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Alleged ₦110.4bn Kogi Fraud: Witness Narrates How N950m Property Was Bought In Maitama

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Alleged ₦110.4bn Kogi Fraud: Witness Narrates How N950m Property Was Bought In Maitama

A prosecution witness, PW15, Ramalan Abdullahi, on Friday, May 8, 2026, narrated before the Federal Capital Territory, FCT High Court, Maitama, Abuja, how a property located at No. 35 Danube Street, Maitama, Abuja, was allegedly purchased for the naira equivalent of N950 million paid in United States dollars.

Abdullahi, a legal practitioner with the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA, testified before Justice Maryanne Anineh in the ongoing trial of the former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is prosecuting Bello alongside Umar Shuaibu Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu on a 16-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust and money laundering to the tune of N110.4 billion.

Led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, the witness told the court that sometime in January 2022, a friend informed him about the property and requested that he conduct due diligence on it.

“I picked a call from my friend who informed me that some agents introduced him to this property to sell and that I can conduct due diligence on it”, he said.

When asked whom he interfaced with as the buyer of the property, the witness said: “Ali Bello through Shehu Bello. The payment of the property was in Naira. Paid in dollars equivalent to 950 million naira.”

Abdullahi further told the court that he prepared and handed over the necessary title documents to Ali Bello.

“I was given a name White Tree Nigerian Limited as the assignee. I prepared the deed of assignment between Palchi Ventures Nigeria Plc and White Tree Nigeria Limited as the assignee for the deed of assignment. And the power of attorney was given to the same party,” he said.

According to him, the instruction to use White Tree Nigeria Limited came from Ali Bello.

“The person that gave me the name of White Tree Limited was Ali Bello,” he said.

Speaking further on the mode of payment for the property, the witness said the entire sum was paid in dollars.

During cross-examination by counsel to the first and second defendants, Abdullahi Yahaya, SAN, the witness confirmed that he had previously testified before the Federal High Court.

Asked whether he received instructions to work for a particular person, he replied: “Yes. I received the instruction from Shehu Bello.”

Under cross-examination by counsel to the third defendant, Z. E. Abbas, the witness stated that he never met Abdulsalami Hudu.

Earlier in the proceedings, Pinheiro informed the court that the matter had previously been adjourned for ruling on pending applications and, if time permitted, continuation of trial.

He further disclosed that the prosecution had served the third defendant’s counsel with an application seeking suspension and stay of proceedings.

Responding, Abbas told the court that the application was not ripe for hearing, noting that it was served on him around 4pm on Thursday, and requested an adjournment till Tuesday.

Pinheiro, however, opposed the request, arguing that the application by the third defendant was similar to that earlier filed by the first and second defendants.

“The third defendant is arguing the same thing. Same prayers. If my application is granted, it will affect their application too because it’s the same prayers. It will save time,” he said.

Abbas disagreed, insisting that their applications were different.

Justice Anineh subsequently ruled that the third defendant could move his application at the next adjourned date.

Thereafter, Pinheiro informed the court that the prosecution wished to withdraw an application dated May 6, 2026.

“My lord, the application I wish to withdraw is dated 6th of May, 2026. We have already argued it,” he said.

With no objection from defence counsel, Justice Anineh granted the application for withdrawal.

Moving his application challenging the jurisdiction of the court, Abbas informed the court that the application, filed on March 23, 2026, sought an order striking out the trial for want of jurisdiction.

“The said application is seeking an order of the court striking out the trial in this court because it lacks jurisdiction,” Abbas submitted, urging the court to grant the application.

In response, prosecution counsel, Adetokunbo, informed the court that the prosecution had filed a 20-paragraph counter-affidavit deposed to by one Abubakar Wara on May 5, 2026, alongside a written address opposing the application.

He argued that the application was fundamentally defective because the applicant was not a defendant in the cases pending before the Federal High Court which formed the basis of his argument.

“My lord, this shows that the foundation of the application is weak and must collapse,” he said.

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Court

He further argued that the applicant himself had acknowledged that the charges before Justice Anineh, which bordered on criminal breach of trust, were different from those before the Federal High Court, which bordered on money laundering and other offences.

“So my lord it is apparent that the two charges are different and distinct,” he submitted.

Adetokunbo also contended that the authorities relied upon by the defence, including FRN vs Agaba and FRN vs Yahaya, were distinguishable from the instant case.

“It is worthy to mention the issue before the court was whether the Federal High Court has the jurisdiction to try money laundering offences, my lord that was the issue and that is not before your lordship,” he argued.

He urged the court to dismiss what he described as “this unworthy application.”

Following the conclusion of arguments and with no re-examination of the witness, Justice Anineh discharged PW15 from the witness box and adjourned the matter till May 22, 2026, for ruling on the three pending applications, and June 16 and 17, 2026, for continuation of trial.

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PFIPC: ADC Dismisses ICPC Report as Predictable, Says Government is More Interested in Damage Control than Investigation

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ADC Unveils Manual Membership Card

PFIPC: ADC Dismisses ICPC Report as Predictable, Says Government is More Interested in Damage Control than Investigation

“What has happened is a national disgrace in the full glare of the entire world. No serious government should be satisfied with identifying one culprit for prosecution.”
Eereporter.com

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has dismissed the ICPC’s interim report on the alleged fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) as predictable and inadequate, accusing the Federal Government of prioritising damage control over a thorough investigation.

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said the report failed to explain how a fictitious agency allegedly secured federal office space, had civil servants deployed to it and found its way into the 2026 budget with a N1.3 billion provision, even as the investigation reportedly uncovered two other fictitious organisations linked to the principal suspect.

The full statement read:

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has reviewed sections of the interim report of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) that have been made public regarding the so-called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).

It would be recalled that when President Bola Tinubu directed the ICPC to undertake investigation into this case, ADC had waived it off, insisting instead on a full investigation by an independent panel. With the so-called interim report of the ICPC, our fears have come to pass as the report is not only predictable, it appears more concerned with exonerating government officials rather than providing clear answers to the serious questions that the scandal has raised.

The ICPC report appeared to have given the impression that what happened was mere failure in government processes or procedures. This position is difficult to sustain in the light of publicly available evidence, which establishes that this is not an error of omission or a mere glitch in the system. Instead, what happened was a grand scam that could have been possible only with the active connivance of government officials and institutions at the highest level.

The ICPC report also comes gravely short by suggesting that there could be accomplices within government, but mentioned none. Yet, an agency that was able to recommend only Adeyemi for prosecution on the basis of an investigation that the Commission itself has tagged as either on-going or inconclusive. If all that the commission had to present was a preliminary report, why not simply present it as confidential brief to the President instead of making a public drama of it in a manner that potentially prejudiced the overall investigation and cast Adeyemi as the principal culprit?

What Nigerians expected was an investigation into how a “fictitious agency” managed to obtain all authorizations and institutional support required to operate as a legitimate government agency. Instead, what we are being offered, after weeks of so-called investigation is the same official narrative that the government had offered from the start: that what happened was a case of one clever impostor who, somehow, managed to outwit an entire government.

Even as self-indicting as that would appear, the facts already in the public domain make such a conclusion difficult to sustain. What is clear is that the so-called PFIPC was not a creation of any Nigerian law or legitimate executive approval. Yet this same organisation managed to secured office space within the Federal Secretariat.

If according to the ICPC report, Adeyemi had kicked down the door of the Secretariat office and allocated it to himself, did he also deploy the civil servants to himself, allocated a reported N1.3 billion to himself in the 2026 Appropriation Act, allocated official vehicles with customized number plates to himself and deployed armed security to himself? It is indeed impossible to answer yes to these questions and not conclude that this is the most incompetent and porous government in Nigeria’s history.

The ICPC has now reportedly uncovered two additional fictitious organisations linked to Mr. Adeyemi. If this were the case, it should ordinarily widen the investigation, not narrow its conclusion.

If an investigation into one fake government agency leads investigators to two more, then the obvious question is no longer merely how one individual perpetrated an elaborate fraud. The question is how has this administration operated that made such systemic criminality possible?

There is also the matter of the purported appointment letter bearing the signature of the Chief of Staff to the President, which investigators reportedly found to have been forged. But establishing that a signature was forged only answers how the deception may have started; it does not explain how it travelled that far.

How did a forged document survive the verification procedures of government? Who verified the existence of PFIPC before civil servants were deployed to it? Who authorised its accommodation within a federal facility? Who processed its interactions with other government institutions? A forgery may explain the first door that was opened. It cannot explain why every subsequent door appears to have opened as well.

Most troubling is the N1.3 billion provision in the 2026 federal budget. Budgetary provisions do not materialise by accident. They leave records, submissions, approvals and an audit trail. The National Assembly has itself commenced an investigation into how PFIPC found its way into the federal budget.

The ADC therefore expects the ICPC to tell Nigerians who proposed the allocation, who processed it, who verified the beneficiary agency and how a body that the Presidency now says never existed survived the scrutiny required to appear in an Appropriation Act. To prosecute Mr. Adeyemi without answering these questions would be to punish the man who entered through the window while refusing to ask who left the doors open. What has happened is a national disgrace in the full glare of the entire world. No serious government should be satisfied with identifying one culprit for prosecution.

ADC Unveils Manual Membership Card

ADC

The ADC calls for the immediate publication of the full ICPC interim report. We also demand that every public official whose action or negligence enabled these entities to acquire official legitimacy must be named and held accountable where wrongdoing is established. Nigerians are not asking the government to manufacture culprits; they are asking it to follow the evidence wherever it may lead. Anything short of this, this so-called investigation, will remain what it presently appears to be: an exercise designed less to discover the truth than to contain the historic embarrassment.

Signed:

Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi National Publicity Secretary African Democratic Congress (ADC)
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Tinubu’s Flagship Highway Projects Will Connect Nigeria, Drive Trade and Create Prosperity, Says Goronyo

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Goronyo

Tinubu’s Flagship Highway Projects Will Connect Nigeria, Drive Trade and Create Prosperity, Says Goronyo

The Honourable Minister of State for Works, Rt. Hon. Bello Muhammad Goronyo, Esq., has called on Nigerian engineers, innovators, professionals in the diaspora and international development partners to deploy their expertise and innovations towards accelerating Nigeria’s infrastructure development and economic transformation.
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Goronyo made the call while speaking at the 2026 UK Engineering Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, themed “Engineering Innovation for National Impact.”

The Minister described engineering as more than technical expertise, stressing that it remains a critical foundation for Nigeria’s national development, economic growth and prosperity.

He said Nigeria, with its large population, abundant resources and immense human capital, could only achieve sustainable transformation by embracing innovation, professionalism and deliberate investment in infrastructure.

According to him, “Roads lead to prosperity. They are not just pathways of asphalt and concrete; they are the arteries of commerce, agriculture and industry, carrying the lifeblood of our economy.”
Goronyo noted that quality road infrastructure serves as a major enabler of economic growth, facilitates movement of people and goods, reduces transportation costs, creates employment opportunities and strengthens trade across the country.

He said the Federal Government, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has demonstrated unprecedented commitment to infrastructure development through significant investments in road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance.

The Minister highlighted the Federal Government’s flagship legacy highway projects, describing them as strategic infrastructure corridors designed to strengthen connectivity among Nigeria’s geopolitical zones and unlock economic opportunities.

He listed the projects to include the 750-kilometre Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway; the 1,068-kilometre Sokoto–Badagry Superhighway; the Trans-Sahara Trade Route (Calabar–Abuja); and the 1,100-kilometre Akwanga–Jos–Maiduguri Superhighway.

Goronyo explained that the projects were not merely roads, but strategic economic lifelines designed to integrate communities, facilitate trade, strengthen regional connectivity and stimulate economic activities.

He further emphasised the importance of professional standards, regulatory compliance and accountability in the engineering sector, noting that the Federal Ministry of Works remains committed to ensuring that public infrastructure is delivered to the highest standards.

Goronyo said the Ministry had fully endorsed the proactive regulatory philosophy of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), including stronger sanctions for professional misconduct, technical monitoring mechanisms and enhanced professional development through the Engineering Residency Programme.

He stated that the Ministry, under the leadership of the Honourable Minister of Works, Engr. (Sen.) David Nweze Umahi, CON, was intensifying project audits and technical oversight to ensure that only qualified, competent and duly registered professionals are entrusted with critical public infrastructure projects.

Goronyo urged Nigerian engineers to see themselves as guardians of public safety and national development, stressing that engineering excellence must remain central to the delivery of durable and sustainable infrastructure.
He also extended an invitation to Nigerian engineers in the diaspora and international partners to bring their expertise, innovations, investments and global experience to Nigeria.

“Nigeria is open for business. Bring your talents, innovations and investments. Join us through Public-Private Partnerships, tax credit schemes and engineering collaborations. Together, we can build roads and bridges that do more than connect cities; they can connect dreams, aspirations, opportunities and prosperity,” he said.

Goronyo

Goronyo

Rt. Hon. Goronyo expressed appreciation to the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Glasgow Branch, for the invitation and for providing a platform for Nigerian engineers and international professionals to exchange ideas on how engineering can contribute to national development.

He reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to supporting President Tinubu’s vision of a Nigeria where movement is seamless, logistics are efficient, infrastructure is sustainable and prosperity is widely shared.

Signed:
Abdullahi Mohammed
SA Media to the Honourable Minister of State for Works.
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NNPC Records Steady Growth in Licensing Round Outcomes and Production Performance

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NNPC Records Steady Growth in Licensing Round Outcomes and Production Performance

NNPC Limited continues to record steady growth in national crude oil and gas production, reinforcing the Company’s transformation into a fully commercial, globally competitive energy company.
Eereporter.com

Against this backdrop of demonstrable progress, the Company has noted recent media commentary, credited to the Oil and Gas Professionals Forum (OGPF), questioning the performance of the Company’s leadership under Group Chief Executive Officer, Engr. Bayo Ojulari, in connection with the recently concluded oil licensing round conducted by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

While NNPC Limited welcomes scrutiny of its operations and performance, consistent with the transparency and accountability the Company holds itself to, it is important to set the record straight on the specific claims raised.

On the Licensing Round
Under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, the conduct of oil licensing rounds and the allocation of oil blocks fall squarely within the statutory mandate of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC). NNPC Limited, since its incorporation, has operated strictly as a commercial entity and holds no regulatory or allocative authority.

On Crude Oil Production
Publicly available data reflects a clear and sustained improvement in crude oil output under the current leadership. As of April 2025, average crude oil production stood at 1.60 million barrels per day (mbpd) inclusive of condensate. Output rose through the second half of 2025 and stabilised at 1.67 mbpd inclusive of condensate, by April 2026. This is an increase of approximately 80 thousand barrels per day which represents 6% growth. These figures are documented in NNPC Limited’s Monthly Performance Report, which is available to the public.

On Gas Production
The Company’s gas production has recorded similar growth. As of April 2025, gas production averaged 7,354 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd). By April 2026, this had risen to 7,729 mmscfd, which represents a 5% growth, an indicator of expanding gas output in support of Nigeria’s domestic energy security and export commitments. Again, these figures are documented in the publicly available NNPC Limited’s Monthly Performance Report.

NNPC Limited remains committed to operating with transparency and will continue to engage openly on matters concerning the Company’s performance and operations. The Company also reserves the right to take necessary steps to protect its reputation and that of its leadership against publication of false or unsubstantiated claims.

NNPC

NNPC

We encourage industry commentators, analysts, and professional associations to verify information through the appropriate regulatory and corporate channels before publication.

This will help ensure that public commentary is factual, balanced, and contributes constructively to informed discourse on the Nigerian energy sector.

Andy Odeh
Chief Corporate Communications Officer
NNPC Limited
Abuja.
8th August 2026
Eereporter.com

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