₦airaland Forum

The Ijaw Of Bayelsa State: 2016 And Beyond By Sabella Ogbobode Abidde

BY SABELLA OGBOBODE ABIDDEJUN 21, 2015

Nigeria is said to be Africa’s first or second largest economy. Yet, about 35% of Nigerians are unemployed; about 40% are uneducated and a higher number can only read or write at the 10th grade level. In addition, 50% or more do not have access to modern medicine and dental care. And for many, many basic human needs are a mirage. That’s Nigeria, the giant of Africa!

About 60% of the rich and wealthy in Nigeria are thieves and conmen. These are men and women who came about their wealth by way of stealing and contract manipulation and by exploiting the weak and the poor. These are not industrialists, inventors or investors, scientists, bankers, realtors or provable merchants. The vast majority do not even add value to the society or to the market. They are what they are: thieves and tricksters!

In the case of Bayelsa State, the statistics are even grimmer. So, grim the conditions exceed biblical sins. The irony is that many of the indigenes do not know or understand how terrible their conditions are. They are not aware of the shortage of basic human needs; and how appalling their living conditions are. For many, poverty and insufficiency has become an acceptable way of life.

Sadder is the fact that many of the educated – the educated class that should be championing noble causes and pricking the governor’s conscience – either support whoever is the governor or makes excuses for him and his government. This has been the case since 1999. The intellectual class is thinner now than at any time in the young history of the state. Even so, many have been beaten to pulp or broken. Many more have been compromised. And others have simply lost their cojones.

Somewhere along the way, they forgot that there is a price to be paid for silence. And so I beseech them to “speak your mind even if your voice shakes.” The educated and enlightened class cannot and must NOT be silent in the face of lawlessness, tyranny, theft and financial mismanagement. They cannot be indifferent to political and personal hooliganism and the personalization of the rule of law. They must not look the other way when their brethren, family members and neighbors are being subjected to bad leadership and poor governance.

In the twenty-first century a sizeable number of Ijaw people continue to drink from the same river they defecate and wash in. This is the same river and waterways their great-great-grand parents bathed, defecated and drank from two to three centuries ago.

Anyone who is interested in witnessing or understanding what “man’s inhumanity to man” looks like should pay a visit to Ijaw land – especially to the riverine areas.

Since the beginning of the Fourth Nigerian Republic in 1999, the state has received more than $15B from the federal government; yet, there is almost nothing to indicate that that much money has been spent. There is not a single quality hospital in the state. There is not a single primary or secondary school that meet basic universal standard. Where have all the money gone? Billions and billions of naira is said to have been wasted and stolen since 1999.

Mr. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was the governor from May 1999 to December 2005. He was succeeded by Mr. Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Timipre Sylva. And Mr. Henry Seriake Dickson has been at the helms of affairs since February 2012.

The Ijaw, at home and abroad, cannot continue to lay all the blames on the shoulders of the Nigerian government. They cannot continue to shout “political exclusion and lack of federal presence…lack of development…environmental degradation…etc.” The people and successive governments must take personal responsibility for their failures and shortcomings.

Alamieyeseigha and Sylva were governors. Dickson has been in charge now for three long years. And Goodluck Jonathan was the deputy governor, governor, vice president, acting president and president. What are their achievements; what would be their legacy?

Although this is mid-2015; but really, the 2016 election in Bayelsa State is just around the corner. The people must decide which way they want to go.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties in the state must conduct a sound primary election. In addition, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must conduct a credible election that reflects the wishes and aspiration of the people. Both processes must allow for the best and brightest and most visionary candidate to emerge as the governor of the state.

Bayelsa State is the Mecca for all Ijaw people. It is time to do away with short-sightedness in terms of governance and in terms of how the people’s resources are managed. The people and the times demand a man or woman who is well trained and has global perspective. The people and the times need a man or woman who has no need to steal from the public purse; someone who has no penchant for breaking the rules and the law.

After fifteen long years of roaming aimlessly in the economic, political and social wilderness, the time has come for the Ijaw of Bayelsa State to make a clean and swift break from the past – a past that was mostly dominated by a former president and his wife.

The state needs a man or woman with disdain for mediocrity, political rascality, wastefulness and mismanagement. Who then is the man or woman with the quality and character and vision to move the Ijaw people forward? Who is that man or woman?

http://saharareporters.com/2015/06/21/ijaw-bayelsa-state-2016-and-beyond-sabella-ogbobode-abidde

remember this?

Why Buhari Has Refused To Meet Saraki

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORKJUN 19, 2015

President Muhammadu Buhari has refused to meet one-on-one with Senator Bukola Saraki two weeks after the latter connived with top officials of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to win the post of Senate President in a move that both stunned and angered the hierarchy of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

SaharaReporters learned that Senator Saraki had made several overtures to get a private meeting with Mr. Buhari, to no avail. One source revealed that Mr. Saraki’s latest attempt was to follow the president to his hometown of Daura in Katsina State to take in the commencement of the Islamic Ramadan period. The president reportedly rebuffed the move.

Following President Buhari’s rebuff, Mr. Saraki reportedly arranged a quiet visit to Vice President Yemi Osibanjo to apologize for an insulting remark he had made in the heat of his high-stakes maneuver to win the leadership of the Senate by striking an alliance with the PDP. Top APC officials claimed that Mr. Saraki had turned down an invitation by VP Osibanjo to discuss his contentious pursuit of the Senate Presidency by stating contemptuously that “a mere commissioner” could not summon him to a meeting. Mr. Osibanjo, a former commissioner in Lagos State, had sought to meet with Senator Saraki in order to resolve a crisis that arose from the latter’s scheme to outmaneuver his party, the APC.

Following Mr. Saraki’s emergence as Senate President in an election described by officials of the APC as irregular, Mr. Buhari had publicly accepted his triumph. Even so, the president has refused to do anything that would amount to a public validation of Mr. Saraki’s victory.

Two associates of Mr. Buhari told SaharaReporters that the president shared the APC’s dismay with Mr. Saraki’s alliance with the PDP to snatch up the top Senate post. “The fact of the matter is that the president [Mr. Buhari] will not abandon the party’s position altogether,” one of our sources said. Another added, “Mr. President [Buhari] has never been comfortable anyway with Dr. Saraki since [Mr. Saraki] is well known as a corrupt person who will try to hinder the administration’s fight against corruption.”

One source in the Senate told SaharaReporters that Senator Saraki, troubled by President Buhari’s refusal to meet with him, reached out to former President Olusegun Obasanjo to broker a truce with the president. The source said Mr. Saraki had used a personal friend, Andy Uba, a senator from Anambra State, to seek Mr. Obasanjo’s intervention to mend the cold rift with President Buhari. Mr. Uba, who served as a senior aide on domestic matters to Mr. Obasanjo, was one of the closest and most powerful associates of the former president.

A source at the Presidency told SaharaReporters that President Buhari was not impressed by Mr. Saraki’s reasons for colluding with the PDP to gain power as Senate President. “The way Senator Saraki colluded with the PDP to gain power through the backdoor, what prevents him from colluding against Buhari in the future? What prevents him from even working with certain political interests to get Mr. President impeached?” the source stated.

http://saharareporters.com/2015/06/19/why-buhari-has-refused-meet-saraki

APC lambasts group asking Buhari to resign
June 17, 2015Premium Times

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as a product of poor thinking and deliberate mischief the statement credited to a group, called the PDP Media Watchdog, asking President Muhammadu Buhari to resign because of his comments over his age.
The PDP has denied any link to the group.
But in a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the APC said if the authors of the statement had understood simple English, taken the pains to engage in deep thinking and contextualized the comments, they would not have rushed to the press to ask the President to resign.
”What President Buhari was saying, which was lost on those who issued that jejune statement, is that only his love and passion for the country could have made him, at his age, to come out of retirement to seek the office of President, over 30 years after he presided over the affairs of the country.
”For 16 years, Nigerians gave the PDP the benefit of the doubt to move the country forward, but instead, the party put Nigeria in reverse gear at a high speed, spinning it towards a doomsday that was only averted when Nigerians showed the PDP the red card. This is what necessitated President Buhari to continuously seek the country’s highest political office, so he can help put the country on a forward march again. Nothing else matters, not for him the excitement of an office he previously held and the quest for personal accomplishment.
If the country had been well managed, President Buhari will not at 72 be crisscrossing the whole world seeking solution to Nigeria’s problems, it said.
APC said within three weeks of his inauguration, President Buhari has succeeded in returning Nigeria to the comity of nations, to such an extent that world leaders are now so eager to engage him on how to assist his country in key areas, including security and the fight against corruption.
”Within three weeks of President Buhari’s inauguration, he had done what the PDP government could not do in six years: Invigorate the fight against Boko Haram by rallying a regional and global front against the terror group. Today, the US has pledged to give $5 million for the fight against Boko Haram, in addition to other material support. This is apart from the support that has been pledged by the G-7 for Nigeria’s efforts to quell the insurgency.
”Thanks to President Buhari’s shuttle diplomacy, the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) that the PDP government could not bring together for all of six years is ready to deploy next month, while the President has ordered the release of $21 million to facilitate the establishment of the headquarters of the force in N’Djamena, Chad.
”Since assuming office about three weeks ago, President Buhari has visited Chad, Niger, Germany and South Africa, winning support and friends for Nigeria all over again and returning the country to the comity of respected nations. Those who were put off by the PDP government’s resort to politicizing the fight against Boko Haram – even as the insurgents grew stronger – are now joining President Buhari to battle the terrorists. In no distant future, the results of his tireless efforts will begin to show.
”On the domestic front, President Buhari has been handling pressing issues far away from the klieg light, and his efforts to assemble a first class team to implement his change mantra, which he is personally driving, are continuing apace. We in the APC, and we are sure most unbiased Nigerians, are very proud of President Buhari and the vigour he has shown in governance, the kind of vigour we did not see in the immediate past administration that was presided over by a far younger man,” the party said.
It said only anarchists and non-democrats will ask a President who has not spent one month in office to resign, adding: ”It rankles when those making these calls are from the ranks of the party that failed to avail itself creditably in 16 years.”
APC said it has deliberately refused to join issues with the PDP, which has been issuing a series of insipid press statements that showed clearly that the party is not ready to provide a robust opposition to the APC-led federal government.
”For the umpteenth time, we say that the PDP and its satellite bodies must realize that in order to be relevant, credible and to make the necessary impact, they must pick on real issues and articulate them intelligently, rather than latching on to trite matters. This very amateurish display won’t get them anywhere,” the party said.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/185252-apc-lambasts-group-asking-buhari-to-resign.html

June 12, 1993, and June 9, 2015

Posted by: Olatunji Dare in Olatunji Dare

The June 12, 1993 presidential election heralded a new dawn in Nigerian politics.
Forsaking tribe and tongue and creed and station, a decisive majority of Nigerians voted to entrust their destinies to the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Bashorun MKO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe, of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
In eight years of virtually unchallenged rule, the duplicitous regime of military president Ibrahim Babangida had led Nigeria to the edge of economic ruin and destroyed the value system. The election offered Nigeria a chance to chart a new course, founded on the principle that governance shall be based on the consent of the people freely given.
Babangida annulled the election, with help from a suborned faction of the SDP, which was only too willing to bargain away its electoral victory and with it, the hopes and aspirations of millions of Nigerians who had given it their mandate.
The rest is history.
Of the many political figures complicit in the annulment, two have not only remained in circulation, their stock has risen. I have in mind Brigadier General David Mark who, as a key player in the Babangida regime, is on record as having vowed to shoot Abiola to death if Abiola was allowed to take power
David Mark has served as a member of the Senate for 16 years and as its president for the last eight, in which latter capacity he designated himself or was designated His Excellency the Right Honourable David Mark.
I have also in mind Chief Tony Anenih, whose renown as a fixer had been established long before he took the leading part, as national chairman of the SDP, in bargaining away the party’s victory in the 1993 presidential election. He has since then made a lucrative career as a fixer for every season.
Wherever a political job of the most unsavoury kind is to be done, like turning winners into losers and losers into winners, there you will find Anenih in his true element.
In a way, June 8, 2015, some 22 years removed from the historic 1993 poll, also signalised a new dawn. The two houses of the legislature were to be inaugurated under new management as it were, the APC having wrested them decisively from the PDP. These are the organs through which the APC was going to pursue the agenda of Change on which it had fought and won the election.
To drive the agenda and pursue it faithfully, the APC had to have as the heads of these organs persons whose dedication, loyalty and commitment it can vouch for. In its judgment, Bukola Saraki did not pass that test. He had brought considerable assets to the APC through the ACN when he defected from the PDP, but he was for all kinds of reasons not his party’s candidate for Senate president.
[b]As if to prove prescient those elements in the APC who thought him unfit for that high office and to confirm what his fellow Ilorin kinsman Is’haq Moddibo Kawu has written about him, namely, that the only thing Saraki cares about is Saraki, the aspirant surreptitiously cut a deal with the PDP minority, which then voted en bloc with some renegades in the APC to steamroll him to the third rank in the national order of precedence.
To get this dubious support, Saraki bargained away to the PDP the APC’s prerogative of selecting the deputy senate president from its own ranks. And in grateful appreciation of his role in facilitating this tawdry enterprise, the conclave elected David Mark “leader” of the Senate, a position that does not exist. A little bankrolling also helped, I gathered.
It took 57 of 108 senators, all the 49 from the PDP and eight from the APC, presumably including Saraki, to consummate this subversive deal. There was no dissenting vote. Before many in the attentive audience realised what was going on, Saraki was already ensconced in the Senate president’s chair and wielding the gavel.
Such was the rush, the indecent haste with which an event that should have resonated with solemnity and symbolism came across instead as the parliamentary equivalent of a street mugging.[/b]
The 51 APC senators who were not on the floor had not willfully absented themselves. They were assembled at another venue, to which all APC senators had been summoned, for an appeal by President Muhammadu Buhari for party unity in the run-up to the election of leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Saraki may still have won if the election had been conducted with all APC members present and voting. But Saraki being Saraki, he left nothing to chance. Why wait for a vote of the full house and an uncertain outcome when you can achieve your goal through a Faustian bargain?
As in the 1993 presidential election, David Mark, and according to media reports Tony Anenih, who was brought out of retirement to do what he does best, played pivotal roles in up-ending established process to achieve partisan, if not personal goals.
It is in truth scandalous that David Mark who had served in the Senate since it was set up 16 years ago and presided over it for eight aided and abetted this flagrant abuse of process when he should have stood up robustly for propriety. Where was the “elder statesman” in him?
There was a time when the standard justification for a military coup was that politicians or the political class had learned no lessons. Were any lessons taught?
The storied careers of David Mark and Tony Anenih, and indeed Bukola Saraki, whose rap sheet with the EFCC is about a mile long, show clearly that no lessons were taught. That is why Nigeria has been going round and round in an ever -shrinking circle.
The usual pettifoggers have been justifying Saraki’s coup – for that is what it is at bottom —claiming that it accords with the rules and regulations in force. Even President Buhari has said that it was “somewhat constitutional.”
Everything Saraki did may well have accorded with the letter of the law. But did it also accord with the spirit of the law? And is fidelity to the spirit of the law not as important as, if not more important than, fidelity to the letter of the law? Fidelity to the letter of the law, like the sleep of reason, often brings forth monstrosities like the 12 and 2/3 formula that the Supreme Court relied upon to determine the winner of the 1979 presidential election.
When the “anything goes” brigade claims that the coup is good for democracy because it will ensure the independence of the legislature, the retort must be: Independence from whom or from what? Independence for what?
To return to the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the 22nd anniversary of which was marked last Friday largely in the Yoruba country: President Buhari’s acknowledgement was a desultory tweet that had all the markings of an afterthought.
We now know, thanks to Humphrey Nwosu who conducted the poll, that Abiola won it indissolubly. So, the claim that the election was “inconclusive” is no longer tenable.
Nor can anyone in good faith now refer to Abiola as the “presumed winner” of that election. In the books of the National Electoral Commission, and in the records of accredited observers, domestic and foreign, Abiola was the actual, outright, undisputed winner, in truth a president-elect, a president–in-waiting.
He died defending his mandate, after years of detention in solitary confinement, in the most barbarous of conditions. He rejected shabby and ignoble compromise, the kind that Saraki embraced to win election as Senate president.
A long line of Nigerian rulers, from Babangida to Abdulsalami Abubakar, through Ernest Shonekan and Sani Abacha, suborned the institutions and instrumentalities of the state to persecute, and ultimately murder Abiola and his wife Kudirat, not sparing his global business empire, all because he won an election and would not surrender the people’s mandate.
There is only one way to expiate this crime.
It begins with Nigerian state marshalling all its institutions to acknowledge and honour that indissoluble fact.
Thereafter, it should officially recognise Abiola as a president-elect who died before he could take office, and accord him all the rights and privileges of a president.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/june-12-1993-and-june-9-2015/

Kwankwaso: Saraki-PDP alliance is threat to Buhari
Posted by: Yusuf Alli in Featured, News 2 hours ago

‘There was conspiracy against Tinubu by some APC leaders’
A KEY member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has seen danger in Senate President Bukola Saraki’s alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It is dangerous for President Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso said yesterday.
In his view, the political romance will create inhibitions for the Buhari administration .
Dr. Saraki was elected Senate President on June 9 after he rejected the APC’s choice, Ahmed Lawan and struck a deal with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The pact produced Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President.
To Kwankwaso, this happened because the APC leadership missed some vital steps and gave ample opportunity to Saraki’s group, which used it effectively.
He described Ekweremadu’s election as “unacceptable” to APC.
Ekweremadu has linked his election to the integration of the Southeast, but to the former Kano State Governor, that is “sheer rubbish.”
Kwankwaso in an interview in Abuja, said: “To the best of my knowledge, the Saraki group is yet to reach out to the Unity Forum of Senator Ahmed Lawan and Senator George Akume.”
He said although APC was divided, it is not too late to correct things.
Kwankwaso said Saraki became the President of the Senate because of some factors including conspiracy against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the failure of the APC leadership to act on time, the plot by G-5/G-7 members who were interested in seeing one of them occupy a position; and some groups who believed that Saraki had given them so many things and it was pay-back time.
Kwankwaso said: “On the issue of what went wrong, I think there were so many things having to do with time. This election had to do with time. We had so many weeks before the election to address this issue. This is not the time to say I told you or I told them, but many of us tried to tell our leaders to do the right thing at the right time.
“I think the party missed the crucial opportunity to address this challenge. I think time was crucial of which the party missed some important steps and therefore things went wrong. I told you the party missed some vital steps and gave an ample opportunity to Bukola Saraki’s group and they used it effectively and took all the advantages that had to do with the mistakes of our leaders.”
Kwankwaso said some forces in APC also contributed to the “sad” development in the Senate, especially those who conspired against Tinubu.
His words: “I am aware that members of the G-5/G-7 group were interested in seeing one of us occupying one of the strategic positions. I am also aware that there are some people in the party who believed Tinubu had taken so many things and it was time to take a break. They had a perception that Tinubu was trying to take it all. There are other groups that believed that Saraki had given them so many things and they had to pay him back. Many senators believed that they were supported by Saraki.”
Kwankwaso raised the alarm that the PDP will use the opportunity of the alliance with Saraki to create hurdles for Buhari.
He said: “You see, first of all, the President will face a lot of irritations in the sense that these people must be very angry with themselves, they must be very angry with Nigerians and, therefore, will do everything possible to put all sorts of hurdles on the way of Mr. President. That is obvious.
“I can always read their mind. I was one of them, I was part of them, I was part of the party but we had to leave the party because of this attitude. So, in some of the books that I read, especially Islamic books, there are things that we call Sadaqatuljariya (doing charitable deeds like building schools, hospital, throughout your life) and you will be getting reward and even after you die.
“These sorts of mistakes are what we call Musibatuljariya. It is so bad and it is a bad thing that will continue to occur until the system goes to end because they have their own agenda to tackle the APC, to tackle the APC government, they are angry with themselves, they are angry with the people and Nigeria because they feel Nigeria belongs to them and they wanted to take everything and Nigerians rejected them.”
On the feeling of President Buhari, he said there was no way he would be a happy man with the development in the Senate.
He said: “I think the position of Buhari was that the party should handle it. I don’t think he wants to put his fingers there. I am not sure his fingers are in it but what I know is that I am not sure if he is happy that members of our party could not be loyal to it. They could not go by the dictates of the party. I am not sure if Buhari is a happy man even though he did not put his fingers but he was expecting that members of his party will be loyal to the party.
“ I don’t know his mindset, I have not seen him since the election but I am sure that he cannot be a happy man with his party, where he is the national leader, has set up position and some members decided to go against it to the extent of bringing people who should not be in those positions.”
The former governor was concerned that Saraki is neck deep in the alliance with the PDP, adding that the development might make reconciliation challenging.
He said: “I believe the party is doing something that will bring back the members together and have good understanding but what complicated the whole situation now is that more than 50% of Saraki is in PDP, if you take the condition of the position of the Senate President. I don’t know which percentage he will give and, therefore, it becomes more difficult.
“And the implication of this now is that very soon, the leadership of the Senate will start Tambuwalising the party and, of course, the government as we have seen in 2011.”
Saraki has said he will not return to the PDP.
Kwankwaso admitted that Saraki’s election has divided the party.
“I think the party, unfortunately, is divided but it is not too late to correct many things but the party should take certain steps to ensure that such things will never happen again in the party and I am one of those who advised or tried to advise my brother, Saraki that he should not go too far with that ambition under this circumstance.
“At this level and his level, people should be more careful and cautious in what they do and what they don’t do and especially that the situation is even worst than the case of Tambuwal during the House of Representatives election of principal officers in 2011.
“Of course, Tambuwal’s case was a case of going out of zoning but all the positions went to members of the party. But this time around, because of the ambition of our members, I think they went and connived with people who are not only opponents of the party but enemies of the party to fight the party after the people of this country have discarded these people.
“And now because of ambition, these people were made in a way relevant and I don’t think that is the best way to go. Members of the party should have certain limitations, they should know when to start and when to stop and I think this is going too far in romancing members of the PDP.
“As far as we are concerned, PDP was dead until recently when this ambition brought certain people to do what they should not do in democracy and party politics and how they are just about to create unnecessary life for them to the extent that some of them are servicing again and making all sorts of statements.”
Kwankwaso faulted Ekweremadu’s election and his assumption that the slot was meant to integrate the Southeast.
He said: “Just yesterday, I was reading, I don’t know whether it is true or not, that Ike Ekweremadu was talking rubbish, nonsense. It is like they have reasons to speak again and I think it is because of the mistakes of our members. I believe that at the end of the day, the party and members must get a way of coming together and behave well, I think that is the only way we can make progress.”
“I don’t think I should be in a hurry to say that he should resign but all I know is that many things have gone wrong to the extent that the party has to put its acts together to make sure that things that are done in that way are stopped and from there, we will build the party again.
“It (Deputy President of the Senate) does not belong to them. I have been in PDP from 1999 until 2014 or so. You see, it was unthinkable in PDP for you to allow any other party to take any of those positions. They have done it five times and they never allowed any member of any party to go near those positions, so I think it was unfair and not correct and they took it shamelessly and I am sure our party will look at it and take what belongs to our party back.
“Maybe there are ways APC can accommodate the Southeast by way of appointment but certainly, we have not seen PDP in the five times that they had reasons to select leaders in the National Assembly, they never considered other parties in terms of giving them position but I am sure that our party had it in mind that it will carry the Southeast but not in the position of the Senate President.
“The Senate has Deputy Senate President; that position does not belong to the PDP and that is the mistake Ekweremadu is making. Now he said he was elected deputy Senate president, yet he reduced himself to a zone and a tribe, which is not good enough.
“We are not saying he should step down or stay; what I am saying is that what they have taken does not belong to them and all those who supported him and his party to get it have made a big mistake for themselves, the party and indeed for the country and they should be ashamed of themselves.”
Asked of the way out, Kwankwaso asked the APC leadership to enforce discipline.
He added: “I don’t know, the party must be doing its own bit but if I were the national chairman, I would either write to these members individually a letter of displeasure or call them and tell them because there has to be discipline.
“It does not matter whether you are 10 or 20 or even 1,000, whatever your number is in a party, as long as there is no discipline, definitely there will be problem. I am one of the senior senators by any standard in this country but because of the consideration of the fact that Buhari is from the Northwest, of course not from Kano, you are not seeing me going round to say I want this position or that position.
“I have president in my zone and I have to be considerate in the sense that other zones should get it. It is not like you will come by all means and you must take it whether it favours the zoning, the party or not. So, all these things must be respected by the party and the members.
On the likelihood of the Saraki reaching out to Lawan’s Unity Forum for reconciliation, Kwankwaso said: “I think it is good to have reconciliation but I am not aware of it, nobody informed me.
“I am just watching the development and, in fact, on that very day immediately after the so called election, I had to travel to Paris to receive an award . . . I learnt that some members were sworn in; well I will wait till they come back from their break.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/kwankwaso-saraki-pdp-alliance-is-threat-to-buhari/

BY BAYO OLUWASANMIJUN 15, 2015

While you're catching your breath and preparing to read this piece, pause long enough to ask yourself one question: What is wrong with Nigeria?

The 8th National Assembly continues to monopolize the headline news by the pack of lawless and uncivilized lawbreakers acting as lawmakers headed by the Bukola Saraki group of rebellious, coward traitors.

Senator Bukola Saraki
After 54 years of experimenting with different forms of government, we finally settled for the American presidential system of government. Memories like fire, can both bless with warmth and burn with searing heat. As we look back over 54 years of independence, does our memories give us a bit of both sensations? Our nation's history speaks eloquently of the pain of waywardness, destruction of values and civilization and persistence of guiding Nigeria down to the path of destruction.

Have we learned a lesson in the process? Or repeating our errors and forfeiting our nationhood? But the pain is still acute. The damage severe, the recovery slow, and the scars difficult to remove. The gang of thieves who serves as lawbreakers quietly trade money and favors for mutual gain. The elected thugs and thieves flourish and thrive, but the Nigerian people lose.

“Come let's us wipe out Nigeria as a nation,” the Senator- rep-thieves seem to be saying. “We will destroy the very memory of its existence.” Yes, this was their unanimous decision. Saraki having bribed each senator millions that support his Machiavellian tactics, they signed a treaty as allies against Nigerians who voted for change on March 28.

What part of the presidential system does the Saraki and his gang don't understand? This is how it works in the US. Under the presidential system, the party that wins the most reps after election is designated “majority” in each house, and the other party is called the “minority.” The majority party holds the most significant leadership positions such as the Speaker of the House and the Senate President.

At the beginning of each Congress, the members of each party meet to select their leaders by majority vote. Democrats call their meeting a “Caucus” and the Republicans call theirs “Conference.” Next, when each house convenes in its first session, congressional leaders such as the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader in the Senate, are selected. Even though the whole house votes for its leaders, the majority party makes the real selections ahead of time behind the scenes when they select party leaders.

Following the American system the All Progressives Congress acted appropriately through mock election by selecting its leaders – Femi Gbajabiamila as Speaker of the House and Ahmad Lawan as Senate President. Going strictly by the presidential system, Saraki and Yakubu Dogora would have no choice but to abide by the two candidates who won the mock election.

In a brazen daylight robbery led baron robber Saraki and executed by the fool Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa, the Clerk of the House, Saraki and Dogora defectors from PDP were unilaterally elected Senate President and Speaker of the House respectively. What could be more disturbing and agonizing, Ike Ekweremadu of the opposiion Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was elected deputy Senate President.

Section 66(1a-i) the 1999 Constitution bars certain categories of Nigerians from being members of the National Assembly. The Constitution says a person shall be unworthy to make laws for the country if he has been indicted for embezzlement or fraud by a judicial commission of inquiry or an administrative panel of inquiry or a tribunal set up under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act, Tribunals of Inquiry Law or any other law by the federal or state government which indictment has been accepted by the federal or state governments respectively.

Members of secret societies, persons with forged certificates, and undischarged bankrupts are also disqualified from becoming lawmakers.

Because this is Nigeria, none of the 469 members is yet to be convicted based on the above provisions of the law, the laundry list of criminal charges steering them on the face is enough to disqualify them from the membership of the National Assembly.

Following is who is who directory of lawbreakers – thieves – as lawmakers in the 8th National Assembly of Restoration Of Shame.

Bukola Saraki: According to Premium Times, “In an investigation that spanned many years and covered accounts held by the Senator and his companies in Zenith, GTB and Access Bank, police investigators say they found evidence of huge and consistent stealing of public funds by Mr. Saraki and his aides, especially when he served as governor of Kwara state.”

“The investigative report said in part, “The activities of Dr. Bukola Saraki, his Personal Assistant, Abdul Adama other personal staffs that helped him in laundering the monies in bits including the companies that helped transform the naira to foreign exchange thus making it possible for him in washing the cash overseas are in contravention of the provisions of the Money Laundering Act. They are recommended to be prosecuted for offenses relating to Money Laundering and for breaching the Forex (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, Section 12(1), Section 29(2) a and b, Section 39(3)(4) Section 30(1)(a), (2)(b).”

“The Nigerian authorities have however failed to charge the Senator to court. In fact, rather than do this, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, wrote to the Inspector General directing him to stop further investigation of Mr. Saraki. Based on this directive, a Federal High Court, in May, ordered the police to stop further “harassment” of the Senator,” reports Premium Times.

[b]Iorwase Hembe and Ifeanyi Azubuogu representing Vandekya/Konshisha Federal Constituency Benue State and Nnewi North/South Federal Constituency respectively were accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of demanding N39 million and N5million bribe discovered during the 2012 crisis of capital market.

Femi Gbajabiamila House Minority Leader accused of unethical practices was sanctioned against practicing law for 36 months by state of Georgia.

Theodore Orji ex-governor of Abia State accused of illegal withdrawal of N5.6 billion from GTB account of the state.

Gombe Senator Danjuma Goje and former governor was alleged of theft of N52 billion belonging to the state.

Senator Andy Uba from Anambra allegedly involved in $15 million bribe involving EFCC and James Ibori, former Delta State Governor.

Goodhope Uzodinma senator from Imo was accused of transferring funds from the accounts of the National Maritime Authority to Abdulsalami Abubakar former Head of State. Uzodinma was also forced by EFCC to make refunds of N250 million mobilization fee.

Kebbi State Senator Adamu Aliero who is also the ex-governor of Kebbi was accused of N10.2 million theft state money.

AbdulAzeez Murtala Nyako the Adamawa senator allegedly transferred N15 billion state money to five companies owned by him.

Ali Ndume Senator from Borno State allegedly was linked to Boko Haram through phone logs that showed he had contacts with the terrorist group 73 times.[/b]

Senator Stella Oduah (remember her?) representing Anambra and former minister of aviation purchased two armored BMW cars for N255 million without approval.

Malcolm X warned that “It's impossible for a chicken to produce a duck egg – even though they both belong to the family of fowl. A chicken just doesn't have it within its system to produce a duck egg.” These senator-thieves are the wrong people to represent us and make laws for the country.

To be sure, the ultimate goal of Saraki and his partners in crime is to immobilize President Buhari from carrying out his war on corruption. How can thieves make laws that will put them in jail? How can Saraki as Senate President lead the fight on corruption or assist President Buhari in the war against the looters of our economy?

Section 3 (Part 1) 5th Schedule of the constitution is loud and clear on the case against the culprits. The the so called immunity clause under which they seek protection from being prosecuted is not applicable in this case. Whoever becomes the Attorney General and Minister of Justice should as a matter of urgency, build a systematic and painstaking case against these National Assembly robbers. He must ensure these criminals are shipped to federal maximum prison for years where they rightly belong.

The calm that puts us to sleep may be more deadly than storm that keeps us awake at night. Saraki and his fellow traitors and band of thieves must be denied both the calm and the storm to either put us asleep or keep us awake at night. They are politically poisonous and deadly. We must not give them the chance to torment us a day longer than necessary.

They have to go!

http://saharareporters.com/2015/06/15/lawbreakers-lawmakers-restoration-shame-eighth-national-assembly-bayo-oluwasanmi

Niger asks Aliyu to refund N3bn allegedly looted fund

JUNE 10, 2015 : NAN

The Niger State Government has asked former Governor Babangida Aliyu to refund N2.9bn, which the state government alleged was embezzled.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the state governor, Dr. Ibrahim Dooba, indicated that the money was taken as loan on the eve of Aliyu’s departure.

It stated that although the new administration of Governor Abubakar Bello was not on a witch-hunt, but noted that “the misappropriated money” belonged to the people.

The government said, “They took this loan on the eve of their departure. And as was customary with that administration, they did nothing with the money.

“You can’t collect a loan on behalf of the people and share it among yourselves. That’s literally what they did. They simply raised a list and allocated money to those on the list.

”The office of the SSG, for example, was given N600m. The records did not say what he would do with the money. Well, we want our money back. The money belongs to the people.”

The statement added that the present administration had prioritised the needs of the people, stressing that such looted but recovered funds would be expended on projects.

It added, ”Our people need food, shelter, security, roads, water and so forth. For example, the governor wants to start with the provision of potable water and in the coming weeks, we’ll provide water at predictable intervals to Nigerlites.

“On the problem of electricity, we have started an arrangement to rent a power plant from overseas to provide regular electricity before a permanent solution is found.

“Also, Minna-Kataeregi road, Kontagora-Tegina, Minna-Suleja, Bakeko-Katcha, Kaffin-koro, Kuta-Sabon Gari and Maitumbi-Maikunkele roads among others, are receiving urgent attention.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/niger-asks-aliyu-to-refund-n3bn/

Jonathan’s parting shot
Posted by: Tunji Adegboyega in Sunday, Tunji Adegboyega

The ex-president cannot dictate whether his successor should probe or not; or the period the probe should cover
One had thought Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the immediate past president of Nigeria, would give us a breather so Nigerians could pick the bits and pieces of their lives together. But try as one did, Dr Jonathan would always do or say something that would compel one to return to him. Without doubt, we would continue to talk about the Jonathan administration for some time. But then, after this piece, I intend to have a deserved break on the former president because, by last Friday, old things were supposed to have passed away and all things had become new. I hope Dr Jonathan would let me be.
One was compelled to return to the former president because of his speech last Wednesday at the valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council in Abuja, where he again expressed his morbid fear for probe. And that if the Muhammadu Buhari administration must probe his government, then, it must be ready to probe his predecessors too. “I believe that anybody calling for probe must ensure that these probes are extended beyond the Jonathan-led administration. Otherwise, to me, it will be witch-hunting … How do you allocate oil fields, marginal wells and all that? Do we follow our laws? All these should be probed …” the former president told his audience in his vintage, even if infantile fashion. Dr Jonathan also told his cabinet members that they had performed well and that those criticising them were merely doing so for political purposes. Obviously the former president must be putting performance on its head. But there is nothing wrong with this; after all, the lizard that falls from a wall too acknowledges the ‘feat’ it has performed by nodding its head!
Of course, Dr Jonathan got the usual applause from his ministers. That was the way they kept deceiving themselves until they sent themselves packing from Aso Rock Villa. They kept applauding ministers who reeled out statistics which had no bearing with what was on ground. It was the same statistics that pushed the Jonathan government into the dustbin of history on March 28.
Anyway, while the former president is entitled to his opinion on these matters, unfortunately, his opinion, especially on the vexed issue of probe does not carry any weight. It is not for him to say whether probe is necessary or unnecessary, or the period it should cover. That is the prerogative of the new government. In the first place, if he was comfy with corruption and saw nothing wrong in probing those he succeeded, that was his business. In the same vein, it is late in the day for him to start talking about “improper allocation of oil fields”. If he knew there were any such things, why did he not do something about them in his more than five years as president?
That he did not do anything about the issues he is now raising less than 48 hours to his exit from power shows the pride of place that corruption occupied in his time. And this is globally acknowledged. He did not leave anyone in doubt that he was quite comfortable with persons of questionable character who walked in and out of Aso Rock while he was the landlord there. He even crowned the infamy by referring to the massive looting of the country’s treasury as ‘stealing’. That was his position on, and predisposition to, corruption (and he is perfectly entitled to it), even though it explains why the country is in the mess he left it in. But it would be preposterous to recommend that failed paradigm to the incoming government. Dr Jonathan on his own accord made ‘transformation’ his government’s mantra; Buhari could decide to make anti-corruption (probe) his. So, there would be nothing unusual about that.
So, rather than keep blackmailing the new government not to probe his government, the former president should advise his ministers and other aides that had stolen public funds to return at least a substantial part of it. That would be much more like it, rather than this cheap popularity or victimhood that Dr Jonathan is seeking. Negotiation can only begin when what is returned is proportionate to what was stolen.
The former president may be right that corruption did not start with his government. But what he feigns ignorance of is that it assumed an unusual dimension in his time. Indeed, the Jonathan government ‘liberalised’ corruption, as it were! If I must remind him, even General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida whose regime was notorious for being highly corrupt, said they were ‘angels’ compared with what happened in the Jonathan years. For once in recent times, Babangida appeared to be talking sense. Perhaps it was even the impression in Babangida’s time that the country’s economy was resilient (as it did not collapse despite the massive assault on it) that propelled the mindboggling looting of the treasury in recent years. Unfortunately, we have now seen that it is when stealing has not reached a crescendo that an economy would not collapse.
In Dr Jonathan’s time, looters stole too much for the owners to notice. That is why we have unending fuel queues; states and even the Federal Government are leaving backlog of salaries unpaid, etc. as legacies of the Jonathan government. We are in crisis not just because oil prices fell; it is more due to the government’s cluelessness about how to husband the country’s resources, and the unprecedented looting of public funds.
So, Dr Jonathan should stop romanticising probe. Indeed, the way he had been talking about probe, one begins to wonder if it is not a question of the guilty being afraid. But, the earlier the former president realised that whatever the Buhari government decides to make its priority is its prerogative, the better. Dr Jonathan’s government behaved like the biblical rich man who throughout his lifetime did not know Christ only to get to hell to bear the consequence of his choice. If former President Jonathan was blind to issues of corruption in his time, it was not because he did not have enough warnings about its prevalence in his government; he had a surfeit of it. Indeed, in my January 12, 2014 write-up titled “2014: agenda for Jonathan, fight corruption and other things shall be added unto you”, I had admonished the government to deal squarely with corruption and every other thing would be added unto it. That admonition, like many others at the time, was like the lone voice in the wilderness. Yet, if we are not having electricity today, it is because of corruption. If people are dishonest about fuel subsidy, (for which reason the ordinary people were to be punished by removing subsidy when what they needed to remove was corruption) it is because the government condoned corruption. Indeed, that we are importing fuel at all is the product of corruption. In essence, corruption is at the root of why this country is not working today.
So, Dr Jonathan has no reason now to be crying wolf under the mere suspicion that the new government could decide to ask questions about how his government spent public funds. It is true the new government does not have to devote all its energy to probes, the truth is that we cannot make progress if we allow those who had absconded with public funds to enjoy the ill-gotten wealth. Moreover, like adults that we are, when we stumble, we have to look back to know why. Perhaps Dr Jonathan would have succeeded if he did just that.
He decided his government’s mantra; he cannot dictate his predecessor’s. If he chose to embrace corruption, it was not for lack of knowledge of its prevalence but because he did not think it necessary to fight it. As they say, anyone who caused rain to fall should not be surprised if the rain is accompanied by thunderstorm. So, if Dr Jonathan gladly and willingly embraced corruption, he should also gladly embrace its consequence (if any). His appeals to ethnic and primordial sentiments did not take him far before. It would not take him far now, either.
Nigeria is one of the few places where a president or public official, rather than say ‘I have nothing to hide, probe me’; would be saying ‘if you want to probe me, you must be ready to probe my predecessors. Otherwise, to probe me would tantamount to witch-hunt’. But President Buhari should not be deterred by that blackmail. If he wants to probe, he should go ahead, allegation of witch-hunt or wizard-hunt notwithstanding.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/jonathans-parting-shot/

Abuja blackout enters second day

MAY 26, 2015 : OKECHUKWU NNODIM, ABUJA

The blackout in virtually all parts of Abuja continued on Tuesday as most towns in the Federal Capital Territory had no electricity to power their businesses and residences.

Our correspondent reports that the situation was worsened by the breakdown of a transmission station in Apo, a satellite town in the FCT, although engineers were drafted to fix the station.

It was learnt that power allocation to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company dropped to as low as 20 megawatts in the morning of Tuesday, whereas the AEDC was actually meant to receive 450MW on a good day.

It was also gathered that the allocation to the firm later increased to a little above 100MW, but still at that, most towns were completely left in darkness as of when this report was filed in on Tuesday night.

The PUNCH had reported that a total of 18 electricity generation plants out of the 23 across the country were not generating power as of Monday.

As a result, the country lost over 2,000 megawatts of electricity and the situation was caused by the vandalism of gas pipelines as well as the industrial action embarked upon by oil and gas workers in Nigeria.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission stated that in the last couple of months, electricity supply had been generally poor on account of increase in vandalism in the run up to the April 2015 elections.

http://www.punchng.com/news/abuja-blackout-enters-second-day/

FUEL CRISIS: Airports, TV Stations, And Hospitals Shut Down As Economy Slides Toward Recession

BY SAHARA REPORTERS, NEW YORKMAY 25, 2015

Fuel Crisis Threatens To Force Nigeria Into A Recession

The nation’s commercial activities are being crippled by the continued fuel scarcity crisis, threatening to drive Nigeria into a recession.

Thousands of air travellers have been left stranded at airports across the country as domestic air carriers close operations because they lack fuel. Many of the passengers who arrived at the Abuja airport were met with officials informing them that their flight was cancelled, or that the sale of tickets was suspended.

Both Arik Air and Aero Contractors grounded all their planes because they could not obtain JetA1 fuel, the fuel needed for commercial jets to fly. Virgin Atlantic was also forced to buy its fuel in Accra, Ghana according to reports.

Mr. Simon Tumba, spokesman for Aero Contractors, told the media that, “Due to the general scarcity of aviation fuel (JetA1) in the country, the airline (Aero) will not be able to operate over 80 per cent of her domestic flights as scheduled.”

The shortage of diesel fuel has even shut down radio and television stations. BEAT FM Lagos and CITY FM announced that their 24 hour operations would be halted as a result of the diesel gasoline shortage. Many television stations announced they have been forced to take similar precautions and have yanked many programs from the television line up.

The fuel crisis has grown so potent that it may force MTN and Airtel to close down some of their services because of the amount of fuel needed for base stations throughout the country. The official MTN Twitter account for Nigeria told the public yesterday that, "If diesel supplies are not received within the next 24 hours the network will be seriously degraded and customers will feel the impact."

Telecommunications companies have experienced a decline in calling and data plan subscriptions, which has been directly tied to the price of fuel, conserving mobile battery life, and generator use.

Hospitals have been struggling to cope with the price of diesel to power their generators, resulting in many patients asked to leave in order to save resources for patients with critical conditions.

As filling stations sell fuel at prices far beyond the reach of the common man, for 250-400 naira per liter in the formal market, or 450-500 naira on black markets; the Nigerian government and authorities have turned their backs on the crisis.

To make matters worse, the power supply dropped by nearly 1,000 megawatts last week, meaning that the country currently generates around 2,500 megawatts of power.

To make the situation worse the crisis was compounded by the epileptic power supply as a result of drop in generated power by 1,000 megawatts in the last one week. The National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) and Shiroro Power Plant will this week shut down its operation following of a system collapse at the Hydro-Electric Power Plant in Niger State, according to reports.

Many Nigerians have in the last one-week decried the poor supply of electricity and criticized the power firms for not living up to expectations.

The dwindling economic situation in Nigeria has led to mop up of money in circulation, reducing people’s purchasing power in an economy over-reliant on imported goods.

http://saharareporters.com/2015/05/25/fuel-crisis-airports-tv-stations-and-hospitals-shut-down-economy-slides-toward-recession

Fuel crisis cripples Nigeria

MAY 24, 2015 : OUR CORRESPONDENTS 99 COMMENTS

credits: Stanley Ogidi


The fuel scarcity situation in the country has taken a turn for the worse as reports on Saturday indicate.

Investigations by our correspondents all over the country showed that most filling stations in the land are not selling Premium Motor Spirit also known as petrol.

This, SUNDAY PUNCH learnt, escalated the already dire situation, forcing motorists and other consumers to the black market.

Investigations also showed that the pump price of the product in the few filling stations who had it ranged from N120 to as high as N400 per litre.

The high price of the product, according to our correspondents, has caused a hike in transport fare with the increase as high as 300 per cent in some places. Many commuters who were caught unawares by the development were seen trekking long distances to their destinations while others were forced to return home.

Most filling stations in the Federal Capital Territory have shut down following the non-availability of the commodity.

The few stations that were dispensing the product had long queues of vehicles with desperate motorists besieging their gates with the hope of getting fuel to pursue their economic and social activities.

However, black marketers were not short of supply as they chased after vehicles along the road selling fuel at N200 per litre to those who could afford it.

Some stations sold fuel at N140 per litre, but few motorists patronised them, preferring to stay in the queue for hours to buy at the official N87 per litre.

Checks showed that most filling stations in the satellite towns including Kubwa, Zuba, Nyanya, Kuje and others sold fuel for N140 per litre.

In Osun State, the situation became worse on Saturday with virtually all filling stations in Osogbo, the state capital remaining shut .

Our correspondent observed that the few filling stations which sold the product on Friday sold it for N150 per litre.

The fuel scarcity forced some residents of Osogbo and other towns including Ede to stay indoors except for those who had very important things to do.

A commercial bus driver, who identified himself as Taye, told our correspondent that the increment in the fare had forced commuters to resort to trekking.

He said, “We just pray that the situation will become normal next week. We are really suffering. There are no commuters on the road; it seems everybody is indoor.”

In Ondo State, a litre of petrol was sold for between N130 and 150 on Saturday. Some filling stations sold the product in Akure, the state capital, while some filling stations were closed.

The fuel scarcity has also forced commercial motorcyclists in the state to increase their fare and thus making many residents to complain.

The situation is not different in Benue where the product is currently sold for between N130 and N150 in Makurdi, the state capital, and major towns of Gboko, Kastina-Ala and Otukpo even as it is hard to come by.

In Taraba State, the situation was largely the same. The product which was sold for between N150 and N160.

In Rivers State, motorists faced a tough time as the commodity remained scarce within Port Harcourt, the state capital. Long queues were noticed in many filling stations that sold fuel. This was between N120 and N140.

In Calabar, petroleum depots were virtually dry. This put so much hardship on motorists and commuters as the price of a litre of petrol went up to between N150 and N250 at independent filing stations and the black market.

Filing stations owned by major marketers did not sell fuel. It was gathered that the major marketers are making brisk businesses by selling their products at the depots to independent marketers at a higher price.

Transport fare had also rose to more than 100 per cent within the Calabar metropolis.

The only NNPC Mega Station along the Murtala Mohammed Highway that was selling fuel had long queue stretching over three kilometres.

A motorist, Mr. Ben Amajo, who said he had spent more than five hours queuing up at the NNPC Mega Station, said he was completely fed up with the situation in the country.

Most of the active filling stations in Enugu State were selling petrol between N140 and N150, while the commodity sold mostly at the cost of N125 and N130 per litre in Abia and Ebonyi states.

The situation was the same in Imo and Anambra states.

Apparently, as a result of the cost of the commodity, there was no queue in most of the filling stations.

However, several filling stations had no fuel.

But there were long queues at the NNPC filling stations, which sold at the official N87 per litre fuel whenever they had the product.

In Jos, Plateau State, most of the independent marketers, though displayed pump prices ranging from N140 to N150, sold above that. Black marketers also had a field day as a four-litre jerry can went for between N800 and N900.

The situation was not different in Bauchi and Lafia where roadside sale of petrol had a big boom. Long queues were still noticeable in most major marketers, especially NNPC mega stations.

The fuel scarcity in Owerri was fierce. Filling stations fixed their pump price at 130 per litre. Most filling stations in the communities our correspondent visited sold the commodity for N140.

The development hampered economic activities in the state.

Motorists in Edo and Delta states were full of tales at the weekend.

Checks by our correspondent on Saturday showed that while most of the major filling stations on the busy Akpakpava and Sapele road in Benin, did not sell the product, some private fuel stations around Oluku sold at the price of N130 per litre.

Black marketers, who had taken advantage of scarcity, sold 10 litres of the product for N1450 and N1500, depending on the bargaining ability of the buyer.

The situation was also not different in major parts of Delta where the non-availability of the product resulted in an increase in the cost of public transport in major cities.

Petrol was sold for between N260 and N300 per litre in Sokoto and neighbouring Kebbi State. Most motorists in the two states relied on road side hawkers of petrol as most filling stations either did not have the product for sale or were selling to hawkers at a higher rate.

Mr. Mohammed Shehu, a resident of Mabera in Sokoto town, told SUNDAY PUNCH via telephone that motorists had always been at the mercy of hawkers of the products.

Petrol stations in Akwa Ibom State sold fuel between N140 to N150 per litre.

There were queues at few filling stations that sold the products at N130, those that could not risk the queues had to get the product at higher rates of N140 and N150 from other filling stations.

The trend affected vehicular movement.

Some residents of Nasarawa and Adamawa states on Saturday expressed displeasure over the endless fuel scarcity across the nation as pump prices rose to N160 per litre on Saturday.

The situation was a little different at both NNPC mega station in Nasarawa and Adamawa states, that sold fuel for N100 per litre.

In Niger state, the majority of petrol stations sold for N130 per litre. Our correspondent who went round Minna confirmed that it was only the NNPC that was selling for N87 per litre.

It was observed also that a lot of fuel stations were closed as a result of high price and a lot of people queued up for hours to get fuel.

One of the commuters, Isah Mohammed, who spoke to our correspondent said he had been at NNPC patrol station since 5.30am and it didn’t get to his turn.

In Kaduna the situation was the same, other petrol stations were selling for N130 per litre except NNPC.

However, there were no queues.

Most of the filling stations visited in Katsina metropolis had fuel, but while some sold at between the above said price, others along the outskirt sold above the price.

In Bayelsa a litre of petrol was sold for between N140 and N200.

The NNPC mega filling stations in the Yenagoa metropolis were selling the products at the regulated price of N87 per litre but the queues were extremely long.

The situation was not different in Kwara and Kogi states.

Investigations by our correspondent in Ilorin on Saturday showed petrol was sold for N150.

Also in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, a litre of petrol was sold for N120 but between N170 and N200 in the hinterlands.

The high cost of fuel had also increased transport fare between 50 and 70 per cent in Kwara and Kogi states.

Motorists and passengers in Ogun State also bought the product at a high cost. From Sagamu, Ijebu Ode, Ilaro to the capital city of Abeokuta, the situation was the same.

Filling stations in the state, mostly owned by independent marketers, dispensed a litre of fuel between N150 and N300.

Transportation fares had increased by over 100 per cent on both intra-city and inter-state routes.

In Yobe and Borno states, petrol sold for N130 at filling stations.

In Bauchi and Gombe, it was for either N145 or N150 at very few filling stations, with resultant long queues. Many motorists were left with the option of buying at black market at the price of N200.

Major businesses in these states are beginning to close shop due to the scarcity of fuel and diesel.

On Saturday, one of Nigeria’s telecommunications firms, said the scarcity of diesel was jeopardising its operations. It said, “The management of MTN states that the current diesel scarcity in most parts of Nigeria is posing a significant threat to quality of service and the ability to optimally operate the network.

According to the Corporate Services Executive, Akinwale Goodluck “Most of our base stations and switches are powered round-the-clock by Diesel generators and the current fuel shortage has drastically reduced the availability of diesel supply to key locations.”

“MTN’s available reserves of diesel are running low and the company must source for a significant quantity of diesel in the very near future to prevent a shut down of services across Nigeria. If diesel supplies are not received within the next 24 hours the network will be seriously degraded and customers will feel the impact.

“MTN is working with all stakeholders to ensure services remain. MTN sincerely apologises for any outages and inconvenience that may occur and seeks the understanding of customers at this time.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/fuel-crisis-cripples-nigeria/

Subsidy: FG withdraws N395bn from Excess Crude Account

MAY 24, 2015 : EVEREST AMAEFULE

The Federal Government withdrew the sum of N395bn in 2013 to fund subsidy on petroleum products, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission has said.

FRC said this in its 2013 Annual Report and Audited Accounts which was released recently and obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Friday.

The commission said the withdrawal of the money from ECA to fund the subsidy regime on petroleum products was illegal as it lacked the backing of the law.

The summary of transactions in the Excess Crude Account as of 2013 showed that N50bn was used to fund the subsidy regime in the first quarter of the year. In the second quarter, the sum increased to N110bn.

No money was spent on the subsidy from the account in the third quarter of the year, but in the final quarter of the year, the withdrawal leaped to N235bn, making a total of N395bn withdrawal for subsidy funding within the year.

The Federal Government created the ECA in 2003 as a buffer against volatility in crude oil prices. Proceeds from the sale of oil above the budget benchmark price are paid into the account which belongs to the three tiers of government.

The Fiscal Responsibility Commission said the use of money from the Excess Crude Account to pay for petroleum products subsidy and Petroleum Equalisation Fund was not justifiable by law.

It said, “Funds have been deployed towards payment for petroleum products subsidy and PEF. It is difficult to find justification for this in the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.”

A tabulation of the inflows and outflows from the ECA for 2013 showed that the fund received a total of N1.01trn while outflows amounted to N1.77trn.

This means that the outflows into the account were N757.13bn higher than the inflows in 2013. In percentage terms, the outflows were higher than the inflows by 74.86 per cent.

Others transactions on the account in the year included augmentation for the three tiers of government which gulped the sum of N1.07trn; and transfer to Special Intervention Fund, N298.98bn.

The report said, “The total inflow into the ECA in 2013 was N1, 011bn while the total outflow from the account was N1, 768.57bn.

“It is clear from Section 35 of FRA 2007 that the EC belongs to all tiers of government. Over the years, the three tiers have, in collaboration, drawn down from the ECA under conditions that are not consistent with the prescription of Section 35 (5) of FRA which states that no government in the federation shall have access to the savings made in the ECA, unless the reference commodity price consistently stays below the predetermined oil benchmark price in the budget for a period of three consecutive months.”

It also faulted the conditions under which the three tiers of government had regularly withdrawn money from the ECA to fund shortfalls in the money shared by the governments during the monthly Federal Allocation Accounts Committee meetings.

It said, “What has typically been the case is that draw-downs occur when there are shortfalls in revenues available for distribution to all tiers of the federation. They are simply used to augment FAAC allocations during periods of revenue shortfalls arising from oil production disruptions due to pipeline vandalism and oil theft.

“Incidentally, such augmentation is not consistent with the provisions of FRA 2007 as the three-month window is not respected. The FRC has not been availed with oil price and volume records to enable it determine the extent to which Section 35 (5) of FRA 2007 is being adhered to.”

In a covering note to the report, Chairman of Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Mr. Victor Muruako, said the agency had helped the government to recover N336bn from Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

He also lamented that the country was losing much money through pipeline vandalism.

Muruako said, “Crude oil projections for 2013 were 2.53 million barrels per day while actual figures averaged 2.3 million barrels per day leading to a shortfall of about nine per cent. This has been blamed on oil theft and pipeline vandalism that resulted in the loss of about 300,000 – 400,000 barrels per day.

“In addition, the government’s revenue from oil sales has been declining in recent years as a result of the changing structure of business arrangements (e.g. from joint ventures to production sharing contracts) and this quantity shock continues to impact on the level of external reserves and ECA.

“In the period under review, the commission intensified its efforts in monitoring the scheduled corporations in the areas of preparing their budgets, rendition of audited accounts and payment of 80 per cent operating surplus to the Federal Government.

“In its five years of existence, the FRC has been instrumental in getting scheduled corporations to pay over N336bn into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government.”

Muruako added that the safest guarantee against imprudence in the management of national affairs, especially fiscal affairs, remains openness and inclusion for which the Federal Government established the commission.

http://www.punchng.com/news/subsidy-fg-withdraws-n395bn-from-excess-crude-account/

Stop Blaming Adamu Muazu: Goodluck Jonathan Died Of A Thousand Blows

BY ILESANMI OMABOMIMAY 20, 2015

For a section of the PDP to go around blaming Adamu Muazu for Goodluck Jonathan’s defeat in the March 28, 2015 election is proof that this body of mainly men and women who have no honor may also be proving itself to be a collection of people who have no brains. GEJ died of a thousand self-inflicted blows and Adamu Muazu is just the fall guy. A review of GEJ’s atrocities against the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians will confirm that to any fair minded person.

PDP is in dire need of a savior to save it from itself during these difficult days before it applies petrol to an already raging inferno. Somebody needs to let PDP know that Goodluck Jonathan lost his re-election bid because he was incompetent, pure and simple. To believe that anyone could have convinced Nigerian voters to re-elect a man who demonstrated on numerous occasions that he was not good enough to be a local government chairman is the classic definition of insanity. Goodluck Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election long before Adamu Muazu became the chairman of PDP in January 2014 and the candidate himself knows that. But as always, he was still hopeful of remaining in office because he planned to rig the elections and did not anticipate the emergence and devastating role that Mohamadu Jega and his card readers will play in shaping the electoral future of the sleeping giant called Nigeria. He also under estimated the anger of Nigerian voters.

I must disclose at the very beginning that I am a Mohamadu Buhari supporter and an APC sympathizer. I have no likeness or sympathy for PDP and have done the little I could to see its implosion since 1999. So it is really therapeutic to be witnessing the ongoing bickering and allocation of blame among its shameless and corruption tainted leadership, given the heartache, stress and loss of hope and ambition that they bombarded us with since 1999.

As implied at the beginning I am not a member of the APC. I am a Nigerian committed to good leadership and I do not care where it comes from. I am happy that Buhari has been elected but I am quite aware that a viable opposition is needed to prevent the APC from running amok the way PDP did. To this end it is important that PDP does not go into extinction and should be strong enough to form an alliance with smaller parties that will constitute a viable opposition to the APC. Consequently, it becomes imperative for someone outside the PDP who is not bamboozled by its grand illusion of an entitlement to re-election to tell the truth to its face. PDP’s illusion does not only demonstrate its inability to analyze its actions and take corrective measures, it also shows its disrespect and disdain for Nigerian voters and their ability to identify and vote for candidates who will make their lives better notwithstanding the billions of stolen public funds that the PDP spent on a sickening campaign/propaganda aimed at painting their opponents black and confusing the voters at a time when it should have concentrated on issues that are of importance to the electorates.

I am not here to defend Adamu Muazu nor can he get me to defend him because in an ideal political environment the man who became the chairman of PDP in January 2014 ought to have been a couple of years into a long jail term for stealing billions belonging to the poor people of Bauchi state, and only hearing about political developments in jail rather than been tapped to become the chairman of PDP and lead it into the 2015 general elections. That GEJ tapped Muazu to become the chairman of PDP and lead it into the elections demonstrated his incompetence when it comes to putting the right people in the right positions, a trait he demonstrated throughout his regrettable presidency. I will return to the issue of Muazu later in this article and what role, if any, self-preservation may have played in the way he handled the presidential campaign on behalf of PDP in the days just before the elections.

Way back in 2010 it was not Muazu who made the decision to settle Turai Yar Adua and her family to the tune of two billion naira upon the death of her husband, Umaru Musa Yardua, despite all the money that she and her collaborators stole while her husband was sick and in hospital in Saudi Arabia. Nigerian voters remembered this financial recklessness during the 2015 election and punished GEJ for it.

Way back in late 2010 when GEJ entered into an alliance with the north to run for only one term and let a northerner run on PDP platform in 2015, it was not Muazu who made that decision. As much as I disapprove of allowing anyone to run for the presidency on the basis of where he/she comes from rather than competence, GEJ alienated many of PDP’s traditional supporters in the north of the country when he reneged on that agreement. The leadership and the voters from that part of the country remembered this “breach of trust” during the 2015 elections and punished GEJ for it.

When GEJ was dancing “owambe” as the people of northeastern Nigeria were left helpless in the face of Boko Haram onslaught under the mistaken belief that “they are killing themselves,” I do not think he consulted Muazu over a decision that was both demonstrative of his incompetence and provincial credentials as the leader of a nation as diverse as Nigeria. When the fear of losing the 2015 elections finally forced GEJ into action against Boko Haram and the people of the North East saw that Boko Haram could be curtailed they remembered the hell thy have been put through, the loved ones and properties they have lost and voted against GEJ. There was nothing Muazu could do about it! GEJ was reaping the rewards for his unpreparedness to lead Nigeria.

When Deziani Allison-Madueke, NNPC and their private sector collaborators cheated Nigerians out of trillions of naira in fuel subsidy Muazu was nowhere near the PDP chairmanship. GEJ thanked the voters for re-electing him (assuming he actually won the 2011 elections) by raising the price of petrol and thereby taking sides with the fuel subsidy scammers. While Nigerians have borne the brunt of the price increase from day one those who stole the trillions and plunged ordinary Nigerians into increased expenditure were wining and dining with GEJ. Till today no one is in jail for the theft of trillions of naira. Not even one of the cases is close to trial. The Nigerian voters remembered this during the 2015 elections. Adamu Muazu could not do anything about it – he does not have the ability to afflict Nigerian voters with amnesia!

When Stella Oduah spent about $1.4 (at the then exchange rate) to buy two unneeded armor plated BMW’s that could be purchased in the open market for less than $400,000 Muazu was not the person who shielded the minister from prosecution. It was GEJ. As if shielding her from prosecution was not enough, GEJ ensured that she was nominated to represent PDP as a senator. Oduah’s people may have voted for her, other Nigerians remembered the shielding and insult-on-injury nomination during the 2015 elections. There was nothing Muazu could do about it. They punished GEJ for it!

When the then governor of the central bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, raised the alarm about the missing $20 billion and GEJ decided to fire and humiliate him out of office while those who allegedly perpetrated the fraud kept their job’s Muazu was not the person making the decisions. It was GEJ and when it came election time the voters directed their anger at GEJ during the 2015 elections.

GEJ knew or out to know that the votes from the Niger Delta alone were not enough to give him even a quarter of Nigeria’s presidency if there was anything like that and yet he allowed people like Edwin Clarke, Mr. Oritsejafor (I do not consider him a pastor), Asare Dokubo and others to threaten war on other Nigerians if they did not re-elect him, Muazu was not the one who failed to call these elements to order. At those crucial moments and throughout his presidency GEJ conducted himself as if he got into office through the votes of Niger Deltans only. Well, the voters who were dared to reject GEJ and face the consequences did just that during the 2015 elections. And I dare say Edwin Clarke, Oritsejafor, Asare Dokubo and company will fade into oblivion, hopefully after returning their loot. Buhari and the Nigerians who voted for him are capable of taking them on if they continue in their grand illusion. They talk of a conspiracy to get GEJ out of office as if every election is not a conspiracy. If they knew GEJ needed other Nigerians to get re-elected how come they were riding roughshod over the same Nigerians? Hopefully others will learn from this nonsense.

When Nigeria was losing approximately 440,000 barrels of oil a day or 20% of the daily oil production to those who were receiving billions in federal payments to stop the same crime it was not Muazu’s responsibility to call them to order. It was GEJ’s but what did he do? He closed his eyes while the nation bled in the face of excruciating global economic difficulties. On March 28, 2015 Nigerians voted for a leader who will stop the theft of their resources.

When GEJ’s wife constituted herself into a nuisance and Nigerians complained it was not Muazu’s job to call her to order. It was GEJ’s but just like he abdicated every responsibility attached to his office while enjoying the perks, he buried his head in the sand along with his fedora hat and played the ostrich. The traders who lost millions because Lagos roads had to be closed because of her uninvited visits remembered these assaults during the 2015 elections and voted for a candidate whose wife’s presence in their city will not constitute a nuisance and threat to their businesses and survival.

When Nigerian banks and their controlling officers robbed the banks of deposits running into trillions and threatened the security of the banks and the economy and forced the country to spend trillions stabilizing these banks while the thieves flew around the world in private jets, GEJ was the one parading himself as the president, not Muazu. Come 2015 elections Nigerians voted for a man who will not treat Jim Ovia, Tony Elemelu, Cecilia Ibru and others as the adult terribes of Nigeria’s banking industry but one who will treat them as common thieves in possession of billions of dollars of our commonwealth that should be returned forthwith. Before they go up in temper tantrums I challenge them to match the growth in their wealth with proof of their income tax payments over the years. No backdated payments please! I hope Buhari will ask for these tax returns from all those “boys” who are too happy to be on Forbe’s list of billionaires. The rubber must be made to meet the road!

When government officials and dubious businessmen in Nigeria created the fastest growing market for private jets in the world, Muaza was not the one hosting them. It was GEJ. When Aso Rock voted N1Billion for food at a time when the average Nigerian was living on less than $1 dollar a day, GEJ was in charge, not Muazu. When Deziani Allison-Madueke constituted herself into an empress and spent N10Billion servicing an aircraft at a time when Nigerians were dealing with excruciating economic conditions, Muazu was not the president. GEJ was. At a time when contractors collected billions in payments and just disappeared without even pretending to do the jobs, GEJ was the president, not Muazu. Voters remembered all these atrocities during the elections and duly punished the Ali Baba. It is now up to the president-elect to make sure that the forty thieves all end up where they belong – Kirikiri Maximum Security Jail – with hard labor.

When a minister tricked hundreds of thousands of unemployed Nigerian graduates into paying to apply for non-existent immigration jobs and tens of them lost their lives in a shabby nationwide screening exercise, the person Nigerians called upon to order a refund of the application fees was GEJ, not Muazu. As always, GEJ sided with the thieves, they kept the billions and over 750,000 applicants were out there angry. They laid ambush for GEJ and on March 28, 2015 they finished him off. Should anyone be surprised? It is my hope that Buhari will order the immediate refund of the application fees once he assumes office.

The list continues and the above enumerated represent a drop in the bucket in terms of GEJ’s atrocities against the people of Nigeria.

Now back to the 2015 PDP presidential campaign, Adamu Muazu’s role in it and the others who finally made GEJ’s dream of political humiliation come true. At a time when serious observers of political developments in the country were coalescing around the view that the emergence of APC in 2013 and the possibility of a Mohamadu Buhari candidacy will result in a presidential election that will center on the winning candidate’s ability fight corruption, GEJ went and appointed a man, Adamu Muazu, who was under investigation for the theft of N19.8 Billion from the Bauchi State coffers. As if that was not enough, he followed it up by appointing as the spokesperson of his campaign, Femi Fani-Kayode, another shady and unbalanced character facing federal fraud charges for defrauding the Aviation Ministry. There is a Bini parable that if your wife is accusing you of cheating on her, the last place you want to be seen going into is Ugbague – Ugbague is the area in Benin City, Edo State where anyone one can go pick up a prostitute for pay. At a time when the specter of a Buhari candidacy that will be launching anti-corruption tomahawk missiles at GEJ was looming like the sword of Damocles over the political landscape and Nigerians were showing signs of wear and tear over the effects of corruption on their lives, GEJ allowed a shady character under investigations to lead his campaign and another one to be its spokesperson. Does this show evidence of a man who was serious about leveling with Nigerians and getting them to vote for him? I will let you decide!

When vuvuzelas Ayo Fayose and company where advertising the potential death of candidate Buhari, a retired general and former head of state, and calling him unprintable names, they were doing GEJ’s bidding, not Muazu’s. When GEJ’s wife who is not even deserving of having her name mentioned here constituted herself into a nuisance and was insulting candidate Buhari what did GEJ do? He supported his wife. Who was it who ran around the country like a headless Christmas chicken distributing bribes in dollars, putting pressure on the local currency and partly forcing its devaluation and further making lives difficult for Nigerians, GEJ it was.

Adamu Muazu is a man under investigation for a huge fraud running into billions. He could very well end up doing a long jail term under Buhari’s government. He had every reason to want GEJ to win because that was the only way he could remain free and GEJ may have appointed him PDP chairman for this reason as he had a way of putting the corrupt under investigation and then getting them to do his bidding. So the man Muazu could not have logically envisaged or supported a Buhari presidency. However, when it became clear that GEJ was determined to lose the election by constituting himself into Buhari’s best spokesperson because of the implicating answers he gave to answers, Muazu may have, out of self-preservation decided not to antagonize a potential Buhari presidency by not joining the other attack dogs like Ayo Fayose and Olusegun Mimiko. When you look at a lot of the governors and other officials who could not deliver their constituencies to GEJ, they are mainly people who are either going to jail for stealing public funds or other malfeasance or be made to cough out the money in one way or the other. One is therefore forced to ask why they would want Buhari to win? The truth is that the card readers gave voters voice and they whipped GEJ’s backside. According to Buhari “it was not the first time you (v0ters) voted for me, it is the first time they have allowed the votes to count.” Uum!

As corrupt as GEJ’s government was going into the elections it had no contingency plan to deal with Buhari’s anticipated anti-corruption onslaught. Honestly, it did not surprise me because until the last minute (remember the Orubebe drama at the collation centre?) GEJ and PDP had plans to rig the elections. He made a lame attempt to defend himself against numerous charges of corruption and peddled a record of job creation that even Harry Houdini would have been scared to conjure up. He commissioned electricity generating plants that had no gas supply. To Nigerians, GEJ and his government became chronic and irredeemable liars going into the elections.

APC is not a party of saints but the difference is that the presence of Buhari in their midst and his preparedness to punish even his children for transgression will bring sanity to it. Moreover, it has not had one out of the 16 years PDP had in power. Nigerians are prepared to take a chance on the unknown because the known has become too toxic. For PDP, the rot was crying up to the high heavens. After 16 years of sheer arrogance of power and impunity, every kind of criminal imaginable had risen to a position of authority under PDP. The party never talked about corruption, it never talked about actual performance, it had no internal disciplinary machinery in place, and was not beholden to anyone, including the voters.

GEJ’s defeat in the 2015 presidential elections was just rewards for his incompetence and betrayal of the Nigerian people. To be fair to GEJ, he was just not prepared for the job and he admitted that much to the Americans in the cables that were released by Wikileaks. Although he should not have even found himself anywhere near Aso Roack, I think Obasanjo got him into the vice-presidency believing that he would have time to learn and prepare but Yar Adua’s untimely death changed the equation.

In order to survive the ongoing implosion and remain a viable opposition party, the PDP must immediately start to speak the language that Nigerians want to hear. The language of transparency, honesty, anti-corruption, accountability and competence. The lies and fabrications will no longer fly with Nigerians. To this end I think Oliseh Metu, Adamu Muazu, Femi Fani-Kayode and the other leaders of the party should be asked to go not because they cost GEJ the election because they did not; but because they have become the face of the sleaze called PDP. Their presence irritates Nigerians. You cannot be erecting a foundation based on honesty and accountability and then hire crooks as bricklayers and foremen. A word is enough for the wise.

http://saharareporters.com/2015/05/20/stop-blaming-adamu-muazu-goodluck-jonathan-died-thousand-blows-ilesanmi-omabomi

Jonathan under attack over new appointments
May 19, 2015
Written by Yusuf Alli, Yomi Odunuga, Augustine Ehikioya and Frank Ikpefan


My removal as UI pro-chancellor rude, says Adebayo

NIPC boss sacked

Pesident Goodluck Jonathan has been told some home truths about the wave of new appointments and removals.

He should be courteous, elder statesman and war hero Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo said. The 87-year-old former Western Region governor is displeased at the manner of his removal as University of Ibadan (UI) pro-chancellor.

After his March 28 electoral loss, President Jonathan has gone on a strange sacking spree. He has also been making appointments, insisting that he is still in charge till May 29.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has kicked against the last-minute action.

Undaunted, the President yesterday removed the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive of Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Mrs. Saratu Altine Umar.

A statement by presidential spokesman Reuben Abati, which announced her removal, named Mrs. Uju Aisha Hassan-Baba as the new Executive Secretary/Chief Executive of NIPC.

Gen. Adebayo, who was eased out of his post less than two years into a four-year tenure , deplored the manner of his removal.

In a letter to President Jonathan, which our correspondent obtained, Gen. Adebayo also fingered Minister of Education Malam Ibrahim Shekarau in the “discourteous” and “disrespectful” way he was treated.

The 87-year-old father of former Ekiti State Governor Adeniyi Adebayo, admonished the President to imbibe the culture of respecting elders in addition to demonstrating civility in his public conduct if given the chance to rule the country again or to be in any leadership role.

Until his controversial removal via a published newspaper advertisement, the former military governor of the defunct Western Region was the chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Ibadan (UI).

The letter, dated May 7, also berated Jonathan for not having the courage to inform Gen. Adebayo of his removal considering how he was prevailed upon to accept the appointment.

He got wind of his removal through the Vice Chancellor and Registrar of the institution.

The letter reads: “I am constrained to express my most profound dismay at the rather unceremonious manner I came to be informed of my removal as chairman of the governing council of the University of Ibadan. Indeed it was communicated to me by the vice chancellor and registrar, when they visited me at my residence in Lagos.

“I was informed that the Hon. Minister of Education Ibrahim Shekarau had caused an advertorial to be published in The Guardian Newspaper of Thursday, the 30th of April, announcing the appointment of members of the governing council of twelve (12) new federal universities and four (4) new federal polytechnics, as well as the chairmanship change for the University of Ibadan.

“In effect, through that publication, I had been relieved of my duties as Pro Chancellor and another person had been appointed in my stead without the courtesy of even a phone call.

“At the risk of sounding immodest, I must say that I do not deserve such indecorous treatment from your Minister of Education, who I believe must have acted with a measure of approval from you or your office.

“However, as an elder and given the fact that you and some of my children are age mates, I feel an obligation to admonish you to be courteous in your approach to governance.

“True your time in office is short, but who knows, providence may yet again smile on you, and you might once again mount the saddle of leadership. Whenever this happens and even if it never does, my prayer for you is that you imbibe the culture of civility in your future endeavours.

“This abrupt termination of my tenure, while being seen as a welcome respite by my children and grand children, is all the same quite demeaning of my person.”



Shekarau last month announced the appointments of members of the governing council of 12 new federal universities and four new federal polytechnics, as well as the chairmanship change for the University of Ibadan.

The governing boards have since been inaugurated. A new pro-chancellor had been appointed for the premier university.

Also sacked by the president after his electoral defeat are Inspector General of Police Sunday Abba; Director General, National Sports Commission (NSC) Gbenga Elegbeleye; Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Dr. Femi Thomas - Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mallam Habib Abdullahi and Executive Secretary, Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF), Mrs Sharon Kasali. They were all replaced.

There were comments yesterday on the President’s actions.

The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties(CNPP) and a senator-elect, Comrade Shehu Sani, condemned the “last-minute” appointments being made by President Jonathan.

They said the appointments were in bad faith to create landmines for President- elect Muhammadu Buhari.

The CNPP, which spoke through its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Osita Okechukwu, said it was unethical for the President to make such appointments when he has technically become a lame-duck leader.

Okechukwu said: “It is unethical to make such appointments. Although the President may be hiding under the law, the ethics of the presidential system does not allow it.

“In America, from where we copied the presidential system, once it is one year or six months to the presidential election, you become a lame-duck president. You cannot order or initiate a drastic policy. You are now restricted.

“Jonathan’s actions are unethical and suspicious of laying landmines for the incoming administration. Decency portends that whatever you did not do in office for five years, you cannot do it overnight.

“As a loser of an election, the best Jonathan can do is to tidy up his files for the incoming administration instead of embarking on reckless appointments a month or two weeks to his exit. All he is doing is in bad faith.

“Jonathan seems to be confirming the narratives that some forces attempted to stop the announcement of the results of the March 28 presidential election.”

Rights activist Sani said Jonathan was using the belated appointments to vent his anger against those he felt betrayed him.

He also said Jonathan was manifesting a sign of frustration after political undertakers had failed him.

Sani said: “President Goodluck Jonathan’s last-minute hiring and firing policy is aimed at venting his anger against those whom he felt betrayed him and at the same time planting new lackeys who will act as fifth columnist and internal saboteurs for the incoming administration.

“Behind the facade of a ‘heroic leader who accepted defeat and congratulated President-elect Buhari’ GEJ is a disappointed and frustrated man who felt betrayed after torrents of assurances by his friends, hangers on and political undertakers who led him to the grave of his political career.

“GEJ built his tower of dream for second term from a foundation of political deceit and perfidy.

“GEJ’s exit plan is to create and leave behind stooges whose activities in the next government will make Nigerians turn back to appreciate GEJ

“President GEJ is a wounded lion who is in a traumatic state of confusing smile for a jest and even a handshake as a mockery.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/jonathan-under-attack-over-new-appointments/

BY SAHARA REPORTERS, NEW YORK MAY 16, 2015

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State on Friday May 15, 2015 deliberately frustrated and undermined the efforts by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Umana Okon Umana to access and inspect materials used for the April 11, governorship election in the State as ordered by the Election Tribunal in Uyo.

The Chairman of the Governorship Election Tribunal in Akwa Ibom State, Justice Goddy Anunihe, had on Thursday 14th May ordered the Independent Electoral Commission in the State to give the Petitioners access to all materials; including Permanent Voter Card (PVC) Readers printouts, ballot papers and all other materials used during the just concluded Governorship Election in the State.

Inspection of the election materials was billed to commence on Friday 15 May, 2015 at 10 am at the Headquarters of the Commission in the State. However, in a deliberately orchestrated plot to frustrate the Petitioners, the State INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Austin Okojie not only refused to cooperate with the APC but also sabotaged the exercise.

Upon the arrival of the APC inspection team led by Mr. Victor Iyanam, a former Attorney General of the State who represented the party's lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN and the forensic experts engaged by the APC candidate, the embattled REC, Mr. Okojie who has been severally accused of corruption and compromise was no where to be found. This delayed the inspection for more than 2 hours.

When Mr. Okojie finally surfaced at about 12 pm with other INEC staff, he refused to allow the APC access to the election materials. This led to a long argument between the APC team and the REC. After succumbing to the insistence of the APC, Mr. Okojie told the APC inspection team that INEC does not have tables on which the materials will be placed for inspection.

Determined to go ahead despite the antics of the REC, the APC went out and sourced for a table on its own. Still undeterred, the REC again told the APC Counsel and forensic experts that they will not be allowed to use equipment, which they had brought along with them. The forensic experts had brought high tech scanners and photocopiers along with them for the exercise. The REC insisted that only the 3 to 4 photocopiers owned by the Commission will be used which he did not even make available.

On being informed that the scanners brought in by the forensic experts had the capacity to scan 120,000 ballot papers a day and that it will not be possible to examine hundreds of thousands of ballot papers and other materials which were allegedly used throughout the entire State during the polls, the REC became infuriated.

In a heated argument, the APC Counsel, Mr. Iyanam told the REC that INEC allowed parties to use the same equipment for inspection without any argument during the 2007 and 2011 Election Tribunal cases and wondered why it should be different in 2015. The REC, Mr. Okojie bluntly replied to the surprise of everyone that in 2011 when he served as REC in Abia State, that he did not allow such equipments to be used. Mr. Iyanam fired back saying that it was preposterous for Mr. Okojie to cite his past lawlessness and impunity as a precedent.

Not done, Mr. Okojie told Mr. Iyanam that the INEC Chief Security Officer in State, one Mr. Asuquo Effiong had sent him a threat text message and that he had ordered the State Security Service (SSS) to detain him indefinitely. He further stated that he will not tolerate any challenge to his authority. However, a reliable security source in the State said that the truth of the matter is that the INEC CSO had sent the REC a message accusing the REC of "eating alone" and vowed to expose him if he was not given his share of the bribes given to the REC by the State Governor, Godswill Akpabio.

On March 27, 2015, a day before the just concluded presidential election, Sahara Reporters had exclusively revealed how Governor Akpabio bribed Mr. Okojie with 2.5 billion naira for him to rig elections in the State in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in State.

After many altercations, the REC brought out some materials allegedly used for the April 11 governorship polls in the State. Upon examination by the APC, it was discovered that INEC had mixed up the materials used for the governorship election with those used for the Senatorial and House of Representatives elections. This spark another round of heated argument between the APC team and the REC as Mr. Okojie insisted that INEC will not separate the materials and that the APC will not used its equipment for the exercise.

Feeling frustrated by the shameful actions of the REC which they see as a clear attempt to frustrate the party's petition at the Election Tribunal, the APC inspection team left the INEC Headquarters.

In another twist which points to an obvious collusion between the INEC and the State Government, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the State, Mr. Uwemedimoh Nwoko and the State Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr. Emmanuel Enoidem, also a lawyer, were conspicuously going in and out of the INEC office during the abortive inspection exercise.

Mr. Nwoko later spoke with journalists who came to cover the exercise. He told the press men that he was at the INEC Headquarters to represent the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). However, a legal source dismissed Mr Nwoko's defense saying that since the State Government is not a party to the election petition the Attorney General had no business whatsoever being at the INEC Headquarters.

The source also stated that if indeed the Mr Nwoko was there to represent the PDP he may be liable for gross misconduct because the Code of Conduct for Public Servants and the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners prohibits him from engaging in private cases and that the law does not allow him as the Chief Law Officer of the State to take up private briefs.

Sahara Reporters had obtained documents and reported exclusively on 9th May, 2015 that while data with the INEC in Abuja shows that only 437, 128 persons were accredited by Card Readers to vote during the April 11governorship elections in Akwa Ibom State, the corrupt Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State unilaterally allocated 996, 128 votes to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Udom Emmanuel and gave the APC candidate 89, 865 votes.

Guideline issued by INEC in Abuja and signed by the Secretary to the Commission, Mrs. Augusta C. Ogakwu on 2nd April, 2015 stated that only Cards Readers would be used for 2015 governorship elections in the country and that elections should be rescheduled in places where the Card Readers failed.

Both local and international observers had called for the total cancellation of elections in the State for falling below acceptable standards.

http://saharareporters.com/2015/05/16/inec-denies-akwa-ibom-apc-access-election-materials-rec-orders-detention-his-cso

Conduct Bureau orders Jonathan, ministers, others to declare assets
May 15, 2015
Written by Yusuf Alli, Abuja


The Code of Conduct Bureau has made Assets Declaration Forms available to President Goodluck Jonathan, ministers and political office holders.

Also, all newly-elected governors, National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly members have been directed to obtain assets declaration forms.

It, however, said after the submission of the forms, its officers will move round nationwide to verify the claims of political office holders.

According to a notice by the Secretary to the bureau, Mr. Kolade Omoyola, the filling of assets declaration forms is in line with the 5th Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.

The terse notice reads in part: “The Code of Conduct Bureau wishes to remind all political office holders to declare their assets on assumption and vacation of office in accordance with paragraph II of the 5th Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Assets declaration forms are available for collection at the Code of Conduct Bureau. Please note that the declaration of assets does not end with the submission of forms only as the Bureau would verify such declarations for further necessary action.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/conduct-bureau-orders-jonathan-ministers-others-to-declare-assets/

Jonathan wrong on de Klerk’s divorce

May 12, 2015



President Goodluck Jonathan was wrong on his last Sunday’s claim that the Marike, wife of Former South African President FW de Klerk divorced him because he ended apartheid.

He made the claim during the Thanksgiving service in his honour at the Anglican Church in Abuja.

Jonathan said he hoped his wife, Patience will not divorce him for conceding defeat in the presidential election to General Mohammadu Buhari.

However, according to Wikipedia Marike in 1998 after 38 years of marriage divorced Klerk following the discovery of his affair with Elita Georgiades, then the wife of Tony Georgiades, a Greek shipping tycoon who had allegedly given de Klerk and the NP financial support.

“Soon after his divorce, de Klerk and Georgiades were married. His divorce and remarriage scandalised conservative South African opinion, especially among the Calvinist Afrikaners. In 1999, his autobiography, The Last Trek – A New Beginning, was published. De Klerk successfully had a chapter from Marike’s biography, A Place Where the Sun Shines Again, dealing with his infidelity.

Marike’s obituary in Telegraph of Dec 6 2001 after her murder is reproduced below:

MARIKE DE KLERK, who has been murdered aged 64, was the dignified and influential former wife of F W de Klerk, South Africa’s last white president who shrugged off deep-seated Afrikaner tenets and initiated the transition to black majority rule in 1994.



For most of her life, Marike de Klerk fulfilled the role of a dedicated wife to a man of destiny, helping him through a volatile political career as enlightened Afrikaners began to question the philosophy of apartheid, and eventually standing by his side as he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela.



Within a short few years, Marike de Klerk’s life was in ruins: her husband left her for another woman; then she became engaged to a younger man who turned out to be a bankrupt – he suffered a nervous breakdown days before they were due to be married and subsequently disappeared.



Marike Willemse was born in Pretoria in 1937 into what was considered a privileged Afrikaner home. Her father, Wilhelm Willemse, was a distinguished academic and writer. As Professor of Social Pathology and Psychology at Pretoria University, he ensured that his children were raised in a “verligte” (enlightened) atmosphere and imbued with the spirit to respect and help others.





Marike’s own academic star never shone too brightly and she was studying for a degree in Commerce at the University of Potchefstroom when she met and fell in love with a young law student, Frederik de Klerk.



The student romance developed into a young marriage which she later described as “seeming to have been made in heaven”. De Klerk was the scion of a long line of Afrikaner politicians. His brother, Willem, was to become a brave, liberal newspaper editor who helped to form what is now the Democratic Party.



Frederik de Klerk, while considering himself “enlightened”, did not at first share his brother’s liberal leanings. He set up a law practice while working his way through the ranks of the then all-powerful National Party (NP). Marike supported his political ambitions believing, as she later wrote, that he had the capabilities to change the apartheid structure from within.



In his early days as an MP, a junior minister and then cabinet minister in the governments of John Vorster and P W Botha, F W de Klerk showed few signs of reformist zeal. If anything, he was regarded as a hardline right-winger.



Marike de Klerk remained loyal and loving, although her compassion had led her into supporting social work among South Africa’s black women whose plight, culturally rather than politically, horrified her. When F W de Klerk became South Africa’s state president in 1989, he appeared to move his government swiftly to the reformist centre, a switch which many close friends attributed in some measure to the influence of his wife.



In his first major speech, he startled his critics by calling for a non-racial South Africa and negotiations on the country’s future. In 1990, he lifted the ban on the African National Congress and other previously banned political organisations, and released Nelson Mandela.



Marike de Klerk expressed her “pride and joy” at being married to the man who had brought an end to apartheid and opened the way for a democratic nation based on a constitution which respected all human rights. She revelled in the world acclaim the peaceful transition brought to her husband and shared the country’s adulation of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black leader

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/jonathan-wrong-on-de-klerks-divorce/

Jonathan, Okonjo-Iweala ran Nigeria like a come-and-chop restaurant — Shehu Sani
May 9, 2015Abdullahi Garba

The Senator-elect for Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, on Saturday tackled President Goodluck Jonathan on the sale of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, and the last-minutes sale of the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited, NITEL.
He also carpeted the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on her economic policy.
The senator-elect also described the current impasse in the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, as a disgrace to Nigerian workers.
Mr. Sani, while receiving the Kaduna state executive of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, who visited him in his office in Kaduna, said the privatization exercise under President Goodluck Jonathan is a monumental theft of Nigeria’s collective resources in the interest of a few.
“The sale of PHCN has not translated into consistent electric power in our homes, in our offices , in our markets and in our work place,” he said, adding that the issue of privatization has also seriously affected many workers who were employed in those institutions for decades.
Mr. Sani also stated that, “the last minute-sale of NITEL to a private firm at a time when the government is supposed to be preparing notes for handover is also suspicious or irrelevant at this time”.
The Senator-elected also accused Mrs Okonjo-Iweala of damaging Nigeria’s economy by policies he said failed to impact positively on the lives of Nigerians.
“They claim progressive economic statistics on paper while our people continue to suffer in abject poverty, want and penury.
“All the economic indicators that have been churned out by the Jonathan administration is in direct conflict with the reality of the situation on ground as far as Nigeria is concerned.
“Most of our industries have closed down, the value of our naira has crashed and many people are out of job and the claim of thousands of jobs created by the government is suspect and simply on paper.This is also an issue we have to look at in the incoming administration,” he added.
He described the government of President Jonathan as “literally a political restaurant whereby people are invited to come and feed.That is why President Jonathan is saying that those who decamped from PDP to APC will come back with empty stomach.
“The idea of governance under Jonathan is about people using the opportunity of being in office to service themselves and their immediate families.
“The bickering in the PDP after the failed elections are simply nothing but pant of death of a party that has inflicted serious hardship on Nigerians in the last 16 years.”
On the NLC crisis, Mr Sani said the crisis in the labour union is a disgrace to workers, to Nigerian people and to the country at large.
He said it is unfortunate that after decades of viable labour movement in Nigeria, the country now has a labour that is divided against itself.
“NLC as it exists at this time cannot fight the interest of Nigerian workers as long as it remains divided,” Mr. Sani said.
He called on the incoming government of Muhammadu Buhari to reconcile the factions within the NLC for the collective interest of Nigeria and the Nigerian workers because according to him, “a house divided against itself cannot stand”.
He also told his visitors that as a very important sector of the economy, they have a role to play in mobilizing and sensitizing people for the success of the incoming administration.
Mr. Sani advocated a bill to protect the local automobile industry so that Nigerians would better patronize made-in-Nigeria cars, saying that would provide jobs and boost Nigeria’s economy.
The state chairman of the NURTW, Alhassan Haruna, appealed to government to come to the aid of his Union’s over 60,000 members by assisting them to improve on their transport business.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/182680-jonathan-okonjo-iweala-ran-nigeria-like-a-come-and-chop-restaurant-shehu-sani.html

Media Consultant Sues Alison-Madueke For Illegally Using His Name To Attack former Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo, Claims One Billion

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORKMAY 08, 2015

An Abuja-based media consultant and former newspaper editor, Simon Imobo-Tswam, has sued Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, for libel, mischief and the unauthorized use of his name, phone number and platform for image-laundering.

Minister of Petroleum Diezani Allison-Madueke
In a lawsuit filed at a High Court in the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Imobo-Tswam seeks N1 billion from the minister as “general and compensatory damages.” According to the plaintiff, Ms. Alison-Madueke and her media agents illegally used his name, his mobile telephone number and the official letterhead of his group, Network of Progressive Activists (NPA), to launch a media attack against former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In addition, according to the plaintiff, the minister and her hirelings exploited his name and group in defending the minister’s alleged questionable spending of N10 billion to charter jets.

Apart from the Petroleum Minister, other defendants are Michael Mukwuzi, Timothy Ademola, ThisDay newspapers, Tokunbo Adedoja, Vanguard newspapers, Chioma Gabriel, and Anozie Egole.

One of the defendants, Mr. Mukwuzi, works with the media department at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) while another, Mr. Ademola, is the executive assistant to the special assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on youth and student matters, as well as the national coordinator of NPA.

In addition to urging Justice M.M. Kolo to award N1 billion, the plaintiff, who is represented by Chris Alashi, also wants the court to order the defendants pay interest of 18% on the judgment award.

Mr. Imobo-Tswam also wants the defendants to apologize to him, with the apology published in the Vanguard and ThisDay.

The lawsuit claims that the defendants “maliciously, malevolently, mischievously and wickedly ascribed/attributed to the plaintiff” opinions that “embarrassed, injured and devastatingly damaged the Plaintiff, and cast him in bad light before well-meaning members of the public and most particularly patriotic Nigerians.”

The lawsuit accuses the minister and her agents of using the plaintiff’s name, without his authorization, as the author of an advertorial that attacked Mr. Obasanjo following a political feud between the former president and President Jonathan. According to the plaintiff, he had rejected an offer to speak against Mr. Obasanjo on a program at AIT TV as well as to represent himself as the author of an anti-Obasanjo piece.

Mr. Imobo-Tswam alleges that, despite his refusal to attack Mr. Obasanjo, Mr. Mukwuzi and Mr. Ademola affixed his name as the author of a scurrilous piece that was published in several Nigerian newspapers.

The plaintiff also asserts that he was approached again to use his name and platform to defend Ms. Alison-Madueke after the minister was accused of recklessly squandering more than N10 billion of public funds on
chartered jets.

The lawsuit stated that, despite the plaintiff’s refusal to lend his name or that of his platform to the defense of the minister, the defendants went ahead to write an advertorial titled “The Unveiling of Operation Destroy Diezani,” giving the misleading impression that he had authored it. The document was subsequently published in several Nigerian newspapers on March 26, 2014. The publication used the plaintiff’s platform’s letterhead, e-mail address and

personal phone number.

The lawsuit asserts that Mr. Imobo-Tswam has suffered great harm since the action by the minister and her alleged, adding that family members,

colleagues as well as church-members, had accused him of championing corruption and economic sabotage as well as being a paid agent of the Presidency and Minister of Petroleum.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the lawsuit.

http://saharareporters.com/2015/05/08/media-consultant-sues-alison-madueke-illegally-using-his-name-attack-former-pres-olusegun

Jonathan, PDP frustrating transition process — APC
May 7, 2015Press Release

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to call his aides to order to stop them from overheating the polity with their incautious statements, especially relating to the transition of power.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said while the PDP may be deeply traumatized by its loss in the last general elections – and the party itself has said it is indeed suffering from ‘post-election (defeat) trauma’ – that should not be a reason for it to disrupt the nation’s peace by displaying crab mentality.
It described as provocative and ill-intentioned the statement credited to the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs,​ ​Rufai Alkali, that the APC should talk less and plan more for the nation.
Mr. Alkali had also said the APC is seeking to stampede the President out of office.
“Prof. Alkali doesn’t know what he is saying,” the APC said. “How does he expect us to plan when the PDP-led FG has bluntly refused to cooperate with us in ensuring a successful transition? As we write, the transition committee of the FG has yet to hold a single meeting with our own transition committee, neither have they given us a line of handover note.
“As a matter of fact, the Jonathan Administration has said the handover notes will not be ready until the third week of May, meaning just a week before the handover.
“What time then do we have to scrutinize the handover notes? How can we plan when we don’t even know which projects they have, which ones they have completed and which ones are outstanding? How can we plan when we don’t even know how many barrels of oil are sold per day?”
The party said the fact ​that ​Mr. Alkali ​does not know the difference between Inauguration Committee and Transition Committee was a reflection of the mediocrity that permeates the Jonathan Administration and led to its downfall.
“While their Inauguration Committee has been meeting with ours, their Transitional Committee has yet to even meet with ours,” the APC said. “How then can Prof. Alkali justify his statement that the Jonathan Administration has been in a ‘transition mode’?
“Is it part of their transition mode that President Jonathan has been engaged in a rash of feverish last-minute appointments that, though may not have breached any known law, are patently in bad faith, morally repugnant and indecorous.
“They say they are in office until May 29th, but pray, are appointments the only function of a government? Are there no problems crying for attention, such as the intractable fuel scarcity, the worsening power situation, the grounded economy and the missing Chibok girls?
“Is it part of their transition mode that Jonathan’s Minister of Power has virtually been reading the riot act to the incoming government, condescendingly warning it not to even consider reversing the power sector privatization because its gains are “very obvious?”
“Do they understand the implication of their gratuitous and unsolicited advice? If their power sector reforms have been so successful, would Nigeria’s power situation have hit perhaps its lowest point in a long long time as we have it now?”
APC said in as much as the Jonathan Administration is bent on provoking the incoming Administration, creating confusion and even sabotaging the transition, the APC has decided not to fall for their antics in the interest of peace.
The party reiterated its earlier advice to the PDP to shake off the trauma of defeat and gear up for the challenging task of being in opposition.


http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/182580-jonathan-pdp-frustrating-transition-process-apc.html

Nigeria’s economy under threat as debts hit N11tr
May 6, 2015
Written by SIMEON EBULU, Group Business Editor


The growing profile of Nigeria’s debt has become a source of concern, given the Federal Government’s penchant to add to its stock. The latest addition of N473 billion, has once again opened the floodgate of the spiral rise, with its attendant consequences, reports SIMEON EBULU, Group Business Editor

FEAR may well be the word to describe the state of Nigeria’s debt profile, hovering at N11.24 trillion as at December 31, 2014 and still rising.

The level which the nation’s debt overhang has attained is like a death-knell. Yet it keeps climbing.

The revelation by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Nweala, that the Federal Government has borrowed N473 billion in the first quarter of this year to execute the 2015 National Budget, is another clear case of one-more borrowing too many, so to speak.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said yesterday that of the N882 billon budgetary provision for borrowing, the Federal Government had already accessed N473 billion to fund Recurrent Expenditure, such as salaries and other overheads. The obvious reason for this development, she stressed, is the 50 per cent decline in the spot market of crude prices .which has inadvertently resulted in a cash crunch for the country.

To remain focused on keeping the economy stable and the government running, the government has embarked on “front-loaded borrowing programme to manage the cash crunch in the economy,” she said.

Nigeria’s borrowing profile from independence, is a study in itself. Going by the data available to The Nation, there appears to be more questions than answers when it comes to x-raying how the nation arrived at this point in time, where nothing gets done unless it is powered by external revenue sources, rather than internally generated funds, or revenues earned from known government sources, such as taxes, oil and non-oil exports.

The hint that Nigeria would go a borrowing again, was given by Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala in far- away America in April during the last International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Group Spring meetings in Washington DC, United States (U.S.).

On prospects of further borrowing, she said: “Government is considering and in fact taking steps to actualise this with the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank (AfDB).” The other option of tapping the capital markets would be left for the incoming government. She said the government decided to look outside the nation’s shores for the next round of borrowing because it has reached, and almost exceeded taking the ceiling for local debts.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said: “Our borrowing strategy is very prudent, and what we will do is that we have a lot of domestic borrowing than we want, so we are trying to switch and have a little more of external borrowing, but by drawing heavily on the multilateral institutions. So we will be going to the World Bank and the AfDB, and we will also look into the markets. But for the multilaterals, we’ve already embarked on discussions.”

Her disclosure that N473 billion has been borrowed is a confirmation that the proposal has eventually been actualised.

In its 2014 Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA), the nation also adopted a subsisting debt management strategy as captured in the approved Nigeria’s Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDS), for 2012-2015, which seeks to achieve an optimal mix in the debt portfolio of 60:40 for domestic and external debts respectively as against the current mix of 83:17 through a gradual substitution of relatively more expensive domestic borrowing with cheaper external financing. Thus, the 2014 DSA has already incorporated government’s policy objective of reducing the overall cost of government borrowing at an acceptable level of risks. This may have informed the minister’s statement of government’s preference for approaching multilateral agencies.

The objective of the 2014 DSA is to assess the country’s capacity to finance its projects/programmes and service its debt obligations, without undue large adjustments that may compromise its macroeconomic stability, overall growth and development.

The government’s avowed confidence that it can continue to borrow on the argument that it falls within a safe threshold, is punctured when examined under an uncertain economic regime, as being faced by Nigeria. Even the government admitted this by its own record. It underlined the risks inherent on its path.

“The pessimistic scenario ( where Nigeria is presently), assumes a reduction in the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), increase in the rate of inflation, decline in revenue accruing to the Federal Government as a result of a fall in crude oil prices, deterioration in fiscal deficit and current balance, amongst others. Unlike in the previous years, which made pessimistic scenario revenue-specific, this years DSA considered deterioration in a broad range of macroeconomic indicators and variables that could impact negatively on the debt portfolio,” the sustainability analysis annual report said.

Although the results indicate that the country will still remain at a low risk of debt distress under the pessimistic scenario, it also shows a rising trend for all the debt indicators throughout the projection period. This means that a prolonged deterioration in one or two of the variables could increase the risk of debt sustainability.

The growing concern over the country’s debt overhang has been on the front burner for years, but often times, government officials have always argued that the nation’s debt level has not gone out of a safe trajectory. However, the lid over this confidence margin, appears to be weakening and increasingly contested.

A lecturer at the Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, Dr. Austin Nweze, pointed out a grave danger in accumulating excessive foreign debts as such would place undue burden on future generations, especially if the loans are not channeled into capital projects.

He said that the danger lies ahead for the economy, should the existing level of borrowing from big nations continue, which could make the country to depend on lending nations.

Nweze, however, said that there is nothing wrong in borrowing provided the funds are well utilised or invested in the provision of infrastructure.

According to him, the fall in oil prices has reduced revenue receipts, forcing the government to look for money to run the economy.

He urged the government not to leave behind a heavy foreign debt burden for the present and unborn generations. He cautioned that Nigeria, already under a heavy burden of foreign debts could be in great danger.



He urged the ruling class and the older generations to set good example and educate the coming generations for a better and secured future. According to him, such example should be set by not accumulating debt for future generations to inherit.

He urged the government to invest borrowed money in projects that will benefit the economy, instead of consuming the money.

Dr. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at Department of Economics, University of Lagos, said there is no way we are going to finance capital budget without borrowing.

He said: “That is why the allocation to capital account or expenditure is very small unless the government says it not ready to invest or provide for the future then it’s going to borrow.

“If government is committed to developmental issues there is no way it can run away from that? So, the volume of borrowed amount, or our debt stock wouldn’t matter so much. They can always try to cut down what they have borrowing and not that they can’t borrow.”



Leakages



Nwaogwugwu went on: “The danger on borrowing lies on fiscal leakages. If government can block leakages, that will be fine and that is the task for the new government, though the president-elect will find his hands tight on many issues.

“We can’t run away from borrowing but all we have to do is to ensure that we block all leakages. All we have to do is that we become bold enough to address some fiscal issues involved in recurrent spending. Many things we spend on recurrent expenditures are simply used to maintain some people who run government.



Funds not tied to

specific projects



“That issue started under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. If you look at the letter which Soludo (the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor) wrote when he was talking about the Jonathan administration and how he mismanaged the economy, he raised the issue of using the budget to finance consumption expenditure.

“Basically, Soludo called the budget under President Jonathan a consumption appropraition. In as much as I agree with Soludo totally, I also hold him accountable for some of the mistakes. It was when Obasanjo was in the office that Soludo was the CBN Governor, before Sanusi Lamido, took over with this minister of state for finance, who replaced Okonjo-Iweala . “It was after that we borrowed money, they called it capital receipt and we used that money to pay salaries and wages; we used that money for recurrent expenditure. We borrowed money and we don’t tie it to capital projects. That is one of the biggest issue and where the dangers lie. Such loans must be tied to the budget and if we don’t, we’ll be mortgaging the future of Nigerians.



The way out



Nwaogwugwu said: “We have to be fiscally discipline. We saw the Senate pass the bill; we saw the House of Representatives pass the bill and what did we see? The budget has increased. It has gone up to N4.5 trillion. But, what we discovered that National Assembly increased spending and mark up expenditure on things that might not be necessary. That has always been the problem. If the National Assembly can look at the budget critically and say, ‘we don’t need this; we don’t need that; let us start with their own remuneration; begin to cut them down, look at how much they are collecting’.

“Look at the severance allowances… unless you cut these down, there is no way out. You look at the state bureaucrat today; the havoc they have caused to the economy is huge. Look at the monetisation policy of Obasanjo, they have abandoned it completely. Unless we have a National Assembly that is bold enough to say, ‘lets block this and that’, then we will move forward. The way out is that those we have elected should block all leakages. If the politicians do the right thing we won’t have any problem.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/nigerias-economy-under-threat-as-debts-hit-n11tr/

Group slams judge for fining Igbinedion N3million over N25bn theft
May 2, 2015 Nnenna Ibeh

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has condemned the slap-on-the-wrist judgment handed Michael Igbinedion, a younger brother to former governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion, by a federal judge.
In a shocking ruling Thursday, Justice J. Liman of the Federal High Court in Benin, Edo State, fined N3 million for stealing N25 billion of public money.
The Executive Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran, said the judgement was another proof that Federal Government was protecting corrupt people.
“The Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke is not interested in prosecuting anybody. Several people have been indicted, nobody has been made to face the wrath of the law; and for those who were brought before the law, the cases were shoddily prosecuted to the extent that many of them didn’t get deterrent punishment. As a matter of fact, it is a long drawn story of protecting corrupt people,” he said.
“It is unfortunate this is happening in Nigeria despite the many reforms this administration claimed it has brought to our judicial system. This is an indication that the reforms are just charade. The judgment ridicules our judiciary and judicial system.”
The paltry fine against Michael, was a repeat of history, as a court had delivered a similar dubious judgement in favour of his elder brother seven years ago.
According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which brought the charges against Michael, the money was stolen from the Edo State treasury when his brother was governor of Edo State.
The court’s ruling is reminiscent of a 2008 case brought against the former governor, where he was accused of plundering the Edo State treasury during his eight years tenure as governor.
Following a controversial plea bargain reached with the then Farida Waziri-led EFCC, the former governor was sentenced to six months in jail with the option of a N3.5 million fine by a Federal High Court in Enugu.
He was also directed to return N500 million and three of the houses he acquired with stolen public funds to the Federal Government.
Based on the plea bargain all but one of the 191 charges of corruption and money laundering against him was dropped.
Now, seven years later, a similar pattern has been followed in the case of his brother, Michael.
Michael and his co- accused, Charles Eboigbodin, were convicted by Justice J. Liman of the Federal High Court, Benin, on Wednesday.
The duo alongside their companies: Gava Corporation Limited; Romrig Nigeria Limited; PML Securities Company Limited and PML Nigeria Limited, were prosecuted on an 81-count charge of money laundering, misappropriation of funds and abuse of office brought against them by the EFCC.
The convicts pleaded not guilty when they were arraigned, setting the stage for a full trial. In the course of trial, the prosecution called several witnesses to prove its case.
The duo was also convicted on different charges.
While Mr. Eboigbodin and PML Nigeria Limited were convicted on counts 50 to 59 for colluding to conceal the illicit origin of funds as stipulated under Section 14 (1)(b) of the Money Laundering (prohibition) Act, Mr. Igbinedion was convicted on counts 79, 80 and 81 for receiving cash in excess of the stipulated threshold.
The offence covered by these counts under Section 15 B of the Money Laundering Act carries both “a fine of not less than N250, 000 or more than N1million or a prison term of not less than two years or both fine and imprisonment.”
When the court resumed for sentencing, counsel to Mr. Eboigbodin and PML Nigeria Limited, Richard Ahonaruogho, urged the court to exercise its discretion and award a fine on PML Nigeria Limited and his client as first time offenders.
Mr. Igbinedion’s counsel, Abubakar Shamsudeen, prayed the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing his client.
“The second convict confided in me and he is remorseful and repentant, and Your Lordship has unfettered discretion to exercise option of a fine,” Mr. Shamsudeen said. “Section 15(2) of the Money Laundering Act has given my lord the ability to exercise the sentence with an option of a fine not below N250, 000 or N500, 000 and not more than N1, 000,000. My lord, he is a first time offender with no previous record of criminality.”
However, prosecuting counsel, Tayo Olukotun, who held brief for Rotimi Jacobs told the court to impose the stiffest punishment allowed by law on the convicts.
Mr. Olukotun contended that given the huge amount involved in the case, the reputation of the court was at stake if it grants an option of fine to the accused persons.
He urged the court not to be swayed by the plea of leniency from the defence lawyers, pointing out that “the convicts have been on bail and had been travelling in and out of the country and even after their conviction yesterday, they still went home, so the court has been lenient enough.”
Mr. Olukotun said, “The position of the law is clear on the punishment for the various counts for which Patrick Eboigbodin, PML Nigeria Limited and Michael Igbinedion had been convicted.
“Eboigbodin must serve the sentence as his offence has no provision for an option of fine, while the counts on which Igbinedion was convicted has an option of fine, imprisonment or both fine and imprisonment. We urge your Lordship to administer both the option of fine and imprisonment on Igbinedion.”
After listening to counsel, Mr. Liman proceeded to pronounce his sentence on the convicts.
He sentenced Mr. Eboigbodin to two years imprisonment but gave Mr. Igbinedion an option of N1 million fine on each of the three counts for which he was convicted and in default, two years imprisonment.
Mr. Liman also wound up PML Nigeria Limited and all its assets forfeited to the Federal Government, he ordered the company to pay N1 million on each of the ten counts for which it was convicted.
In addition, the judge discharged and acquitted three of the companies involved in the case: Gava Corporation Limited, Romrig Nigeria Limited and PML Securities Company Limited.
The convicts who were docked on an 81- count charge had pleaded not guilty upon arraigning setting the stage for a full trail. In the course of trial, the prosecution called several witnesses to prove its case.
During the trial, a prosecution witness Ajoyo Sowale, an accounts officer with the Guaranty Trust Bank, identified various account statements and account opening documents of the convicts and confirmed to the court that several lodgements were made into the accounts.
He added that he printed the account statements and got them certified by the appropriate authority.
Another witness Eriyo Amadiayagbon, a personal assistant to Mr. Igbinedion told the court how he was instructed on several occasions to make lodgements into the accused GTB account and those of Romrig Nigeria Limited and Gava Corporation.
According to Mr. Amadiayagbon, he usually received cash from the accountant at the Government House and paid into the account of the second accused person.
“And after paying the government entourage, the remaining cash was usually given to the ADC to the Governor,” Mr. Amadiayagbon had said.
He clearly identified his name on the printed account statement of Mr. Igbinedion, which is part of the exhibits before the court.
Abdullahi Hamza, an EFCC operative and a witness in the trial, gave detailed account of how state funds were diverted by the convicts for personal purposes, such as buying of shares, and transfer of funds into the account of Ekpenyong and Sons, a company owned by the first accused person, Mr. Eboigbodin.
CACOL urged the incoming Buhari government to reopen all these cases and bring all corrupt people and their allies in the judiciary to judgment.
“What a ridiculous judgment! What ratio is N3m to N25bn? What qualifies Lucky for an option of fine which is not applicable to Eboigbodin? Do we have different sets of laws for different classes of people?”

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/182339-group-slams-judge-for-fining-igbinedion-n3million-over-n25bn-theft.html

N25bn fraud: Lucky Igbinedion’s brother to pay N3m fine

MAY 1, 2015 : ALEXANDER OKERE 49 COMMENTS

A Federal High Court in Benin, Edo State on Thursday sentenced a younger brother of ex-Governor Lucky Igbinedion, Michael, to a six-year jail term for N25bn money laundering offences.

An aide of the ex-governor, Patrick Eboigbodin, was also jailed for 20 years for the same of offences.

However, the governor’s brother has an option of paying N3m or N1m for each of the three counts on which he was found guilty to avoid going to jail.

Eboigbodin sentencing on Thursday is without an option of fine.

The two convicts and four companies had been arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on an 81-count charge of money laundering during the tenure of Lucky Igbinedion as governor.

The four companies are Gava Corporation Limited, Romrig Nigeria Limited, PML Securities Company Limited and PML Nigeria Limited.

Justice A.M. Liman found Michael guilty on counts 79, 80 and 81 of the alleged charges while Eboigbodin was found guilty on counts 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58 and 59.

The judge also ordered the forfeiture of the assets of PML Limited to the Federal Government. The company will also pay N250,000 fine.

Liman noted that the prosecution had proved the alleged collaboration by the accused beyond reasonable doubts but he discharged them all on the other count charges on the grounds that the prosecution failed to prove the allegations.

The judge further explained that the prosecution only proved suspicion but failed to prove illicit origin of funds deposited in the named banks.

Earlier, the counsel to the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth accused persons, Richard Ahonanuogho, acknowledged that the 10-count charges brought against his clients centred on money laundering as contained in Section 14 (1) of the Money Laundering Act (2004) and the law provided a sentence of two to three years imprisonment.

He, however, urged the court to use its discretion to award a fine or apply a suspended sentence as the first accused, the ex-governor’s brother, was a first offender, in his late 50’s and had not benefited from the said offence.

Counsel to the second accused, Abubakar Shamsudeen, had told the court that his client, Eboigbodin , had pleaded leniency based on his age and being a first offender and a victim of the office he occupied when the offence was committed.

He, therefore, urged the court to apply an option of fine, not below N250,000 or N500,000, and not more than N1m, in lieu of imprisonment.

But the counsel to the EFCC, Tayo Olukotun, urged the court not to be persuaded by the plea for leniency by the accused, arguing that their conviction would be in line with the provision of the law and that the call for suspended sentence was not within the court’s jurisdiction.

The prosecution also submitted that the claim of non-criminal benefit by the first accused was not an issue because the crime had already been established.

http://www.punchng.com/news/n25bn-fraud-lucky-igbinedions-brother-to-pay-n3m-fine/

BY EBUN-OLU ADEGBORUWA APR 29, 2015

Dear Patriots: I have watched with great misgivings, the gale of rushed appointments, undertaken by the outgoing administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, instead of focusing on his transition programmes.

At the last count, a new managing director has been appointed for the Nigerian Ports Authority, new leaders have been appointed for the Securities and Exchange Commission, federal commissioners have been appointed and there seems to be no end to the desire of the outgoing regime to compensate its supporters and cronies with juicy appointments. And these appointments are very critical indeed.
The present administration has barely one month to hand over to another administration, to which it has conceded defeat in the recent elections. That being the case, all these 'midnight' appointments run counter to the open declaration of President Jonathan, to create a level playing ground for the incoming administration.

On the one hand, the President declined to assent to the Bill on vital constitutional amendments, he did nothing to harmonize his position with that of the National Assembly, for the benefit of Nigerians, resulting into a colossal waste of money, energy and human ideas. Instead, the President filed a suit in court and even sought an order of injunction, as a means of consolidating his position, to the detriment of Nigerians. One of the reasons given by the President was that he did not want to hinder the smooth administration of the incoming government or be part of a process that may whittle down presidential powers. So how do we then reconcile this with the President's gale of these new appointments, into very critical sectors of the Nigerian economy.
I urge the President to forthwith stop further appointments or termination of appointments and face squarely the business of handing over.

If indeed the President is zealous to function and perform, then let him channel his new found energy, on finding the Chibok girls, let him rescue our citizens from the xenophobic attacks in South Africa, let him secure the release of some innocent Nigerians from the clutches of death, in Indonesia and other Afro-Asian countries, let the President end the fuel scarcity that is currently crippling businesses and human and vehicular movement and give us electricity, even for this one month.

The impression that I get from these belated appointments, is that the President is trying to cripple or at best, tie the hands of the incoming administration, which is totally unacceptable.

Nigerians have voted for Buhari, and he should be allowed free space to determine those that he would love to work with.

Thank you all.

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa

http://saharareporters.com/2015/04/29/jonathan-should-halt-further-appointments

Forensic Audit Report Prepared without Bank Statement, says PwC
April 29, 2015
Written by Nduka Chiejina, Abuja


The forensic audit report on Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) compiled by PricewaterHouseCoopers (PwC) was done without bank statements, the report said.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), according to the report, shunned the auditors’ request for the bank statements.

PwC stated in the revenue section of the report that “up till the time of writing this report, our request for bank statements from CBN was not responded to,” PwC said in the revenue section of the report, which depicts the NNPC as an organization with chaotic procedure.

As a result of this “limitation”, PwC said it “relied on the account statements obtained from other stakeholders to carry out our independent check on the remittances made”.

PwC was engaged to carry out the forensic audit with a letter dated 5 June, 2014 by the Ministry of Finance in the wake of the missing $20 billion allegation by the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano.

The audit report, though called “forensic”, may not be considered a detailed financial audit of Nigeria’s carbon deposit industry activities because PwC was quick to state that it “examined crude oil production records only rather than crude oil and gas as per the signed contract”.

This review addressed three key areas, namely the outcome of the Senate Committee hearings, the total crude oil liftings by NNPC from all terminals in the period and the total revenue generated from crude oil from January 2012 to July 2013. The audit report disclosed that the activities of the NNPC led to the under-valuation of $32,909,590 relating to 13 liftings (equity and domestic crude) during the review period.

These differences, the report noted, resulted in value loss to the federation. One of such differences is the under-valuation of $1,503,540.

PwC stated that “of the $33 million, Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) of the NNPC agreed that for two liftings (with an under-valuation of $1,503,540), they had made valuation errors by computing the amounts due using a different pricing option in one case and a wrong Official Selling Price (OSP) in the other”.

The auditors added that there was another under reporting to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) of $2,107,275. According to the report, ”for four other liftings with differences totaling $2,107,275, the unit prices on the schedule received did not agree with our recomputation. We checked the liftings to COMD’s valuation documents and observed that the prices agree with our recomputation but were just different on the schedule provided. However, the different valuations on the schedule were also used in the monthly FAAC reports; as such, the errors resulted in lower remittances to FAAC”.

There were other accounting infractions discovered by the auditors. According to PwC, “the total cash remitted into the Federation accounts from crude oil liftings for the period under review amounted to $50.81 billion”. “We were able to trace $49.33bn of this amount to the FGN bank accounts. The balance of $1.48billion was also traced to the FAAC report for subsequent months. $3.81billion is the difference between $50.81billion and the $47billion amount reported by the Senate Reconciliation Committee. This difference was as a result of the following:



FIRS remittance – We verified additional $1 billion revenue generated by FIRS, which was not reported by the Reconciliation Committee. We also traced the payment of this amount to the CBN/FIRS JP Morgan account.

Other third party financing remittance – $1.37billion was received from the third party financing arrangements. The arrangement with TEPNL resulted in the payment of $211million to the Federation from the USAN Field TMP project which represents Royalty and Profit oil, while the sum of $1.16billion was received from MPNL from the Satellite Field and Reserve Development projects.

NPDC remittance – Cash payments of $1.7billion representing Petroleum Profit Tax and Royalties had been remitted.

Equity crude and DPR royalty oil remittance – The remittance received from Equity crude sales, and in favour of DPR royalty oil, was $0.16 billion higher and $0.42billion lower than the Senate Reconciliation Committee figures respectively.”

The forensic audit report noted that “Mobil Producing Nigeria Limited, in its submission to the Senate, reported revenue figures of $518million and $859million in respect of the Reserve Development Project (RDP) and Satellite Field Development Project (SFD) respectively. Total E&P reported a revenue figure of $1.053 billion7 in respect of the USAN project. These amounts represent royalty and profit oil due to the Federation Account from these third party financing arrangements. The total revenue generated from third party financing arrangement was $2.43billion and not $2 billion reported by the Reconciliation Committee.”

With regards to undisclosed remittance to the Federation Account, out of the total revenue reported by MPNL, $1.158billion had been remitted to the Federation Account as at November 2013. This was confirmed by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation at the presentation to the Senate Committee.”

However, PwC traced these payments to the CBN/NNPC JP Morgan account. The total of $858,750,972 relating to SFD had been remitted while $300,000,000 out of the $518,069,354 relating to RDP had been remitted. The balance of $218,069,354 was withheld to service the project finance cost and subsequent remittance of the net amount, in accordance with the contract terms.

In respect of the USAN project handled by Total E&P Nigeria Limited, $193,478,061.15 and $17,943,616 totaling $211,421,677, being Royalty and Profit Oil was remitted to the Federation account.

There were cash payments of $863 million by NPDC to FIRS not captured by Reconciliation Committee. PwC noted that “NPDC was yet to be assessed for tax by the FIRS. However, the company made several cash payments during and after the period which amounted to $863million. These payments were confirmed by FIRS to have been received. We also traced the payments to CBN/FIRS bank statements with JP Morgan.”

“For the period under review, NPDC made several payments to DPR based on self-estimated royalty. We traced several cash payments made by the company to CBN/DPR JP Morgan account statement, to the tune of $839 million but this was also not captured by the reconciliation committee.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/forensic-audit-report-prepared-without-bank-statement-says-pwc/