Building Collapse: Lagos Files Fresh Charges against Lekki Gardens’ MD, Others

Caption: L-R: Chief Technical Officer, Lekki Gardens Estate Limited, Mr. Andrew Jibunoh; Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Richard Nyong; Board Chairman, Mr. Arobo Kalango; and Chief Operating Officer, Mrs. Christy Amida at a special media parley held by the company in Lagos... recently

• Defendants for arraignment on involuntary manslaughter, building without approval

The Lagos State Government has filed an amended charge before a Lagos High Court in Igbosere against the Managing Director of Lekki Gardens Estate Limited, Richard Nyong and others over alleged negligence in the events leading to the collapse of a building in Lekki area of the state on March 10, 2016.
The state government, through the office of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem, had dragged Nyong and others before Justice Sybil Nwaka over the building collapse which reportedly claimed 34 lives.
At the resumed hearing of the matter yesterday, the state Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Ms.Titilayo Shitta-Bey, informed the court of the amended charge dated June 13, 2017 and additional proof of evidence filed against the defendants, saying that all the defendants have since been duly served.
Aside Nyong, other defendants are an Executive Director of Lekki Gardens, Sola Olumofe; Odofin Henry Taiwo, Omolabake Mortune, Omotilewa Oluwatosin Joseph, Lekki Gardens, Get Too Rich Investment Limited and HC Insight Solution Limited.
Earlier, Olumofe’s lawyer, George Oguntade (SAN) apologised on behalf of his client for failure to previously appear in court, a development which led to the judge issuing bench warrant against him at the last adjourned date.
Oguntade said Olumofe was in the United Kingdom receiving treatment for Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol as at the time the bench warrant was issued against him, and that he flew into the country to present himself for trial.
The lawyer, however, gave a firm commitment that his client would not travel outside the country until the matter against him is concluded.
Oguntade also moved an application urging the court to quash the charge against Olumofe on the grounds that the criminal charge disclosed no prima facie case against him, and that the prosecution failed to invite him for questioning before the charge was filed.
Responding to the application, the state DPP, Shitta-Bey, urged the court to dismiss the application on the account of the fact that it was baseless.
Contrary to Oguntade’s contention, Shitta-Bey said even Olumofe admitted in his supporting affidavit that there was nexus between him and the matter, being the lead technical professional in the making of decisions with respect to the construction of the collapsed building.
She added that aside the fact that the attorney-general has the constitutional duty to file criminal charge against anyone reasonably suspected to have committed a crime, the said Olumofe was invited by the police and the Building Collapse Prevention Guild set up by government to investigate the matter, but he failed to present himself for questioning.
After entertaining the arguments for and against the application, Justice Nwaka said there was need to hear the case expeditiously, and thereby adjourned to June 29, 2017 for ruling and arraignment.
Tragedy had struck on  March 10, 2016 when a six-storey building under construction by Lekki Gardens in the Lekki area of the state collapsed and killed 34 people.
The developer was said to have added additional floor to the building against what was approved by government for construction.
Specifically, the defendants are facing six-count charges for failure to obtain building approval for the collapsed building and involuntary manslaughter, offences contrary to and punishable under Section 75 (1) of the Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law of Lagos State 2010, and Section 229 of Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 respectively.
The government also listed some of the victims to include William Akpati (m), Kazeem Ilesanmi (m), Raphael Ezeh (m), Saminu Umar (m) and Sunday Ezeh (m).

 Culled from Thisday

Mark Zuckerberg shares the hiring rule he says separates good companies from great ones

Richard Feloni

Mark Zuckerberg

(Getty Images)

Hiring Sheryl Sandberg was one of the smartest business decisions Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ever made.

Sandberg joined in March 2008 at a time when Facebook was ready to scale and needed the acumen she developed in her role as the head of Google's advertisting arm as well as the chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

Facebook would end 2008 with 450 employees, $272 million in revenue, at a loss of $56 million; last year Facebook had more than 17,000 employees and brought in $27.6 billion in revenue, with $10.2 billion in net income.

In an episode of LinkedIn cofounder and chairman Reid Hoffman's podcast "Masters of Scale," Zuckerberg told Hoffman that his experience with Sandberg taught him that the "single most important thing" when it comes to scaling into a massively successful business is having founders surround themselves with the best people they can find.

"And when I look at my friends who are running other good companies, the single biggest difference that I see in whether the companies end up becoming really great and reaching their potential or just pretty good is whether they're comfortable and really self-confident enough to have people who are stronger than them around them," Zuckerberg said.

He created a test for himself for any direct hire he needed to make. "I've adopted this hiring rule, which is that you should never hire someone to work for you unless you would work for them in an alternate universe," he said. "Which doesn't mean that you should give them your job, but if the tables were turned and you were looking for a job, would you be comfortable with working for this person? And I basically think that if the answer to that question is no, then you’re doing something expedient but you’re not doing something as well as you can on that."

To clarify, you don't need to be hiring the world's most qualified interns — the rule applies to high-level positions reporting to the top. The point is that to be effective leaders, founders, and CEOs need to learn to set aside their egos and hire people they admire.

Zuckerberg took his time with hiring Sandberg. After they met at a Christmas party in December 2007, he would meet regularly with Sandberg and talk for hours about his vision for Facebook and what she thought she could add to it. After a few months, Zuckerberg decided Sandberg passed the test.

"There are all of these things, for example, that Sheryl is much stronger than me at, and that makes me better and makes Facebook better," he said. "I am not afraid or threatened by that. I value that."

You can listen to the full episode of "Masters of Scale" on Stitcher or wherever you get podcasts.

yahoo finance

The bar is set low for GE's new CEO-Nicole Sinclair

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General Electric’s (GE) incoming CEO John Flannery is set up for success. And a big reason why is because his predecessor Jeff Immelt set the bar low.

GE was looking less and less like an industrials company and more like a finance company during the early years of Immelt’s tenure as CEO. Immelt, who took the helm in 2001, learned the hard way that this was not a good move, as GE got slammed right along with Wall Street’s big banks during the 2008 financial crisis.

Since the recession that followed, GE has shifted its business away from the financial sector to once again become a more focused industrial company. Analysts say this shift has been under-appreciated and marks a good setup for Flannery. They say the company’s exposure to cyclical industries like large infrastructure and aerospace equipment should prove lucrative in what seems to be the late stages of the economic recovery.

Source: Barclays research, company data

Acquiring core businesses and selling off non-core businesses

The company spun out Synchrony Financial, its private label credit card business, for $21 billion in 2015. This was just part of the $260 billion in GE Capital divestitures that Immelt oversaw. By next summer, the financing business will include only “captive finance” such as aircraft, power project and health care equipment leasing.

In addition to shedding most of its financials business, the company has also shed other non-core units. In 2009, it sold GE Security to United Technologies (UTX) for $1.8 billion. In 2013, it sold NBC Universal to Comcast (CMCSA) for $18 billion. In 2016, it sold GE Appliances to Haier for $5.8 billion. And more recently, it sold its water and process technologies business to Suez for $3.4 billion in 2017.

“The end of the traditional industrial conglomerates is nearing,” according to Barclays’ Scott Davis. “Complexity kills creativity, complexity embraces bureaucracy, complexity is not something that investors want. Investors want to be able to isolate the risk in their portfolio down to tangible things. They don’t see the advantage of owning a company that’s in so many different sectors.”

Meanwhile, the company has embarked on major industrial acquisitions that position it for late-cycle growth. It bought Alstom in 2014 for $9.5 billion and Baker Hughes in 2016 for $25.2 billion, again focusing the portfolio.

Flannery is set up for success

Flannery, who will take over as CEO on August 1 and most recently ran GE Healthcare, is expected to be more aggressive in transforming the company going forward. Potential changes could include a spin-out of health care and the shuttering of some ancillary businesses, according to Barclays.

A GE “lifer,” Flannery spent most of his time at GE Capital and in corporate roles, including as head of M&A, as shown in the graphic below.

Source: Barclays research, company data

While GE’s operations are better-positioned than they were a few years ago, investor sentiment has yet to improve.

During Immelt’s tenure, the stock has significantly underperformed the market, rising only 11% versus the market, which surged 114%. Those numbers look especially paltry when compared to the 4,000% return under his predecessor Jack Welch, who was CEO from 1981 to 2001.

“Quite frankly, GE just needs a new messenger,” Davis had written before Monday’s announcement. “Investors had lost complete faith … Jeff Immelt has not put up the numbers.”

Expectations are always high for any incoming CEO. Fortunately for Flannery, GE’s operational structure is much cleaner than it was, and the bar for stock returns have been set very low.

Yahoo finance