A Swiss prosecutor said Thursday that there were “indications” FIFA president Gianni Infantino was guilty of “unfair management” for using a private jet, funded by the body, to fly between Suriname and Switzerland in 2017.
Special prosecutor Stefan Keller called for a criminal investigation to be opened.
This latest accusation comes after a procedure was opened on July 30 against Infantino for “incitement to abuse authority”, the “violation of official secrecy” and “obstruction of criminal proceedings”.
“On the basis of the investigations carried out, (prosecutor) Stefan Keller is of the opinion that a criminal investigation must be opened for unfair management,” said a statement from his office.
Keller is, however, “not competent to open such an investigation” and therefore transmitted his conclusions to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPC).
Keller was appointed “extraordinary prosecutor” in early July to investigate suspicions of collusion between FIFA and former MPC chief Michael Lauber.
His investigations related to three secret meetings held in 2016 and 2017 between Lauber and Infantino.
Lauber resigned in the summer while FIFA’s internal justice system cleared Infantino in mid-August.
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The FIFA chief said it was “absurd” to be implicated for having met a magistrate, insisting he wanted to show Lauber how much FIFA had changed since the clouds of corruption which had engulfed his predecessor Sepp Blatter.
FIFA said Thursday that they and Infantino were shocked by Keller’s statement, claiming it was “both malicious and defamatory in nature and demonstrates his extreme bias”.
“Neither FIFA nor its president have ever been informed of these new spurious allegations and they are therefore unable to comment on them, which is probably the intention of the ‘special prosecutor’.
“The method of Stefan Keller to accuse and defame by publishing media releases without justification borders on character assassination and is rejected in the strongest possible terms by FIFA and its president.
“FIFA and its president will obviously take all necessary legal steps and remedies to put an end to these baseless and ill-intentioned accusations.”
AFP
In light of the grinding economic impacts of Covid-19, Nigeria’s Speaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, has engaged some international development partners on the Debt Cancellation Campaign Initiative (DCCI) under the umbrella of Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments (CoSAP).
During a roundtable at the National Assembly organised by the Office of the Speaker, the international partners expressed readiness to support the CoSAP debt cancellation drive for African countries.
Present at the roundtable was the World Bank’s Country Director in Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, as well as delegations of other international development agencies operating in Nigeria, including the European Union; ECOWAS; the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP); the FCDO Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), and the FCDO Engage Citizens Pillar (ECP).
Also in attendance were the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC); Mercy Corps; GIZ Nigeria, and the National Democratic Institute (NDI).
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While introducing CoSAP to his guests, Gbajabiamila noted that foreign debt cancellation for African countries was topmost on the group’s agenda and solicited their support to make it a reality.
Gbajabiamila specifically sought the views of the World Bank Country Director, Chaudhuri, on debt cancellation, considering the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on African economies.
The speaker, who stressed that foreign debt was strangling African countries individually and collectively, noted that “we can all sit here and talk about revamping the economy, develop the infrastructure in terms of health, education and all of those things, which are great and wonderful
“But, we may be doing it, and it would be, hopefully not be an exercise in futility because these things require money and if all your money is going toward servicing debt, then how are we serious about this (Legislative) agenda?
“So, one of the main issues we are dealing with in that association is debt forgiveness in the form of debt cancellation. In other words, pressing the reset button; we made commitments, we’ve done a lot, so, we are here to take responsibility in terms of transparency and accountability. We even signed an Accountability Pledge in ensuring all freed up resources will be spent wholly on addressing the social and economic pains our people bear.
“We consider this debt forgiveness if we do get it, as money in hand and we have to channel these towards the development of the continent.
“So, my question is when I said I want to tap your brains, how feasible is this, what role can you play in terms of helping us advocate for debt forgiveness? Not debt relief because debt relief, as far as I’m concerned, is just basically kicking the can further down the road; you are still going to go and pick it up later.”
Responding, Chaudhuri expressed that the issue was being pushed by the World Bank President, David Malpass, before the Group of Twenty (G20).
He said transparency and accountability had been an issue dating back to the previous debt cancellation initiative between 1995 and 2005 for highly indebted countries globally.
As such, he said, CoSAP had a major task of convincing the creditors, especially the bilateral official debt to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economies or the Paris Club, on the commitment to transparency and accountability to the terms of the agreement.
According to him, Africa has been piling up commercial debt, adding, “What has happened over the last 20 years is that the debt levels have built up.
“For Nigeria, as you may have known over the issue of financing, does not have debt problem but for other sub-Saharan African countries, the debt level has actually gone up again to a very high level. But this time, a lot of them are commercial debts and official bilateral debts or a kind of semi-official bilateral debt.
“So, the G-20 and the World Bank President have put up on the agenda that that also needs to be approached, especially given the global crisis.
“The problem is, there is a very different set of creditors that we are talking about and it will take a lot more work. That’s one thing that has changed.”
While commending the frank response of the World Bank’s Country Director on the issue, the Speaker said all hands have to be on deck to make debt cancellation a reality.
Gbajabiamila disclosed that some members of CoSAP have signed an Accountability Pledge on the issue that would be shared with them for a better understanding of the position of the continental legislative body.
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has dismissed the “no- case application” filed by an internet celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha popularly known as Mompha.
Justice Mohammed Liman in his ruling on the “no-case application” held that from the totality of the evidence and testimonies of the prosecution witnesses, the court is convinced that the prosecution has established a prima facie case against the defendants which would warrant them to give an explanation.
The judge, therefore, called on Mustapha and his co-defendant to open their defence.
Mompha and his co-defendant, Ismalob Global Investment Limited are currently facing a 22 count criminal charge bordering on money laundering.
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The EFCC had alleged that between 2015 and 2018, Mompha procured the company said to be owned by him, Ismalob Global Investment Limited to retain an aggregate of N32.95bn in its bank account.
The EFCC said he ought to have reasonably known that the funds formed parts of proceeds of an unlawful act of fraud.
The EFCC also alleged that Mompha’s company, Ismalob Global Investment Limited, as a designated non-financial institution, failed to report to the EFCC within seven days huge single lodgments and transfers of N104.8m, N135m, N20m, N150m, N22.3m, N100m and N42m.
“Not being an authorised buyer of foreign exchange currency appointed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mompha negotiated several foreign exchange transactions with different individuals in the sums of N20m, N22.3m, N30m, N100m, and N40.7m. And also made cash payments of €299,000, €213,675, €273,000 to one Ahmed Sarki, said to be deceased, the EFCC said”.
These offences are said to be contrary to Section 18(c), 15(2)(d), 15(3), and Section 10 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act. And sections 5 and 29(1)(c) of the Foreign Exchange Monitoring and Miscellaneous (Provisions) Act Cap F34 LFN 2004.
But Mompha and his company pleaded not guilty to the charge.
During the trial, the EFCC called 10 witnesses and tendered several documents, which were admitted by the court.
At the end of the prosecution’s case, Mompha opted to file a no-case application instead of opening his defence.
His Counsel, Gboyega Oyewole SAN argued that despite calling 10 witnesses and tendering a load of documents, the EFCC failed to establish a prima facie case against Mompha and his company.
But the EFCC counsel, S.I. Suleiman, opposed the submission and insisted that the agency had substantiated its allegations against them.
After listening to both parties, the court adjourned for its ruling.
The Lagos Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has secured the conviction and sentencing of five illegal oil thieves to one year imprisonment each before Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos
The convicts, who are all Indian nationals, are: Visal Guleria, Pranjal Singh, Rahul Pathania , Akash Kumar and Sahil Sharma.
They were arrested by officers of the Nigerian Navy Ship NNS Beecroft , Alaka, Lagos on January 31, 2020 aboard the vessel, MV Bount carrying 45.9 MT of Automotive Gas Oil, AGO, with no relevant documentation and subsequently handed over to the Commission for further investigation and prosecution.
The defendants were, on June 25, 2020, arraigned separately on a three-count charge of offence bordering on illegal dealing in petroleum products.
One of the counts reads: “That you, M.V. Bount and Akash Kumar, on the 31st day of January 2020, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired among yourselves to commit an offence to wit: dealing in 45 metric tons of petroleum products without appropriate license and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 3(6) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Cap M17, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, and punishable under Section 1(17) of the same Act.”
Another count reads: “That you, M.V. Bount and Vishal Guleria , on the 31st day of January 2020, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, without license dealt in 45 metric tons of petroleum products and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 1(17) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Cap M17, Laws of the Federation if Nigeria, 2004.”
They initially pleaded “not guilty “ to the charge preferred against them, thereby prompting their trial.
However, at the resumed sitting on December 9, 2020, the defendants all changed their pleas of “not guilty” to “guilty.”
In view of this, the prosecution counsel, U.U. Buhari, reviewed the facts of the matter and urged the court to convict and sentence them accordingly.
Justice Aikawa, after listening to the allocutus of the defense counsel, convicted and sentenced the defendants to one-year imprisonment on each count, which will run concurrently from the date of their arrest.
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has ordered the remand of two lawyers, Sarah Ajibola and John Demide, following their arraignment for allegedly rigging the August 2018 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) national elections.
Justice Chuka Obiozor ordered their remand in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The duo are to remain with the anti-graft agency for seven days in order to fulfill their bail terms, failing which they will be transferred to the custody of Nigerian Correctional Services.
In the 14 count charge before the court, the EFCC claimed that Ajibola, and Demide manipulated the election in favour of Mr Paul Usoro SAN, who was elected as the 29th President of the NBA in 2018.
Mr Usoro polled 4,509 votes to defeat his other contenders, Obi Okafor and Prof. Ernest Ojukwu, who got 4,423 and 3,313 votes in the elections.
One of the candidates, Prof. Ojukwu, condemned the election saying it was characterised by fraud.
On May 5th, the EFCC filed the charge against the defendants.
The EFCC counsel, Bilikisu Buhari Bala, told the court that the defendants committed the offences in August, 2018.
The counsel also alleged that they conspired and altered personal details including email addresses and phone numbers of about 1004 eligible voters for the elections, with the intention that such inauthentic data will be acted upon as genuine during the said election.
Some of the voters’ names allegedly falsified were: Gabriel Abijo Oladipo with Supreme Court of Nigeria (SCN) No. 043280; Uthman Adeleye Oluwaseun with SCN No. 088449; David Anakor SCN No. 015233; Chiagoziem Bethel Aninilu, SCN No. 114439 and Bankole Isaac Toyin with SCN no. 024643.
The two lawyers were alleged to have used a smoke model on IP address 169.159.65.190 to commit the electoral fraud.
The offences, according to the prosecutor, contravened and were punishable under sections 27(1)(b), 13, 22(2), 22(3) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition Prevention etc.) Act, 2015.
Ajibola and Demide pleaded not guilty.
Their counsel, N. E. Ogeibe and Deborah Ogundele, asked the court to admit them to bail “in the most liberal terms.”
They told the court that Ajibola was a senior lawyer of over 15 years, and would neither jump bail nor tamper with evidence for the charge.
In a bench ruling, Justice Obiozor admitted each defendant to bail in the sum of N500,000 with one surety each.
The judge then adjourned till April 14, 2021 for trial.
