₦airaland Forum

In a move certain to raise eyebrows reminiscent of the outcry over the proposal on the sale of the country’s strategic oil and gas assets, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that it is working on new modalities that would allow it to fund its joint venture (JV) cash call obligations in the future, as well as pay off the arrears on the JVs from oil and gas royalties and taxes.

It said under the planned model, such payments would be deducted through a first line charge, implying that this will leave less funds to the three tiers of government to share.

It disclosed this yesterday in a statement from its Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Mallam Garuba Deen Muhammad in Abuja.



NNPC quoted its Group Managing Director (GMD), Dr. Maikanti Baru, as speaking on the new modalities at a one-day working visit to the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a corporate service unit (CSU) of the NNPC responsible for the management of the federal government’s oil and gas portfolios in the upstream sector.

Baru said that the current JV payment structure requires an urgent review, noting that the new model being proposed by the NNPC would enable it plough back its profits and grow the oil and gas business in the upstream for the benefit of all stakeholders.

According to the statement, he urged the management and staff of NAPIMS to carry out their assignments with professional integrity by benchmarking their operations with global best practices.

He also disclosed that the 12-key business focus areas of the NNPC under his watch were targeted at rejuvenating the entire business operations of the corporation to enable it deliver on its core mandate to all its stakeholders.

He described NAPIMS as a strategic CSU and asked for maximum support from its staff to enable NNPC meet its set goals in the short, medium and long-term.

The statement also said the Group General Manager of NAPIMS, Mr. Dafe Sajebor, who was represented by the General Manager, Production Sharing Contract, Mr. James Jock, in his remarks, assured Baru that NAPIMS would work towards the efficient management of all JVs and production sharing contracts, even in the face of dwindling crude oil prices and incessant pipeline vandalism.

Baru, in a separate meeting, also promised to reposition the National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO) into the engineering, procurement and construction company of choice.

He made this commitment during the maiden town hall meeting with the management and staff of NETCO at its headquarters in Lagos.

He said NETCO, as a strategic business unit (SBU), had over the years delivered profits to NNPC. He assured his audience that NETCO would continue to play the pivotal role of providing in-house professional engineering services to all the autonomous business units (ABUs) of the corporation and other clients.

The Managing Director of NETCO, Siky Aliyu, noted in the statement that NETCO was challenged by low patronage by some ABUs of NNPC and the international oil companies (IOCs).

Aliyu however said the company was determined to harness all opportunities in the oil and gas project portfolios in order to keep reporting a positive bottom-line.

francx:
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Mzflexydeeva:
From pm to prewedding
It all started here

Admits investigation into forgery of Senate Standing Rules inconclusive 
• Police write clerk of N’Assembly for additional information

By Tobi Soniyi in Abuja 

Three months after it charged Senate President Bukola Saraki, his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, and two others with forging the Senate Standing Rules, the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice has declared the investigation into the alleged offence inconclusive, THISDAY has learnt.

The AGF, Abubakar Malami, is now desperately seeking fresh investigations that will enable him convict the accused persons, even though he has not withdrawn the pending charges against them.
To get the court to accept the charges, the AGF had told the court that investigations into the alleged forgery had been concluded.

In June, when the case was first filed in court and before the arraignment of Saraki and other co-accused persons, the federal government deposed to an affidavit, which was attached to the case file at the time, attesting that investigations into the matter had been concluded.

In the charge sheet dated June 10, 2016 and signed by D.E Kaswe Esq., Principal State Counsel on behalf of the AGF, and which was backed by an Affidavit of Completion of Investigation deposed to at the Federal High Court Registry, Abuja, on the same date by Okara Neji Jonah, a litigation officer in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja, attested that the police had concluded its investigations.

Okara swore that “the FCIID (Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department) has concluded investigation of the case and has forwarded the file to the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation for Prosecution”.

However, three days to the adjourned date on the matter, THISDAY gathered from highly reliable sources and sighted various documents from both the office of the AGF and that of the Inspector General of Police (IG) that the prosecution was making frantic efforts to reopen what it termed “inconclusive investigations”.

A letter from the office of the AGF to the IG and signed by the Special Assistant to the President on (Research and Special Projects)/Secretary, National Prosecution Coordination Committee, Sylvester Omoregie Imhanobe, a copy of which was sighted by THISDAY, clearly stated that the AGF was seeking fresh investigations into the case.

The AGF noted that after reviewing the case, he had since realised that the investigations were “inconclusive”, and therefore was seeking to reopen it.
The letter reopening the investigation, addressed to the current IG, Ibrahim Idris, was received in his office on Saturday, August 20, 2016, but which was mistakenly dated Friday, August 19, 2015, read in part: “Sir, I have the instructions of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (HAGF)/Chairman, National Prosecution Coordination Committee (NPCC), to write this letter for your kind prompt action.

“The NPCC and the new legal team engaged to take over the prosecution of the above case have reviewed the case file and found that the police investigation of the case was inconclusive. Therefore, it is necessary that you further investigate the case with particular reference to the following: Did the Seventh Senate at any time amend the Senate Standing Orders 2011? If yes, what was the extent of amendment?
“Further investigations should show – who authorised the amendment of Senate Standing Orders, 2011? Who ordered for the printing of the Senate Standing Orders, 2015? Who distributed the printed copies of the Senate Standing Orders, 2015 to senators-elect?

“Obtain the complete Hansard of the 9th and 24th June 2015 to see what transpired on the floor of the Senate. What date was the induction mentioned by Senator Abdullahi Gumel, what did they do with the Senate Standing Order of 2011 at the induction? Who conducted the induction?

“The statement of Dr. Ogozy Nma should be brought to the attention of Senator Ita Enang and Senator Abu Ibrahim to corroborate or deny it.
“Find out the date Senator Ike Ekweremadu presided over the house and obtain the Hansard for the date.
“Please it is important that I receive your response to the above inquiries on or before September 7, 2016 for further necessary action.”
Acting on the letter, the IG, in a letter dated August 25, 2016, asked the clerk of the National Assembly to furnish his office with additional information on the forgery case.
The IG’s letter was signed by the Chairman, Special Investigation Panel (SIP), Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police Ali Amodu (rtd), a copy of which was also sighted by THISDAY.
The police requested the clerk to furnish them with “the date Senator Ike Ekweremadu presided over the House in 2015”, just as it demanded the “Hansard (votes and proceedings of the plenary session) for the date” in question.
Curiously, in a reminder titled “First Reminder” by the police dated August 31, 2016, the paragraph requesting that “the statement of Dr. Ogozy Nma should be brought to the attention of Senator Ita Enang and Senator Abu Ibrahim to corroborate or deny it” was removed.
As at the time of filing this report, it was not clear if the clerk of the National Assembly had furnished the police with the required information.
What was clear, however, was that the prosecution was desperately searching for information to nail the accused persons.
This latest move confirmed the initial perception that the federal government had filed the forgery charge to humiliate Saraki and Ekweremadu and force them to step down as principal officers of the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Jabi, Abuja, will on Wednesdayrequest that the federal government reopens its case against the accused persons.
Both senators are facing trial over their alleged involvement in the forgery of the Senate Standing Rules, 2015.
Also charged before the court over the alleged forgery were the former clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa, and his deputy, Mr. Benedict Efeturi.
The judge on June 27 admitted the defendants to bail and adjourned the matter for trial. All the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.
However, the case could not proceed as scheduled on the next adjourned date of June 27, 2016, owing to the fact that the court had commenced its annual vacation.
Consequently, the trial of the defendants was differed tillWednesday, September 28, 2016.
Ekweremadu had in a letter to the international community complained of the trumped-up charges against him and his boss, the Senate President, as well as the retired and then serving senior bureaucrats of the National Assembly.
He said: “I also wish to appeal to you to kindly find time to read through the annexures – petition by members of the Senate Unity Forum, statements by persons interrogated, and the police report – to see if our names appeared anywhere in these documents.
“You may, thereafter, judge for yourself whether the federal government, acting through the Attorney General of the Federation, has any justification whatsoever to generate our names for trial.
“The list of the accused persons appears to have been politically generated, because you cannot by the documents attached relate any of our names to the offence for which we are now being charged.
“Moreover, the rules and principles of fair hearing have not been adhered to because the police have not interacted with me or the President of the Senate as at the time of writing this letter.
“You may also wish to judge for yourself whether this trial orchestrated against me is not a political trial, calculated witch-hunt, barefaced intimidation, and a clear attempt to emasculate the parliament and silence me as the leader and highest ranking member of the opposition in Nigeria.”
Interestingly, a Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice Gabriel Kolawole had also ruled on June 28, 2016 that the trial of the duo, while the suit challenging the constitutionality of the police investigation of the internal affairs of the Senate upon which the case was based was still pending in his court, was a “gross abuse of legal process”.
He, however, declined to stop the trial, because according to him, that power resided in the court of coordinate jurisdiction already hearing the case.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested an alleged 26-year-old Internet fraudster, Egbedayo Semilore, for allegedly stealing the identities of two United States Army officers and duping an American woman of N4m.

The EFCC said in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, that Semilore, while posing as an Afghan based US Army officer with the names Sergeant Shaft Pagan and Perrie Edingson allegedly defrauded unsuspecting ladies.

His last victim, according to the agency, is one P. J. (full names withheld), a US national from whom he claimed to have obtained about N4m in tranches and bought himself a car.



The statement added, “Semilore, during interrogation also confessed to have used proceeds of romance scam to sustain a flamboyant lifestyle and bought himself a 2010 Lexus car which he registered in his mother’s name.

“Also, three identity cards bearing different names and biodata, a 2010 Black Toyota Lexus car with registration number (Lagos) SMK 475 EH, two laptops and one Blackberry Passport phone were recovered from Semilore.  Several scam mails were also found and retrieved from his laptops.”

The commission also arrested one Elijah Jeremiah aka (Jerry), a self styled fashion Director of Datsol Industries Limited for alleged Internet fraud.

Jeremiah, according to the EFCC, confessed to using fake instruments to order goods from China through online auction sites. The auctioneers, unaware of his antics often fall victim of his game by shipping the goods to him ahead of confirmation of payment.

The EFCC added, “Operatives recovered several items from the suspects. One laptop, three modems, one iPhone and two Nokia phones; Passport, forged Union Bank Statement of Account with NUBAN number: 10141411389 for Datsol Industries Limited and an envelope containing several documents were recovered from Jeremiah.

The anti-graft agency said they would be arraigned in court as soon as investigation was completed.

Six people have died of cholera in  Isolo  Local Government Area  of Lagos State after eating contaminated Abacha, a local delicacy of the people of the South-East geopolitical zone.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, who briefed the press about the development at  the state’s secretariat on Thursday,  stated that 39 other persons  were under observation and receiving treatment  at public and private health facilities in Isolo.

 Cholera is an acute diarrhoea disease with or without vomiting caused by a bacteria referred to as vibro cholerae and it is transmitted through ingestion of food or water contaminated with infected faeces.



 Idris, who stated that seven out of the 15 samples taken to the Public Health Laboratory, Yaba,  after an upsurge of diarrhoea cases was reported in some communities in Isolo, tested positive to vibro cholerae.

He stated, “Six deaths were recorded among the 45 cases. Majority of the patients did not present with the classical rice-water stool, rather they presented with atypical diarrhoea and vomiting.

“After a thorough analysis of the  ano-rectal swabs that were collected from 15 cases,  vibrio cholerae was confirmed  and found to be the Ogawa strain of the virus.

 “Twenty-two of the 26 that  were  being managed at the Isolo General Hospital and the Lagos Mainland Hospital have been discharged, one  died, while three are still on admission at the Lagos Mainland Hospital. The three patients are still on admission but they are in stable condition.”

 The commissioner noted that water and food analysis done at the Lagos State Drug Quality Control Laboratory showed that Abacha, a local salad,  that was eaten by many of the victims, was the source of the infection.

Idris said, “The main suspected source of infection is the salad called Abacha, a staple food  that is consumed regularly in the area. Samples of the local salad and the well water they consume in the area revealed the presence of vibrio cholerae, Salmonella species and E.coli in Abacha and the water sample taken from one of the two wells in the area.”

onome710:
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Also, when is the deadline for application for both firs and fcsc?

Thanks.

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Zedoo:
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Oh please....
Oh please...

Backs advisory on partial sale of oil assets, airport concessions
• Saraki: Time for blame game is over
• RMAFC disagrees with proposal on sale of NLNG shares

Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
In a bid to find quick solutions to the economic recession in the country, the Senate yesterday commenced debate on the issue, with Senate President Bukola Saraki presenting a 14-point plan to the federal government on how to make the crisis the shortest ever in history.

The Senate’s roadmap out of the recession was contained in Saraki’s speech to welcome his colleagues back from their annual vacation.
Going by the importance attached to finding urgent solutions to the recession, the Senate plenary commenced at 10.10 a.m. after the presiding and principal officers of the Senate filed into the chamber.



The recommendations by Saraki, which will form the basis for an elaborate debate today by his colleagues include:
• The executive must immediately put in place leadership-level engagement platform with the private sector.
• Government must raise capital from asset sales and other sources to shore up foreign reserves.

• Consider tweaking the pension funds policy within international best practice safeguards to accommodate investment in infrastructure and mortgages.
• The federal government and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) must agree on a policy of monetary easing to stimulate the economy and harmonise monetary and fiscal policies until economic recovery is attained.

• Re-tool its export promotion policy scheme with incentives such as the resumption of the Export Expansion Grant (EEG), and introduce export-financing initiatives.
• Engage in meaningful dialogue with those aggrieved in the Niger Delta and avoid an escalation of the conflict in the region.

• Consider the immediate release of funds to ensure the implementation of the budget for the near short term to inject money into the economy.
• Similarly, the agricultural sector and agro-allied businesses should be directly supported to boost value addition and jobs creation.

• While government works on the medium to long-term plans, immediate strategies must be devised that would ease the suffering of the ordinary people across the country.
• The legislature and executive must co-operate to ensure the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law as soon as possible to stimulate new investment and boost oil revenue.

Saraki added that while the executive is working on the recommendations enumerated above, the National Assembly should support it with the necessary legislations and oversight activities such as:

• Accelerate bills aimed at reforming the mortgage sub-sector for growth and accessibility in a manner that deepens people’s access to housing, jobs and economic activities.
• Work on the National Development Bank of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill 2015 which will provide long term cheaper source of funds to the private sector.

• Quickly commence work on the amendment of the Nigerian Ports and Harbours Authority Act (Amendment) Bill 2016; National Road Fund (Establishment, etc); National Transport Commission Act 2001; Warehouse Receipts Act Bill 2016; Review of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), Investment and Securities Act (ISA) and Customs and Excise Management Act; Federal Competition Bill 2016; and the National Road Authority. These bills and some of the other economic reform bills will be considered in the coming days.

• Explore the possibility of backing certain key government policies with legislations that have time limitations. This will help give confidence to investors to go into certain areas of the economy and invest without the fear that such policies will suffer reversals and loss of investment.

Elaborating on the proposals from the Senate, Saraki lamented the current economic recession, recalling the contraction of the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in the second quarter of 2016 to 2.06 per cent following a decline to -0.36 per cent in the first quarter.

He pointed out that with the current trend, “the Nigerian economy has had two consecutive quarters of economic contraction”.

Saraki advised the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately put the machinery in place to raise capital from the sale of assets and other sources with a view to raising foreign reserves, encouraging investors and discouraging currency speculation.

He said the federal government, in its search for economic recovery, should sell some of its assets including its holdings in the Nigeria Liquefied and Natural Gas (NLNG) Company; reduce government shares in upstream joint venture operations; sell government stakes in financial institutions; and concession and privatise major airports and refineries.

Saraki also suggested the need to situate pension funds within the international best practices to boost infrastructure investment, adding that both the federal government and the CBN must evolve uniform policies to stimulate the economy and ensure that local borrowing does not overshadow credit for the private sector.

“The executive must raise capital from asset sales and other sources to shore up foreign reserves. This will calm investors, discourage currency speculation and stabilise the economy. The measures should include part sale of NLNG holdings; reduction of government share in upstream oil joint venture operations; sale of government stake in financial institutions e.g. Africa Finance Corporation; and the privatisation and concession of major/regional refineries and airports.

However, Saraki talked tough, warning all who choose to introduce politics into the Senate’s roadmap to assist the government in salvaging the system by accusing it of disloyalty to steer clear, pointing out that the Senate would not be cowed by such insinuations to jettison its constitutional responsibilities.
He insisted that the Senate would take tough decisions capable of repositioning the economy irrespective of whose ox is gored.

He said: “Distinguished colleagues, let me also state clearly that we shall not hide under the cloak of partisan solidarity to abdicate our constitutional responsibility under the principles of checks and balances.

“We shall make critical interventions whenever they become necessary and undertake emergency actions whenever they are required, within the confines of the constitution.

“The task at hand requires us to take tough decisions and do all that is necessary to dig our economy out of this recession. This imperative must take precedence over partisan loyalty. This is what the people expect of us and it is the only way we can continue to justify our presence here.

“As I had mentioned earlier, on our part, we will do the following: Go immediately to debate the state of the economy and come up with economic measures that we will submit to the executive. This, we will do, along with passing the necessary legislation we have identified.”

He urged his colleagues to put behind them ethnic, religious and political sentiments and confront the current challenges in the spirit of unity and oneness, pointing out that even though he is the most persecuted functionary by Buhari’s government, he would yet not be swayed by that to be indifferent to the current economic crisis.
In this regard, he encouraged his colleagues to imbibe the same spirit in the handling of the situation.

“I do not think anybody in this chamber has gone through more political persecution than myself since the inception of this government, but I will be the last to fold my arms and say that the current economic problem is not my problem. No, it is,” he said.

While further tasking his colleagues to brace up for the current challenges, Saraki said this was not the time to engage in a blame game or political horse-trading but rather the time to be deeply committed to ending the economic crisis, bearing in mind that Nigerians are desperate for solutions and so “don’t care about our politics; they don’t care about our political affiliations; they don’t care if we are APC or PDP, north or south, Christians or Muslims”.

“What they want is for us to lead the way out of this crisis and deliver on the promises that we made to them,” he stressed.

He added: “We will work in concert, not at cross-purposes. Our goal is clear; to work together with the executive to get our economy out of this recession.
“We will proffer our solutions on policy issues, and where necessary enact the necessary legislation to ensure that investors’ confidence returns to the market.”

He also said the National Assembly would back the executive with the necessary laws to boost investor confidence and restated the commitment of the Senate to hasten the passage of the necessary bills such as the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), submitting that the passage of the PIB would stimulate fresh investments and boost oil revenue.
“The impasse of not passing the bill is doing great harm to the industry and the Nigerian economy as a whole,” he observed.

However, the Senate’s plan to dissolve into an executive session for a briefing by an expert on the true state of the recession was stalled by the need to observe the National Assembly’s tradition to adjourn plenary in honour of a late colleague.

Hence, yesterday’s plenary was adjourned after Saraki’s speech in honour of a member of the House of Representatives who represented Ifako-Ijaye federal constituency in Lagos State, Hon. Adewale Oluwatayo. Oluwatayo passed on in July while the National Assembly was on recess.

The executive session will now hold today.
Also speaking after yesterday’s plenary, Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, said the current recession was not peculiar to only Nigeria but had also hit a number of other countries such as Venezuela whose mainstay is oil.

He described it as a blessing in disguise, saying it would provide the platform for the nation to explore other sources of revenue such as the solid minerals’ sector.

RMAFC Opposes Sale of NLNG Shares

However, as the Senate joined the clamour for the federal government to divest of some of its interest in the NLNG in order to augment the revenue shortfall and boost foreign exchange reserves, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has kicked against the recommendation.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, had advised the government to consider the partial sale of its oil assets as the recession bites harder.

But in a statement signed by the RMAFC’s acting Chairman, Shettima Umar Abba Gana, the commission argued that it would be unwise for the federal government to dispose of its crown jewels that generate revenue and keep the Federation Account healthy over the long term.

Citing the NEITI 2013 audit and financial report of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, RMAFC disclosed that the sum of $12.9 billion was received by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from the NLNG over an eight-year period which the corporation did not remit to the Federation Account.
The audit, according to the commission, also revealed that NLNG paid $1.289 billion as dividends in 2013.

“It is the considered view of the commission that Nigeria’s assets like NLNG and other strategic national resources should not be sold to meet short-term financial obligation,” it said.

RMAFC recalled that the CBN governor indicated that the sum of $10 billion could be realised from the sale of oil and gas sector assets held by the federal government.
It said: “The commission is of the strong opinion that the same amount could be borrowed from the IMF and the revenue from these assets could be used to amortise the loans over an agreed period.

“It should be noted that after the amortisation of the loans, those assets would still be owned by the federation in addition to their regular dividends and revenue.”

RMAFC said instead of selling off such vital assets, which generate funds for the federation, wealthy Nigerians should be encouraged to set up their own LNG projects, since Nigeria is ranked seventh in the world and first in Africa with natural gas reserves base totalling 188 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) as at May 1, 2015.

In addition, Nigeria’s natural gas is regarded as one of the best in the world as it has low hydrogen sulphide (H2S) or carbon dioxide (CO2) impurity levels, the commission added.