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Senate Threatens to Arrest Glo Boss, Others over N30Trn Probe
Senate has threatened to issue warrant for the arrest of Chief Executive Officer of Glo Mobile and other firms that failed to honour its invitation on alleged complicity in N30 trillion revenue probe.
The Senate gave the 16 companies which failed to appear before its committee a deadline of Thursday to honour the invitation or risk being arrested.
The CEOs of British American Tobacco Company, CCEC Nigeria Limited, Dana Group, African Wire and Allied Limited, Admiral Overseas Nigeria Limited and Aarti Steel Nigeria Limited were equally issued the warning.
Others are Gagsel International, Fries Land Capina, Etco Nigeria Limited, Encounter Limited, Edic Chemicals & Allied Distributors Limited, Don Climax Group, De United Foods
Senator Hope Uzodinma, chairman of the Senate Joint Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport, gave the warning at an investigative meeting with some of the firms on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the refusal the firms to honour the invitation was a disrespect for the institution of the National Assembly and would not be tolerated.
He said out of the 30 firms invited between Tuesday and Wednesday, only 14 honoured the invitation and appeared before the committee.
According to him, the CEOs are expected to cut short whatever engagement they had to honour the invitation in view of the magnitude of the investigation.
“It is only in Nigeria that the Senate will invite an entity for an interactive session, particularly in a case that bothers on investigation, financial mismanagement, infractions and the company will be complacent.
“The companies will not be willing to come or sometimes send junior officers.
“I have directed, and we are working with security agencies, that any company that is invited and has something to explain and refuses to appear, we will issue a warrant for such persons to be arrested.
“We are giving them the final opportunity to appear and if they fail, we will issue a warrant.
“In this investigation we are working with the Nigeria Police Force.
“This is because we are using their facilities to process some of our data so that the information we will present to the public will be information with high integrity that will not be questioned by anybody.
“We have directed that they must come tomorrow, Thursday unfailingly,” he said.
Addressing the firms who were present at the meeting, Uzodinma said they would be given documents arising from the investigation carried out by the committee to study and comply.
He said the documents specified the various forms of infractions carried out by each of the firms involved in the import and export value chain.
Uzodinma explained: “We have put everything in different categories and for Category One, it is unutilised Form M. You applied for Form M and approval and allocation were given.
“But rather than import with the allocation, God knows what happened because you did not do that.
“Then pre-arrival assessment report that was issued. You abandoned them yet you took your goods. We do not know how you took the goods away and the money is still open in the data base.
“Then Single Goods Declarations (SGDs) which you people did by yourself then abandoned and yet collected your goods.
“These are all indicated in the documents we have handed over to you.
“So, if there are such legitimate approvals, we want to see a copy otherwise we will assume that they were not cancelled in which case we will be expecting you to make payment.
“Then classification. We have cases where a pre-arrival assessment is carried out and a particular item is classified under a particular HS (Tariff Handbook) Code.
“When you now go to SGD if it is a classification of 35 per cent you see that you declared five per cent instead of the 35 per cent that was issued to you.
“So, we have worked out the difference unless there is evidence that what you shipped were no longer what came to Nigeria which we doubt.
“Then wrong classification is another category. That one deals directly with those bringing vehicles with reverse gear and you declare them as CKD.
“For instance Dag Motorcycle Industries Limited, when you bring in tricycle which has reverse gear, there are cases where they are classified wrongly.
“All these must be submitted by Monday so that by Wednesday we will be able to deal with definite figures on what amount of money that should be expecting to receive as unutilised foreign exchange allocation.”
The lawmaker expressed concern that most approved Form Ms were not given to genuine users, leading to increasing exchange rate.
He said the committee would ensure that foreign exchange was given to genuine importers to strengthen the Naira against foreign currencies as well as improve employment opportunities among other benefits.
He stressed that the committee was extending its investigation to the operation of Trade Free Zone Agreement.
Uzodinma said “most of you who have been importing in the name of trade free zone. Under that policy you know you have to do 30 per cent value addition.
“But we have identified all the trade free zones that imported finished goods and those goods did not even get to the trade free zones.
“The goods ended up in the various ware houses in Apapa and when they make the money, because there is no documentation they have surplus Naira.
“With the surplus Naira, they in turn buy dollar at any rate and in the process kill our local manufacturers who really want dollar to be able to do their businesses.”
The Joint Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport had been mandated to carry out a holistic investigation into alleged N30 trillion revenue leakages in Forex and the entire import and export value chain between 2006 and 2017.
The committee has so far met with all indicted commercial banks as well as government agencies and is currently meeting with the companies alleged to be involved in the corruption in the system.
CommunicationsWeek Media Limited, a certified global ICT company with over two million online subscribers, is delighted and proud to announce Prof. Yakub Aliyu, as the keynote speaker at Africa’s Beacon of ICT Merit and Leadership Distinguished Lecture series 2024.
Aliyu, will be speaking on the theme: Artificial Intelligence (AI): The Good, The Complex and The Anticipated”, this leans heavily on the fact that AI changing our lives– we just need to know where to look today.
This year’s rebranded Africa’s Beacon of ICT Merit and Leadership Distinguished Lecture/Awards Series is slated for Saturday, May 25, 2024 at the Four Points by Sheraton, Lagos.
The event is the most prestigious annual event that brings together captains of industry in both technology and financial worlds.
According to Ken Nwogbo, CEO, Communication Week Media Ltd, organisers of the ABoICT Distinguished Lecture/Awards Series, “the choice of Prof. Yakub Aliyu is deliberate because of his exceptional career in Artificial Intelligence (AI)”.
He added that, AI is considered to have the potential to instigate a fourth industrial revolution,1 and is dramatically changing people’s patterns of interaction and economic activities.
“The traditional factors of production and physical capital and labour may no longer promote substantial economic growth. It is generally believed that AI will be one of the most important factors determining future economic growth,” he said.
A professor of microelectronics and a scholar-practitioner in artificial intelligence and deep machine learning for industrial applications and high-speed application processors. His research interests include Multimodal AI models for high-efficiency industrial robot applications and Human AI interactions.
He also has adjunct academic professorships at five African, USA, and UK universities. Holds a BS in Applied Physics Electronics from Karlsruhe and A Bello Universities in Germany and Nigeria, an MBA in International Business Management from the University of London, an MSEE (Master of Engineering, Electronics), and a Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering from the University of Wales.
Prof. Aliyu is the global quality director for Bourns Inc., Riverside, California, USA, an electronics system, and components manufacturer. I oversee quality functions in 21 factories worldwide.
He has also held quality and operational management leadership positions at National Semiconductors, Bell Labs-Lucent Technology, Texas Instrument, Global Foundries, and Roper Technologies USA.
Authored and coauthored over 30 Advanced Technology United States-issued patents in High-Speed Application Processors and Contributed to over 40 international impact Journals, chapters, and conferences; FASI, SMIEEE USA, MIEE UK, M. Inst pf Physics Chartered Phys and C Eng UK.
Past lecturers included Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, then executive vice chairman, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC); Engr. Yomi Bolarinwa, former Director-General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC); Dr. Jean Luc Fort, CEO at OR System France and a specialist in Counterparty Risk; and Professor Chris Nwagboso, Chairman, Knowledge Factory International, United Kingdom.
Others are: Uche Orji, managing director/chief executive officer, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA); Biodu Omoniyi, Managing Director/CEO, VDT Communications; Ayotunde Coker, Managing Director, Rack Centre Limited; Peter Adedayo Arogundade, managing director and chief executive officer, Sidmach Technologies Nigeria Limited; Dr. Adewale Obadare, chief visionary officer, Digital Encode and John Obaro, CEO and founder of Systemspecs; Prof. Isa Pantanmi, minister of Communications and Digital Economy; Dr. Seyi Akindeind, co-founder, Digital Encode; Dr Krishnan Ranganath, Regional Director, Africa Data Centres.
Legit.ng recently joined forces with the Shade of Life Foundation to become a voice of autism, and drive advocacy for improved media support during Autism Awareness Month.
Participants at the event
Conversations around media support exploration was led by Joseph Omotayo, head of Department for Human Interest Stories at Legit.ng, and Dr. Eziafakaku Nwokolo, founder and CEO of the Shade of Life Foundation,
This partnership is a response to the concerns raised by organizations like the Shade of Life Foundation about the level of support received from the media in discussing autism as a disability.
While other disabilities may receive attention, autism, with its critical developmental implications often lacks adequate representation in mainstream media.
Recognizing the importance of addressing these concerns, Legit.ng took proactive steps by integrating itself into the essence of autism awareness.
It facilitated a one-hour workshop with Dr. Nwokolo, the founder of the foundation, to deepen our understanding of autism, its various spectrums, and the language boundaries associated with it.
Other steps we took in advocating autism awareness in the media, can be seen in our attached press release.
Legit.ng believes that by amplifying the voices of autism and advocating for better media representation, we can contribute to creating a more inclusive and accepting society for all.
While 85 per cent of Nigeria is in darkness, Tanzania, an African country has shut down five hydroelectric stations in a bid to reduce excess electricity in the national grid.
Kassim Majaliwa, prime minister, Tanzania, has said the main plant, Mwalimu Nyerere Hydroelectric Station, alone generated enough electricity to power major cities, including Dar es Salaam, the country’s commercial hub.
It is the first time Tanzania, which suffers chronic power shortages, has closed hydroelectric stations due to excess production.
“We have turned off all these stations because the demand is low and the electricity production is too much, we have no allocation now,” an official from state-run power company, Tanesco, said.
The 2,115MW Julius Nyerere Hydropower Dam is said to be almost filled with water following heavy rains that started early this year.
Meanwhile, while the country has an installed capacity of 1,938MW and the grid installed capacity of 1,899MW, Nigeria which has an installed capacity of 13,000MW is struggling to electrify 85 per cent of its electricity consumers.
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