COURT ACQUITS SHELL, ENI IN NIGERIA CORRUPTION CASE – NATION PG.26, PUNCH PG.26, THISDAY PG.9, SUN PG.25

Energy giants Eni and Shell were accused of corruption in the 2011 purchase of an offshore oilfield in Nigeria.

The $1.3 billion sale was the biggest corruption scandal to hit the industry. An Italian court acquitted energy firms Royal Dutch Shell and Eni on Wednesday in a massive corruption case. The long-running case concerns the 2011 purchase of an offshore oil field in Nigeria, with prosecutors alleging the companies paid bribes to secure the field.

…RE-ARRAIGNS EX-PRESIDENTIAL AIDE, OBONO-OBLA, 1 OTHER FOR ALLEGED N10M FRAUD – SUN PG.4

Former Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla, was yesterday re-arraigned before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over alleged N10.1 million frauds. Specifically, Obono-Obla, who is a former chairman of the disbanded Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), was also charged with failure to honour ICPCinvitation.

‘N900M FRAUD’: ICPC DETAINS EX-JAMB REGISTRAR – NATION PG.6, PUNCH PG.7, THISDAY PG.10, DAILY TRUST PG.4, SUN PG.4

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has detained a former Registrar and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor DibuOjerinde, for allegedly misappropriating N900 million. Ojerinde, who was arrested on March 15, 2021, in Abuja by ICPC operatives, allegedly committed multiple cases of fraud while heading JAMB and the National Examination Council (NECO).

MASS REDEPLOYMENT OF JUDGES AT FEDERAL HIGH COURT – NATION PG.6

Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, has deployed 53 out of the 77 judges of the court. The affected judges are to resume at their new stations on April 12 when the deployment will take effect, according to a circular issued on March 16, 2021 by Justice Tsoho. The circular said: “Judges newly posted to judicial divisions must assume duty in such places on April 12, 2021.”

JUDGE QUESTIONS EFCC’S DILIGENCE IN EX-PUNCH DIRECTOR’S TRIAL – NATION PG.

Justice Mojisola Dada of an Ikeja Special Offences Court on Wednesday expressed concern over the manner officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were handling the trial of former Executive Director of Punch Newspaper AzubuikeIshiekwene. The judge questioned the diligence of the EFCC team in prosecuting the ex-Punch chief.Ishiekwene and co-defendant Olalekan Abdul are facing an amended 15-count charge of forgery, conspiracy to forge, using false documents, making documents without authority and obtaining money by false pretences.

WAKILIN’S ARREST: THREE OPC MEMBERS REMANDED ON MURDER CHARGES – NATION PG.5, PUNCH PG.11, DAILY TRUST PG.6

An Iyaganku Chief Magistrates’ Court in Ibadan on Wednesday ordered that three members of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) be remanded in a correctional centre for alleged arson. The three suspects AwodeleAdedigba, 45,  DaudaKazeem, 38, and Hassan Ramon, 33, were charged with  conspiracy, murder and arson. Chief Magistrate OlaideHamzat, who did not take the plea of the suspects, for want in jurisdiction, ordered that they be remanded in Abolongo Correctional facility, Oyo town.

FG YET TO OBEY BURIAL JUDGEMENT ON ‘APO SIX’ 15 YEARS AFTER – COUNSEL – PUNCH PG.26

About 15 years after their killing on June 8, 2005, lawyer to the six traders killed by the police in the Apo area of Abuja, AmobiNzelu, on Wednesday pleaded with the Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations on the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad and other police units to revisit their case. Nzelu, who is the counsel to the complainants, Elvis Ozor and Edwin Meniru, on behalf of IfeanyiOzor and five other deceased traders, informed the panel that the order of a former panel led by Justice Olasunbo Goodluck, which directed that N500, 000 be paid to each of the deceased’s families as burial expenses had yet to be obeyed by the Federal Government.

FIRS DIRECTOR RECEIVED OVER N700M CASH PAYMENT, EFCC ALLEGES – THISDAY PG.10

he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has alleged that a former Coordinating Director of Federal Inland Revenue Service, Peter Hena, received over N700 million cash between January 2017 and December 2018. The anti-graft agency further alleged that Hena and eight others shared N4.5 billion in illegal estacodes and fraudulent Duty Tour Allowances.

UK DONATES VESSEL TO NDLEA -THISDAY PG.42

The British Deputy High Commission in Lagos, working in association with the UK Border Force, Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the National Crime Agency (NCA), has donated a Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB) to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). The Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boat was presented to the NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa by the British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Mr. Ben Llewellyn-Jones on the US Consulate General’s Jetty in Walter Carrington Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Tuesday.

160 STRANDED NIGERIANS IN LIBYA ARRIVE ABUJA – DAILY TRUST PG.4

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced the arrival of 160 Nigerians stranded in Tripoli, Libya. The returnees were received by the Director, Consular and Legal Department of the ministry, Bolaji Akinremi, at Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport, Abuja, in the early hours of Wednesday.

MONEY LAUNDERING: EX-LAGOS ASSEMBLY CLERK TESTIFIES AGAINST IKUFORIJI – SUN PG.4

Former clerk of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA), Adewale Taiwo Olatunji, yesterday testified against  ex-Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji, in the alleged N673 million money laundering charge filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Ikuforiji is standing trial alongside his former Personal Assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi, on 54 counts bordering on the alleged offences before the Federal High Court, Lagos.