₦airaland Forum

The war-affected police officers from the Old Eastern Region who were pardoned and retired from the Nigeria Police Force through a Presidential Amnesty granted on May 29, 2000 by the administration of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo and were given approval for the payment of pension entitlements have said that they believed we are all one and that the war is over and over forever.


No more war, we’re for a united Nigeria — Biafra war veterans

The war-affected police officers from the Old Eastern Region who were pardoned and retired from the Nigeria Police Force through a Presidential Amnesty granted on May 29, 2000 by the administration of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo and were given approval for the payment of pension entitlements have said that they believed we are all one and that the war is over and over forever.
They also thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the payment of their pension entitlements.



The President of Association of Retired War Affected Police Officers (ARWAPO), Chief Matthew Udeh, thanked Mr President for his forthrightness and believing in one Nigeria.
He said: “We believe we are all one, one Nigeria forever. The war is over and over forever.
“God will continue to bless President Muhammadu Buhari for looking at the nation as one indivisible entity.
“I feel fulfilled today. The whole ARWAPO members are full of gratitude to Mr President for hearing our cry for over 40 years and running,’’ Udeh, who was an Assistant Superintendent of Police before the war, said.

Also the President, Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria, Mr Fidelis Oyakhilome, thanked the PTAD and the Federal Government for living up to their words and treating the officers fairly. “I must commend ARWAPO members for their patience, endurance and perseverance all these years and as well thank Mr President, President Muhammadu Buhari, for making this possible,’’ Oyakhilome said.

At the launch of the Pension Payments to Retired War-Affected Police Officers in Enugu, the Executive Secretary of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Mrs Sharon Ikeazor, said that the Federal Government through President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration would end all the painful legacies of the war.

Ikeazor said that Mr President tended to fulfill all Federal Government’s obligation to the South-East in line with available resources.
“This represents another decision by the current Federal Government to bring closure to the painful legacies of the civil war, and indeed a clear demonstrate that President Muhammadu Buhari is indeed a father to all Nigerians.
“His (Mr President) administration’s reforms under the PTAD will ensure that Nigerians who spent the productive years of their lives serving their nation will not experience difficulties in getting their pensions,’’ she said.

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/no-more-war-we-re-for-a-united-nigeria--biafra-war-veterans.html

Keballl:
The Same thing people said about the Dullard and yet he prevailed.

Atikulate 2019 loading..

id911:
In politics, impossibility doesn't exist


Atikulate 2019 loading...

OZAOEKPE:
Us eless people

By Ismail Omipidan

In the build-up to the 2019 presidential poll, stakeholders in Adamawa State All Progressives Congress (APC), at the weekend, dumped former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and declared support for President Muhammadu Buhari.

Adamawa APC reiterated that Buhari remains its candidate for the party’s presidential ticket in 2019. Atiku is from Adamawa state. Before the party’s latest decision, Governor Jubrilla Bidow had declared publicly that the state chapter of the party would back Atiku for the 2019 presidency.

Daily Sun gathered that the meeting where Buhari was endorsed for the 2019 presidential poll was convened at the instance of the Adamawa State government. Although the governor was not physically present at the said meeting where the motion for Buhari’s endorsement was moved, his deputy, Martin Babale and his Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abba-Jimeta, were present.

But, one of the Atiku’s aides, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak, told Daily Sun, yesterday, that what happened at the weekend does not in any way indicate that there is a crack in Bindow and Atiku’s relationship. He said “anybody is free to endorse whoever. We know those who are for us and, at the appropriate time, they will show their faces. “I am sure you don’t expect them to show their faces now, considering what followed Fayose’s declaration for the presidency, where his commissioners were picked up, shortly after the event. “I am not aware of any crack. When the Waziri (Atiku) was hosted in Abuja, recently, by Adamawa indigenes resident in the FCT, the governor was there. When the time comes, you see for yourself.”

Regardless, at the Adamawa stakeholders meeting last Saturday, which was attended by party elders, members of the National Assembly and House of Assembly, elected council chairmen and party executives from all levels in the state, the party passed a vote of confidence in president Buhari and governor Bindow. They urged the duo to go for another term in 2019.

The endorsement motion was moved by former deputy Senate leader, Jonathan Zwingina. Stakeholders argued, among other things, that the success recorded so far in the fight against insurgency, corruption and infrastructural development at the state and national levels were laudable and, as such, deserved to be sustained. Addressing the gathering on behalf of the state government, Abba-Jimeta said Adamawa is interested in seeing that Buhari runs for a second term, to fully deliver on his programmes, and added that as far as “Adamawa is concerned, Buhari and Osinbajo are our candidates for 2019.” He further added that “the standard practice worldwide is for a performing president to serve two-terms in office”.

In a related development, the state government has also called on president Buhari to look into the report of the panel which investigated suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, with a view to reinstating him, as long as he has not been found wanting.

”We are aware of desperate moves by some APC members in the state to create problem between the state government and the federal government, just to score cheap points,” Abba-Jimeta added. Prominent among the stakeholders who attended the meeting were Senator Binta Masi, Abdulrahman Shuaibu, member, House of Representatives and the Assembly’s deputy speaker, Mr. Emmanuel Tsamdu, who spoke on behalf of senators, members of House of Representatives and Adamawa Assembly members. He told the gathering that both the state and the federal lawmakers were at home with the resolutions at the stakeholders meeting and would work towards its actualisation.

Kingsley1000:
you are not even from Anambra,Why are u so bothered about who wins?can u upload ur voters card

hardywaltz:
Nwoye will neva be Governor of Anambra state

alcmene:
They will now try to victimize her because she is not from the north, so that they can replace her with a Northerner.

There is so much impunity among this northerners. Yorubas should just stop being sheepish.

Query Danbazau not Oyo-Ita

tuniski:
I concur nwoye is a no hoper it is a straight battle between APGA and PDP! Obiano V Obaze. Obaze wins!

Amarabae:
If they have donated academic materials to students, who will complain than all these issue of immunization.
If you want to do medicaal outreach, go a neutral place and let people at their will come to you.

Amarabae:
This stupid Lady should shut up and tell us why she was sacked as a lecturer in Delsu,
I am not a fan of fani kayode, he is a hypocrite and snake but Lauretta Onochie has no morals to insult kayode,
she should shut up and focus on flushing buhari's poo in the Aso rock toilet.

chernest2002:
Is still going to be Apga first, pdp 2nd, Apc 3.No hope for Nwoye.

bestview:
Hehehehe

Arthur is just a businessman man that invested in Tony.

The guy is a well known tout and a cultist. There's no need to bother yourself because the clown will only come 3rd in this election.

Willie will win with a very wide margin.

python1:
Very good move by the govt. I know pigs must grunt again. They are stolen money that can't be explained.

The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has granted a request by Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, for a temporary forfeiture of all funds held in bank accounts not linked to BVNs — and whose ownership could not be absolutely identified.
Also to be seized by the Nigerian government are funds held in bank accounts without sufficient know-your-customer credentials, court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES said.

Industry experts expressed strong reservations about a lack of specific legal framework for the unprecedented forfeitures and potential coercion of banks by the federal authorities in separate interviews with PREMIUM TIMES Saturday.

No estimates were immediately available, but it is widely held that billions of naira remained trapped in the unlinked bank accounts since 2015 when the Central Bank of Nigeria ordered commercial banks to stop attending to new enrollees.

The order followed an originating motion of notice filed by Mr. Malami on behalf of the Nigerian government on September 28.
Nnamdi Dimgba, the Federal High Court judge who presided over the ex-parte motion, granted all the nine reliefs sought by Mr. Malami —himself represented by a lawyer, Usman Dakas— on October 17.

The court ordered all the 19 deposit money banks, DMBs, operating in the country to release to Nigerian government names of accounts not yet connected to BVN; account numbers; their outstanding balances; domiciling locations; and domiciliary accounts without BVN and where they are domiciled.

Nigeria deposit money banks that were listed as respondents in the ex-parte suit are: Access Bank, Citi Bank, Diamond Bank, Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank and First City Monument Bank.
Others are: Guarantee Trust Bank, Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Skye Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Sterling Bank, Union Bank and United Bank for Africa.

The remaining three are: Unity, Bank Wema Bank and Zenith Bank.
The court also ordered all of them to disclose any investments made with funds and to withhold authorisation for any outward inflow of funds from the accounts. All the details are to be submitted to Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, NIBSS, and the CBN for authentication.
The banks were also directed to publish all bank accounts not linked to BVN in national newspapers with a 14-day notice for individuals with interest in such accounts to come forward and justify why their funds should not be forfeited to the Nigerian government.
Mr. Dimgba also ordered the CBN, which was joined as 20th respondent alongside the 19 DMBs, to appoint an official who will examine all the details submitted to the apex bank for compliance.

The government argued the matter under Section 3 of the Money Laundering Act, 2011.
The section said banks must “ensure that documents, data or information collected under the customer due diligence process is kept up-to-date and relevant by undertaking reviews of existing records, particularly for higher risk categories of customers or business relationships.”

The BVN is a unique identification number that can be verified and used to transact business across all the banking platforms in Nigeria.
The CBN imposed the policy to capture customers’ data for financial transactions and check fraud in the banking system.
Registration for BVNs commenced on February 14, 2014, across the country. The CBN said over 20.8 million customers enrolled 40 million bank accounts before the October 31, 2015, final deadline for customers residing within the country.
The CBN extended the deadline for Nigerians in the diaspora to December 2016 to sign up for the BVN system. But hundreds of thousands home and abroad are still believed to be left behind.

“Illogical, hasty‘
A financial analyst who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES about the court order rebuked the Nigerian government for attempting to shore up its revenues by forcibly seizing funds owned by private individuals.

“There’s no basis for this desperate move by the federal government because customers who owned the funds met the required criteria at the time they set up their bank accounts,” said Ugodre Obi-Chukwu, a Lagos-based financial analyst. “This is an attempt to use federal might to coerce banks into submitting funds that belong to customers for its own use.”

The Nigerian government had fallen on hard times since 2014 when dwindling price of crude oil began to take its toll on the country’s revenues.
The Buhari administration, which assumed office in May 2015, has made concerted pushes to source funding to finance a bloated federal civil service and new capital projects, including borrowing from local and international markets.
The government also said it would rely on recovered loot to finance its budget this year.
While Mr. Obi-Chukwu recognised financial challenges confronting the administration, he maintained that no policy must be implemented by fiat in a democratic system.

“The Money Laundering Act they used to sway the judge is clearly not sufficient to confiscate personal funds,” he said. “There’s no law that allows for this specific action taken by the government as it stands.”

He advised the federal government to allow people to withdraw their funds from the bank accounts if they’re not willing to link them to BVN, especially since they weren’t identified as proceeds of crime.
Lawyers weigh in
Two legal practitioners interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES Saturday held slightly disparate views on the matter.
Liborous Oshoma, who runs a law firm in Lagos, condemned the order as “far-reaching and despotic” in nature.
“You can’t just drag banks to court and ask them to submit all funds in bank accounts which they’re holding in trust for private individuals,” Mr. Oshoma said.

“The funds are mostly personal deposits. In law, orders are supposed to be specific, directed and enforceable against individuals or institutions,” Mr. Oshoma said. “But we cannot see how the government assumed it could sue banks to enforce orders against individuals who have not been accused of any criminal offences.”
Mr. Oshoma said the Buhari administration did not fathom the possibilities of Nigerians who are serving long prison sentences abroad and may not be in tune with developments in the outside world.

“The despotic tendency of wanting to take what does not belong to them made them forget that people might be in conditions where they cannot come and claim their funds for the next 20 years or more,” Mr. Oshoma said.
“If the government is really desperate to get people’s money because they cannot be found, it should find sensible means of going about it and not resort to steps that are not in consonance with democracy,” he added.

Although he questioned the legal premise of the federal government’s attempt to seize the funds, Inibehe Effiong, also a Lagos-based lawyer, told PREMIUM TIMES the overarching goal of the move was understandable.
“The BVN is a policy of the federal government which is aimed at mitigating financial crimes in the system,” Mr. Effiong said. “The policy was backed by certain financial regulations which make it appropriate for the government to ask for a general freezing order of accounts whose owners cannot be ascertained.”

“But what I cannot understand is the legal structure upon which the policy is standing,” Mr. Effiong said.
Mr. Effiong said authorities should have sought details of bank accounts first, then examine them individually and isolate ones with suspicious traits.
“The government should have stopped at requesting for details of all the bank accounts. but not go as far as getting a blanket approval to withhold all funds.
“If they all the accounts based on their merits, they can sort out the ones with criminal traces and seek their forfeiture,” Mr. Effiong said.

jay2pee:
This news is true.... I reside in onitsha and the level of caos around all Saints cathedral is nothing to write home about.... People fighting over money to be shared after the flagoff

omenka:
National Helm says "according to reports" which means this news isn't originating from their reporter's eye witness account.

Where then did they get the story? A facebook user? Twitter user? Someone who keeps screaming "boy referendum no election"?

Which part of these pics shows there was a FIGHT over anything (not like these things aren't common). All the pictures show are a group of people close to a building.

This was how sloppy Trent, breakingtimes and igberetv got with their reportage that they've all but relegated themselves to blogs for hate mongers and radical PDP elements.

Smh.