TheNewsGuru

Tag: Investigation

  • Lagos govt opens investigation into cause of Mushin building collapse

    Lagos govt opens investigation into cause of Mushin building collapse

    The Lagos State Government says it has directed prompt investigations to unravel the cause of the building collapse at 2/4 Oye Sonuga Str., Palmgroove, Mushin Local Government on Friday.

    The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr Omotayo Bamgbose-Martins, said this at the site.

    He said the incident, which occurred at midday, was “the partial collapse of a four-floor building that is over forty years old”.

    Bamgbose-Martins, according to a statement by Mr Mukaila Sanusi, spokesman of the ministry, said that while investigations were on, he had directed that the adjoining building be demolished for safety reasons to avert danger.

    The Commissioner said that the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) and the Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory had been instructed to begin work to unravel the cause of the collapse.

    He said the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency had since begun rescue operations and efforts were on to save anyone trapped in the rubbles.

    Lagos has recorded recurring cases of building collapse, with Friday’s incident coming on the heels of that of a seven-storey building on Oba Idowu Oniru Street, Lekki, on Sept. 4.

    The building, which was under construction, caved in, leading to the death of no fewer than five persons.

    The former Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Idris Salako, resigned his appointment a day after the incident.

    Mr Gbenga Omotoso, Commissioner for Information and Strategy who announced Salako’s resignation in Ikeja, did not state the reason for his resignation.

    He stated, however, that the commissioner’s resignation was a prelude to the restructuring of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development and its agencies.

    He added that Gov. Sanwo-Olu accepted the commissioner’s resignation, thanked him for his services to the state and wished him success in his future endeavours.

    “The governor warns all players in the sector to respect the law or face the consequences of any indiscretion, no matter who the perpetrators are,’’ Omotoso had stressed.

    On Sept. 17, his successor, Bamgbose-Martins, was quoted as telling staff members of agencies under the ministry that it could no longer be business as usual.

    This is contained in a statement by Mr Mukaila Sanusi, spokesman of the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development.

    Sanusi quoted the commissioner as speaking during his maiden meeting with staff of agencies under his ministry in Alausa.

    The meeting, according to the statement, was held with staff of the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA) and the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) District Officers.

    It said that the state government was adopting rewards and sanctions for efficiency of its agencies monitoring the construction sector and urged the staff to brace up for change.

    The commissioner is quoted as saying that the ministry was confronted with several challenges it could not ignore

    He said they could not be ignored if the ministry must meet the aspirations of the state government for sustainable built environment and 21st century economy.

  • DSS gives hint on investigation of terrorists negotiator, Tukur Mamu

    DSS gives hint on investigation of terrorists negotiator, Tukur Mamu

    The Department of State Services (DSS) on Sunday hinted that the investigation of the Kaduna train hostage negotiator, Tukur Mamu has remained ‘mind boggling’.

    Mamu was intercepted by Nigeria’s partners in Cairo on Tuesday while on his way to Saudi Arabia.

    He was extradited to Nigeria on Wednesday and taken into the Service’s custody.

    DSS spokesman, Dr. Peter Afunanya in Abuja disclosed that the service has received some overzealous comments by some sections of the public on issues relating to the arrest and investigation of Mamu.

    “The Service wishes that it is not distracted by some skewed narratives pervading the media space.

    “Instead, it requests to be left alone to concentrate on its investigations, the outcomes of which have remained mind boggling.

    “Meanwhile, the Service will cease further comments on the subject matter since the court will determine its course,’’ he stated.

  • Ritual shrine: Edo Govt. tasks Police to conclude investigation in 7 days

    Ritual shrine: Edo Govt. tasks Police to conclude investigation in 7 days

    The Edo Government on Friday gave the state Police Command seven days to conclude investigation into the discovery of a suspected ritual shrine in the state.

    Crusoe Osagie, Special Adviser to Gov. Godwin Obaseki, announced the ultimatum in Benin during a joint briefing at the command headquarters.

    Osagie stated that there was a need for the police to quickly unravel the controversies surrounding the issue due to the insinuation in some quarters that the place was a morgue and not a shrine.

    The Edo Police Command had in a statement on Thursday, claimed to have busted a suspected ritual shrine in Benin and arrested three suspects with 20 mummified bodies.

    “We are calling for calm and not to pre-empt the outcome of Police investigations .

    “There are a lot of speculations going around that the place is a quack morgue where they preserve bodies.

    “We are going to leave the situation for the police to do their investigations and brief the public on what was going on there.

    “Some persons have been apprehended and are undergoing questioning; some are still being looked for and will be apprehended.

    “They will contribute useful information to the investigations. The governor has given 7 days for them to come back with details of what they found; if it was just a morgue, any ritual involved or what is the situation.

    “So, the police will be allowed to do the work, we will give them the time to come back to brief us.

    “We are going to continually brief the public exactly what the situation is,” he said.

    The governor’s media aide also noted that the state had taken measure to avert public health crisis.

    Also briefing, DCP Olawore Oluwole, in-charge of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), said the command acted on a credible intelligence that a bungalow located in Uzebu quarters in Ekenhua, Benin, accommodated dry bodies.

    Oluwole, however, retracted that there was no indication from their investigation so far that it was a ritual shrine.

    The senior police officer said that five suspects had been arrested in connection with the case, while the owner of the bungalow was on the run.

    “So far, we are still looking for one of the suspects, Chukwu Otu, and frantic efforts are being made to reach him who was alleged to be the owner of the bungalow.

    “I want to appeal to members of the public to remain calm as the command will ensure all efforts will be made to reach the suspects and every other details that are necessary to unravel,” Oluwole said.

  • Family of 7 die after ‘poisonous meal’ in Zamfara

    Family of 7 die after ‘poisonous meal’ in Zamfara

    The police in Zamfara said seven family members died after taking a local delicacy of corn and vegetables locally known as Dambu for dinner.

    The command  Public Relations Officer, SP Mohammed Shehu said that the command has begun investigation to unravel the cause of the death of the family members in Danbaza village, Maradun Local Government Area of the State.

    “The incident happened on Monday immediately after the family took the meal prepared as their dinner.

    “The police has taken samples of the meal for analysis and I assure the general public that results would be released to newsmen,” Shehu said.

    A resident of the village, Muhammad Kabir, who is close to the family told NAN that four of the victims including two married women and five teenagers died on the spot while the three others died after they were rushed to a nearby hospital.

    “As soon as the family members finished eating the meal, four of them died on the spot.

    ” The three others were rushed to hospital, but they later died while receiving treatment,” Kabir said

  • Police begin investigation to locate missing Nollywood actress, Okereke

    Police begin investigation to locate missing Nollywood actress, Okereke

    The Police Command in Enugu State says it has launched an investigation to unravel and locate the missing Nollywood actress, Cynthia Okereke.

    The command said this in a statement issued by its Public Relations Officer, DSP Daniel Ndukwe on Saturday in Enugu.

    Ndukwe said, “the current report at our disposal dwells on a case of abandoned and recovered vehicle, as well as missing person.”

    He said that the vehicle was abandoned and recovered at Four-Corners on Enugu-Port-Harcourt Expressway, precisely within Ozalla community in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State axis of the road.

    “On July 29, at about 7:30a.m., we received information that a red-coloured Toyota RAV4 Jeep with registration number AGL 199 CY was noticed to have been parked in an abandoned way at Four-Corners on Enugu-Port-Harcourt Expressway.

    “Hence, the location was visited and the vehicle recovered.

    “Coincidentally, at about 11:30a.m., of same date, a report was further received stating that the vehicle belongs to one Cynthia Okereke (f), a Nollywood Actress, who was last seen on July 26,” he said.

    The police spokesman said that the report at the command’s disposal revealed that only one person was reported to be missing.

    However, Director of Communications, Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Mrs Monalisa Chinda-Coker, said that the families of actress Okereke and actor Clenson Cornel confirmed that they had not returned home since leaving a film location at Ozalla community.

    Chinda-Coker, in a statement, said: “The two members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, Okereke and Cornel alias Agbogidi were suspected missing after their family members confirmed they didn’t come back from a film location at Ozalla community.

    “The two members were suspected to have been kidnapped and this has increased fear among members about the safety of actors filming in the country.”

    Reacting to the development, National President of the Guild, Mr Rollas Ejezie, instructed all actors to avoid going to the outskirt of cities to film except full security cover was provided to ensure their safety.

    He expressed shock over the ugly development, while urging the security agencies to speed up investigation that would lead to their safe rescue.

  • Police arrest BEEDEL CEO for alleged N816m fraud

    Operatives of the Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU) Ikoyi, Lagos, have arrested the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BEEDEL Strategic Investment Company, Moses Odeleye, for N816 million alleged fraud.

     

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) gathered that Odeleye was apprehended after weeks of discrete investigation.

     

    According to the police, The suspect forges Local Purchase Orders (LPOs) of multinational companies and use them to perpetrate fraud.

    Police

     

    In a statement in which Odeleye’s arrest was disclosed, the Spokesperson for the Unit, SP Eyitayo Johnson said the suspect paraded himself on social media as a successful contractor with interest in Civil Engineering/Construction, Real Estate and Supply/Importation of Heavy Engineering Equipment.

     

    The statement reads: “He was arrested in connection with the forgery of 11 Local Purchase Orders (LPOs) of five multinational companies operating in Nigeria and one Agency of the Federal Government.

     

    “BEEDEL, as the suspect is popularly known, operates in connivance with former and current procurement staff of the companies whose LPOs were used to perpetrate the fraud.

     

    “BEEDEL forged the LPOs of these companies, government agency and approached numerous banks and investment companies with a proposal to finance the LPOs which he cleverly tenured to be paid between 30-60 days, to make the LPO financing appear juicy.

     

    “The suspect, using this modus operandi, was able to fraudulently obtain the sum of N816 million from two finance companies and diverted the same to fund extravagant lifestyles which includes building a mansion, office complex and purchase of exotic automobiles.”

     

    The police spokesperson noted that BEEDEL had mastered the art of using cloned LPOs to consecutively secure huge sums via LPO financing from different banks/finance companies.

     

    “He uses money from one bank, or finance company to settle his commitments to another bank/finance company, to maintain the fraudulent cycle of robbing Peter to pay Paul,” the statement added.

     

    He would, however, be charged to court once the investigation is concluded.

  • Trump loses lawsuit allowing NY probe to go on

    A federal judge on Friday dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James, rejecting the former president’s claim that she targeted him out of political animus and allowing her civil investigation into his business practices to continue.

     

    In a 43-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes wrote that case law bars federal judges from interfering in state-level investigations, with limited exceptions, and that there wasn’t evidence to support the Republican’s contention that James, a Democrat, was proceeding in bad faith because of their differing political views.

    Trump
    U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes

     

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Sannes, who was appointed in 2014 by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, said James had a legitimate basis for investigating Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, and that Trump failed to show that recent court proceedings seeking to enforce subpoenas on him were “commenced for the purpose of retaliation.”

     

    James’ public statements about Trump “make clear that she disagrees vehemently with Mr. Trump’s political views,” Sannes wrote, but Trump and his lawyers failed to demonstrate any connection between her opinions and how the investigation has played out.

     

    “The fact that (James’) public statements reflect personal and/or political animus toward (Trump) is not, in and of itself, sufficient,” Sannes wrote.

     

    James heralded Friday’s ruling as a “big victory” over a “frivolous” lawsuit. Sannes’ decision came a day after a New York appeals court ruled that Trump must answer questions under oath in James’ probe, upholding a lower-court ruling requiring him to sit for a deposition.

     

    “Time and time again, the courts have made clear that Donald J. Trump’s baseless legal challenges cannot stop our lawful investigation into his and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings,” James said in a written statement. “No one in this country can pick and choose how the law applies to them, and Donald Trump is no exception. As we have said all along, we will continue this investigation undeterred.”

     

    Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, questioned Sannes’ justification for dismissing the lawsuit — singling out, by name, the legal precedent at issue — and said they would take the matter to the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals.

     

    “There is no question that we will be appealing this decision,” Habba said. “If Ms. James’s egregious conduct and harassing investigation does not meet the bad faith exception to the Younger abstention doctrine, then I cannot imagine a scenario that would.”

     

    Trump sued James in December, resorting to a familiar but seldom successful strategy of litigation in an attempt to end the three-year investigation, which James has said uncovered evidence Trump’s company misstated the value of assets like skyscrapers and golf courses on financial statements for more than a decade.

     

    Trump filed the lawsuit just after James issued subpoenas for him and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., to give deposition testimony in James’ probe.

     

    Trump sought an injunction barring James from investigating him and preventing her from being involved in any “civil or criminal” investigations of him and his company, such as a parallel criminal probe being led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Although the civil investigation is separate, James’ office has been involved in both. Trump also wanted a judge to declare that James violated his free speech and due process rights.

     

    “We are sitting with our hands tied. We are simply dodging subpoenas at this point,” Habba said at a May 13 hearing.

     

    Trump has long contended that the New York investigations are part of a politically motivated “witch hunt.” In the lawsuit, his lawyers alleged that James had violated his constitutional rights in a “thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates.”

     

    The lawsuit described James as having “personal disdain” for Trump, pointing to numerous statements she’s made about him, including her boast that her office sued his administration 76 times and tweets during her 2018 campaign that she had her “eyes on Trump Tower” and that Trump was “running out of time.”

     

    James’ office responded that the lawsuit was a “collateral attack” on her investigation and a “complete about-face” after Trump previously agreed to turn over his 2014-2019 income tax returns to her office and his company provided more than 900,000 documents and testimony from more than a dozen current and former employees.

     

    Trump and his company never challenged the underlying legal basis for the investigation or the attorney general’s office’s legal authority to conduct it until her office issued a subpoena for his testimony, James’ office said.

     

    James’ office started investigating Trump in 2019 after his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen told Congress that Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits.

     

    At a May 13 hearing that precipitated Sannes’ ruling Friday, a lawyer for James’ office said the probe is winding down and that evidence from it could support legal action against the former president, his company, or both.

     

    The lawyer, Andrew Amer, said “there’s clearly been a substantial amount of evidence amassed that could support the filing of an enforcement proceeding,” although a final determination on filing such an action has not been made.

     

    All of that, Amer said, “really shuts the door on any argument” by Trump’s lawyers that the James’ office was proceeding in bad faith.

  • EPL: Man City under investigation over finances

    EPL: Man City under investigation over finances

    Manchester City are under investigation by the Premier League for possible Financial Fair Play breaches.

    The Premier League have been looking into City’s finances since March 2019, but the investigation has not yet concluded.

    German newspaper Der Speigel have published claims that it is aware of the details of said investigation into the Premier League champions’ finances.

    City were previously investigated and punished by UEFA, and even banned from European competition for two years, before the decision was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

    According to Der Speigel, via Goal, the Premier League is looking into City regarding “underage players were allegedly pressured to sign contracts with Manchester City through monetary payments, in violation of the rules”.

    In addition, “club sponsors in Abu Dhabi are suspected of having provided only a portion of their payments to the club themselves, with the majority apparently coming from [owner] Sheikh Mansour himself”.

    And lastly, ex-manager Roberto Mancini “is thought to have received a significant portion of his compensation secretly by way of a fictitious consultancy contract.”

  • Reps investigate excess bank charges on FG’s accounts

    Reps investigate excess bank charges on FG’s accounts

    Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila

    The House of Representatives, on Wednesday, mandated its Committee on Banking and Currency to investigate the alleged excessive charges on bank transactions imposed by Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), also known as commercial banks, in Nigeria.

    This directive was based on the motion moved by a member of the House, Sergius Ogun, titled ‘Need to Investigate the Imposition of Excessive Charges on Bank Transactions on Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria.’

    Ogun noted that most of the DMBs in the country impose excessive and non-statutory charges on varying bank transactions carried out by customers.

    “The House is concerned that despite the guide issued by the CBN, some banks still deduct outrageous amounts of money from their customers in the guise of bank charges with different descriptions.

    “The House is worried that in most cases, the deductions are already covered by the CBN approved monthly Account Maintenance Fee (AMF), thus amounting to double deduction,” Ogun said.

    The motion was unanimously adopted by the House which directed its Committee on Banking to liaise with professional financial consultants to investigate and determine the extent of excess charges on government accounts over the last eight years.

    The committee is to report back to the House with recommendations within four weeks for further legislative actions.

  • NEITI report: Reps committee invites NNPC, NDDC, others for investigation

    NEITI report: Reps committee invites NNPC, NDDC, others for investigation

    The House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee on the recovery of outstanding debts owned by the Federal Government Oil and Gas companies in Nigeria, has invited the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and many others for investigation.

    Others invited include the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS), Upstream Regulatory Commission, Midstream, Downstream Regulatory Authority, among others.

    This is based on the report of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) that 77 Oil and Gas companies operating in Nigeria are owing the Federal Government over N2.6 trillion.

    Mr Eric Makwe, the Clerk of the Committee, said this in a statement on Monday in Abuja, against the backdrop of the 2020 NEITI report.

    He said that the invitation was based on the motion at plenary on Nov. 30, 2021, which cited the NEITI report that 77 Oil and Gas companies operating in Nigeria are owing the Federal Government over N2.6 trillion.

    The clerk said the House had urged NEITI, the National Oil Spill Detection Agency (NOSDRA) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to provide necessary data needed to facilitate recovery of the debts.

    He, however, said that Representative Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, who is heading the 18-member ad hoc committee investigating the matter, assured that it would thoroughly investigate all issues raised in the report.

    According to him, the probe is in respect of outstanding liabilities owed by Oil and Gas which include payments of royalties, levies, rents, concessions, rentals, and penalties.

    Others are taxes, including petroleum profit tax, company income tax, education tax, Value Added Tax, withholding tax, among others.

    Makwe said that the major concern of the lawmakers is on the current poor revenue structure and rising debt profile which the government is contending with.

    He said that the committee had gone into action and is already making interesting discoveries.