₦airaland Forum

“SERAP recalls that the president said before the election that he would publicly declare his assets and liabilities, and encourage all his appointees to publicly declare their assets and liabilities as a pre-condition for appointment.

“We now expect the president to fulfill this promise to the Nigerian people.

obailala:
If TANoids cannot wait for the first 100 days promised to elapse, they can all go to hell!

PassingShot:
Too many false news nowadays!

President Muhammadu Buhari has ignored the recommendation of his transition committee to publicly declare his assets immediately after assuming office, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report today.

As part of quick wins for the administration, the Ahmed Joda-led committee recommended that the President should immediately after assumption of office declare his assets publicly.

It also recommended prompt prosecution of pending cases and the publication of the audited financial statements of the Federal Government.

Other recommendations include the recovery of stolen funds, review and reforms in government waivers and tax exemptions as well as non-conviction based forfeiture by legislations.

But more than a month after he was sworn in, Mr. Buhari has not made his assets and so is his Vice, Yemi Osinbajo.

The President’s refusal to disclose the report of his asset declaration is a clear negation of the promise of his party, the All Progressives Congress, that unlike former President Goodluck Jonathan, their presidential candidate, Mr. Buhari would publish his assets if elected into office.

While campaigning across the country, the APC had assured Nigerians that Mr. Buhari would publicly declare his assets and liabilities immediately after assumption of office.

“General Muhammadu Buhari believes sincerely that no matter how vast our resources, if they are not efficiently utilized, they will only benefit a privileged few, leaving the majority in abject poverty. This he wants to avoid by all lawful means,” a member of the party’s presidential campaign council, Osita Okechukwu, had said during a pro-Buhari road show in Enugu.

“To achieve this he publicly will declare his assets and liabilities and encourage his political appointees to follow suit immediately he is sworn-in.”
Two days after he was sworn in as president and Commander in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, urged him and Mr. Osinbajo to promptly make public the details of their declared assets.
The group said the public declaration of their assets would be consistent with Messrs Buhari and Osinbajo’s anti-corruption credentials and their promises to the electorate.

The request was made immediately after the two leaders declared their assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau as required by the Constitution.

“We welcome the official declaration of assets by the president and the vice-president. This clearly complies with the requirements of the Nigerian Constitution as contained in Chapter 6 Section 140,” the group stated.
“However, the declaration before the Code of Conduct alone falls far short of the commitment to publicly declare their assets.

“SERAP recalls that the president said before the election that he would publicly declare his assets and liabilities, and encourage all his appointees to publicly declare their assets and liabilities as a pre-condition for appointment.

“We now expect the president to fulfill this promise to the Nigerian people.
“We trust that the president and vice-president will move swiftly to publicly declare their assets and to publish widely the information on a dedicated website.’’

Reacting to the request and others made by Nigerians from all walks of life, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, on June 6, assured that Mr. Buhari would make the report of his asset declaration public.

“President Muhammadu Buhari has said that in fulfillment of one of their campaign promises, his declared assets and those of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will be released to the public upon the completion of their verification by the Code of Conduct Bureau,” Mr. Shehu said.

“It is hoped that this process will be completed before the expiry of the 100-day deadline within which they said they would do this.”

He noted that the duly completed forms by both the President and the Vice President were submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau on March 28th, a day before their inauguration.

Mr. Shehu said his press statement on the matter became necessary to clarify some insinuations that the President and the Vice-President may not, after all, declare their assets publicly.

“While such public display of concern is appreciated and valued, it must be said that it is a little precipitate.

“As required by law, the declaration and submission of documents to the CCB have been made, but there still remains the aspect of verification which the Bureau will have to conduct to authenticate the submissions made to it.

“In the circumstances, it is only after this verification exercise, and not before, that the declaration can be said to have been made and validated; and only after this, will the details be released to the public.

“There is no question at all that the President and the Vice President are committed to public declaration of their assets within the 100 days that they pledged during the presidential campaign.”

But Mr. Buhari’s transition committee believed it was more ideal for the president to publicly declare his asset immediately he assumed office, an advice Mr. Buhari spurned.

https://www.thebreakingtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Alhaji_Yola.jpg

Reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Department of State Sevice, DSS, to arrest his wife’s younger brother, Musa Yola, over suspicion of fraud, are untrue.
PREMIUM TIMES contacted presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, and he categorically denied the reports.

“It is definitely not true, there is no iota of truth on this report there is no basis for the president to do that,” Mr. Shehu said.

Also, the man who is said to have been arrested, Mr. Yola, called PREMIUM TIMES and said he was shocked to see reports of his purported arrests in the social media.

“As we speak, I am in the President’s office and I was with him last night,” he said.

Mr. Yola also said he has never been involved in forgery or fraud and has never been arrested by either the Police or SSS or any security agency for that matter.

He also said he has never been to any police station or SSS office as an accused person.
“I simply don’t know or understand who is behind these malicious rumours,” he said.

Reports posted online said President Buhari ordered the DSS to arrest Mr. Yola after he duped a businessman N300 million promising to aid him acquire an oil bloc.

The reports also said Mr. Yola had refunded the money and that he was granted bail by the SSS.
The spokesperson of the SSS, Marilyn Ogar, could not be reached Monday.

However, a source in the DSS confirmed to us that “there was no such order from the President”.
He also said the SSS had no one in detention bearing the name Musa Yola in recent times.

By Yemi Adebowale

Contrary to online reports by Sahara Reporters that President Buhari has ordered the arrest of Alhaji Musa Yola, the younger brother to Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari, the report is nothing but a publicity stunt to make the President appear tough on corruption a State House correspondent told BREAKING TIMES on condition of anonymity on Monday.

The alleged suspect, named Musa Yola, is said to be the immediate younger brother of Mr. Buhari’s wife. “Please disregard the report. It is a fabrication. Buhari with all his anti-corruption stance does not operate the way they reported the issue. He couldn’t have asked that the alleged scammer be arrested and brought to him in handcuffs in the brazen manner they embellished the report. Buhari allows the security agents to do their job without interference”, our source disclosed.

According to Sahara Reporters, Alhaji Yola “reportedly received N300 million from a businessman after promising to provide his dupe with political access to secure an oil block from the Buhari administration. Mr. Buhari personally ordered last Monday night that Mr. Yola be produced before him in handcuffs in the company of the businessman he duped.”

“This is laughable. Does Alhaji Musa Yola even exist? I doubt the guy they put in that picture is actually him if truly he exists”, another confidential source told BREAKING TIMES.

http://www.thebreakingtimes.com/buhari-did-not-order-arrest-of-first-ladys-brother/

Burger01:
^^^
Don't be a bigoted partisan

omenalfa:
Why is Buhari only appointing his cousins?

pamodulus:
I don't find this surprising. It was always going to happen. [size=13pt]I just hope he replaces them with the right team.[/size]

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has threatened to resume hostilities to protest National Assembly members’ jumbo salaries and allowances.

MEND in an email statement issued by its spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, said it observed with disgust, the brazing disregard for the feelings of the change-seeking masses by the “very selfish” members of the 8th National Assembly.

The group said: “These wicked individuals appropriate to themselves huge and absurd salaries and allowances at the expense of the millions of hapless Nigerians, who have not been paid for months, their salaries, pensions and other benefits they deserve.

“The Niger Delta region where the bulk of revenue that sustains the nation comes from, continues to suffer neglect, environmental degradation and lack, made worse by the very corrupt and visionless past government of Goodluck Jonathan and his cronies, some of who still shamelessly parade themselves on national television and other media platforms as ‘Niger Delta Activists.’

“Nigerians refuse to tolerate this ostentatious lifestyle of our lawmakers, whose main objective, it seems, is to enrich themselves and carelessly spend scarce resources. The Niger Delta people refuse to pamper and cater for the needs of these thieving Assembly rogues to their detriment.

“If the lawmakers refuse to make the necessary adjustments needed to accompany the needs of the masses and the Niger Delta region, it may lead to the resumption of hostilities.”

MEND also asked Nigerians to hold the members of the 8th National Assembly responsible, if its fighters resume hostilities, declaring that: “enough is enough.”

chamboy:
mumu... u will fail noni

chamboy:
d military Hq in Maiduguri is for music concert shey.. always think before u comment on a public domain

June 20
13:38 2015
by Sodiq Yusuff
The All Progressives Congress (APC) transition committee has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to work out “detailed and coordinated” plan to remove subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol.

The advisory body, whose report is expected to influence the policy direction of the new government, also recommended that kerosene subsidy should be scrapped immediately.

While kerosene is officially N50 per litre, the end users pay as much as N150 despite the existence of subsidy — a case of double jeopardy for the government and consumers but a source of massive income for marketers and fuel import contractors.

The committee also asked Buhari to privatise the nation’s four refineries by adopting the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) as a model.

NLNG is jointly owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) 49%, Shell Gas B.V. 25.6%, Total LNG Nigeria Ltd 15% and Eni International 10.4% — but it is not managed by the Nigerian government, unlike the nation’s refineries which are solely managed by the NNPC.

These recommendations, in a report seen by TheCable, are intended to “eliminate waste and redirect resources to fuel development, growth and job creation”, according to the committee headed by Ahmed Joda, former super perm secretary.

Fuel subsidy, which gulps billions of dollars every year, has been a very volatile issue in Nigeria’s political economy since the mid-1980s, leading to riots and demonstrations because of the resultant increase in pump prices of petroleum products.

But with dwindling oil revenue, ballooning subsidy claims and growing national debt, there is an emerging consensus that the expenditure can no longer be sustained.

Attempts by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan to remove the subsidy in 2012 were greeted with nationwide protests amidst allegations of scam in payments to marketers running into trillions of naira. Jonathan eventually reversed the policy

adebisicutie:
Any tribe that wants to leave Nigerian this time should go about it peacefully (not like the Director spreading hate on Biafra radio )and be allowed to

[size=15pt]Boko Haram is winning.[/size]

That's the assessment of both U.S. counterterrorism officials and many experts who cover West Africa. After several months of optimism, and military successes by Chadian and Nigerian forces that rolled back the terror group's gains, Boko Haram has retaken the initiative.

The Islamist terror group attacked a police academy in Chad's capital city of N'Djamena this weekend, killing dozens of officers and recruits. Boko Haram had also killed dozens of Nigerians, including police officers, in a series of recent attacks around Maiduguri, the biggest city in Nigeria's northeast. On Wednesday, a sack of bombs killed more than 60 people in Bauchi, Nigeria.

"You can quibble on this and that, but yes, they are winning," said John Campbell, the Ralph Bunche Center director at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria. Campbell said that Western observers had "way overstated" the territorial gains by Nigerian and Chadian forces that dislodged Boko Haram from small towns it had overrun in the spring.

"There have been successes," said a U.S. counterterrorism official. "But it's whack-a-mole. Boko Haram does strategic retreats. ... They will move out from the forest into the countryside, attacking villages, then when confronted will beat a retreat and carry out bombings in Maiduguri. ... We've just had three days of bombings in Maiduguri. It had quieted down in Maiduguri."

Officials in Nigeria and four neighboring countries -- Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin -- have been trying to form an 8,700-man fighting force to battle Boko Haram. Both the United States and France has been helping with intelligence and other support, but the multinational force is still has no central command.

The Living Faith Church in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, has come to the rescue of the workers in the employ of the state government who are owed seven months salaries by providing food stuffs and financial donations for them.

The church had since Wednesday gathered names of members affected by the non-payment of salaries in the state.

At the end of the weekly Sunday service held in the church Sunday, no fewer than 100 persons including non-members of the church benefited from the gesture.

Also, some of the beneficiaries of the church’s gesture were non-Christians who work with the Osun State government.

Apart from the money given to the beneficiaries, other items given to each of them included, onions, beans, rice, flour, semovita and other food items.

The decision of the church followed the non-payment of salaries by the state government, a situation which has made it difficult for many civil servants who are members of the church to attend church services in the last few months.

The state pastor of the church, Pastor Olumuyiwa Emmanuel, had during the church service, said the welfare of the masses was part of the responsibility of the church.

He said the church appreciates the plights of workers in the state and prayed for improved economic situation.

Also, the church prayed fervently for the nation’s economy and made a case for the welfare of the work force.

Some of the beneficiaries of the gesture who spread across all strata of the civil service in the state expressed gratitude to the leadership of the church for coming to their aid at the time of their plight.

Meanwhile, former Chairman of Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Senator Iyiola Omisore, yesterday said Osun State is on “life on support” and require urgent financial aid to keep it alive.

He also advised Governor Rauf Aregbesola to resign his position immediately and allow people with goodwill to run government of the state.

Omisore stated this while speaking with journalists at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) state secretariat in Osogbo.

Omisore said for Aregbesola to have admitted that the issue of Osun was beyond his capacity, he expected him to have communicated the state House of Assembly and honourably leave the seat of governor.

According to him “Osun is now a failed state because of financial recklessness of the governor. I really appreciate the fact that he confessed the present state of Osun affairs is beyond him and he should immediately throw in the towel.

“Nearly all commercial banks in Osun are being owed one form of loan or the other. The matter has reached that stage that the committee of bankers in the state at their meeting resolved that no bank should borrow this government any more. They are also waiting for remittances into state coffers.

“As soon as money comes in, they garnishee it. The situation calls for sober reflections and we will also look at ways we are going to help our people in a manner that will not ridicule them.”

Commenting further, Omisore said the immediate past administration of President Jonathan did not owe Osun or any state statutory allocation or any other funds due to it and alleged that, apart from inflated contracts, Aregbesola also spent huge sum on the Presidential project of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and was among five highest donating states.

fegflu:
I never liked this man but this interview has made me see him from a different perspective. He seems honest.I hope we have more Nigerians like this in power.
Love or hate Ayo Fayose, he is a sincere Nigerian, and a political colossus in ekiti politics, Fair is Fair Muazu must resign on moral grounds, for losing the presidential election to the opposition, He should know that he is morally obligated to resign as PDP chairman. He doesn't need to be nudged.

Aregbesola said those who want to be objective would readily admit that the Osun State of November 2010 when he assumed office and Osun of today are not the same.

Maxymilliano:
Was there a change in the first place when you have old wine in new bottles and you expect it to taste differently .

doublewisdom:
How she would have begged for that picture.

joystickextendr:
where did u dig up these pic