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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

NIGERIAN ARMY TAKES GENDER ADVOCACY TO SOKOTO

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

King Sunny Ade Set To Honour Primate Ayodele On February 14

Popular Juju maestro, King Sunny Ade has confirmed his readiness to celebrate God in the life of popular prophet, Primate Elijah Ayodele, the Leader Of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church.

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.

Exposed! How FCMB Duped Sports Bet Company of N1b

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.

Aura by Transcorp Hotels to gift free staycation to lovers for Valentine’s Day

The Online Accommodation Booking Platform Aura is currently running #TheAuraExperience Promo

Aura by Transcorp Hotels, the online platform for booking accommodation, food and experiences has said a couple stand a chance of winning a free night staycation to celebrate Valentine’s Day when any of them spend up to N100,000 on the platform. The Company, a subsidiary of NGX-listed Transcorp Hotels Plc., stated this at an event on Thursday where it hosted some of its stakeholders.

The promo requires users to book accommodation, order food, or book experiences worth at least N100,000 during the promo period, to qualify for a draw where two winners would emerge. Throughout the promo period which ends on January 30, 2022, users of Aura can also enjoy discounts of up to 25% on selected accommodation, food and experiences.

“Aura is committed to providing people with unique homes and hotels when they are away from home. The platform is also set up to help users order great food at restaurants close to them and find things to do to make every moment memorable. This promo is our way of encouraging more people to experience Aura as we continue to spread happiness by creating memorable experiences through all our touch points,” said Ifeoma Okafor-Obi, Business Development Director (Aura) at the event which held at Metro Apartments in Lagos, one of the apartments listed on Aura by Transcorp Hotels.

Aura provides a great selection of exquisite properties at the best prices, carrying out verification on all listings on the platform to ensure that guests are choosing from the right pool of options, and in keeping with the known high standards of the parent company Transcorp Hotels Plc. The hospitality company, which also owns Transcorp Hilton Abuja and Transcorp Hotels Calabar, has continued to expand its excellent hospitality services, with a world-class event center that can seat close to 4,000 guests expected to be completed in 2022. The company’s property in Calabar is also being upgraded to sustain the quality of services the hospitality brand is known for.

Aura by Transcorp Hotels supports official travel, relocation, or staycation, ensuring that employees of corporate bodies are well rested and focused on delivering business results. Companies that have Sales Representatives who are always on the move have found Aura by Transcorp Hotels to be a key partner, with guaranteed access to verified apartments that ensures the comfort and safety of their staff.

“There are carefully selected restaurants as well as personalized chef experiences on demand for corporate meetings and events. We also have an array of refreshing day experiences as well as packages for corporate retreats and strategy sessions,” Okafor-Obi added.

In addition to the impressive features offered by Aura, guests can rest assured that they are fully covered if they ever get involved in an accident whilst in an Aura apartment. This insurance feature is provided in partnership with digital insurance companies, Heirs Insurance and Heirs Life, and it guarantees the protection of the lives and properties of guests, ensuring that they have a truly memorable Aura experience without fears or worries.

Commenting on the significance of Aura by Transcorp Hotels, Mrs. Dupe Olusola MD/CEO, Transcorp Hotels Plc. explained that the recently launched business is the piece that completes the puzzle for the company, as it seeks to offer wholesome luxurious experiences to guests beyond its well-known properties in Abuja or Calabar.

“Our brands are individually distinctive and collectively powerful. We have consistently delivered world-class guest experience and excellent services across all our touch points, and impressive value to stakeholders. This is what users of Aura by Transcorp Hotels will also continue to enjoy. I encourage people to exploit the ongoing promo by Aura by Transcorp Hotels to have a great experience at a discount, and also stand to win a free staycation on Aura,” Mrs Olusola said.

“2022 will be a very exciting year for us at Transcorp Hotels Plc., as some of the projects we have been working on will come to life this year. One such is our Lifestyle Center which will be located in Ikoyi and will combine the traditional functions of a shopping mall with some of the best leisure amenities you can find anywhere,” Mrs. Olusola added.

To get access to unique accommodation, food and localised experiences listed on Aura, users have to register at aura.transcorphotels.com. They can also download Aura by Transcorp Hotels on Google Play and Apple App Store.

OPERATION HADIN KAI: DECISIVE BLOW, AS TROOPS NEUTRALIZE BHT/ISWAP TERRORISTS IN BIU ATTEMPTED INFILTRATION

Troops of Sector 2 Joint Task Force(JTF) North East(NE) Operation HADIN KAI(OPHK) have dealt decisively with Boko Haram(BH) and Islamic State West Africa Province(ISWAP) terrorists, who made frantic attempt to infiltrate the ancient town of Biu, Borno State.

The criminal elements met their Waterloo, when the gallant troops of 231 Battalion and 331 Artillery Regiment swiftly routed them in a failed incursion at Maina Hari village in Biu on Saturday15 January 2022.

In the intense battle, troops unleashed superior fire power on the terrorists, neutralizing five BH/ISWAP terrorists, compelling others to withdraw in disarray..

The gallant troops also captured from the terrorists, one gun truck, one Deshka M Anti Aircraft Gun, one HK 21 Machine Gun, one Rocket Propelled Grenade Bomb, 137 rounds of 12.7mm Anti-Aircraft Rounds amongst others. Troops are currently in pursuit of the fleeing terrorists.

ONYEMA NWACHUKWU
Brigadier General
Director Army Public Relations

TROOPS OF OPERATION SAFE HAVEN RESCUE THREE KIDNAPPED STUDENTS OF PLATEAU STATE POLYTECHNIC

Three students of Plateau State Polytechnic kidnapped yesterday Wednesday 12 January 2022 have been rescued
unhammed by troops of Operation SAFE HAVEN deployed at Barikin Ladi.
The trooos deployed at Nding Sesut a remote community in Barikin Ladi noticed an unusual movement of persons during patrols. Troops immediately conducted cordon and search in the general area that led to rescue of the three students at an abandoned poultry farm. The victims have since been united with their families.
Manhunt to apprehend the suspects is still on going.

While commending the vigilance and efforts of the troops, the commander Operation SAFE HAVEN, Major General Ibrahim Ali has commended the law abiding citizens who provided credible information to the security agencies.
He reiterated his resolve to make Plateau state a difficult terrain for criminals to operate.