₦airaland Forum

Following a PREMIUM TIMES report indicating that the Akwa Ibom state "e-library" commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday had no functional website, the state government has in the last 24 hours unveiled three websites for the project.

The websites surfaced on Thursday morning after a three-day vigorous search on the Internet by this newspaper failed to yield any web platform for the library.

In what appears a face-saving move, the websites, http://akselibrary.org, http://ibomelibrary.org and http://akselib.org, were switched online prematurely, even as they are yet to be populated with contents necessary for a functioning e-library website.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the sites were offline as at the time our report was published. They were hurriedly switched online to challenge our story even though they were still under construction...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5806-Akwa-Ibom-govt-rushes-out-nonfunctional--library-websites-after-PREMIUM-TIMES-report.html

Akwa Ibom state builds an e-library without a website. Yet the governor claims books can be downloaded from remote locations

On Monday, the governor of Akwa-Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio, led President Goodluck Jonathan to an elaborate ceremony to inaugurate the state's multimillion naira "e-library".

The commissioning ceremony was organised to mark the end of construction work on the project and signal the beginning of use of the facility.

The president did the usual tape cutting, briefly inspected the facility and gave the governor a pat on the back before hopping on his plane back to Abuja...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5790-INVESTIGATION-Much-hyped-Akwa-Ibom--library-has-website.html

Domenico Gitto, the owner of Gitto Construzioni Generali Nigeria Limited, the company which donated the controversial Church to Otueke, President Jonathan’s home town in Bayelsa, is dead.

Mr. Gitto, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, died in Nigeria today in yet unclear circumstances.

Sources close to the Italian businessman however say he has been troubled for sometime owing to the huge debt piled up by his company in Nigerian banks.

“The company has been having legal battles with many Nigerian banks over failed debts it owes,” a source said.

Union bank, said to be the largest creditor of Gitto is owed N10billion naira and is reported to have seized some of the company’s heavy equipment it uses for construction...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/metro/5770-Gitto-church-gift-donor-Jonathans-Otueke-dies-depression.html

The Nigerian Government transferred N120billion ($801million) to a company, Malabu Oil and Gas, with a fake address and which has been involved in illegality right from its inception, an ongoing PREMIUM TIMES investigation has shown.

The company subsequently transferred the money to other phony companies with falsified addresses in what the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission described as a “cloudy scene associated with fraudulent dealings.”

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how Mohammed Adoke, the Attorney General of the Federation; and Yerima Ngama, the Minister of State for Finance, on August 16, 201,1 hurriedly and secretly authorised the transfer of the money from a Nigerian government account with JP Morgan International Bank, into Malabu accounts, a day before the resumption of the Finance Minister and former World bank Managing Director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala..Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5708-how_govt_funelled_billions_to_phony_company.html

A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has said there is a spiritual dimension to the frequency of plane crashes in Nigeria.

Mr. Fani-Kayode, who said this in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, said there is a “blood cult” in the aviation ministry that believe shedding human blood brings power and wealth.

“There is definitely a spiritual aspect to this (plane crashes), because it's bizarre,” he said.

“In my view, there has always been a blood cult...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/multimedia/5693-There-are-blood-suckers-Nigerias-aviation-ministry-says-Fani-Kayode.html

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has arrested the Managing Director of Air Nigeria, Kinfe Kayssay, for alleged failure to remit about N4.9billion tax revenues due to the Federal Government.

The arrest of Mr. Kayssay is in pursuit of the drive by the tax Service to recover over N170.I billion outstanding taxes owed government by various public and private organisations as well as ensure that all taxpayers are captured in the tax net, the tax agency says.

Last May, the chief executive officers of seven Lagos-based engineering, telecommunications, cable television, and trading conglomerates were arrested over similar offences involving tax evasion totaling..Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5651-air_nigeria_ceo_arrested_over_n5billion_tax_debt.html

A recent ruling by the Federal High Court in Abuja against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and six others over the use of transparent ballot boxes has invalidated the election of President Goodluck Jonathan and the entire 2011 general election, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting is reporting.

In a judgment that has possible far reaching political implications for the current political dispensation, the court also threatens the conduct of the governorship election in Edo State scheduled for next month.

Ruling in a case instituted by Beddings Holdings Limited against INEC, Attahiru Jega, its chairman, the Registrar of Patients, Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and four companies, Justice Adamu Bello declared that the electoral body used the transparent ballot boxes illegally without the consent of the valid patent owner..Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5663-court_nullifies_2011_general_elections_threatens_edo_polls.html

Police investigators questioned Farouk Lawan, chairman, House of Representatives adhoc committee on fuel subsidy management for hours into late night Thursday, over allegation he altered the committee’s report after receiving $600,000 bribe from oil marketer, Femi Otedola.

Mr. Lawan has accepted receiving the money which was videotaped by law enforcement agents in sting operation, but said he acted to prove to the House the pressure his committee faced while probing oil companies that defrauded the nation of more than N1 trillion.

Mr. Otedola, a billionaire oil businessman, also admits paying the money, but also claims to have acted to expose Mr. Lawan’s pressure on him to pay bribes to clear his company, Zenon Ltd... Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5614-Alleged-3million-bribery-scam-Police-detain-Farouk-Lawan-overnight.html

The only way the Federal Government can truly honour Moshood Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, considered the freest and fairest presidential election in Nigerian history, is to declare the late businessman and philanthropist, a former President, his family has said.

The election was annulled by former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida before the final results were announced by the then electoral chairman Humphrey Nwosu. Mr. Abiola was having a clear lead over his rival, Bashir Tofa, before the election was annulled. Mr. Nwosu and other senior officials of the commission later stated that the remaining unannounced results showed that Mr. Abiola clearly won the election.

The former military dictator, Sani Abacha jailed The Ogun State born Mr. Abiola for declaring himself President. He later died in prison in July 1998...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5573-declare_abiola_president_family_nscia_demand.html

An intervention by the top echelon of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) halted a planned inquiry into the USD620,000 bribery scam involving oil billionaire, Femi Otedola, and chairman, House of Representatives ad hoc committee on fuel subsidy management, Farouk Lawan, lawmakers familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

It also disrupted plans to exhibit the $620,000 cash on the floor of the House during plenary.

The mediation came after Mr. Lawan intimated the leadership of the scandal, and a possible legislative investigation was considered more than a month after the exchange took place, the members told PREMIUM TIMES.

The party hierachy reportedly warned against any move by the House that would “embarrass"...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5579-how_pdp_scrambled_to_cover_up_bribery_scandal.html

In this last part of the interview he granted PREMIUM TIMES, Nasir El-Rufai, the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, accuses the government of masterminding some bombings across the country.

He says the administration has also been plotting to link the sect to northern politicians such as himself and Atiku Abubakar.

"The Jonathan camp believe that the reason why you have Boko Haram is because a southerner is the president," Mr. El-Rufai said...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5502-jonathan-desperate-to-link-boko-haram-to-northern-opposition-el-.html

Civil society groups have slammed the presidency and the minister of aviation over the constitution of the presidential panel set up to audit the aviation sector following last Sunday's Dana Air crash that killed more than 160 persons.

The activists say the panel has been tainted by persons 'with questionable characters', accusing President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, of not being sincere in the much touted plan to clean up the aviation sector...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5503-dana_air_crash_presidential_probe_panel_tainted_by_questionable.html

President Goodluck Jonathan’s patchy relationship with key northern political groups took a plunge at last week’s hyped visit of the region’s elders to the president, with the team’s last minute rejection of a N20 million presidential gift, those familiar with the matter have told PREMIUM TIMES.

The visit by the Northern Elders’ Forum, a touchy political gambit that has since generated discontent from some northern regional organizations, was made to confer with the administration on the way out of the current security challenge the country is facing.

The government has faced scorching attacks from..read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5490-northern_elders_reject_jonathan_s_n20million_gift.html

A former minister of the Federal Capital Territory and a leading member of the opposition Congress for Progressive Change, Nasir El-Rufai, has alleged the government plans to arrests him when he returns to Nigeria from London on Thursday.

Mr El-Rufai said via his Twitter handle that two reliable sources in the government had informed him that security agents had concluded arrangements to arrest him at the airport when he returns to the country.

The former minister is scheduled to arrive Nigeria on Thursday via an early morning British Airways flight from London...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5479-jonathan_s_govt_plans_to_arrest_me_says_el-rufai.html

The U.S. has said that they are prepared to assist the Federal Government in its investigation of the plane crash that killed 160 people in Lagos on Sunday.

The U.S. in a statement by its Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, made available to the North America Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York, extended its condolences to those who lost family and loved ones in the crash.

"We stand with the people of Nigeria at this difficult time and we are prepared to assist the Nigerian Government in its investigation of this tragic accident,''the statement said...Read More: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5448-america_offers_to_assist_nigeria.html

Nasir El-Rufai, former minister of the Federal Capital territory and a top ranking member of the opposition Congress for Political Change has divulged plans for his party to merge with another opposition party, Action Congress of Nigeria.

The move, if successful, will have the CPC, a northern grass root party, coalesce with the ACN, a south west party, and other opposition parties...Read more/view vide0: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5387-video-how-acn_-cpc-will-merge-el-rufai.html

After the newspapers that had published stories that he is gay and a member of the Illuminati Secret Society had failed to retract their stories; controversial musician Charles Oputa (popularly known as Charly Boy) has given his lawyers “very firm instructions to do everything legally possible to make the people responsible for this accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”



In a press statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday, Charly Boy said that he is taking the step to protect his name and brand from “ignominious extinction”...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/arts-entertainment/5382-charly_boy_heads_to_court_over_cult_homosexuality_allegations.html

UPDATE 1: The Federal Government has ordered the suspension of academic activities at UNILAG as students poured into the streets to protest the renaming of the institution.

UNILAG FM announced a while ago that all academic activities have been suspended for two weeks. Our reporter says students are already being sent home. They are to vacate their hostels by 11 a.m.

The students had earlier today barricaded the Third Mainland Bridge, which links the city's mainland to Lagos Island, in protest against name change...

Read more:
http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5359-unilag-students-resume-_second_day_of-protests-against-name-chan.html

After days of keeping mum and in an effort to cover-up the scam and absolve itself of any complicity, the Federal Government, through the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, Sunday claimed that it only played the role of “facilitator of the resolution of a long standing dispute,” in the N155billion oil block scandal involving it, two multinational companies, and Malabu Oil, largely owned by former petroleum minister, Dan Etete.

The Federal Government’s response, which came through a press statement by Mr. Adoke, not only ignored several core issues raised by previous stories written by PREMIUM TIMES and other Nigerian publications, but further exposed the dubious roles played by the government in the transaction.

Read more here: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5309-adoke_lies_in_rection_to_n155bn_scandal.html

The president, his associates and some ministers have been named in a monumental money laundering scandal, one of the most elaborate in Nigeria's history

PREMIUM TIMES can reveal today that the N155billion secretly paid to convicted money launderer, Dan Etete, by the Federal Government, on the orders of President Goodluck Jonathan, was actually a slush fund, with a huge chunk of it ending in bank accounts of cronies and business associates of government officials and at least one individual with links to Mr. Jonathan.

Our investigation also indicates that in order to cover up what is clearly one of the most elaborate corruption schemes in Nigeria’s history, the president tapped the junior minister in the finance ministry, Yerima Ngama, and Attorney General Mohammed Adoke to hurriedly transfer the funds to Mr. Etete on August 16, 2011, a day before the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, assumed office...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5267-how_jonathan_s_associates_shared_largesse.html

Nigeria losing $9 billion to oil theft annually says Ribadu

[img]http://premiumtimesng.com/thumbnail.php?file=Ribadu__820958237.jpg&size=article_large[/img]

“The truth is that depending on whose statistics you are endorsing today, our country losses about a quarter of a million barrels of crude oil per day to theft, not to mention spillage, and I challenge you all now to imagine the revenue implications of that loss, ladies and gentlemen” Mr. Ribadu told his audience of security experts.

Security is the major reason Nigeria is haemorrhaging in massive revenue Nuhu Ribadu, Chairman of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, told about 100 leading security experts drawn from the state and private sectors Thursday at a critical meeting to “review existing strategies, working or failing models, and a perspective of the vision for the future” in Abuja.

“The truth is that depending on whose statistics you are endorsing today, our country loses about a quarter of a million barrels of crude oil per day to theft, not to mention spillage, and I challenge you all to imagine the revenue implications of that loss, ladies and gentlemen,” Mr. Ribadu told his audience.

He told the experts that conservative losses compute to about $25 Million dollars in revenue leakage daily, adding up to about $9 billion annually, “and at that level, brothers and friends, oil theft has become, perhaps, the leading threat to our sovereignty” he remarked.

The Task Force on Petroleum Revenue which is rounding up its work organised the meeting as a sensitization programme to elicit a new consensus from leading stakeholders in the security field on how to end the problems of bunkering, piracy, and kidnapping in the “major resource belt” of the nation, which Mr. Ribadu described as the “strategic asset base of the country which requires new models of compassionate and workable policy responses.”

Community representatives from the Niger Delta told PREMIUM TIMES that they felt “humanized as co-stakeholders, for the first time, in a government setting” to share their perspectives without “being seen merely as criminal gangs.” At least 12 international and half a dozen local oil-producing companies who also participated at the meeting thought “it had a feel of more reality and purpose than many government talk shops.”

The security meeting dovetailed into an earlier meeting, on automation of the production value chain in the oil and gas industry, which drew an equal number of IT experts seeking the best technology mechanism to ensure expanded accountability and transparency regimes in the industry.

Some of the resolutions proposed for further reflections and implementations included introduction of technology based standardised metering systems with electronic and satellite capabilities, regulated community policing mechanisms, genetic finger printing of Nigerian hydrocarbon assets, and a robust regulatory environment in the industry.


http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5285-nigeria_losing_9_trillion_to_oil_theft_annually_says_ribadu.html

ormer President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday lashed out at the National Assembly and state houses of assembly as institutions filled with “rogues and armed robbers”, in a remark that is bound to rekindle the backlash that trailed a similar outburst once made by the ex- president.

The former president spoke in Lagos at the Fourth annual conference of the Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies; an event also attended by two former heads of state, Yakubu Gowon and Ernest Shonekan....Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5244-obasanjo_says_national_assembly_filled_with_rogues_and_robbers.html

Four years after he was convicted of money laundering in France, Dan Etete, a former Petroleum Minister, through his company Malabu Oil, has become a billion dollar richer, courtesy of the Nigerian Government and Shell.

According to documents (filed March 22, 2012) before the Supreme Court of the State of New York in the US, President Goodluck Jonathan discreetly approved the transfer of the sum of $1.1bn to Mr. Etete on April 29, 2011, two weeks after he was re-elected.

The money was first paid to the Federal Government by two multinational oil companies: Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited (Agip) and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (Shell) in respect of oil block OPL 245...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/business/5215-jonathan_-shell_-etete_-in-fresh-n155billion-scandal.html

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration is a major centre of fraud and corruption characterized by “forgeries and cloning of land document,” the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other related Offences Commission (ICPC) has said.

The commission made the observation in a report entitled “Summary of the Report of the Systems Study and Review of Lands Administration in the Federal Capital Territory”, and presented publicly to the FCT Minister at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5119-icpc_uncovers_massive_fraud_in_abuja_s_land_system.html

Security agents have found 22 units of Improvised Explosive Device (IED), 13 guns, 545 rounds of live ammunition and other dangerous items in a forest between Edo and Kogi.
Mike Fubura, the Kogi State Director of the State Security Service (SSS) made the disclosure while speaking with newsmen in Lokoja on Wednesday.

He said other items recovered from the forest are 57 magazines, three pieces of nine-volt power source, one firing cable, four waist belts (for carrying magazines) and one black Pathfinder Sports Utility Vehicle(SUV) with registration number Lagos LF 98 AAA...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5127-security_agents_uncovers_bombs_guns_ammunition_in_kogi_forest.html

Musidat Damilola Yekini is just three years old and for many, she could be said to have been born not just with a silver spoon but a golden one. Her father, Rashidi Yekini, is regarded not just as a national hero but an African Legend.

However as young as she is, it’s a story of pain and her first visit to her father, who is regarded as Nigeria's goal king, was by the grave side...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/sports/5090-agony_of_rashidi_yekini_s_three-year_old_daughter.html

Former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday said President Goodluck Jonathan and the Federal Government were hatching a plot to arrest him.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES via his closest political associate and national secretary of his party, Buba Galadima, Mr. Buhari said the presidency and the ruling party were already preparing the ground to harass, arrest and incarcerate him...Read more here: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/5118-jonathan_plans_to_arrest_me_says_buhari.html

The Peoples Democratic Party has again descended on former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, saying the leader of the opposition Congress for Progressive Change has become unstable and is being haunted by what it describes as "combat withdrawal syndrome."

The party also described the retired army general as excesively blood thirsty.

In a hurriedly convened press conference, specially packaged to hurl insults... Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5099-jonathan_signs_law_raising_dons_retirement.html

resident Goodluck Jonathan has signed the law increasing the retirement of polytechnic and university lecturers.

The new law also increases retirement age of staff in the professorial cadre and non-academic staff in Nigerian universities to 70 and 65 years respectively.

The president signed the law on Monday, five months after the national assembly passed the bill for the Act titled, Retirement Age of Staff of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education (Harmonisation) Act, 2012" and the Bill for an Act to further amend the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act No. 11, 1993."..Read More: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5099-jonathan_signs_law_raising_dons_retirement.html

The extremist Boko Haram sect, which has since 2009 launched sustained attacks on security installations, places of worship, educational institutions and media outfits, recently got cash support of N40 million from an Algerian terrorist group, an intelligence report recently submitted to the presidency has said.

The report, a product of a joint police and military investigations and raids, carried out in Kano and Sokoto in December 2011 indicates that the Algerian sect gave out the funds as its first installment in a planned long term partnership with Boko Haram.

According to the report, seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the Boko Haram sect and the unnamed Algerian terrorist group have met a number of times in their bid to hammer out modalities for a long term partnership... Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5079-boko_haram_gets_n40million_donation_from_algeria.html

Minister of Power, Barth Nnaji, on Tuesday said that the Federal Government was working hard to push power supply in the country to about 40,000 mega watts (MW) by 2020 and about 135,000MW by 2030.

The minister, who was speaking at the Ministerial Platform organised by the Ministry of Information as part of activities commemorating the National Democracy Day and the first anniversary of President Gooodluck Jonathan’s administration, said realising the target was in line with government’s vision of making Nigeria one the world’s top 20 economies in the next decade.

“We have not delivered on electricity, because..Read more here: http://premiumtimesng.com/business/5006-nnaji_pledges_stable_power_supply_by_2013.html