Author: Lawbreed Limited

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has declared Margaret Emefiele, wife of a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, and three others, wanted for money laundering. Mrs. Emefiele, Mr. Eric Odoh, Anita Omoile, and her husband, Jonathan Omoile, were declared wanted Friday night for allegedly conspiring with the former CBN Governor “to convert huge sums of money belonging to the Federal Government of Nigeria and committing felony to wit: obtaining money by false pretenses, and stealing, contrary to and punishable under Sections 411, 287, and 314 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.” Details of their…

The United States Coast Guard USCG on Friday offered Nigeria a three-year plan to work with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, for the removal of the Condition of Entry (CoE) placed on American-bound vessels from Nigeria. Cdr. Juliet Hudson at the USCG headquarters in Washington, DC, disclosed this on Friday during a peer review visit by a delegation from NIMASA. Hudson announced a bi-annual assessment of compliance level with ISPS implementation at Nigerian ports working with NIMASA. In her words, “We will work with NIMASA to review the compliance level of ports in Nigeria with the provisions…

President Bola Tinubu has signed the Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024, into law. Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, revealed this in a statement he signed Friday titled ‘President Tinubu assents to Electricity Act (amendment) bill.’ The Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024, seeks to “address the development and environmental concerns of host communities, and sets aside five percent of the actual annual operating expenditures of power generating companies from the preceding year for the development of their respective host communities,” the Presidency revealed. The bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives on July 27, 2023,…

The Central Bank of Nigeria, in its recently revised consumer protection framework, has mandated financial service providers to comply with minimum standards in their advertising and promotional materials. One of the requirements is that FSPs should not make reference to unaudited financial statements in their sales promotion. Unaudited financial statements are financial reports that have not been examined and verified for accuracy and completeness by an external independent auditor. Other requirements include disclosing contact details and its regulatory authority; disclosing cost of products, including all fees and other associated charges; the nature and value of benefits, where an advertisement refers…

The Council for Legal Education, the body that runs the Nigerian Law School, struck a deal for the transfer of the school’s land and buildings to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in violation of the Public Procurement Act, the latest audit report of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) has revealed. According to the Public Procurement Act “before slating any public property for disposal, the accounting officer in charge of any public property set for disposal shall authorise the preparation of a valuation report for such property by an independent evaluator.” But contrary to the legal provision,…

The Central Bank of Nigeria has instructed regulated entities to provide customers with notices of outstanding obligations before beginning debt collection. This is to ensure that the debt recovery process is transparent, courteous, and fair. CBN stated this in a document released on Thursday on its website titled “Revised Consumer Protection Regulations.” It noted that the essence of the document is to ensure financial institutions follow consumer protection principles. The regulations outline consumer rights and aim for better outcomes and access to financial services. The document states that foreclosures should only be initiated as a last resort after other recovery…

The Federal Government says it is working on plans to regulate social media to curb misconceptions and abuse. President Bola Tinubu said this at a presentation of a book, Nigerian Public Discourse: The Interplay of Empirical Evidence and Hyperbole, written by Mr Babatunde Fashola, a former Minister of Power, Work, and Housing in Lagos. Tinubu, represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, said that social media conveyed a lot of fake information, misleading the citizens, hence the need to regulate its usage. “In the world today, public discourse is driven by alternative facts, dropped with reckless abandon on…

An Akwa Ibom resident identified as Henry Edet Unung has been handed a one-month prison sentence by an Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, for neglecting his children. Ruling on a lawsuit filed by Unung’s wife and mother of his three children, Justice Ntong Ntong ordered the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Police to arrest and detain him for one month at the Uyo Correctional Centre for refusing to take care of his children. Ntong also noted that the respondent deliberately refused to obey the Court order and decision of Justice Iboro Ukpanah of November 9, 2018, mandating…

An Ikeja Magistrate’s Court has ordered the remand of a 50-year-old security guard, Mohammed Sanni in the Nigerian Correctional Service facility for allegedly defiling a 13-year-old girl. The Presiding Chief Magistrate, O.A Layinka, who did not take Sanni’s plea, ordered that the case file be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for legal advice. Layinka adjourned the case until March 28, pending the DPP’s advice. The prosecutor, Insp Lucky Ihieme, had told the court that Sanni committed the offense on January 8 at Obidiegwu Street, Iyana School, Iba, Lagos. He said Sanni invited the victim to eat “suya” (meat…

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, have issued a 14-day nationwide strike notice to the Federal Government. Their grouse is the non-implementation of the 16-point agreement between organised labour (NLC and TUC) and the Federal Government on October 2, 2023. Leaders of the NLC and TUC are sad that, despite organised labour’s efforts to ensure industrial peace, the government seems unperturbed by the mass suffering and hardship across the country. The October 2 agreement was “focused on addressing the massive suffering and the general harsh socioeconomic consequences of the ill-conceived and ill-executed IMF/World…