Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue state, says efforts are in place to resolve the issues he has with the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ortom said this less than 24 hours after meeting with leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara state.
On Thursday, he met with Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the APC, in Abuja and spoke with journalists biefly.
“I am here in APC; a member of APC. I am still flying the flag of APC. I only said I was given a red card but the leadership of the party told me that the decision of the party leadership at the national level is superior to any individual and I think that is good enough,” he said.
“Stakeholders are going to be consulted… we have not concluded the matter, it is an ongoing process because I have always stood for peace and I always want peace to prevail. I appreciate the intervention and I hope that we would be able to resolve the matter of differences and this is the funny thing about politics.”
Apart from Ortom, Abdulfatah Ahmed and Aminu Tambuwal, his Kwara and Sokoto counterparts, also met with leaders of the opposition party.
Muyideen Akorede, spokesman of Ahmed, later said the APC governors met PDP leaders at the burial of the mother of Kawu Baraje, leader of the nPDP.
He, however, made it clear that the governor was considering leaving the APC.
nPDP pulled out of the PDP in the buildup of the 2015 election. The bloc teamed up with APC to dislodge the former ruling party in 2015.
Senate President Bukola Saraki, Uche Secondus, national chairman of PDP and Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, were among those who attended the Ilorin meeting.
Aviation unions have threatened to truncate the birth of the new carrier few hours after Sen. Hadi Sirika, Minister of State for Aviation, unveiled the name and logo of the proposed national carrier, ‘Nigeria Air’.
Comrade Olayinka Abioye, General Secretary, National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), in an interview with Independent, warned that until the government paid the final severance package of the staff of the defunct national carrier, Nigeria Airways, the unions in the sector would ensure that the plan did not come to fruition.
Abioye said that the severance package of the former workers must be paid in full before the government could commence a new national carrier, stressing that the government had not been fair to the workers.
He also explained that the planned new national carrier was contrary to government’s earlier position on the establishment of a new national carrier.
He said, “We are not concerned about this new national carrier even though it is our baby with supposed benefits to the country.
“We are much more concerned about the families of the defunct national carrier, Nigeria Airways, some of whom have died.
“We are much more concerned about those who are living and managing to live and we are calling on this minister and government to speed up action in whatever capacity they can to ensure that Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance, make releases and pay our people. Enough is enough.
“The unions may truncate the process of the new national carrier; you can take that from me. There are so many fundamental issues begging for answers in some of these things.
“The national carrier that we are advocating for is not what they are planning now. We said private sector-driven national carrier, what is the problem with this government?
“The same government that said it didn’t have money to revamp our comatose airports is now spending $308 million as take-off grant for the airline.
“The same government wants to bring in six new aircraft from God-knows-where. Where then is the intervention of the private sector in all these?
"At what point is private sector going to be involved? These are issues that should be tackled. Then, how do you want to unveil a national carrier and take it overseas, leaving Nigeria behind. Those politicking are too much and we are not interested."
However, Comrade Illitrus Ahmadu, President Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), described the coming of the airline as a welcome development.
He insisted that Nigeria required a strong carrier to make use of its Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASAs) arrangements.
Also, Capt. Dele Ore, former Director of Operations, Nigeria Airways, said the proposed airline looks like a profitable venture, but said for the airline to become profitable, the right people must be placed at the helms of affairs.
He, however, called on the government to pay the severance packages of the former workers of the national airline, saying most of the affected staff today, did put in their best to ensure the survival of the airline, but it was ran aground by government and its appointees.
“I don’t know if the money would be paid or not. When it will be paid, I don’t know. I have never worked in any other sector in my life. I came into aviation at the age of 22 years and I put in about 30 years and I am still here now. But, the industry has not been fair to some of us,” he lamented.
The federation accounts allocation committee (FAAC) paid states an excess of N10 billion while sharing bailout funds in 2016, TheCable can report.
This is contained in the recently released annual report of the auditor general of the federation obtained by TheCable.
In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari approved funds to help governors pay salaries in their various states.
“Our review of records at the FAAC secretariat revealed that under the salary bailout arrangement, the sum of N406,368,202,413.97 was the total principal amount released to state governments that benefited from salary bailout in 2015 and 2016 as recorded in the OAGF summary submitted for audit,” the auditor-general said.
“Whereas audit scrutiny of the documents presented revealed that the actual total principal amount released to the benefiting states were the sum of N416,368,202,413.97, resulting in an overpaid difference of N10,000,000,000.
“The FAAC secretariat is requested to explain this overpayment and take steps to correct its accounting records where appropriate.”
UNDERSTATED REPAYMENTS
States are expected to return the bailout funds because it is a loan facility that will be repaid over a period of 20 years.
However, the auditor-general discovered that the amount to be deducted from Oyo and Cross River states is less than the amount repayable.
“We observed that the computation of the total amount of loan payable by each state on the salary bailout facility was based on the summation of the principal amount and the interest,” he wrote.
“Our examination of the records revealed that for Oyo and Cross River states, the total amount repayable by the two states was understated by N1,895,797,986.24 and N3,571,237,190.24 respectively, resulting to a total understated amount of N5,467,035,176.48.”
“The accountant-general of the federation has been requested to explain the reasons for the reduction in monthly deductions for the two states, and where necessary, recompute the monthly deductions to arrive at the appropriate monthly deductions that would clear the accounts in 240 months.”
Anthony Ayine, the auditor-general, is required by Section 85 (5) of the constitution to submit the report on the audit of the accountant-general’s financial statements to the national assembly within 90 days of receipt of the statements from the accountant-general.
In the executive summary, Ayine wrote: “The Financial Statements of the Federal Government for the year ended 31st December, 2016 were first submitted to me by the Accountant-General of the Federation on 30th June, 2017. Following my preliminary observations, the Statements were significantly amended and resubmitted on 29th September, 2017. Further amendments to the Financial Statements led to another re-submission on 29th December, 2017 and 16th January, 2018 before the final version was eventually submitted on 20th March, 2018.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says it is ready to curb vote buying by politicians during elections.
INEC also admitted that politicians involved in the practice during Saturday’s Ekiti State governorship election, “were clever,” about it.
Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu the National Commissioner of INEC and Chair, Legal Services Committee, who spoke to journalists in Benin City on Wednesday, said that the commission was taking drastic measures on vote buying, in order to curb the trend during the next governorship election in Osun State.
“INEC is taking issue of vote buying very seriously. I am just coming as part of the Supervising National Commissioner for Ekiti and these things occur,” Agbamuche-Mbu said.
“We are having another conference on electoral offences. Vote buying is another electoral offence and we are looking at ways to curb it. Politicians keep trying their best. Politicians were clever in Ekiti. They have ingenious ways to sort themselves out. We will go back and review it and see how we can stop vote buying with the best of our ability.”
“Security agencies were not involved in the two local governments I supervised. Security agencies did well in Ekiti. We have to continue to enlighten and educate our electorate. It is to educate our people for them to realize that their votes count and not all about money.”
Agbamuche-Mbu also spoke on the importance of adequate enlightenment and education of the electorate on the dangers of exchanging their votes for cash.
bionixs: ...no weapon support from their area! yet some bunch of idiots are demanding for several billions to buy vote with come 2019. thunder will fire their generations! their generations will perish in mishaps. I am angry!
Amen and AMEN! Their suffering will be transferred to their generations to come
If you have friend in the army who stays in Borno ask him about things going on there and you'll be marvelled, but none of our media house is reporting it because they've all been gagged..
In 2014:
I Will End Boko Haram In Two Months- Buhari
In 2018:
End Of Boko Haram Will Come Sooner Than Later- Osinbajo
Kabiru Ibrahim is doing everything within his power to exonerate killer herdsmen from their heinous crimes even when miyetti Allah has claimed responsibility for their actions on several occasions.
The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has insisted that the fulani pastoralists were not responsible for the incessant and wanton attacks on farmers and communities by suspected fulani herdsmen.
AFAN also said that they were willing to work with the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) to bring the criminal elements who perpetrate the evil to book.
The AFAN national president, Architect Kabiru Ibrahim, while briefing journalists at the end of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, stressed the need to address the lingering farmers/herders crisis dogging the sector with a view to paving a way for agriculture to witness remarkable improvement again.
“To further consolidate the growth of the agricultural economy it is prudent to ensure peace between us (farmers) and herdsmen,” he said. Speaking on the killings by suspected herdsmen, Ibrahim said, “In our midst today we are happy to jointly issue the resolution we reached with Miyetti Allah on the insecurity that threatens our business.
“We agreed to work together to expose the criminals from among us to ensure peace and prosperity in Nigeria. The real herdsmen do not carry AK 47, does not raze a whole settlement but desires peace to harness his pastoral activities. We welcome the idea of ranch development with input from the end-users and are amenable to sitting down with experts to add value to government’s effort.”
Also, speaking, national secretary of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Othman Ngelzarma, said that the association did not indulge in violence. He expressed the readiness of the association to work both with AFAN and the government to restore peace between farmers and herdsmen across the country.
“I have to make it abundantly clear, we represent MACBAN, and we are a peaceful association. We have been working together with AFAN in order to bring peace to this country. We don’t control the entire fulanis in Nigeria; we only represent our registered members who are the legitimate pastoralists, the peace loving pastoralists who are doing their peaceful legitimate business of cattle rearing.
“I will never support, I will never condone any criminality, I will never be a party to any criminality, in fact that is the more reason why AFAN has decided to work with us as collaborators to bring peace to this country, so we are in line with what the president of AFAN has said and we are in line with any policy of the federal government that will bring an end to this crisis in Nigeria,” the MACBAN national secretary added.
Politics › Re: Buhari’s Economic Plan Will Create 3.7m Jobs Yearly – Minister by BeeBeeOoh(m): 6:59pm On Jul 19, 2018
