President Buhari leaves for China

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday (Friday) left for China to participate in the 7th Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled to hold September 3 – 4, 2018 in Beijing.

The President’s first engagement in Beijing would be an interactive session with the Nigerian Community in China at the Nigerian Embassy, his spokesman, Garba Shehu said in a statement.

Before the formal opening of the FOCAC Summit, President Buhari in his capacity as current Chair of ECOWAS is expected to deliver remarks at the High-Level Dialogue between Chinese and African leaders, business representatives and African entrepreneurs.

The Nigerian President is scheduled to join President Jinping and other African leaders for the opening and roundtable sessions of the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit under the theme: “Towards an even Stronger China-Africa Community with a shared Future.”

After the FOCAC Summit, President Buhari will hold bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang to discuss infrastructure financing for strategic projects in Nigeria and the upgrading of Nigeria-China relations “from strategic partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership.”

The President will also use the occasion of his audience with the Chinese leadership to assess the progress made so far in Chinese interventions in Nigeria’s key priority infrastructure projects, particularly on-going projects in the railway and power sectors.

It is noteworthy that since the last FOCAC VI Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2015 – the first attended by the Nigerian leader – and his successful State visit to China in April 2016, the current administration has pushed forward practical cooperation with China in the areas of infrastructure construction, trade, investments, finance, power, agriculture, education cooperation, among others, Garba said.

President Buhari  was accompanied on the trip by his wife, Aisha, who is scheduled to participate in a Spouses’ Programme on China-Africa at the Great Hall of the People, under the theme, ‘‘Joining Hands for a Future of AIDS.’’

Also on the President’s entourage are Governors Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, Akinwunmi Ambode, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar and Rochas Anayo Okorocha of Bauchi, Lagos, Jigawa and Imo States respectively.

Others are Senators Abdullahi Adamu, George Akume, Godswill Akpabio and Aliyu Wamakko representing Nasarawa, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Sokoto States respectively.

Also accompanying the President are: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi; Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola; Minister of FCT, Muhammad Bello; Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma; Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu; Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika.

Others are the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; the Director General, National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar; and the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Maikanti Baru.

YOU WANT TO WORK IN ASIA?

.....One Profession Is Hiring Big

If you're looking for a new job, consider packing your bags, training as a pilot and moving to Asia.

According to U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing which says that the Asia Pacific region is set to go on a hiring spree for hundreds of thousands of new airline staff over the next two decades.

Rising wealth and growing travel demands mean that new staff — including 240,000 pilots, 242,000 technicians and 317,000 cabin crew — will be required across the region by 2037, a new report by Boeing found.

China is forecast to lead that boon, requiring half of the nearly 800,000 anticipated new hires, followed by Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Here's the breakdown of hiring forecasts by region:

The new jobs are likely to be primarily with commercial airlines. However, as affluence in the region grows, a growth in demand for other types of aviation, such as private luxury jets, can be expected.

"Strong demand for pilots in the region continues, and we expect that this will continue for the next several years," Keith Cooper, vice president of training and professional services for Boeing Global Services, said in the report.

The hiring spree is expected to breathe new life into the aviation industry, as large numbers of pilots from the baby boomer generation are set to retire over the coming decade.

It could also go some way in addressing the gender gap in the aviation industry, which has traditionally been one of the most pronounced.

Currently in the U.S., women account for just seven percent of all pilots and less than 10 percent of other technical positions, according to 2017 data from the Federal Aviation Administration's Aeronautical Center. Meanwhile, women make up close to 80 percent of flight attendant roles.

source: CNBC

 VIDEO

Iranians 'buying' passports in other countries to evade US travel ban

More Iranians are paying big money to buy passports in neighboring countries through bribery or fraudulent information, in a bid to evade U.S. sanctions and the Trump administration's travel ban on Iran and six other nations, multiple sources have told Fox News. 

The Iranians are getting passports from a number of nations, sources said. But Iran's influence with some elements of the Iraqi goverment is now so prominent the issuing of passports through payoffs and corruption there has become a growing concern, Iraqi and other sources told Fox News.

“It means that Iranians aren’t then flagged as being from a country barred by the United States,” one Iraqi insider told Fox News. "Mostly, it has been used by business people and merchants wanting to get around the economic sanctions and continue doing business with the West.”

One longtime Iraq-based, Western security expert stressed the Iranian influence inside Iraq has become “significantly heightened” since the ISIS onslaught, along with the establishment of a “Shia corridor” that enables unprecedented access – from Tehran through Baghdad, onto Damascus and then Beirut, posing a direct threat to Israel’s security.

Several counter-terrorism specialists in the U.S. also affirmed that security concerns over the passport issue have been heightened in recent months.

“It is going on, and it is not difficult to do – especially if you have a friendly government helping you out,” noted a former intelligence official currently working as a counter-terrorism consultant in the Middle East. “Iran has many allies in high-level positions in Baghdad.”

Sources also believe the passport issue may be a factor in the assassination of three Iraqi officials in just the last three months. The director of a provincial Iraqi Citizenship Department, Col. Amer Qasem Mohammed, and his aide, Lt. Col. Shaker Mahmoud were killed on Wednesday afternoon by gunmen on the road between Diyalah, near the Iranian border, and Baghdad. 

And in late June, Col. Safa Hassan al-Dulaimi – the head of the directorate of passports in the southern Iraqi province of Babil – was assassinated in broad daylight on his way home. Several Iraq sources claimed the motive behind the assassination stemmed from his refusal to issue forged Iraqi passports to the powers behind the Iranian-backed militias.

Long-running international sanctions against Iran were lifted following the 2015 signing of the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But President Trump in May pulled the United States out of the controversial agreement, prompting the U.S. Treasury to institute new sanctions against money transfer services, some state-operated airlines, as well as individuals aligned with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and missile program.

A full slate of U.S sanctions will be reimposed by November.

The Iranian government does not officially permit its country’s citizens to hold a second passport. But intelligence bureaucrats are known to allow select business figures to carry other passports for ease of travel, and doing business abroad.

Several Iraqi officials denied the notion of a fraudulent passport operation.

“Iraqi passports are issued with a high security standard and it is impossible to make forged passports through the institutes or through the officers who issue them. We get the eye cornea prints and fingerprints, we guarantee high security,” General Saad Maan Al Mousawi, a spokesperson for Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior, told Fox News. “But I say it is possible to fake the passports after they have been issued, if someone lost their passport or it was stolen, it could be forged. But not through legal ways.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a joint news conference following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 28, 2017. 

Another high-ranking ministry official, who requested not to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media, also insisted Iraq has not issued fraudulently passports for Iranian nationals. He said that if Iranians who could legitimately claim Iraqi citizenships want a passport, they must first obtain Iraqi national documents “which is not easy, is a long procedure, and requires the father to be Iraqi.”

But Iraq isn't the only neighboring country doling out passports to Iranians.

According to one Afghan government official, the problem is most evident in the border province of Herat, where national identification cards can be easily purchased on the black market, or through unscrupulous channels, thus making it significantly easier to obtain a passport under false pretenses.

One Kabul authority said Iranians have been known to pay between $5,000 and $10,000 to acquire all the needed documents – beginning with a national identification card – which then allows them to apply for a second passport.

While both the Iraqi and Afghanistan passports have little value on the internationally recognized Henley index of travel freedom, both ranking close to the bottom, their holders are not on the U.S. travel ban list. Moreover, in the latest available Corruptions Perceptions Index, unveiled in February, Iraq ranked as the 169th most corrupt country out of 180, while Afghanistan fell almost at the bottom, standing at 177.

Representatives for Iranian and Afghanistan governments did not respond to a request for comment.

“The proliferation of forged documents enables a host of illegal activities, like the travel of sanctioned or wanted individuals and other forms of illegal immigration. It is also a deliberate attack on the authority to secure its borders,” said David Ibsen, Executive Director of the not-for-profit, non-partisan policy organization Counter Extremism Project (CEP). “This is not surprising, as Iran will do what it can to circumvent sanctions.”

And the problem isn't contained in neighboring countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

A Reuters investigation published in June revealed the Comoros Islands, a small nation off the east coast of Africa, suddenly had to cancel the passports “purchased” by more than 100 Iranians –including those of senior executives in industries all targeted by international sanctions.

The legitimate purchase of a passport in some countries is legal, and traditionally tied to individuals agreeing to invest a certain amount of money to boost small economies. This so-called “citizenship by investment” has been used by Iranians in a number of countries. 

Diffterent forms of identification. pictured are three social security cards on  top of a birth certificate covered by two american passports.

U.S has top-notch security for entry, but no system is foolproof, experts caution  (istock)

“Diplomats and security sources in the Comoros and the West are concerned that some Iranians acquired the passports to protect their interests as sanctions crimped Iran’s ability to conduct international business,” the Reuters report stated. “While none of the people or companies involved faced sanctions, the restrictions on Iran could still make a second passport helpful. Comoros passports offer visa-free travel in parts of the Middle and Far East and could be used by Iranians to open accounts in foreign banks and register companies abroad.”

Iranians are also among the largest national groups to be buying up passports as part of the Citizenship by Investment program for the Commonwealth of Dominica, as well as the island of Grenada. Passports from those countries allow visa-free travel to more than 100 countries.

This is not a new problem, some experts told Fox News.

A July 2013 congressional hearing on homeland security documented “the acquisition by hundreds and perhaps thousands of Iranian nationals of legitimate, original passports, codulas, and other national identity documents from Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela and Bolivia” had been granted largely to operatives in the Quds Force, Ministry of Intelligence and other intelligence services in Iran who can then “move across the region relatively undetected because they are no longer identifiable as Iranians.”

Recommendations at the time were made to “focus on the thousands of passports” that had been issued by these countries to Iranians, given the “vast bulk of people receiving these passports by complicit governments” were not tourists but agents “whose primary objective is to find vulnerabilities and points of entry into the United States, identify vulnerable targets in the region and prepare a military response if Iran’s nuclear program were to be attacked.”

The small Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis drew the indignation of the U.S. Treasury Department in late 2014 after three suspected Iranian operatives were seized using St. Kitts passports to launder money at the behest of banks in Tehran, in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Furthermore, more than 5,000 passports then had to be annulled as they did not have listed a birthplace or were awarded to individuals who had changed their names.

The island did make a formal announcement in 2011 that going forward, Iranian investors would be suspended from participation in the citizenship by investment program, citing the “unfolding events coming from the international community” and re-asserting its own position as a “country friendly to all, and an enemy to none.”

But Iranians living abroad were, according to National Interest, were still applying for the citizenship in droves.

In August this year, Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) of Saint Lucia suddenly announced Iranians were no longer eligible for the program, saying they were “unable to undertake due diligence checks on site in Iran and validate documents issued from Iran.” No mention was made of second citizenships already issued.

“We know that much of the international Islamist terrorism is being directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (ICRG). If entrants can acquire a passport from an ESTA eligible country, then they could more easily gain entry to the U.S," noted Tom Wilson, Research Fellow in the Center on Radicalization and Terrorism at the Henry Jackson Society, referring to the “Electronic System for Travel Authorization,” which facilitates visa waivers to the U.S.

“Iranians who hold second passports may well be able to buy property in the U.S, or do business with ordinary Americans," Wilson said. "In particular is the concern that key Iranian figures will use these passports to try and avoid the full effects of sanctions.”

One British-based lawyer – a leader in facilitating legitimate pathways for people to procure second nationalities through investment – told Fox News that since Trump took office, and made clear the Iran nuke deal was in jeopardy, there has been a sharp pullback in taking on Iranian cases. 

“It’s not worth the hassle,” the lawyer said. 

A spokesperson for the U.S State Department insisted national security remains the top priority when adjudicating visa applications.

“Every prospective traveler to the United States undergoes extensive security screening. Maintaining robust screening standards for visa applicants is a dynamic practice that must adapt to emerging threats,” the representative insisted.

“We are constantly working to find mechanisms to improve our screening process, allow travel and immigration to the United States while protecting U.S citizens and excluding individuals who might pose a threat.”

But security experts emphasized that while U.S technology and screening is top-notch, it is not unassailable.

“As long as the demand is there, criminals will find a way,” said Larry Johnson, former Secret Service agent and now CEO of CyberSponse. “In the meantime, the United States Government has to remain vigilant.”

@AFP/Agency reports

Netanyahu warns Israel's foes they risk ruin.....

By Dan Williams 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a visit to a secretive Israeli atomic reactor on Wednesday to warn the country’s enemies that it has the means to destroy them, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to its assumed nuclear arsenal.

“Those who threaten to wipe us out put themselves in a similar danger, and in any event will not achieve their goal,” he said during a ceremony to rename the complex, near the desert town of Dimona, after the late Israeli statesman Shimon Peres.

Netanyahu’s remarks, issued by his office in a transcript, came as Israel lobbies world powers to follow the United States in exiting their 2015 deal with Iran that capped the Islamic Republic’s nuclear capabilities.

The Israelis deem the agreement insufficient for denying their arch-foe the means to eventually get the bomb - something that Tehran, which is a signatory to the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treatry (NPT), denies wanting.

The reimposition of U.S. sanctions has put pressure on the Iranian economy, scaring off some foreign investors even as European powers try to salvage the 2015 pact. On Wednesday, Iran said it could abandon the accord.

Since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has preached Israel’s destruction. It backs the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. Its reinforcement of Damascus during Syria’s civil war is seen by the Netanyahu government as a further Iranian deployment on Israel’s borders.

Israel, which is outside the NPT, neither confirms nor denies having the bomb, a decades-old “ambiguity” policy that it says keeps hostile neighbors in check while avoiding the kind of public provocations that can spark regional arms races.

The Israeli reticence has long been tolerated by Washington.

During a visit to Israel last week, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton told Reuters that he met officials from the country’s Atomic Energy Commission but that this should not be seen to signal any policy review by the Trump administration.

“I don’t think there is anything out of the ordinary or unexpected,” Bolton said of the meeting. Asked to elaborate, he added only: “No change in policy.”

Israel has carried out scores of attacks against suspected Iranian and Hezbollah emplacements or arms transfers in Syria, with Russia, Damascus’s big-power backer, turning a blind eye.

“The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will continue acting with full determination and with full might against Iran’s attempts to station forces and advanced weapons systems in Syria,” Netanyahu said in his Dimona remarks.

The premier credited Peres, his predecessor and a Nobel Peace laureate who died in 2016, with setting up the reactor in the 1950s as part of a vision of “normalization between core countries in the Arab world and a strong State of Israel”.

“This process ... is happening before our very eyes, on a scale that would have been impossible to imagine just a few years ago,” Netanyahu said, alluding to Israel’s discreet relations with Gulf Arab powers that see Iran as a common foe.

@Reuters

Nigeria, Britain signs Economic & Security Pacts

Britain and Nigeria yesterday signed agreements aimed at boosting economic and security ties between both countries.

May arrived in country's capital Abuja on Wednesday and met with Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, where they both witnessed the signing of the two separate bilateral pacts.

May is on a three-nation African tour to drum up new business ahead of Britain's scheduled departure from the EU next March.

She pledged the UK's support for Nigeria particularly in areas of security, trade, asset recovery and its fight against corruption.

During the trip, she told reporters: "We have long-standing relations with Nigeria and long-standing, close commercial ties with Nigeria. There are British companies that have been here in Nigeria for many, many years. We want to enhance those trading links."

President Buhari who declined to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) trade deal involving 16 African countries in April, said Nigeria was closely following the Brexit discussions.

''We are nervously watching the development about Brexit because we know that the relationship had been on for a long time. I assure you that I am prepared to strengthen the relationship between our two countries," Buhari said.

He also thanked Britain for training the armed forces in their fight against the insurgency in Nigeria's north-east, where terror Boko Haram has waged a decade-long war, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions internally.

''I am very grateful to the British government under your leadership for the help in security, particularly your training team that is in our institution in Kaduna,'' Buhari said.

After her meeting with Buhari, May flew to Lagos, where she met with victims of human trafficking at an event organized by the Salvation Army and local NGOs.

FOREIGN: North Korea and South Korea agree to Pyongyang summit

South Korea's President plans to cross over to the North in September for an unprecedented third summit with leader Kim Jong Un. (Reuters)

The leaders of North and South Korea will hold a summit in September, their governments announced Monday, as their peace process moves steadily forward despite signs of a growing impasse between Washington and Pyongyang.

The summit will take place in Pyongyang. It will be the third between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year and only the third time that a South Korean leader has traveled to the North Korean capital for such a meeting.

The Trump administration appears to have run into rougher waters in its attempts to persuade North Korea to denuclearize in recent weeks, but the two Koreas appear to be making more progress in their gradual rapprochement — even if the issue of North Korea’s denuclearization remains far from clear.

The announcement came after North and South Korean government officials held talks on the northern side of the border village of Panmunjom.

In remarks before the talks got underway, Ri Son Gwon, the leader of the North Korean delegation and chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, said he hoped the planned summit would help give “concrete answers” to the problems people are facing.

Afterward, he said a date has been fixed but not announced, “to keep reporters wondering.”

“It is a different story than U.S.-North Korea, which seems to have become bogged down,” said John Delury, an assistant professor at Yonsei University in Seoul. “The two Koreas are more in stride, and the process has ‘taken’ better decision.

That is not to say that the peace process across the divided Korean Peninsula is smooth sailing. 

On Sunday, a North Korean propaganda website blamed Seoul’s “blind obedience” to U.S.-led sanctions for what it called the failure to make progress since Moon and Kim met on the border in a blaze of publicity in April.

“It’s been more than 100 days since the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration was adopted, but no reasonable fruit or progress has been produced,” the website Uriminzokkiri wrote. “It is because of America’s sanctions and the South’s unfair participation in them.”

Some South Korean reporters also pointed out a mismatch in the makeup of the two delegations on Monday: North Korea brought officials in charge of railways, land and environmental protection and economic cooperation to the talks, whereas the South Korean side was made up of officials from the Unification Ministry, national security office and prime minister’s office

But if that suggested differing priorities, the opening statements as the talks got underway Monday were all about friendship and rapprochement.

“In a realistic sense, this is the major transformation in the inter-Korean relationship,” North Korea’s Ri said. “That we are meeting to exchange talks in such a friendly mood like right now signifies that the communication is working.”

In a joint statement afterward, the two sides said they had “reviewed the progress of implementing the Panmunjom Declaration, and discussed further methods to fulfill the Declaration in a sincere manner.”

By contrast, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seemed to come away empty-handed from a trip to Pyongyang following a summit between President Trump and Kim in Singapore in June, with North Korea blaming his “gangster-like mind-set.”

Last week, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry also criticized “high-level officials” within the U.S. administration for insisting that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons before sanctions are eased and for making “desperate attempts at intensifying the international sanctions and pressure.” 

Those officials, the Foreign Ministry said, are “going against the intention of President Trump” to advance relations between the two countries.

But while the declaration that followed Trump’s meeting with Kim was widely criticized as being too vague, the Panmunjom Declaration reached between Moon and Kim was much more detailed, Delury said. The two sides also have more experience talking to each other from previous peace processes. 

“The two Koreas match up; they know their counterparts,” he said. “The South Koreans have done this before when they were in government. They are not new to this. When things start to go wrong, they are like, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve had this before.’”

Delury said that was not a criticism of Trump and his team but just to highlight the different problems and context between the two parallel peace processes.

A visit by Moon to Pyongyang would be another propaganda coup for North Korea, and there had been talk of arranging it ahead of the Sept. 9 celebration of the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, when major celebrations are planned.

But Kim Eui-keum, a spokesman for South Korea’s presidential Blue House, told reporters that “early September seems a bit difficult.”

Before the talks, South Korean media reported that Moon may also urge Kim to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York in late September.

source:The Washington Post

DEFECTORS TO PDP WILL REGRET THEIR ACTIONS,says Governor Wamakko

Sen. Aliyu Wamakko (APC Sokoto) who staged a grand homecoming to Sokoto yesterday said defectors to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other political parties from All Progressives Congress (APC) will surely regret their actions. 

Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State Wamakko stated this on Saturday at a special rally in support of President Muhammadu Buhari and APC organised by loyalists, in the wake of the defection of Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal to PDP from the ruling APC on Aug. 1. 

He described PDP as a dead political party and categorically ruled out Tambuwal’s exit being a threat to APC hold on the state. 

He said the Sokoto APC still has two Senators, seven members of the Federal House of Representatives and 12 state assembly members, beside the high percentage of political elders, youths, women and others in the state. 

He conveyed President Buhari’s goodwill message to Sokoto residents. 

He debunked Tambuwal’s statement that the Federal Government has not executed any project in Sokoto. 

Wammako said many projects have been executed and many have been proposed across the state. 

He thanked Sokoto people for the warm reception as well as huge support for President Buhari’s administration. 

He urged the people to sustain the support to ensure Buhari amd APC victory in 2019 elections. 

” The present political situation in Sokoto is not between me and Governor Tambuwal but between APC as a political party and the dead PDP”, he said. 

The Senator enjoined Nigerians to shun detractors and support the good leadership of President Buhari and APC at all levels. 

State APC Chairman, Alhaji Sadiq Achida, said APC is still in control of the state and the control will continue. 

Goodwill messages were received from former Kebbi State Governor, Nasamu Dakingari, Umaru Gwandu, representative of Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state and Muhammad Bello, who attended the rally, to show solidarity with the people of Sokoto people. 

Wamakko was received by a massive crowd that even delayed the landing of the aircraft for hours as motorcyclists and people troop onto the runway. 

NAN report that the mega rally witnessed a long motorcade, a long chain of tricycles and thousands of pedestrians who trekked from the Sultan Abubakar III International Airport, down to Senator Wammako’s residence in Gawan Nama in Sokoto metropolis. . (NAN) 

Politics: DEFECTORS ARE DOGS EATING THEIR VOMITS,says Emmanuel Okotie-Eboh

.....Politicians taking Nigerians for a ride

Mr. Emmanuel Okotie-Eboh is the son of First Republic politician and Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh. In this exclusive interview with Regional Editor, Shola O’Neil, the TV producer and founder of apolitical Progressive Alliance Movement (PAM) speaks on the performance of APC-led Federal Government, killings and Tuesday’s mass defection from the ruling party, among other issues. Excerpts

On problems of killings and national unrest Recently, I read a publication made in a national daily it was a communiqué, which touches on insecurity and killings in Nigeria. 

The communiqué, signed by some prominent Nigerians on behalf of PANDEF, Northern Elders Forum, Afenifere Socio-Cultural Group and Ohaneze Ndigbo, appraised the security challenges and poverty in the country. 

While I salute their courage in this regard, I differ on one of their resolves, which amongst others is “to insist on the emergence of a visionary and dynamic leadership which will effectively deal with our security and economic challenges, and ensure good governance in the country.”

Before you ask why I differ, let me quickly explain – without any regret – that it is unfair to say that a government that has the likes of Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Vice President Osinbajo (SAN) among other young and vibrant Nigerians who have excelled in their various fields and politics, is a visionless government. 

This is more so when the people who are asserting this were around corridors of power at one time or the other and similar things happened during those era which they never spoke out against or addressed.

None of these people cared enough to criticize the government of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan during his six-year reign at a time when Boko Haram was annexing parts of our Federal Republic, carrying our carnages and wanton destruction of lives and properties were on the increase on daily basis. 

Then, where were these people who are now making such statements? You cannot help but to read political tone to what they are saying.

It is not every matter that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should be held responsible for. For instance, the killing of a PDP Chairman in Lagos and the alleged attack on the life of Senator Dino Melaye, should they be linked to President Muhammadu Buhari? 

Issues of Boko Haram and herdsmen killings are creations of some individuals in Nigeria who want to score cheap political points by using it as a campaign instrument.

I don’t think I would have reacted if people like Generals Yakubu Gowon, David Ejoor, TY Danjuma, Abdusalami Abubakar and their likes were behind that statement; the reason being that they are not in the political arena but they are leaders who have managed to stay away from partisan politics. 

I also would not have reacted if they had done this during the past governments. 

I don’t believe that we have any bad tribe or religion. It is the individuals who are bad and politically tendered.

Criticism that Nigerians are worse off under the present government

The state of Nigerian roads prior to the emergence of this administration was nothing to compare to now. 

The East-West Road, Lokoja-Abuja, Ibadan-Oyo; Benin-Ore, Oshodi-Apapa, Lagos-Ibadan, etc., have been re-constructed to aid smooth travelling thereby creating security on the highways.

There are some states which have been under the reign of governance by a political party from 1999 till date, people are still saying that the governor of the states have not done enough for the people, not to mention a party that just came on board in less than four years. 

There is no magic in governance; we all know that human beings are the most difficult to lead.

Take for example the mass exodus of companies from Warri that has turned Warri to a ghost town; was it caused by Buhari? In fact it was during the era of President Olusegun Obasanjo, but the individuals in the political space of Delta State in collaboration with other supporters brought about the hunger and the rains of destructions that have driven Shell and their likes out of Warri. 

These were the handiwork of some political undertakers.

Yar’Adua cannot be fully assessed, as his reign was short-lived. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, with the opportunities and goodwill he had, would have done better if he had not surrounded himself with sycophants, who would not tell him when he erred and advised him against future occurrence by telling him the truth when the need arose.

It is my humble suggestion that if the elder statesmen see anything wrong with the way the country is being run, they should make arrangements to inform the President on the lapses and give him suggestions to correct them. 

Also, the President should open a line/desk office where such complaints can be received and attended to by qualified persons who should in turn brief the President.

On the role of ‘elders/leaders’ in nation’s politics

The elders/political leaders should also use merit in choosing and adopting persons they allow to represent them for elective/appointment positions. 

People of questionable characters should not be presented. It will help in shaping the future of the country if round pegs are put in round holes and not the other way round. 

The bane of Nigeria is greed, lies, desperation for power by individuals who are the followers including, aides who abuse their delegated duties.

We have to change our dance steps for a better Nigeria. 

The blame goes to us all, to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done; if not, restructuring alone cannot bring peace. 

First, we have to restructure our ways of doing things. Charity must begin at home.

On Tuesday’s cross-carpeting at the NASS

I have said it severally, the problem of this great country, Nigeria, is not APC or PDP; it is the problem of lack of political ideology and integrity by the current crop of politicians. 

That is the big difference from the days of the First Republic, NPN, UPN and others. 

It is a shame that people now see political parties as a vehicle to their selfish gains.

Yesterday, it was the APC that they were jumping into in droves, today it is the same party that they are leaving and returning to the PDP that they jumped from on the eve of the 2015 elections. 

They castigated the PDP, insulted the leaders that are now receiving them all because of their quest for power. 

This is very shameful, considering that our children are seeing all these things on television and they are reading about it in the papers. 

This is no longer politics; this is opportunism and a few people taking the Nigerian nation and the larger percentage of the people for a ride.

What we are seeing now is, if you don’t get what you want today, you jump to another party. 

The defectors have been there from the beginning; most of them were with Goodluck Jonathan and now they have gone back to the same PDP they derided and castigated. 

They are dogs eating their own vomits. If they have any modicum of shame, they would know that this is shameful.

Sadly, Nigerians are gullible; the villains of yesterday are today’s saints. We must know that the President cannot solve all the problems in three years. 

The people, who cannot get what they want from the present dispensation, are deceiving Nigerians, encouraging the killings and destabilisation of the country. 

They have all jumped somewhere and destroyed were they are leaving behind in their attempt to destroy the President, not minding if they destroy the country in the process.

How do this and other political events affect the peace and security of Nigeria?

This do-or-die politics is heating up the polity. With what they are doing now, they are encouraging the killings and insecurity in the country. 

The action is not encouraging; if we are looking for peace, how do we achieve that when all the attention is diverted to the drama of these men and women who should be setting the pace. In the past, politics was for the wise and cunny, but today, it is for the wicked and the greedy.

Presidency launches PEBEC Kiosk at MMIA, Lagos

The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) on 6th,July,2018, formally commissioned, the PEBEC.Report Kiosks (the Kiosk) at the international wing of the Muritala Mohammed Airport in Lagos. 

According to a press statement by Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment the Kiosks would serve as a self-service terminal, with customer service representatives to promote the PEBEC.Report app. 

The app is the PEBEC’s official public service website for complaints and feedback on the service delivery standards of select Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The app was launched on 25 June 2018 at a special PEBEC meeting after a 6-month preparation period. The app has piloted with nine of the PEBEC priority MDAs (PPM); Citizens and Business Department, Corporate Affairs Commission, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Police Force, Nigerian Ports Authority and Standards Organisation of Nigeria. 

The app is important because it:

Makes it easy for anyone to resolve issues encountered when dealing with MDAs;

Strengthens federal enforcement, service delivery and public protection efforts on a national level (through filing a complaint);

Helps identify trends and tracks the issues that matter to Nigerian citizens.

The app includes a feedback mechanism for MDAs, which have assigned administrators to handle complaints according to pre-agreed service level agreements (SLA). 

All administrators have been trained on how to handle complaints and feedback from the app within a 72-hour timeline. 

On June 27 2018, the Federal Executive Council also approved a directive on strict compliance by all MDAs to respond to complains within 72 hours.

This web-based application is to foster transparency and efficiency in furtherance to the Executive Order 001 (EO1). Recall that the EO1 was signed on 18 May 2017 by Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), then Acting President to promote transparency and efficiency in the business environment. 

To foster a robust monitoring and evaluation process (M&E), EO1 mandated all MDAs to submit monthly reports to the office of the Head of Service and SERVICOM. The Enabling Business Environment Secretariat tracks compliance of select MDAs with EO1 directives. 

On June 25 2018, a 12-month anniversary report, tracking the performance of PPMs, was presented at the special PEBEC meeting in the presence of private sector stakeholders. 

The PEBEC.Report kiosks have been placed in Lagos and Abuja international airports to promote the app and encourage private sector to give feedback about their airport and travel experience. 

The app is being scaled up to include more MDAs and provide wider coverage.

GECAS and Oz Management Close STARR 2018-1: The First Structured Sale of Aircraft to Include a Dedicated Asset Manager

GECAS and Oz Management (NYSE: OZM) (“Oz”) announced today the closing of STARR 2018-1. Operating as START Ltd., this closing marks the first aircraft portfolio purchase vehicle structure to include a dedicated Asset Manager for equity investors. In this transaction GECAS is selling a portfolio of aircraft to Start Ltd, which is financing its acquisition through issuance of 144A debt and equity. The sales are subject to typical conditions precedent including any regulatory approvals that may be necessary. GECAS will continue to service the portfolio and an affiliate of Oz will serve as an Asset Manager.

The diversified portfolio is comprised of 24 in-production Boeing and Airbus aircraft on lease to 16 global airlines in 15 countries, with a total appraised value of approximately $700mn.

An affiliate of Oz, through an exclusive, multi-year agreement with GECAS, will serve as an asset manager on this and potential future transactions, acting on behalf of the syndicated equity investors as an advisor to the board regarding portfolio matters. In this capacity, Oz will provide increased transparency on behalf of START Ltd. through enhanced investor reporting to improve liquidity for debt and equity investors.

Rob Shafir, CEO of Oz Management said, “We are excited to team up with the leading aircraft lessor in the world to create a new structure which enhances pooled aircraft sale transactions. GECAS — with their fleet of nearly 2000 owned, serviced and on-order aircraft — brings their domain expertise and 50 years’ aviation finance experience to this transaction. When coupled with Oz’s experience as an institutional asset manager, START Ltd. will bring increased institutional capital to the commercial aviation space.”

“By joining with Oz on this transaction, we feel confident this unique structure will bolster investor interest in the aviation finance space,” shared Alec Burger, President of GE Capital and President & CEO of GECAS, adding “While GECAS continues our lessee relationships through our servicing arrangement, this structure provides GECAS, as a seller, and buyer/issuers like START Ltd. with access to the institutional market on a more consistent basis. We look forward to teaming up with Oz on similar aircraft sales transactions going forward and capitalizing on their expertise in managing these types of platforms.”

With nearly $1 trillion in outstanding market value in commercial aviation, this asset manager structure aims to broaden the investor base in the sector and bring increased institutional capital to the space, similar to other securitization markets such as CLOs. In addition to serving as the asset manager, funds managed by Oz have the added opportunity to invest equity.

29 NIGERIANS AMONGST 74 ARRESTED FOR FINANCIAL & BUSINESS FRAUD BY U.S FBI

>COMMENDS NIGERIA's EFCC & OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS FOR RENDERING SUPPORT ON FIGHT AGAINST FRAUD

>42 Alleged Fraudsters Arrested in the United States

Federal authorities announced today a significant coordinated effort to disrupt Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes that are designed to intercept and hijack wire transfers from businesses and individuals, including many senior citizens.  

Operation Wire Wire, a coordinated law enforcement effort by the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, was conducted over a six month period, culminating in over two weeks of intensified law enforcement activity resulting in 74 arrests in the United States and overseas, including 29 in Nigeria, and three in Canada, Mauritius and Poland.  

The operation also resulted in the seizure of nearly $2.4 million, and the disruption and recovery of approximately $14 million in fraudulent wire transfers.

BEC, also known as “cyber-enabled financial fraud,” is a sophisticated scam often targeting employees with access to company finances and businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments.  

The same criminal organizations that perpetrate BEC also exploit individual victims, often real estate purchasers, the elderly, and others, by convincing them to make wire transfers to bank accounts controlled by the criminals.

 This is often accomplished by impersonating a key employee or business partner after obtaining access to that person’s email account or sometimes done through romance and lottery scams. 

 BEC scams may involve fraudulent requests for checks rather than wire transfers; they may target sensitive information such as personally identifiable information (PII) or employee tax records instead of, or in addition to, money; and they may not involve an actual “compromise” of an email account or computer network.  

Foreign citizens perpetrate many BEC scams.  Those individuals are often members of transnational criminal organizations, which originated in Nigeria but have spread throughout the world. 

“Fraudsters can rob people of their life's savings in a matter of minutes,” said Attorney General Sessions. “These are malicious and morally repugnant crimes. The Department of Justice has taken aggressive action against fraudsters in recent months, conducting the largest sweep of fraud against American seniors in history back in February. 

Now, in this operation alone, we have arrested 42 people in the United States and 29 others have been arrested in Nigeria for alleged financial fraud. And so I want to thank the FBI, nearly a dozen U.S. Attorneys' Offices, the Secret Service, Postal Inspection Services, Homeland Security Investigations, the Treasury Department, our partners in Nigeria, Poland, Canada, Mauritius, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and our state and local law enforcement partners for all of their hard work. We will continue to go on offense against fraudsters so that the American people can have safety and peace of mind.”

“This operation demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to disrupt and dismantle criminal enterprises that target American citizens and their businesses,” said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. “We will continue to work together with our law enforcement partners around the world to end these fraud schemes and protect the hard-earned assets of our citizens. The public we serve deserves nothing less.”

“The Secret Service remains committed to aggressively investigating and pursuing those responsible for cyber-enabled financial crimes,” said U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles.  “Although the explosive expansion of the cyber domain has forced us to develop innovative ways of conducting these types of investigations, our proven model remains the same.”

“FinCEN has been a leader in the fight against BEC and other cyber-enabled crime,” said FinCEN Director Kenneth A. Blanco. “Since 2014, working with our domestic and international partners, our Rapid Response Program has helped recover over $350 million stolen from innocent Americans.  We must continue to be smarter, quicker, and better than the criminals that we face every day.  Today’s action is a victory, but it will take vigilance, time, and resources to take this fight into the future.  In defense of the victims of these crimes, we are ready for the challenge.”

“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service has a long history of successfully investigating complex fraud and corruption cases,” said Chief Postal Inspector Guy Cottrell. “We are proud to work alongside our fellow law enforcement partners in major efforts, such as Operation Wire Wire, to target those individuals who take advantage of the American public for illegal profits. 

Anyone who engages in deceptive practices like this should know they will not go undetected and will be held accountable, regardless of where they are. Postal Inspectors will continue to work tirelessly to protect our customers from fraud.” 

A number of cases involved international criminal organizations that defrauded small to large sized businesses, while others involved individual victims who transferred high dollar funds or sensitive records in the course of business. 

 The devastating effects these cases have on victims and victim companies, affect not only the individual business but also the global economy.  Since the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) began keeping track of BEC and its variant, Email Account Compromise (EAC), as a complaint category, there has been a loss of over $3.7 billion reported to the IC3.  

BEC and EAC is a prevalent scam and the Justice Department along with our partners will continue to aggressively pursue and prosecute the perpetrators, including money mules, regardless of where they are located. 

Money mules may be witting or unwitting accomplices who receive ill-gotten funds from the victims and then transfer the funds as directed by the fraudsters. 

 The money is wired or sent by check to the money mule who then deposits it in his or her own bank account.  Usually the mules keep a fraction for “their trouble” and then wire the money as directed by the fraudster.  The fraudsters enlist and manipulate the money mules through romance scams or “work-at-home” scams.

Starting in January 2018, this coordinated enforcement action targeted hundreds of BEC scammers.  In addition, law enforcement agents executed over 51 domestic actions including search warrants, money mule warning letters, and asset seizure warrants totaling nearly $1 million.  Local and state law enforcement partners on FBI task forces across the country, with the assistance of multiple District Attorney’s Offices, charged 15 alleged money mules for their role in defrauding victims.  These money mules were employed by the fraudsters to launder their ill-gotten gains by draining the funds into other accounts that are difficult to trace.

Among those arrested on federal charges in BEC schemes include:

• Following an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, 23 individuals were charged in the Southern District of Florida with laundering at least $10 million from proceeds of BEC scams, including eight people charged in an indictment unsealed last week in Miami. These eight defendants are alleged to have conspired to launder proceeds from numerous BEC scams, totaling at least approximately $5 million, including approximately $1.4 million from a victim corporation in Seattle, as well as various title companies and a law firm.
• Following an investigation led by the FBI with the assistance of the IRS Criminal Investigation, Gloria Okolie and Paul Aisosa, both Nigerian nationals residing in Dallas, Texas, were charged in an indictment filed on June 6 in the Southern District of Georgia.  According to the indictment, they are alleged to have victimized a real estate closing attorney by sending the lawyer a spoofing email posing as the seller and requesting that proceeds of a real estate sale in the amount of $246,000 be wired to Okolie’s account.  They are charged with laundering approximately $665,000 in illicit funds.  The attorney experienced $130,000 in losses after the bank was notified of the fraud and froze $116,000.
• Adeyemi Odufuye aka “Micky,” “Micky Bricks,” “Yemi,” “GMB,” “Bawz” and “Jefe,” 32, and Stanley Hugochukwu Nwoke, aka Stanley Banks,” “Banks,” “Hugo Banks,” “Banky,” and “Jose Calderon,” 27, were charged in a seven-count indictment in the District of Connecticut in a BEC scheme involving an attempted loss to victims of approximately $2.6 million, including at least $440,000 in actual losses to one victim in Connecticut.  A third co-conspirator Olumuyiwa Yahtrip Adejumo, aka “Ade,” “Slimwaco,” “Waco,” “Waco Jamon,” “Hade,” and “Hadey,” 32, of Toledo, Ohio, pleaded guilty on April 20 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.  Odufuye was extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States and on Jan. 3, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Nwoke was extradited to the United States from Mauritius on May 25, marking the first extradition in over 15 years from Mauritius.  His case is pending.
• Richard Emem Jackson, aka Auwire, 23, of Lagos, Nigeria, was charged in an indictment filed on May 17 in the District of Massachusetts with two counts of unlawful possession of a means of identification as part of a larger fraud scheme. According to the indictment, on two occasions in 2017, Jackson is alleged to have possessed the identifications of two victims with the intent to commit wire fraud conspiracy.  In another case being prosecuted in the District of Massachusetts, a 25-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Florida man was indicted in federal court in Boston on June 6 on one count of money laundering conspiracy. According to the indictment, the individual was part of a conspiracy that engaged in wire fraud. It is alleged that in early 2018, the defendant’s co-conspirators gained access to email accounts belonging to a Massachusetts real estate attorney and sent emails to recipients in Massachusetts that “spoofed” the real estate attorney’s account in an attempt to cause the email recipient to transfer nearly $500,000, which was intended to be used for payment in connection with a real estate transaction, to a shell account belonging to a money mule recruited and controlled by the defendant.

The BEC scam is related to other forms of fraud such as:

• “Romance scams,” which lull victims to believe that their online paramour needs funds for an international business transaction, a U.S. visit or some other purpose;
• “Employment opportunities scams,” which recruits prospective employees for work-from-home employment opportunities where employees are required to provide their PII as new “hires” and then are significantly overpaid by check whereby the employees wire the overpayment to the employers’ bank;
• “Fraudulent online vehicle sales scams,” which convinces intended buyers to purchase prepaid gift cards in the amount of the agreed upon sale price and are instructed to share the prepaid card codes with the “sellers” who ignore future communications and do not deliver the goods;
• “Rental scams” occur when renters forward a check in excess of the agreed upon deposit for the rental property to the victims and request the remainder be returned via wire or check and back out of the rental agreements and ask for a refund; and
• “Lottery scams,” which involves persons randomly contacting email addresses advising them they have been selected as the winner of an international lottery.

The cases were investigated by the FBI, 

U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and IRS Criminal Investigation.  

U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Districts of Central California, Connecticut, Eastern Virginia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Southern Florida, Southern Georgia, Southern Texas, Eastern Pennsylvania, Eastern Washington, Western Pennsylvania, Western Tennessee, Western Washington, Utah, and elsewhere have ongoing investigations some of which have resulted in arrests in Nigeria.  

The Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Office of International Affairs of the Criminal Division provided assistance. District Attorney’s Offices of Caddo Parrish in Shreveport, Louisiana; Harris County, Texas and Los Angeles are handling state prosecutions. 

Additionally, private sector partners and the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Canadian law enforcement including the Toronto Police Service, the Mauritian Attorney-General and the Commissioner of Police, Polish Police Central Bureau of Investigation, Indonesian National Police Cyber Crimes Unit, and the Royal Malaysia Police provided significant assistance.  

This operation, which was funded and coordinated by the FBI, serves as a model for international cooperation against specific threats that endanger the financial well-being of each member country’s residents.  

Attorney General Sessions expressed gratitude for the outstanding efforts of the participating countries, including law enforcement actions that were coordinated and executed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria to curb business email compromise schemes that defraud businesses and individuals alike.

Victims are encouraged to file a complaint online with the IC3 at bec.ic3.gov. The IC3 staff reviews complaints, looking for patterns or other indicators of significant criminal activity, and refers investigative packages of complaints to the appropriate law enforcement authorities in a particular city or region.