Alams tastes freedom
The Nigerian media has been its usual confused uninformed unanalytical self over the Alamieyeseigha sentencing story that has run over the last few days. First, it was reported late last week that tummy tuck had bagged a 12 year sentence. Then, the papers corrected themselves: it was in fact 12 years in total, but with all of the sentences running concurrently, making a maximum actual-time sentence of two years. Then, we learnt yesterday that since Alams has been in jail for two years already, he has already served his time. Accordingly, the hero of the Ijaw nation walked free yesterday. If only we could rely on journalists to tell us how much of the millions of dollars of public money he stole to lavish on properties abroad is still in his keep..
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6 comments:
i don't think he's considered a hero of the ijaw nation. he was relatively unknown before his bail jumping fiasco
everyone here in the newsroom here realised he would be out very soon and said so, but somehow that detail didn't make it to the page. I haven't got to the bottom of why, but this sort of thing happens over and over again.
In this case peple are saying "no one could be sure" so we erred on the side of caution. To me this says two things: 1 journalists don't have a good enough grasp of the legal system and 2, court correspondents did not ask the right questions of the lawyers.
This is indicative of the "carry-go" journalism that happens here. Just turn up, carry the press release and go.
The press does seem a problem with reporting details like that. I think some peole here think adding 2+2 amounts to "interpreting the news".
But its a shadowy area where what appears like lack of capacity could also be an indicator of patronage at work, and vice versa.
I heard he was freed but never really got the whole story.
He would give thanks to God for making him a free man again.
Yes, it is a shame that some Nigerian papers cannot be considered credible because they do not provide the necessary details to their stories.
As for Alam, he is lucky he got out but it is sad that he could get released this quickly. Must read more about the case but I think this case will put a ding in the reputation of Nieria's legal system.
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I ran across this artice and thouht it might interest your readers. I Live in London and cant believe that the private sector also sucks in Nigeria...Big shame.
LONGE’S EXIT FROM TRANSCORP: THE INSIDE TRACK
Story has it that the chasm between the DG of the Nigerian Stock Exchange
and Chairman of the Board of Transcorp, Dr. (Mrs.) Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke and
Mr. Bernard Longe, the Group Managing Director of the company has widened
inexorably since January 2007 owning, among other factors (more on which
later) to the ascendancy of Mr. Ayoola Obafoluke Otudeko (OFR) to the
Presidency of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Sources close to Mrs. Oreke-Ndi
confirmed that Mr. Otudeko personally called her to protest the initial
nomination of Mr. Longe by the Transcorp board in December 2005 to be the
pioneer Managing Director.
In his new position as the President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the
boss of Okereke-Onyiuke, Otudeko apparently believed he could blackmail
Transcorp into selling him additional 900million units of Transcorp shares
at N1 per share even as the company was doing its IPO at N7:50 per share. He
was apparently counting on using the First Bank saga to whip Mr. Longe into
acquiescence. Mrs. Okereke-Onyiuke whose relationship with Otudeko goes
back a long way was quite willing to oblige but would neither take the issue
to the Board formally nor commit an instruction to the Group Managing
Director to deal into writing.
There obvious motivation for this proposed investment by Mr. Otudeko was, as
usual, taking undue advantage of his new position to profiteer; there is
nothing to indicate that he believes in the idea of Transcorp as an enduring
organization. First Bank of Nigeria Plc which he proudly claims to own and
control has never supported Transcorp and did not participating in the
funding of the NITEL acquisition.
Following Longe’s reported refusal to play ball, his fate was sealed. With a
lethal combination of Otudeko and Okere-Onyiuke, you have a right to wonder
whether the deal was thereby aborted. Stay tuned……….
PS. If you still don’t understand the way the Nigerian Stock Exchange is run
and operated, which approach prompted British Telecoms, the Technical
Partners of Transcorp for NITEL/Mtel to withdraw its personnel citing issues
of Corporate Governance, as reported in ThisDay of 10th April 2007, you
need to observe what happened to the share price of Transcorp on Wednesday
the 11th of April 2007.
Watchers of the Transcorp stock performance in the three times that the
technical suspension has been lifted and re-imposed since its IPO will have
noticed its consistent downward slide, closing at N7:54 on Tuesday 10th
April 2007. The following day, 11th April, the same day that the company’s
Group Managing Director was sent on compulsory leave, apparently afraid of a
negative reaction from the investors of Transcorp, the Nigerian Stock
Exchange came up with a “clarification” of the rule it announced a while ago
and the stock price was reverted back to its pre-IPO closing price of
N9.71.and the technical suspension re-imposed. Thus with a stroke of the
pen, figuratively speaking, a piece of Transcorp’s trading history was
obliterated. It is worth remembering that the big boss of the exchange that
made this sudden and most timely discovery of the “misapplication” of the
rules also just happens to be the Chairman of Transcorp.
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