₦airaland Forum

walosky:
So land still remain for Lagos so? Na hin be say food go dey brakata




Well done Ambode!

joey150:
Imagine the audacity of the article like you actually know i am farting excessively.


First you must define how much fart is normal and how much fart is excessive.

Agbaletu:
All this will end by 2019. I have no sympathy for Asiwaju Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande.
The North needs to be cut to size, unfortunately we are not united in the Southern part of the country and the Northerners are exploiting our differences to their advantage.

NotOfThis:
She deserves a pay raise for her hard work.

brixton:
Lol these are some of the big fools that worked against GEJ' re-election and so called new pdp, all in the name of having a northern president.

I hope prison inmates will pluck out those his big eyeballs and use em for dinner

One of the consultants in the payment of the Paris Club loan refund to the states has sued the 36 state governors in his bid to compel them to pay him $176m or the naira equivalent of N53.6bn (at official N305/dollar) as his consultancy fee.

The consultant, Ned Nwoko, accused the governors and the Nigerian Governors’ Forum of paying those he described as phoney consultants, The PUNCH learnt on Monday.

Nwoko had initially written to the NGF to demand the payment of the fee as agreed between his firm and the states

In his statement of claims, he said, “Despite repeated demands, the defendants have failed or refused or neglected to pay to me the sums due to me for the services rendered.

“That I have not been paid the sums due and payable to me by the state governments and that the defendants made payment of the said sum to some phoney and sham consultants.”

He stated in the statement of claim, which was sighted by our correspondent, that he was “ready and willing to give an undertaking as to damages.”

Nwoko argued that instead of “paying to me the sums due and payable to me for the legal and consultancy services rendered, which led to the realisation of the said release and payment (of the Paris Club refund),” the NGF, governors, Ministry of Finance “caused part of the said money released for legal and consultancy fees to be paid to phoney and sham consultants, who did not render any consultancy and legal services to the state governments.

The PUNCH learnt on Sunday that Ned Nwoko Solicitors, also asked that his firm be paid $71,936,881.36 and N21,940,748,814.30 by 15 states.

Nwoko’s demand was one of the several letters received by the NGF secretariat from consultants, who claimed to have been engaged by the state governments.

It was learnt that the 36 governors of the federation were becoming worried as the number of consultants demanding certain percentage of the Paris Club loan refund continued to increase.

Investigations by our correspondent showed that many of the consultants had sent their letters to the governors while others routed theirs through the national secretariat of the NGF.

The demands were later sent to the NGF.

All the governors, in their letters to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, had asked that five per cent of the loan refund to their states be deducted and paid to the NGF directly.

The majority of the letters were titled, ‘Re: Over-deduction on Paris and London Clubs loans on the accounts of state and local governments (1995-2002)’.

A letter from one of the governors requested the minister to “deduct the payment of five per cent consultants’ fee at source from states’ entitlement and paid directly into the NGF secretariat account provided below to defray related consulting and incidental expenses.”

The letters also listed the accounts which the money was to be paid into.

Sources close to the governors said some of the consultants were, however, asking for what was described as a ridiculous amount from the governors.

Documents obtained by our correspondent indicated that some of these states agreed to pay the consultants between 10 to 20 per cent of the money to be recovered by them from their creditors.

Some of the states that signed agreements to pay 10 per cent to their consultants are Abia, Kogi, Adamawa, Taraba, Delta and Zamfara.

While Ondo State signed to pay 12 per cent, states like Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, Niger signed to pay 15 per cent.

Bayelsa, Oyo and Edo states agreed to pay 20 per cent to their consultants.

For example, the Bayelsa State Government, in its letter dated February 4, 2008, and signed by the then Commissioner for Finance and Budget, asked a consultant (name withheld) to pursue the “problem of her foreign and external debt.”

The consultant was appointed as “solicitors to Bayelsa State Government on Foreign/External Debt.”

Concerning fees, the state government agreed to pay “a total sum amounting to three per cent of any such verified sum and representing the true position of state foreign indebtedness, which said sum must be below the claim at the Debt Management Office.”

The state also promised to pay “20 per cent of all money recovered from the Federal Government or any other institution as money paid in excess of the actual debt owed by the state as at date.”

It was also gathered that the issue of consultants became more problematic when the NGF was factionalised at the tail end of the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The former president has refused to recognise the former Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as the second term chairman of the forum.

He, therefore, encouraged its split as the governors of his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, formed a parallel NGF, which was led by the former Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Jonah Jang.

However, the Jang-led NGF, which had Mr. Osaro Onaiwu as its Coordinator, gave letters of appointment to some consultants on the Paris Club refund as well.

One of the governors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the indiscriminate appointment of the contractors had became problematic for the NGF.

He said, “There were so many claims by the consultants. There was a governor who said a consultant was demanding $40m as his fees.

“How do you give such a huge amount to a single person whose job you can’t even seem to see? That’s the problem, but I must say that the majority of the consultants were genuinely engaged not by us, but by some of the former governors.”

It was also gathered that Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo had raised the issue of the huge sums of money being paid to the consultants at a meeting he had with the governors while acting as President.

“Astonished with the huge sum, the acting President even asked what type of jobs these consultants did and whether we issued them receipts,” the governor said.

It was gathered that the NGF had paid more than N10bn as fees on the Paris Club loan refund to the consultants.

Members of the Presidential Investigative Committee probing the recovery of $43.4million at Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos sat yesterday for more than 11 hours.
They examined documents and interrogated some officials at the marathon session.

Grilled were the suspended Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Amb. Ayo Oke, and some top officials of the agency.

One of the highlights of the session was when the suspended NIA DG told the panel that he wrote a memo to the National Security Adviser (NSA) on the custody of the $43.4million for covert operations.

A source said the DG maintained his stand that he informed the NSA, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, who is a member of the committee, about the money.
Oke was said to have told the committee about the covert operations and projects executed by the agency.

Responding to a question, the source, who pleaded not to be named, added: “Oke gave a spirited defence of his career and said there was no…

martinlooter:
They should hasten up with the investigation already, can't wait to hear of the outcome. By the way, please where is President Buhari. Let him come and become the President we voted.

samincredible44:
some northern bastard/pedophiles will be happy now

Nbote:
It's quite clear U want to justify child marriage in d north by comparing same in d US. U do realise d Internet is jus one click away to verify facts but u yet u decided to intentional misinform ppl by posting Wat suits ur intents.. Anyway here's d Virginia's stance on child(minors) marriages




clearly explained here



here's d link
http://statelaws.findlaw.com/virginia-law/virginia-marriage-age-requirements-laws.html

Oh and here's a state by state age of Consent as regards child marriages..
http://family.findlaw.com/marriage/state-by-state-marriage-age-of-consent-laws.html

Minors are minors and there's nothing ur religion or culture can say to justify it... D look on d faces of these child brides says it all...

genieplus86:
Unbelievable ! . Source please

Lawmakers in America are battling to overturn some of the country's most archaic laws, which stipulate that children as young as 12 can be married.

In the state of Virginia, it is officially still legal for girls as young as 12 or 13 to be brought to a courthouse with evidence of a pregnancy and wed, a practice that has come under increased scrutiny thanks to the Virginia Senator Jill Vogel R-Fauquier.

Legislation she introduced, which is now moving through the Virginia General Assembly, seeks to raise the minimum age for marriage to 16 to bring it in line with other states - and similar moves are under way in Maryland and New York, where 3,853 minors were married between 2000 and 2010, according to State Health Department data published in the New York Times.

In Virginia itself, according to state health statistics, more than 4,500 minors were married between 2000 and 2013, including about 220 who were 15 or younger.

And a separate Statista chart plotting the minimum legal age of marriage for girls worldwide reveals that the US is one of the lowest on record, with several places - including Massachusetts - allowing girls as young as 12 to be wed with the consent of a judge.

It is matched only by Saudi Arabia and Yemen, where age of consent for marriage ranges between nine and 13 years old.

“It’s rarely the case that the 13-year-old is marrying a 17-year-old,” Ms Vogel told Washington Top News.

”It’s more often the case that it is a child marrying somebody decades older than they are."

Ms Vogel pointed out that often, young women who go on to be abused in early marriages are not old enough to go to court to get a protection order - and aren't even old enough to drive.

She said officials should be looking out for what's in the child's best interests - not handing out marriage licenses.

“Someone should be asking the question, ‘Well if this 13-year-old is pregnant, isn’t that evidence of statutory rape?’" Ms Vogel said. "Is that not a crime? They are truly victims in every way.

"There is currently no minimum age for marriage in the Commonwealth.

In the UK legal consent can be given as young as 16 - as long as it's with parental consent.

In July last year, the Spanish government announced it was to raise the marriage age from 14 to 16 to bring it into line with the rest of Europe.

Estonia now has the lowest marriage age in Europe with teenagers able to wed at 15 with parental approval.

Globally, the average legal age of marriage for boys is 17 and 16 for girls but many countries permit them, particularly girls, to marry much younger.

According to the campaign group Girls Not Brides, one in three women in the developing world are said to be married before they turn 18.

Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello, on Friday claimed that the N6bn that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission traced to a former commissioner in the state was stolen from Niger State Government account.

Bello made the claim in an interview with journalists shortly after joining President Muhammadu Buhari for the two-raka’at Juma’at prayer at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The governor claimed that the funds were siphoned through inflated Hajj subsidies offered by the state government to pilgrims within the periods the former commissioner served as the Chairman of the Niger State Pilgrims’ Agency.

The governor, who commended the EFCC for its efforts in recovering stolen funds, expressed the hope that the recovered N6bn would be transferred to the state’s accounts to enable his administration to embark on developmental proJects.

He also acknowledged the efforts of the EFCC towards the recovery of the misappropriated ecological funds by the previous administration in the state.

The governor said, “I’m aware that the EFCC is investigating the ecological funds. At the inception of this administration, we realised that the ecological funds disappeared.

“I did not have any evidence that it was utilised to address any ecological issues and we are faced with major ecological problems especially in Mokwa, Agaie, Bida, part of Minna, Rafin Gora and Mariga.

“We are doing our best to address the ecological problems. We need funds and unfortunately the N2bn that was given to the state was not judiciously used to address the ecological challenges.

“If it had been used properly, maybe our burden might have been reduced by now, but we are having sleepless nights over ecological issues and we are still approaching the Federal Government to assist us.”