The management of Air Peace Limited, Nigeria’s largest airline company, on Sunday, said the ongoing legal proceedings against its founder, Allen Onyema, and Chief of Finance and Administration, Ejiro Eghagha, will not affect the safety, reliability, and daily operations of the airline.

As widely reported, the United States government has added more charges to the $20 million bank fraud case against Onyema, the CEO of Air Peace, as the Nigerian businessman continues to evade trial in an American court.

Although Onyema has denied wrongdoing, he is wanted in the US over the bank fraud charges filed against him and a co-defendant at the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, in Atlanta since 2019.

However, things got worse for the Air Peace officials last week.

“On 8 October 2024, they were both charged in a superseding indictment alleging an additional count of obstruction of justice and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice,” the US Attorney Office, Northern District of Georgia, said in a statement on Friday.

The office said Onyema is accused of “obstruction of justice for submitting false documents to the government in an effort to end an investigation of him that resulted in earlier charges of bank fraud and money laundering.”

Prosecutors said he submitted false documents to US authorities in 2019 in an effort to stop the investigation and unfreeze his bank accounts regarding the alleged $20 million bank fraud.

Ejiroghene Eghagha, accused of participating in the alleged obstruction scheme, as well as in the earlier bank fraud counts, is Onyema’s co-defendant in the case.

“After allegedly using his airline company as a cover to commit fraud on the United States’ banking system, Onyema, along with his co-defendant, allegedly committed additional crimes of fraud in a failed attempt to derail the government’s investigation of his conduct,” the statement quoted US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan.

Air Peace reacts

In a statement issued by the airline and posted on its official X page on Sunday, Air Peace said it understands that the ongoing legal proceedings may have raised concerns.

“These charges levelled against our post-holders are part of an extended legal process stemming from earlier accusations of financial misdeeds that date back several years,” the statement said.

It noted that while the charges have been expanded, it is essential to emphasise that “both Onyema and Eghagha remain innocent and these are mere allegations, and the case is still in court.”

It added that: “Our legal team is fully engaged with the matter and is working tirelessly to ensure that justice prevails. We remain confident that, through due process, the truth will be revealed, and our CEO and co-defendant will be exonerated.”

The airline argued that Onyema and his legal team have consistently cooperated with authorities throughout the legal process and that Air Peace continues to operate without disruption, upholding its commitment to delivering top-notch services to its valued customers.

“We want to reassure the public that these legal proceedings will not impact the safety, reliability, or day-to-day operations of Air Peace. The dedication and focus of our staff remain steadfast as we continue to provide you with the best aviation experience in Nigeria and beyond,” the airline said.

Onyema’s Travails

Onyema remains wanted in the United States after an alleged conspirator in the $20 million bank fraud case was sentenced by an American court in September 2022.

In the decision, the US District Court sentenced Ebony Mayfield, an American woman, to three years’ probation for her role in helping to facilitate the alleged fraud.

She escaped the prison sentence because she pleaded guilty early before her trial began.

Her lawyer also anchored her plea for a probated sentence on the grounds that she was remorseful and cooperated with the government during investigations.

They also said she benefitted little from the alleged fraud, with Ms Mayfield confessing that she received only a total of $20,000 for her roles in the alleged conspiracy between 2016 to 2018.

CEO, co-defendant on the run

While Ms Mayfield was battling with her trial, Onyema and Eghagha were allegedly on the run from the charges and arrest warrants.

The US government named Onyema and Eghagha in the 36 charges of conspiracy, money laundering, bank fraud, credit application fraud, and identity theft filed against them on 19 November 2019.

American authorities obtained court warrants for the arrest of the two men in the US and Canada, where part of the suspected proceeds of fraud were said to have been moved.

Earlier, before the charges were filed, Russell Vineyard, a magistrate at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, on 5 September 2019, issued a corresponding warrant of arrest for Onyema and Eghagha in Canada.

In another arrest warrant issued on 19 November 2019, Justin Anand, an American magistrate of the same court, ordered the US Marshals Service to take them into custody.

Both men have succeeded in evading arrest by American or Canadian authorities since then.

However, US authorities arrested Ms Mayfield on 7 June 2019.

In December 2019, they charged her with signing and submitting fake documents to help Mr Onyema facilitate the $20 million fraud between May 2016 and February 2018. Subsequently, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced in September 2022.

‘Superseding’ indictment

The US government has now filed a superseding indictment in the nearly five years old case, introducing two additional counts, bringing to 38 the total number of counts now pending against Onyema and his co-defendant.

US authorities accused Onyema of moving suspicious funds from Nigeria to American bank accounts between 2017 and 2018, with the funds allegedly disguised as being meant to purchase aircraft.

Onyema and his co-defendant, Eghagha, allegedly organised the fraud by applying for export letters of credit to transfer funds from a Nigerian bank account to the bank account of Onyema’s Atlanta-Georgia-based firm, Springfield Aviation LLC, between 2016 and 2017.

According to US prosecutors, the defendants applied for the funds purportedly to purchase aircraft by Air Peace from Springfield Aviation.

Onyema owns both Air Peace, a major Nigerian commercial airline, and Springfield Aviation, a US-based company.

Prosecutors also said the aircraft referenced in each of the export letters of credit sent to the American banks was never owned or sold by Springfield Aviation.

They said the defendants made false statements and reports, and willfully overvalued property to influence the actions of the American banks.

Eghagha was said to have sent the false documents, including fabricated purchase agreements, bills of sale, and valuation documents, to Ms Mayfield to sign and submit to the respective banks in support of the letters of credit.

Onyema had engaged Ms Mayfield, who was at various times, a bartender, restaurant waitress, and nightclub dancer, in 2016, to act as a manager of Springfield Aviation, and enter into contracts on the firm’s behalf.

Prosecutors said she “had no connection to the aviation business outside of her role with Springfield Aviation and had no education, training, or licensing in the review and valuation of aircraft, including aircraft components.”

They alleged that Onyema founded and used Springfield Aviation “to facilitate large transfers of funds from his Nigerian bank accounts to the United States.”

Onyema allegedly moved about $15 million from Springfield Aviation’s account with a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Atlanta, Georgia, to his personal savings account with the same bank in 27 transactions in 2017.

Each of the 27 transactions stands alone as a charge of money laundering.

In May 2019, upon discovering that he was under investigation in the Northern District of Georgia for bank fraud, Onyema and Eghagha allegedly directed the Springfield Aviation manager, Ms Mayfield, to sign a key business contract, but also specifically told her to not date the document.

In October 2019, Onyema allegedly caused his attorneys to present that same contract, now falsely dated as being signed on 5 May 2016 (prior to the bank fraud that began in 2016), to the government in an effort to stop the investigation and unfreeze his bank accounts.

The submission of the alleged false documents forms the basis for the new count of obstruction of justice and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the superseding charges.

“Allegedly, Onyema and his accomplices fraudulently used the U.S. banking system in an effort to hide the source of their ill-gotten money,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Lisa Fontanette, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Atlanta Field Office, on Friday.

PT

US to send anti-missile system and troops to Israel, Pentagon says

The United States said on Sunday it will send U.S. troops to Israel along with an advanced U.S. anti-missile system, in a highly unusual deployment meant to bolster the country's air defenses following missile attacks by Iran.

U.S. President Joe Biden said the move was meant "to defend Israel," which is weighing an expected retaliation against Iran after Tehran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel on Oct 1.

The United States has been privately urging Israel to calibrate its response to avoid triggering a broader war in the Middle East, officials say, with Biden publicly voicing his opposition to an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites and his concerns about a strike on Iran's energy infrastructure.

Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder described the deployment as part of "the broader adjustments the U.S. military has made in recent months" to support Israel and defend U.S. personnel from attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed groups.

But a U.S. military deployment to Israel is rare outside of drills, given Israel's own military capabilities. U.S. troops in recent months have aided Israel's defense from warships and fighter jets in the Middle East when it came under Iranian attack.

But they were based outside of Israel.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, is a critical part of the U.S. military's layered air defense systems and adds to Israel's already formidable anti-missile defenses.

A THAAD battery usually requires about 100 troops to operate. It counts six truck mounted launchers, with eight interceptors on each launcher, and a powerful radar.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned earlier on Sunday that the United States was putting the lives of its troops "at risk by deploying them to operate U.S. missile systems in Israel."

"While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests," Araqchi posted on X.

Still, experts say Iran has sought to avoid a direct war with the United States, making deployment of U.S. forces to Israel another factor in its calculus going forward.

Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel in April. Then on Oct. 1, Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel amid another escalation in fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Many were intercepted in flight but some penetrated missile defenses.

U.S. officials did not say how quickly the system would be deployed to Israel.

The Pentagon said a THAAD was deployed to southern Israel for drills in 2019, the last and only time it was known to be there.

Lockheed Martin, the biggest U.S. arms maker, builds and integrates the THAAD system, which is designed to shoot down short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Raytheon, under RTX, builds its advanced radar.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian recruiters descend on Kyiv's nightlife in search of men not registered for conscription

Ukrainian military recruitment officers raided restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Kyiv, checking military registration documents and detaining men who were not in compliance, media and witnesses reported Saturday.

Officers descended on Kyiv’s Palace of Sports venue after a concert Friday night by Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy. Video footage aired by local media outlets appears to show officers stationed outside the doors of the concert hall intercepting men as they exit. In the footage, officers appear to be forcibly detaining some men.

Checks were also conducted at Goodwine, an upscale shopping center, and Avalon, a popular restaurant.

It is unusual for such raids to take place in the capital, and reflects Ukraine’s dire need for fresh recruits. All Ukrainian men aged 25-60 are eligible for conscription, and men aged 18-60 are not allowed to leave the country.

Men live in fear of being called up

A 27-year-old man said he left the concert as the last song was playing after he was told about the recruitment officers. He said he saw soldiers and police talking to people but “didn’t see anything super aggressive.”

He said men felt in danger of being drafted whenever they ventured outside.

“That inner state of always being in danger, it’s back again,” he told The Associated Press, only giving his first name for fear of retribution. He said his university draft waiver was taken away after Ukraine passed laws in April that both lowered draft-eligible age for men from 27 to 25 and did away with some draft exemptions.

Local reports said raids were also conducted in clubs and restaurants across other Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv and Dnipro in eastern and central Ukraine.

Ukraine has intensified its mobilization drive this year. A new law came into effect this spring stipulating that those eligible for military service must input their information into an online system or face penalties.

Ukraine reports strikes on a Russian-run oil terminal

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said on Saturday that it struck a Russian-controlled oil terminal in the partially occupied Luhansk region that provides fuel for Russia’s war effort.

“Oil and oil products were stored at this base, which were supplied, in particular, for the needs of the Russian army,” Ukraine’s General Staff wrote on Telegram.

Russian state media reported that the terminal close to the city of Rovenky had come under attack from a Ukrainian drone and said there were no casualties and that the fire had been extinguished, but did not comment on the extent of any damage.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces said they struck a major oil terminal on the south coast of the Russia-occupied Crimea Peninsula.

Both sides are facing the issue of how to sustain their costly war of attrition — a conflict that started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and that shows no signs of a resolution.

Ukraine’s aim is to impair Russia’s ability to support its front-line units, especially in the eastern Donetsk region where the main Russian battlefield effort is stretching weary Ukrainian forces.

Kyiv is still awaiting word from its Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said 47 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted and destroyed by its air defense systems overnight into Saturday: 17 over the Krasnodar region, 16 over the Sea of Azov, 12 over the Kursk region and two over the Belgorod region, all of which border Ukraine.

Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Saturday that one person had been killed and 14 wounded in Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks over the previous 24 hours.

In Ukraine, the country’s Air Force said air defenses had shot down 24 of 28 drones launched overnight against Ukraine.

Zaporizhzhia regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov said two women were wounded Saturday in Russian attacks on the capital of the southern Ukrainian region, also called Zaporizhzhia.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

No more German military hardware for Ukraine – Bild

Germany has no more military hardware to offer Ukraine beyond what has already been pledged, even as Kiev remains hard-pressed by Russia on the front line, Bild reported on Saturday.

According to the outlet, the German Defense Ministry does not believe that Ukraine will be capable of launching “an offensive to liberate its own territory” in the near future.

The report also said, citing an internal document, that Berlin would no longer send “heavy weapons” to Ukraine, and that deliveries of this type of aid have been “completed.” The term applies to tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled howitzers and similar hardware.

In addition, according to Bild, a supposedly new €1.4 billion ($1.53 billion) military aid package German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently pledged in fact refers to commitments promised and paid for last year.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has obtained neither the permission to use Western-made weapons to strike deep in Russia – including German Taurus missiles, which Berlin has not supplied – nor the promise of a speedy NATO accession process, the article said.

The last time Ukraine launched a full-scale counteroffensive to retake the territory it claims as its own was in early June 2023, with some of the fiercest fighting taking place in the southern sector of the front in Zaporozhye Region.

Although the fighting raged for much of the summer and fall, Ukrainian troops made little progress and suffered heavy casualties. Officials in Kiev blamed the lackluster performance on intel leaks and delays in weapons deliveries by the West, which they said allowed Russia to prepare formidable defenses.

In early August, Ukraine also launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. While its troops initially made some progress, their advance was soon halted, with fighting ongoing. At the same time, Russian forces have made notable gains in Donbass, liberating numerous settlements in recent weeks.

Since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, Germany has provided Ukraine with €5.2 billion ($5.7 billion) in military aid, including Leopard tanks and other heavy equipment. In August, German media reported that the government would stop new shipments to Kiev in a bid to reduce spending. Both Kiev and Berlin have denied the claim.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that deliveries of Western weapons to Ukraine only serve to prolong the fighting and increase the risk of a direct confrontation with NATO.

AP/RT

In 1982, on the foothills of the road to Nigeria’s 1983 general elections, it was quite clear that the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had no plans to declare a vacancy in any significant political office around the country. Instead, they seemed bent on consolidating power in order to avoid a remake of the judicial nail-biter that yielded the presidency to Shehu Shagari in 1979.

The essential party positions featured a stellar cast. Adisa Akinloye, the party chairman, was a veteran lawyer with political experience predating Nigeria’s independence. The energetic Suleiman Takuma ran the party secretariat and Trade Minister, Umaru Dikko, was the ruthless campaign strategist. The job of guaranteeing the outcome that the party sought to engineer, however, fell on Sunday Adewusi, the then Inspector-General of Police (IGP). The son of parents from Ogbomoso, Adewusi grew up around Keffi in what later became Nasarawa State. He graduated at the top of his cadet set in 1958 and, at 45 in 1981, he was appointed Nigeria’s youngest ever IGP.

As Inspector-General, Adewusi headed the armed and uniformed wing of the NPN. For the elections, his genius lay in his ability to depute just the right kind of officers to the places where the party needed to manufacture results. Then, as now, the ruling party felt called upon to claim the politically prodigal south-east of Nigeria as part of its realm, irrespective of the will of its people. For this purpose in 1983, the NPN desired to capture old Anambra State which happened also to be the home state of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first post-colonial Head of State and at the time leader of the NPN’s estranged political partners, the Nigerian Peoples’ Party (NPP).

For the job of softening up Anambra State, Adewusi found just the right man in Bishop Eyitene. The “Bishop” in Eyitene’s name was not an ecclesiastical office nor was it a Pentecostal title. Bishop’s tenure as the Commissioner of Police in Anambra State was an extended bout of political Jiu Jitsu with then state governor, Jim Nwobodo. Their politically irreconcilable co-habitation became the subject of bitter litigation, all designed, it seemed, to open the political flanks of the governor and his party. It worked a treat.

On behalf of Adewusi, Eyitene won litigation before the Court of Appeal asserting the autonomy of the police on questions of personnel postings. For accomplishing his political task with aplomb, Adewusi rewarded Bishop with redeployment to Lagos ahead of the 1983 election. The new team he sent to Anambra State routed Jim Nwobodo and his NPP in the governorship election. It was left to the Supreme Court to certify the beauty of Adewusi’s handiwork and they duly obliged in December 1983 before the military sacked the lot of them.

37 years later, the Supreme Court relied on numbers confectioned by a rogue Commissioner of Police to declare in January 2020 that the man who came fourth in the governorship election in Imo State the previous year was in fact the winner. Today, the judge who rendered that judgment leads Nigeria’s judiciary.

This past week has offered up a rich advertisement of the convenient partnership between judges, the police, and politicians.

In Rivers State, the Inspector-General of Police clearly took sides in the political contest between incumbent governor and his immediate predecessor, who is now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and who also desires to be known as the godfather-general of Rivers State. First, he sought to arrest scheduled Local Government elections in the state on the artifice of obeying a court order. The problem is that there were two court orders not one, from what lawyers would call courts of co-ordinate jurisdiction. The High Court of Rivers State in Port Harcourt had mandated that elections occur on 5 October. In requiring the police to withdraw from providing security cover for the vote, the Federal High Court in Abuja effectively ordered that they should not.

Thwarted by what appeared to be a spontaneous civic revolt, election day witnessed uniformed police officers under the command of the IGP going from station to polling unit to cart away ballot boxes and tear down the displayed rolls of voters. The day after voting, supposed winners having been sworn in, the IGP announced the withdrawal of his officers and men from the state. As if on cue, practiced arsonists descended on Local Government secretariats, burning and destroying them one after the other.

In neighbouring Edo State, meanwhile, the IGP’s situational commitment to obeying court orders failed him. Lawyers for the governorship candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), Asue Ighodalo, armed with the duly served order of a competent court to inspect election materials found their way into the state headquarters of INEC in Benin first blocked by a wall of uniformed police officers. When the police requested for reinforcement, they were joined not by units of more police assets but by thugs of the ruling party.

The Nigeria Police Force is the oldest institution in the country and also the largest single employer of labour. Its personnel just happen also to be both uniformed and armed. Under the Constitution, the president appoints the man who heads the Police and that appointee is also obliged to take operational orders from the president. Historically, therefore, the position of the IGP has always been fraught and successive incumbents have mostly been prepared – with a few exceptions – to manage this delicate relationship with skill and professionalism acquired through exposure to their predecessors and to high-level leadership training.

Much of this training was missed by the current incumbent, Kayode Egbetokun, while he spent much of his time in the Force as long-term Aide-de-camp (ADC) to the current president. His claim to the job therefore lies in personal fealty to his benefactor. For this, he has been handsomely rewarded, first with expedited preferment to a role for which his preparation falls short and, second, with a targeted amendment of the law to extend his tenure in order that he will be around to pre-determine the 2027 elections.

In November 2009, Kayode Fayemi, then an opposition candidate, took temporary leave from the protracted legal tussle over the outcome of the governorship election in Ekiti State in South-West Nigeria two years earlier in which he was involved to travel to New Orleans in Louisiana, in the United States of America, to address the annual conference of the African Studies Association on “Electoral Politics and the Future of Electoral Reform in Nigeria.”

In a deeply thoughtful delivery, Fayemi feared that “the quest for consolidating our democracy is now in retreat and risks encountering outright reversals.” He explained that there are “five ‘minigods’ that one must pay significant attention to in any attempt to understand the nature of electoral politics in Nigeria”. These include the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), “which often acts like a Siamese twin of the ruling party….”; the security agencies – particularly Nigerian Police Force; “thugs and bandits”; the judiciary; the money god.

20 years ago, the late Innocent Chukwuma and I met with Tafa Balogun inside the office now occupied by Egbetokun to discuss a document he had commissioned from us. After reviewing our recommendations, Tafa looked at us with the full majesty of his corpulent authority and told us that he was inclined not to proceed with our suggestions. Almost wistfully, he added that when it was someone else’s turn, the person could do what they wanted. It is now Egbetokun’s turn and, as Inspector-General, he has turned Fayemi’s predictions of electoral dystopia supervised by the troika of the police, bandits, and crooked judges into a manual of policing. It just remains for police officers to be required to sing: “On your mandate we shall stand….!”

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Google has implemented increasingly sophisticated protections against those who would compromise your Gmail account—but hackers using AI-driven attacks are also evolving. According to Google’s own figures, there are currently more than 2.5 billion users of the Gmail service. No wonder, then, that it is such a target for hackers and scammers. Here’s what you need to know.

The Latest AI-Driven Gmail Attack Is Scary Good

Sam Mitrovic, a Microsoft solutions consultant, has issued a warning after almost falling victim to what is described as a “super realistic AI scam call” capable of tricking even the most experienced of users.

It all started a week before Mitrovic realized the sophistication of the attack that was targeting him. “I received a notification to approve a Gmail account recovery attempt,” Mitrovic recounts in a blog post warning other Gmail users of the threat in question. The need to confirm an account recovery, or a password reset, is a notorious phishing attack methodology intended to drive the user to a fake login portal where they need to enter their credentials to report the request as not initiated by them.

Unsurprisingly, then, Mitrovic wasn’t falling for this and ignored the notification that appeared to originate from the U.S. and a missed phone call, pertaining to be from Google in Sydney, Australia, some 40 minutes later. So far, so relatively straightforward and easy to avoid. Then, almost exactly a week later, the fun started in earnest—another notification request for account recovery approval followed by a telephone call 40 minutes later. This time, Mitrovic didn’t miss the call and instead picked up: an American voice, claiming to be from Google support, confirmed that there was suspicious activity on the Gmail account.

“He asks if I’m traveling,” Mitrovic said, “when I said no, he asks if I logged in from Germany, to which I reply no.” All of this to engender trust in the caller and fear in the recipient. This is when things turned dark fast and really rather clever in the overall scheme of phishing things. The so-called Google support person informed Mitrovic that an attacker had accessed his Gmail account for the past 7 days, and had already downloaded account data. This rang alarm bells as Mitrovic recalled the recovery notification and missed call from a week earlier.

Googling the phone number he was being called from while speaking, Mitrovic discovered that it did, indeed, lead to Google business pages. This alone is a clever tactic likely to fool plenty of unsuspecting users caught up in the panic of the moment, as it wasn’t a Google support number but rather about getting calls from Google Assistant. “At the start of the call, you'll hear the reason for the call and that the call is from Google. You can expect the call to come from an automated system or, in some cases, a manual operator,” the 100% genuine page helpfully informs the reader.

Forbes

Another university may be added to the pool of existing ones following the passage for first reading on Thursday, by the House of Representatives of a bill to establish the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Federal University of Nigerian Languages.

The bill, sponsored by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, and eight others, is aimed at establishing a university for the promotion of the learning of Nigerian languages.

Section II part I of the bill provides that the university when established shall, “Encourage the advancement of learning and to hold out to all persons without distinction of race, creed, sex or political conviction, the opportunity of acquiring a higher education in Nigerian languages and cultures.”

It also aims to “Develop and offer academic and professional programmes leading to the award of diplomas, first degrees, postgraduate research and higher degrees with emphasis on planning, adaptive, developmental and productive skills in the field of Nigerian languages and cultures.

This is aimed at, “Producing socially mature persons with capacity to communicate, understand and use Nigerian languages for national development.”

The federal institution, when established would also “Act as agents and catalysts, through postgraduate training, research and innovation for the effective and economic utilization, exploitation and conservation of Nigeria’s natural, economic and human resources.

“Establish appropriate relationships with other national institutions involved in training, research and development of Nigerian languages and cultures.

“Provide and promote sound basic training as a foundation for the development of Nigerian languages as well promote and emphasise teaching and research activities around Nigerian languages, including outreach programmes, in-service training, continuing education, and adaptive research,” among others.

The mandate of the university as spelt out in Section 1(2) includes “To teach and train high calibre Nigerian languages professionals.

“Provide Nigerian language services and consultancy.

“Conduct research and participate in outreach and community services and facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and skills in different Nigerian languages.”

The President who is the visitor to the university, in Section 14 (2), is required to “As often as the circumstances may require, not being less than once every five years, conduct a visitation of the university or direct that such a visitation be conducted by such person or persons as the visitor may deem fit and in respect of any of the affairs of the university.”

Sub-section 3 provides that “It shall be the duty of the bodies and persons comprising the university to make available to the visitor and to any other person conducting a visitation in pursuance of this section, such facilities and assistance as he or they may reasonably require for the purposes of a visitation.”

The Visitor (President) is also vested with the powers to remove from office council members apart from the pro-chancellor and the vice-chancellor of the university.

Section 15 (1) reads, “If it appears to the council that a member of the council (other than the pro-chancellor or the vice-chancellor) should be removed from office on the ground of misconduct or inability to perform the functions of his office or employment, the council shall make a recommendation to that effect through the Minister to the President after making such enquiry, if any, as may be considered appropriate.

“If the President approves the recommendation, he may direct the removal of the person in question from office.”

The bill is expected to be listed for a second reading in the weeks ahead in preparation for a public hearing to garner stakeholders’ input.

Punch

Allen Onyema, chief executive officer (CEO) of Air Peace, has been charged by the US for alleged obstruction of justice.

In a superseding indictment, the US attorney’s office, Northern District of Georgia, said Onyema and Ejiroghene Eghagha, the Air Peace’s chief of administration and finance, allegedly submitted false documents to end a federal investigation against them.

Onyema and Eghagha have been under investigation for alleged money laundering since 2019.

While the Air Peace CEO is accused of moving more than $20 million from Nigeria through US bank accounts in a scheme involving “false documents” to purchase airplanes, Eghagha is said to have committed aggravated identity theft in connection with the plot.

In a statement on Friday, Ryan Buchanan of the US attorney’s office in Atlanta Georgia, said the defendants were trying to impede the initial investigation against them.

“After allegedly using his airline company as a cover to commit fraud on the United States’ banking system, Onyema, along with his co-defendant, allegedly committed additional crimes of fraud in a failed attempt to derail the government’s investigation of his conduct,” Buchanan said.

“The diligence of our federal investigative partners revealed the defendants’ alleged obstruction scheme, making it possible for the defendants to be held accountable for their aggravated conduct of attempting to impede a federal investigation.

“Beginning in approximately May 2016, Onyema, together with Eghagha, allegedly used a series of export letters of credit to cause banks to transfer more than $20 million into Atlanta-based bank accounts controlled by Onyema.

“The letters of credit were purportedly to fund the purchase of five separate Boeing 737 passenger planes by Air Peace and were supported by documents such as purchase agreements, bills of sale, and appraisals.

“The documents purported to show that Air Peace was purchasing the aircraft from Springfield Aviation Company LLC, a business registered in Georgia.

“However, the supporting documents were allegedly fake – Springfield Aviation Company LLC was owned by Onyema and managed on his behalf by a person with no connection to the aviation business, and Springfield Aviation never owned the aircraft.”

The statement added that the defendants are presumed innocent of the charges and it would be the government’s burden to prove the defendants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Cable

Heavy Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon are hit again

Palestinians in northern Gazadescribed heavy Israeli bombardment Saturday in the hours after airstrikes killed at least 22 people, as Israel warned people there and in southern Lebanon to get out of the way of offensives against the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups.

In Lebanon, the U.N. peacekeeping force said its headquarters in Naqoura was hit again, with a peacekeeper struck by gunfire late Friday and in stable condition. It wasn’t clear who fired. It occurred a day after Israel’s military fired on the headquarters for a second straight day. Israel, which has warned peacekeepers to leave their positions, didn’t immediately respond to questions.

Hunger warnings emerged again in northern Gaza as residents said they hadn’t received aid since the beginning of the month. The U.N. World Food Program said no food aid had entered the north since Oct. 1. An estimated 400,000 people remain there.

Israel’s military renewed its offensive in northern Gaza almost a week ago while escalating its air and ground campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Amid Israel’s war with Hezbollah, a top U.N. official, Carl Skau, told The Associated Presshe’s concerned that Lebanon’s ports and airport might be taken out of service. More than 1 million people have been displaced.

Israel’s military said Hezbollah fired more than 300 projectiles over Yom Kippur, the holiest and most solemn day on the Jewish calendar. Hezbollah claimed a series of rocket strikes on Israeli military positions and said fighters engaged an Israeli infantry unit attempting to enter Lebanese territory.

Israel’s military also said it killed 50 militants in Lebanon. Claims on either side couldn’t be verified.

Israeli airstrikes on Saturday hit multiple areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Nine were killed in Maisra village in the northeast. Four were killed in an apartment building on the edge of Barja south of Beirut. Rayak and Tal Chiha hospitals in the Bekaa Valley were damaged. In Nabatieh, eight people were wounded.

The total toll in Lebanon over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is now 2,255 killed, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. More than 1,400 people have been killed since mid-September. It isn’t clear how many were fighters.

“We will keep standing with the Lebanese people during these difficult circumstances and also with the Palestinian people,” the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said Saturday while touring the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

Some Gaza residents are trapped

In northern Gaza, residents told the AP many were trapped in their homes and shelters with dwindling supplies while seeing bodies uncollected in the streets as the bombing hampered emergency responders.

Those who rushed to the scene of the latest deadly airstrikes in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya found a hole 20 meters (65 feet) deep where a home once stood.

At least 20 bodies were recovered while others likely were under rubble, emergency service officials said.

Elsewhere in Jabaliya, a strike on a home killed two brothers and wounded a woman and newborn baby, the officials said. An afternoon strike on a home killed at least four people, including a woman, said Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the emergency service.

Israel’s military said it killed more than 20 militants in the Jabaliya area over the past day.

Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee told people in parts of Jabaliya and Gaza City to evacuate south to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone as Israel plans to use great force “and will continue to do so for a long time.”

Israel has repeatedly returned to parts of Gaza as Hamas and other militants regroup. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

Once again, some families moved south on foot, in donkey carts or crowded in vehicles that navigated piles of rubble. Others refused to go.

“It’s like the first days of the war,” said a Jabaliya resident, Ahmed Abu Goneim. “The occupation is doing everything to uproot us. But we will not leave.”

The 24-year-old said Israeli warplanes and drones struck many neighboring houses in the past week. He counted 15 relatives and neighbors, including four women and five children as young as 3, killed in neighboring homes.

Hamza Sharif, who stays with his family in a school-turned-shelter in Jabaliya, described “constant bombings day and night.”

He said the shelter hasn’t received aid since the beginning of the month and that families “will run out of supplies very soon.”

Food is running out

The World Food Program said it was unclear how long the limited food supplies it distributed in northern Gaza earlier will last.

The U.N.’s independent investigator on the right to food last month accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians, which Israel has denied.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza started after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, when militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who don’t specify between combatants and civilians. Gaza’s Health Ministry said that hospitals had received the bodies of 49 people killed over the past 24 hours.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Saturday to express his “deep concern” about reports that Israeli forces fired on UN peacekeeping positions in Lebanon, as well as the reported death of two Lebanese soldiers, according to a Pentagon statement.

Austin said it was important to ensure the safety and security of UNIFIL forces and Lebanese Armed Forces, and “reinforced the need to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway as soon as feasible,” according to the statement.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense also said steps must be taken to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and reaffirmed the United States’ “unwavering, enduring, and ironclad commitment to Israel’s security,” according to the statement.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia to rebuild everything destroyed in Donbass, Novorossiya — Putin

Russia will create conditions to realize the agricultural potential of Donbass and Novorossiya and will restore all the damaged facilities, President Vladimir Putin said in the video address on the occasion of the Agriculture and Processing Industry Workers’ Day.

"Special words of gratitude go to the agricultural workers from the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions and Donbass, as well as the border regions of the Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions," the head of state said. They are putting a lot of efforts and doing their best despite the challenging situation, Putin stressed.

"Such dedication and fortitude deserve the deepest respect. We will continue to prioritise assistance to you. Step by step, we will restore and rebuild everything that was destroyed or damaged. Of course, we will create conditions for realising the vast agricultural potential of our historic territories which have reunited with Russia," the head of state added.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's "Venice" in Danube delta faces relentless Russian drone attacks

In a town without basements, residents of Ukraine's "Venice" on the Danube have no way to hide underground from the increasingly frequent Russian drone attacks on the country's river and deep sea ports.

Vylkove, a small tourist and resort town, sits at the mouth of the Danube, and like in Italy's Venice, canals replace roads and boats replace cars for local residents.

The only way to avoid drone attacks is to shoot them down, say border guards, who are constantly training.

Ukraine has said Russia is deliberately hitting port infrastructure and commercial vessels in an effort to disrupt Ukrainian food exports, key to millions of people in northern Africa and the Middle East.

The attacks have intensified dramatically over the past week and Vylkove is often in the path of drones.

Pickup trucks with machine guns, assault rifles, searchlights and thermal imaging cameras help fight off attacks, said a former computer teacher, now a soldier with the call sign IT.

"In general, we also have training every day. This also includes training and physical exercises, as well as preparing weapons, preparing vehicles, checking all systems to ensure that everything works as it should, in good condition," he said.

Anger towards Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, guides the soldiers' actions, he said.

"Otherwise, there are no emotions at all. So we just have to do our job and that's it. Emotions come later," IT said.

Drone attacks usually begin in the dark, when black drones cannot be seen in the night sky.

Without a basement to hide in, Yulia Kapitan, the owner of the Delta Hotel, protects her child by covering her with her own body on the bed.

"I say to her, "Milana, shh, shh, shh, shh," so that the child is not so much frightened. There's a bright flash, the lights go out, this explosion, the sound of the explosion. It's forever memorising what your eyes saw in that moment."

Tass/Reuters

The torment of incessantly escalating petrol prices and the consequent surge in the cost of everything have plunged Nigerians into a precipitous decline in quality of life. This dire situation is exacerbated by insensitive, almost mocking remarks from those responsible for inflicting this pain.

President Bola Tinubu, aptly nicknamed “T-Pain,” recently stated from London that Nigerians would, in the future, appreciate the wisdom of his “reforms.” Such a statement is both callous and mendacious.

It is callous because these “reforms” are literally destroying the livelihoods of millions and causing the deaths of many. What possible benefit could the deceased derive from economic reforms that precipitated their untimely demise?

It is mendacious because, as evidenced by the history of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) in Nigeria—and the experiences of other nations implementing similar neoliberal economic reforms—such policies invariably erode the middle class, exacerbate poverty among the lower classes, yet please the markets, thereby benefiting the upper classes.

Almost without exception, neoliberal policies—such as the elimination of subsidies, deregulation, reductions in social spending, and fiscal austerity—exacerbate economic inequality and hinder sustainable development in developing economies. These policies often benefit large corporations and the wealthy, which creates an inequitable concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and widens the chasm between the rich and the poor.

Thus, the deferred benefits for which Tinubu wants Nigerians to endure mass deaths and hopelessness are the opening of Nigerian markets to international competition—which may please global markets but will overwhelm local businesses lacking the resources and technology to compete—and the freeing up of resources to invest in infrastructure.

However, the reality is that contemporary Nigeria is inhospitable to foreign investment due to the absence of security, social, and physical infrastructure, and because Tinubu's policies have so impoverished the majority that they cannot afford to purchase what foreign businesses produce. This explains the mass exodus of foreign companies since 2023.

Furthermore, given the culture of endemic corruption entrenched within the upper echelons of power, most of the funds saved from subsidy withdrawals, tariff increases, intensified taxation, and cuts in social programs will likely be misappropriated. The government will still resort to borrowing from the World Bank and the IMF to finance its operations.

We are already witnessing this phenomenon. Despite massive inflows of cash into government coffers, no new projects are being constructed or even initiated. In fact, governments at all levels are procrastinating over implementing the ₦70,000 per month minimum wage. State governors convert the excess funds they receive from federal allocations into dollars and stash them away, thereby putting pressure on the naira.

Now, the vast majority of Nigerians have resigned themselves to the fact that death, starvation, and hopelessness are the only certain outcomes of Tinubu's “reforms” and are seeking a way out. Middle-class citizens are saving up to leave the country, and, for the first time ever, even the majority of northern Nigeria's middle class is investing in plans to escape from Nigeria.

In response, Senate President Godswill Akpabio declared that Nigerians fleeing the blazing neoliberal hellhole that Tinubu has created are ungrateful and unpatriotic cowards who should be stopped. “I believe people should place love for their country above financial gains. That is why many of us choose to remain here,” he said.

Akpabio and his ilk choose to stay in Nigeria not out of love for the country but because they thrive off it and are insulated from the harm they inflict upon it. The professionals leaving Nigeria in droves are not doing so because they lack love for their country. They love their country; they simply abhor the raging neoliberal inferno it has become. British Somali poet Warsan Shire once pointed out, “No one leaves home unless/home is the mouth of a shark.”

It is insulting to suggest, as Akpabio did, that Nigerian emigrants are motivated by base and unpatriotic motives. Even more insulting is Akpabio's proposed solution to halt emigration: that dissatisfied Nigerians should reduce the number of cars they own.

At times, one wonders whether Akpabio retains any functioning brain cells.

Meanwhile, Remi Tinubu, Bola Tinubu’s wife, continued this pattern of insulting Nigerians amidst their suffering. On Thursday, she told the Ooni of Ife that her husband is not responsible for Nigeria’s current travails, which contradicts her husband’s own acceptance of responsibility for the hardships Nigerians are enduring—with a promise of an illusory better tomorrow as compensation for the pain he is inflicting.

“We are just 18 months into our administration,” she said. “We are not the cause of the current situation. We are trying to fix it and secure the future."

She then inverted logic and implied that Nigerians are suffering not because her husband has increased petrol prices more times and at higher rates than any previous president, but because prior presidents did not do what her husband is doing.

“We know that subsidy has been removed, but with God on our side, in the next two years, Nigeria will be greater than this,” she said. “Those who attempted removing subsidies before could not see it through. But with your prayers in the next two years, we will build a nation for the future.”

The rage that overcame me upon reading this is beyond description. Do these insensate individuals utilize their cognitive faculties at all?

I have long harbored a suspicion that the upper echelons of Nigeria's power structure have been displeased with the emergence of a middle class since 1999. The markers of middle-class status—such as car and home ownership, fine dining, foreign education, and sartorial sophistication—have deprived the upper class of privileges they believed should remain exclusive to them.

In the early 2000s, they used to speak derisively of “Obasanjo drivers”—individuals who could afford to own cars due to minimum wage increase and arrears of the minimum wage during Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency. It isn’t Obasanjo who gave people cars or created the middle class, of course. By its nature, the practice of democracy creates certain jobs and circulates opportunities that foster the middle class.

Now, Tinubu's neoliberal policies are eradicating the middle class and plunging the poor into deeper, more excruciating poverty, reminiscent of the days of military dictatorship. I wonder how much longer this can continue. Yet we will be observing from afar, as nothing that is happening now comes as a shock. I forewarned that this would occur even before Tinubu assumed power.