Latest

HURIWA commends NNPC over steps taken to tackle fuel scarcity

Published

2 years ago

February 21, 2022

MINISTER OF CULTURE, NOA AND EFCC SHOULD WORK ON CULTURAL REORIENTATION AGAINST 419 OFFENCES BY COUPLES, YOUTHS- HURIWA Prominent civil rights advocacy group: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to liaise and partner actively with credible civil rights organisations, the Federal ministry of Culture and Creative Economy and the National Orientation Agency to create massive enlightenment and sensitize couples and youths in Nigeria about the necessity of pursuing legitimate sources of income and the avoidance of all traces of advanced fees fraud in Nigeria. HURIWA raised the alarm that more and more couples and families are getting caught by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over their alleged involvement in mind-boggling and mind-blowing criminal acts of frauds and advanced fees fraud running into billions of Naira just as the Rights group said the trend should be clinically tackled from the root causes of these trends which can at best be situated around the unprecedented collapse of the hitherto respected African tradional and cultural values and the effects of unbridled materialism and unethical globalisation. HURIWA which applauded the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for calling attention to the worrying trend of married couples increasingly getting entangled in criminal cases of frauds and advanced fees fraud, also called on the anti-graft agency to think of setting up a team made up of psychologists, sociologists, Anthropologists in Nigerian Higher academic institutions to articulate learned opinions on the remote and immediate causes of the involvement of multiple numbers of couples in the disturbing cases of sophisticated fraud and then to proffer far-reaching solutions to the scandals which has deeper implications to the place of African culture and tradition globally. HURIWA recalled that recently, the Head, Cybercrime of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Nura Buhari, attributed the increase in the number of couples committing crimes to greed and loss of traditional values. “It’s just the 21st century generation where people believe they can make money through the internet by identifying a glitch or system weakness and committing fraud,” Buhari said in an interview with one of the nation's fast growing online newspapers. The EFCC official was reacting to the rising number of couples caught by the agency for their involvement in internet fraud. On 28th November 2023, the Commission arraigned a couple, Oriyomi Idowu and Ruth Idowu, before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos over false pretence, money laundering, stealing, retention of stolen property and forgery to the tune of N2,757,188,000.00. The couple were arraigned alongside Food Commodity Processing Enterprise, Bonway Food Processing Company Limited, Samee Idowu Company Limited and Farmex Integrated Companies Limited, which all belong to Ruth Idowu. According to EFCC, sometime in 2023 in Lagos, Ruth converted the sum of N10,000,000 to purchase a GLK Benz, purchase sum derived from converting the sum of N500,000,000 belonging to Creditpro Business Support Services with the aim of disguising the illegal origin of the funds. The accused also dishonestly retained the sum of N936,619,876 in UBA account, property of Creditpro Business Support services, knowing same to be funds fraudulently obtained from Creditpro Business Support Services but the defendants pleaded “not guilty” to the charges. EFCC also arraigned another couple, Aisha Malkohi (a.k.a Ummitah, Arab Money) and her husband, Abubakar Sadiq Mahmoud (at large), over alleged fraud involving the sum of N410,518,000 meant for the purchase of cars from Saudi Arabia. They were arraigned on 8th December 2023, before Justice Aisha Mahmud at Kano State High Court after they obtained the sum of N225,259,000 belonging to Farida Ibrahim between 6th January to 16th December, 2022. The said money was reportedly paid into a Zenith Bank account bearing Abubakar Sadiq Mahmoud for the purchase and supply of 64 cars, from Saudi Arabia. But Malkohi pleaded not guilty to all the five counts read to her. Malkohi was arrested by EFCC investigators in Kano following a petition from two people–Farida Ibrahim and Ibrahim Mohammed Abdulrahman–alleging that she conspired with her husband and defrauded them under the guise of supplying them with cars, gold, electronics and kitchen utensils from Saudi Arabia. EFCC carried out an investigation that revealed the defendant had collected a total sum of N410,518,000 through bank accounts belonging to her company–Golden Grass Hill International Ltd– and her husband’s Zenith Bank account. Further investigation also revealed that the defendant, alongside her husband, who is still at large, diverted the monies into several bank accounts. On 19th December 2023, the Enugu Zonal Command of the EFCC arraigned another couple, Mr. Udeani Sunday and his wife, Udeani Amaka, before Justice M.G. Umar of the Federal High Court sitting in Enugu. They were arraigned on three-count charges bordering on obtaining the sum of N2,750,000.00 by false pretence in an alleged land fraud. According to EFCC, between 10th July 2019 to 19th December 2019 in Enugu, the couple lured one Onugu Chinyere to deliver N2,750,000.00 to them under the pretence that they’d sell a plot of land behind Ebenezer Anglican Church, Ala-Uguaji along Enugu/Port Harcourt Road to her, but like the other couples they also pleaded not guilty and the case was adjourned till February 6, 2024. "Looking at these cases and the established harmonious pattern of couples increasingly becoming partners in the crime of fraud from a deeper philosophical point of view, is actually left for philosophers and free thinkers like us to weigh in. So why are couples who ought to behave as embodiment of good behaviour and the supposed teachers of morality and ethics to their children, now turning around to become undesirable social elements?", HURIWA affirmed. Speaking further on the breaches of family cohesion and the collapse of well respected African cultural value systems, HURIWA argued that there are actually a formidable body of scholarly works on the renowned African cultural values, one of which states that in Africa, the sense of family unit, ethics and etiquette are fundamental to understanding who the African is at all times. Professor Oliver Onwubiko listed the following African cultural values: sense of community life; sense of good human relations; sense of sacredness of life; sense of hospitality; sense of the sacred and religion. HURIWA has therefore advocated a coordinated approach and the intra-governmental synergies between the EFCC, Federal ministries of information and culture and some credible CSOs, to work out a template and implement strategies for promoting the reversal of the authentic African cultural values and for families and youngsters in Nigeria to be enlightened persistently to embrace the pursuit of legitimate wealth and reject shortcuts to wealth as it were.

Spread The News

The Civil Rights Advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has expressed satisfaction with the methodical and the constitutionally guided speedy steps adopted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (ltd) which have virtually curbed the scarcity of fuel that surfaced across the country.

HURIWA said it has it in good authority that motorists in cities such as Lagos, Abuja and neighboring states within the Federal Capital Territory on Sunday heaved a sigh of relief following the disappearance of fuel queues at majority of the filling stations that dispensed the product.

HURIWA affirmed that reports from her members are to the effect that most filling stations in Abuja and neighbouring states resumed full operations late on Sunday after receiving petrol, a development that cleared the queues for petrol by motorists in the capital city and its environs.

Also, the Rights group asserted that as observed even this Monday morning, retail outlets in the satellite towns of Abuja such as Bwari, Lugbe, Kubwa, Zuba, Kuje and others that had experienced product shortages during the course of last week were seen dispensing petrol to motorists on Sunday.

HURIWA recalled that the importation of off-spec petrol into the country had forced the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd to withdraw the product from the market.

The withdrawal of the methanol-blended petrol had led to a supply gap in some parts of the country.

In a bid to accelerate nationwide distribution of Premium Motor Spirit which was earlier disrupted by the quarantine of methanol-blended petrol, the NNPC had last Tuesday begun a 24-hour distribution of petrol across the country.

The NNPC had in a statement on Tuesday projected that the fuel queues would disappear by the weekend.

It had assured Nigerians that it had adequate stock of over one billion litres of certified Premium Motor Spirit stock that is safe for use in vehicles and machineries.

The National Oil Company had explained that the quarantine of the methanol blended petrol was a necessary step to safeguard its customers from the potential impact of this PMS grade on vehicles and machineries.

As part of its strategy to restock, the NNPC had stated that over 2.3 billion liters of PMS had been scheduled for delivery between now and the end of February 2022.

Commenting on the verifiably improved fuel supply situation in most urban cities of the Country as promised by the NNPC, HURIWA in a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf affirmed that the overwhelming demonstration of substantial adherence of NNPC to the time tested and time honoured good governance values of transparency and openness in this instance, satisfies the plethora of provisions in the Nigerian constitution and specifically section.

HURIWA therefore said rather than call for the sack of the GMD of the NNPC, the citizens should applaud the hierarchy just as the Rights group insisted that the companies that brought in the dirty fuel must not be allowed to escape the long arm of the law and must be made to compensate motorists who bought the bad fuel.