₦airaland Forum

Yungwizzzy: Hausas should leave our land since we can't stay in theirs

chaberry: What about the remaining captives?

Some Jigawa State indigenes who returned to the state at the weekend after their release by military authorities in Abia State alleged abuse in the hands of soldiers while in detention.
One of the returnees, Shehu, said they were arrested while taking the new wife of a relation to him in Rivers.
“I was in the entourage of seven people who were taking a new bride to her husband who is a serving soldier in Rivers State. The other women detained were also in the escort as part of our tradition. We were all arrested, detained and returned. We tried to explain but they won’t listen. Imagine the experience of the girl who got detained for 13 days after her wedding”, he said.
Kamilu Nasiru, another returnee, said they were fed with moimoi once a day and were cramped into a single room, adding that most of them became sick because of the congestion.

Ibrahim Musa said most of them did not pray for 13 days, adding that they were given biscuits and water during interrogation. The Chief of Staff to Governor Sule Lamido, Malam Aminu Ringim, who received the returnees, said the government worked round the clock to secure their release. He added that it is wrong to politicise security issues. He said the state government would protect indigenes anywhere they may be.

How we were arrested, treated

A trader who was among those released Friday said while in detention they were given only one moimoi as daily meal. He said one of them who hails from Jigawa State already went mad.

“We are businessmen, I used to travel to Port Harcourt, some of us travel to Aba, Ekiti and Bayelsa. All the vehicles used took off on Saturday from Jigawa and came to Kano to pick the remaining passengers. We took off from NNPC Hotoro. We heard some people saying we travelled in a convoy of 36 vehicles. This is not true. What happened was, we arrived at a check point in Aba in two vehicles on 15th June. When we arrived we meet three vehicles. They started the arrest before 2:00am, some were arrested at 1:30am. They kept us until the number of vehicles reached 33 and they told us that we should exercise patience until 6:00am because of the security situation and we should not be allowed to proceed until morning, promising that they would release us by 6:00am.

“At 6:00am, instead, we started seeing more well armed soldiers with their combat vehicles. They surrounded us and started entering every vehicle, seizing our phones. They tortured passengers who first arrived at the barracks, but they did not beat us. They however collected all our belongings.”
He said on their first three days in detention;
“They removed only eight females among us and put all the remaining 478 in one cell where we slept, urinating there. They never opened the cell until 5:00am when they served us one moimoi and a cup of water each which served as our daily meals.”
“We were sleeping in shifts because the cell could not accommodate us. We spent three days. They later brought a container for us to urinate in. There was a time we spent two days without even the moimoi, a situation many of us could not cope with. As I talk to you, there is one who is completely insane now. We are physically and mentally touched.”

How we were screened

“After immigration officials screened us, the SSS did their own. The SSS asked questions like which group do you belong to - Tijjaniya, Kadiriyya or Izala or Boko Haram sect?

“They had some experts who specialise in detecting people who once carried guns. They checked all our hands for that purpose but they could not find anyone among us who ever handled a gun. They collected account numbers, they collected my own. They have all our addresses,” he said.
A 31-year-old father of three said he is into sale and repair of wrist watches in Port Harcourt. Another said when they were released they were given some of their belongings.

“All of us were prevented from proceeding with the journey, as we were escorted to Lokoja and handed over to soldiers there. From there we were escorted to Abaji in Abuja and handed over to soldiers, and from there to soldiers in Zuba and Dakatsalle in Kano State. Out of the 10 vehicles, nine proceeded to Jigawa State”.

A source told our correspondent that when they arrived Jigawa they were all handed over to their local government chairmen.
Receiving them, Kano State Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso donated N20,000 to each of the 29 victims who hail from his state. Kwankwaso advised them to look into some other businesses in the state despite the fact that the constitution gives them the right to go anywhere in the country to do business.
The released persons are from across the 13 local governments in the state with majority coming from Sumaila LGA. When they were arrested, the Kano State government sent delegates who were prevented from accessing them, making the governor to call for their immediate release or be taken to court.

SaharaReporters has discovered that the shady plan to sell off Nigeria’s four refineries to cronies of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has reached an advanced stage, with cronies of President Goodluck Jonathan and Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke in line to snatch some of the best assets.
Our highly reliable sources revealed that Jide Omokore, a prominent member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been penciled down to “buy” one of two refineries in Port Harcourt in what a highly reliable source described as “a rushed privatization process.” Our sources, who are in the Presidency and oil sector respectively, also disclosed that the second refinery in Port Harcourt will be sold to Benny Peters, the owner of Aiteo Energy. Mr. Peters is one of the major beneficiaries from Nigeria’s notoriously fraudulent fuel subsidy payments. A well known crony of Ms. Alison-Madueke, he is also quite close to President Jonathan.
The sources told SaharaReporters that the Warri refinery will be handed over to Igho Salome's Televaras while the Kaduna refinery will go to Sahara Energy, an oil firm whose owners are also cronies of the Petroleum Minister.
Industry experts have questioned the Federal Government’s rush to sell the refineries when the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has not been passed by the National Assembly. The omnibus bill covers virtually every aspect of the oil industry and is currently being considered by the federal lawmakers. Various interest groups have protested and questioned several aspects of the proposed law.
“By rushing to make a pronouncement on the sale of the refineries, it does not need a genius to know that Alison-Madueke is up to something,” a source at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) told SaharaReporters. He added: “If you go to the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) today, honest officials will tell you that they are under pressure to proceed with the sale. The agenda is very clear.”
An official at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources said the major worry in the ministry was that most of those positioned toemerge as “preferred bidders” do not have any history in themanagement of refineries.
“Even though Madam (Diezani) may not listen to anybody, we believe that she should allow other players to come into the sector. All these favored guys are getting the juiciest assets in the country. The feeling we have here is that they are just fronting for her. She is basically going to sell these assets to herself. It makes sense to throw the process very open and allow new players to come in,” said the official, who added, “I am already a marked man because of the critical questions I have raised on these things.”
Last month, SaharaReporters had first exposed the scheme to hand over the national assets to friends and associates of the president and minister by any means necessary. Our sources revealed that Ms. Alison-Madueke had rigged the process to enable her cronies to emerge as the preferred bidders.
A BPE official confirmed to SaharaReporters that some of its officials were worried by the sudden haste in the privatization process, adding that the bureau was already feeling teleguided on the proposed sale.
“Under normal circumstances, and I am talking about the international standards we have adopted in this agency, the privatization would not have ended by the 2015 general election. That is if we want to do things normally. But we are being asked to sell as quickly as possible and this is certainly fishy,” the official said.
The official said, however, that he was not in support of the view that the sale of refineries should wait until the PIB is passed. He warned that “politics has already consumed the PIB and nobody knows for sure when it will be passed.”
Mr. Omokore, one of the “preferred” buyers, is a multi-billionaire PDP member who has received several lucrative deals since Ms. Alison-Madueke was made Minister of Petroleum Resources by President Jonathan in 2010. Mr. Omokore is the chairman of Energy Resources Group, whose subsidiary, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, was involved in a highly controversial operatorship take-over of theNNPC’s oil mining licenses (OMLs) in 2011.
The other two “preferred” buyers are Televaras, owned Mr. Igho Salome, and Sahara Energy, owned by Tonye Vole, Tope Osinubi and Ade Odunsi. Little is known about Mr. Benny Peters, but his company, Aiteo, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of fuel subsidy payments from Mr. Jonathan's government.
Televaras has been under the spotlight because of its sudden rise to prominence. It recently secured the Afam Power Plant in a privatization deal, despite not having any previous experience in the power sector. A BPE source said the company was arbitrarily announced as the “winner.” The Afam Power Plc was among the 18 PHCN successor companies which were put up for sale. None of the bids received for Afam Power Plc was deemed qualified, but Televaras was curiously announced as the winning bidder.
Sahara Energy was also indicted in a report by a Swiss non-governmental organization, the Berne Declaration. The report revealed how Nigerian oil marketing companies perpetrated widespread subsidy fraud running into several billions of dollars. Titled “Swiss Traders’ Opaque Deals in Nigeria,” the Berne Declaration also accused the NNPC of colluding with international oil traders to defraud Nigeria. The Swiss report revealed that Sahara Energy, Rahamaniyya Group, Aiteo Energy Resources Limited, Ontario Oil and Gas Limited, Tridax Energy, Mezcor Limited and MRS Group had established subsidiaries, also called “letter-box” companies, in Geneva, Switzerland, with no real business activities.
The Swiss document noted that the Nigerian oil firms established the so-called subsidiaries primarily for tax advantages and also for easy access to international capital. But four of the companies, namely Sahara Energy, Rahamaniyya, Aiteo Energy and MRS, were investigated by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee and cleared in a widely discredited report that culminated in the infamous $300,000 bribery scandal involving Farouk Lawan, the chairman of the House probe committee, and billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola.
According to the Swiss report, the opaque partnership between the NNPC and some Swiss oil traders ensured that the profit generated in transactions escaped state coffers. Describing the scam as “not trivial,” the report added: “By way of example, in 2011 the amount withheld from state coffers came to $8.739 billion. The public coffers were directly penalized. The same year, the revenues from oil fell by 39 per cent against the amount budgeted. And this is despite a rise in the price of oil.”
Two weeks ago, a letter Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi of the Central Bank of Nigeria addressed to President Jonathan was leaked to the media.
The letter alleged that the NNPC had failed to remit nearly $50 billion in crude oil earnings at the country’s bank. After a series of meetings between CBN officials as well as officials of the Finance and Petroleum Ministries, Mr. Sanusi disclosed a week ago that the amount of oil export earnings the NNPC had not accounted for now stood at $12 billion. Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala disputed his figure, asserting that the discrepancy stood at $10.8 billion. There has been no further information about the whereabouts of the missing funds.

SLIDE waxie: They said the OP is a fool.

i didn't knw until he proved the statement right!

Obasanjo has insisted that he has all the facts about what he wrote and he may be tempted to expose more if in the next few months Jonathan do not change his ways.

Ikengawo: What does Ihejirika have to do with anything and what did he do to you?
Sambo will of course take over if anything happens to Jonathan.

awodman: This quote is the reason why reference was made to treason...it was not about the touted impeachment..

Make una dey try comprehend before rushing to comment...

[b]The Presidency totally condemns the decision by Alhaji
Mohammed and his party to move further beyond the bounds
of honourable and acceptable political conduct with the
senseless call for the impeachment of a President who
continues to sincerely devote himself to the discharge of the
sacred mandate freely given to him by Nigerians.
The APC, which remains a minority party with doubtful
credentials in the National Assembly, knows fully well that its
attempt to hector and blackmail a Parliament dominated by
loyal members of the President’s party, the PDP, into an
impeachment process, will come to nothing.
But it has cavalierly embarked on this outrageous gambit, with
scant regard for peace, order, security and political stability
in the country, in furtherance of its dastardly and heinous
strategy of over-heating the polity and working to cause
public disaffection against the Jonathan Presidency with lies,
false accusations and unjustifiable indictments ahead of the
2015 general elections.
[/b]

The Nigerian Medical Association accused the federal government of ignoring its demands
Medical doctors nationwide will go on strike from Wednesday, the Nigerian Medical Association announced Sunday, warning Nigerians of a fresh round of health sector crisis that would keep the hospitals shut as Nigerians prepare for Christmas.
The NMA said doctors will suspend work as the ultimatum issued to the Federal Government has elapsed.
The NMA’s ultimatum to the FG to comply with earlier agreements on issues of condition of service and welfare of doctors expired Saturday, December 14 with the government ignoring the doctors, the NMA.
A spokesperson for the health minister could not be immediately reached for comments.
The NMA president, Dr. Osahon Enabulele told PREMIUM TIMES in Minna, Niger state on Sunday, after the group’s its emergency National Executive Council meeting, that efforts to engage the Federal Ministry of Health had failed.
According to the NMA, health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, seems less bothered about the potential crisis that is about to erupt in the country’s health sector as Nigerians prepare for Christmas celebrations.
He said the minister refused to attend meetings they proposed to resolve the several concerns.
“In recognition of the extremely poor progress in the resolution of the demands of the NMA, and following the expiration of her last ultimatum issued to the Federal Government of Nigeria, which expired on Saturday, December 14, 2013, the NMA is constrained to declare an industrial action with effect from Wednesday, December 18, 2013,” Mr. Enabulele said.
“Accordingly, doctors in public health institutions shall withdraw their services with effect from 8am on Wednesday, December 18, 2013.”
He however said the strike will be for five days- until December 23rd, in the first instance, but will continue after Christmas celebration.
“In recognition of the yuletide season and the appeals of well-meaning Nigerians and our friends in the fourth estate of the realm, the withdrawal of services in this first instance shall be for a period of five days but shall recommence after the yuletide season,” he said.
“We call on members of the public and the media to bear with the association during this period of withdrawal of services.”
The NMA has been engaged in a series of unsuccessful negotiations with the federal government in the past five months.
On the 2nd September, 2013, the NMA issued a 21-day ultimatum to the government to address the outstanding issues of doctors’ welfare, and conditions of service.
However, after the intervention of the minister of labour and productivity, Emeka Wogu, the NMA extended its ultimatum by four weeks at her emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in Abuja on September 22, 2013.
Following the expiration of the additional four weeks of grace, the union again extended the ultimatum twice on account of the government’s constitution of a presidential committee which promised to speedily resolve the issues contained in the requests of the NMA.
But the government has failed to take a decision after the committee submitted its report to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. The only outstanding issue addressed yet by the government was the re-constitution and inauguration of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN). That tool place on 25th November, 2013.

Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi says the reason that political office holders steal state funds is because citizens have never confronted or stoned them (including himself) for the act.
At a tribute event for Nelson Mandela in Lagos, Mr. Amaechi said Nigerians have not shown enough aggression or resistance against stealing by political office holders.