News

Liz Truss Becomes New UK PM After Audience With Queen Elizabeth

Liz Truss on Tuesday officially became Britain’s new prime minister, at an audience with head of state Queen Elizabeth II after the resignation of Boris Johnson.

The former foreign secretary, 47, was seen in an official photograph shaking hands with the monarch to accept her offer to form a new government and become the 15th prime minister of her 70-year reign.

The symbolic ceremony took place at the sovereign’s remote Balmoral retreat in the Scottish Highlands, as the queen, 96, was deemed unfit to return to London due to ill health.

“The queen received in audience the right honourable Elizabeth Truss MP today and requested her to form a new administration,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

“Ms Truss accepted Her Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon her appointment as prime minister.

The last time the handover of power took place at Balmoral was in 1885, when queen Victoria was on the throne.

Normally, the outgoing and incoming prime minister meet the queen in quick succession at Buckingham Palace in central London.

It has only been held once outside London since 1952, when Winston Churchill met the new queen at Heathrow Airport after the death of her father, king George VI.

Truss, who was announced winner of an internal vote of Conservative party members on Monday, after a gruelling contest that began in July.

She is expected to make her first speech as prime minister outside 10 Downing Street at about 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Tuesday — weather permitting.

Heavy rain and storms are forecast, mirroring the gloomy economic situation that she and her new senior ministers will now have to tackle.

The appointments are due to be finalised before she hosts her first cabinet meeting and faces questions in parliament on Wednesday.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is expected to become finance minister, with Attorney General Suella Braverman moved to the tricky brief of home secretary, and James Cleverly to foreign affairs.

If confirmed, it would mean no white men in any of Britain’s four main ministerial posts for the first time ever.

– To-do list –
The incoming prime minister faces a daunting to-do list, with the UK in the grip of its worst economic crisis in decades, with double-digit inflation and sky-rocketing gas and electricity bills.

Truss, who touts herself as a free-market liberal, has promised tax cuts to stimulate growth, despite warnings that greater borrowing could make inflation worse.

British media reported on Tuesday that she would freeze energy bills for hard-pressed households and business which could cost some £100 billion ($116 billion).

The contrast to her beaten leadership rival Rishi Sunak’s more cautious approach has opened another rift in the Conservative party that was already divided by Johnson’s departure.

Recent opinion polls suggest a sizeable chunk of the British public have no faith in her ability to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.

A new poll by YouGov said only 14 percent expect Truss — the fourth Tory prime minister in six years — to do a better job than Johnson.

Johnson, whose tenure was dominated by Brexit and Covid and cut short by a succession of scandals, earlier promised Truss his unswerving support as he made a farewell speech in Downing Street.

“I will be supporting Liz Truss and the new government every step of the way,” he said, before leaving for Balmoral to cheers and applause from supporters.

He urged the Tories to put aside their ideological differences which have seen the party fight like cats and dogs over how best to tackle the energy crisis.

“If Dilyn (his dog) and Larry (the Downing Street cat) can put behind them their occasional difficulties then so can the Conservative party,” he added.

– Comeback? –
But former newspaper polemicist Johnson failed to dampen speculation that he is eyeing a potential return to the political front line.

“Like Cincinnatus, I am returning to my plough,” he said. Latin scholars were quick to point out that the Roman statesman eventually returned to politics.

Johnson, 58, remains popular among grassroots Tories as a charismatic election winner who took the country out of the European Union.

Despite repeated accusations of corruption and cronyism during his tenure, and an unprecedented police fine for breaking his own lockdown rules, Johnson is said to be smarting at having to leave.

Speculation has swirled that he could bide his time for a comeback, particularly if Truss struggles to overcome the country’s many problems.

In her acceptance speech on Monday, Truss ruled out seeking her own mandate from the public at an early general election, vowing victory in 2024.

News

$34.4m Money Laundering : Defence Counsel’s Application Stalls Bail Hearing of Binance Executive

Hearing of bail application of Binance Holdings Limited and one of its Executives, Tigran Gambaryan, before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, sitting in Maitama, Abuja, was on Thursday, April 18, 2024, stalled following a fresh application filed by counsel to the second defendant, Mark Mordi, SAN.

The defence’s application, a further affidavit in response to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC’s opposition to the initial bail application filed before the court, could not be heard because the EFCC’s counsel, Ekele Iheanacho, prayed for an adjournment to properly respond to it.

“My Lord, this is a criminal trial, we need to do the needful. It will be unfair for me to be shut down on the issue of fair trial. It’s not even convenient on my own part to seek for this adjournment, but the needful needs to be done, my Lord. That is why we are applying for a short adjournment for Monday or Tuesday to reconvene, and to file our further counter affidavit”, he said.

Meanwhile, Mordi didn’t oppose the adjournment prayer of the prosecution but said the prosecution was claiming they had an intelligence that the defendant is a flight risk and may run away.

“My Lord, it is a fact we didn’t know, that they had an intelligence that the defendant may run away because he has dual nationality. He knew it, he didn’t say it, and all we are doing is to respond to what he will say here in the court. He can say that now and we can continue. We can give him two hours to do so because the liberty of my client is at stake”, he said.

Justice Nwite, after listening to the counsels, adjourned the matter till April 22, 2024, for hearing of bail application.

Tigran Gambaryan is facing trial by the EFCC over alleged $34,400,000 (Thirty-Four Million, Four Hundred Thousand United States Dollars), money laundering charges.

He was arraigned alongside Binance Holdings Ltd and Nadeem Anjarwalla, (who is currently at large) on five-count charges bordering on alleged tax evasion, currency speculation and money laundering.

News

Court dismisses money laundering charges against ex-AGF Adoke

A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, dismissed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)’s money laundering charge filed against former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Monster of Justice, Mohammed Adoke.

Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling on Adoke’s no-case submission, said he found that the EFCC had been unable to prove the essential ingredients of the evidence adduced in counts one to four of the 10-count charge filed against the ex-AGF and his co-defendant, Aliyu Abubakar.

Justice Ekwo, who held that the evidence were manifestly unreliable, consequently upheld Adoke’s no-case submission.

He, therefore, declared Adoke discharged and acquitted of the money laundering charge.

However, the judge held that the anti-graft agency had been able to make a prima facie case against Abubakar, the oil magnate, in counts five, six, eight, and nine of the charge preferred against him.

But he struck out counts one, seven, and 10 against the businessman.

The judge therefore adjourned until April 22, April 23, and April 24 for Abubakar to open his defence.

EFCC had sued Adoke and Abubakar on a 10-count amended charge bordering on money laundering offences.

News

E-gates at Abuja Airport to be deployed for operation next week- Minister

Minister of Interior Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has test ran the electronic gates (e-gates) mounted at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

According to the minister on Friday, the job is 99 percent done adding that the e-gates would be deployed for operations by next week.

Among other top government officials at the airport to witness the groundbreaking initiative are the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr Aishetu Ndayako and the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Kemi Nanna Nandap.

Addressing the media, the minister said the e-gates were being deployed to eliminate human interfaces, reduce bureaucracy and make movements of passengers in and out the country seamless.

The Minister said 29 of the e-gates would be deployed in Lagos, four in Enugu and Kano while Port-Harcourt would have five.

He disclosed that the Airport infrastructure and Command and Control Centres have been subjected to different tests with fake and expired passports rejected while genuine ones were cleared.

“With this massive infrastructure, we believe that no unwanted persons or persons of interests can find their ways into Nigeria. Our security through the Airports and in the Airport domains are guaranteed.

“It is a testimony to what Mr President told us from day one on his Renewed Hope Agenda. He asked us to change the narratives and make passengers movements in and out of the country seamless.

“You can see that we have all our team here working in synergy with the authorities of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN) the Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders.

“I must at this point commend the Minister of Aviation, Hon Festus Keyamo (SAN) and other critical stakeholders who have made this transformation possible.”

Earlier, Tunji-Ojo said the era of unnecessary delays for passengers who come into the country due to manual scanning by immigration officers would be a thing of the past by the time the project came to fruition.

Tunji-Ojo recalled that the Federal Government had promised Nigerians that upon their arrival in the country, they would enjoy a seamless passage at the airports through e-gate, unlike in the past.

Tunji-Ojo said that with what he saw on ground, he had no doubt that, when completed, Nigerians would no longer be at the mercy of NIS officers or anybody else when they arrived in Nigeria.

The minister explained further that for the country to also add another layer to its national security architecture, it should be able to have about two or three licence verifications.

This, he said, would enable the appropriate authority to easily flag anybody or a passenger who happened to be a person of interest or on the watch list.

He added that by the time the project came on stream, it would go a long way towards supporting NIS officers and enabling them to effectively do their jobs.

E-gate is an electronic gate — just like a scanner—that has all the modern facilities required to scan passengers who just came into the country via the airports easily and faster without the usual delay.