COURT FREES FORMER BANK PHB BOSS ACCUSED OF N25BN FRAUD BY EFCC.

The former Managing Director of Bank PHB, Francis Atuche, who faced allegations of stealing N25.7 billion, was freed Monday after a judge ruled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission failed to prove that capital market-based matters fall under the jurisdiction of state high courts.

Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo held that the prosecution, the EFCC, did not produce any argument as to how 17 of the 27 count charge are connected to shares and stocks.

The judge noted that the other 10 counts were charges relating to stealing and, as such, fall under the jurisdiction of state high courts.

#NASSGATE - RIFT BETWEEN THE CAMP OF SARAKI AND LAWAN DEEPENS.

The crisis within the ruling All Progressives Congress took a new turn on Sunday with the Senator Ahmad Lawan group in the Senate accusing the Bukola Saraki group of plotting to make President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration fail.

“The election of a Peoples Democratic Party senator as deputy senate president is evidently a grand conspiracy to sabotage the Buhari government,” spokesperson for the pro – Lawan group, Senator Kabiru Marafa, said in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja.

Marafa argued that the inauguration of the 8th Senate and subsequent election of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, with 57 senators in attendance was an indication that the perpetrators of the act actively involved the management of the federal parliament.

MY STEP-FATHER STARTED RAPING ME WHEN I WAS JUST 11 YRS OLD - MAHEEDA. - #SAYNOTORAPE.

Controversial musician "Maheeda" refused to celebrate her dad on father's day because he abandoned her when she was just 5 months old and her step-father started raping her when she was just 11 ys old.

See her tweet & Instagram post after the cut........

I REMAIN LOYAL TO @MBUHARI - SAYS FORMER VP @ATIKU.

A former Vice President and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has said that it is dangerous for any individual or group within the APC to constitute themselves into an opposition even before the constitution of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

He also expressed his loyalty to President Buhari.

The former Vice President made the call against the backdrop of development in the polity, which he noted were interplay of forces and dynamic interests that should not be promoted to the point of being a threat to democracy and the new administration.

GOVERNOR AMBODE DECLARES 2ND LEKKI EXPRESSWAY TOLL FREE.

The Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, has assured residents that tolls will not be collected at the second toll point on the Lekki- Epe Expressway.

Ambode made the remark at an interactive session with journalists at the Banquet Hall of the Lagos House, Ikeja, a statement said on Sunday.

The governor, in the statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Habib Aruna, said his concern was ensuring the completion of the road.

PRESIDENT BUHARI SET TO REMOVE FUEL SUBSIDY.

President Muhammadu Buhari plans to totally remove fuel subsidy and use the proceeds for the provision of free and compulsory primary/secondary education across the country.

The administration is also said to be working on unbundling the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to make it more efficient in the production and delivery of products to Nigerians.

These proposals form part of the strong recommendations made by the transition committee raised by Buhari to work out a blueprint for his administration.

PROBE OF MY ADMINISTRATION IS FRAUDULENT & A WITCH HUNT - ROTIMI AMAECHI.

Former Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has described the probe of his administration by Governor Nyesom Wike as fraudulent and a witch hunt, stressing that he would explore every legal means to defend himself. Amaechi, in a statement by his media office, said the probe was dead on arrival, adding that the achievements of his government were on ground to speak for him.

The statement said: “Amaechi will use every constitutional and legal means available to protect his name and image from this smear campaign against him by this directionless, purposeless Wike-led government. As governor, Amaechi served his people well and the good things he did with the resources of the state are visible all over the state.

PRESIDENT BUHARI FINALLY MOVES INTO ASO ROCK.

After weeks of suspense with respect to when he would eventually move out of Defence House after his inauguration about three weeks ago, President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday eventually moved into his official residence in Aso Rock, Abuja.

Buhari, who returned back to Abuja from Katsina State where he had gone to inspect his farm on Saturday, started moving his belongings to the presidential villa on Sunday evening.

JONATHAN'S LAST MINUTE APPOINTMENTS TEARS CIVIL SERVICE APART.

The crisis in the federal civil service appeared to have worsened with career civil servants protesting against the absorption of 530 aides and cronies of former President Goodluck Jonathan into the civil service in the last days of the past administration.

The new recruits into the service were also said to have been installed in high positions, from assistant directors upward.

Already, six deputy directors in the federal civil service are in court to protest against the manner the last promotion examination to directors’ level was handled by the Federal Civil Service Commission.

WE FOUND CORRUPTION EVERYWHERE IN JONATHAN'S GOVERNMENT - AHMED JODA (HEAD OF BUHARI'S TRANSITION COMMITTEE).

Malam Ahmed Joda chaired President Muhammadu Buhari’s Transition Committee, which interfaced with former President Goodluck Jonathan’s team. In an exclusive interview, the ‘super permsec’ of the 1970s and 1980s, would not reveal any of the recommendations his committee made to President Buhari. But he was forthcoming on the state of the nation and the challenges the new government will face in the next four years. Malam Joda was frank and witty in this explosive interaction.

POLICE OFFICER KILLED BY MAN WHO CALLED 911 HIMSELF.

OFFICER KIM

While friends were commenting on his last Facebook post Friday -- and some were reading text messages indicating his plan to commit suicide by cop -- Trepierre Hummons called 911 then waited with a gun for police to arrive, Cincinnati, USA,  police said.

When they did, he and shot and killed 48-year-old Officer Sonny Kim, a husband and father of three, police said.

Then he opened fire on two more officers, said Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffery Blackwell.

PRO-SARAKI LAWMAKERS REJECTS LAWAN AS SENATE LEADER.

The current crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress, worsened on Saturday when senators loyal to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, vowed to resist alleged moves by the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and other party chieftains to impose Senators Ahmad Lawan and George Akume as the Senate leader and deputy, respectively.

Senators Ahmed Sani-Yerima and Danjuma Goje, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, specifically declared that the plans by the leadership of the APC to fill the remaining four principal-officer positions with ranking members of the Senate Unity Forum was totally unacceptable.

The Senators Unity Forum consists of loyalists of Lawan, who lost the Senate Presidency bid to Saraki.

I WAS AMAECHI'S ENGINE ROOM - NYESOM WIKE.

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has said that he is responsible for the emergence of his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, as governor. This is as he also described himself as the engine room of the former governor.

Wike said this on Saturday while speaking with journalists at the Government House, Port Harcourt, Rivers State

The governor explained that he was teaching those in Amaechi’s camp the way to play the game of politics, because “there is no polling booth in the state that I do not know or do not know anybody.”

PRESIDENT BUHARI SET TO MERGE EFCC & ICPC AS 42 MINISTRIES WILL BE REDUCED TO 19.

After three weeks of consultations with international and Nigeria’s political leaders, President Muhammadu Buhari appears set to effect major changes in the administration of the country in a bid to translate the ‘change’ mantra of his party into reality. To start with, the President  is said to have accepted the recommendation of the transition committee he raised a few weeks ago to slash the number of ministries from the present 42 to 19 with a view to saving cost and making them more effective and responsive to the needs of  Nigerians.

In the same vein, many of the ministries have been merged to ensure proper coordination of duties and ensure greater efficiency and service delivery.

NIGERIA'S NAKED LAWMAKERS.

In July 2010, renowned law Professor, Itse Sagay, raised an alarm that Nigerian lawmakers were the highest paid in the globe. Sagay found that a Nigerian Senator earns N240 million ($1.7 million) in salaries and allowances while his counterpart in the House of Representatives earns about N204 million ($1.45 million) per annum. Realizing that an American senator earns $174, 000 while a UK parliamentarian earns about $64, 000 per annum, Sagay condemned the Nigerian situation as “a breach of public trust”.

APC CRISIS - OBASANJO'S PEACE TALK CRASHES.

Efforts by the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, to nip in the bud the crisis set off by the recent election of the principal officers of the National Assembly may have hit a brick wall.

The crisis of confidence which has pitted party leaders of the All Progressives Congress against the new principal officers of the National Assembly may take a turn for the worse this week.

Contrary to the belief in several quarters, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is widely believed to have accepted the election of the principal officers as a fait accompli, is said to be unhappy with the leadership of the National Assembly.

MEN & WOMEN FACING CRIMINAL CHARGES WHO WILL BE MAKING LAWS FOR NIGERIA.

Nigeria’s eighth National Assembly was inaugurated on Tuesday, June 9. At the chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives, 109 Senators and 360 Representatives were sworn in to office for a four-year term.

Section 66(1a-i) the 1999 Constitution bars certain categories of Nigerians from being members of the National Assembly.

The Constitution says a person shall be unworthy to make laws for the country if he has been indicted for embezzlement or fraud by a judicial commission of inquiry or an administrative panel of inquiry or a tribunal set up under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act, Tribunals of Inquiry Law or any other law by the federal or state government which indictment has been accepted by the federal or state governments respectively.

READ HOW NIGERIA POLICE (@POLICENG) HELP PAEDOPHILES ESCAPE JUSTICE. Cc: @CHANNELSTV @UNICEF @MBUHARI

One cold afternoon, 11-year-old Bisi Adebola (not real name) was running errands for her mother in Ipaja area of Lagos, when a paedophile living just few metres away from their house, called the girl into his house and raped her.

Shy and afraid, Bisi told Saturday PUNCH, on the prompting of her mother, how the man, whom she referred to as ‘Alfa’, called her under the pretence that he wanted to send something to her mother.

The girl said, “He told me to follow him into his room and when I got inside and waited to collect what he said he wanted to give me, he locked the door and told me to sit down.

AISHA BUHARI RELOCATES TO ASO ROCK AHEAD OF PRESIDENT BUHARI.

The wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, has relocated to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, barely three weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was inaugurated.

Since they were inaugurated, Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo have been operating from outside the Presidential Villa.

This is despite the fact that both men have their official residences and offices inside the Villa.

19 YR OLD NARRATES HOW HER 3 CLOSEST MALE FRIENDS RAPED HER IN LAGOS. #SAYNOTORAPE.

In an act, which has shocked residents of a neighbourhood in Iju area of Lagos, three friends – Habeeb Adisa (25), Kehinde Aderinoye (25) and Ilyas Ogundimu (27) – have raped one of their female neighbours, a young woman,who is their close friend in the neighbourhood.

The victim, 19-year-old Adenike (not real name), a hair stylist, volunteered to speak with Saturday PUNCH, saying she summoned the courage to speak about her ordeal because she did not want them to go free and do the same to someone else.

Narrating how she was violated by the three men whom she trusted most in their neighbourhood, Adenike told our correspondent that not once did she suspect within the two years she knew them that they had such a heinous plan for her.