Ex-militant, Asari-Dokubo arrested in Cotonou.

A Former Niger Delta militant, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, was on Tuesday arrested in Cotonou, capital of Benin Republic.

It was learnt that the ex-militant was arrested at about 1.00pm by the Benin Republic’s police.

A statement by his lawyer, Festus Keyamo confirmed the arrest, saying Asari-Dokubo was picked up around the Lubeleyi roundabout and taken to “an unknown destination.”

Keyamo, in the statement on Tuesday, argued that Asari-Dokubo was not arrested for running any illegitimate business in the country.

The lawyer noted that the ex-militant had been residing partly in Benin Republic for many years, adding that Asari-Dokubo owns property in Cotonou.

It was gathered that the ex-militant reportedly opened a private university – King Amachree African University, in Benin Republic.

The university is preparing to start degree-awarding programmes in 2014.

The statement reads in part, “Today, Tuesday, November 26, 2013, my friend and client, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, was arrested in Cotonou, Benin Republic, around the hours of 1pm and 2pm by the country’s gendarmes (police).

“He was picked up around the Lubeleyi roundabout and taken to an unknown destination. In fact, he owns houses, schools and an academy in that country. All these places have been searched as of this evening and nothing incriminating was found.”

Keyamo expressed the conviction that “Dokubo’s arrest and detention are a ploy by certain forces in Nigeria in an unholy alliance with the Beninoise government to keep him away as 2015 approaches.

“We call on the Nigerian government to immediately intervene and ensure that no harm befalls Alhaji Dokubo-Asari and to use all diplomatic means to secure his immediate release and safe return to Nigeria.”

Fresh crisis rocks Ecobank !

Pan-African lender Ecobank has sued a top executive who left the company this month, naming him in a civil complaint in Togo as the author of an anonymous email accusing Chief Executive Thierry Tanoh of mismanagement.

 

The executive, David Lawson, denied to Ecobank that he wrote the email and said he had been unfairly dismissed. He accused Ecobank executives including Tanoh of hacking his phone and email account in a fruitless search for evidence against him. The company denies wrongdoing.

 

The row comes as Ecobank tries to shore up confidence in its governance after a Nigerian industry watchdog began investigating the way it reported financial results. The bank’s chairman quit last month, saying it wasn’t appropriate for him to stay given the company’s ongoing reviews of governance.

 

Ecobank has been viewed by investors as an African success story for its strong growth and expansion beyond its Togo base into 33 African countries. It made record profits last year.

 

One member of Ecobank’s board told his colleagues in an email seen by Reuters that Lawson’s hacking allegations were a cause for concern and could get the bank into trouble.

 

Lawson, who left as head of strategy on November 8, was a member of the Group Executive Committee that runs Ecobank and reports to its board.

 

A spokesman for Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, ETI, as the bank is officially known, declined to discuss the circumstances of Lawson’s departure.

 

Lawson told Reuters on Monday: “In the panel’s attempt to implicate me in this affair …(it) resorted to the illegal acts of phone tapping, email hacking, stalking and invasion of privacy”.

 

He said that at a disciplinary hearing about the email, fellow executives pressed him repeatedly to name board members who they suspected of being his accomplices in the matter. He called the hearing an “illegal kangaroo court”.

 

Lawson said he had emailed Ecobank’s executive committee and board on November 11, stating that he had a recording of the disciplinary hearing that showed the committee discussing details about him and his communications that it could only have obtained by hacking his email and bugging his phone.

 

The bank’s suit says Lawson wrote the anonymous email to senior executives on August 31 accusing Tanoh of paying himself an inflated bonus for work done in the months before he took office at the start of this year.

 

Tanoh, a former vice president of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, said in September he was forgoing any bonus as part of efforts to restore confidence given the Nigerian investigation.