The Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, has ordered the immediate acceleration of work on the Rivers State House of Assembly Complex, following what he described as “grossly abysmal” progress.
Speaking during an inspection visit to the construction site along Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, the Administrator directed the contractor handling the project to step up efforts without further delay, warning that any continued lag in execution would not be tolerated.
“This project is of strategic importance, and we must treat it as such. The people of Rivers State expect results. Any further delays will be unacceptable. All hands must be on deck to meet the agreed timelines,” Ibas stated.
He expressed disappointment with the pace of work, noting that the contractor had fallen short of expectations despite clear timelines and ongoing supervision.
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“From the consultants’ reports and what I have seen here today, the performance is far from satisfactory. The contractor needs to do a lot more. The current pace is unacceptable,” he said.
Ibas disclosed plans to summon the contractor for an emergency meeting to review the challenges and realign efforts toward delivering the project promptly.
In a related development, the Administrator also inspected key sports facilities in the state, including the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, Elekahia, and the Alfred Diete-Spiff Sports Complex, with a view to upgrading them for optimal use.
While commending the outstanding performances of Rivers athletes in recent national and international competitions, Ibas emphasised the urgent need to invest in quality sports infrastructure.
“We have teams representing the state at continental levels, yet we lack facilities that can host such matches. That has to change. We are here to assess and act,” he remarked.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has refuted claims of lack of integrity and transparency levelled against the commission’s boss, Ola Olukoyede, by a columnist Steve Osuji.
In a statement, EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale said Osuji’s allegations against the EFCC and Olukoyede were worrisome and unjustifiable.
Oyewale said, “More worrisome was his attack on Olukoyede for no justifiable reason. Allegations of lack of transparency, accountability and integrity deficit are wild and clearly off the mark.
“The question is: in what way has Olukoyede fallen short? Is it by insisting that the right things should always be done? By moving the nation’s anti-graft war forward radically and unprecedentedly?
“By bringing forth a preventive framework to tackle corruption and reaping bountiful gains for the nation?
“By recovering the globally-acclaimed 753 duplexes and other apartments, which are proceeds of fraudulent dealings for the nation?
“By launching the EFCC into a global map of accomplished anti-graft agencies? By handling 50,000 case files in one year?
“By embarking on a courageous internal cleansing system and other progressive initiatives to deepen and strengthen the anti-corruption fight?
“It is cowardly and uncharitable for any columnist to hide under vague and opaque cover to splash mud on Ola Olukoyede, arguably one of the finest breed of anti-graft czars around the world.”
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Olukoyede said the EFCC has never failed to submit its annual report to the National Assembly every September as it is statutorily required.
“Equally preposterous are claims of re-looting of assets by officers of the Commission. For the purpose of clarification, the Commission does not recover monetary assets into its covers and the non-monetary assets that are recovered are disposed of following clear pronouncements by court and proceeds paid into the Confiscated and Forfeited Properties Account account in the Central Bank in line with provisions of the Proceeds of Crime ( Recovery and Management) Act, 2022.
The Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced a former director of Afromedia Plc, Alhaji Mohammed Gobir to seven years in prison for orchestrating a sophisticated, multi-million-naira and foreign-currency fraud.
Justice Raliat Adebiyi convicted and sentenced the defendant on all 17 counts brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The charges included stealing, obtaining by false pretence, forgery, and possession of fraudulent documents.
The EFCC initiated prosecution in 2016 following a damning petition from Afromedia Plc, which revealed a complex scheme of deception and financial manipulation that bled the company of hundreds of millions of naira and substantial sums in foreign currency.
According to court documents and EFCC’s presentation, Gobir fraudulently secured a seat on Afromedia’s board by falsely promising to invest N1 billion into the company. Once in a position of influence, he allegedly siphoned off a staggering $3.5 million, $514.4 million, $2.1 million, and £51,000 from company funds under various false pretences.
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One of the most audacious claims Gobir made, prosecutors said, was that he needed $250,000 to secure a waiver certificate to retrieve $250 million he claimed was being temporarily held by British anti-money laundering authorities in a UK bank.
Justice Adebiyi, however, dismissed the claims as entirely fictitious and part of a deliberate ploy to mislead and defraud the company.
In another instance, Gobir deceived Afromedia into releasing over $514 million on the pretext that it was required to facilitate the transfer of $70 million from a non-existent London bank account.
His arrest in September 2015 at his upscale Ikoyi residence followed months of investigations by EFCC into what officials described as one of the more elaborate financial frauds within Nigeria’s corporate boardrooms.
In her judgment, Justice Adebiyi condemned Gobir’s actions as a grave breach of trust, stating that his manipulation of corporate structures for personal gain represented “a betrayal of confidence and fiduciary duty.”
The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Friday ordered the final forfeiture of a sprawling array of assets, luxury vehicles, and cash — both in naira and dollars — linked to a massive fraud scheme involving the illegal diversion of funds from Union Bank customers.
Justice Daniel Osaigor granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) application for a non-conviction-based final forfeiture of the assets following detailed investigations which uncovered a fraudulent withdrawal of over ₦2 billion from the accounts of 575 unsuspecting customers of the bank.
The application was argued by EFCC’s counsel, Hanatu Kofar-Naisa, who urged the court to permanently forfeit the identified assets as proceeds of unlawful activity, pursuant to Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, and Section 44(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
In her submissions, the counsel emphasised that the suit was not against any individual but rather against properties acquired through unlawful means, noting that failure to forfeit the assets would amount to rewarding criminal conduct.
Among the properties and funds forfeited to the Federal Government are: A 3-bedroom bungalow at Macedonia Street, Queens Estate, Karsana Gwarimpa, FCT, Abuja, a house at No. 8 Grace Crescent, Efab Queens Estate, Gwarimpa, Abuja, and multiple high-end vehicles including a Mercedes Benz C300, BMW SUVs, Range Rovers, and three Toyota Hilux pickups.
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Also forfeited is the sum of ₦326.4 million and $480,000 in cash recovered during the course of investigation.
A court gavel
The EFCC’s application was supported by a detailed affidavit deposed to by Sulaiman Aminu Muhammad, an investigating officer of the anti-graft agency, who described the scale of the fraud as “monumental,” and said the operation targeted dormant or “no-debit” accounts within Union Bank.
According to the affidavit, the EFCC launched its investigation after receiving a formal petition from Union Bank on October 24, 2022, detailing how its systems had been fraudulently manipulated to facilitate unauthorised debits on customer accounts.
By July 2023, a follow-up petition revealed that the total stolen funds had increased to ₦2,007,000,000, prompting a deeper forensic investigation.
The probe uncovered that the bank’s audit unit had identified suspicious transactions involving 575 accounts placed on a “no debit” status, which were nonetheless debited using methods inconsistent with normal banking procedures.
Two companies — Actus Homes Limited and Fav Oil and Gas Limited — were said to be central to the scheme.
Funds from the compromised accounts were funneled into these entities without any legitimate commercial relationship with the customers.
Actus Homes Limited was said to have received N681.2 million from 126 customer accounts, while Fav Oil and Gas Limited was said to have received a cumulative ₦1.388 billion from 429 accounts.
Further investigations showed that neither company had applied for or received loans from the bank, nor did they render any service that would justify the inflow of such large sums.
The funds were subsequently used to acquire real estate and luxury automobiles, all now forfeited by the court.
The EFCC said it was able to trace ₦887.4 million that had been transferred into various bank accounts, and also recovered large cash sums, including those discovered in a black Escalade vehicle — now forfeited.
Union Bank managed to salvage ₦519.1 million, which remained untouched in some of the accounts flagged during the audit.
In line with legal requirements for non-conviction-based forfeiture, Justice Osiagor had earlier granted an interim forfeiture order on May 16, 2025, and directed the EFCC to publish the court order in a national newspaper.
The publication on June 5, 2025, invited interested parties to show cause within 14 days why the properties should not be permanently forfeited. No objections were received.
Having complied with due process and satisfied the court of the connection between the assets and proceeds of fraud, Justice Osiagor granted the EFCC’s final forfeiture request.
The Plateau Police Command is prosecuting twenty persons in connection with the killing of twelve people in a mob action at Mangun in Mangu Local Government Area of the state.
A four-count charge of criminal conspiracy, causing grievous bodily harm and culpable homicide, was filed against the suspects, which violated the Plateau State Penal Code Law of 2017, before Justice Boniface Ingyou of the Plateau State High Court.
The prosecution counsel, Samuel Idowu Ikutanwa, officer-in-charge of the legal department Plateau State police command, accused the defendants of allegedly conspiring to commit the offenses and armed themselves with dangerous weapons —including firearms, cutlasses, machetes, and petrol.
They were accused of launching an attack that left twenty-one individuals with varying degrees of injuries, stressing that they set an 18-seater vehicle ablaze, killing twelve persons in the process.
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The accused persons all pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.
After the plea, the prosecution requested an adjournment so that the case could be scheduled for a proper hearing.
Though the defense counsel, Garuba Pwul (SAN) did not oppose the motion for commencement of the case, he, however, made a bail application which could not be heard as the prosecution had just been served with the application during the proceedings.
The Academic Staff Union of Yobe State University, Damaturu, branch has declared an indefinite strike.
It is demanded that the Yobe State Government implement a ₦70,000 minimum wage of 2024 consequential adjustment, appropriate promotion placement, yearly increment, and payment of arrears of the minimum wage of 2019 consequential adjustment.
Other demands include payment of a thirty-five percent and twenty-five percent salary award consequential adjustment from January 2023 to date, postgraduate facilitation allowances for staff, among others.
The Chairman of the ASUU Branch, Ahmed Karage, revealed that the members of the Union will not resume work until their demands are met.
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“After several months of engagements, formal communications, and appeals to relevant government authorities, we regret to inform you that the academic staff under the umbrella of ASUU has been compelled to embark on indefinite industrial action due to the government’s failure to meet our demands presented,” Karage said.
“These include implementation of a ₦70,000 minimum wage of 2024 consequential adjustment, appropriate promotion placement and yearly increment, and payment of arrears of minimum wage of 2019 consequential adjustment”.
“Other demands include payment of thirty-five percent and twenty-five percent salary award consequential adjustment from January 2023 to date, postgraduate facilitation allowances for staff, among others,” he said
