Nigeria’s investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, has alleged that men of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) in the early hours of Wednesday unloaded yet-to-be-quantified bags of smuggled rice at the ultra modern market built by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi in Lusada, Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Soyombo, founder of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, who made the disclosure on Wednesday morning in a statement on his verified social media account, also said that the Customs officers are moving the rest of the smuggled rice to Lagos through Totowu River in a village at Igbesa, a route through which the smugglers will burst out at Igando in Lagos.

He further noted that today (Wednesday) is Lusada market day, alleging that every Customs officers involved in the smuggling including the Nigerian Customs fieldmen and top-ranked officers sitting in their offices had been settled to enable the easy move of the smuggled rice.

He wrote, “As I write this, your men are currently helping smugglers sneak loads of bags of rice into Nigeria from the Benin Republic.

“I am yet to establish if this movement is a constituent of the over 6,500,000kg of rice originally billed to be smuggled in with over 2,000 cars, but the smugglers, enabled by your officers, are currently passing through Alapoti to Ketu Adie Owe to Lusada in Ado Odo/Ota LGA of Ogun State.

“Some bags have already been unloaded at the ultra modern market built by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola YAYI in Lusada, while the rest are en route to Lagos via Totowu River in a village at Igbesa. That way, the smugglers will burst out at Igando.

“Today is Lusada market day, so everyone involved, including your fieldmen and the ones with big titles sat back in their offices who have since been ‘settled’, will be laughing all the way to the bank at the expense of the local economy.

“Tomorrow, these same men will announce the phantom seizure of smugglers’ rice; don’t think we don’t know that these are smugglers who didn’t bribe your officers, or that many of the seized bags will end up in markets all the same!”

It had been reported that Soyombo on Sunday alleged that Nigerian customs officers had conspired with Adeyemi Habeeb Abdulganiy, an alleged multi-billionaire-naira smuggler better known as Abuga, to illegally pass about 2000 cars and smuggle in bags of rice into the country.
He said the illegal operation was slated to take place on Sunday, 10th of November, 2024.
However, the NCS National Public Relations Officer, Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada, had told SaharaReporters that Fisayo’s claims were fictitious.

Maiwada had said it was illogical for anyone to believe their personnel were involved in the illegal operation.

But in a post he shared on Tuesday morning, Soyombo released two more videos to substantiate his smuggling allegations against the customs officers.

The Director General, National Financial Investigation Agency in Equatorial Guinea, Baltasar Engonga, has been arrested for allegedly recording over 400 sextapes of the wives of notable people in the country.

The scandal emerged in the course of a fraud investigation against the 54-year-old Economist which resulted in the search of his house and office on impromptu notice by ANIF officials who came across several CDs that later revealed his sexcapades with different married women.

The videos reportedly include encounters with high-profile individuals, such as his brother’s wife, his cousin, the sister of the President of Equatorial Guinea, the Director General of Police’s wife, and about 20 of the country’s ministers’ wives, among others.

The footage, discovered in his personal office, was said to have been recorded with consent and has since been leaked online, causing a media uproar.

In a report by a local media platform, Ahora EG, since last October, Engonga has been involved in a sexual scandal unprecedented in the history of Equatorial Guinea.

The former ANIF DG better known as “Bello” had sexual relations with several women, some of them married, and filmed these intimate encounters.

The report read, “The most striking thing is that some scenes took place in his work office, including moments in which he is seen sleeping with a woman next to the National Flag. Based on this sexual scandal, the Executive has stated that the measure is a direct response to the acts that have affected the image of the country.

“With these new measures, the Government hopes to establish a clear precedent on the expected conduct of public officials in order to create a more respectful work environment in the public and private administration of Equatorial Guinea. For days now, erotic videos have been circulating on social media featuring Baltasar EBANG ENGONGA, better known as “Bello”, who is currently the Director General of the National Financial Investigation Agency (ANIF) and is currently imprisoned for alleged corruption issues.

“Baltasar EBANG ENGONGA is said to have filmed these scenes with the consent of the women themselves, which exonerates him from a possible crime of violation of integrity. In the videos, he is seen having unprotected sex with several women, including those married to powerful and well-known people in the country, but also with the most “diva and influential” single women in Equatorial Guinea. Some scenes take place in hotel rooms, houses, even in the protagonist’s office at the Ministry of Finance,” it added.

However, speaking on the viral sextapes, the Attorney General of the country, Nzang Nguema, has stressed that, although the images suggest that the women involved were not forced to participate, the law does not consider consensual sexual relations to be a crime, unless coercion or violence is proven. This highlights the importance of victims reporting situations of sexual abuse or assault.

Nguema also emphasised that the risk is not only for the women involved but also for their partners and the wider community, adding, “The possibility of a contagious disease being spread through these sexual interactions makes the situation even more critical.

He further pointed out that the onus is on victims to come forward in cases of rape or assault, highlighting the need for an environment where people feel safe and supported to report such incidents.

Reacting to the development on Monday, Equatorial Guinea has decided to take action by immediately suspending all officials who have had sexual relations in the offices of the country’s ministries.

The government claimed that the decision was part of its “zero tolerance” policy towards behaviour that compromises the integrity of the public service.

The Vice President of the Republic, Nguema Mangue, has pointed out that these behaviours constitute a flagrant violation of the Code of Conduct and the Public Ethics Law.

In his publication on X, he emphasized that “ethics and respect are fundamental in our Administration,” and that irresponsible attitudes that put citizen trust at risk will not be allowed.

A member of the House of Representatives, Alex Ikwechegh, on Sunday, assaulted an e-hailing (Bolt) driver who went to deliver a package to him.

The distressed driver whose name is yet unknown in a viral video filmed what transpired between them in Ikwechegh’s residence in Maitama, Abuja.

The video depicted the visibly angered Reps member representing Aba North & South Federal Constituency (APGA) repeatedly slapping and insulting the driver for telling him to come out and get the snail the driver was meant to deliver to him.

In the footage, Ikwechegh insisted that the request was disrespectful given his social status while threatening to make the driver “disappear” without facing any consequences.

“Do you know who I am? I can make this man (driver) disappear in the whole of Nigeria and nothing will happen. Can you imagine this rat? I am not going to give this boy one naira of my money.

Watch the video here: https://t.co/3yBaK8WgiR

“I am not going to call my policemen to beat you up, I will do that myself. I will show that I am a big brother to you, tie you up, lie you down and put you in my generator house. Do you know where you are? Because you saw me sitting outside here. Look at this monkey.”

When the driver requested the delivery fee, the politician slapped him multiple times querying if the driver knew who he was talking to.

“Do you know who I am I just slapped you and there’s nothing you will do. My name is Honourable Alex Ikwechegh, tell them (public) I slapped you. Call the Inspector General of Police that I slapped you, let him come. Record me very well,” he boasted.

Recall that in September 2023, the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Umuahia, Abia State capital, led by Justice Adeyinka Aderibigbe, sacked Emeka Nnamani, who is a member of the Labour Party and ordered that a certificate of return be issued to Ikwechegh, a candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who came second in the 2023 general election.

Nnamani was sacked based on certificate forgery.

The Appeal Court had in 2015 on the petition of Blessing Nwagba, sacked Nnamani on the ground that he was not a registered member of his then party, APGA in his ward at the time of the election and equally directed the police to investigate the allegation of certificate forgery against Nnamani, who said he graduated from the University of Port Harcourt.

After the Tribunal judgment, there was a report (not The PUNCH) that the tribunal sacked Nnamani because of certificate forgery and that there was a court ruling banning him from participating in elections for 10 years.

Although the lawmaker has debunked and described it as a “lie from the pit of hell”, adding, “There was nothing like the court banning me, Emeka Nnamani, for 10 years from contesting an election in Nigeria. That’s a fallacy and a fabrication from the pit of hell, used regularly by opposition parties to pull us back.

“The records of what the court said at that time in 2015 are there. I do not want to bring the competence of the court into question because our jurisprudence is a perfect one and works according to the evidence available to them.

“As of 2015, there were lots of hiccups that my opponent took advantage of mentioning the institution they mentioned, and the institution has since then said that they had issues with the exams and records of the school, which led to misplacement of some records when they were moving from analogue to digital records keeping.

“There were cases of missing records and somebody went to that institution and took advantage of such a problem. But since then, the institution has cleared me,” he maintained.