₦airaland Forum

[size=18pt]Delta gives loans to citizens[/size]

By Julius Osahon

July 20, 2010 11:20AM



The Delta State Micro Credit Programme (DMCP) is set to begin the second phase of loan disbursement to Delta State citizens, as part of the state governor’s agenda.

Previously, the programme has empowered 51, 391 persons under 4, 722 cluster groups. About 32, 499 women and 18, 892 people have benefitted from the micro credit programme, claimed Anthonia Ashedu, the executive assistant to the Delta State governor on micro credit.

Addressing participants in Warri, at a re-sensitisation and re-capacity building programme on the DMCP, Ms. Ashiedu said the exercise was necessary to encourage Deltans to take full advantage of Governor Uduaghan efforts to better their lives.

Ms. Ashiedu said the loans disbursement was not meant for party members, but for all Deltans, irrespective of their political affiliations. She warned the people not to be deceived into parting with money for any staff of DMCP, as she has received such complaints from some groups.

No to ‘godfathers’

She maintained that the programme’s success was hinged on the fact that she and her staff have refused to yield to pressure from political godfathers, including groups within the states who are bent on truncating the programme by posing as genuine cluster groups in order to collect money meant for redeeming the poor and jobless in the society.

“The programme has three attributes: empowerment of the grassroots population, creating new wealth at the level, and reducing unemployment in the productive age bracket. It targets the rural and urban poor, unemployed poor, particularly school leavers, economically disadvantaged persons, the physically challenged, and HIV infected persons who are discriminated against because of their status”, she said.

Ms. Ashiedu said the programme has helped in curbing youth restiveness in the once volatile Ekpan in Uvwie local government area of the state, but the DMCP also assist clients in the proper packaging of their products, registration of products with regulatory agencies, and the marketing and distribution of products within and outside Delta State.

“It has also helped the culture of micro financing, which has rejuvenated Deltans through the activities of 28 microfinance bank partners, which are really community based banks,” she added.



http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5596198-146/delta_gives_loans_to_citizens_.csp

same old story as usual, as long as they can get their share of the bribe than its legal, smh

These suits never get anywhere!

dictatorship or a democracy?!

[size=18pt]Abuja bill seeks power to sack chairman, councillors[/size]

By Ini Ekott

July 20, 2010 12:26AM



A new bill which seeks to replace the Abuja Municipal Area Council - currently administered as a local government council - with a Board of Directors, has been sent to the National Assembly by the Presidency.

The council, recognised as a part of the six area councils of the federal capital territory, will be replaced with the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, if the bill becomes law.

Power to choose members

The bill, sent by President Goodluck Jonathan months ago, seeks to grant sweeping powers to the federal capital territory minister, who as the head of the board, will choose other members at will, and independently peg their pay.

Replacing AMAC, which is presently run as an Area Council, with a chairman and councillors, the presidency hopes will help scale up service delivery within the city centre, as the federal capital territory faces an increasingly growing population.

“The Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, shall be responsible for the efficient and operation of Municipal Services within the FCT,” the bill says.

The board of Directors, the bill says, will consist of the Minister, who shall be Chairman, the Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority, who shall be the Vice Chairman, and the coordinator who shall be a full time member of the Board.

Five other members, who shall be persons with “cognate experience” in environmental and or municipal matters, it continues, will be appointed by the Minister who will also determine their remuneration.

The board members, except the Coordinator, will, however, be placed on a part-time, and each member would serve for four years, a longer term than the political tenure of the present chairmen and councillors of the council.

With the minister having additional powers to alter the number of departments of the council and “issue regulations prescribing additional departments for the council,” the bill seeks to confer wide powers on the Board chairman, raising the prospect of it facing a severe scrutiny by the lawmakers during consideration.

[size=18pt]Bankole seeks judge’s disqualification from Melaye, others’ suit[/size]
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 01:16 Kunle Olasanmi



House of Representatives Speaker Dimeji Bankole yesterday told a Federal High Court, presided over by Justice Ibrahim Auta, to disqualify himself from entertaining and determining the suit brought before him by fellow lawmakers, Dino Melaye and five others, who were suspended by Bankole’s leadership.

Melayo and others, who were suspended over last June 22 fracas in the House, dragged the Speaker and the Clerk of the House to court, claiming that their suspension was illegal.

Bankole, who spoke through his lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), alleged that the trial judge made a detrimental pronouncement on the merits of the case against him without first hearing from him.

“We strongly believe that the presiding judge, having made a categorical pronouncement on the merits of the case, is disqualified from adjudicating on it any further and/or should disqualify himself forthwith,” Bankole declared in a letter signed by Olanipekun dated July 12, this year, and addressed to the Chief Judge (CJ) of the Federal High Court, Justice Dan Abutu.

He asked the CJ to reassign the case to another judge for determination.

But counsel to the suspended lawmakers, Mr. Femi Falana, told the court that he had received 12 different processes since the last adjourned date and two of the processes were motions asking the trial judge to disqualify self.

Falana added that the defendants alluded to the comment made by the trial judge at the last adjourned date that the matter was of national importance and needs to be given accelerated hearing as some sections of the Nigerians have been shot out of the activities of the House due to the suspension of their representatives.

Justice Auta, who was visibly angry with the defendants’ approach to the matter by asking him to disqualify himself, added that the CJ had not reacted to the letter, but would settle the matter in the chambers.

He, however, pointed out that the letter did not indict him of bias, but stressed: “In view of the prevailing circumstances, the matter had to be thrown back to the CJ for re-assignment”.

The House of Representatives had, at the last adjourned date, said that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit on the ground that it was an internal affair and not a matter for litigation.

The lawmakers want the court to declare their suspension illegal and unconstitutional, saying it was done in variance to the Constitution and in violation of their fundamental rights to fair hearing and the right to freedom of expression.


http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63709:bankole-seeks-judges-disqualification-from-melaye-others-suit-&catid=43:news&Itemid=799

[size=18pt]2011: Arewa youths threaten to mobilise against Northern govs[/size]




Written by Hassan Ibrahim, Kaduna Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Unless the Northern State governors unanimously agreed to support the zoning formula so that the North, would produce the president in 2011, hundreds of youths in Kaduna, on Monday, under the aegis of Arewa Defense League, threatened they could disown the governors and mobilise against them in future elections.

Speaking to newsmen after its meeting, the President of the league, Murtala Abubakar, said it was sad that the arrangement which paved the way for President Goodluck Jonathgan to reach his present position, was tactically pushed to the background.

The youths insisted that the north would not sit back and watch the unfolding scenario while the future and interest of the region was mortgaged for selfish personal interest.

They lamented the “the body language of the governors of the north and other political leaders” saying all Northerners should  kick against the zoning arrangement and  must understand that the issue of zoning was slowly and steadily being understood as an agreement in good faith that was being betrayed by those that ought to be respectable politicians from the south.


http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/8489-2011-arewa-youths-threaten-to-mobilise-against-northern-govs

[size=18pt] Customs to deal with illegal check points[/size]
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 00:00 Jaafar Jaafar, Kano



The Comptroller General of Customs Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde has reiterated his resolve to deal with officers and men of the service, who either mount illegal road blocks or raid traders’ shops.

Speaking on a Freedom Radio programme monitored in Kano at the weekend, Inde said he was in Kano State to parley with traders and some command chiefs in order to have a first-hand knowledge of the situation. Inde maintained that he was angry when he was informed that Customs were back on the road in Kano.

The comptroller, who was in the state alongside comptrollers of Bauchi and Kaduna Area Commands, said if any Customs official is found mounting a roadblock, his immediate boss would be held liable.

He added that some plain-cloth officials of the service, who had been given special training, would be mobilized to ensure compliance to the directive.
“Since we have informed them several times that they should desist from mounting illegal roadblocks, anyone found culpable will be dismissed immediately,” he said.

Speaking on the high rate of smuggling in the country, Alhaji Abdullahi said the gap between   demand and supply in the country was responsible. He said, he has advised the government to review and relax some stringent laws so that smuggling could be curtailed.


http://www.dailytrust.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=222:customs-to-deal-with-illegal-check-points&catid=1:news&Itemid=2

[size=18pt]Marketers Kick over Fuel Import Contracts[/size]
By Chika Amanze-Nwachuku, 07.19.2010




Major and independent petroleum marketers have petitioned the Presidency, demanding a review of the third quarter allocation of fuel import contracts which was allegedly carried out secretly.

They alleged lack of transparency in the manner the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) handled the second and third quarter allocations.

The aggrieved marketers want the presidency to compel the agency to make public, details of the companies that benefited from the allocations; their installed capacities, quantity of products applied for and quantity approved.

Also, the date of importation, port of discharge, vessel name, quantity imported, Naval/ Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) clearance of such vessel, country of origin as well as names of the promoters of such companies should be made public, they demanded.

The oil dealers who further alleged manipulation in the manner the PPPRA handles administration of the newly introduced Sovereign Debt Instrument (SDI) said that the federal government, in the last few months, has paid out billions of naira to ‘brief case companies’ as imports subsidy on the recommendations of the PPPRA.
They have vowed that should the government fail to address the issue, they may be compelled to resort to other means to seek redress.

The petition written by the marketers noted that “in the second and third quarters specifically, some companies were allocated petroleum products import permit above their request and/or installed capacity, some got allocation below their request and installed capacity while others with well established structures for supply and distribution got nothing at all.

“In the interest of fair-play and transparency, we demand from PPPRA a publication of the full list of those companies which got petroleum products allocation in the second and third quarters along with their installed capacities, quantity applied for, quantity approved, date of importation, port of discharge, vessel name, quantity imported, Naval/DPR clearance of such vessel, country of origin as well as names of the promoters of such companies.

“We also demand that the current third quarter allocation which the PPPRA and its cohorts have secretly carried out be reviewed, the agency should equally give reason for not making the third quarter allocation public, otherwise, we shall be compelled to resort to other measures to seek redress."

The marketers alleged that the PPPRA leadership is flouting government policy by continuously favouring non-core investors in the allocation of products.

“We have borrowed and invested billions of naira to create employment and grow local capacity in the Nigerian economy through construction of tank-farms, filling stations, petroleum tankers as well as acquired ships and jetties, yet we are being denied allocation," said another marketer.

The marketers also noted that they are currently faced with a myriad of challenges including a huge debt overhang occasioned by the collapse in oil prices which hit the international market two years ago; the global economic downturn and its impact on the Nigerian economy and the current banking reforms.

“We are doing our best to cope with these challenges of huge debt overhang due to declining oil prices and shall not sit back and watch helplessly while misguided elements undermine government’s good intentions for the growth and development of the industry.

“Clearly, the recent passage into law of the Nigerian Content Bill underscores in more eloquent terms government’s good intentions. However, the second and third quarter allocation is obviously at variance with the aspirations of government to grow indigenous capacity,” the marketers stated in their petition.

Under the guidelines of the Petroleum Subsidy Fund, only companies that are registered as oil marketing companies with the Corporate Affairs Commission; those with proof of ownership of storage facilities of 5,000 MT for a particular product as well as dispensing facilities (retail outlet network); and companies with the ability to finance a minimum cargo of 5,000 MT of product, are eligible to draw from the fund.

But the PPPRA with the support of the ministry has been circumventing the criteria for a long time, enabling ineligible companies to make claims for products they often do not import.
THISDAY investigations revealed that in the third quarter, African Petroleum, MRS and Oando were allocated 180,000 Metric Tonnes (MT) each. Also, a company identified as SPOG Energy was allocated 210,000 MT, Pinnacle and Zenon Petroleum,  60,000, each, while Masters Energy and Capital Oil and were allocated 15,000MT each.

In the 2nd quarter, most of the companies listed by the PPPRA were unknown companies in the oil and gas industry. They included Alminur Resources Ltd, Annajul, ASB Investment Company Ltd, Delmar Petroleum Company Ltd, Knights Bridge Ltd, Lloyds Energy Ltd, Majope Investment Ltd, Menol Limited, Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd, Rosari Ltd, SEDEC Energy Ltd, Sirus Taglient Petro Ltd and Stonebridge Oil Ltd.

In the 2nd quarter allocations, Folawiyo Energy Ltd requested for 360,000 MT but saw its allocation reduced to 150,000 MT; Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc asked for 90,000 MT but was given 30,000 MT to import; Rahamaniyya Oil & Gas Ltd was slashed from 180,000 MT to 60,000 MT; Sahara Energy Resources was cut from 350,000 MT to 60,000 MT; and Honeywell Oil & Gas Limited from 90,000 MT to 15,000 MT.

Others companies, which had their requests slashed include: MRS Oil & Gas Ltd - 480,000 MT to 90,000 MT; Total Oil Plc - 60,000 MT to 30,000 MT; Acorn Petroleum Plc - 120,000 MT to 15,000 MT; Conoil Plc 120,000 MT to 60,000 MT; Integrated Oil & Gas Ltd - 90,000 MT to 15,000 MT; IPMAN Investment Limited - 90,000 to 30,000 MT; NIPCO Plc - 60,000 MT to 30,000 MT; and Masters Energy - 180,000 MT to 30,000 MT.

Reacting to the allegation that the PPPRA and the Ministry of Petroleum is doing everything possible to ensure that the third quarter import allocation schedule does not get into the public domain, the Petroleum Minister Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke distanced herself from allegations that she interfers in the daily operations of the PPPRA.

Speaking through the General Manager Group Public Affairs Division at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, the minister said the allegations were baseless, given that the agency is not administratively within her direct supervision.

She added that the PPPRA is under the presidency and does not report to her. “Any insinuation to the effect that the minister interferes with the day-to-day running of either PPMC or the PPPRA is not only unfair, but a blackmail which will not be tolerated,” Levi stated.

Also, a PPPRA source who spoke on condition of anonymity last night dismissed the allegations and insisted that the agency has been transparent in the handling of products allocation.
He explained that the agency allocates products to entities in accordance with the Petroleum Subsidy Fund (PSF) guidelines, which provides that only registered companies with proof of ownership of storage facilities of 5,000 MT or entities that have confirmed through-put arrangement with other companies are entitled to the products allocation.

He said about 50 companies applied for allocation, a number, which the agency viewed as too much.  The source also denied the alleged manipulation of the SDI, saying it comes directly from the Debt Management Office (DMO). He explained that some marketers submitted their bids very late, but that 35 marketers who were qualified for the third quarter benefitted.

[size=18pt]FG Orders Security Alert over Toxic Waste Shipment[/size]
From Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja, 07.20.2010



The Federal Government, has asked the relevant security agencies in Nigerian ports to be on the look out as a Dutch vessel M.V Nashville with  registration number UE/SU4635950 laden with toxic cargo has for the second time been intercepted and turned back while trying to berth at the Ivorian Port of Abidjan.

A source at the National Environmental Standards Regulatory and Enforcement Agency (NESREA) ,who spoke to THISDAY, said the toxic bearing ship had earlier been turned back while attempting to berth at the Tin Can Island Port in Apapa, Lagos by a combined team of port officials comprising the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Maritime Administration and safety Agency, (NIMASA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Police, Nigeria Customs Service, State Security Service (SSS), Port Health and NESREA.
It said the vessel carrying 70 storage (lead) batteries classified as Bassel Code 1180, broken television sets and other hazardous e-waste was intercepted and turned back  at the Nigerian Port on April 15 following a tip-of from the Dutch environmental watchdog VROM Inspectorate.

The NESREA source told THISDAY yesterday that the same ship was tracked down by the Ivorian Maritime Authorities while trying to manoeuvre  its way into the Ivorian Port to discharge its deadly contents in total disregard for the Basel Convention before it was discovered and quickly turned back.
He said the continued hovering of the ship on West African coastline has necessitated the Federal Government's decision to put security at the ports on alert to prevent any attempt by the ship to make a detour to the Nigerian waters.

The Dutch authorities had warned Nigeria that the e-waste carried by the cargo ship is capable of  emitting dangerous radioactive waves, which could penetrate the human skin and cause cancer and leukemia, among other deadly diseases

@ prince k

princess k:
very funny decieve your selves, you must be living in a cave, do you even go to school in the east? igbo people in the north are spare parts dealers not doctors.we have food in abundance we rule Nigeria no igbo can be president. go and rest, if u don't like the north leave and let your girls stop chasing hausa men for money.

@ princess k