odinaccess:
Fear dey catch u

Paraman:
Obaseki learn nothing from Atiku's ordeal

dalongjnr:

You don't understand the game and the people behind the scene.
At the appointed time, all shall be revealed.

WeddingParol:
Where were you when one governor bought two hilux vehicles for over two billion naira?

Nigeria politics is filled with criminality

Fisayo Soyombo, an investigative journalist, has alleged that smugglers can bring in all sorts of goods or items into Nigeria as long as they pay bribes to personnel of the customs service.

Soyombo, who is the founder of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), said customs officials in Nigeria only intercept and publish names of smugglers who refuse to bribe them or who outsmart them.

Speaking during an interview on ‘Hard Copy’, a Channels Television programme, Soyombo said he had a first-hand experience of the atrocities perpetrated by customs officials when he embedded as a smuggler to bring in bags of rice from Benin Republic in 2022.

“I went into Benin Republic in November 2022, got some bags of rice and brought them to a place called Oja Odan. From Oja Odan, I was supposed to move them to Ilaro but we had to bribe customs,” he said.

“What happened was that I went in like I wanted to smuggle. I had to get smugglers already based in Ilaro and Oja Odan to take me in as part of them.

“Everything that I wrote that the smugglers told me, the smugglers believed they were speaking to a smuggler like them and not a journalist.

“When people say it is hearsay, It is not. It is just like going undercover to join a robbery gang and because you are one of them, they tell you a police commissioner is part of them. You can’t treat such information with scant regard".

“We were waiting for customs to tell us the day to move the bags of rice from Oja Odan to Ilaro and while waiting, I had to leave the country.

“So, there was a wait time because the customs officials who took money from the lead smuggler had not yet given us the all-clear.

“What happens is, if you hear or read it in any newspaper that ‘customs intercepts one million bags of rice’, those are people that did not bribe them.

“Anyone… and I say this with all conviction… anyone can bring in anything into Nigeria if you pay the right people".


“If you read any news that customs seized bags of rice or chicken, those are people that tried to outsmart them. If you bribe the right people in customs, you can bring in anything.

“When I say anything, I mean rice, chicken, turkey, arms, ammunitions, tramadol, guns and motorcycles used by terrorists in the north. These were things that were brought in.”

Paraman:
The election was free and fair.

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, says President Bola Tinubu acted in the best interest of Nigerians by announcing the removal of the petrol subsidy on the day of his inauguration on May 29, 2023.

Onanuga, in a chat TheCable on Sunday, said Nigeria was in serious financial trouble which prompted the president to act quickly before things got worse.

The presidential aide was reacting to an interview granted by Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), who said the announcement of subsidy removal by Tinubu a few minutes after his inauguration was hasty and driven by arrogance without due consultations with relevant stakeholders.

While justifying Tinubu’s action, Onanuga said there was no provision for subsidy in the budget left behind by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

He added that the country was in dire financial straits as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) could no longer import petrol due to N4 trillion debt owed by the federal government.

“Is Babachir still talking? Well, that is his opinion that the subsidy was hastily removed,” Onanuga said.

“The truth is, the subsidy was meant to be removed by the end of June 2023 according to what former president, Muhammadu Buhari left behind.

“President Tinubu only announced it on May 29 on the day he was sworn in. That is to show you that something is wrong somewhere and that the nation had a problem at that time.

“What I find out is that Nigerians easily forget things, we have a short memory about things. They should cast their minds back to what happened at that period. The NNPCL was saying the government was owing them N4tr of subsidy money. NNPCL was the only importer of fuel and towards the general elections, fuel scarcity was all over the country.

“Due to the scarcity, in some places, fuel was selling for about N700 – N800 before President Tinubu was sworn in. NNPCL didn’t have money to import fuel because they were being owed over N4tr by the federal government. People have easily forgotten about that.”

Onanuga said the country would have been in deeper problems if Tinubu did not act swiftly to address the situation.

“Tinubu knew the problem and that was why he made the announcement on the day of his inauguration. The language he used was ‘Subsidy is gone’ because even in the budget, there was no provision for it,” he said.

“I will challenge journalists to go and check that budget, when you look at that budget made by Buhari before leaving office, you will find out that aside no provision for subsidy, 97 percent of our income will be spent on servicing debts. If 97 percent of budget is used to service debts, what is left for Nigerians to spend?

“That 97 percent budgeted for debt servicing does not include the money the federal government owe the NNPCL. There were serious problems then and Tinubu just needed to do something quickly to arrest the deterioration.

“You can see what has happened in the last nine months with those measures he took. Yes, those measures are painful but they are needed to reset the economy and financials of this country. Otherwise, we would have ended into a much more disastrous situation.”