₦airaland Forum

Ifeanyi Ubah stop bragging....

The SDP guy is confused....

The time no dey complete 2 minutes na!

The NCP guy is funny

This is Femi Falana, a seasoned lawyer not Femi Fani Kayode (FFK)

The House of Representatives committee on Aviation, this afternoon began hearing on the purchase of two armoured cars for the aviation minister, Stella Oduah, at the cost of N255 million.
The hearing was earlier scheduled to hold on Tuesday but was postponed to allow the minister, who was away in Israel for a bilateral air service agreement signing, to return to the country.
PREMIUM TIMES’ National Assembly correspondent, Ini Ekott, will provide you with updates as they unfold from the hearing room.
———————————————————————————————
15: 07
Coscharis’ Maduka: To the best of my knowledge, we followed all due process. We were interviewed by SSS. We were interviewed by the National Security Adviser. Every due process by law was followed. “We do business with morality,” he says.
Another Coscharis official: Armoured cars are in levels; Level B7 is the highest for any civilian/VIP armoured cars. More than that is for military tanks.
Coscharis: The controversial cars are level B7. The BMW 760 series, bought by NCAA, goes for 418 thousand Euro from factory without shipping cost, taxes, etc.
Coscharis offers to demonstrate a powerpoint to show how it arrived at the cost. But is disallowed by committee.

14.55
Coscharis’ Maduka: “People have spoken, different media have written, I kept quiet. Nobody has called me to ask anything. But I thank God for this opportunity to state my own side of the story.”
“People have called me from US embassy to ask when did you start money laundering.”
He says the whole controversy is “politically motivated”. He pleads to be allowed to speak.
Mr Maduka said the matter is so important that his Uncle died and will be buried tomorrow, but he has to attend the sitting.
He said he is prepared to give details how Coscharis arrived at the price.

14.46
First Bank asked to step aside. Coscharis takes over.
Coscharis chief, Cosmas Maduka, calls the car scandal “very controversial matter that has made newspaper headlines for two consecutive weeks” as he takes the hot seat.

14.37
First Bank cannot explain how the loan given to NCAA for all its 54 cars climbed from earlier stated N564 million to N643 million.
The bank claimed earlier that the difference was because the two armoured cars were not included-apparently untrue because of the cost.
Under questioning by the committee, the bank now says only the NCAA can explain the difference; the bank says it was only concerned about what the NCAA as a customer asked for.
“Our job as financier are based on what the customers are asking for”

14.29
Interaction with First Bank representative continues…
First Bank: The armoured BMWs were not part of the first order from NCAA which comprised mainly Land Cruisers totaling less than N600 million.

House chair, Nkiruka Onyejeocha: So could it be that the BMWs were an afterthought?

First Bank: That’s for the NCAA to answer.

14.24
“Absence of the minister is a slap on the face of the House,” Jerry Manwe, a member of the committee from Taraba state said, apparently angered by the minister’s absence.

14.23
First Bank official, Seyi Oyefeso, that oversaw the transaction addressed the House committee on behalf of the Executive Director of the bank.
First Bank was invited to make proposals alongside other banks and tender was opened publicly on 21 of May, 2013 in the presence of other banks and media
First Bank was afterwards shortlisted alongside 7 others.
First Bank granted a loan facility of N643 million for purchase of assorted cars.

14.19
The Customs representatives at the hearing said Coscharis lied to the Ministry of Finance and NSA, making them to believe that the cars were for Lagos state government, for the National Sports festival.
The NSA office issued End User certificate without knowing that it was doing so for cars to be delivered to Stella Oduah or the NCAA.
So, in a way, the NSA office is right to have told PREMIUM TIMES it did not issue end user certificate for any bullet proof cars for Minister Oduah and the NCAA.

14.11
Deputy Comptroller General of Customs, Manasa Daniel Jatau, said the following
The two cars were imported through Tin Can Port 2; Imported from Antwerp Netherlands.
The vehicles were cleared 19/6/2013.
Coscharis imported the cars without paying import duties since there was a waiver from the ministry of finance.
Coscharis obtained the waiver claiming the armoured cars were part of 300 vehicles imported for the Sports festival in Lagos last year, and therefore the beneficiary was Lagos state government.
The due import duty should have been N10.1 million.

The cars had an End User Certificate from the NSA office in the name of Coscharis.
The waiver obtained by Coscharis was for one year; as such the time of importation this year was covered.
Customs admit its laws requires that it enforces duty on any item for which waiver was obtained, which was not used for the purpose stated-in this case, for Sports festival.

13.53
Car dealers as well as end users of armoured cars are mandated to seek authorization from the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, before ordering or importing such vehicles into Nigeria.
Last week, reliable sources at the office of the NSA told PREMIUM TIMES no authorization certificate was ever issued to either Minister Oduah or the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to procure the controversial vehicles.

13.50
Nigerian Customs confirmed that the two cars were imported and cleared at Tin Can 2.
The Customs said the import duty on the two cars which should have been N10 million plus were not paid because there was a waiver note issued by the finance ministry.
Customs also confirmed there was an End User certificate issued by the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA.

13.43
The hearing, proposed to start at noon, started 25 minutes late. The minister is absent at the hearing. The committee said it will take a position on that later.
[liveblog]


http://premiumtimesng.com/news/147512-stella-oduah-armoured-car-scandal-house-committee-hearing-live-updates.html

bloggernaija: The best teacher is your culture and tradition.

All market must close for such a coronation.

While doing so, bring back those other festival and curfews.

I don't knw wats so hard for pple to understand....

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www.healthguidance.org

Before nw we never really had threads about developmental projects in Ekiti State so I wondered if anything was happening in the state

So I went online on a fact finding mission

During one of my investigations, I stumbled upon a website that published a comprehensive assesment of projects in Ekiti State alongside the cost of projects and a whole lot of other stuffs goin on there

Federal projects in the state were also assesed,its really an eye opener.

http://beacons-ng.org/get-involved/advocate

The report is available for download in pdf format

Next time u park ur car, grab ur fone, get down and take some pictures ok?

This is a joke right?

manny4life: Who's leadership is FAAN under?

I'm often times amazed how "supposed" intelligent people reason sometimes, isn't FAAN one of the agencies under Ministry of Aviation headed by Stella Oduah?

Maybe if u took ur time to read the post (by CFCfan)I was replying u would understand what I was driving at...

CFCfan:
But remember that FAAN is not as autonomous as the NCAA. In fact, the NCAA also approves night time operations of the airports.
Besides, I've not heard of any ministerial or presidential interference in the NCAA's core duty of ensuring a safe Nigerian airspace.

Whether it is autonomous or not, NCAA is under Stella's watch because it is under the aviation ministry and it wouldn't be a bad thing if as the head of that ministry,she constantly supervises what they do and ensure they stick to best practices at all times..

CFCfan: Good job, ujoinme.
However, I haven't seen construction pics of the international terminal.

As for those who are blaming the Aviation minister for the recent aircrashes; remember that the NCAA is solely responsible for certifying the air-worthiness of planes in the Nigerian airspace. Therefore, all complaints on that should go to the NCAA.

You should also remember that FAAN is solely responsible for the remodelling,maintenance and running of the airports so all praise on the remodelled airports should go to FAAN and not Stella

WildChild00: Everyone knows Tinubu is corupt, from 1999 when he became a senator of the federal republic of Nigeria, he bearly had 500,000 naira as a bank balance, but today he is one of the richest man in Nigeria, due to the fact that der are no checks and balances put in place to checkmate his activities wen he was the governor of Lagos State, vitually all Nigerian politicians are one and thesame, share the money.

Na u be him account officer ba?

P.S He did not become a senator in 1999

agbameta: this is the dumbest and laughable comedic routine ever? Is there such rubbish at all?


ibo kwenu...Na you biko lmao

ujoinme: Safety is a process and like all processes it is dynamic! FACTS the nigerian Airspace under the current minister has experienced the most advances in upgrade of its airspace safety equipment:
1)For the first time the nigerian airspace has total radar coverage thats working TRACON.
2)We now have a functional weather reporting/monitoring station in nigeria which gives real time weather information to transport industry thereby ensuring safety.
3) For the first time in recent times all airports now have state of the arts communication systems that enable pilots to communicate with towers/control base, before the present minister GSM phones were used for this communications.
4) For the first time in the history of Nigeria we Have an aviation lab that is capable to decoding the Blackbox recording after crashes and exercise that before now was usually taken abroad and it will take months to have the recording decoded. This saves us valuable time such that when the cause of the crash is discovered it will help to improve standards to prevent future crash.
Besides the upgrades of the airport facilitates/remodelling which also on its own adds to safety as we now have efficient screening devises at the airport to ensure deterrent to nefarious characters, this present aviation minister has done more to secure/ ensure safety of the nigerian airspace than any other minister of aviation in recent times.

unfortunately, there has been two fatal plane crashes under her watch, which means that a lot still needs to be done to secure our airspace and hence the safety process must continue.

we as nigerians should seperate political witch hunting that the present minister is currently undergoing from the facts on grounds about her performance as an aviation minister which has been unequivocally stellar. and stop trivializing her performance as mere beautification of airports when in fact she has done far more!

However, I do agree that the process of air safety in Nigeria needs more oomph.

Look.. All wot u av listed is just attending to one half of d problem and leaving d oda half to decay,


Whether u have total radar coverage of the whole world sef if a plane is not fit to fly, it will eventually crash..

Let me tell u, 90 percent of all d aircraft used by our local airline operators are not fit to fly,it is only by the grace of God dat we don't record crashes daily..

Common sense should let d minister know dat as she is remodelling airports and installing safety equipment, she should also make sure dat planes should be inspected on a regular basis, erring operators be sanctioned and faulty planes be grounded. But it seems common sense is very uncommon in dis FRESH AIR ERA..

Don't even get me started on the issue of flight delays, flight cancellations and attitude of airport officials

Sincere 9gerian: It's also being rumoured that the same agencies the propagandists said have no powers to buy vehicles for the office of the minister also bought as much as 800 vehicles for workers in the agencies. So how come they can buy cars for the directors and co in the ministry but not for their boss ( the minister)? What sort of logic is that?

Like I wrote earlier, we can question the cost of vehicles and moralty of the action but NOTHING illegal in the whole. The children of anger on NL have been using terms such as "corruption", "misappropriation", etc but those terms have no place in the controversial purchase of 2 armored vehicles for the office of the minister of aviation.

Can u see hw insane u sound??

If Buying an armoured car dat cost 170 thousand dollars for a whooping 800 thousand dollars isn't misappropriation then I wonder what could be..

Dude wot is wrong wit u? Can't u be honest wit urself and for once??

Sincere 9gerian: We'r in a free and democratic society. I have taken a position and expressed it on this thread. I enjoin you to do the same. If you'r having difficulty in articulating your thoughts, you can call for help.

If only u take this same position at all times no matter the political affiliation of the person in question then u might be taken seriously but we all know d kind of morally bankrupt fellow u are..

We all know the stand u take on Rotimi Amaechi during the private jet saga, even tho it was a much more transparent purchase

gbanikiti: I noticed another construction company PW along the expressway,Abule Ado precisely. Seems they will be teaming with CCECC to construct the road from the badagry axis

Nope ... Actually PW was contracted by FERMA to patch up d bad portions on d places construction work has not gotten to. U will notice dat d bad parts of d road from abule ado to volks has been graded

Seriously, a lot of y'all here are just plain stuupid,bitter and Senile.


This is a 5 hour closure and it is only the badagry bound route dat will be closed.

Anyone that lives in lagos would agree that sundays are the best days to carry out these kind of jobs cos dat is when we have the lightest traffic..

The third mainland bridge was closed for months and dese same EEDIOTS condemning this move were screaming FRESHAIR all over d place

gregg2: Open yours eyes. Those Alausa noisemakers' intention is not about your safety. They don't care about your safety. If they do, let them lay pipes to provide you with safe pipeborne water but they would rather leave you at the mercy of unsafe MaiRuwa, shallow Wells and sachet water. Their aim is to as usual make noise about a train service that is shrouded in corruption. We have numerous pedestrian bridges and flyovers in Lagos, is that how expressways were shut down during their construction?

Pele

ezugegere: LASG just like to make noise sha... If they are closing the road at Mile 2, is there no alternative route such as through Amuo Odofin to Alakija? What's the noise all about?

Ndo

Originalsly: Nonsense. Name me another country where a contractor would be allowed to shut down an expressway to do anything....even to resurface the expressway. Now this one is shutting it down to install beams? How was it done before? Why didn't they build a detour/temporary road for traffic to get around that location? How can the authorities allow this? Would they even think aboit doing that in China? This just makes one think what are the terms of their contract. This is a slap in the face of all Nigerians. But after all...I don't blame them...I blame the ones that allow them to do that and disrespect Nigerians in Nigeria.

No vex

Goddex: This is just a publicity stunt by the LASG to give Nigerians impression that they are working. How on earth should installing precast beams for a pedestrian bridge amount to a closure of road with newspaper advertorials? Before now, how are the several beams for flyovers and pedestrian bridges litred all over Nigeria and expecially Lagos installed?

Sorry o

manny4life: The Obi did not curse him, he simply made a statement, let justice decide if he's guilty or not...

There more people at Ngige's rally, is it not common sense that Ngige used Obi's festival to hold a rally? On a normal day, he couldn't have so he hurriedly fixed the date so as to make it seem like he pulled the crowd. If he was a real campaigner, he would have done his rally on a regular day so we can the turnout.

Were both events held at d same venue??

Someone here said Ifeanyi Ubah's campaign train also passed that area, why is no one scolding him??

obayaya: what you forgot is that the ofala is a week long festival but Tuesday was it's peak when agbogidi makes his revered appearance..

and who told you a mammoth crowd followed Ngige? a mammoth crowd of okada men and barrow pushers looking for who will throw money at them..

the same ppl ran after ifeanyi ubas rally entourage at Tarzan and new parts.. I can authoritatively tell you that main market Onitsha didn't bulge during Ngige's rally

So can you tell me why the Obi of onitsha was so pissed that he placed a curse on Ngige??

The point remains that there were more pple at Ngige's rally than there were at the festival. Shikena

tawa89: guy Tinubu was just a Nadeco returnee prior to becoming a governor in 1999. He was no where near OUK in terms of wealth bro. OUK was the youngest Bank Chairman in Nigeria in 1994 or therebout. He was the highest donor to OBJ's election campaign where he gave 50million then.
Let's agree that he stole 4 8yrs in Abia state but Tinubu equally stole for 14years from Lagos and he is still stealing from other sw states. How did a broke NADECO returnee in 1999 become the richest politician in Nigeria today?
@ OP OUK is leading the way for other wealthy igbos to start thinking home. Before the infamous deportation saga, i bet my balls that OUK would have sited these projects in either Lagos or Ogun but today they are going back to their 'village' . I hope he has collected October house rent from Femi Fani Kayode. LOL

Tinubu wasn't broke b4 he became governor

Read up.. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bola_Tinubu

In my opinion, this has only shown how popular Ngige is and it also means he stands a very good chance to be the next governor..


Let's look at it this way:

If the festival was very important as they say (I'm not saying its not important), most people would av shunned the rally and attended the Ofala festival.

But from what I av read,It seems more pple attended the rally and shunned d festival dats why the Obi is pissed...



I can't imagine a politician holding a rally the same day as the "Ojude Oba festival" or "Osun Oshogbo festival" na shame go kill that politician. Even the most popular politician in yorubaland won't try it.

The Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, has expressed displeasure over the recently refurbished pitch of the Abuja national stadium saying the kind of sand used on the pitch makes training a difficult task especially for goalkeepers.

Mr Keshi who fielded questions from journalists shortly after the first training session of the super eagles however expressed optimism that the team will do the nation proud by flying over the antelopes of Ethiopia on Sunday in Adiss Ababa.

“From what I saw, it is a sandy pitch and it is hard; it will be very difficult for the players to play on it, especially the goalkeepers because it is sharp sand.

“If it rains, I think, the pitch will be water-logged,’’ Keshi said.

The roll call of players who trained on Tuesday evening include stand-in skipper, Vincent Enyeama, Austin Ejide and Chigozie Agbim all goalkeepers.

Efe Ambrose, Elderson Echejile, Godfrey Oboabona, Azubuike Egwuekwe, Solomon Kwambe, Benjamin Francis and James Okuosa were the defenders in training.

John Mikel Obi leads from the middle that includes Ogenyi Onazi, John Ogu, Sunday Mba and Nnamdi Oduamadi, while strikers are Uchenna Nwofor, Obinna Nsofor and Ahmed Musa.

 http://www.channelstv.com/home/2013/10/08/keshi-condemns-national-stadium-renovated-pitch/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

What is dis nonsense??

Comparing Jonathan to zik and Awolowo?? What an insult!!

These Lapdogs rily have no shame..

Electricity consumers in the country should not expect a rapid improvement in power supply any time soon despite the privatisation of the sector, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has said.

The commission made it clear that the distribution of meters to consumers as well as the improvement of technical issues in the power business would not be achieved in the short term.

The Chairman, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, said private investors in the sector would need time to settle down, understand the details of the business and strategise better to service their debts.

According to him, the investors will also need time to work out how to efficiently manage the electricity networks and installations to benefit their customers.

He said, “These issues, of course, cannot be achieved rapidly. So, in the first few months, there will not be so much significant or rapid improvement, and electricity consumers should not expect magic.

“That the Federal Government sold these companies to private investors does not mean that the problems with the power sector will be over overnight.”

Amadi spoke at a workshop organised by the commission to discuss issues pertaining to yearly increase of electricity tariff and the privatisation of the power sector.

The privatisation of the power industry took a step closer to completion last Monday with the handing over of share certificates to 13 investors, who had earlier paid for the 14 electricity generation and distribution companies.

President Goodluck Jonathan had stated that with the scheduled handover of the electricity companies to the private sector operators, things could only get better.

“Going forward, this administration is committed to providing all elements that are necessary for our private sector partners to succeed in providing Nigerians with uninterrupted power supply,” the President had said.

But Amadi told journalists that uninterrupted power supply would not just happen, stressing that the new owners would need to get enough money not only to repay their debts, but to run the companies efficiently.

“This, however, does not mean that there won’t be speedy improvements in some aspects of the business. Customer care can be improved upon in the short term, but improvements in technical issues will be in the long term,” he said.

The NERC boss, however, gave an assurance that the commission would keep the new owners of the electricity firms committed to their respective targets, adding that it would not hesitate to penalise defaulters.

On fears that the Disco Roundtable, an umbrella body for the power distribution companies, would form a cartel that would dictate electricity tariff, Amadi said the Federal Government would dissolve the body once the handover was completed.

“We have made them understand that once they take over the business, we will deal with them individually and not as a group,” he said.

On why metering of electricity consumers was still a huge problem, the NERC chairman said, “The corruption and racketing in metering is inhibiting the process. However, the Discos will meter their customers, but this will take some time for it to go round.”

http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/electricity-consumers-should-not-expect-improvements-soon-nerc-2/