Following recent downturns in carrying out electronic transactions across all commercial banks’ platforms, the House of Representatives has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to direct all commercial banks in the country to immediately overhaul their existing online electronic banking platforms.

The cash crunch resulting from the implementation of the CBN’s naira redesign policy forced a shift to online banking that exposed the inefficiencies of the banking industry. Now, the House has reached a resolution, asking the central bank to initiate a reform that will effect efficiency and ease of conducting electronic banking operations.

The resolution was reached after the House adopted a motion moved by Hon. Sergius Ose Ogun, which called on the CBN to Direct all Commercial Banks to Overhaul their Online Banking Service Platforms to Ease Electronic Banking Operations.

Ogun said Section 88 (1) and (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) empowers the National Assembly to conduct investigations into the activities of any authority executing or administering laws made by the National Assembly (like the Central Bank of Nigeria).

He indicated that the CBN, which was established under Section of the CBN Act, Cap. C4, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, to promote a sound financial system, including the issuance of legal tender currencies in Nigeria, failed in its obligation in the wake of the naira redesign policy.

“Section 2 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act saddles the Central Bank of Nigeria with the duty of promoting a sound financial system in Nigeria.

“In the wake of the recent naira redesign and cash withdrawal limit policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, there has been an increase in the use of online and electronic banking services to carry out monetary transactions across the country.

“The use of online or internet banking services by Nigerians in the past three months or thereabout has been characterized by varying degrees of hitches ranging from unsuccessful electronic bank transfers, point of sale (POS) service failure and a host of others,” he said.

The inefficacy of electronic transactions across all banks as the cash crunch bites harder compounded the suffering the naira redesign policy brought on Nigerians.

Ogun said if nothing is done by the CBN and the commercial banks to address these difficulties or ineffectiveness, “Nigerians will continue to suffer untold hardships and loss of monies to unsuccessful electronic bank transactions.”

On Tuesday, the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele apologized to Nigerians over the failure of banks to deliver timely and efficient online transactions over the last three months.

He said: “I must apologize. Yes, online channels fail. But no doubt it is as a result of the deluge of online transactions that hit the banking industry. But it is being resolved.

“On a daily basis, our Payment System Management Department monitors the online payment platforms so as to make sure that when there is a downtime, they are quickly resolved so that transactions can go on smoothly.”

Many Nigerians have turned to neobanks for swift and reliable transactions due to the situation.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld the election of Senator Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun State, setting aside the judgment of the state Election Petition Tribunal.

In January, the Election Petitions Tribunal had nullified the election of Adeleke, declaring his opponent, the past governor of the state, Adegboyega Oyetola, the winner. The judgment came following a petition filed by Oyetola, challenging the outcome of the July 16, 2022 Osun State governorship election.

Oyetola, who was defeated as incumbent, had alleged that the election was marred by irregularities, including over-voting, which took place in several polling units in the state, and prayed the Tribunal to sack Adeleke and declare him the winner.

The Tribunal answered the All Progressive Congress (APC)’s Oyetola’s prayers, declaring him the winner. Justice Tetsea Kume held that INEC did not comply substantially with the constitution and the provisions of the Electoral Act. He also held that the subtracted number of over-votes gave Oyetola more votes than the People Democratic Party (PDP) Adeleke.

However, in a unanimous decision, the three-man panel led by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu of the Court of Appeal, quashed the Tribunal’s judgment and gave its verdict to uphold Adeleke as the rightful governor of Osun State.

The Court of Appeal Panel thereby annulled the Tribunal’s order, directing that a Certificate of Return be withdrawn from Adeleke and issued to Oyetola.

The panel held that the Osun State Tribunal was wrong to have said that there was over voting; a claim that only relied on the evidence by Oyetola and the APC, and as such, doesn’t prove their case in any way.

The judge faulted the plaintiffs. He said they only relied on the data from the back end server and failed to look at the voters register which forms the foundation of the whole electoral process and as such, cannot strengthen their allegations of over voting.

On the issue of jurisdiction, the court ruled in favor of Adeleke, stating that according to section 285(8) of the constitution as amended, the court has every right to entertain the appeal. The court also awarded the sum of N500, 000 against the APC and Oyetola.

In response to the Appeal Court decision, Oyetola stated that his faith in the judiciary remained unshaken and he will take the matter to the Supreme Court.

A statement issued by his media aide, Ismail Omipidan, said from the snippet available from the judgment, there were solid grounds to seek further redress at the apex court.

“We have heard the judgment of the Appeal Court, but we are yet to receive a copy of the judgment.

“However, from the snippets we are getting, we believe we have a potential ground to approach the Supreme Court. Our belief in the judiciary remains unshaken, just as my abiding faith in the God’s promise regarding the reclaim of my mandate remains undoubted,” he said.

“I, therefore, appeal to our supporters and party members to remain calm as we take the next step.”

Aftermath of elections in Nigeria is usually filled with legal tussles of political aspirants fighting to be declared the real winners by the courts. Thus, a significant percent of public office holders is determined by the courts, fostering a culture that democracy advocates say it casts a stench on the electoral umpire. They say lack of confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct credible elections is making their results questionable.

Sometimes, law enforcement agencies in order to catch criminals go the extra mile by setting up traps for the alleged criminals to fall into.

For instance, when the government of Edo state, Nigeria decided to take aggressive action against street prostitution in the city of Benin and chased the roadside prostitutes away from the regular stands, Some policemen or task forces set up by the Edo state government will sometimes disguise and appear like patrons of the prostitutes; how they operated was that they will approach a random girl standing by or walking around this renown prostitutes stand, they negotiate the price with the girl for sex and once the girl accepts the fee for the sex, thereby agreeing that she is a street prostitute the task force will bring out their handcuffs and get her arrested.

This is called entrapment and it is a valid defence in criminal trials, i.e. the girl arrested or the alleged prostitute that was arrested through this ploy of the task force when charged to court can raise the defence of entrapment and she could be acquitted by the defence.

The most prevalent entrapment used by law enforcement agencies in the USA is law enforcement agents pretending to be minors or underage girls on social media and engage in sensual and sexual conversations with adults in other to catch or arrest paedophiles: A law enforcement agent will create a social media account and pretends to be a minor or an underage girl, then initiates a sex chat with an adult, once the adult offers to meet the minor physically for sex, the agent will burst the adult and arrest him for being a paedophile.

This is also another example of entrapment but for this defence to successfully get a suspect an acquittal, the law enforcement agents must have been the ones that induced the suspect to commit the crime.

Therefore, the entrapment defence is used when an accused person while facing trial alleges that he never would have committed the crime or he never would have formed the intent (the mens rea) to commit the crime if a law enforcement officer had not invited, inspired, incited, persuaded and lured him to commit the crime. The defence of entrapment is thereby established where the defendant engaged in criminal conduct after being induced or encouraged to do so by law enforcement who was trying to obtain evidence against that defendant. This is most common in drug cases both possession and sale of a controlled substance and prostitution cases just like the early example I raised.

The most populous case in the history of criminal trials where the defence of entrapment was used as a defence to acquit an accused person despite the fact that he was caught red-handed committing the crime was the case of United States v. John DeLorean, 561 F. Supp. 797 (C.D. Cal. 1983). 

In this case, John Z. DeLorean, a renowned American car builder and one of the richest men in America (at that time) was arrested on October 19, 1982, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was caught with 55 pounds of cocaine in his hotel room and was immediately charged to court for smuggling drugs, conspiracy to obtain and distribute cocaine etc.

What could have led a renowned automotive builder and one of the richest men in America to start dealing and smuggling drugs? 

His (John DeLorean’s) car company was on the verge of going bankrupt and he needed $17 million to save the company from collapse.  He was desperately in need of money to save his company. Out of this desperation, he was approached by a person claiming to be an investor named James Hoffman who claimed to have a business opportunity to help save DeLorean’s company. Unknown to DeLorean, James Hoffman, was an FBI informant who decided with the help of the FBI to prance on DeLorean’s desperation for money and entrap him into smuggling drugs to sell in order for him to raise money and save his company.

DeLorean’s attorney successfully argued the defence of entrapment claiming that John Delorean, a reputable inventor and businessman would never have thought of engaging in drug smuggling had the FBI through their informant not induced and incited him to. He was therefore based on this defence acquitted of all the drug charges brought against him after two years of trial.

It should be noted however that the defence of entrapment can only be valid if raised in victimless crimes, such as buying illegal narcotics or soliciting prostitution. Charges of violent crimes like rape or murder or robbery cannot usually be avoided or evaded by the accused by raising the defence of entrapment.