Man Jailed Ten Years over Farming Scam in Kaduna

Maina Files No Case Submission as EFCC Closes Case

As the ninth prosecution witness, Rouqayya Ibrahim rounded off her evidence-in-chief in the ongoing corruption trial of Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team,...

...the defendant informed the court, through his counsel, of his intention to file a no case submission; that he has no case to answer in the charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,...

...at the Federal High Court, Abuja. Consequently. Justice Okong Abang adjourned trial to December 10 to enable the defence counsel to address the court orally and for the prosecution to respond.

“The prosecution have closed their case today, it is for the defendant to open his defence, though the court ordered the case to be heard in his absence, but he is here, he is entitled to be heard.

The defendant has elected to argue or present a no case submission. It is the defendant’s decision and a choice made by him.

Again, Fani-Kayode’s Absence Stalls His Trial

The trial of former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, before Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, could not hold on Wednesday, December 2, 2020, and for the third consecutive time due to his absence in court.

Fani-Kayode is facing a five-count charge of money laundering to the tune of N26million, preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

At today’s trial, prosecution counsel, M. S. Abubakar, expressed displeasure at the defendant’s recurring absence in court, noting that the unnecessary delays which such has caused in the trial defeat the spirit of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2016 (ACJ)...

...which is for speedy administration of justice in the country. He therefore applied for a bench warrant against Fani-Kayode.

“My lord, on January 22, 2019, the defendant was neither in court, nor was he represented. But the court gave him a benefit of the doubt, which he abused. Again, on October 21, 2020, the defendant was also not in court.

N10.9bn Fraud: Court Jails Ex-Finbank MD, Nwosu, Three Others

Justice Lateefa A. Okunnu of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, on Tuesday, January 5, 2021, convicted and sentenced Okey Nwosu, a former Managing Director, Finbank Plc, to three years imprisonment for over 10m fraud.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had arraigned Nwosu alongside Dayo Famuroti, Agnes Ebubedike and Danjuma Ocholi on a 26-count amended charge bordering on stealing and illegal conversion to the tune of N10,934,704,402.

The defendants, who perpetrated the fraud while they were directors of the bank, pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them, thereby leading to their full trial.

In the course of the trial, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, called witnesses and also tendered several documents that were admitted in evidence against the defendants.

EFCC Arraigns Man over N6.2m Forex Deal in Uyo

The Uyo Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on Monday, January 25, 2021 arraigned one Inibehe Ndarake Eden before Justice F. O. Riman of the Federal High Court sitting Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

He was arraigned on a one-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N6,200,000.00 (six million, two hundred thousand naira).

The defendant allegedly obtained the said sum from one Inime Marcus Umanah sometime in July 2017, on the pretext that he will invest it for him in forex trading.

Umanah, according to his petition dated May 17, 2019 alleged that he agreed to invest the money because of the profit sharing formula of 80% and 20% for investor and trader respectively...

...and that he will also be getting 30% of the invested capital monthly, through his trading system, Eden System-FX.

Council Accountant Bags Jail Term for Fraud In Maiduguri

The Maiduguri Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, today January 11, 2021 secured the conviction and sentencing of one Mala Mallam Yawudi to three and a half years in prison...

...before Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the State High Court Maiduguri for forgery and stealing to the tune of N645,000.00 (Six Hundred and Forty-Five Thousand Naira).

The convict pleaded guilty to the three-count charge preferred against him by the EFCC.

One of the counts reads: "That you Mala Mallam Yawudi, while being an Accountant of Works Department in Dikwa Local Government Area, Maiduguri, Borno State, sometime in 2014 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court...

...dishonestly misappropriated certain property to wit; the sum of N645,000.00. (Six Hundred and Forty Five Thousand Naira) belonging to Bukar Wakil (now deceased) who was declared dead in November 2015...

...and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 308 and punishable under Section 309 of the Penal Code Cap 102 Laws of Borno State of Nigeria."

#NEIOH

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THREAD.

In analysing the Afghan political spectrum something becomes obvious: Kabul's base is far more diverse than the Taliban's. For simplicity's sake, I'll count stronger opposition toward the Taliban than Kabul as 'pro Kabul'.

Let's assess these generally. Exceptions apply.

A diverse base isn't necessarily, however, a good thing. Appealing to everyone ensures you appeal to no one, or that your support base is so fractured that it actually becomes a liability. Think of Clinton losing the Democrat majority in Congress being a blessing in disguise.

Some pro-Kabul groupings:

1) ethnonationalists of all ethnicities. Whilst the non-Pashtuns amongst them aren't pro-Ghani, they're pro-Kabul as an institution; they see it as far more representative and amenable to their interests than the Taliban.

Some Pashtun nationalists do support the Taliban (majority Pashtun) but these are a minority. The biggest blemishes on the Taliban's Pashtun credentials:

a) The Taliban/Pakistan relationship
b) their overt Islam, which many Pashtun nationalists are hostile toward.

2) The enlightened 'roshan-fikr' demographic

Liberals/seculars. Not much intro needed: progress, freedom, spectacular gains of the last 19 years, women's rights et cetera. You generally notice quite an anti-Islam, wholesale adoption of War on Terror rhetoric in their rationale.

There is a recent new word in Chinese that I think deserves introducing into the Western neoreactionary canon.

The word is 内卷 (nei-juan) which has been translated as "involution". Originally a Chinese phenomenon it increasingly applies anywhere there is modernity.

To capture the essence of what "involution" means it helps to picture a spiral in your mind. Our modern narrative says that as we progress technologically we should progress OUT of the spiral and have more free time to be capable of ever more amazing things...

But what if the progression of technology and society actually sends us WITHIN the spiral in an infinite number of ever-decreasing circles? What if we are walking DOWN the spiral staircase of progress rather than UP?

"Involution" in its original meaning has been used to describe agrarian societies and how their development actually leads to self-perpetuating processes that prevent change and progress rather than encourage it.

Increased food production has limited many civilisations and sent them into stagnancy rather than allowed them to grow. This stagnancy can continue for millennia in safe environments till threatened, other times it drives the civilisation into extinction from external threats.

NS2 a response to Mr Wolfgang Munchau. Although I agree on a number of points with WM in his recent @spectator piece-I disagree with his central contention that NS2 is about more gas for Germany. There is no more gas & what gas there is not for Germany. Lengthy thread to follow.

1.WMs @EuroBriefing article has swallowed a huge dose of Russian (and indeed German) propaganda. Throughout the article WM refers to Nord Stream 2 as being vital to Germany because of the need for more Russian gas. This is

2.The key point about NS2 is that it is a diversionary pipeline. There is no new gas. This huge political effort by Russia and Germany to deliver NS2 will not bring a single extra molecule of gas to Germany.

3.What is more the gas destined to land on the German Baltic coast at Greifswald (in AM's constituency) will substantially go not to Germany. The connecting pipeline for NS2, called EUGAL has the same capacity as NS2 (55bcm) and heads eastward to the Czech Republic.

4.Our friendly gas propagandists may well say that in December 2019 Gazprom signed a gas transit contract with the Ukrainian state owned energy company Naftogaz for 40bcm a year from 2021-2024. So with NS2 there will be more gas. NS2 plus the gas transited via Ukraine.