The honour simultaneously held alongside the Command’s 2021 end of year get together.
Odumosu is the immediate past Lagos State Commissioner of Police.
He was elevated to the rank of AIG recently and decorated last Friday in Abuja by the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Usman Baba.
As Lagos Police boss, Odumosu successfully degraded crimes and criminalities in the state deploying the best of military intelligence and tactics with strict adherence to human rights as well as freedom of expression.
The event, witnessed by the National Association of Online Security Reporters, NAOSRE, had an impressive attendance. It provided the opportunity to reward hard work as the 2021 Best Commissioner of Police award was presented to the new AIG by the President, Police Officers’ Wives Association (POWA), Hajiya Hajjara Usman Alkali Baba.
He is billed to retire from the Police in few days.
FIRSTBANK REWARDS CUSTOMERS IN TRANSACT AND WIN PROMO
Getting rewarded for spending money is a dream that is probably going to remain exciting for many people, but not for the Firstmonie Wallet users. In a two month Transact and Win campaign that started on November 22, 2021, First Bank of Nigeria Limited is rewarding several customers for carrying out transactions on its Firstmonie Wallet application.
The e-wallet is useful for conveniently paying utility bills, purchasing airtime and data, transferring and receiving money, and many other digital transactions. Just for using the mobile-friendly wallet app, Customers got rewarded with mouth-watering prizes both in cash and kind. The number of transactions done on the app determines the price a user could win.
100 customers who had done 1-15 transactions through Firstmonie Wallet within the month won N10,000 cash price; 53 25kg bags of rice and 50 units of standing fans were also won by customers who carried out 16 – 30 transactions with the Firstmonie Wallet; 2 units of power generating sets, 1 unit of Air Conditioning systems and 1 unit LED Televisions went to customers who carried 31 – 50 transactions; while 2 units of iPhone 12 were won by customers who had carried out over 50 transactions on the app within the month.
Victor Nnanna Onyedikachi, a student of the University of Abuja was one of the winners of the iPhone 12, and while receiving his gift, he admitted that he did not expect to win the prize. “I used the Firstmonie Wallet App, and just like that, I was told that I had qualified. I did not believe it until I saw it myself. I am truly grateful to FirstBank” he said.
Other winners also expressed their pleasure at being rewarded for using a completely user-friendly app. “There is no issue of service error when using it for any transaction. The service is seamless and the app is easy to use” one of them said.
The Group Executive, e-Business & Retail products, Mr Chuma Ezirim had noted that the promo was targeted at appreciating customers for their patronage; and in line with the Bank’s December-is-a-Vybe campaign. “This promo is hinged on the need to appreciate our customers for their patronage, especially as we have had an increased engagement and usages of the various services offered by our mobile-friendly wallet product,” Ezirim said when the promo was being launched.
Interestingly, the promo also includes new customers and users of the app. By simply downloading the mobile app from the play store, or using the *894# USSD string to sign up, anyone can qualify for the promo. The promo runs till January 22, 2022, so what are you waiting for as you could be the next winner of any of these fantastic prizes.
As the premier Bank in West Africa and the leading financial inclusion services provider in Nigeria for over 127 years, First Bank of Nigeria Limited has remained at the forefront of promoting digital payment in the country, and the Firstmonie Wallet is one of the channels for digital transactions.
Little wonder FirstBank was named “Most Valuable Bank Brand in Nigeria” six times in a row (2011 – 2016) by the globally renowned “The Banker Magazine” and “Best Retail Bank in Nigeria” for seven consecutive years (2011 – 2017) by the Asian Banker International. FirstBank also bagged the Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards and “Best Bank in Nigeria” by Global Finance for 15 years.
ACAMB Elects New Executives, as Bolarinwa Emerges President
The Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB) – an umbrella association of communications and marketing professionals, working in Nigeria’s banking sector – has elected new executives who will pilot the affairs of the Association for the next two years.
The hugely attended AGM/ election for key positions, saw Mr. Rasheed Bolarinwa, Head, Corporate Communications of Polaris Bank emerged the new ACAMB President.
First Bank’s Mr. Oze K. Oze was elected First Vice President; Mrs. Lola Egboh of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Second Vice President, while the new Secretary-General is Mr. Sipe Babajide of Ecobank.
The position of Assistant Secretary General was won by Mr. Omede Odekina of United Bank for Africa (UBA), while Mr. Patrick Osilaja of Fidelity Bank emerged the Financial Secretary.
Wema Bank’s Mrs. Funmilayo Falola is the new Treasurer while Mr. Abdul Imoyo of Access Bank will serve as the Association’s Publicity Secretary. Also on the new executive list is Mrs. Ozena Utulu of Heritage Bank as Social Secretary.
Four distinguished members of the Association namely: The immediate past President, a staff from CBN, NDIC and CIBN respectively are to serve as Ex-officios.
The election of the new officers held on Thursday, 19 January at the Bankers’ House, CIBN Building, Victoria Island, Lagos.
In his post-election acceptance speech, the new ACAMB President, Bolarinwa, assured members that he would reposition ACAMB as a foremost professional Association that they would all be proud of.
He added that his vision also includes innovating post-retirement strategy that ensures members have a sustainable livelihood long after exiting the industry.
“I will be committed to my vision, which is to reposition ACAMB as a foremost professional Association that encourages and ensures every marketing communications professional in the Banks aspires and attains the highest level of professional recognition and fulfillment on the job while at the same time being assured of a sustainable livelihood long after exiting the industry,” he stated.
Bolarinwa, who served in the past executive as a two-term Secretary General, restated his commitment to the upliftment of members in line with his electioneering promises anchored on the four-pillar themed PEAL: Partnership & Platform, Engagement, Advocacy, and Learning & Value-addition (PEAL).
The new President further assured that ACAMB under his leadership would seek partnerships and platforms among strategic institutions and stakeholders with a view to delivering value to members, as well as enhancing professionalism.
He also said his team would embark on advocacy aimed to deepen awareness and knowledge of the banking industry and its contributions to national socio-economic growth.
Earlier, Chairman of ACAMB Electoral Committee, Mr. Segun Shonubi said all aspirants for the advertised position had met minimum requirements as outlined in the Association Constitution and therefore qualify to stand for the election.
A 1996 graduate of Mass Communication, Bolarinwa holds a Master’s degree from the University of Ibadan and MSc degree from UNESCO-certified Mass Communication department of University of Lagos. He is a member of numerous professional bodies. These include Fellow of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN); Registered Practitioner, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), and Member, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).
He has also attended several high- impact function-specific and leadership trainings at top business schools in Nigeria and overseas.
2023: Obasa hints on type of leader Nigeria deserves
– Says Tinubu laid foundation that makes Lagos a successful state
– Lists competence, knowledge and experience as characteristics of a good leader
The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, on Thursday said Nigeria desires a leader with an experience of success in previous assignments.
Dr. Obasa said this at the Anchor University’s first Distinguished Public Lecture of the faculty of Humanities in Lagos stressing that leaders can only succeed when they have the requisite capacities to meet the desires of their followers.
Noting that Nigerians currently yearn for more from their leaders in the face of daunting challenges, Obasa expressed hope that the country would meet the collective dream of the citizens soon.
“If you place our country side by side some countries and compare developments in the last 50 years, you would agree that we have challenges.
“However, we are all leaders in our various spheres. Leadership has to do with the roles you play in your various communities.
“Today, people choose to go to Dubai instead of some other countries. Look at their development in the last 50 years. We heard stories of how their leaders visited Ibadan for medical checkups.
“Now, what do we have? Nigerians visiting the country and others for medical reasons.
“Today, China is a super power because of its growth and development.
“That is why we have to talk about leadership and the most important thing for us now is to have a leader who understands and can handle our situation such that a man living in a corner in Ipaja, who does not have interest in who the leader is, enjoys what should be simple amenities of life,” he said.
The Speaker Obasa argued that fixing Nigeria requires good governance and that the country currently has an opportunity to get it right ahead of 2023.
“And as you are aware, if anyone applies for a job, the first things that are asked for are the person’s credentials and experience.
“So in chosing who would be our leader in 2023, we need to ask questions about who is competent enough and had done something similar to what we desire.
“We can still remember that not long ago, we had someone in Lagos State who laid a solid foundation, particularly in relation to revenue. We know that without revenue, there is hardly anything we can do.
“We had that person who used his intelligence to move the revenue from just N600 million to billions of naira and today, the State gets multi-billion naira revenue for development.
“See the infrastructural development in Lagos State now and you will agree that we need people who are experienced and highly exposed for leadership positions.
“Leadership is not about who is old or young. We have had some young governors who have no positive thing to show about the development of their states,” he stressed.
Obasa, who was honoured by the institution, promised a robust relationship between the university and the government. He also urged the management to assist the government by making suggestions that would help the State.
The guest lecturer at the event, Prof. Ayodeji Olukoju, corroborated the Speaker’s position emphasising that the right leadership is what Nigeria needs.
The Professor of History and Strategic Studies at the University of Lagos, also commended the Lagos State government for the giant strides recorded so far.
TROOPS DISLODGE IPOB/ESN STRONGHOLD AT LILU FOREST IN ANAMBRA STATE
Troops of the Nigerian Army(NA) in a joint operations conducted with other security agencies have dislodged a notorious stronghold of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB) and its armed affiliate, Eastern Security Network (ESN) at Lilu Forest in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State. Lilu is a border town between Imo and Anambra States, which was hitherto known to be used as an operational base of the dissidents.
The operations, which was conducted in the early hours of Monday 17 January 2022, led to the neutralization of some gunmen in a fire fight that ensued.
After dislodging the dissidents from their fortress, the dogged troops recovered 10 Pump Action Shotguns, two locally fabricated guns, One Revolver pistol, rounds of 7.62 mm special, live cartridges, machettes and IPOB flags. Other items recovered are mobile phones, laptops amongst other dangerous weapons.
The operation was jointly conducted by troops of 82 Division, Nigerian Navy, 211 Quick Response Group of the Nigerian Air Force, Department of State Services and the Nigeria Police. It was a well coordinated dawn attack on the fortress, where plans were been perfected to violently enforce the illegitimate sit-at-home declaration by the irredentist groups.
ONYEMA NWACHUKWU
Brigadier General
Director Army Public Relations
18 January 2022
The Nigerian Army(NA) in collaboration with British Defence Section, West Africa has taken its advocacy on Gender Mainstreaming to 8 Division Area of Responsibility, Sokoto. The workshop tagged “Gender mainstreaming for enhanced professionalism in the NA”, organised by the Department of Civil-Military Affairs will be conducted from 16 -18 January 2022.
The workshop was declared opened by the General Officer Commanding 8 Division, Nigerian Army, Maj Gen Uwem Bassey, who was represented at the event by Brigadier General Mohammed Abdullahi, Chief of Staff, Headquarters 8 Division.
The workshop, he said, seeks to build the requisite capacity of officers and men of the NA, particularly as assigned missions within the joint environment are becoming complex, increasingly expanding and dynamic in the areas of gender mainstreaming, lnternational Humanitarian Law and Fundamentals Human Rights.
The first phase of the workshop was conducted in some selected formations across the NA. The second phase has been approved with Sokoto as the focal start point.
Participants were drawn from security and para-military agencies, Civil Society Organisations, Humanitarian Agencies and other critical stakeholders.
ONYEMA NWACHUKWU
Brigadier General
Director Army Public Relations
The man of God will be celebrating his annual thanksgiving on February 14, 2022 at his Lagos church and the juju music legend has been billed to perform at the mind-blowing event.
It is no more news that the relationship that exists between King Sunny Ade and Primate Ayodele is beyond that of a musician and a prophet but companions who have a common interest to render service to humanity.
It would be recalled that many years ago, Sunny Ade gave a prophetic word to Primate Ayodele during a service that his church will have a large congregation of about 30,000 worshippers. This statement was made in 2000 when Primate Ayodele’s congregation was just about 500 worshippers.
After two decades of this prophetic statement by King Sunny Ade, the prophecy is finally seeing the light of the day as Primate Ayodele will be unveiling a 30,000-capacity church building on February 14, 2022 as part of the programme line-up for his annual thanksgiving.
Also, February 14 will feature the mother of all empowerments as usual. In previous years, Primate Ayodele has given cars, tricycles, scholarships, cash gifts, and relief materials to his church members, the needy, without regard to their religion.
How Loan Fraud has Become Norms in GTBank + How the Syndicate has been Operating
It is important to note that the unsettled crisis that has given Innoson Motors legal rights to foreclose some properties of the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) over issues that has to do with loan discrepancies is still a major issue in the supposedly top Nigerian bank.
Though GTBank had tried to use agents of the government to shut Innoson management up when the car manufacturing company raised questions about the wide difference noticed in the loan repayment process between them and the need for the bank to refund over-deducted payment from the company’s account.
The issue is now about accusations and counter-accusation until the Supreme Court decided that the GTBank indeed needed to refund the loan repayment scam which has risen from about N8.2 billion to a staggering N32 billion it currently stands.
It is important to note that the Innoson case which is still pending in the court is just an high profile case the loan scam syndicate in the bank has been operating unhindered even when some cases are brought to the notice of the management.
There has been so many issues of smaller loans mostly on dormant account that has gone unnoticed, example is the case of one Ola a customer of the bank whose dormant account was used to process loan without his knowledge.
According to Ola who spoke to us “I was using a salary account with GTBank years back, and since it is my salary account I normally utilizes the bank’s short-code to access loans whenever there’s a pressing need after which I will pay back from my salary.
‘I however stopped using the account in 2013 when I got employment into one of government parastatals and I am mandated to open a new salary account this happened about two months after paying my last loan facility with the GTBank. I later tried to access a loan facility from another bank last year (2021) with the intention of using this loan tied to my entitlement to start a personal business while waiting for my payment to come through, I was surprised when the new bank said I am owing GTBank.
‘Findings showed someone collected a loan on the account after more than a year since I last operated it using short-code, the funny aspect is that I did not get any sort notification from GTBank, no text message or emails to that effect, no calls to remind me of supposed loan, you won’t believe it that I opened a new current account with GTBank a couple of years back with the same name and the issues o this loan did not come up. This shows it is a perfect insider’s fraud scheme.’ Ola explained.
Investigations shows this is not a one off occurrence as many has also fallen into the schemes of these loan syndicate who targets dormant accounts for a loan they have no intention of paying back, it was gathered many owners of such account may not even ever know that a loan fraud has been perpetrated on their dormant account.
These undetected loan scam coupled with the GTBank’s disposition to Innoson Motors loan repayment issue more or less reinforce the believe that some of the staffs of the bank with the knowledge of the bank’s management may be cutting corners using likely forgotten account and may now be facing exposure due to the now enforced Bank Verification Number (BVN) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which has brought forth Global Standing Instruction (GSI) policy, that exposed the recent loan fraud.
It is therefore important for owners of dormant account in the bank to be on the lookout as the otherwise loan free account may have mysteriously been used to acquire loan by the loan fraud syndicate that has been working underground for a while in the bank, while the GSI in force will debit your active account of the unknown debt.
If you’re investing on a mega business project and First City Monument Bank (FCMB) is your banker, you would reasonably have a rethink after reading this exclusive piece. It is a story of how the bank and its desperate crooked senior staff almost ruined a foremost sports betting company in Nigeria.
It all started late in 2018 when the owner of the betting company (names withheld) gave the Allen Avenue, Ikeja branch of FCMB an instruction to buy dollars equivalent to N1billion for his domiciliary account with the bank. It is a standard practice for the bankers to ensure that the foreign currency (dollars) appears in the customer’s domiciliary account before debiting him of the naira equivalent, and the customer made no mistake by emphasizing on this when he instructed Mrs Uki, his account officer at the bank to make the deal.
But out of greed, the senior officers of FCMB were sourcing for cheap dollars in order to make huge profit, and in the process threw the ethics of their profession to the winds. Mrs Joanne Oyenike was Allen Branch Manager of the bank then. She would later be sacked as a result of the scam and drama that trailed the transaction.
Another key figure in the scam is Mr Adeoye Adeyemo, who was FCMB’s Head of Commercial Banking as at then. His department would later be disengaged for lack of results. It was the Allen Branch Manager, Mrs Oyenike and Adeyemo who led this shocking scam you’re about to read.
Note that when the Allen branch of the bank’s Customer Service Officer (CSO), Mr Gboyega Johnson and Customer Service Manager (CSM), Mr Julius Ugwu got the notification for the transaction, they refused to treat it because the dollars have not reflected on the customer’s account accordingly. They declined to debit the customer’s account of N1billion as a result.
However, some crooked senior staff of the bank thereby moved the customer’s instruction to Oba-Akran branch of FCMB, where the sum of N1billion was fraudulently deducted from customer’s account without the dollar equivalent credited to his domiciliary account.
Meanwhile, the Sports Betting Company MD was seriously ill. Perhaps, he anticipated to use the money for his treatment abroad, but was denied the privilege by the crooked FCMB senior staff. It was until 2019 when he returned from his medical trip abroad that he decided to write the bank officially, and trouble started.
The bankers said the dollars equivalent of the N1billion was hanging (it could not be traced till date), and the customer threatened to withdraw all his company’s accounts from FCMB – that was when the management of the bank started begging him and proposed compensating him with N500million.
In fact, a prominent Southwest monarch was also approached by FCMB’s management to help in appealing to the cheated customer because he is one of the bank’s biggest customers.
Wema Bank Affirms Its Adherence, Best-in-Class Governance Processes
Nigeria’s leading digital bank, Wema Bank Plc, has reassured its stakeholders that it continues to operate with best-in-class governance processes.
The bank also faulted the premise on which a non-governmental organisation, Transparency Nigeria Group, asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to remove its Managing Director/CEO, describing the call as baseless.
The bank reassured its customers and stakeholders that it has and would continue to operate with the highest level of corporate governance, following all rules, policies, and procedures.
“We have no links to any political party and neither are we agents, allies or proxies of any politicians in the country. We are a financial institution solely committed to financial intermediation to enable and fast track the socio-economic development of the country,” the bank said.
The statement further explains that Wema Bank’s observance and strict adherence to due diligence and extant rules and regulations is why it is the oldest surviving indigenous bank in Nigeria.
