₦airaland Forum

Donzman:
@McKren

Stop playing with semantics, corruption is corruption. They both used their positions for private INTERESTS.

software:
Why should'nt we complain? there are lots to complain about. I think it is only someone who is in their cacus, would feel there is nothing to complain about. We need a president who is genue and truthfull. no a president who has started with lies wvwn when he has not been elected.
This is no gossip. this is just the truth. Dont u think yaradua worts more than 500million naira?

EPOMA:
Charity starts from Home, Our leaders Like Odili and AttaH who where given so much money in the last 8 years should have shown their citizens that we are ready for change but instead have stolen so much money.

A member of the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Senator Victor Kassim Oyofo (Edo North) has dismissed the report of the Review Committee as hogwash and a document fit only for the garbage can.
Oyofo, a former Chief Whip of the Senate, called on Nigerians to be conversant with the fact that the report has not yet been accepted by the Senate and therefore they should discountenance it.
Speaking yesterday with Senate Correspondents in Abuja, Oyofo said that what the Senate had done and which was procedurally correct was to allow the Review Committee headed by Senator Umaru Tsauri to lay the report on the table of the Senate preparatory to debate in May.
But he noted that the confusion in the Senate over the report has its roots in the vendetta mission by the other camp to pronounce President Olusegun Obasanjo guilty.
He also said that the inability of Some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senators to secure re-election tickets contributed to the accomplishment of the mission to “stand truth on its head” in the matter and blamed the PDP leadership for not taking proper control of the Senate and the Presidency’s relationship with the Upper Legislative Chamber.
Oyofo stated that he agreed completely with the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu that the Senate is confused over the PTDF matter.
According to him, “Indeed, I agree with the statement by the EFCC Chairman that there is confusion. It is even worse than confusion. I think it is a quagmire.”

But a member of the Ndoma-Egba-led PTDF ad hoc committee, Senator Victor Oyofo, told newsmen in Abuja on Friday that the review committee report was fit only for the dustbin. He said, “I agree with the statement that there is confusion. It is even worse than confusion; it is a quagmire. If you attempt to stand truth on its head, then it leads to the confusion we are in now. For example, how can any body suggest that President Obasanjo is guilty in the handling of the PTDF? There is no shred of evidence to support it. Number one, administratively, the executive secretary reports to the Federal Executive Council via Mr. Vice-President.”

According to Oyofo, there is nowhere in the report where the President was said to have benefited directly from the funds. This, he argued, was different from the case of the vice-president who was in charge of the daily administration of the fund.

He said he was taken aback by the report of the review committee with respect to the issue of $125 million.

In his view, said there is no excuse to let the vice-president off the hook when he approved an additional $20m, knowing that the $125m earlier granted was not used for the stated purpose.

Big B1:
If daddy happens to be a drug addict will you blame the children for getting drunk?

Donzman:
How the hell does overseeing what goes on with the PTDF which you have put under another Atiku's control amount to knowing every single detail about Atiku's life?. . .Why are people this dumb?

And contrary to the impression created that the review committee was united in its report and recommendations, a member, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi (Osun West), has said that he believes the President should be commended for the projects he spent PTDF funds for because he did not do it with selfish intentions to make personal gains.

*

Olasunkanmi, who disagreed with his colleagues on the panel, told The Guardian last night that in executing the Galaxy Backbone project and African Institute of Science and Technology (AIST) for which he was recommended for the Code of Conduct Bureau, the President had the best interest of the country at heart and wanted her in the league of technologically-advanced nations of the world.

But he said that the Vice President could not be said to have taken the actions he took in the approval of PTDF funds without pecuniary and personal interests.

He also explained why he took a dissenting view in the report, insisting that Atiku Abubakar and Otunba Fasawe are business partners.

In dissenting Senator Akin Olasunkanmi gave the following reasons:

* The share holding of NDTV shows that one Adamu Abubakar owns 10 per cent shares in NDTV and coincidentally one of the sons of the Vice President goes by the name Adamu Abubakar.

* The Vice President brought a letter from the Congressman William Jefferson to the Federal Ministry of Communication in respect of NDTV/iGate deal.

* The Vice President gave a loan to Otunba Johnson Fasawe, which he used to pay for the head office of NDTV.

* The PTDF deposits in TIB suggest that the deposits were meant for the purposes of the loan to NDTV.

* Questions put to Otunba Johnson Fasawe when he appeared before the review committee about his banking relationship with TIB were not answered satisfactorily.

On phone yesterday, Olasunkanmi said he did not think the report presented by the review committee was completely fair. His words: "If I say we were completely fair in our report, I will not be right; I don't think we were completely fair. Each of us had our opinion about what happened; I disagreed with the committee and that is why I had dissenting opinion on some issues. The President spent on projects of national importance. On the Galaxy Backbone, there are two of its type in Africa and ours would have been the third. The Ad-hoc Committee thought it was laudable and I believe we should be commending his interest in putting Nigeria in a position to catch up with the rest of the world. Don't forget that we are seven but that is what I think and I made it clear."

Olasunkanmi believes that the speed with which the President responded to the enquiries with a written report and voluminous documents that explained his position on various matters was commendable and should have been applauded.

He adds: "Mr. President said the way he interpreted Section 2(C) of the PTDF Act which talks about endowment in institutions meant he could give either money or buildings in furtherance of the PTDF goals. He did not breach the Act because he gave the money for the Gulf of Guinea Institute (G2i), an integral part of the African Institute of Science and Technology, which is an institute for Petroleum studies."

He noted that the work of the committee involved compromise and "a lot of give and take" to arrive at its conclusions.

He said: "We are one with the fact that the projects embarked upon by Mr. President were commendable ones. The ad-hoc committee says so and we did. He did not dip his hands into the fund to his own interest, but can we say the same about the Vice President?"

On Fasawe, Olasunkanmi said though he was invited to throw light on his dealings with the Vice President, he came simply to talk about the money given to him by President Obasanjo for payment into his MOFAS account.

He also complained, like Senator Titus Olupitan did in the ad-hoc committee, that the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Umaru Tsauri, over-ruled questions that would have unearthed the truth on the controversial MOFAS account.

The EFCC chairman restated that the PTDF probe was a consequence of a complaint from the United States Congress that one of its members, Mr. William Jefferson, abused his office by transacting private business in Nigeria.

He said, “Their law prevents them from using their office to transact private business.

“In the course of our investigations, we discovered that the President did not authorise anybody to pay PTDF money into Trans International Bank. The vice-president did so to transact business with Jefferson.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation wrote a letter indicting the vice-president of colluding with Jefferson to set up a business.

“From this, we investigated and found out that the PTDF money had been saved to a personal account at TIB. Part of the money was transferred to the US for a business transaction between the vice-president and Jefferson.

He said part of the money was also converted to naira and given as loan to a company belonging to Fasawe.

Ribadu said, “We saw documented evidence where the vice-president, officials of the bank, Mike Adenuga and the secretary of the PTDF agreed that the money must go to an account in TIB. We did not see any trace of Obasanjo‘s discussion with any bank or officials of banks concerning PTDF matters.

“Several billions of naira were transferred to Jefferson, which have not been recovered. This is our country‘s money but it is a pity that instead of striving to recover the money, we are now politicising the whole issue.”

Donzman:
Are you saying that is when PTDF started?

This is a simple concept to grasp and 4Play already did. He has way more patience to explain so he probably can, keep wallowing in ignorance

Donzman:
This is a simple concept to grasp and 4Play already did. He has way more patience to explain so he probably can, keep wallowing in ignorance.

If McKren appointed me to take care of his house and waited until after I slept with his wife to tell the whole world that I'm a thief, then he is also a thief and a fool. Hopefully you see the analogy and stop being dumb!

The report, however, contained a dissenting view by Senator Akin Olasunkanmi.

Olasunkanmi disagreed with his colleagues on Abubakar’s involvement in the NDTV deal.

He said that the shareholding of the NDTV showed that one Adamu Abubakar owns 10 per cent of its shares.

One of the sons of the vice-president, according to him, goes by the name Adamu Abubakar.

He said, “The vice-president brought a letter from a US Congressman, William Jefferson, to the Federal Ministry of Communications in respect of NDTV/i-Gate deal.”

He also claimed that the vice-president gave a loan to Fasawe, which he used to pay for the head office of the NDTV.

Olasunkanmi further said that the PTDF deposits in TIB suggested that they were meant for the purpose of advancing loan to NDTV.

He added that the questions put to Fasawe when he appeared before the review committee about his relationship with the TIB were not answered satisfactorily.

Austincrow:
Sources said the senate leadership removed the report from the order paper, allegedly because the committee members were adamant on not changing the recommendation indicting President Olusegun Obasanjo on the PTDF scandal. Sources further disclosed that Senator Ita Giwa had gone to the home of the Senate President Ken Nnamani on Tuesday morning where she appealed to him to ensure that President Obasanjo’s indictment is expunged from the PTDF report, saying “Baba will collapse if this report is released.”
Link to www.http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2007/mar/21/national-21-03-2007-01.htm
for details.

Donzman:
Now the question is why OBJ didn't expose Atiku all these while?. . .Either he lacks oversight(which is ridiculous to suggest) or he knew what was going on.

loyika:
What i will say for now is; SHAME ON AFRICA AND ON AFRICAN LEADERS

Razorr:
We all know that those guys have resigned out of fear of the Presidency! Some of our leaders actually assume that we are daft! What a pity!

DISCOMFORTING tension pervaded the Senate yesterday as all members of its seven-man special review committee on the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) resigned, despite having concluded their assignment.

They expressed fears over the decision by the leadership of the legislative chamber to shift debate on its work to a later date which, according to them, could jeopardise their findings.

In the letter to the President of the Senate, the Review Committee members said they were resigning for what they called the indecision of the Senate leadership on the timing of the presentation of the report.
The Senate is expected to go on election break today or tomorrow paving the way for the report to be swept under the carpet.

Committee members that were contacted last night were in rage that the leadership had taken them for a ride and about destroying their own individual reputations. “The report is ready but he (Nnamani) wants it because he said he wanted to look through it and make his own input but we are never going to allow him,” a Committee member said last night.

Their resignation letter, dated March 20, 2007 and titled, “Re-Resignation from Senate Review Committee on PTDF,” was submitted to the President of the Senate, Chief Ken Nnamani, shortly after the Senate plenary session.

Before the development, the Senate had granted the committee an indefinite extension to consider more evidence from the public.

Members of the committee are Senators Timothy Adudu; Sa‘ad Muhammed; John Azuta-Mbata; Akinlabi Olasunkanmi; Chris Adighije; and Bello Yusuf.

The letter of resignation read, ”We wish to inform the leadership that the committee set up by the Senate to review the report of the Ad-hoc Committee on the PTDF concluded its report as scheduled.

“However, considering the fact that the leadership is not certain about the time it would want the report to be presented, we, members of the review committee, hereby respectfully resign our membership.

“We remain grateful for the honour of consideration to serve.”

GNature:
Delivering judgment in three separate cases instituted against the Federal Government, the EFCC, chairman of the administrative panel of inquiry, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and President Olusegun Obasanjo, Justice Abdullahi Liman also declared that Obasanjo acted in excess of his powers by enthroning the administrative panel of inquiry to look into cases concerning state public officers.

Read more on this here:

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2007/mar/20/national-20-03-2007-01.htm

Danmasani:
It is unfortunate that some Nigerians side with contempt and nonconstitutional moves. A court of appeal ruled that INEC had to power to barr Atiku from contesting in the April Elections. Yet she decided to read her own constitution (the one from Aso Rock) and threw him out.

agboifo:
Like somebody mentioned above, precedence is important. Atiku may be the rogue that many say he is, but it would have been better for Nigerians to decide that through their votes. Secondly, the way he has been hounded by his boss (OBJ) has unwittingly made a martyr of Atiku, such that anyone who rightly believes in the rule of law will surely give Atiku some leeway to contest (and probably lose).