N11.5bn corruption case: Court discharges, acquits Ex-Oyo Governor Akala, two others

Eleven years after legal battle, former Oyo Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala was on Thursday discharged and acquitted of corruption cases by a Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.

The case, which bothers on N11.5billion, was levelled against the Ex-governor by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The appellate court also discharged and acquitted former Deputy Senate Chief Whip Hosea Agboola, who is the Chairman of Governor’s Advisory Council to Governor Seyi Makinde and a business mogul, Mr. Femi Babalola, popularly known as Jogor.


The second defendant/appellant, Agboola, served as Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters when Alao-Akala was Governor between 2007 and 2011 while Babalola, owns an engineering firm, Pentagon Engineering Services, that executed some contracts during the former Governor’s tenure.

The case, which started 11 years ago, was presided over by a three-man panel led by Justice Jimi Olukayode Bada.


Justices Abba Muhammed and Abdulazeez Waziri were other members of the panel.

The three defendants/appellants were present in court during Thursday’s proceeding.


Alao-Akala, Ayoola and Babalola, had been arraigned by EFCC before an Oyo State High Court, over an alleged N11.5 billion fraud.

The 11 count-charge preferred against the trio include conspiracy, awarding contract without budgetary provision, obtaining by false pretence, acquiring property with money derived from illegal act and concealing the ownership of such property, among others.


Counsel to EFCC, Dr. Benedict Ubi, had told the lower court that when Alao-Akala was Governor, he awarded a road contract worth N8.5 billion between 2007 and 2009 to Pentagon Engineering Services, alleging that the firm handled the contract on behalf of the 33 local government areas without budgetary provision.

Alao-Akala, according to Ubi, ordered the supply of drilling machines on behalf of the 33 local government areas worth N3.5 billion, saying the former Governor purportedly conspired with Ayoola to withdraw N2.9 billion from Oyo State Local Government Joint Account.


Ubi also told the court that Alao-Akala illegally acquired a property at Old Bodija, Off Rotimi Williams Avenue, in Ibadan, when he was governor, saying the alleged offences contravened Section 22 (4) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act and Section 1 (18) of the Advanced Fee Fraud Act.

But Alao-Akala, Agboola and Babalola, filed a no-case submission after the EFCC closed its case before the high court.

However, the trial court, presided over by Justice Muniru Owolabi, struck out eight out of the 11 count-charge againsst the trio. He then ordered them to enter defence for the remaining three counts- counts 1, 2 and 5 (conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretence and award of contract without budgetary provision).

Owolabi discharged the former governor on charges of acquiring property with money allegedly derived from an illegal act and concealing ownership of such property. The judge said the witnesses called by the prosecutor failed to link evidence to the acquired property, adding that EFCC also failed to prove genuine ownership of the property.

But the defendants, through their lead counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), appealed the ruling of the lower court that said they had a case to answer.

Delivering judgement on the appeal on Thursday, the judges in a unanimous decision set aside the ruling of the lower court, on grounds that the trial court erred by ordering the defendants to enter defence for the three counts because the prosecution led by the EFCC failed to establish a prima facie case against them.

Justice Bada read the judgement for Alao-Akala while Justices Abba Muhammed and Abdulazeez Waziri read the judgments for Babalola and Agboola respectively.

Speaking with journalists after the judgement, the lead counsel to Alao-Akala and Babalola, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), represented by Abiodun Ogunjinmi, said: “We really appreciate and thank God Almighty for giving us a beautiful judgement today. The justices did a marvellous job. This case started in 2012, which was about 11 years ago. It came to an end today.

“It first started at the high court of justice in Ibadan. But thanks be to God that it ended well. The appellant, Alao-Akala and Babalola were all discharged and acquitted finally.”

Alao-Akala said: “We can always rely on the judiciary. They are the hope for the common man like me. So, we thank God for everything. God has settled everything, and so, let us forget about the number of years the case took.”

Babalola said: “The judiciary is the last hope of a common man like me. I thank God for today’s judgement and I give all the glory to God, irrespective of the number of years spent on the case.”

Ahead of the 2023 general election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday, appealed to the Senate Chief Whip, Sen. Orji Kalu to return to the party.

The National Secretary of the Party, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, made the appeal when he led a delegation of members of the PDP to visit Kalu in his Abuja residence.

Reports have it that the appeal is coming barely two weeks that the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Bola Tinubu visited the former governor of Abia in Abuja. Anyanwu, shortly after a one-hour closed-door meeting with Kalu, said that their meeting centred on what would be profitable to the country.


According to him, we came to visit a friend, a leader in the South-East and one of our own and to acquaint him with the developments in our party.

“And to let him know the reason why he should move over to our party. We had a good discussion and this is just the beginning,’’ he said.


Anyanwu noted that the visit was part of efforts by the PDP to bring their members back and reposition the party.

“We are talking about bringing people back to the party because the more the merrier.


“This is a place he started, so you have to leave where you are and go back to where you started,’’ Anyanwu stressed. Kalu, an ardent supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari and a reliable member of the APC left the PDP in November 2016.

Though he has not openly declared interest in the 2023 presidential election, his presidential posters flooded major cities in the country recently.

Rihanna has responded to rumors that she is expecting her first child with boyfriend, A$AP Rocky.

Earlier this week rumours circulated on the internet that Rihanna is pregnant with boyfriend ASAP Rocky’s child after footage of her at the Barbados Republic ceremony surfaced online.
The fan wrote to Rihanna, “Can I come to the baby shower sis!? True or not your babies are going to be beautiful. Sorry everyone’s up in your uterus right now ”


Rihanna responded, “Haaaaa! Stawwwp! You ain’t came to the first 10 baby showers! Y’all breed me every year dammit lol”

2023: There ‘ll Be Turbulence In PDP Over Choice Of Presidential Candidate – Wike

Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has predicted that there would be disagreements in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over which part of the country will produce the party’s presidential candidate in 2023.

This is as he said that the presidential candidate of the PDP must be someone who will be ready to confront the All Progressives Congress (APC) even as he doubts the readiness of the ruling party to hand over power in 2023.

Wike, who spoke on Thursday during a live television programme monitored by our correspondent in Port Harcourt, vowed never to support any presidential aspirant that is not prepared to confront the APC.

The governor said: “The fact that the PDP national chairman came from the North and the one that just left came from the South, that does not in any way mean that we have chosen where our presidential candidate will come from. People are assuming that, that being the case, that is what will happen. That may be correct and that may not be correct.


“We will choose a candidate that is prepared to face the All Progressives Congress and their government. We are praying to God to help us, guide us to arrive at that choice. But that does not mean in arriving at this, there won’t be turbulence.

“There are two types of turbulence; the one that leads to crash and the one that you pass through and it does not lead to crash. Our own turbulence will not lead to crash because we will come out of it but APC’s turbulence will lead to crash.

“If I tell you in PDP, we won’t go through turbulence, then, I am not being fair. There will be serious disagreements but it is not the type of turbulence that we can’t come out of. The turbulence in APC is so severe that it will crash but our own turbulence is normal turbulence.”


Wike stated that although everybody has the right to aspire to run for the office of the President on the platform of the PDP, he will not support any aspirant that just want to bear the title of former presidential candidate.

“Everybody has the right to aspire to be the presidential candidate of our party. If you want to run for President under PDP, I will not support somebody who just want to bear the name as former presidential candidate. I won’t do that.


“I must see that you are prepared to confront the evil called APC because when you are fighting evil, you must be serious to fight evil. APC is a party that can do anything and can go to any length. So, you must be ready for this evil.

“I will not support an aspirant who already has who will be Chief of Staff or who will be this and that. You must show how prepared you are to win this election. You must get someone who is very serious to confront APC and not what prophets and marabouts told you.

“Whether you are bringing marabouts from Senegal or prophets from Israel; no, I am not going to do that. APC are not people you think will hand over power. They will not agree; they will make sure it did not happen,” Wike stated.

Netflix, Other Streaming Services May Cause Choas, We’ll Regulate It – Lai Mohammed

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has revealed plans to regulate Netflix and other streaming services in Nigeria.

He spoke on Wednesday, saying the streaming platforms may be exploited to “cause chaos” and undermine Nigeria’s democratic processes.

He stated this at a two-day conference which was to discuss “the implication of Nigeria censorship laws and regulatory framework for Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming services and content providers in Nigeria.”

Mohammed further stated that the popularity and demand of streaming services in the country has increased following the outbreak of Coronavirus, hence the need to regulate it.

The Minister who was represented by the Director, Information and Technology in the ministry, Comfort Ajiboye, pointed to the belief that social media and streaming services can be used “to cause chaos and undermine democratic processes.”

The National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) organised the conference in Lagos, along with practitioners and stakeholders in the entertainment and creative industry.

The Executive Director and CEO of the NFVCB, Adedayo Thomas, in his open remark said the conference was to brainstorm on creating policies to regulate streamers and content providers in Nigeria.

Thomas said, “With over 50 per cent internet penetration, it has become imperative to convene this conference to bring together stakeholders and legislators in a conversation so as to come up with crystal policies on the regulation of streamers and content providers.”

He further stated that streaming service providers are unable to self-regulate, reason why their operations are now being discussed at the conference with the theme, “Nigeria Digital Content Regulation”.

Thomas, however, noted that “the goal of regulation is not to stifle creativity but to create sanity and encourage healthy competition for socio-economic gains.”

The Netflix Director of Public Policy, Sub-Saharan Africa, Shola Sanni was a panellist at the conference.

Participants include members of the various Guilds in Nollywood which included the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) and Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN).

Others are the Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Theatre and Movie Practitioners Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN), among others.

Also were representatives of local and international streaming services, Free To Air (FTA), Pay TV operators and other content creators.

BREAKING: PDP National Leaders Hold Closed-Door Meeting With Orji Kalu

Senator Orji Kalu, the Chief Whip of the Senate, on Thursday afternoon received newly elected officials of the People’s Democratic Party in his Aso Rock, Abuja residence.

The team was led by the National Secretary of the PDP, Senator Samuel Anyanwu alongside other newly elected officials of the party.

Anyanwu, a former Senator and other newly elected officials of the PDP arrived at the residence of the Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District at precisely 12.28pm.

Anyanwu who wore a navy blue native attire was welcomed by Kalu’s associates and then led straight with his executives to meet the principal officer of the upper chamber.

On sighting one another, both men engaged in pleasantries and embraced each other then proceeded for an indoor meeting.

As the meeting progressed, other executives of the party arrived in turns at Kalu’s residence to join the meeting.

The visit comes amidst strong talks that the former Abia State governor was being positioned for the 2023 presidency to succeed the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

Kalu, a founding member of the PDP, formally joined the ruling All Progressives Congress, In 2016

He contested and won the 2019 Senatorial election.