Fidelity Bank compliance officer, Ezekoli Ozoemenam, on Monday testified against a social media celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha AKA Mompha, who is facing trial over money laundering charges involving the sum of N6 billion.

Ozoemenam, the fourth prosecution witness, was led in evidence by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, counsel, Mr Suleiman Suleiman.

The witness testified about the package of an account of the bank allegedly linked to Mompha.

The prosecution, thereafter, tendered the document and prayed the court to admit it in evidence.

Defence counsel, Mr Kolawole Salami, told the court that he reserved his objection to the tendering of the document in evidence.

Counsel to EFCC, thereafter, appealed to the court for a witness summons to compel appearance of EFCC’s next witness.

The counsel said that he needed the summons because the witness complained of feeling unsafe and receiving threats to his life.

Justice Mojisola Dada, however, said that it was the duty of prosecution to ensure appearance of its witnesses in court.

Mompha was absent at the court. Recall that his trial in absentia started on June 3, 2023 when a compliance officer with Access Bank testified against him.

The court, on Sept. 21 2022, ordered commencement of Mompha’s trial in absentia after he failed to appear before it on several occasions.

Also, EFCC had, on Jan. 22, 2022, arraigned Mustapha alongside his company, Ismalob Global Investment Ltd., on eight counts bordering on N6 billion laundering.

The charges against Mompha include conspiracy to launder money obtained through unlawful activities and laundering of money obtained through unlawful activities.

The others are retention of proceeds of criminal conduct, use of property derived from an unlawful act, possession of a document containing false pretences, and failure to disclose assets.

The judge adjourned the case until July 1 for continuation of trial.

The Organised Labour has agreed to attend the “negotiation” meeting of the Tripartite Committee on the Minimum Wage slated for Tuesday.

The Vice President of the Trade Union Congress, Mr Etim Okon, confirmed this in an interview on Monday in Abuja.

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the TUC had walked out of the negotiation meeting as the Federal Government proposed N48,000 as a new minimum wage for workers in the country.

‘The proposal falls significantly short of meeting our needs and aspirations,” the unions said.

Labour also accused the government of failure to provide any substantiated data to support their offer exacerbates the situation and lack of transparency and good faith undermines the credibility of the negotiation process.

“The Federal Government has apologised and the next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday and we are going to appear and present our demand.

“We will still be presenting the N615,000. It is what we presented before we walked out, though our submission was not rejected by the government.

“We only rejected the N48,000 that the government presented. Because they did not show us how they arrived at that amount.

“That is taking cognisance of transportation, housing, food, utilities, health, and education among others which are basic needs of the people.

“So the government should come out clearly with what they are offering with the indices and variables and also how they arrived at that. This is all that we are saying,” he said.

Also, the Director-General of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, Mr Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said that he hoped that the Tuesday meeting on the Tripartite Committee would be successful.

Oyerinde said that the federal government had prevailed over what happened at the last meeting as labour had walked out of the negotiation process.

“I am happy the government had prevailed on the issue and they would be coming back to the table for the actual negotiations.

“Everybody’s figure is valid, the Labour N615,000 proposal is valid to the extent of labour reality, and government N48,000 is valid to their reality. The private sector’s N54,000 is also valid to the present-day reality.

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has arrested nine individuals involved in oil theft at an illegal refinery located in a forested area on the boundary between Rivers and Abia States.

This was disclosed by the NSCDC Public Relations Officer, Babawale Afolabi, in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja.

This operation followed an NSCDC discovery of another illegal refining site on Saturday with over 100,000 litres of stolen crude oil in Adobi settlement, Etche Local Government Area, Rivers State.

According to Afolabi, the apprehended suspects, aged between 20 and 53 years, were allegedly caught in the act of refining stolen crude oil extracted from a vandalized oil wellhead.

According to Afolabi, the site also housed a local refinery under construction, designed to produce 60,000 litres of crude oil at a time.

“We apprehended nine suspects caught in the act of illegally refining stolen crude extracted from a vandalised oil wellhead.

“We also discovered an ongoing construction of a local refinery with the capacity to produce 60,000 litres of crude at once, he added.