A presidential aspirant of the African Democratic Congress, Prof Kingsley Moghalu, has resigned his membership of the party.
In a letter obtained by our correspondent on Monday, which was addressed to the party’s chairman, Okey Nwosu, Moghalu cited alleged infractions from the party’s presidential primary election as reason for leaving.
It would be recalled that the former presidential candidate of Young Progressive Party in 2019 general elections was defeated at the just-concluded primary election of the ADC in Abeokuta.
While the winner, Dumebi Kachikwu, scored 977 votes, Moghalu polled 589 votes to come second.
Moghalu’s resignation letter read in part, “I am writing to hand in my resignation of my membership of the African Democratic Congress, effective immediately.
“I have resigned because the process and conduct of the party’s presidential primary on June 8, 2022 at Abeokuta revealed a fundamental clash of values between me and your leadership of the party.
“Despite the circular you issued a few days to the primary committing the party to providing transportation and accommodation for delegates to and in Abeokuta, and which as we agreed would provide a level playing field for all the presidential aspirants, the party under your leadership failed to do so.
“Some aspirants, including myself, made donations to the party’s account as requested for this purpose. This failure, which appeared intentional, created room for massive abuses of the electoral process, including delegate capture and financial inducement of delegates.”
Moghalu, who didn’t disclose his next political move, blamed his loss to “cash and carry politics,” revealing that his former party which he joined in 2021 is not a credible alternative.
He added, “This is only one of the numerous inconsistencies and absence of transparency and predictability in the management of the party that I had progressively complained about.
“As you are well aware, I have consistently resisted pressures to join the All Progressives Congress or the Peoples Democratic Party precisely to avoid ‘cash-and-carry’ politics. For me to remain a member of the ADC therefore, after what thousands of party members participated in at Abeokuta, would be to endorse political corruption of a most obscene order.”
“I joined the ADC in October 2021 with the best of intentions. Since then, I have put my entire team to work on growing and improving the party, including raising the party’s visibility on all media platforms, recruiting more than 10,000 new members to the party, and providing new offices for various state chapters of the party at my expense.
“It is deeply regrettable that other inducements appear to have played more important roles in determining the outcome of the primary than loyalty to the party.”
Bitcoin tumbled Monday to an 18-month low under $23,000 in a broad cryptocurrency crash, as investors shunned risky assets in the face of a vicious global markets selloff, just seven months after the virtual unit surged to a record high.
The world’s most popular crypto asset also took a heavy knock from news that crypto lending platform Celsius Network paused withdrawals, citing volatile conditions.
Losses accelerated as major exchange Binance temporarily suspended bitcoin withdrawals but advised customers to use other networks.
World stock markets have plunged since Friday when data showed US inflation at a fresh four-decade high.
That heightened global recession fears and sent investors fleeing risky cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether — and embracing traditional safe assets such as the dollar.
‘Severe bruising’ “Bitcoin and ether are continuing to get a severe bruising in the ring,” said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.
“They are prime victims of the flight away from risky assets as investors fret about spiralling consumer prices around the world.”
The digital currency dived more than 16 percent to hit $22,603 in afternoon London deals, striking a level last seen in December 2020.
Bitcoin has now tanked by 66 percent since striking a record peak $68,991.85 last November.
Investors sought safety Monday with the US central bank seen likely to aggressively ramp up borrowing costs further to combat runaway inflation.
Bitcoin’s decline worsened after the news from Celsius Network.
“Today we are announcing that Celsius is pausing all withdrawals, swap, and transfers between accounts,” the platform said in a statement.
Celsius made the move “due to extreme market conditions”, it added.
The total value of customer deposits had already shrunk by more than half to under $12 billion in May compared with the end of last year.
Market sinks under $1.0 trillion The global crypto market is now worth less than $1.0 trillion, data aggregator CoinGecko revealed Monday.
That is down from a level of more than $3 trillion at its peak seven months ago, when the market rode a wave of massive investor demand amid growing acceptance from large financial institutions.
In a sign of the growing importance of cryptocurrencies, two countries, El Salvador and the Central African Republic, have taken the gamble of adopting bitcoin as legal tender — despite strong criticism from international financial institutions.
Inflation ‘too hot to handle’ In recent years, the crypto sector benefitted from a vast infusion of cash due to easy money policies from the world’s biggest central banks.
However, rampant inflation has sparked tighter monetary policy across the globe, helping to send the industry crashing.
“The worry is that inflation is becoming too hot to handle by central banks who will be forced to douse economies with jets of freezing water, in the form of much steeper interest rate rises, to get it under control,” added Streeter.
“With the era of cheap money coming rapidly to an end, traders are becoming much more risk averse and turning their backs on crypto assets.”
It is a double whammy for the President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan as the winner of the Yobe North APC senatorial primaries, Bashir Machina, refused to step down for him.
Mr Lawan, who represents Yobe North in the Senate, contested and lost a bid to secure the APC presidential ticket at the party’s national convention held on June 8, where Bola Tinubu emerged the winner.
The president of the Senate was initially touted as the consensus candidate of the party, but 13 Northern governors kicked against the idea of retaining power in the North.
Our corrrspondent gathered that since the winner of the senatorial primaries refused to step down, the Senate president is now mounting pressure on the presidency to get back his senatorial ticket.
All effort by Mr Lawan’s cronies to convince Mr Machina to step down for the president of the Senate failed as the senatorial candidate insisted that he won’t withdraw.
According to sources, Mr Lawan was secretly given the INEC form by the APC headquarters to fill for submission, although he didn’t submit himself for party screening and didn’t participate in the senatorial primary election which took place in Gashua town on May 28.
In the primaries, Mr Machina, who was the sole candidate, got 289 votes.
According to sources, Mr Lawan, in concert with the APC National Vice Chairman, North East, Mustapha Salihu, is trying to ‘forcefully take over’ the ticket from Mr Machina.
When contacted on the allegations, the APC National Vice Chairman, North East said he never interfered in the local party decisions in Yobe.
“I don’t interfere with local party arrangement in states. Yobe has its own unique way of primaries, which is a general consensus.
“All aspirants who obtained the party’s nomination forms nationwide have filled the withdrawal forms, which is a clear consent to withdraw in case of any superior interest, and with the consent of the party stakeholders in the state,” Mr Salihu added.
First Bank Holdings Plc, Unity Bank Plc and Union Bank Plc have been fined N13.5 million by the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) for failing to file their financial statements before the regulatory due dates.
The capital market authority’s listing rules stipulate public companies release their quarterly financial statements 60 days after each quarter, while the Full Year earnings are mandated to be submitted 90 days after year ends.
However, Unity Bank management, led by Oluwatomi Somefun, failed to submit both Full Year financial results for 2021 and First Quarter 2022 statements, resulting into a total N4.2 million penalty, with the former attracting N3.6 million fine, and the latter costing the firm N600,000.
First Bank also failed to submit both the Q1 financial statements for 2022 and the FY earnings results for last year before the deadline, resulting to the capital market authority penalising the lender, led by Adesola Adeduntan, N2.6 million and N5.5 million respectively.
Union Bank, led by Emeka Okonkwo, was fined N1.2 million for not releasing its 2021 Full Year financial statements.
The sanction is expected to affect the profit of Unity Bank, FBN Holdings and Union Bank, as well as impact investors confidence in their management to comply with the rules of the capital market going into Q2 and the Second Half of 2022.
Ripples Nigeria understands that the timely release of financial statements aids investors in their decisions relating to trading in the capital market. Failure to do so puts shareholders and prospective investors in the dark regarding the firms’ earnings.
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
The All Progressives Congress candidate for Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District in the 2023 general election, and Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom (retd.), has vowed that he will not relinquish the APC senatorial district ticket which he won on May 27, 2022 to Senator Godswill Akpabio or anyone, no matter the pressure on him.
The State Chairman of the party, Mr. Stephen Ntuekpo, while citing security infractions in the May 27 primary in the district, claimed he was directed to conduct a fresh primary by the national headquarters of the party on June 8, 2022.
The said primary produced the former Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Akpabio as the winner, having scored a total of 478 votes out of 512 accredited delegates.
But a statement on Sunday by Ekpoudum’s campaign Director-General, Hon. Uwem Udoma; Secretary, Obong Etokakpan, and the campaign’s Director of Media and Publicity, Peter Idiong, described the June 8, 2022 midnight primary that produced senator Godswill as “scam, unconstitutional, deceitful and legally defective.”
The statement assured the APC members in the Senatorial district that he will “under no circumstance, relinquish, withdraw or be substituted no matter the degree of pressure and inducement dangled by anyone.”
According to the statement, the mandate freely and expressly given to him to fly the APC ticket for next year’s senatorial election is not a commodity for buying and selling.
“The 2023 DIG Udom Ekpoudom Senatorial Campaign Organisation has observed an absurd, ridiculous and highly provocative conspiracy with respect to the APC Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District Senate primary election, validly won by Udom Ekpoudom. We vehemently wish to reiterate and state as follows;
“That DIG Udom Ekpoudom, the Standard Bearer is a very disciplined, cultured and law-abiding citizen with the national toga of Officer of Niger, hence, he has high regard for extant laws of any establishment.
“Recall that Ekpoudom duly participated in the Akwa Ibom North-West APC Senatorial District Primary Election held on Friday, May 27, 2022, in line with the 2023 Election Timetable and guideline of our party.
“Succinctly, the primary election was properly monitored by INEC as constitutionally required and Udom Ekpoudom was victorious and declared the winner and the party’s flagbearer.
“Sequel to the aforementioned, we want to state categorically and without any ambiguity, that at no time did our party, the APC put our candidate on notice of any cancellation of the primary election or that of conducting another senatorial primary for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial seat,” the statement read in part.
The campaign organisation vowed that the mandate given to Udom Ekpoudom to contest next year’s senatorial election remained sacrosanct which would be judiciously guarded and protected.
“The purported “scam election” held on Thursday, June 8, 2022, at the Skills Acquisition Centre in Ikot Ekpene, is nothing but illegal, deceitful, unconstitutional, and legally defective,” the statement further said.
The die is cast. The road to Aso Rock will be expensive and exhausting. Becoming a candidate is only the beginning of the election process. Dark money is about to rule, reign, and run rampant. Slated for February 2023, the presidential election, a straight fight between two old war horses; the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; and the All Progressives Congress, APC’s Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will be an outlier.
Spending on Steroids! Presidential races are generally won by the highest spender and both gladiators are known and revered for their mammoth wealth and vast network of well-heeled associates, mentees, and protégés. In their different capacities over the years, they have created billionaires who would naturally aspire to greater affluence and influence with their principal as president. Thus, Atiku and Tinubu and their cronies will plumb into the depth of their reserves to grab the coveted seat that they had individually aspired to for decades. Conversely, the 2023 election is effectively going to end one of the two’s political life. Safe to say this is going to be a do-or-die affair. So, no amount of money will be too much to claim victory.
This election is a battle of two redoubtable billionaires. But personal money would never be enough. Thankfully, they have eager associates to help in the imminent money war. Political analysts have estimated that spending in this election would be in trillions. The media will get a sizeable chunk of this through heavy radio jingles, TV, online, outdoor, and print ads. Just as electoral agents and party stakeholders. The electorate would also get its share willy-nilly – don’t forget the Ekiti debacle of 2018 where voters were induced with N5, 000 each. For the presidential election, the money would almost quadruple. Security agents would also need some motivation to defend the sanctity of votes.
Instructively, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, rules officially prohibit corporate bodies from donating to campaigns and restrict individual contributions to N1million. Further, the rules restrict the amount of money a presidential candidate may spend on their campaign to N1bn; N200m for a gubernatorial candidate; N40m for a senatorial candidate; N10m for a House of Representatives candidate; and a House of Assembly candidate to N10m. However, these rules are only on paper. The N1billion is not even enough to secure a presidential ticket in today’s Nigeria.
The Perennial Billionaire Aspirant Atiku, a former Vice President (1999 – 2007) is a multi-billionaire with interests in numerous lucrative sectors including maritime, media, education, agriculture, and telecommunications among others. Only a man with his boundless wealth would have contested the presidential election the number of times that he had. He has been on the ballot since 2007 when he ran on the platform of the Action Congress, AC.
He contested the presidential primaries of the PDP during the 2011 presidential election losing out to Goodluck Jonathan. In 2014, he joined the APC ahead of the 2015 presidential election and contested the primaries losing to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari. Like a rolling stone, he returned to the PDP in 2017 and was the party’s presidential candidate during the 2019 election. The Adamawa-born Septuagenarian is back again on the ballot.
Will Wike’s Wealth Prove the Difference? That Atiku successfully snatched the ticket from the grasp of the rambunctious but stupendously wealthy Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, who was scarily coasting home to victory, testifies unequivocally to his huge spending power. Wike, a former local government chairman, Secretary to the State Government, Minister, and currently in his second term as governor of the oil-rich Rivers State, is widely described as a roughneck with a deep pocket. He had traversed the length and breadth of the country, spending millions of dollars to propagate his presidential aspiration, and reportedly gave $25, 000 to each delegate at the PDP presidential primaries. But for the Northern block of the party aligning when it mattered the most, money, good money, not blazing ideology or brilliant message, would have bought Wike the PDP presidential ticket.
Atiku’s money will not be enough to win him the election. That is why he is still ambivalent as to who his running mate should be. Public affairs analysts contend that overlooking Wike would be at his peril. His unabashed brusqueness and boorishness aside, Wike’s massive war chest is needed to prosecute the election. No other state governor can outspend him and this was evident during the last PDP convention. The nation awaits Atiku’s choice of a running mate!
Tinubu and the Pursuit of a Lifelong Ambition For the former two-term governor of Lagos State, the 2023 election is his swansong, the culmination of a ‘lifelong ambition’, as he put it when he first declared to run in January. That he even clinched the ticket despite the robust opposition mounted against him signifies clearly that billions of naira had been expended. In the run-up to the party primaries held this week in Abuja, Tinubu went barnstorming around the country, flying private jets with his large entourage. Before visiting with the political class, he had first gone around traditional rulers.
Of course, he never went anywhere empty-handed. In March, news broke that traditional rulers in Ondo State were at loggerheads because the N30million allocated to them per senatorial district was disproportionately shared between A-Class and B-Class kings. That is a total of N90million in one state, aside from the huge cost of his logistics! Thus, a conservative estimate of visiting each state would be around N200million. He would later visit all the states meeting with delegates and party leaders. Tinubu’s landslide victory is, therefore, a testament to his spending power. And this is without prejudice to his proven political sagacity and long sustenance of the APC structure.
Lagos’ Debt of Gratitude Lagos is Nigeria’s biggest economy and richest in terms of Internal Generated Revenue, IGR. Tinubu is the godfather of Lagos politics. He laid the template for the prosperity of Lagos State and shored up its IGR from N600million to the N51billion per month that it is today. He has had the state in his kitty since becoming governor in 1999. Despite leaving office in 2007, he has unilaterally handpicked every Lagos State governor. Similarly, everybody who matters in the Lagos State apparatus –executive, legislature, and judiciary – is beholden to him.
Expectedly, the Lagos State government will do any and everything to ensure that it forbear achieves his ambition!
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it will embark on a nationwide Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Tax (WHT) compliance exercise from July, 2022.
This information is contained in a statement it issued in Abuja yesterday and signed by the FIRS Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami.
The VAT and Withholding Tax Compliance Monitoring exercise will involve teams of FIRS officers visiting selected taxpayers and taxable persons to review their VAT and Withholding Tax records.
According to the statement, “the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) shall embark on a nationwide VAT and WHT compliance monitoring exercise with effect from July 1, 2022″.
“As a result, teams of officers from the Service shall visit selected taxpayers, taxable persons (including companies, NGOs or MDAs) to review their VAT and WHT records.”
Mr. Muhammad Nami also highlighted that the exercise would cover 2016 to 2020 accounting years for taxable persons whose records have been audited by the Service up to the 2015 accounting year.
He, however, noted that for taxpayers whose records have not been audited by the Service up to 2015, the exercise will be extended to include the prior years that have not been tax audited.
The service also called on all taxable persons and tax agents to immediately remit deductions of VAT and Withholding Tax they have made on its behalf.
“All taxable persons or tax agents who have made deductions of VAT or WHT on behalf of the Service are required to immediately remit all such deductions to the FIRS within two weeks of this publication.”
The notice also stated that those who would be visited during the monitoring exercise will be notified and informed of the required documents for review beforehand.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has told an Ikeja Special Offences Court that social media celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha a.k.a. Mompha flouted the court’s order and travelled to Dubai with a new international passport.
This, the anti-graft agency said, was despite that his traveling documents had been submitted to the court.
Justice Mojisola Dada had on March 28 ordered Mompha to submit his international passport to the chief registrar of the high court as one of his bail conditions varied from N200 million to N25 million.
Mompha is facing an eight count charge of N6 billion money laundering charge alongside his company, Ismalob Global Investment Limited, brought against him by the EFCC.
The charges bordered on retention of proceeds of criminal conduct, use of property derived from unlawful act, possession of document containing false pretences and failure to disclose assets.
During resumed proceedings, EFCC counsel, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, informed the court that Mompha hired an Emirate Airline and travelled to Abuja after he had submitted his international passport on the order of the court.
He reminded the court that when the defendant was granted bail, he was also ordered to submit his International Passport to the registrar.
He said: “The commission had it from a good authority that the defendant has a passport with No. D50084304, which was issued in Abuja on July 2021 and is to expire on June 30, 2031.
“From the information by our partner, the defendant had on April 11 hired Emirate aircraft and flew from Ghana to Dubai. That passport is not the one submitted to this honourable court, my lord.
“The defendant did not travel through Nigeria. The issue now is that the defendant has a new passport at hand which he traveled with after my lord restricted him from travelling.”
Defence counsel, Gboyega Oyewole, SAN, however, objected to the submission of the prosecution.
He argued that EFCC should write to the Nigeria Immigration to ascertain the claim.
“I have spoken with the prosecution concerning this, my lord. When he called, I told him that there was a particular person who was our surety that was supposed to pay the N25 million.
“His account was frozen when the money got into his account. The man called the defendant and for the defendant’s safety, he told the man that he had travelled. But the man has connection and concluded that the defendant has defied the court order.
“My lord, the EFCC should write to Immigration to ascertain if my client really travelled out of the country or not.”
Oyewole said further: “This is a superior court of record sir and I suggest that an application be brought concerning this because there is a lot of confusion here.
“We should have it on record my lord. Let Immigration respond if another passport exists.”
Oyewole reminded the court that the residency visa the defendant has to live by in Dubai is already submitted to the registrar.
Oyedepo thereafter urged the court to stand down the case for ten minutes so as to discuss with the defence counsel.
The defence counsel also urged court to grant him one week to verify the claim of the prosecution.
On their return, the defence told the court: “We have had discussions within ourselves and also spoke with the prosecution.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are currently at the head office of NOVA Merchant Bank Limited to arrest the Chairman of the institution, Phillips Oduoza and its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nath Ude.
NOVA Bank is an investment-grade merchant bank in Nigeria which offers an integrated suite of financial solutions covering Wholesale Banking, Investment Banking, Asset Management, Securities Trading, Wealth Management, Trade Services, Transaction Banking, Cash Management and Digital Banking.
Sources told SaharaReporters that EFCC officials stormed the bank’s head office at 23, Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island in Lagos on Friday at noon to pick up Oduoza and Ude.
The duo are said to be under investigation following a petition by a staff member which accused them of fraud, conversion of tax and dollar round-tripping.
“EFCC is at NOVA bank to pick up the Chairman and MD on fraud. They are being investigated because a staff wrote a petition on fraud relating to the conversion of tax, dollar round-tripping,” a worker told SaharaReporters.
the forex market as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has vowed to deal decisively with perpetrators.
Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the in September 2021 said the apex bank would continue to restrict the activities of illegal forex dealers, advising banks to adhere strictly to CBN guidelines on forex sales.
Emefiele also said the CBN would hunt Nigerians who buy forex for Personal Travel purposes and later cancel such trips.
He warned bank customers involved in such fraudulent practices to desist from it.
“People buy forex from banks with PTA/BTA and cancel the flight later. We will find them and they must return the currency,” Emefiele had said.
Oduoza with about 30 years of banking experience, is the founder and Chairman of the board of Nova Merchant Bank Limited. He retired as the global CEO of UBA Group and was part of a small team that pioneered and established Diamond Bank Plc in the early 90’s.
The bank announced the appointment of Ude as its Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer effective 3rd of October 2020.
Ude was Executive Director at First City Monument Bank (FCMB) and later Executive Director at Union Bank from where he joined NOVA. He started his banking career with Citibank.
FBN Holdings Plc has announced that its largest, single shareholder, Mr. Femi Otedola has sold about N9.28 billion worth of the holding company’s shares on the trading floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).
The five transactions worth a total volume of 834.94 million was reported by FBN Holdings as part of its insider dealing notification on the NGX.
Insider dealing notification, is a mandatory filing required to be disclosed whenever a significant shareholder is selling shares on the Exchange.
According to the series of filings posted on the bourse, Otedola and his entities sold about 834,939,764.00 units, representing about 30 per cent of his shareholdings in the bank holding company.
The sold shares also reduced his shareholding from about 7.57 per cent to about 5.24per cent, thus 2.3per cent of the bank shares have been sold in a matter of 3-day.
The Acting company secretary, FBN Holdings, Mr. Adewale Arogundade in a notification on the Exchange disclosed that Shetland Global (Company Related to a significant shareholder) sold 174,939,764 at N11.14 shares of FBN Holdings on June 6, 2022 valued at N1.95billion.
Others are: Wells Property & Investment company sold 120,000,000.00 at N11.1 valued at N1.33billion; Prime Rose Global Concept sold 170,000,000.00 at N11.14 valued at N1.89billion; Prime Rose Global Concept sold 170,000,000.00 at N11.14 valued at N1.89billion and Femi Otedola sold 200,000,000 shares at N11.1 valued at N2.22 billion.
FBN Holdings share price has been hovering around the N11 and N12 range since Otedola was declared the majority shareholder this year.
The Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd, Mr. Ambrose Omordion said the billionaire might have wanted to divest into another business line that required fresh capital.
According to him, “He had bought some stocks around N7-8.00, while some were brought around N13.00 per share. I think the billionaire has seen another opportunity and he decided to sale those shares. Mind you, he is not selling all the shares.”
The share price of FBN Holdings closed at N10.30 per share yesterday.
