous protest by every Catholic parish in the country, and they count in scores of thousands with tens of millions of members. You can be sure that the May 22 March reverberates all over the world and will influence the policy of other nations towards this government.
What is happening in Nigeria is not new. In the late 1970s the people of the Philippines, led by the Catholic archbishop of Manilla, Cardinal Jaime Sin, rose up against the corrupt and high handed rule of President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife. Marcos refused to change his ways, and so the People’s Power led by the Catholics of the Philippines swept him away, just with their rosary beads and hymn books. PMB and his insensitive APC government should heed the lessons of the Phillipino example and change their ways! There is still time.”
Though Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha has denied scheming a return to the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and vowed not to leave the All Progressives Congress, APC, for anybody following his complete lose of the party’s structure in the state, competent sources insist the governor is only maintaining a straight and bold face.
This magazine has been informed that considering the manner he ditched APGA, the party on which crest he rode to power in 2011, the governor knew he and his son inlaw may not be re-admitted into the party and thus never really factored in APGA in his plan B following his overthrow in Imo APC.Rather, Action Alliance, AA, which he romanced briefly before making a detour to the back to the Peoples Democratic party, PDP, and then movement to APGA before setting sight on APC, remains high on his permutations.
The Social Democratic Party, SDP and African Democratic Congress, ADC recently endorsed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, are also said to be on Okorocha’s card. Sources close to the “Allied Forces”, as Imo APC stakeholders who successfully upstaged Okorocha in the just concluded party congresses in the state are known, told The Source that the governor can never regain the momentum in the Imo APC. Said he: “He is now a king without a crown; a king without a kingdom. As far as Imo APC is concerned; Okorocha is just an empty shell. If he deludes himself thinking the national leadership of our party will reverse the outcome of the congresses that rendered him a sitting duck, the governor must be having malaria dreams. He has totally and permanently lost out”
The revolt against Okorocha by the APC in Imo was stemmed from his insistent on imposing his Son-inlaw, Uche Nwosu who also doubles as his Chief of Staff, as next governor of the state.Imo politicians across parties decried the move and lamented Nwosu as governor will be a continuation of the Okorocha governorship by proxy.
Before the “ coup” that stopped him, governor Okorocha had boasted he had the APC and Imo on his pocket and that nothing and nobody would stop his Son inlaw from becoming governor.
Meanwhile, political analysts opine that governor Okorocha’s conduct as governor and the dictatorial manner he piloted the affairs of the party in the state, including his insistence on his Son in-law as successor hasinflicted irredeemable damage on the APC, not only in Imo but in the entire South east geo political zone. Said Betrand Onyebuagu, a social affairs analyst: “Being the only APC governor in the South east, Okorocha is something of face of the party in the zone and the only important link between Igbos and the APC but the governor’s conducts and utterance which in most cases are at variance with the Igbo values and political interest contribute to the continued rejection of APC by the people of South east”
Successful dismantling of Okorocha notwithstanding, a party source confided in the Magazine that there are fears among the Imo APC stakeholders that a rebound PDP will likely latch on the polarization of the party in the state to take back power in next year’s guber election especially as there are speculations that the state chapter of the party are in talks with the SDP and ADC over possible synergy to oust APC from the Imo state Government House. However, another party source explained that several blocs within the Imo APC that are neither aligned to Okorocha nor the “Allied forces” are tilting towards APGA and may eventually collapse into the party or stay in the APC and sabotage it while working for the emergence of APGA governor next year.
The recent statement by HipTV boss, Ayo Animashaun, that the Grammy Awards is not for Nigerians, has continue to generate reactions from different quarters.
Also reacting to the statement is Nigerian High-Life singer Egwu Chidera Kingsley popularly known as De-Code.
According to De-Code who spoke to with the press in Lagos, musicians winning the Grammies in Africa are musically not the mate of many of the young artistes clamouring for the awards in the country recently.
De-Code stated that the musicians who can can dream of being nominated are the artistes whose music are more traditional and original.
“I just laugh at many Afropop artistes saying that they want to win the Grammy. Is it with the type of music many Nigerian artistes are singing now? I agree with Ayo Animashaun,Grammy is not for Nigerians. And i will explain further. First let me encourage all Nigerian artistes to sell their culture through music. You can’t sell ice to the Eskimos; the only thing we can genuinely own and sell which the outside world will easily buy is our uniqueness rather than trying to be like them. Many reigning Nigerian artistes today still try to sound like Drake, Chris Brown or Migos.
Winning an award like the Grammy is not even by hanging out with American stars, featuring them or they knowing you. It’s more about the unique thing you bring to the music table. You don’t expect the organizers to put an R&B artiste from Africa on the nominees categories with real Americans, not to talk of that artiste winning when too many brilliant artistes in America don’t have a nomination let alone win; just like you don’t expect Ayo Animashaun to add Drake and Beyonce to the Best Rap and Best R&B categories in the Headies Awards respectively. Perhaps, it’s easy to be linked to the Grammy somehow if a foreign artiste features you and the song wins a Grammy, but we are talking about you owning one yourself”, De-Code explains.
De-Code explains further; “You would realize that the African musicians who have either won or nominated in the past such as Angelique Kidjo, King Sunny Ade, Femi Kuti, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Ali Farka Touré, Soweto Mass Choir, Youssou N’dour, Owuor Arunga and many more are not “commercial” artistes. Their music even sound like folklore and many of these musicians have won multiple times.
They are not the mate of anyone of the currently reigning crop of Nigerian artistes when you talk about their musical prowess. These people, aside their music being highly indigenous, are usually nominated under the International or World Music categories, which is the only category reserved for Africans and other outsiders. And who says we need to win Grammies to validate our talents?”
With former governor Uzor Kalu’s allies now in firm control of the Abia state Chapter of All Progressives Congress, APC, speculations are rife that the former governor is set to hand his younger brother, Mascot Kalu Abia gubernatorial ticket of the party while himself picks the party’s senatorial ticket to once again contest the position after suffering defeats in the past.
Mascot was installed Chief of Staff to former governor Theodore Orji by Kalu when the going was smooth between the two.Orji himself was Kalu’s right hand man who won election on the platform of the little known Peoples Progressive Alliance, PPA, a party founded by Kalu following his exit from the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to succeed him (Kalu) in 2007.One spectacular feature of Orji’s victory was that he was elected while in EFCC’s cell in Lagos.He was arrested by the EFCC in trail of Abia’s finances allegedly looted by the then governor Kalu.
Mascot left the Orji government after the parting of ways between Orji and Kalu. However, sources close to the incumbent governor of the state, Okezie Ikpeazu say the governor and Abia PDP are not losing sleep over Kalu’s moves. They insist he now belongs to the past.
Describing him as a political prostitute, a chieftain of PDP in Umuahia, the state capital who pleaded anonymity told the The source that the former governor has lost relevance in Abia politics. “What political relevance and integrity does a man who deserted the house he built to become a tenant in another man’s house? Kalu established the PPA and abandoned it and went back to his vomit, PDP, and later sauntered back to the PPA for the purpose of Senatorial election which he lost. Again, he deserted the party for the APC just because he wants to remain relevant politically.Kalu is politically finished in Abia”, he said.
Meanwhile, a loyalist of the former governor’s has denied pocketing the Abia APC.It also described as untrue and malicious propaganda, speculations that he is plotting to make Mascot governor.
Elephant Group Plc, a major local rice producer in the Nigeria is worried that its huge investment in local rice production is heading for jeopardy due to the illegitimate activities of rice smugglers. Thousands bags of rice were smuggled into the country last year according to records made available to the magazine by the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS.
At least seven million metric tons of rice is consumed in Nigeria yearly, more than 60 percent of that number will be smuggled into the country this year.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, an organ of the United Nations said in a recent report that Nigeria has the capacity to produce enough rice to feed Nigerians.
IFAD President, Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, said 10 million metric tons of rice can be produced annually if the required infrastructure was put in place.
But smuggled rice from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam are still common in major markets in the country, particularly in Lagos. The federal government has banned importation of rice through land borders, even though the commodity can still be imported through the seaports.
Reports from Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) say the service impounded 497,279 bags of imported rice between 2015 and August, 2017 with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N3.8 billion. But market sources informed the magazine that the figure formed a small percentage of those that escaped the prying eyes of the Customs. They formed the bulk of rice now being sold across major markets in the country, the magazine learned.
But some investors such as Elephant and others have set aside the huge risk factor of smuggling in their firm belief in federal government’s quest to end importation of rice by the end of 2018.
In this quest, the company has recently acquired a multi-billion naira Rice Mill in Rivers state. The Elele Alimini rice processing mill, acquired from the Niger-Delta Development Commission, NDDC has the capacity to process 210 metric tons of paddies of rice per day.
The Group has also acquired over 30,000 rice paddy for processing.
The Executive Director, Operations, Elephant Group Plc, Akin Ogunbiyi recently said Nigeria has all it takes to become the largest rice producers in Africa, aside earning huge forex by localizing rice production.
According to him rice is an “important food security crop, it is an essential cash crop for it is mainly small-scale producers who commonly sell 80 per cent of total production and consume only 20 per cent. Rice generates more income for Nigerian farmers than any other cash crop in the country.”
Another agro-business investor Olams Nigeria Limited its total investment in the integrated farm and milling facility has reached over N18 billion ($111 million). These include its multi-million dollar integrated rice mill in Nasarawa State, North-central Nigeria, fitted with the capacity to produce 36,000 metric tons of milled rice per annum.
Meanwhile, fear of investors losing their investment has become rife in the face of belligerent smugglers who have become more resolute to the chagrin of Nigerians. The development has further increased the risk of producing rice locally, experts told the magazine.
Sources in the company told the magazine that the security agencies, particularly Customs are to blame for their misfortune. The situation would be different if the customs can do more to protect Nigerian borders from smugglers, according to them.
The federal government had in the beginning of the year approved funds for the purchase of over 50 patrol vehicles for the Col, Hameed Ali (rtd)-led NCS, to beef up security across the nation’s borders. So far, the measure has proved incapable to stop rice smugglers.
According to the source the company is already considering the sack of some of its employees due to the hostile operating environment which has led to redundancy among its numerous employees.
“The company is not making sales. The whole marketing department has nothing to do because nobody is buying our rice, the rice you see in the market is foreign ones, mostly smuggled into the country,” he said.
Some marketers working with these companies told the magazine that their employers have warned them that their jobs are on the line if they failed to meet their sales target this year.
“Let me tell you, I have two trailers loaded with rice but nobody is willing to buy to buy. If things continue this way, I don’t think the company will be able to keep the number of marketers presently in its employ,” one marketer told the magazine last week.
Some senior officials of the company said the biggest problem the local rice investors are facing is the failure of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS to stop smuggling of the commodity into the country. It was alleged that the NCS, still allow unfettered smuggling of rice into the country for a price. The sources who claimed that the bulk of smuggled rice into the country come through Nigerian border with Benin Republic, said the Seme and Ogun commands of NCS should be blamed for the infraction.
“No fewer than 20 trailer loads of rice are allowed into the country from the Idi Iroko border every morning around 3 to 4am, in the full glare of customs officers. Go to Seme around the same period, the same thing is happening while the officers sit and do nothing.
Muhammed, FOU Zone A Controller displaying some seized smuggled items
When we complained to the controllers, they will assure us that they will take care of it. As you can see the situation has not changed,” a source from Olams told the magazine.
He said smuggling of rice has become the cash cow of some senior customs officers. He alleged that “officers at the Seme and Ogun commands are neck deep in the racket. Go to the two commands in the evening you will find officers sharing money given to them by smugglers,” he said.
Another source from Elephant Group said the federal Operations Unit, Zone A of the NCS posed a threat to rice smugglers for a while following seizure of truck-loads of rice by the command in the last few months. This has failed to deter the smugglers, adding that FOU has diverted operations to other areas.
“The FOU seems to have concentrated efforts on the seizure of automobiles in recent times. I can tell you also that they are not doing the job as before, if that is not so, where did the foreign rice you see at Daleko, Oyingbo, Sango markers come from. We had hoped that the FOU has been re-equipped by the current CG to perform its role as the policemen of the Service, that they can move in to check negligence on the part of border area commands, but as it seems, we are disappointed.“
He said the unpatriotic behaviors of customs officers in the cartel is working against the local rice production policy of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, and may end up destroying it except the current situation is reversed.
Efforts by the magazine to make the two commands respond to the allegation was unsuccessful as telephone calls made to the commands’ public relations officers, PRO were not answered. But the Controller, FOU Zone A, Ikeja, Comptroller Muhammed Uba Garba, recently told the magazine that he’s working alongside officers of the command to force smugglers to abandon the unpatriotic business.
