EFCC charges Cubana manager with $164,000 fraud; ASUU Heading To Indefinite Strike, Demands Fresh Negotiation Committee | 5 Things That Should Matter Today

  • EFCC charges Cubana manager with $164,000 fraud
  • Falconets ‘stranded’ after World Cup elimination; NFF shifts blame
  • FG unveils energy transition strategy
  • FAAC shares N954bn to FG, states, LGs
  • ASUU Heading To Indefinite Strike, Demands Fresh Negotiation Committee

Across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, these are the five top Nigerian news stories you shouldnt miss:

EFCC charges Cubana manager with $164,000 fraud

A manager of the Cubana Group named Lucky Uchechukwu Ndukwe was charged on Wednesday with a crime that may have been considered money laundering and conspiracy to launder.

The EFCC’s Lagos Zonal Command charged Precious Omonkhoa Ofure alongside Ndukwe, also known as Cubana Prime Minister, in front of Justice Justice O.A. Fadipe of the Special Offenses Court in Ikeja, Lagos State.

EFCC agents recently detained the individuals after receiving reliable information about their involvement in fraudulent operations.

The amount of $164,000 (One Hundred and Sixty-four Thousand Dollars), as well as laptop and iPhone mobile devices, were retrieved from them.

The charge against the suspect reads: “That you, Precious Omonkhoa Ofure and Lucky Uchechukwu Ndukwe, sometime in 2021 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did conspire amongst yourselves and laundered an aggregate sum of $164,000, which forms part of $256,314 fraudulently obtained by one Elena Bogomaz, a Canadian citizen, and converted the fraudulent money into the United States Dollars with the help of a Bureau De Change Operator, which was then credited into the bank accounts of Casa Cubana Estate Limited and Lucky Uchechukwu Ndukwe, respectively, for the purchase of two landed properties.”

During their arraignment on Wednesday, Ndukwe “pleaded not guilty,” while Ofure pleaded “guilty” to the charge.

As a result, the prosecution’s attorney, M.K. Bashir, went over the case’s facts and pleaded for Ofure, the defendant, to receive a sentence that was appropriate.

Ofure was found guilty of two charges of conspiracy and money laundering and sentenced to three years in jail, with the possibility of an additional fine of N2,000,000.00 and 100 hours of community service.

All of the items seized from the offender were also ordered to be forfeited by the judge.

Ndukwe’s attorney, Chuks Arubalaeze, informed the court of his client’s request for bail.

He was granted bail in the amount of N5,000,000.00 with two sureties in the same amount by Justice Fadipe.

In addition, Justice Fadipe mandated that Udukwe remain in custody until the completion of his bail requirements and postponed the case’s start date for trial to October 28, 2022.

Falconets ‘stranded’ after World Cup elimination; NFF shifts blame

Nigeria’s U-20 Women’s team, the Falconets, have been sentenced to a tortuous flight from Costa Rica back to Nigeria after being eliminated from the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

The Falconets, who had shown a lot of potential by defeating France, South Korea, and Canada in all three of their group games, came up short in the quarterfinal, falling to the Netherlands 2-0 in a game that finished early on Monday morning.

After the Falconets were eliminated at around 6.30 am on Monday, it was learned that they had to leave Costa Rica practically immediately.

Despite their heroic performance on the field, Colin Udoh, a former Super Eagles media representative and committee member with the Nigeria Football Federation, claims that the Falconets have been experiencing hell in their quest to represent their country.

Mr. Udoh detailed Tuesday morning how the Falconets were stuck in Turkey at the Istanbul airport on a 24-hour layover in a now-viral Twitter thread. He displayed images of national team members dozing off on airport benches and the cold airport floor.

The Nigeria Football Federation has recently issued a statement claiming that they are not responsible for the Falconets’ avoidable difficulties. The Nigeria Football Federation, working with Air Peace, ensures that the Super Eagles always fly on chartered flights whenever they are competing.

The U20 Girls’ National Team, the Falconets, had to spend 24 hours at the airport in Turkey on their way back from the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, according to the NFF, which listed a number of contributing factors, including the inability to obtain transit visas for the team’s players and officials at the Istanbul Airport.

FG unveils energy transition strategy

Yesterday, the Federal Government unveiled a plan to raise $10 billion for Nigeria’s energy transition.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said the plan was a decisive move that the country could not afford to put off. He said this during the inauguration in Abuja.

He added that cooperation is needed to seize control of the continent’s transitional pathways and that action must be swift and urgent due to Africa’s widening energy shortages.

“The issue of energy poverty for Africa is as critical as our climate aspirations,” he said.

Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Office of the Vice President, released a statement yesterday that included Osinbajo’s comments as well as a description of the sizeable amount of money needed to achieve both development and climate aspirations.

“To implement our Transition Plan by 2060, Nigeria will need to spend $410 billion more than what it currently spends, or around $10 billion annually.

“The average annual investment in renewable energy for Africa between 2000 and 2020 was $3 billion, which is clearly insufficient,” the statement read.

FAAC shares N954 b to FG, states, LGs

The Federal Government, States, and Local Government Councils have each received a total of N954.085 billion in Federation Account Revenue from the FAAC.

This was stated in the communiqué that was released following yesterday’s FAAC meeting in Abuja.

The committee estimates that the N954.085 billion total distributable revenue was made up of N776.918 billion in distributable statutory income and N177.167 billion in distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Nigeria Customs Service each collected N47.254 billion as collection costs, with a total of N255.762 billion deducted for transfers, savings, and refunds.

The Excess Crude Account (ECA) has a balance of $470,599.54.

The Federal Government received N406.610 billion, the State Governments N281.342 billion, and the Local Government Councils N210.617 billion out of the total N954.085 billion.

Nine oil-producing states received a total of N55.515 billion as a 13% derivation revenue split.

According to the revenue information, the gross statutory revenue for the month of July 2022 was N1.066 trillion.

The amount of revenue in the reviewed period was N54.780 billion more than the total of N1.02 trillion received in the preceding month.

Value Added Tax (VAT) gross receipts for the month of July 2022 were N190.256 billion. This was N17.892 billion less than the N208.148 billion that was made accessible in June 2022.

The Federal Government collected N26.575 billion, the State Governments N88.584 billion, and the Local Government Councils N62.008 billion from the N177.167 billion in distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue.

According to the FAAC, while import duty and value-added tax (VAT) saw considerable decreases, companies’ income tax (CIT), petroleum profit tax (PPT), excise duties, and oil and gas royalties all saw significant rises.

ASUU Heading To Indefinite Strike, Demands Fresh Negotiation Committee

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) leadership has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to take direct control of the efforts to settle the current industrial action by the union.

However, the crisis that is roiling the Nigerian university system is still far from being resolved.

The Union additionally requested Buhari to assemble a brand-new group of “honest people” for negotiations on open-ended problems.

In an interview with AIT Focus Nigeria on Wednesday, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, national president of ASUU, made the request.

The National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU will meet on Sunday to decide whether or not to stop the strike action. However, rumors from some of the state ASUU branches suggest that the strike will go on as planned because the government was unable to reach a binding deal with the union.

The ASUU president’s remarks on Wednesday made it abundantly obvious that the lecturers would be engaging in protracted strike action over what he perceived to be the insincerity of government officials.

He alleged that President Buhari was misinformed by people in the villa, just to create a misunderstanding between him and the committee and ASUU on the other hand.
Osodeke insisted that if Nigeria could afford to pay N4 trillion a year to subsidize fuel, which could be produced in the country without adding one kobo, and afford N200 billion to feed children in secondary and primary schools, the government should not complain that there is no money to fix the university education.

On when the strike will end, Osodeke said, “Government for once should go the way of President Goodluck Jonathan and in one night; during Goodluck Jonathan, we had that meeting for 14 hours, both sides open, no clash and nobody exuding power, and but looked at all the issues and resolved them within 14 hours.

“If the president can put together a strong team of people who are honest and not part of those telling lies presently, people who love this country, they do not have to come from government and we meet to look at how we can resolve this national problem, we will resolve it within two days.”

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