To settle bribery charges related to $6 billion in contracts to build liquefied natural gas facilities in Nigeria, ENI SpA, the former parent company of Snamprogetti Netherlands BV, a Dutch company, has agreed to pay $240 million in fines. (more…)
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released its first ever crime and corruption survey last Thursday in Abuja rating the police and customs, as well as utility companies such as the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as the country’s most corrupt institutions. Surprisingly, the nation’s courts were rated as one of the least. (more…)
| BY PETER NKANGA
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Ogun, Abia, Nasarawa and Imo States ate the most corrupt states in Nigeria according to a National criminal victimisation and safety survey held between 2007 and 2009 involving 10,228 respondents across the 36 states of Nigeria and Abuja.
The survey was conducted by CLEEN Foundation (formerly known as the Centre for Law Enforcement Education); Practical Sampling International (PSI), a field survey company; and DC Pro-Data Consult Ltd, a data management company.
The study also came up with interesting findings on Nigerians fear of cime:
“The fear of being a victim of crime is far higher than the possibility of being a victim. People who are afraid of crime are virtually incapacitated. It affects social relationships, economic activities, political stability and confidence, especially in the government and law enforcement agencies,” said Etannibi Alemika, a professor of criminology at the University of Jos.
The findings revealed that an overall national figure of 86.6 per cent of respondents expressed a “very high degree of fear”, with the most troubled respondents residing in Gombe, Abuja, Plateau, Ebonyi, Ondo and Sokoto. It also revealed that the dominant forms of crime in the country were theft (money, GSM handset, agricultural products, cars, etc), robbery, domestic violence, physical assault and burglary.
From the statistics provided, three-fifths (60 per cent) of all respondents said corruption has increased in the last three years, with Ogun, Abia, Nasarawa and Imo States being perceived as the most corrupt states in Nigeria.
On public officials viewed as most corrupt, Mr. Alemika said 51.7 per cent of respondents complained of having been solicited for bribe by the Police in the past 12 months. This was followed by the department of Immigration (29.8 per cent), the Federal Road Safety Corps (29.4 per cent), the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (27.6 per cent), the Custom Service (26.0 per cent) and lecturers in tertiary institutions (23.2 per cent).
“More than 50 per cent of those who report to the Police said they were dissatisfied with the police. The major source of this dissatisfaction has to do with their lack of capacity and gross ineffectiveness. Then, police treatment of complainants and their integrity or lack of it, which has to do with bribery and the Police colluding with suspects,” said Mr. Alemika.
Reason for the study
Explaining the objectives of the survey, CLEEN Foundation’s executive director, Innocent Chukwuma, said, “investment in producing reliable statistics on crime in Nigeria and promotion of their use in police planning and deployment” has been overlooked over the years, making the federal government, which controls law enforcement agencies, to appear “helpless and hopeless”.
“Our objectives include generating reliable complimentary data to official statistics on crime and assist policy makers in crime prevention and control planning. It will provide the Police with an information base that would help it in the deployment of policing resources to areas most needed and contribute in reducing the high level of fear of crime in Nigeria,” Mr. Chukwuma said.
Moses Olusola, the general manager of Practical Sampling International, said the stratified multi-stage random selection procedure was used to select female and male adult respondents aged 18 and above across the 37 states, who had lived in urban and rural households for a period of not less than six months.
The conveners of the conference said the survey’s findings will soon be published in a book and advertised in the newspapers for easy access by the public.
Raj Bhojwani, an alleged associate of Nigeria’s former Military Head of State, Sani Abacha and Nigeria’s present Ambassador to South Africa Buba Marwa has been sentenced to six years after depositing tens of millions of pounds from army deal in St Helier bank
Raj Bhojwani was jailed for depositing millions in a Jersey bank from a deal to provide trucks to the Nigerian dictator’s army. In the 12 years since Nigeria (more…)
As the Commission vigorously investigates the Siemens bribery scandal with the interrogation of some highly placed Nigerians, it is a mockery of justice that it has no-go areas in the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of financial crimes and corruption-related cases.
One would have expected the Commission to handle the high-profile Halliburton bribery case with its renewed vigour. But no, the Commission said last week that it would not revisit the controversial case unless it is so directed by the Presidency.
The Commission initiated the investigation of the case and had progressed it steadily, but its spokesman said it is a no-go area because ” a Presidential Committee headed by the office of Inspector-General of Police is now in charge.”
The late President Umaru Yar’Adua set up a Presidential Committee in 2007 to take the case off the EFCC. The Committee headed by the then Inspector General of Police, has EFCC Chairman, and representatives of the National Security Adviser, State Security Service and National Intelligence Agency as members.
Its terms of reference, among others, are “to establish the extent of involvement or culpability of any Nigerian in the bribery scandal and the sums of money allegedly paid out to any person in Nigeria by Halliburton as bribes in respect of the Bonny LNG Project; and to liaise with the Swiss authorities with a view to tracing and recovering any sum stashed in Swiss banks for the benefit of those involved in the Bonny Liquefied Natural Gas Project bribery scandal.”
Between then and now, while many Nigerians have been sentenced to jail or have been kept behind bars to await trials over far lesser offences; while various reports have revealed Nigerians suspected to be involved in the scandal, nothing seems to be happening.
The bribery scandal began in 1994, when the NLNG board under the chairmanship of MD Yusuf, opened bids for the award of contract for the Liquefied Natural Gas Project in Bonny, Rivers State. A consortium of four companies – Technip of France, Snamprogetti , a subsidiary of ENI SPA of Italy; Kellog of the United States later known as KBR and Japan Gasoline Corporation, which was registered as TSKJ, bid for the contract with BCSA. TSKJ is a subsidiary of Halliburton. TSKJ subsequently won the contract for $1.8 billion in September, 1994.
However, the lid over the bribery scandal that influenced the contract award to TSKJ was blown open in June, 2003. Further investigation into the Nigerian deal was opened in France in October, 2003, where it was deposed at the hearings that Jeffrey Tesler, a 60-year-old British lawyer, was the intermediary between Halliburton and the Nigerian government, who channelled the bribery money through Tri – Star Investment Limited owned by him.
All that is public knowledge now! Also of public knowledge is Tesler’s confession in court that the payments he made included two transfers amounting to $75,000 to Yusuf, then chairman of the LNG, that awarded the original contract to the consortium. His testimony showed that the bribe was used to secure Yusuf’s support in facilitating a meeting between TSKJ officials and the late Sanni Abacha.
Why Nigeria should dilly-dally with such a high profile case, with a big impact on the country’s image and its attraction as an investment destination, has become a sad statement on its anti-corruption efforts.
The long wait for justice has been made more depressing by unconfirmed reports that the Presidential Committee has indeed sent a report of its findings that implicate some highly placed Nigerians and former heads of state, to President Goodluck Jonathan.
So many people have been smeared by these reports in the public domain, and will forever remain tarred if the case remains inconclusive. That perhaps is why former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, wrote to President Jonathan last month hoping that it “would bring about a decision of the Federal Government to make available to the public, the full details of the circumstances surrounding the Halliburton bribe scandal and who, if anybody, are the culprits.”
All the developments on the case are now in the glare of the world. In the interest of justice and for the image of the country, the Federal Government should move quickly to bring the case to a judicial conclusion. It should disabuse the minds of Nigerians that in these times and age, there are still sacred cows.
Assets worth $350m (£212m) belonging to the son of Nigeria’s former Military ruler, Abba Abacha has been seized by a Swiss court
Abba Abacha was convicted of being a member of a criminal organisation and given a suspended custodial sentence.
Switzerland began investigating the Abacha family in 1999 and has so far handed back about $700m to Nigeria.
Nigerian state lawyers believe Sani Abacha, who ruled from 1993 until his death in 1998, may have stolen $2.2bn.
The Swiss authorities pursued Abba Abacha for six years before extraditing him from Germany in 2005.
“The examining magistrate sentenced him to a suspended jail term, and ordered the confiscation of his assets of $350m,” Geneva canton’s justice office said in a statement.
“[The money] is held by his criminal organisation and seized through international assistance in Luxembourg and the Bahamas.”
Abba Abacha can appeal against the judgement.
New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore and Sweden are the least corrupt nations in the world while Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Sudan are the most corrupt, according to Transparency International ’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a measure of domestic, public sector corruption just released
The ratings of the 180 nations, ranks Nigeria 130th alongside nations such as Mozambique, Uganda, Nicaragua, Mauritania and Libya
Nigeria has a low Corruption Perception Index (DPI) of 2.5 on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption). The CPI measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on 13 different expert and business surveys.
The full report can be accessed at- www.transparency.org
African Interest reports that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) has concluded plans to commence the trial of the former governor of River State, Dr. Peter Odili 
over alleged charges of corruption and abuse of office. (more…)
Read the full report here:
http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2009/gcb2009
Nigeria News: Federal Legislators face N4b corruption charges
The trial of top Nigeria’s Federal Legislators over corruption charges continued in Abuja yesterday with the trial Judge in an An Abuja High Court sitting reserved ruling in the bail application and directed that they should be remanded in prison custody.
Those on trial include the Chairmen of the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Power, Senator Nicholas Ugbane, and Hon. Ndudi Elumelu.
At yesterday’s sitting, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) counsel, Godwin Obla, raised security alarm over their safety and told the court that it could no longer accommodate them.
The other accused are the Managing Director of Rural Rlectrification Agency (REA), Samuel Gekpe; the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Dr. Abdullahi Aliyu; Simon Nanle, Engr. Lawrence Orekoya, Abdulsamad Jahun, Kayode Oyedeji, Hon. Igwe Paulinus and Hon. Jibo Mohammed.
They are facing trial on a 157-count charge of alleged criminal breach of trust by making fraudulent withdrawal of various sums of monies purporting same to be contract sums in favour of about 51 companies allegedly owned by their friends and associates.
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