₦airaland Forum

There was a bomb scare Tuesday night at the arrival wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, as an unattended bag was believed to contain explosives.

Premium Times learnt that after the bag was unclaimed for hours at Terminal E arrival wing, airport officials alerted the bomb disposal unit of the Airport Command Police Command.

As the operatives arrived, the terminal was evacuated, throwing passengers and airport workers into severe panic...read more here: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/national/5009-bomb_scare_at_lagos_airport.html

Former head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Ndidi Okereke-Onyuike, led a debilitating era of broad financial abuses and violations of processes, which in large part accounted for the capital market crash that cost investors billions of life savings and funds, Director General, Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Arunma Oteh, said on Monday... Read more here: http://premiumtimesng.com/business/4985-oteh_fingers_onyuike-okereke_as_mastermind_of_capital_market_cra.html

What could have been a major disaster has just been averted at Bayero University. Two locally-made bombs were discovered at the faculties of law and sciences of the university.

The bombs were discovered by the university security team who promptly called in the police.

The Kano State Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Idris, confirmed the incident, saying the bombs have been demobilised and that his team was in the process of destroying the explosives... Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4988-massive_explosions_averted_inbayero_university.html

The uncertainties around the planned visit of English Premier League giants, Arsenal FC to Nigeria looks finally rested as the Gunners on Friday posted an official statement on the club's website stating that they would be playing a pre-season game in Abuja on August 5, 2012.

"Arsenal Football Club is delighted to announce that the first-team squad will travel to Nigeria this summer for a pre-season match in Abuja on Sunday, August 5" the statement read in part.

In what will be the Gunners’ first match on Nigerian soil, Arsène Wenger’s side is billed to play at the 60,000 capacity Abuja National Stadium...Read more here: http://premiumtimesng.com/sports/4943-arsenal_confirm_nigeria_visit_to_play_in_abuja_august_5.html

The private secretary to Adams Oshiomole, governor of Edo state, Olaitan Oyerinde, has been assassinated, Edo government officials say.

He was shot by unknown gunmen in his home in Benin City, the capital of Edo state, at about 1:30 a.m Friday morning.

Officials of the Edo State government believe the killing of Mr Oyerinde is a series of attacks targeted at the governor who is standing for re-election on July 14...Read more here: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/4941-oshiomhole_s_private_secretary_assassinated.html

The Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, has asked the 19 Northern States in the country to emulate their counterparts from the South-South and South-West regions and come up with a regional economic bloc to address the challenges confronting the region...Read More at: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/4903-emulate_south-south_south-_west_nyako_tells_northern_governors.html

Henry Okah, the detained leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), blamed for the 2010 Independence Day bomb that killed at least 10 people with many more injured, is to tell a South African court the attacks were sponsored by President Goodluck Jonathan.

That, he said, came after the president and those working for him, had engineered similar attacks earlier in March 2010.

“It is my belief that President Goodluck Jonathan's government working with a faction of MEND planned and executed the bombings of 14 March 2010 and 1 October 2010,” Mr. Okah said in an affidavit deposed at a South African court.

The president's spokesperson, Reuben Abati...Read More at: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/4906-henry_okah_insists_jonathan_behind_bomb_attacks.html

A Chelsea supporter slumped and died in Enugu on Tuesday during the European Champions League match between Chelsea of England and Barcelona of Spain.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the teenage twin boy, identified as Chinedu Ibeabuchi, slumped in a football viewing centre when Barcelona scored their opening goal in the drawn semi-final match.

Chinedu, who lived with his mother and other family members on Marcus Garvey Street, New Haven, Enugu, was said to be a student of a secondary school in Enugu...Read More Here: http://premiumtimesng.com/sports/4807-teenager_dies_in_enugu_over_barcelona_s_opening_goal_in_chelsea_.html

Bukola Saraki, serving senator and former governor of Kwara State, moved to hedge off a police invitation Tuesday by filing a court order to restrain the Inspector General of Police, his officers and agents from arresting him, but this move merely triggered a legal debate over whether some individuals without constitutional immunity are bigger than the law and cannot be invited by the police.



Mr Saraki, who is wanted by the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigerian Police over an N11 billion bank loan scam, sought the injunction on Tuesday after evading the police for four days. According to a dubiously worded statement his media officer, Akintoba Fatigun, claimed the police was restrained from “threatening to arrest him” or infringe on his rights pending Thursday, May 26, 2012, when substantive suit on on the matter is decided... Read More Here: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4794-bukola_saraki_sfu_nigeria.html

The House of Representatives Tuesday resolved that the former Board of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority (PPPRA) led by the former Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmadu Ali, be prosecuted for its role in the monumental corruption that characterised the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) management between 2009 and 2011.

At the opening of deliberation on the report of the Farouk Lawan-led Ad Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Probe, members amended an earlier recommendation by the committee that Mr. Ali and other board members should be “reprimanded”, while “their decision, which opened the floodgate for the bazaar, be condemned... Read more here: http://premiumtimesng.com/business/4788-reps_demand_prosecution_of_ahmadu_ali-led_pppra_board_over_fuel_.html

Worried by the worsening security situation in most parts of the north following the increasing bombing activities by the extremist Boko Haram sect, the police in Sokoto say they are working out an extensive security arrangement to guarantee the safety of President Goodluck Jonathan and his entourage as he embarks on an official visit to the state Tuesday.

The state commissioner of police, Aliyu Musa, said on Monday that about 5,000 police personnel have been mobilised to provide effective security during the presidential visit to the seat of the caliphate.

That is in addition to the personnel of Brigade of Guards and operatives of the State Security Service who would also be on hand to provide massive protective cover for the president... Read More: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4569-boko_haram_5_000_police_officers_to_guard_president_during_tuesd.html

The Secretary General of the Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria, Nasir Mamman, has said over 100 of his colleagues perished in Sunday's deadly bomb blast in Kaduna.

Mr. Mamman's revelation is coming even as the police said only five persons died in the incident while the state emergency agency put the casualty figure at 38.

Mr. Mamman, who spoke to the media in Kaduna Monday, said, “Yesterday was a very dark day for us. This is because we lost our members and other innocent Nigerians. On the average, over 100 of our members lost their lives.”..Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4575-over_100_okada_riders_died_in_kaduna_blast_union_scribe_says.html

The Presidency on Wednesday said President Goodluck Jonathan did not contravene the Code of Conduct for Public Officers by attending the dedication of a Church in Otuoke, his village in Bayelsa.

Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, made the explanation in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said “the public acknowledgement by the president of the assistance of a corporate entity to renovate the Church did not...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4523-jonathan_rationalises_church_gift_says_he_violated_no_law.html

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has come down heavily on the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN over the latter’s call on the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan for accepting the gift of a church building from a construction company.

The church was erected in the president's village, Otuoke in Bayelsa state, after Goodluck Jonathan bemoaned the state of the former structure.

The PDP described the call for impeachment by the ACN as “recklessly infantile and the hallmark of a political party whose provincial obsession and pretended nationalism have left mercilessly hobbled; hence the perennial perchance for antics of destabilization.”...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/4518-pdp_fumes_over_calls_for_president_jonathan_s_impeachment.html

Some party members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Lagos Thursday said that the state government and local government chairmen foot the bills for the traditional clothes donned by guests at the 60th birthday celebration of Bola Tinubu, the former Lagos State governor.

Thousands of guests at the Teslim Balogun venue of Thursday's event donned different shades and styles of the blue traditional fabric imprinted with the celebrant's trademark cap and eye glasses.

“State government and Chairmen of all the local governments in the whole of Lagos State contributed so that people can participate,” said Justina Omorogbe, one of the women leaders in Surulere.

Another party chieftain, Bode Kolawole, said that it was "just a voluntary something."
"Anybody can just buy it," he said... Read More: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/national/4461-lagos_government_lg_chairmen_spend_millions_on_aso_ebi_for_tinub.html

The Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, got a rude shock from his principal and predecessor, Bola Tinubu, Wednesday after he tried to make a case for disgruntled party members.

Mr. Fashola, one of the speakers at the 4th annual Bola Tinubu Colloquium, an event organized to mark the former Lagos State governor's 60th birthday; said that he had been asked by the lower cadre members of the party to prevail on the celebrant to dispense "justice equally" to all members.

Mr. Tinubu refused

"If there's no partiality, you cannot be governor yourself," he told Mr. Fashola...Read More: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4447-tinubu_fashola_clash_at_birthday_colloquium.html

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has threatened to seize the accounts of the 36 states of the federation over huge outstanding public debts.

The Debt Management Office (DMO), the government agency charged with the responsibility of managing the country’s debt, puts the country’s total debt stock at $5666.6million (external) and N5.623trillion (domestic) as at December 31, 2011.

A breakdown of the figures shows that the foreign debt stock is made up of $4.567billion to multilateral institutions, consisting the World Bank, African Development Bank (ADB), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development Association (IDA), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), African Development Foundation (ADF) as well as Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

A further breakdown indicates that $453.83million of the liability comprises bilateral non-Paris club debt, and $143.82million commercial debt, while Eurobond stands at $500million... read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/business/4429-amcon_may_seize_36_states_accounts_over_n337_7billion_public_deb.html

Former head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Farida Waziri, has retained official effects assigned to her office as the commission’s chairperson, four months after she was fired, the House of Representatives committee overseeing the agency said.


Mrs. Waziri keeps an unstated number of vehicles, an accommodation property, and other items belonging to the anti-corruption agency, according to the House committee on Drugs, Narcotic and Financial Crimes.


Mrs. Waziri’s unceremonious removal late last year, was mired in unclear circumstances after a four year spell that was harshly criticized by many as largely unsatisfactory in tackling corruption.


The era was replete with several unresolved high profile cases with only a few convictions to show for. Still, former House Speaker Dimeji Bankole and deputy, Usman Nafada, were charged for corruption under her tenure...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4410-months_after_sack_farida_waziri_keeps_official_cars_house.html

President Goodluck Jonathan was served a huge dose of political humiliation today as governors from the North-East geo-political zone conspired to reject his anointed candidate for the national chairmanship of the governing Peoples Democratic Party.

The national chairmanship position has been zoned to the North-East.

At the PDP zonal congress in Bauchi, which ended a while ago, Mr. Jonathan's candidate for the position, Bamanga Tukur, was defeated by a far younger and less popular Musa Babayo, who was the immediate acting national secretary of the party...Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/4326-pdp_convention_president_jonathan_suffers_political_disgrace.html

A new set of documents (find them below) made available to Premium Times this morning suggest that it was the House Committee on Capital Market that first approached the Securities and Exchange Commission asking for sponsorship for its public hearing scheduled for March 13 - 30.

Going by the stamp of receipt on the document, the House first sent a N39, 844,490 budget estimate to the SEC on February 29. It is however not known what discussions took place between the Committee members and the SEC leadership before the budget was forwarded to the capital market reqgulator that February 29..

A breakdown of the budget shows that N5,605,240 would be spent on advertising the public hearing in five newspapers (Business News, Daily Trust, Punch, Vanguard and Tribune) while N2, 245, 450 would be needed to publicize the event on major electronic media - AIT, Channels and NTA.

For live coverages of the hearing on Channels, AIT and NTA, the budget claimed N26, 203, 800 was needed. N4, 215,000 and N1,575,000 were earmarked for secretariat need and refreshment respectively... Read more and view documents here: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4314-documents_show_house_first_approached_sec_for_n40million.html

Federal lawmakers’ self-assigned hefty annual allowance, which totals more than N70 billion this year, would be sufficient to inject at least a 450 Megawatt of power into the national power grid, a cost analysis by Premium Times has shown.

Put differently, that sum will complete the dualization of one of the nation’s deadliest highways - the Abuja-Lokoja road - which, relative to other highways across the country, is well funded, but in reality, remains one of the most fund-starved projects.

In the 2012 budget, after years of being abandoned, the four lots of that road that leads from the federal capital territory only received N2 billion apiece, a figure lower than the presidency’s 2012 feeding cost and the senate’s bill for new cars. Both subheads cost N2.3 billion...Read More: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4284-senators_reps_to_corner_n71_billion_illegal_allowance_in_2012.html

The source of this story is: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4238-sec_boss_says_house_members_demanded_n44_million_bribe.html

To read Arunma's claim on why she accumulated N30million bill in hotel follow this link: http://premiumtimesng.com/business/4257-why_i_overstayed_in_posh_hotel_accumulating_n30million_bill.html

Read what house of reps members had to say about the SEC boss' claim here : http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4246-sec_s_n44million_bribery_allegation_rattles_house_of_reps.html

The House of Representatives scrambled to save its face Thursday, after allegations its committee sought bribes amounting to N44 million from the Security and Exchange Commission, in details put up by the agency’s boss, Arunma Oteh, against visibly cowered lawmakers.

Ms. Oteh, apparently frustrated, after two days of intense criticisms by the legislators inquiring how her leadership has affected the nation’s capital market, fought hard to repel what she said were attempts by members of the House Committee on Capital Market to tarnish her reputation.

The chairman of the committee, Hernan Hembe, Ms. Orunma said, had asked the commission to release N39 million for the organization of the hearing, and when she declined, Mr. Hembe asked for N5 million.

That, she said, was apart from a sponsored trip for the members, underwritten by the commission, to Dominican Republic...read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4246-sec_s_n44million_bribery_allegation_rattles_house_of_reps.html

Second Republic Governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, on Friday said that the educational disparity between the southern and northern Nigeria is responsible for the latter being a stumbling block in the country's national unity.

Mr. Musa stated this at the Obafemi Awolowo Memorial Lecture in Lagos.

The lecture, holding three days after the late sage's birthday, was titled 'Power Politics or Welfare Politics?: Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the History of African Nationalistic Political Thought.'

Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4156-balarabe_musa_says_north_is_nigeria_s_problem.html

More than a dozen officials of the Farida Waziri-led Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) were part of an oversized government team sent abroad last year for a pensioners’ biometric verification that cost the nation N240 million, testimonies at the senate pension probe said.

The 85-member team which visited several countries including the United States, had names drawn from the anti-corruption body, the police, as well as the federal pensions task team, headed by Abdulraheed Maina.

Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4157-efcc_officials_shared_in_wasteful_n240million.html

Reports reaching us from Yola, the Adamawa State capital, say some

unidentified gunmen have shot Mohammed Ali, the head of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in the state.

Mr. Ali was known for being a thorn in the flesh of armed robbers in the state.

Several calls to the spokesperson of the police command in the state, Altine Daniel, went unanswered.

http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4150-gunmen_shot_head_of_police_sars_in_yola.html

The convener of the Save Nigeria Group, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has called on the Lagos State government to punish teachers in Lagos schools who violate their students and pupils.

Mr. Bakare made this appeal in Lagos, Thursday, at the occasion of the International Women's Day organized by the Women Arise for Change Initiative.

This year's event, with the theme 'Fix the Girls, Shape the Future', began with a rally at Allen Junction and ended with a procession to the Governor's Office, Alausa.

"Physically, it was almost impossible for me to be here but I remember that I was only two years old when my father died, and it was my mother who single handedly raised me," said Mr. Bakare,

Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/metro/4141-bakare_wants_rapist_teachers_punished.html

The Northern Governors Forum (NGF) rose from its meeting in Kaduna on Thursday with a committee mandated to monitor the implementation of the Federal Government’s White Paper on Security Challenges in the North East geo-political zone.
The Forum also resolved to change its name from the Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) to the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF), in view of the close similarity to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).
In a Communique read by its Chairman and Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, the NGF announced the membership of the five-man committee to include the governors of Borno, Yobe, Zamfara, Adamawa and Plateau States,

read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/4143-northern_governors_raises_committee_on_boko_haram_white_paper.html

The head of a government task force on federal pension disbursement, Abdulrasheed Maina, allegedly diverted up to N21 billion of pension funds into illicit accounts with three banks, police officials said, in testimonies that further shocked the senate pension management hearing Thursday.

It was a new round of irony that tipped higher the scale of abuses that the pension scheme has faced in the past years, leaving government frustrated and public purse drained.

Mr. Maina, an ebullient deputy director in the office of the Head of Service, was drafted to help seal those leakages and save the nation wasted monies while ensuring prompt payment of genuine retirees.

Testifying before the senate committee on Wednesday, he drew the image of a forthright official, who served with integrity and delivered on his assignment. He told the lawmakers how he lowered the number of ghost pensioners and cut pension cost by nearly N1 billion,  Read more:http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4140-pension_task_force_boss_diverted_n21_billion_to_private_accounts.html

Two hostages, a Briton and an Italian, abducted and taken hostage by gunmen in Nigeria last year have lost their lives in a failed rescue attempt, UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced.
Mr. Cameron said it appeared Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara had been "murdered by their captors” suspected to be members of the extremist group, Boko Haram, before the Nigerian-led rescue operation supported by British forces, could rescue them.
"It strongly appears that the hostage-takers shot the hostages," a source said, Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4138-boko_haram_kills_briton_italian_hostages_in_failed_rescue_missio.html

The Presidency has cautioned the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Nigeria’s main opposition party, and its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, against ‘disrespecting the office of the President and the person of President Goodluck Jonathan’.

The warning was contained in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, on Thursday in Abuja.

Mr. Abati, who was reacting to a statement made by Mr. Mohammed on Wednesday, said that it was full of disparaging words about the office and person of the President.

“The ACN spokesman obviously went overboard in the statement he made on Wednesday.

“In the statement, Mohammed advised President Jonathan ‘to take a long, hard look at himself in the mirror if he truly wants to see the face of a party leader who is fast turning his party into a one-man show’, because the President said his party, the PDP, is the only truly democratic party in Nigeria, Read more: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/national/4133-presidency_warns_acn_against_disrespecting_office_of_president.html