The long arm of the law is
catching up with those formerly described as sacred cows. This is all in the
spirit of President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to crack down on every
suspected corrupt Nigerian. The purge spearheaded by the EFCC has been yielding
good results. Now a former Custom boss is in the net; he has just returned 1
billion naira to the Federal Government in addition to having his 2 billion
naira worth of mansion forfeited to the Federal Government! The Custom boss
Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko had earlier returned a whopping 49 billion and was
released on sick grounds. Five of his former Deputy Comptroller General’s
retired and indicted had each returned the sum of 10 billion naira each to the
Federal Government according to insider sources. The funds were allegedly drawn
from proceeds of the 7% cost of collection and !% comprehensive import
supervision scheme. He was arrested on June last year but released on grounds
of poor health. A source in the EFCC confirmed that the EFCC Act Section 71 (b)
gives them the power to investigate the property of any person if it appears to
the EFCC that the person’s lifestyle and extent of properties are not justified
by law. Section 28 says the Commission will immediately trace and attach all
assets and seizures of such a person which has been acquired. Section 29
permits the assets of a person arrested under Section 28 to be seized by the
State.
Journalism has continued to evolve since the days of veterans like Professors Alfred Opubor, Onoura Nwuneli, Ralph Akinfeleye, Adidi Uyo, Idowu Sobowale, and other greats, not to mention the shining lights of flawless prose writing like Dan Agbese, Ray Ekpu, Yakubu Muhammed, Dele Gowa, and not least, Olatunji Dare. But the entrance of Sahara Reporters appears to deviate from those widely held pragmatic principles of decency. Stories by our reporters In those days, the Department of Mass Communication of the University of Lagos was very hot and remains so to date. Exciting lecturers in the mold of Dr Adidi Uyo, Ralph Akinfeleye, and Idowu Sobowale made teachings very robust and thirsty to listeners. Students learnt the trade and picked up fast. They taught the tenets of practical journalism exhaustively and left no stone unturned. They made journalism so sweet that students were always hungry to learn more; the thrills were such that even the 13 points cut-off mark for entry ...
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