₦airaland Forum

OBJ has been a serial 'criticizer' since 1979. He has criticised all governments from 1979 till date, except his own.

However, that is not to say that PMB and APC have done well...they have failed and still failing!

E.g. the current but very hard fuel scarcity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

otokx:
No queue in PH, petrol is 200 naira per litre.

No queue in Warri...190ngn/L

Fuel dey scarce...dem dey talk of Diezani again? After 3 years?

Fuel is scarce again and the queues are resurfacing and we are now hearing Diezeani again!... Abegi...we don tire tire to hear hear her name. This is 2018 biko

can you do a design of 3BR Bungalows. Each room should be toilet ensuite with a itting room convenience. There should be an entrance lobby and a kitchen store.

How many of these can fit in a 150ft x 50ft piece of land?

poseidon12:
With restructuring, most of our problems, including security issues, would be taken care of. Splitting is not the best option. We should push for restructuring. The 2019 election should be decided on a candidate's willingness to restructure.

Again, you bless my heart with your comments!

PMB cannot escape restructuring. Any leader, at any point in time, t that wants a better Nigeria must bring everybody to a table to talk. There is 'ostriching' in this matter. It cannot be wished away!

For in the beginning, it was not so.

Once again, I greet must 'patrioctically', my patriot brother!

poseidon12:
You are wrong on Kanu and IPOB. The SE Governors did the right thing. We don't want to end up like the NE. The Northern elites thought they were being smart by supporting Boko Haram. You can now see they were smart by half.

Nwanne, I agree with you on this!

God bless you.

Meanwhile....where is our Vice President?

Good news!

GavelSlam:
Most of these people produce nothing and are simply scavengers...economic vultures feeding off a weak and corrupt leadership .

High level executives of telcos my bum. So what happened to their Telcos?

By the way, local content in the oil industry has been operation for quite a while. Certainly predating Jonathan.

Politics apart...from the time of GEJ, the Nigerian Content became more effective and result oriented with verifiables and benchmarks to gauge and measure compliance.

Kakatar Construction and Engineering Ltd and its Managing Director, Azibaola Robert, are not part of any scam involving alleged diversion of monies allegedly meant to settle insurance premium of sacked PHCN workers, the company’s spokesman Mr. Austin Ekeinde, has said.

Ekheinde made the clarification against allegation that Kakatar CE Ltd was part of an alleged diversion of insurance premium payments of PHCN workers.



Robert is a cousin of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had in an affidavit alleged that his company, Kakatar CE, was involved in illegal payments of premium of PHCN workers which the company disputes.

Speaking with THISDAY on the telephone, Ekeinde said: “An affidavit deposed to by an officer of the EFCC for a forfeiture order clearly misrepresented the facts.”

According to him, Kakatar CE took a N2.5 billion facility from Bestworth Insurance Brokers Limited to fund a federal government contract it won to provide infrastructure for Kyami District, Abuja.”

Eplaining further, he said: “On December 12, 2014, Kakatar CE got an award letter for a contract to provide engineering infrastructure for Kyami District which we were required to move to site to commence work immediately.

“As we were unable to secure a favourable credit facility from any commercial bank, Bestworth Insurance offered to provide us a project execution facility with mutually agreed terms upon which we moved to site immediately.

“Unfortunately the federal government has been unable to pay its statutory mobilization sum of over N7.5 billion due to Kakatar CE.

“However, sometime last year, EFCC invited us that it was investigating Bestworth for alleged diversion of insurance premiums of PHCN workers. That was how our N2.5 billion facility became an issue.

“There is no law which says a corporate organisation cannot take a facility from another corporate organisation.
“On the basis of documentary evidence the EFCC requested that the facility be repaid to it to enable it recoup the payment to Bestworth. It was on that basis that we commenced repayment through the EFCC to Besthworth. This has nothing clearly to do with any scam or fraud in that matter.

“As a good corporate citizen, our company adhered to the terms of the agreement reached with EFCC even though the federal government has failed to pay to us its obligations on the Kyami project for which we took the loan,” he added.

He said that Kakatar CE had no knowledge of Bestworth Insurance source of funds and had no need of probing its legality as it is a legally registered insurance company.

“It was purely a business transaction to help us execute a contract to open up Kyami district,” Ekeinde stated.
He said it was wrong and misleading to link Kakatar CE, a most patriotic indigenous engineering construction company, and its managing director to allegation of fraud with regard to the insurance premiums of PHCN workers.

Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/01/04/jonathans-cousin-not-involved-in-n27bn-phcn-scam/

Princefrankie1:
There has been petrol in some stations as of 3 days ago. And it's 145 per litre.

Location: Delta.

Which part of Delta please?

But they offered up half of their salary in 2015 then...what where they thinking?

This is a sad development in a modern day Nigeria. I weep for Nigeria.

Diamond Bank workers...over to you!

Vivere:
There is nothing new in the article. It actually contains more conjecture, than fact. The article says Baru got approval from Buhari, but did not say how it was done. The article also says Baru tried to get approval from Osinbajo, but he was asked to go back to Kachikwu. It never said why Baru declined to go back to Kachikwu, or if he actually went and Kachikwu denied him audience.

Again, it is clear that Buhari never relinquished his powers as Petroleum Minister and NNPC Board Chairman, so why didn't Kachikwu take this up directly with the President, instead of unleashing his frustration on Baru?

And finally, the paper fails to make a distinction between the kind of contracts that go to the board, and the ones that fall within the brief of the GMD NNPC.

Kachikwu himself as GMD NNPC hired new people from outside the corporation, to become GEDs. Nobody complained at that time. He redeployed others, and made several new appointments in his capacity as GMD. No one saw anything wrong with it. And please don't tell me that it was because he was Minister of State. That position is not backed by any known law, act or regulation in the petroleum industry.

Left to me, this is an ego clash between Kachikwu and Baru. Kachikwu as a leader has failed to manage his staff and stakeholders, properly. And that is what has caused this fiasco. Kachikwu cannot recognise the limits of his powers, because he is yet to come to terms with the fact that his powers have been reduced considerably, since he is no more the GMD.

One Big Bottle of Chilled Guiness Stout with One pot of Isi-ewu for you...

We rest our case with Dr. Ibe Kachukwu!!!

Okay

Oliveronline:
you call us cultists but we are touching nd changing lives.

Please educate us on what you are doing to stop the mindless destruction, intimidation going oin in the society, higher institutions by the so called members of your association.

Bros, we actually suffered immeasurable pain from members of your group while in school. If I begin to write down experiences...Sir, I went through 'humongously large' pain from cultists and ...

Thank God for Jesus! Thank God for forgiveness! Thank God that it is possible for a man to be renewed and look to the better side of life.

Please tell us exactly what you are doing to ensure that innocent young people in schools do not go through unnecessary pain caused by your group while they are trying hard to obtain an education that will free them from oppression!

Oliveronline:
say no to oppression.
#Uhuru
#Freedom

Bros, please who is oppressing who?

I wonder how competent the EFCC is. By issuing this statement, they have admitted. A competent Security Establishment, will not admit or deny anything on the pages of newspaper, except that it originally came from them!

In as much as PMB is not my guy...this 30m USD medical charge nor fly at all. Sahara Reporters should do more to convince me. 30m USD is a lot of money. Sahara Reporters and figures?

zombieHUNTER:
The unstable one was sacked also

This is just political oil drilling!

Why search for oil in a terrorist infested region. The APC wanted cheap popularity and here it is. Why the double speak now from the army. We just hope that this story is completely false...let me just try to believe the army and watch as more stories unfold!

APC....Sad!!!

Narldon:
Pdp

Power to the people!

benzene00:
while others are busy giving scholarships to children



you are here sharing 1 container of cheap food


continue decieving yourself

My brother, I just tire for all these political gymnastics!!! Imagine overcrowding the space the children even needs to eat their food with journalist and statehouse press corps...SAD for Benue!

Wetin you wan expose?

To expose something, just expose am...you nor need to do press conference to call for exposure.

This one na pure attention seeking. It seems the NASS has moved on far without you.

Who is the Presidency?

You have proved your philosophy through your action....GEJ, we salute you!

Very soon, Justice shall prevail.

The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) wednesday revealed that it does not have a formal report on its probe of assets of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki because the directive to probe Saraki’s assets in 2015 was made orally by the authorities.

The bureau which noted that the Saraki case was the only probe it conducted without any written report, however, stated that it was the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that was responsible for the probe of the defendant.

The Head of Intelligence and Investigation Unit of the CCB, Mr. Samuel Madojemu, who made the disclosure during cross-examination by Saraki’s lawyer, Mr. Paul Erokoro (SAN), added that it was the first time in his 20 years on the job that he would not submit a formal report on an investigation.

Also, the bureau in addition, admitted that the Senate President actually declared his assets as required by law including that of his wife and children.

The bureau admitted this while reading before the tribunal Saraki’s family assets both in Nigeria and abroad as contained in the various assets declaration forms submitted at the CCB.

At the resumed trial, Madojemu said the investigation which led to the arraignment of Saraki in 2015 before the tribunal was actually carried out by the operatives of the EFCC.

He admitted that his own role and those of CCB were limited to the review of the EFCC report and that he and CCB only compared the asset forms of Saraki with the findings of the EFCC.

He maintained that he was invited orally into a team that reviewed the EFCC report and compared the asset forms of Saraki and that the CCB has no written report on the outcome of the revision of the EFCC report.

Answering, questions, he maintained that former Lagos State Governor Senator Bola Tinubu, who was investigated along with Saraki, was given the privileged of being invited by the CCB to make in writing clarifications on the discrepancies in the asset forms he (Tinubu) submitted to the CCB and that the same gesture was not extended to Saraki when his asset forms were been investigated.

The witness, however, said the CCB cannot be blamed for not inviting Saraki because it saw the need to limit its investigation to the asset forms endorsed by Saraki on oath.

Answering another question on the alleged double salary received by Saraki after he had left office as Kwara State Governor and when he was in the Senate, the witness said that the CCB did not consult with the Kwara State Government to confirm the claim but only based its acceptance of the claim on the report of the EFCC and a bank account of Saraki with the Access Bank.

He said he would not know whether it was pension that was been paid to Saraki by the Kwara State government because he has no access to the Kwara State law on Pension scheme for former political holders.

When asked to point out in the Access Bank account where double salaries were allegedly paid to Saraki the witness said: “I just sighted a statement of account of the defendant; I did not study it, and so I will not be in position so say more on the salary issue.”

Madojemu also told the tribunal that there was no provision in the CCB Asset Declaration Form for any declarant to declare properties owned by the declarant’s companies and that also there was no provision for cash lodgment in the asset forms.

On his earlier evidence that Saraki did not declare his property in London in respect of any mortgage, the witness said: “I did not consult with Fortis Bank of London to know whether the six bedroom bungalow at South West London was redeemed with the bank loan.”

He, however, admitted that the six bedroom bungalow was declared by the defendant in 2011 and that he Saraki also claimed in his asset form that he acquired a property with bank loan.

Following the conclusion of cross examination of the witness by the defendant, prosecution counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) applied for an adjournment to enable him re-examine the witness.

The Chairman of the Tribunal, Danladi Umar, however, adjourned trial till April 5 for re-examination of the witness by the prosecution.


Source: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2017/03/23/ccb-says-it-has-no-formal-report-on-probe-of-sarakis-assets/

The senate on Tuesday queried Lai Mohammed, minister of information, culture and tourism, over the poor revenue generated from the culture and entertainment industry in 2016 and misappropriation of funds.

During a budget defence session on Tuesday, the senate committee on culture and tourism lamented that the ministry presented only N620,000 as total revenue generated in 2016.

Matthew Urhoghide, chairman, senate committee on culture and tourism, said the senate was displeased with the figure.

“Budget is not just about expenditure. No one is talking about revenue. We need revenue profile. Each time you come, only expenditure is mentioned. How can you say is N620,000.00 that was raised by your ministry from the culture sector?

“We must exhaust all the avenues to generate funds internally. We seriously frown at the low and poor IGR. We query it. You must look inward because this is not acceptable,” he said.

Urhoghide also queried the minister for misdirecting funds budgeted for land acquisition saying that the senate budgeted N60m to acquire lands in Lagos, Adamawa and Edo states to establish cultural industries.

He said Mohammed used the money released to acquire lands in only Lagos and Adamawa states, adding that the minister reduced the states to three when the initial budget was supposed to accommodate six states.

Mohammed defended his ministry by saying that the budget wasn’t properly implemented due to inadequate appropriation and delay in the release of funds, cumbersome nature of procurement process, and the challenge of partial release of appropriated amount.

He called for the placement of culture and tourism on the residual list, saying that the current structure makes it difficult for the government to regulate the sector.

“There are several challenges/constraints militating against the smooth implementation of the required programmes/projects. Some of these are inadequate appropriation; delay in the release of funds; cumbersome nature of procurement process; partial release of appropriated amount; late passage of Appropriation Act; placement of culture and tourism on the residual list, which has made it difficult to regulate the sector; lack of political will to develop the sector and absence of convention bureau to attract big-time events to Nigeria as a tourism destination,” he said.

Source: https://www.thecable.ng/senate-queries-lai-mohammed-can-raise-n620k-culture-sector