₦airaland Forum

The Federal Government will spend N400m on the purchase of vehicles for the nation’s former heads of government and their deputies in 2017.

The figure formed part of the N9.882bn budgeted for the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation for the year.

According to the details of the 2017 Appropriation Bill currently before the National Assembly obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday, N280.099m was budgeted for the purchase of vehicles for seven former Presidents and Heads of State.

Further details showed that N120.090m would be used to procure vehicles for four former Vice-Presidents and ex-Chiefs of General Staff.

The nation’s seven living former heads of government include Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.); Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Shehu Shagari; Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd.); Chief Ernest Shonekan; Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar (retd.); and former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The four living former Vice-Presidents and ex-Chiefs of General Staff are former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme; Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (retd.); Gen. Oladipo Diya (retd.), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and former Vice-President Namadi Sambo.

The budget details did not indicate the number of vehicles that would be bought for each of the former leaders. The brands of the vehicles were also not disclosed.

Apart from the leaders, the office of the SGF will also buy N32m vehicles for offices and units in the office.

The government will also spend a total of N170m on the nation’s Independence Day and Democracy Day celebrations.

While Nigeria’s Democracy Day holds every May 29, Independence Day holds every October 1.

Both ceremonies have not been marked lavishly since the inception of the present administration.

The office is also expected to spend N1.322bn on the procurement and installation of security system across selected Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

The number of MDAs that will benefit from the procurement is not disclosed in the details.

The office will also spend N104.586m on what it called support and maintenance of e-council document management; it will spend N290m on electronic document and content management system and another N45m on electronic document management and archival system in the OSGF.

Upgrading and maintenance of Council Chambers Conference System will gulp N55m; N35m will be spent on one Xerox D125 photocopy machine; N20.8m on purchase of 52 laptop computers; N54.35m for the purchase of equipment for the production of staff identity cards and installation of file tracking system; and N5m for the OSGF website.

Another N3.8m is budgeted for the purchase of what is called multi-functional photocopy machine for the Procurement Department and N29.5m for archival project Phases I, II and III for cabinet secretariat document and file organisation.

ajbf:
Buhari recently promises the workers that FG will review the workers salary.

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has advised Epe youths to embrace hard work, saying it is important to be successful in life.

Ambode spoke in Epe on Sunday at the ongoing One Lagos Fiesta, an annual end of the year revue put together by the state government. He explained that it was important to work hard in order to achieve one’s dreams.

The governor, who said he became the Chief Executive Officer of the state through the grace of God and hard work, assured youths in the state that his administration would continue to create an enabling environment for them to succeed.

He said, “We know that you are our future; I also started from here and today, by the grace of God, I am your governor; there will be many more governors from this crowd.

“But if you want to be a president or a governor, you must work hard. Our duty as a government is to provide the enabling environment for all of you. So, we are going to create facilities that you can use to become more creative.

“For those of you who are out of school or are graduates and don’t have jobs, the Employment Trust Fund is available for all of you. Between now and November 2017, we are providing an arts theatre in Epe. It is going to be a 500-seater theatre. We will create more jobs; I want you to be the best.”

The One Lagos Fiesta is being held simultaneously in Epe, Ikorodu, Badagry, Ikeja and on Lagos Island.

A man, Saheed Audallahi, has been arrested by the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police Force for allegedly defrauding a Chinese company of N165, 480,000.

According to the police, the suspect defrauded JI Chu Industries Nigeria Limited of the sum under the pretext of changing it to its dollars equivalent.

The policemen at the Milverton, Ikoyi office of the SFU, added that when operatives stormed the suspect’s home at Magodo, Lagos, a shrine was discovered, while 30 passports and four cars were recovered.

The SFU spokesman, Lawal Audu, said the unit received a petition from Akande and Akande Chambers, on behalf of its clients, JI Chu Industries, which manufactured foot wears at its factory in Ejigbo, Lagos.

Audu, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said, “ The petitioner alleged that one Saheed Audallahi, aka Ibile, who operates under a business name, BMTC Logistics, obtained the sum of N165,480,000 under the pretext of transferring the sum of $400,000 to JI Chus business partner in China. As soon as the suspect received the said sum, he generated a fake telex transfer slip and gave same to the complainant as a proof of transfer of the money to China.”

The SFU spokesman further explained that when the complainant received the telex, he contacted his business partner, who denied receiving any money.

“It was at this point the complainant realised he had been swindled by the suspect, hence the petition,” said Audu.

It was gathered that detectives from SFU later arrested the suspect at a house in Magodo Phase II, Lagos, on December 17, 2016.

“The suspect’s arrest was dramatic as he tried to prevent policemen from gaining access into his home. When policemen got into his home, they made a shocking discovery of a fully equipped shrine, which is believed to be a powerful tool for deceiving his victims. Various incriminating items, such as 30 passports, four cars, different forged certificates purportedly authourising him to recruit students from Nigeria to institutions in America and Cyprus, were found” Audu added.

The police said further investigations revealed that the suspect was involved in numerous criminal activities, ranging from illegal bank transfers, hacking, and visa racketeering to issuance of fake foreign academic certificates.

“The suspect is also operating fake freight forwarding at our airports and seaports. The suspect is neither a licensed BDC operator nor a licensed customs clearing agent.

“It is also worthy of note that the latest fraudulent trick of these forex scammers is pretentiously paying back little amount from the whole sum that was swindled, thereby falsely building the minds of the victims that there is willingness to refund, whereas it is a pure scam.”

The suspect, however, denied defrauding the Chinese company.

He explained that the business deal between him and the company was just a forex business that went wrong.

He said, “I need between three to four months to sort everything out from the UK end of the transaction.”

He said things started going wrong when the UK government alleged that the money could be proceeds of money laundering.

He said to show good faith, he had already raised N60m, which he gave to the Chinese company.

PresidentAtiku:
Buhari is a monumental error. His 2 tenures(1984 & 2016) ensured that people queued for food! What a generational mistake

Mutuwa:
But you were there to work,and Fringe benefits wasn't part of your condition of service,when you took the offer.
It is a discretion to give,which they chose not to.

Omor Bazuaye wrote:

"I pity this country.

A man was found guilty of stealing and was jailed abroad; something we wouldn't have been able to do here even at the height of this regime's much touted anti-corruption campaign.

The crook is let off the hook after spending a time of six years behind bars and what do you hear....."welcome back our hero", welcome our great leader," and I'm like some folks got pooh in their skulls in place of brain.

A man robs you blind, rendered you and your children and their unborn children to the misery you call life and the best you can come up with is a trashy sense of hero worshipping.

I hear the rogue built roads and schools, provided potable water when he served as governor.

And I say, and so what?

Did he do those things with his personal money?
In any case what was he supposed to do?

Was he not just doing his job as mandated by law?

In other climes, Ibori would quietly sneak into the country, sober and remorseful, too ashamed of himself but here what do you get, people shamelessly celebrating and rooting for him to return and I ask....to do what?

Return to continue looting from where he left off.

The other day, Singapore executed a young Nigerian for peddling drugs.

His lifeless body was couriered back to us and what did I see.

His shameless community, family and friends threw an elaborate funeral celebrating the "heroics" of a wayward 32 year old sent to his early grave because of sheer greed.

I know a few idiots would want to still justify this act and in their cooked brain blame it on an insupportive social system back home.

What's wrong with us as a people......we lie, cheat, cut corners, pervert justice, murder and kill without recourse to law and still make a case for it.

We've gotten so rotten, we can't even tell and admit the truth to ourselves and the case of the "Thief from Delta is another classic reminder of how deep we've sunk."

As Christians in Nigeria warm up to celebrate Christmas in the next two days, most National Assembly legislative aides, are lamenting what they described as the selfishness and stinginess of their principals, as they claimed that they (lawmakers) did not give them Christmas gifts.

Most of the aides, who spoke to New Telegraph on the condition of anonymity, observed that the present crop of National Assembly members were different from their predecessors, whom they said were more humane, liberal and generous to their aides.

According to the aggrieved legislative aides, the previous members of the National Assembly always appreciated their staff during Christmas and other festivities in the year.

They accused the senators and members of the House of Representatives of capitalizing on the economic recession in the country to deny their stewards some basic Privileges that previous lawmakers accorded to their staff during the end of year period.

One of them said, “many of them are now using the economic recession in the country as an escape route for them not to do the needful for their legislative aides.

But I can tell you that what is worrying them is greed, selfishness and stinginess. “Some of us are privy to the mind bugging amounts of money they make here on daily basis.

They collect money from MDAs when they go on oversight function and they do a lot of business with those who come here for screening or budget presentation or defence but they want you to only do the work while they eat the proceeds of the labour alone.

“This is why many of them, immediately they leave the National Assembly they turn to beggars. For this reason, I don’t envy them because their kind of wealth does not give them peace and it doesn’t last forever.”

Another aide, who was also offended by the treatment he received from his principal, who is a member of the House of Representatives, said, “my Oga prefers to spend his money on outsiders, especially women but as long as you are working with him, he will ask you if you are not paid your salary’ and why should expect him to give you money from his pocket.

“Imagine that he did not give any of us working with him in the office anything. Instead, he will be threatening you with sack all the time. Yet when some people come from outside he will send some of us to give them big amounts of money. I can just conclude that they hate their staff. “I have been working in this National Assembly since 2007.

Their predecessors were not like this; those ones knew that the salary was not enough; so, from time to time they give you money from their pockets to augment your earning. And Christmas season like this used to be very interesting.

They will give you a lot of gifts that will go a long way to solve your problems”. Meanwhile, some of the legislators who reacted to the feelings and allegations of their support staff, argued that giving them gifts at Christmas or any other time was not a right but a privilege, and therefore, should not be an issue.

Britons are furious with their courts for letting former Delta State governor, James Ibori, go on a free.

They cannot understand why he was freed without parting with even a fraction of the £18million public money he stole while in office.

The outrage followed the insistence , on the same day Ibori was released from jail, by another court that a Sergeant Alexander Blackman must spend Christmas in jail even after winning right to appeal murder conviction for killing a Taliban fighter.

Plan by the federal government to prefer fresh charges against Ibori on his return home is already dividing opinions in Delta State which he governed between 1999 and 2007.

The Daily Mail of London, which has been doing extensive stories on the Ibori saga said critics described the contrast between the former governor’s and Blackman’s cases – both heard at London’s Royal Courts of Justice – as a perversion of justice

Home Secretary Amber Rudd had tried to keep Ibori locked up until he had handed back at least £18million of the proceeds of his crimes. But the High Court ruled this was an abuse of her powers and ordered Ibori to be freed.

It quoted thriller writer Frederick Forsyth,a confidant of the late Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who campaigns for justice for Sergeant Blackman, as saying: “A brave Marine sergeant who fought for his country is cruelly kept behind bars, away from his family at Christmas, while a Nigerian fraudster who is refusing to give up his stolen money is let free half way through his sentence.''

Other states that have also submitted 2017 budgets include:

1. Kaduna State: Governor Nasir El-Rufai in October 2016 presented a budget proposal of N215.9 billion for the 2017 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly. In the budget, a total of N130.3 billion, representing 60 per cent of the budget was for capital expenditure, while N85.5 billion, representing 40 per cent of the estimate, was for recurrent expenditure.

2. Lagos State: Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in November presented the 2017 budget proposal of N813 billion to the House of Assembly, assuring that the budget will be judiciously implemented to continue the massive infrastructural renewal and the enhancement of Lagos as one of the foremost tourism and investment destinations in Africa. The governor, who christened the budget as “The Golden Jubilee Budget” as it coincides with the State’s 50th Anniversary, said it would focus on physical infrastructure, while social sectors especially health, education, youth and social development will be given adequate attention.

3. Nassarawa State: Gov. Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa State on Thursday, 15 December 2016 presented an Appropriation Bill of N67.013 billion for 2017 to the state House of Assembly for consideration and passage.

Mr. Al-Makura, while presenting the bill christened “Budget of Reformation’’ at the floor of the state assembly in Lafia, said the budget was in compliance with International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS). According to Mr. Al-Makura, N37.012 billion, representing 55.2 per cent of the budget is for recurrent expenditure while N30 billion, representing 44.7 per cent is earmarked as capital expenditure for 2017 fiscal year.

4. Ekiti State: The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 presented a N93.4bn Budget for 2017 tagged, “Budget of Higher Height” to the state House of Assembly in Ado Ekiti. The governor also announced that he would go to the mountain to pray on December 14 and return on December 21 with predictions for Nigeria.

The governor, who was clad in a military camouflage while presenting the budget to the lawmakers, said that the recurrent expenditure for the 2017 appropriation bill was N55.02bn which is 59 per cent of the budget, while capital expenditure was N38.42 bn or 41 per cent of the estimates. The budget is 33 per cent higher than the N70.5bn presented for 2016.

5. Delta State: Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, on November 10 presented a budget proposal of N271 billion for 2017 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly. Presenting the budget on the floor of the House, Okowa said N152 billion was for recurrent expenditure while N119 billion was for capital expenditure. The 2017 budget proposal is slightly higher than the 2016 budget estimate of N268 billion.

6. Abia State: Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State in September flagged-off the State’s 2017 Budget Defence He christened it as “Budget of Prudence and Self-Reliance”, Governor Ikpeazu said “we will work towards it; we may not realize it 100% but we will certainly grade ourselves and say whether we made it 80% or 90%”.

7. Kano State: The Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, in November presented a budget proposal of N210 billion (specifically, N209,875,330,488) for the 2017 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly.

Under the proposal, which the governor tagged “Budget of Sustainable Self Reliance”, N130,488,682.677 was projected for capital expenditure and N79,370,647.811billion for recurrent expenditure.

Mr. Ganduje said the budget would be funded by an expected internally generated revenue of N143.7 billion and N99.990 billion expected federal allocations.

8. Anambra: Gov. Willie Obiano of Anambra on Tuesday December 6, 2016 presented a budget proposal of N115.5 billion before the State House of Assembly. According to Mr. Obiano, a total of N58.9 billion will be spent on capital projects, while N56.6 billion will go to recurrent expenditure.

This, he noted represents a ratio of 51 to 49 respectively just as the previous year. He said the estimate was premised on the basis of N305 per dollar exchange rate and a projected price of $42 per barrel of crude oil.

9. Cross River: Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River on Monday, October 31, 2016 presented a 2017 Appropriation Bill of N301 billion to the House of Assembly. Presenting the budget, Mr. Ayade said it was intended to project economic activities in the state, and would focus largely on the construction of the 260 kilometres super highway and the deep sea port. According to him, a total of N226.48 billion representing 75.2 per cent of the budget is for capital expenditure, while personnel cost and overhead stands at N56.78 billion and N17.93 billion, respectively.

10. Ogun state: Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun on Tuesday, November 22 presented a total budget of N221.129 billion for the 2017 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly. The budget, titled, “Budget of Repositioning”, represents an increase of 10.45 per cent compared to the 2016 budget. Mr. Amosun, while presenting the budget, explained that the recurrent expenditure will cost N102.82 billion or 46.50 per cent of the budget, while capital expenditure will take N118.306 billion or 53.50 per cent.

11. Zamfara: Zamfara State governor, Abdul-Aziz Yari, has presented a budget of over One Hundred and Seven Billion Naira (N107bn) for the year 2017 to the state house of assembly.

The governor proposed the sum of over N70 billion naira, and the sum of over N32 billion naira as capital and recurrent expenditures respectively.

He said the 2017 proposal was higher than this year’s proposal with a sum of over six billion naira, explaining that implementation of last year’s budget was adversely affected by the global economic recession also being faced by the country.