₦airaland Forum

Andy Ruiz Jr might have produced one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight history on Saturday, but his pay cheque was distinctly lightweight, compared to Anthony Joshua’s.

The Mexican stunned Britain’s WBA, IBF and WBO champion to shake up heavyweight boxing’s established order in dramatic style.

Ruiz is understood to have made only around £5m from the fight at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden, The SUN has reported.

Compare that to the whopping £20m Joshua is thought to have made and you see just how wide the gulf in class between these two boxers was supposed to be.

Despite taking home Joshua’s three belts, Ruiz was not even meant to be on the money list on Saturday night.

He took the fight with just five weeks’ notice after Joshua’s original opponent Jarrell Miller failed three drugs tests in the build-up.


The cash is the largest purse of Ruiz’s career, but he can expect to earn a lot more than that in any rematch later this year.

His previous biggest payday came in at a reported £770,000 for his defeat by New Zealand’s Joseph Parker in 2017
https://punchng.com/anthony-joshua-gets-20m-for-shock-defeat-andy-ruiz-5m-for-winning/?fbclid=IwAR0bR5yGpEyDs6gPhnOe8yeaQNylmBRMKy8BBR2RPF7dvadAPdgOQsmea8s

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Facebook has closed some accounts allegedly set up by an Israeli firm named Archimedes, which were used to dent the image of Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, and boosting the campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari, Associated Press reports.

The report by United States think tank, Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which analyses misinformation online, said some sample posts removed from Facebook appeared to praise President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress and smear his leading opponent, Atiku.


Many of the pages and accounts were discovered to be linked to a Tel Aviv-based political consulting and lobbying firm named Archimedes.

On its sparse website of African stock images, the company advertises its deliberate efforts to conduct disinformation campaigns, boasting that it takes “every advantage available in order to change reality according to our client’s wishes” through “unlimited online accounts operation.”


Facebook banned Archimedes from its platform on Thursday for its “coordinated and deceptive behaviour” and conducted a sweeping takedown of dozens of accounts and hundreds of pages primarily aimed at disrupting elections in African countries, with some scattered activity in South-East Asia and Latin America.

Overall, the misleading accounts had reached some 2.8 million users, and the pages had engaged over 5,000 followers, according to Facebook’s estimates.

One of the pages that Facebook cancelled appeared filled with viral misinformation attacking Atiku, a former Vice-President.

The report further read, “The page’s banner image showed Abubakar as Darth Vader, the Star Wars villain, holding up a sign reading, ‘Make Nigeria Worse Again’.

“Another page with almost identical visuals, although significantly excluding the Darth Vader mask, purported to support Atiku, with the slogan ‘Team Atiku for President’.


“The report identified the page as a covert attempt to infiltrate Atiku’s audience of potential voters and manipulate their views, gradually spamming them with antithetical content and diverting them to the ‘Make Nigeria Worse’ page.”

The report also featured a page that explicitly boosted Buhari, with amateur videos eulogising the accomplishments of his Presidency as though he were not locked in a tight battle for re-election.


According to the report, several of the removed pages attempted to defame candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party.


It said one page with artificially amplified audience engagement, called “Rivers Violence Watch,” pumped out political propaganda while posing as a neutral monitor of election violence, using the page description to mask its efforts.

Most of the pages claimed to be run by local Nigerian users, but in fact, were managed from Israel.


It said fake news flooded Nigerians and played a central role in the recent national election.

The accounts were also found to have been used in spreading rumours and promoting violence in an election which revealed Nigeria’s fault lines along ethnic and religious divides.

Despite the overt political messaging of these inauthentic pages, the Digital Forensics lab could not assign a particular ideological motive to Archimedes’ campaigns, given the diversity and scope of its general operations.


Rather, the company, which poured over $800,000 into deceptive content over the past several years, appeared profit-driven. The report did not probe the origins of its cash flow, and it was not clear whether political actors in Nigeria or other countries where the campaigns took off had paid for the company’s “strategic consulting.”

Facebook has in the last year closed down over one billion accounts used in spreading fake news.


Atiku has dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission and the President to court, accusing them of stealing his victory at the poll. He claims the figures on INEC’s servers show that he won the poll but the results were doctored in favour of Buhari.

https://punchng.com/2019-presidential-election-facebook-closes-pro-buhari-accounts/

Check my signature

Beautiful

So, Egypt exited the competition with no point!

Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (Rtd) (GCON)
Former Military President Federal Republic of Nigeria

So, IBB is now GCON and not GCFR?

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Professor Moji Christianah Adeyeye, wife of Senator Olusola Adeyeye (Osun Central) as the new Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC.

Mrs. Adeyeye, founder of Drugs for AIDS and HIV Patients, a nonprofit organization committed to prevention, education, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS children in Nigeria, takes over from Mr. Ademola Andrew Magbojuri who was appointed as the Acting Director-General of NAFDAC in September.


Magbojuri had taken over from Mrs. Yetunde Oni, who attained the retirement age of 60 years in September and also served in the acting capacity for 18 months following the sack of Dr. Paul Orhii.

The new DG attended the University of Nigeria, obtaining a BSc in pharmaceutics in 1976, and went on to the University of Georgia where she obtained an M.S and a Ph.D. in pharmaceutics in 1985 and 1988.

Mrs. Adeyeye is a Professor of Pharmaceutics, Manufacturing Science and Drug Product Evaluation, College of Pharmacy, Roosevelt University, Schaumburg, IL and Chair, Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Roosevelt University, Schaumburg, IL.

She is the Chief Executive Officer of Elim Pediatric Pharmaceuticals Inchttp://dailypost.ng/2017/11/11/buhari-appoints-adeyeyes-wife-prof-moji-christianah-new-nafdac-dg/amp/

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have visited two mansions in Dubai allegedly belonging to a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The properties, located at E146 Emirates Hill and J5 Emirates Hill, are said to be worth 74,000,000 dirham (N7.1bn).

Emirates Hill, which has been described as the Beverly Hills of the United Arab Emirates, is home to some of the richest men in the world including billionaire Chairman of the Stallion Group, Sunil Vaswani.


Others, who are Diezani’s neighbours, include the immediate past Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif; a former President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari; and Robert Mugabe junior, the son of the President of Zimbabwe and one of Africa’s longest serving leaders, President, Robert Mugabe.

A source within the EFCC told our correspondent that the anti-graft agency was already applying for the forfeiture of the properties through the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.

If the commission is able to clear all legal hurdles and ensure the final forfeiture of the property, it would bring the total amount of cash and assets finally recovered from Diezani to $200m (N70bn).

A detective, who did not want his name in print, said the anti-graft agency would exploit the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty the Federal Government had recently signed with the government of the UAE.

The agreements, signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, are Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Civil and Commercial Matters, Agreement on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons and an Extradition Treaty.

The source stated, “We have informed the UAE authorities that from our investigation, we believe Diezani bought the properties with the proceeds of crime. The whole process is still ongoing but with the MLAT, signed by President Buhari, it has made work a lot easier for us.”

The detective explained that before the Federal Government signed the treaty, the UAE law prevented foreign officials from having access to properties in the country without the express permission of its owner.

He added that with the new treaty, the UAE authorities were more cooperative and would readily give information of properties from their Land Registry System.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay(SAN), who hailed Buhari for signing the treaty, told The PUNCH that some corrupt senators, who also owned properties in Dubai, would be made to forfeit them.

Sagay also disagreed with some legal experts who said the Dubai treaty would need to be ratified by the National Assembly before it could be activated.

He said, “The UAE MLAT is not a treaty as such but an agreement; so, it will be operated without their (senators) approval.

“So, let that start worrying them (senators). He (President) will implement it directly. So, those of them that have acquired properties in Dubai and other Middle-East countries should kiss their properties good bye.”
http://punchng.com/efcc-inspects-diezanis-n7bn-dubai-properties-moves-for-forfeiture/

…Says Fayemi left N49 Billion liabilities, not N89 Billion as alleged by governor
A witness, Kehinde Odunayo Victor, has revealed that the total amount of debt left behind by the administration of former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi was N49 billion.
Kehinde disclosed this on Monday when he appeared before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry probing the handling of the state’s finances between October 2010 and October 2014 when Fayemi was in power.
The witness’ revelation contradicted the claims of Governor Ayo Fayose that the Fayemi left a debt figure of N89 billion behind for his administration.
Kehinde, told the Justice Silas Oyewole-led panel that out of the N49 billion debt, N25 billion was taken as bond from the Capital Market while N24 billion was taken as loans from ten commercial banks.
The witness who works in the Funds Management Department in the Office of Accountant General was led in evidence by counsel to the Commission, Sunday Bamise.
Kehinde who presented a document marked and admitted as Exhibit A13 told the seven-member panel that Fayemi had repaid N42, 691, 410, 210. 37 (N42.6 billion) out of the debt before he left office on October 15, 2014.
Fayemi had gone to court to challenge the composition of the panel members of which he described as “cronies of Fayose and sympathisers of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who cannot be trusted to do justice.”
No lawyer represented Fayemi at the proceeding but two lawyers, Ibrahim Olanrewaju and Adeoye Aribasoye told the panel that they were in court as “observers.”
According to Kehinde “as at the time Fayemi left office in 2014, that debt incurred from outstanding workers’ emoluments, comprising pensions, subventions to schools, among others was N13 , 819,
928,727, 92”.
According to Kehinde, ‘Total Deductions from FAAC allocations in the time under review under the last administration was N18, 684, 785, 314, 75 was allegedly deducted in 48 months.
He told the panel that N163, 267,220, 48; 07 billion statutory allocations were received by the administration in four years.
The Panel also heard that the former governor allegedly made N18 billion unremitted deductions from the allocations received within the period in review.
Another witness, Arogndade Victor Adeyinka, who works at the state Ministry of Finance, tendered a document that indicated how the N25 billionbond was expended.
According to him, the breakdown of the N20b first tranch of the bond indicated that a sum of N468 million was to be spent on Ero Dam, Ureje Dam, N500m, building of the school of Agriculture, N750m, Road Construction, N2.6 building of Lagos Liaison office, N500m, building of modern market in Ado Ekiti, N2b, building of new government house, N633m, new governor’s office, N400m, Ikogosi Warm Spring, N1.5b, Civic Centre, N1 billion, totaling N19.3 billion.”
“The N5b second tranch of the bond was broken down thus: construction of Ilawe-Igbara Odo-Ibuji road, N894m, Ikole-Ijesa Isu road, N1.34b, Ewu Bridge, N20m, State Pavilion, N1.553b and Ire Resuscitation of Ire Burnt Brick, N966m, totaling N4.84b”, the documented said.
However, there was a mild drama at the sitting when one of the “observer lawyers”, Olanrewaju called the attention of the commission to the fact that it was wrong to refer to its counsel as prosecutor.
“I am not here to represent anybody but to honour the court. You have been referring to your counsel (Bamise) as a prosecutor. Who is standing trial here? Who is being prosecuted?, he asked.
Justice Oyewole quickly responded that “it was a lapse of tongue, he is the counsel to the commission, so pardon our mistake,” he begged.
The panel sitting continues Tuesday.

http://thenationonlineng.net/witness-evidence-contradicts-fayoses-claim-ekiti-debts/

Manchester United 3, Leicester City 1

The federal government, thirty-six states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have so far shared the sum of N2.56 trillion in the first half of 2017 from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), an investigation by Economic Confidential has revealed.
The report by the economic intelligence magazine shows that apart from the federal government that got N1.09 trillion, Akwa Ibom has the highest allocation among the states when it received N92.72 billion within the period under review.
Apart from Akwa Ibom, nine other states who received the largest allocations are Lagos with N91.45 billion, Rivers comes third with N81.41 billion. The fourth position was grabbed by Delta with N71.98 billion, while Kano State got the fifth place with N62.90 billion, throwing a derivation state of Bayelsa to the sixth position with N61.45 billion.
Others among the first ten are Katsina State in the seventh position garnering N44.80 billion, Oyo hits number eight with N43.78 billion, Kaduna manages with number nine position with N42.60 billion and the tenth place surprisingly goes to Borno State, with N39.63billion despite the calamities that have befallen the North-eastern state.
The Economic Confidential search further reveals that the states with the lowest allocation from the Federation Account within the period under review are Gombe on the 36th position with N24.87 billion, followed by Ebonyi State with N24.91 billion in the 35th position, Nasarawa State in the 34th position with N25.41 billion. While Ekiti and Kwara states took the 33rd and 32nd positions respectively with N25.57 billion and N26.48 billion.
In terms of geo-political zones, the findings show that the six states in the south-south zone got more than double what the five states in the south-east got within the period.
The South-south states put together got N368 billion; the North-west took the second position with N283 billion, sending the South-west states to the third position with N262 billion.
The North-central geopolitical zone got N190 billion to stand at the fourth position, while the fifth and the sixth positions went to North-east and South-east with N189 billion and N154.7 billion respectively.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/240896-nigerian-govt-states-shared-n2-56-trillion-six-months-report.html

The Nigerian government has released details of payments to the 36 states as refund of “over-deductions on Paris Club, London Club Loans and Multilateral debts on the accounts of States and Local Governments (1995-2002).”
The latest payment is the second tranche of the refunds to the states.
A total of N243.8 billion was released to the 36 states and Abuja in the second tranche.
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, said approval for the release of the fund was given by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on May 4.
The details, released by the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday evening, showed that Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Kano and Rivers received the largest sum of N10 billion each.
The states had earlier promised to use a large chunk of the money to settle debts owed workers and pensioners in their respective domains.
“The releases were conditional upon a minimum of 75 per cent being applied to the payment of workers’ salaries and pensions for States that owe salaries and pension,” Salisu Dambatta, a finance ministry spokesperson said in the statement.
The finance ministry said it was reviewing the impact of these releases on the level of arrears owed by the various state governments.


See the full details of the amount received by each state below
RE-REIMBURSEMENTS OF OVERDEDUCTIONS ON PARIS CLUB LOANS FROM STATE GOVERNMENT
MANDATE TO THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA: 2ND INSTALMENT
S/N STATE AMOUNT PAYABLE (NGN)
1 ABIA 5715765871.48
2 ADAMAWA 6114300352.68
3 AKWA-IBOM 10000000000
4 ANAMBRA 6121656702.34
5 BAUCHI 6877776561.25
6 BAYELSA 10000000000
7 BENUE 6854671749.25
8 BORNO 7340934865.32
9 CROSS RIVER 6075343946.93
10 DELTA 10000000000
11 EBONYI 4508083379.98
12 EDO 6091126592.49
13 EKITI 4772836647.08
14 ENUGU 5361789409.66
15 GOMBE 4472877698.19
16 IMO 7000805182.97
17 JIGAWA 7107666706.76
18 KADUNA 7721729227.55
19 KANO 10000000000
20 KATSINA 8202130909.85
21 KEBBI 5977499491.45
22 KOGI 6027727595.8
23 KWARA 5120644326.57
24 LAGOS 8371938133.11
25 NASARAWA 4551049171.12
26 NIGER 7210793154.95
27 OGUN 5739374694.46
28 ONDO 7003648314.28
29 OSUN 6314106340.62
30 OYO 7901609864.25
31 PLATEAU 5644079055.41
32 RIVERS 10000000000
33 SOKOTO 6441128546.76
34 TARABA 5612014491.52
35 YOBE 5413103116.59
36 ZAMFARA 5442385594.49
37 FCT 684867500.04
243795465195.2
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/237340-breaking-nigerian-govt-releases-details-paris-club-payment-states-full-details.html

ENUGU— Second Republic Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, yesterday, put the blame for the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to the hijack of the party by members strange to its core philosophy.
Ekwueme, a founding father of the PDP particularly cited the membership re-registration exercise conducted under the stewardship of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the genesis of the crisis.
The former vice president added that he sometimes felt like weeping for the party, PDP.
Ekwueme spoke in Enugu, yesterday, when the Prof. Jerry Gana-led Strategy Review and Interparty Relations Committee of the PDP presented its report to him in Enugu.
Ekwueme said: “The story of PDP makes me sometimes to weep. When our founding fathers said the party will be in charge for 60 years or more, some thought they were just bragging. PDP was packaged to be a mass movement of all Nigerians just like the ANC of South Africa.
Genesis of PDP’s current situation
“We started that way, the first election in 1998, December 5, we won massively across the country, we took control of 28 out of 36 states, In 1999, we ended up with 21 of the 36 governors. South-East and South-South were all PDP, 10 of the 19 governors of the north were PDP, it was a strong showing.
“We also had control of the National Assembly. With that showing, all we needed to do was to manage the party properly as envisaged by the founding fathers, making it a mass movement and expanding its power base.
Dr Ekwueme
“Unfortunately, some people, who did not know how the party was formed or what informed its philosophy, got involved in the party and decided to convert it to a personal estate without regard to the underpinning principles that formed it and gradually, we started to lose ground.
“At one stage, in my state, they decided to commence the re-registration of members so as to exclude members, who they thought were not in their camp. Instead of attracting more members, they decided to exclude. That was the genesis of our present situation, coupled with lack of internal democracy.
“I can’t remember how many times I’ve been called to spearhead the process of bringing back people to our party. That was what late Umaru Yar’Adua invited me to do as soon as he took over as president. We went round all the six zones, met with aggrieved members, unfortunately, Yar’Adua passed on and that initiative was not conclusively implemented.”
Party’ll get back to where it started
The PDP founding father, however, said he was happy that after the debacle of 2015, there has been the need for retrospect as evidenced by the strategy committee and the move to bring it back to its original plan.
He promised to take time to read the report, noting that with the calibre of members of the committee, the party will get back to where it started, if the recommendation is fully implemented.
We’ll revive it and win back power by 2019— Wali
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s former Ambassador to China and former Foreign Affairs Minister, Alhaji Aminu Wali, who presented the report to the former vice president, said the report had addressed the party’s woes, which he said would help revive the party.
Wali said: “Impunity, party discipline, impositions and intra-party probems were looked into and solutions preferred. We’ve presented the report to the caretaker committee. We’ve learnt our lessons, the indiscipline that bedevilled the party over the years were tackled.
“We want to rebrand our party and get back to the visions of the founding fathers which made the party a winning party. We will revive the party and win back power by 2019.”
On mega party
On the issue of the upcoming mega party, Wali said: “PDP has always been a mega party; find out the personalities behind the so-called mega party. I don’t want to dwell on that because it’s not really a serious effort. They don’t understand how parties are formed. It’s going to be very difficult forming a mega party.”
A member of the committee and Chairman of Daar Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, said PDP was formed by eminent citizens, who set out to build a strong party for Nigeria with well packaged people-oriented policies of government.
He said: “But we made mistake and lost 2015 polls, that loss opened our eyes to the problems in the party, hence the setting up of this strategy review and inter party relations committee.”
“The committee presented a report and members were broken into 11 syndicates on various aspects including coming up with a new manifesto for the party and ways of addressing imposition, internal party democracy.
“We’ve addressed the problems in our report, we want to return the party to Nigerians, we apologize to them on any way we’ve failed them, we shall correct those mistakes and re present ourselves to them. We want to get the youths and the women to play prominent roles.
He noted that there is no faction in the party, describing those claiming to be in a faction as dissidents.
“There are a few dissidents who have right to express themselves. Our governors, senators, state chairmen, trustees are all with the caretaker committee. There’s no faction. We are all heading to Port Harcourt to get final decision from court on the matter by Friday, 17, February.”
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/pdp-destroyed-ekwueme/

A former minister of transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has vowed to muster every support necessary to fight and ensure that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is pulled down and buried, if those conspiring to change the zoning arrangement conceding the position of national chairmanship of the party to the Southwest fail to retrace their steps.
He gave this warning yesterday at a press conference held at Ikoyi office of the former deputy national chairman (Southwest) of the PDP, Chief Olabode George. Speaking on behalf of concerned PDP elders in the South west, Babatope said the plot by some influential governors to change the game plan had been uncovered, warning that everything would be done to resist move. His words: “We understand they are concocting a new scenario by merely zoning the National Chairman position to the South without the traditional specificity of the particular place in the South. This is not acceptable to us. This is blatant treachery and a dubious attempt to rob the South West of our just deserve. We will not take this lying low.”
Babatope, who acted as the Chairman, Olabode George national chairman campaign coordinator in the build up to the botched Port Harcourt convention, insisted that George remained the consensus candidate of the party for the Southwest. He said: “Last year, in the new scramble to elect a new National Chairman, the Committee that was enpanelled with the responsibility to zone the office naturally chose the South West Zone to bring out their best nominee. It was a fair and just and reasonable decision.”
“We all met in Akure in early August last year. Our two governors, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko and Mr. Ayodele Fayose presided over the proceedings. All the political heavyweights from Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun and Lagos were all dutifully present to ensure plural contributions and tidy up the democratic flowering. After an exhaustive debate and passionate submissions, the matter was put to vote. Chief Olabode Ibiyinka George was overwhelmingly voted for and subsequently adopted as the South West consensus candidate for the position of the National,” he added.
Warning against a repeat of the conspiracy that played out against George at the Port Harcourt convention where Jimi Agbaje was propped up as a contender for the chairmanship position, he said he would fight with the last drop of blood in his veins to see that the PDP in pull down and buried. “We are ready to fight. We are willing to dig into the trenches to protect and defend what is our right. If they are stubborn and indifferent to our position, we are capable and willing to help them pull down the house. It is either they give us what belongs to us and respect our choice or they will trigger the final burial and the entombment of PDP” he declared.
http://sunnewsonline.com/well-join-hands-to-bury-pdp-babatope/

A former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, has joined Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Mr. Nnamani said on Sunday that he joined the APC because of intense demand from his constituents.
Mr. Nnamani, who led the Senate from 2005 to 2007 as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, quoted a former U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neil to support his argument for joining the APC.
“All politics is local,” Mr. Nnamani told PREMIUM TIMES hours after announcing the move on Sunday evening. “I have to do what my constituents demanded by joining the APC at ward level.”
Mr. Nnamani had been a member of the PDP since it was founded in 1998 until February 2016 when he abruptly severed ties with the party.
“I do not believe I should continue to be a member of the PDP as it is defined today,” Mr. Nnamani said at the time. “This is certainly not the party I joined years ago to help change my country.”
In October 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari named him the chairman of the electoral reform committee.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/221248-ex-senate-president-ken-nnamani-joins-apc-gives-reasons.html

Former House of Representatives Chairman, Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin (APC, Kano) has backed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s description of members of the National Assembly as corrupt.

The lawmaker was suspended for one legislative year over allegations of bringing the House into disrepute with his whistle blowing on corruption in the House.

In a statement yesterday, Jibrin challenged the leadership of the House to make public the financial statement of the House as well as the controversial running cost allowances of lawmakers.

According to him, former President Obasanjo’s statement was based on facts, saying, “I wish to state categorically that all what former President Obasanjo said is true”.

Jibrin faulted the official response of the House, saying House spokesman, Abdulrazaq Namdas’ statement was not reflective of the opinion of the House members.



He said: “I have released to the public instances of budget fraud. I have provided sufficient evidence to the security and anti- graft agencies and I have indicated my readiness to stand as witness in case of prosecution.

“All they are trying to do in their usual style is to blackmail the executive arm to take responsibility for what is an obvious offence.

“All the anti- graft agencies need to do is to go and investigate only the 2015 SDG projects where about 10 billion naira was budgeted and see where that will lead them. It has remained a huge scandal in the House ,but nobody will talk because it is a system of ‘chop clean mouth’”.

On insufficient allocation to the National Assembly, Jibrin said the House spokesman might not have enough facts at his disposal before making the statement

“The problem is not that the money is insufficient to run the entire activities of the NASS . The truth of the matter is that about half the money is stolen in the name of running costs.

“The NASS has received about 1 trillion naira since 2006 and about 500 billion naira has gone directly into private pockets through the fraud called running costs.

“I have received briefing from my lawyers in London that such scams equal a crime against humanity and there are laws in America and Europe that allow the FBI and INTERPOL to deal with such cases at the international level, so that the culprits can be prosecuted.



“No member has access to copies of the internal budget of the House to see how the remaining money is spent after deducting the fraudulent running costs.

“The House should be ashamed of itself that it knows details of budget of the executive arm, including wage bill, but it cannot simply let the world know the details of its own budget.

“Nobody is saying the members do not need running costs for their offices; what we are saying is that the money is diverted directly into private pockets.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/corruption-allegation-nass-jibrin-backs-obasanjo/

Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday insisted that he would go on with the trial of the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, despite the petition written by his defence lawyers asking that the case be transferred.
The judge said, “I want to say on this that I have a circular by my employer, the National Judicial Council, that where there is a petition in a matter seeking the transfer of the case to another judge, that judge handling the case shall continue to preside over the matter until decision is taken by authority the petition was addressed to.
“On account of this circular, I shall continue to preside over this matter until the honourable Chief Judge of this court takes a decision on Emeka Etiaba’s petition.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is prosecuting Metuh and his firm, Destra Investments Limited, on seven counts of fraud bordering on the N400m he allegedly collected from the Office of the National Security Adviser in November 2014 and $2m money laundering cash transaction.
Metuh was scheduled to open his defence today after the judge on March 9 dismissing his no-case submission and declaring that he (Metuh) had case to answer.
But the judge disclosed that a lawyer in Metuh’s defence team, Mr. Emeka Etiaba, had petitioned the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, asking for the transfer of the case to another judge.
The judge disclosed this while considering an application by one of Metuh’s lawyer, Mr. Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), asking for an adjournment due to the absence of the leader of the defence team, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), who was said to be on a trip to University of Iloring for an eye surgery.
The judge while writing his ruling on the application for adjournment paused to read from his record, by asking Adedipe and the lead prosecuting counsel, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, if they were aware of the petition.
He said, “Learned counsel for the prosecution and learned counsel for the defence, I want to ask you a question and I want you to respond if you are aware of it or not.
“Are you aware that after the prosecution had called eight witness cross-examined and re-examined and ruling has been delivered on the no-case submission by the defendants, dismissing the no-case submission, one of the counsel, Mr. Emeka Etiaba (SAN), wrote a petition to the honourable Chief Judge of this court asking for the transfer of this case, principally on the reasons that the court gave ruling in favour of the prosecution and that the court also refused to release the ruling and the records of the proceedings to them, and that the first accused person was my classmate in the law school? I didn’t know the first accussed was my classmate, it was he (Etiaba) that said so. Are you aware of the petition?”
In response, EFCC’s prosecuting counsel, Tahir, said he was not aware of it.
He said, “Speaking for the prosecution my lord, I categorically state without any equivocation that until this hour and minute, I am not aware that such petition has been written by one of the counsel for the defendants.”
On his part, Adedipe said, “Any letter written by any member of the defence counsel is a decision of the defence team.
The judge in his ruling insisted on going on with the case until superior authorities directs otherwise.
He also said in his ruling that the records of proceedings comprising of about 212 pages had been released to the defence two days ago.
“This is not the case is not the only case I handle. The court had to suspend every other thing to ensure that the record of proceedings as of March 9 was ready. I had to read and proof read about four times and it has been released to them two days ago.”
The judge also said it was an act of professional breach of the code of conduct for legal practitioners on the part of Etiaba for writing to the Chief Judge without serving same on the prosecution.
The judge said the act was a breach of provisions of Rule 30(5) of the Code of Conduct for Legal Practitioners.
The judge granted the application and fixed March 23 for Metuh to open its defence.
The judge noted that the case had already been adjourned three times before today (Thursday) at the instance of the defence.
He warned the defence team to be mindful of section 396(4) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act which prohibits parties to a criminal trial from taking more than five adjournment.
http://www.punchng.com/breaking-metuhs-petition-cant-stop-his-trial-before-me-judge/

The two term governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, was among the top politicians who were recently questioned by the EFCC for collecting money from the office of the NSA. But unlike others who are angry over their invitation by the anti-graft agency, the former governor in this interview says he holds no grudge against the government for fighting corruption. Bafarawa asks all Nigerians to team up with President Muhammadu Buhari to stamp out corruption from the polity so as to give Nigerians a new lease of life.

Why are you talking about fighting corruption after being arrested and detained by EFCC along with some other top politicians over money-related matters?

Attahiru Bafarawa
Attahiru Bafarawa
Well, from my analysis, corruption in Nigeria is not a thing that one man can fight. I believe fighting corruption is the responsibility of every Nigerian. Don’t forget that I served for eight years from 1999 – 2007, I served for eight years. When we took over from the military in 1999 the crude oil was $9 per barrel and in 2007 it had gotten up to $30 – $40 and then we left a lot of legacies in our various states during that period. When I left office, I left behind N12 billion in the treasury. You can see the fortune that came the way of the nation between 2007 and 2015 when the price of oil rose to over $100 per barrel. One begins to wonder why those who enjoyed the huge oil revenue should be asking for bailout from the Federal Government.

I can say that I left behind legacies that generations yet unborn will be very proud of. We had a good leader, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who was committed to fighting corruption and he created many institutions like the EFCC and the ICPC to handle the job. Whatever name you want to give him; whether he did it for fighting corruption or for witch-hunting, at least, it assisted in fighting corruption. He laid a foundation, he realised there was corruption and he fought it. After he left, his successors -YarÁdua and Jonathan-did not do much to fight corruption and that exacerbated the monster in the land.

Today, one can say that up to 90 percent of Nigerians are corrupt because when you go to the grassroots level, that is where corruption starts. The electorate will demand money before they elect you into office no matter how good you are, no matter the kind of ideology you have and intend to bring for their own good. If you don’t give them money, they would not support you. The game is that anyone who comes and shares money to them gets the support and nothing more.

Is that why you are supporting Buhari’s anti-corruption war?

Certainly. My support for him stems from the fact that it is a blessing for Nigerians that Buhari’s administration is fighting corruption. We shouldn’t see it as Buhari fighting corruption but something that all of us must join and ensure that it succeeds because Buhari can’t do it alone. It would also be dangerous if we ignore the fight against corruption because it will swallow the country.

As I have said earlier when a huge amount of about $100 a barrel for crude oil is spent and all the money vanishes and government has to bail states out it shows clearly that something has gone wrong somewhere. Giving that bailout to state without the federal Government investigating what they did with their huge oil earnings was a bit hasty. I would have expected the President to raise a committee to probe how the states incurred their debts and how they arrived at seeking bailout and how they want to use the bailout funds.

For this administration to succeed in fighting corruption, the government must involve not just the EFCC and ICPC but also other Nigerians. The government must open an office for public awareness for fighting corruption.

Special office should be open to campaign for the common man to see the dangers of corruption. We have to consider preventive measures before prosecuting those who are corrupt. We must adopt the two methods if we must succeed. Nigeria is in serious problem because it appears to me that loan which the Obasanjo’s administration managed to pay up, we are going back to incur more debts for the nation. We seem to be back to square one by borrowing, borrowing and borrowing and heading to nowhere. No matter what we are talking about, we will not succeed if we don’t fight corruption. I want Nigerians to take the fight against corruption as a project and not just Buhari’s.

Let’s take it as a collective project otherwise we will continue to sink and our children who are not yet born will not forgive us. In 2012 when Jonathan wanted to remove fuel subsidy, Nigerians came out and protested but he had seen it coming that was why he decided to remove subsidy but it wasn’t supported by Nigerians. More than four years later, people have seen the need to do so. If oil subsidy had been removed when Jonathan wanted to do so, President Buhari would have gotten an easy ride to continue.

If we don’t help Buhari to fight corruption, the person who will succeed him will have many issues to contend with and the nation would suffer the more for it. I believe we don’t have any country than Nigeria and we have to tell ourselves the truth about the situation of this country. It is only in Nigeria that you will see a person looking for government office for them to amass public funds for their own selfish interest. It is only in Nigeria that when a man who had no house gets into public office and in few months after taking over office, he can afford to buy over the whole community because of illicit public funds.

Are you not afraid that you may be accused of supporting Buhari because of your recent arrest and detention by the EFCC?

This arrest issue was best known to the EFCC. I wasn’t in the country when they came looking for me and then I got in touch with them. I got my lawyer to write to them that I was not in the country and that when I am back I would report to their office. Five days later when I arrived I went there myself. When I went there I was told that my invitation was in connection with the N100 million which a former minister gave to me. I accepted that he gave me the money and I gave it to those it was meant for. I told them that the money was paid to the beneficiaries through cheques. The matter is already in court and I don’t want to say more than that for now.

It doesn’t mean that when you come to court you are corrupt. The investigators can do it rightly or wrongly but what they are trying to do is find out the facts whether what they are told or what has been seen in the books is true or not. It is left to the person to go and explain himself. So I am not going to accuse or blame EFCC for inviting me because they are investigating me. I know that in the course of investigation anything can happen. EFCC investigators are not judges but are merely trying to get to know the truth from those who have been mentioned or accused of doing certain things. So, we should all cooperate with the anti-corruption agencies to get to know the truth about the corruption cases they are investigating.

Are you not worried that the fight against corruption may defy the laws of Nigeria leading to extended arrest and detention of innocent people?

I am one of the victims. I was detained in prison for three weeks and then taken to court but thank God today the FCT Chief Judge has given them an order barring magistrate from granting EFCC holding orders. That means that we are making progress in this country. So, no more court orders from Magistrate courts to arrest and detain people without charging them to court within the stipulated time. We are the first victims and those who are coming will not be affected but at least, we are learning and moving forward.

So are you satisfied with the way corruption is being fought by EFCC at the moment?

I am saying that they are trying and when they make mistakes, they should be corrected for the overall interest of the country. What they need is to get more experienced persons into the system and adopt a more civilised way of handling corruption investigation so as to win the war.

So does it mean that you didn’t collect any money directly from the former NSA?

As I have said before, I am saying it again and again that I didn’t collect anything directly from the former NSA but let’s not go to that because I said the matter is still in court. Let the matter be decided by the court before I talk on it.

The government appears to be putting all its efforts in fighting corruption, leaving other vital sectors to suffer. What do you think about that?

You see, that is the danger of corruption. That is the problem Mr. President finds himself in. For this country to move forward we must have our resources. The government of the day is broke. The problem we are facing now has to do with massive corruption, security and economic issues begging for urgent answers. First, we should pity Buhari and do all we can to assist him to win the fight against corruption and terrorism staring this nation on the face.

I am not a member of APC but I am a Nigerian and President Muhammadu Buhari is my president. When he joined politics in 2003 he must have come with his own ideology. He has tried over the years to win the Presidency and use his leadership to change the country for the good of all. You can see his strident attempts from 2003 to date when he finally won the election last year and it is our strong belief that Buhari is going to turn around Nigeria’s fortune. The country was already in a bad shape by the time he was sworn in about seven months ago and I know that he needs to take his time to put things right.

Are you surprised to know now that the huge part of money which PDP used during the last general elections was meant for arms to fight Boko Haram?

I don’t believe any politician who received that money knew it was arms money. How would one know what the money was meant for by the time they were being paid? Absolutely impossible. How would you know the source having not been given a contract? But when we go to court everyone will explain himself.

Are you regretting supporting Jonathan in the last election?

I am not regretting. I have never been a member of PDP since the creation in 1999 up till 2014. I have never been a member of PDP because my ideology is different from theirs otherwise I would have joined them. I found myself in PDP by accident. What I mean by accident is that I was part and parcel of the APC. I am a founding member of the APC. I was forced to leave APC because of corruption in politics in my state when PDP governors defected to the APC. Corruption came into the system along the formation of the party when they said that the PDP governors were going to join APC and I happened to be a victim. We were forced to hand over the party to my governor, who was a PDP member. So my followers insisted we must remain in PDP and I had to work with them.

I had to work with them. I joined PDP at the state level with my people without coming to Abuja or anybody enabling me. Even the top shots in PDP, including former President Jonathan did not believe that I had indeed joined the PDP when he was told. He could not believe that because during the days of Obasanjo, I had a lot of pressure to join the PDP but I refused.

Mind you I am a professional politician; I have ideology so I have to protect my profession. I started as a local government counsellor in 1976 so this is my profession. So I still stand on what I believe. That was why I had to join PDP just to get my people to have a place where they can contest election. The same way Buhari finds himself in this system is the way I found myself in the PDP.

So how long are you going to stay in PDP?

I will remain in PDP for as long as it is convenient. The APC is the same with PDP. I used to call them PDP 1 and PDP 2 because almost many of the people in PDP are now in APC and vice versa. For instance, the Number 2 man in PDP who ruled this country for eight years as a vice president is now in APC. If you count all the governors in APC, most of them were at one time or the other were in PDP. You can say so of at least two National Chairmen of PDP now in APC.

You joined politics in 1976 and that idea has still been with you. What exactly is that idea?

My idea is to work for the people. That is the ideology of being a politician to help the needy. When you join politics, you are just like the human rights fighter; you fight for the common man not yourself. So this is my own ideology to help people. When I was a counsellor in 1976, we did not pay much attention to what we could get from the government. In fact, we did not know much about money and acquisition of wealth.

I was only 22 years when I was elected into local government council and I later became the deputy chairman of the local government. Our major concern was how to make the people happy by providing service.

At that time we weren’t looking for money but popularity. We were more interested in doing something for people in the society and to please the people. It was during that time Obasanjo created UBE scheme and I was one of the counsellors in charge of education and we were building primary schools and health centres in the villages. At that time we used to return money allocated to us by the state government at the end of the year because we could not make use of the entire amount allocated to us.

When I was a governor I left almost N12 billion in the treasury. So if I was looking for money at that time when a billion Naira meant a lot of money, I would have stolen that money.

If you were to look back at your tenure of eight years, what would you point out as the most outstanding achievement and what really excites you about that tenure?

A lot. If you go to Sokoto, you can see the over 1000 kilometres of roads which I constructed and the numerous educational and health institutions which were done by my administration. When I took over the leadership of the state we had only 30 indigenes that where medical doctors but before I left I produced more than 100 medical doctors. I trained them locally and abroad before leaving office and today they are proud and rendering quality services to Nigerians in Sokoto State.

The people of Sokoto State really love and respect me and that is what gives me joy today. Recently, when they heard that I had been released on bail, they took over the airport to receive me back home. It took me more than an hour to reach home from the airport because of the large number of people who had assembled to receive me.

People came on their own to receive me. When I reached home I met thousands of people waiting to see me. So if I look back to the time when I left office and the love that my people continue to show me, I have enough reasons to thank God.

How best will you advise Mr. President to fight corruption?

Buhari has started well and should be encouraged to do more. He cannot stop the war half way. But he should set up public communication centres to educate or enlighten Nigerians on the dangers of corruption so as to elicit their support, goodwill and understanding for the fight.

Some Nigerians particularly, the opposition, claim that President Buhari is selective in his corruption fight. Wht do you think about that?

What I am saying is that Buhari has just started the fight against corruption and we should give him time and maximum cooperation to win the war and save Nigeria from stagnation and poverty induced by graft. These arrests being made in connection with corruption just started like a month or two ago. We need to give him time for us to see if indeed he is selective or not. It is too early to say that Buhari is selective in the fight against corruption.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/90-of-nigerians-are-corrupt-bafarawa/

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), has said the present administration will not spare judges who are found to be corrupt.

Malami said unlike in the past when indicted judges were only sent on compulsory retirement, any judge found culpable in the new dispensation risked criminal prosecution and forfeiture of assets as additional consequences.

The minister said this in Lagos on Tuesday, according to a statement made available to our correspondent by a group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project.

According to SERAP, Malami delivered a paper in Lagos at the presentation of the group’s latest report, titled, ‘Go home and sin no more: Corrupt judges escaping justice in Nigeria’.

Malami, who was represented on the occasion by his Senior Special Assistant on White Collar Crimes, Abiodun Aikomo, was quoted to have vowed that acts of judicial impunity on the part of judges would not be tolerated by the President Muhamadu Buhari-led administration.

He noted that the Nigerian judiciary had been losing public trust and confidence as it appeared as judges enjoyed total immunity from prosecution for alleged corrupt practices.

The AGF added, “As we may be aware, this administration promised Nigerians that it will promptly address the challenges facing our nation in the three areas of corruption, economy and security. Let no one be in doubt, the legitimate expectation of Nigerians in this regard shall be met.

“In this regard therefore, I am reiterating that the fight against corruption shall be total and will not exclude judicial officers, who are found wanting. After all, it is beyond doubt that a corrupt judge cannot meaningfully contribute to the fight against corruption.”

Malami said judges would be continually reminded of the judicial oath that they took, which mandated them to deliver justice without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, independently and impartially.

“In reality, it cannot be over-emphasised that systemic corruption and impunity are prevalent in Nigeria, and that they cut across all sectors of the society, unfortunately, including the judiciary – an institution that is universally believed to be the hope of the common man.

“Ideally, the judiciary in a democratic state ought to be accountable less to public opinion and more to public interest. It should discharge its constitutional roles by being principled, independent and impartial,” he stated.


www.punchng.com/corrupt-judges-will-be-prosecuted-forfeit-assets-fg/

Cc:Lalasticlala

The Federal Government said on Tuesday that Lassa fever has claimed 63 lives out of 212 suspected reported from 62 local government areas in affected states.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, confirmed this at the emergency National Council of Health meeting in Abuja on the outbreak of the disease.
Adewole listed the 17 affected states as Bauchi, Niger, Taraba, Kano, Rivers, Oyo, Ondo, Edo, Plateau, Gombe, Nasarawa, Lagos, Delta, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Zamfara and Kogi as well as the FCT.
He said there is high level of denial and conspiracy across some states, adding that health managers should not deceive executives by the pretence and silence.
The minister described the denial of Ebonyi to report five suspected cases and one death as conspiracy of denial.
He said every state should consider itself at risk and put measures to contain and prevent the disease.
Adewole said the federal government would maintain high level of alert all year round to celebrate Lassa fever obituary next year.
“With the resources available we will collectively eliminate the disease in Nigeria soon.
“We have special facilities around us and we have adequate human resource to address the challenge.
“We will strengthen the Primary Health Care Centres across the country to enhance the surveillance mechanism,’’ he said.
The minister said 5,000 Primary Health Care centres would be activated before the end of 2016.
“A committee had already been set up to map out health care centres across the country would benefit from the programme.
“At least one primary health care centre will be functional in a ward,’’ said Adewole.
In a related development, the minister announced that six most affected states will have Lassa fever diagnostic centres.
He said the states are Niger, Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi and Ondo states; this is in addition to the six existing Lassa fever treatment centres.
According to him, the centres are Lassa fever Treatment Centre, Irrua, Edo; University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Maiduguri, Borno; Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano.
Others are Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), University College Hospital Ibadan, and the National Centre for Disease Control, Asokoro, Abuja.

thenationonlineng.net/lassa-fever-claims-63-spread-to-17-states-minister/

The All Progressives Congress on Tuesday said the opposition Peoples Democratic Party has no one to blame but itself for its current woes.

The governing party said it was surprised that the PDP has up till this point; continued to blame everyone but itself for its self-inflicted problems which has led to the sorry state the PDP finds itself.

National Secretary of the APC, Mai Bala Buni said this in a statement he signed in Abuja.

He was reacting to comments attributed to the National Secretary of the PDP, Wale Oladipo who was quoted as saying some PDP members were being “used by the APC, to draw political capital from the present challenges facing our party [PDP].”

According to Buni, such comments were not only funny and silly but were also unfounded allegations.

The APC scribe said the PDP now sounds like a broken record with its daily conspiracy theories blaming external forces and unseen hands for its electoral misfortunes, in-fighting, mind-boggling corruption charges and on-going probe of some PDP leaders.

Buni said, “The question begging for answers is: Why does the PDP choose to grope in the dark while reality stares it in the face? Did the PDP not know that it will one day pay for the impunity, recklessness and shocking mis-management of the country’s common wealth perpetuated under its watch for 16 years?

“For the record, the APC has no hand in the in-fighting and resultant implosion being witnessed in PDP’s hierarchy. Perhaps the wind of Change has blown through the PDP camp and many PDP members realise the need to embrace and enforce change.”

The APC reiterated its earlier call on members of the PDP who are genuinely inspired by the APC-led administration to join the APC fold noting that it is their right to abandon a sinking ship and join one that is smooth-sailing.




www.punchng.com/pdp-should-blame-itself-apc/

www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/fg-imposes-n50-stamp-duty-on-bank-customers/

THE Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria, on Tuesday, imposed stamp duty of N50 on bank customers for money received into their accounts.
Consequently, bank customers will henceforth pay N50 stamp duty for money received into their accounts via electronic transfer, cash and cheques.
This order was contained in a circular to all Deposit Money Banks and Other Financial institutions titled, Collection and Remittance of statutory charges on receipts of Nigeria Postal Service under the Stamp Duties Act”.
The CBN stated, “As part of efforts to boost its revenue base, the federal government of Nigeria is exploring revenue opportunities in the non-oil sectors especially taxes and rates. It is in recognition of this fact that banks and other financial institutions are enjoined to support government’s revenue drive through compliance with the provisions of the Stamp Duties Act, LFN 2004 as reinforced by the court judgement in Suit No FHC/L/CS/1710/2013. In this regard, the CBN pursuant to the provisions of its enabling laws, hereby issues this circular to all DMBs other financial institutions:
“With immediate effect, all DMBs and other financial institutions shall commence the charging of N50 per eligible transaction in accordance with the provisions of the Stamp Duties Act and Federal Government Financial Regulations 2009, that is, all receipts given by any bank or other financial institution in acknowledgment of services rendered in respect of electronic transfer and teller deposits from N1, 000 and above;
“For all avoidance of doubt the following receipts are however exempted from imposition of stamp duties: payments of deposits or transfer by self to self whether inter or intra bank; and any form of withdrawals/transfers from saving accounts;
It should be noted that these charges are only payable by receiving accounts;
“Each DMB shall open an account designated as NIPOST Stamp Duties Account into which all charges collected shall be paid. The balances in such accounts shall be transferred monthly by the DMBs to CBN NIPOST Stamp Duty Collection Account No. 3000047517;
“Other financial institutions shall remit their Stamp Duty collections to any DMB of their choice.”

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on Nigerians to stop squandering the nation’s commonwealth and be prepared to make sacrifices in 2016.

Obasanjo, in his Christmas message after a church service on Friday, admitted that the country’s resources had been squandered by its leaders in the past, saying that it was time for everyone to adjust to the reality of the current economic gloom.

According to a report by The Cable, the former President said, “We have had downs in our economy before, we have risen up again. We have made money; we have squandered it. If we are sensible at all, there must be an end to squandering.”

Obasanjo, who noted that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had warned Nigerians about the poor economic situation in the country, however, called on the government to do more by leading by example.

He said, “I still believe that there are still areas of government that are not serious enough to make us feel that what is being said is something that would concern all of us. It would be very difficult for the people of this country to see that certain arms of government are living in luxury, while the government is asking the ordinary people to continue to make sacrifice.

“I believe that all arms of governments and the private sector should realise that if we are going to shorten the time of this hardship, if we are going to have any cushioning effects for the ordinary people, then there would have to be sacrifices made by those who have to make more sacrifice.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s monetary policy committee had hinted at a period of recession in 2016, while the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had said there would be a change in the pump price of petrol.

The National Electricity Regulation Commission had also said Nigerians would have to pay more for electricity from February 2016. The president had given an assurance that over time, all these would get better for the good of “ordinary Nigerians.”

http://www.punchng.com/cash-crunch-leaders-should-lead-by-example-says-obasanjo/

•EFCC may seize Dasuki’s, others’ assets •Targets mansions in Abuja, Kaduna •One top Nigerian, two Israeli suspects sneak out

There were indications last night that some of the former military chiefs and military officers under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have volunteered to refund some money for jobs undone.

A source privy to the activities of the Special Investigative Committee said: “About four of such former officers have offered to make refunds. I think Dasuki does not know the extent to which the panel had gone in probing the arms deals.

“When the case gets to court, Nigerians will appreciate the depth of the investigation by the panel.”

In line with its enabling Act of Parliament, EFCC may seize the assets of a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and some ex-military chiefs allegedly involved in the N644 billion arms deals.



The anti-graft commission may invoke temporary assets forfeiture clause as part of the ongoing probe of the arms procurement.

It was learnt that three suspects, including a top Nigerian and two Israelis, have sneaked out of the country to escape arrest.

It was also gathered that some former service chiefs have offered to return votes meant for failed contracts.

A reliable source said: “The EFCC may invoke Assets Forfeiture clause to seize the properties of Dasuki and other Service Chiefs who allegedly diverted or misappropriated funds meant for arms procurement in line with sections 28 and 34 of the EFCC (Establishment Act) 2004 and Section 13(1) of the Federal High Court Act, 2004.

“Section 28 reads: ‘Where a person is arrested for an offence under this Act, the Commission shall immediately trace and attach all the assets and properties of the person acquired as a result of such economic or financial crime and shall thereafter cause to be obtained an interim attachment order from the Court.’

“We have appreciable list of assets in Abuja, Kaduna, Lagos and Port Harcourt to be attached. One of the affected officers built two mansions in Kaduna and Abuja under six months.

“A Service Chief is also being investigated for allegedly acquiring a property of the late first Civilian Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.

As at the time of filing this report, three key suspects in the procurement process were alleged to have sneaked out of the country.

Another source said: “The government may appear to have been hard on Dasuki because three suspects implicated in the arms deal have sneaked out of the country. The suspects, including a top Nigerian and two Israelis, were rated as closer to Dasuki.

“Wherever they are, we will repatriate them accordingly. With the cooperation of some countries, there is no hiding place for any suspect.

“This is one of the reasons why the Federal Government does not want Dasuki to travel out for medical treatment.

“The Department of State Security Service(DSS) was proactive in placing one of the suspects on surveillance but the recourse to court made the affected culprit to leave the country.

“Another factor is that the cases against the ex-NSA are many and the government cannot say because of an isolated matter, he should be allowed to go abroad. What if he does not return to the country?”
http://thenationonlineng.net/arms-deal-ex-military-chiefs-offer-to-refund-contract-sums/

It's been awhile since Justin Bieber ran afoul of anyone and that had left us hopeful.
But the superstar is back in the news for two recent meltdowns.
On Thursday, the Biebs got frustrated at a concert in Oslo, Norway, after a fan spilled something on the stage where he was set to perform. Video obtained by TMZ shows the singer attempting to clean something spilled on the stage when excited fans block him.
After asking the fans to stop, Bieber appears frustrated, then says, "Never mind, I'm done. I'm not doing the show," and walks off.
The day before the star quickly left an interview with a Spanish radio station after it reportedly asked him to help "break the Internet."
Bieber has been well-known in the past for run-ins with the law and scandal. He's appeared to have been in image rehabilitation mode lately as he prepares to drop his new album, "Purpose," in November.
He apologized to fans on his official Instagram account and explained that "it's been a rough week" for him including "long days of no sleep."
"In no way did I mean to come across mean, but chose to end the show as the people in the front row would not listen," Bieber wrote. "Hopefully people will understand where I am coming from. I don't always handle things the right way but I'm human and I'm working on getting better at responding not reacting.
edition.cnn.com/2015/10/30/entertainment/justin-bieber-feat/index.html

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo have said that African studies have developed to dismantle the jaundiced of European imperialism and perspectives.
Obasanjo said this on Wednesday while delivering his keynote address at the first International Conference of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA), with the theme:” The 21st Century: Past, Present and Future” held at University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State capital.
According to him, African studies has also reconstructed the glorious and integrity of Africa to affirm the African identity long denied by the Europeans.
The former president said:”it is intriguing that thousands of people all over the world earn their living from teaching, researching, writing, celebrating and even condemning. Thousands of books, journals, reviews have also been conducted on Africa in multiple languages and across academic disciplines. Over the years, Africa studies have developed into a distinct field drawing on various sources ranging from social sciences, humanities to natural sciences including agriculture.
“The narrow vision of African studies as merely cultural Studies has started to wan. Over more than half a century, the field has evolved with diverse interdisciplinary strands. I am delighted that the so-called great European historians who professed that Africa has no history lived to realise that African history and culture had impact and ramifications on other parts of the world including theirs. ”
The former president noted that in the last ten years, the African studies literature has been growing steadily as there are increasing numbers of articles, books, papers that give deep and novel insights on issues in Africa.
Obasanjo said:” it should not be shocking that Africa studies outside Africa have enjoyed greater influence in shaping the field and influencing policies.”
On the future of African studies, he said the future of African studies will be tied to the intellectual, philosophical, ideological and institutional transformation currently taking place in various socio-cultural and political systems in different countries.
Obasanjo said:”African scholars should not be satisfied with merely contributing knowledge that is capitalised in and managed by the West. Significant to the future of African studies is the revitalisation of African universities and scholarly communities in the continent that have been devastated by more than two decades of misguided policies.”
He reiterated his support for ASAA and all its future programmesthenationonlineng.net/african-studies-have-dismantled-western-imperialism-obasanjo/.

Except the five governorship candidates challenging the credibility of the April 11 governorship election in Rivers withdraw their cases from the election petition tribunal or fail to present material evidence like the one exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party, who was returned winner of the election, is as good as gone.
Mr. Wike may need a miracle to come out of the election petition tribunal victorious.
The evidence against the legitimacy of the election that returned him winner is too damning and overwhelming, this newspaper can authoritatively report today.
The Independent National Electoral Commission in Rivers awarded Mr. Wike votes almost five times higher than the actual, authentic total number of voters accredited with card readers and Permanent Voter Cards which was 292, 878, PREMIUM TIMES investigation has revealed.

According to the result declared by the Returning Officer for Rivers State, Osasere Orumwense on April 13, Mr. Wike was awarded 1,029,102 votes, representing 87.77 per cent of 1,228,614, being the conjured number of total accredited voters.
However, according to a bulky 94-page INEC endorsed document exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, the total number of accredited voters for the April 11 guber election in Rivers was 292, 878.
The document was signed by Ibrahim Bawa, the acting director in charge of INEC Legal Unit and Abimbola Oladunjoye, head of unit, Data Management, of the Commission’s Information Communication Technology Department.
Checks by PREMIUM TIMES indicate that it is practically impossible for Mr. Wike or any other candidate in the election to garner votes exceeding the total number of accredited voters, not to talk of amassing such hyper-inflated figure of 1,029,102 awarded Mr. Wike.
In Nigeria’s current electoral system, INEC’s central server automatically generates figures of voters accredited with the electronic Smart Card Readers and Permanent Voters’ Cards across the polling units.
INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, said before the election that the arrangement was to prevent electoral fraud, especially falsification of number of accredited voters, to inflate number of votes cast, as in the case of PDP and Mr. Wike, and of course INEC in Rivers State.
Insiders in INEC told PREMIUM TIMES that the number of accredited voters generated by the commission’s central server is the valid, actual and authentic one for the Rivers State April 11 elections and that it would impossible for anyone to justify the excess votes allocated to Mr. Wike.
In the document, detailing polling unit by polling unit analysis of actual voters’ accreditation for the election, none of the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) had up to 51, 000 accredited voters.
Rivers State is currently delineated into 319 Registration Areas (Wards) and 4,442 polling units.
Port Harcourt LGA had the highest number of accredited voters with 50, 962, while Khana LGA had just 145 registered voters turning up for accreditation.
Our LGA by LGA analysis of the accredited votes shows that Obio/Akpor had 40,481 accredited voters and it was the only LGA with more than 40,000 but lower than 50,000.
Ogba/Egbema/Ndonu LGA had 24,816 accredited voters, while Ikwere LGA had 22,274.
Seven LGAs had between 10,000 and 20,000 accredited voters, according to the INEC endorsed document. They are Ahoada East (16,116 accredited voters); Ahoada West (16,369); Bonny (15,503); Degema (16,993); Akuku-Toru (12,439); Andoni (13,530); and Gokana (12,127).
Others were Asari-Toru (7,328); Emohua (5,014); Okrika (8,790); Opobo Nekoro (7,313); and Oyingbo (9,503); Abual-Odual (2,054); Omuma (1,998); Etche (1,268); Eleme (3,530); Khana (145); Ogu/Bolo (903); and Tai (3,362).
INEC insiders said the only ground that could explain the number of accredited voters in the election exceeding 292,887 is if manual accreditation were used in addition to the use of card readers.
But INEC did not approve the use of manual accreditation for governorship election in any of the states of the Federation.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission wishes to inform all Nigerians that Card Readers will be used for the April 11, 2015 Elections,” Augusta Ogakwu, Secretary to the Commission, said in a statement on April 6.
On Friday, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Kayode Idowu, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that manual accreditation was not employed in any state for the April 11 elections.
The petitioners challenging Mr. Wike’s purported victory at the election petition tribunal are Kemka Elenwo, KOWA party; Dakuku Peterside, All Progressives Congress; Charles Harry, All Progressives Grand Alliance; and Minaibim Harry, Social Democratic Party.
Election observers, including the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria’s 2015 elections, had condemned the elections in Rivers State, alleging violence and irregularities.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/182673-exclusive-rivers-nyeson-wike-a-goner-inec-document-exposes-fraud-by-pdp-inec-in-guber-poll.html

A former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has begged former President Olusegun Obasanjo not to abandon President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the February 14 presidential election.

Daniel’s plea came less than 24 hours after Obasanjo openly declared support for the re-election of Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, who is a member of the opposition All Progressives Congress.

Daniel, while addressing members of the Peoples Democratic Party at the inauguration of the Goodluck/Sambo Independent Support Team in Lagos on Saturday, said Obasanjo gave the people of the South-South region a sense of belonging by ensuring that Jonathan emerged as vice-president in 2007 and as President in 2011.

He, therefore, begged Obasanjo to finish what he started by ensuring that Jonathan completes his second term as President.

Daniel said, “Obasanjo should finish the job he started in 2011 because a job that is half-done is not done at all. It is the height of injustice for Jonathan and the South-South people not to be allowed to do a second-term. We, the Yoruba people are saying that for the reason of equity, Jonathan should be allowed for a second term and after that, power can shift to the North.”

Meanwhile, the Presidency on Saturday said President Goodluck Jonathan was ready at all times to appease former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

It also agreed with the ex-President that candidates in the forthcoming general elections should be judged by their performance.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said this in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH.

Okupe was reacting to a statement credited to Obasanjo that performance, as against party loyalty, should be the overriding factor in voting for candidates in the February elections.

Okupe said Obasanjo was correct in his submission, which he described as statesman-like.

He said, “Obasanjo is right. I want Nigerians to vote for the next President based on performance. Let Buhari tell us his performance and Goodluck Jonathan should tell us his performance.

“Obasanjo is correct; there is nothing wrong with that. That is very statesman-like of him.

“I want my party’s candidates to win but this election is about performance. Luckily, Buhari has been a Head of State before, it does not matter how long he was in government. He was in government for 20 months; Murtala Muhammed was in government for six months and he became a hero.

“It is not an excuse that 20 months is not enough. In 20 months, Buhari showed clear attributes of indolence and incompetence. He did not add any value to the nation. He did not achieve anything. All he did was to be hard and harsh on people. He was busy harassing southerners like Awolowo and Ajasin.

“If you put that side-by-side with the performance of Jonathan, he has touched everything he met. All 24 airports have been refurbished. He has brought railway back to life. There is substantial achievement in power. We can only go forward, we can’t come backWhen asked whether the President was still ready to mend fence with Obasanjo, the presidential aide said Jonathan had tremendous respect for the ex-President.

“This President is a liberal-minded President and he has a lot of respect for Obasanjo. He has never hidden that. He believes that Obasanjo is his political father, no matter whether they have disagreements or not.

“The President is ready at all times to make peace and appease the elderly gentleman,” Okupe said.

Similarly, the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has said it will not join issues with Obasanjo.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prof. Wale Oladipo, stated this in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Saturday.

He said, “Baba (Obasanjo) remains our leader and therefore we won’t join issues with him. We will continue to work with him and other leaders of our party in Ogun State and Nigeria to achieve success.

“I can however assure you that Gboyega Isiaka is poised to win the governorship election in the state with the support of other members of our party in the state like the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina".
http://www.punchng.com/news/dont-abandon-jonathan-daniel-begs-obasanjo/

Barcelona will not be allowed to sign any players in 2015 after their appeal against a transfer ban was
dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The Spanish club was handed a 14-month ban in April after being found guilty of breaching Fifa's
rules on the transfer of players aged under 18.
Cas said: "The panel found in particular that FC Barcelona had breached the rules regarding the
protection of minors and the registration of minors attending football academies.
"Accordingly, the Fifa decision is confirmed in full and the sanction remains in force.
"In view of the need to issue a decision before the opening of the next transfer window, the panel has
issued its decision without the grounds. The full arbitral award, with the reasons for the panel's
decision, will be issued as soon as possible."
A Barcelona statement added: "The errors that the club might have committed, and which have been
recognised and argued before the corresponding authorities, are, in all cases, of an administrative
nature and to a large extent have been caused by the existing conflict between the Fifa regulations
and Spanish legislation, along with the club's conviction that it was acting correctly.

www.tribalfootball.com/articles/court-arbitration-confirms-fifa-transfer-ban-barcelona-4055790