Mr. Ibrahim Lawan, Director of Primary Health Care (PHC) in Nangere Local Government of Yobe, is currently on suspension for diverting Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and, has confessed to committing the crime.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the state’s PHC Board has suspended Lawal for “diverting and misusing” the food supplements.

Mr. Adamu Abba, the board’s spokesman, who announced the suspension on Wednesday in Damatutu, said that a five-member committee had been set up to investigate the matter.

Lawan, while reacting to the allegations in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said that he and some staffers of the PHC “actually tampered” with the therapeutic food supplements.

“Actually, I and some of my staffers have tampered with some of the therapeutic food supplements, but the quantity is not as much as they are alleging.

“The allegation was that I diverted about 120 cartons. This is not true.

“However, I take responsibility for all that happened since I was the leader at the time.

“I am appealing to the state government to tamper justice with mercy since I have cooperated and made investigation easier for them,” he said

NAN reports that the PHC board while announcing Lawan’s indefinite suspension, had named Ibrahim Disa as acting director of the PHC in Nangere.

Disa is expected to be on the saddle pending the outcome of the investigation.

The investigation committee is also expected to recommend a strategy for ensuring accountability in the distribution of supplements and other medical consumables.

NAN reports that RUTF is a packaged, highly nutritious food supplement used in treating severe and acute malnourished children.

The sixth prosecution witness, PW6, Idi Musa, in the trial of Ismaila Mustapha, (a.k.a Mompha) an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, July 1, 2024.

Musa told Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, how the sum of N35bn was found in two bank accounts linked to the defendant.

The Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had, on January 12, 2022, arraigned Mompha alongside his company, Ismalob Global Investment Limited, on an eight-count charge bordering on conspiracy to launder funds obtained through unlawful activity, retention of proceeds of criminal conduct, laundering of funds obtained through unlawful activity, failure to disclose assets and property, possession of documents containing false pretences and use of property derived from unlawful act.

One of the counts reads: “Ismaila Mustapha, Ahmadu Mohammed (at large) and Ismalob Global Investment Limited, sometime in 2016, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired amongst yourselves to conduct financial transactions to the tune of N5,998,884,653.18 ( Five Billion Nine Hundred and Ninety-eight Million, Eight Hundred and Eighty-four Thousand, Six Hundred and Fifty-three Naira Eighteen Kobo), with the intent of promoting the carrying on of specified unlawful activities to wit: obtaining by false pretence.”

He pleaded “not guilty” to the charges when they were read to him.

On September 22, 2022, Justice Dada ordered that the trial of Mompha would continue in absentia after he jumped bail.

At Monday’s proceedings, Musa, while being led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, S. I. Suleiman, narrated how he knew the first and second defendants in the course of investigations into the alleged criminal activities.

He told the court how the Commission had received intelligence from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI, informing it that the first and second defendants were into cybercrime in the United States of America, USA.

In his testimony, he said: “Sometime in 2019, we received intelligence from the FBI, USA. The letter was addressed to the Commission, informing us that the first and second defendants were involved in cybercrime, otherwise known as Yahoo Yahoo.”

According to him, in the course of the investigation, some letters were written to two major banks requesting the account statements of the second defendant linked to the first defendant.

In his further testimony, he told the court that “The account statements were received and analysed.

“During the analysis, we discovered a heavy flow of N30bn through the account of the first defendant (Mompha) in one of the banks and about N5bn in another bank account.

“Letters were written to the FBI, and the Special Fraud Unit of the Commission, regarding the defendant’s claim that he was into Bureau De change business, in view of the volume of these transactions.

“A letter was also written to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and other relevant agencies”.

He also told the court that the investigation revealed that the first defendant did not reside in Nigeria and that efforts to reach him proved abortive.

The PW 6 said: “A letter was written to the Nigeria Immigration Services, NIS, on October 16, 2019, to arrest the defendant anytime he was seen in the country.

“On October 18, 2019, the first defendant got information that the Commission was looking for him, while he was in Nigeria. So, he quickly got to the airport and boarded a flight in order to jet out of the country to evade arrest.

“The team got the information through the NIS officers at the airport. By then, Mompha had already boarded the flight. So, they had to call him to come down and he was immediately arrested. He was subsequently handed over to the EFCC by the immigration officers”.

When asked about the findings regarding the defendant’s bank account, Musa said over N30bn was discovered, adding that “ he told us that he was into Bureau De Change business. But investigation showed that he was not.

“We have already concluded investigations in that regard. The offences border on money laundering, operating BDC without a licence before a Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos.”

He also told the court that a report from the FBI’s forensic analysis revealed that Mompha’s iPhone was used to send account details to a United Arab Emirates telephone number, which he used to search for Swift Codes of a bank.

“Upon his arrest, all the properties recovered from him were registered with the Exhibits Section in the EFCC office.

“Most of the properties were released to him on bond, except his iPhone 8 which is still with the Commission.

“The items are proceeds of crime because when he was given the Assets Declaration Form, he did not include those items”.

The prosecution then tendered both the first defendant’s statement as well as the Asset Declaration Form.

They were admitted as evidence as exhibits P5 and P6 by the court.

Consequently, Justice Dada adjourned the case until Tuesday, October 8, 2024, for the continuation of the trial.

Three people were killed on Sunday when their light aircraft crashed onto a motorway east of Paris, the police and gendarmerie said.

No car was hit in the crash of the plane onto the A4 motorway in Noisiel east of Paris which appeared to have been caused by the aircraft hitting an electric power cable, said a police source, asking not to be named, adding that the road had been blocked in both directions.

More Details Later

Fourteen people were killed when a truck ploughed into Muslim worshippers outside the northern Nigerian city of Kano, Nigeria’s road safety agency said.

The goods-laden truck lost control and ran over worshippers leaving a mosque shortly after observing Friday prayers in Imawa village, 30 kilometres outside Kano, the Federal Road Safety Commission said in a statement late Friday.

The truck “lost control and collided with pedestrians who had just concluded Friday prayers,” the statement said.

“This unfortunate collision resulted in the tragic loss of 14 lives and left several others injured,” it added.

Accidents are common on Nigeria’s poorly maintained roads due largely to speeding and disregard for traffic rules.

According to the road safety commission, more than 5,000 people died in road accidents in 2023, after 6,500 road deaths the previous year.

However, the World Health Organization estimated in a report last year that annual deaths linked to road accidents in Nigeria are actually nearer 40,000, with most not reported to the authorities.

An Abeokuta Magistrates Court on Friday remanded a 32-year-old woman, Rahmat Abdulateef for allegedly arranging a kidnapping for herself with the purpose of extracting money from her husband.

The defendant, whose plea was not taken by the court, was arraigned on a one-count charge of self-kidnapping.

The police counsel, Insp. Adekunle Opayemi, told the court that the defendant committed the offence on June 20 at about 2:42 p.m. at Elite Road in Abeokuta.

According to the counsel, the defendant arranged for herself to be kidnapped in order to extort money from her husband, Mr Ogunbummi Lateef.

Opayemi said that the offence committed contravened Section 27 of the Prohibition of forcible occupation of landed properties, armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism and other anti-violence and related offence laws of Ogun 2016.

The Magistrate, Mrs O.O. Odumosun, ordered that the defendant be remanded in prison for 60 days pending legal advice from the Department of Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

She, however, adjourned the case until Sept. 19 for mention.