ON December 21, 2020, the Presidential Task Force(PTF) on COVID-19 suggested to state governments and the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to shut down recreation centres, pubs, parks and clubs but allow malls to remain open to the public as part of measures to contain the rising wave of coronavirus in the country.

This singular advisory may have done significant harm to the nation’s efforts to contain the deadly pandemic, findings by The ICIR have shown. Because malls were allowed to open as advised by the PTF, residents of Abuja trooped out, violating COVID-19 protocol during the last Christmas and New Year festivities, according to findings by The ICIR‘s reporter who monitored parks and recreation facilities in the city during the period.

Amidst a sharp daily increase in cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria, especially in the country’s capital and Lagos State, the nation’s commercial hub, thousands of residents of Abuja trooped to Novare Mall located around Lugbe to celebrate Christmas and New Year, flagrantly flouting the protocol set by the government to contain the spread of the virus.

The facility was crowded, and private security guards and officers of the Nigerian Police were overwhelmed by customers, comprising shoppers, fun-seekers and others who swarmed the premises to relish the fun of the season.

In line with the PTF advisory, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) had on December 23, 2020, ordered the closure of all recreation parks, pubs, club venues and restaurants in the city, while it allowed malls to provide services for the public. The FCTA also banned social gathering during the festive period. Many residents of Abuja spurned the directive on social gathering; they trooped out en masse to celebrate the festivities.

Christmas is among the biggest feasts celebrated by Nigerians. It is a period for Christians to commemorate the birth of Jesus, who is believed to have been born over 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem of Judea, Israel. He is the head of the Christian faith.

It is a time for homes to cook varieties of food and entertain guests, including neighbours, friends, family members, among others. Two most significant incidents during Christmas celebration are carols/services in churches and visit to recreation parks and shopping malls by people who participate in the feast. It is usually a period of holiday. After helping themselves with delicious meals and drinks at home, faithful (especially women and children) dress in beautiful attires and shoes that make them look unique, and they gracefully visit choice locations within their neighbourhoods for fun. Outings for the feast are arguably merrier at the parks, malls and related places.

The feast is soon followed by the New Year Day which everyone, irrespective of religious leaning, celebrates with similar pomp as Christmas.

“What makes this year 2020 Christmas unique is because in the early days of the year, people were panicking. A lot of us did not believe they could see the end of the year because of the high fatalities being recorded by the developed countries from coronavirus. A lot of us lost our means of livelihood and the likes, but we didn’t lose our lives. That is why we are here,” said one of the visitors to the Novare Mall, Blessing Joseph, on Boxing Day (December 26, 2020) while speaking with The ICIR.

Shoprite, located within the Novare Mall, along the Airport Road has a wide area of land in-between it and the Airport Expressway, part of which is beautifully landscaped into parking lot and turfs for fun. There are many businesses in the mall, including a new generation bank, but Shoprite is unarguably the most visited and popular.

The mall, opened on November 30, 2017, has since served people within the Airport axis of the FCT, namely Lugbe, Giri, Gwagwalada, Airport and Kuje, among others.

During the Yuletide and the New Year season, residents swooped on the mall, majority of whom were children and teenagers. They clearly violated the guidelines on the coronavirus pandemic in the manner in which they conducted themselves. From The ICIR investigation, the large space in front of the mall provided enough ground and served as an alternative to recreation facilities that were shut by government. Many families came to the premises with mats, foods, drinks and spent hours as they would at the parks.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/abuja-residents-besiege-shoprite-on-christmas-day-ignore-covid-threat/

GEORGE Nkencho, 27, was battling with bouts of depression among other mental health issues when policemen of Irish Blanchadstone Gardaí Armed Support Unit, ASU shot him dead in front of his house.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm-Cy34HqH8

December 30, 2020, Nkencho got involved in a physical altercation with the store manager of a Spar shop in Hartford, Ireland before drawing a knife to fend off his attacker, according to media reports.

When the police arrived at the scene, Nkencho was not restrained immediately, they rather followed him closely through the streets of Hartstown housing estates until he reached his home at Manorfield, Clonee, on the Dublin-Meath border.

The video clips taken on a mobile phone show parts of Nkencho’s route across a green lawn, as he was closely followed by two Gardaí cars which include, a local Gardaí patrol car with two unarmed members and the other a crime task force car, also with two unarmed Gardaí.

He later knocked on his front door which was answered by his sister Gloria who revealed in an interview that she was ordered to get inside after she told them from the hallway that her brother had “mental problems”.

In a statement by the Gardaí, they stated that Nkencho was about to enter the house and was likely to take hostages. In a bid to stop Nkencho, he was pepper-sprayed which was unsuccessful while another ASU member fired a taser at him twice to make him drop the knife while he was raising his voice.

The police authorities also said Nkencho threatened the officers with a knife before they implemented a graduated response, using less-than-lethal weapons which were unsuccessful before the shots were fired.

Nkencho’s three siblings said they were on the other side of the hall door in the house paralysed with fear when they heard the shots that killed their brother.

“My siblings and I have witnessed the most traumatic experience of our lives as our brother was shot in front of us,” Gloria said in an interview.

Nkencho’s killing has attracted condemnations and protests across Ireland and Nigeria with a petition launched online to seek justice for him which has garnered over 7,000 signatures.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/murder-in-dublin-how-irish-police-shot-and-killed-george-nkencho/

For the six time in six years, Presidency approves another N46.86m to non-existing Office of Buhari’s Chief Economic Adviser

THE non-existing Office of the Chief Economic Adviser (OCEAP) to President Muhammadu Buhari got N46.86 million in the 2021 budget approved by the National Assembly. This is the sixth time the non-existing office is getting a budget approval from both chambers of the National Assembly.

The office, which clearly has no presidential appointee and personnel to account for monetary approvals allocated to it, has been receiving funds from the government coffers for six years.

The ICIR had reported in 2020 how the OCEAP got N573.45 million in five years without an appointee to answer for the monetary disbursements.

As of July 2020, data from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) revealed that N116.97 million had been released to the OCEAP out of the N573.45 million cumulative budget.

In 2016, the office got N78.17 million as its capital budget. The following year, it received N60 million. Another N60 million was approved for the same OCEAP in 2018. By 2019, annual budget to the office dropped to N42.23 million.

But in 2020, budgetary approval to the OCEAP rose to N333.06 million, even though there was no release, based on document obtained from the OAGF as of then.

Still, the 2021 approved budget shows that N46.86 million was approved for the controversial office which has no appointee.

The official website of the OCEAP – www.oceap.gov.ng, which was supposed to help Nigerians understand economic policies of the president, is currently inactive.

“Database connection error (1): The MySQL adapter ‘mysql’ is not available,” it read when The ICIR visited. This was exactly the message seen by this reporter while verifying the portal in August 2020.

OCEAP allocation tagged as overhead, office missing in State House website

Though there was no provision for personnel cost and capital allocations in the OCEAP budget, the N46.86 million sum was pegged as overhead.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/for-the-sixth-time-in-six-years-presidency-approves-another-n46-86m-to-non-existing-office-of-buharis-chief-economic-adviser/

POVERTY, inflation and debt may increase in Nigeria this year due to COVID-19 resurgence and poor economic fundamentals, according to the 2021 Economic Outlook recently published by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

In an economic review of 2020 and outlook for 2021 signed by Muda Yusuf, director-general, LCCI, the Chamber says Nigeria can avoid these trends by making the right policy choices.

“Poverty levels in Nigeria will continue to rise and living standard will deteriorate without robust productivity growth,” the Chamber says.

“The country needs the right policies and institutions to spur productivity growth and to have this achieved requires adoption of best practices in human and physical capital development, governance, and economic openness.”

The Chamber notes that headline inflation will remain elevated in 2021 as the combination of food supply shocks, foreign exchange (FX) policies, higher energy costs, FX illiquidity, and heightened insecurity in major food-producing states continue to pressure domestic consumer prices.

It further says that debt stock, which stood at N32.2 trillion in September 2020, will rise and debt-servicing to revenue ratio will be elevated as Muhammadu Buhari’s government continues to seek loans to fund projects.

“Looking forward, a resurgence of COVID-19 pandemic in year 2021 may propel the federal government to take on more (concessionary) borrowings to fulfil fiscal obligations. Additionally, a potential FX adjustment in a bid to ease pressure on the local currency (naira)might possiblyexpand Nigeria’s external debt portfolio and total debt stock in year 2021,” the chamber predicts.

It projects that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will be faced with a tough policy choice of boosting economic recovery and tackling inflation this year.

Related Story: Nigeria’s inflation hits 13.22 per cent, highest since 2018
The LCCI expects that oil price and crude production, GDP growth, inflation rate, FX trends, private investment inflows, credit to private sector and domestic interest rates will influence monetary policy direction in the short to medium-term.

Inflation in November rose to 14.89 percent from 14.23 percent in October as food prices rose sporadically on border closure and high production cost. Central banks rarely cut the interest rate in periods of high inflation, but investors and small businesses are in search of single-interest funds to expand.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigerians-to-see-poverty-inflation-debt-worsened-in-2021-lcci/

THE Anambra State government in 2018 awarded contracts for the construction of 600-bed capacity hostel blocks and fencing of some secondary schools.

The government said it was to guarantee the security of teachers and students as well as provide conducive environment for teaching and learning.

The World Bank project is under the supervision of the State Education Programme Investment Project (SEPIP) and had a one-year completion period.

However, two years after, most of the contracts are yet to be completed despite a huge amount of money released; and the delay is causing many of the schools to limit admission intake due to inadequate hostel.

For every 1 naira spent on contract, 60 Kobo was lost

A World Bank’s Country Procurement Assessment Report 1999, shows that out of every ₦1 spent by the Nigerian Government, 60 Kobo was lost to underhand practices.

According to the report, an average of $10 billion was lost annually to irregular practices in the award and execution of public contracts through inflation of contract costs, lack of procurement plans, poor budgeting processes, poor project prioritisation, lack of competition, and other kinds of manipulations of the procurement and contract award processes.

In response to this, the Nigerian government initiated a series of public financial management reforms between 2003 and 2007, which led to the enactment of the Public Procurement Act (PPA), in 2007.

The Act provides for the harmonisation of existing government policies and practices on public procurement, and ensuring probity, accountability and transparency in procurement process; the attainment of competitiveness, professionalism in public sector procurement system by ensuring the application of fair, competitive, transparent, value for money, standard practices for procurement and disposal of public assets.

In 2007, state governors in Nigeria resolved to enact State Fiscal Responsibility Act while donor agencies in 2010 supported them in the quest to identify factors militating against the enactment of the procurement laws.

Though the Anambra State government was among states that passed the Public procurement bill, the non-existence of a board to drive it has hampered the implementation.

Radio Nigeria’s Correspondent Uche Ndeke visited some schools in Anambra state including; Government Technical College Nkpor Government Technical College Onitsha, Government Technical College Ihiala, Abbot Girls Secondary School, Community Secondary School Omor, Arch Bishop Herey Memorial Technical College Ogidi, Community Secondary School Ifite Ogwari, St. John Technical College Alor, Government Technical College Utuh, Nigeria Science and Technical College Nnewi, Government Technical College Umunze and Government Technical College Umuchu.

According to official records, some of the projects have reached 80 per cent completion while others range as low as between 40 to 50 percent completion.

This claim is however contrary to what the reporter met on ground in some schools where the hostel projects were still at DPC level and fencing not done at all, despite the fact that most of them had 2018 as their completion timeline.

Contracts awards and released funds

The contract for prototype hostel in GTC Nkpor, St. John Technical College, Alor and Arch Bishop Hereey Memorial Technical College, Ogidi, was awarded at the sum of ₦992,099,934.00 on October 10, 2018, to be completed in April 2020 to Teetag Nigeria Ltd. An initial sum of ₦297,629,980.20 was released to the contractor and another ₦48,588,662.53 was released in 2020.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/multi-million-school-projects-lay-waste-in-anambra/

ON Tuesday, 5th of January, 2021, the media was awash with a purported 50 percent increase in electricity tariff by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

Although the regulatory body issued a statement later to counter the report, it, however, explained that the said increase was just an adjustment rate for service bands A, B, C, D and E “by NGN2.00 to NGN4.00 per kWhr.”

This, according to the NERC, was to “reflect the partial impact of inflation & movement in forex.”

The federal government, through the minister for power, Saleh Mamman, had also directed the NERC to inform all the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCOs) to revert to tariffs that were applicable in Dec. 2020 pending when the ongoing dialogue between labour unions and committees reached a logical conclusion.

NERC is an independent body of the federal government that is charged with authority for the regulation of the electric power industry in Nigeria.

One of the primary functions of the commission, as contained in Section 32 (d) of the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act, 2005, is to ensure that the prices charged by licensees are fair to customers and sufficient to allow the licensees to finance their activities and to allow for reasonable earnings for efficient operation.
In pursuant to the authority given under Section 76 of the EPSR Act 2005, the commission established a methodology for regulating electricity prices called the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO). The MYTO provides a 15-year tariff path for the Nigerian electricity industry with limited minor reviews each year in the light of changes in a limited number of parameters (such as inflation and gas prices) and major reviews every five years, when all of the inputs are reviewed with stakeholders.

The MYTO 1, introduced in 2008, was applied from 2008 to 2012. Subsequently, following a major review of the methodology in June 2012, MTYO 2.0 was issued and it was to remain effective from 2012 to 2017. Following a minor review in December 2015, NERC issued a new MYTO called the MYTO 2.1 that was to take effect from January 2015 to 2018. In 2015, NERC revised and amended the MYTO 2.1 by removing the collection loss component of the electricity, resulting in the amended version of MYTO 2.1. The uproar created by the removal of the collection loss factor resulted in NERC reinstating the collection loss, translating into MYTO 2015, which was meant to cover the period from 2015-2024.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/inside-nerc-electricity-tariff-regime/

HOURS after Donald Trump’s Twitter ban, a new satire account has sprung up using the outgoing US president’s pseudonym of 1980s.

Trump used ‘John Barron’ as a pseudonym in the 1980s, according to Wikipedia.

An unknown man created a ‘John Barron’ account on Twitter 17 hours ago using Trump’s profile picture and a fake moustache. The account garnered 349,400 followers within hours, with the first post amassing 262,100 re-tweets, 1.7 million likes and 36,100 quotes within six hours.

The account has only five followers: Trump’s wife, Melania; his daughter, Ivanka; his son, Eric; Donald Trump Jr; and Rudy Guiliani, former New York mayor and Trump’s die-hard associate.

When the account tweeted its first post, “Hello I am brand new to Twitter. What are you guys up to,” several users alluded that the account must have been created by the U.S. President.

“I think this is the real Trump,” a Twitter user @OgheneNerojr said.

A Twitter user with the handle @atlas2112 replied that “I will be surprised if he does not create a new account with Putin. At this point he is one step away fron just admitting it all.”

Another Twitter user @CaroleCarole012, wrote, “New to Twitter? How did you get over 30k followers? And why are the only people you follow named Trump? I think you need to go elsewhere.”

However, some Twitter users believed it was a fake account.

“This was by far the simplest, purest, honest, and genuine light of comedy in a dark time. Haha awesome job,” tweeted a Twitter user @SlaceofSpades.

Candice Wilson with the handle @RushBluOcVoBeat said, “You know what is funny? There are MAGAS retweeting this…I guess it is funny to them. Do they know that this is satire?”

The account holder had made seven posts as of 7.45pm, describing his location as “Not the White House.”

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/new-account-appears-on-twitter-using-trumps-pseudonym-of-1980s/

THE Federal Ministry of Works and Housing under leadership of Babatunde Fashola engaged in fraudulent procurement, contract splitting and non-remittance of statutory deductions to the tune of about N9.38 billion, report obtained by The ICIR has shown.

Latest audit report from the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) listed 16 infractions against officials of the Works Section of the ministry. The ICIR also discovered most of these offenses flout the Public Procurement Act (PPA), 2007 and the Financial Regulations Guideline.

The report, uploaded on the OAuGF website on December 23, 2020 shows huge infractions worth N105,760,058,919.43 within the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Monetary values of the 16 irregularities listed against the ministry’s officials is summed at N9,380,157,474.83. Though, Fashola oversees the ministry, the Federal Government had in 2015 announced Permanent Secretaries as accounting officers of their respective ministries. So, as of the period the anomalies were committed, Alhaji Mohammed Bukar was PS of the Power, Works and Housing Ministry.

Some of the concerns raised in the audit report include under and non-remittance of revenues generated by the MDAs, irregular expenditures including what the OAuGf described as ‘high magnitude of unretired advances’, among others.

“Overall, our findings are indicative of significant weakness in expenditure control, and financial reporting,” it states, adding that accounting officers in the MDAs had developed thick-skin towards improving some of the audit observations raised by the OAuGF.

In a letter with reference number C/AR.2018/CONF/VOL.1/01, Anthony Ayine, the Auditor-General of the Federation had earlier submitted first part of the report on October 16, last year to Clerk of the National Assembly as mandated by Section 85 (2) and (5) of the Constitution, for necessary reviews and action.

“The Auditor-General shall have power to conduct checks of all government statutory corporations, commissions, authorities, agencies, including all persons and bodies established by an Act of the National Assembly,” Subsection 4 of the Act reads.

However, in relation to the works arm of the ministry, part of the infractions recorded by the OAuGF includes the procurement of 36 Project Monitoring Vehicles at the cost of N343.83 million (N353,833,338) without due process. This flouts Section 24 of the PPA which mandates public procurement to undergo competitive bidding, except approved otherwise by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).

Further findings revealed the procured vehicles had no record because they “were not received into store as there was no document to show such delivery.”

Aside the questionable purchase, another N139.90 million (N139,906,251.20) flawed procurement of photocopying machines parts, computer accessories, and vehicle spare parts was discovered by the Office.

The ministry had no store record to validate the purchase.

Also, N2.5 billion emergency repair of Talabu Bridge along Tegina – Mokwa Road, Niger State is one of the notable contracts the OAuGF identified the ministry’s officials breached the PPA. The awarded contract surpassed threshold. It was awarded rather than seeking the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval.

Findings by The ICIR also showed (ERGP 12106525) only N1.20 billion was approved for some ongoing projects and emergency works in the 2018 approved budget of the ministry.

“Failure to comply with procurement rules and laws could lead to poor performance, abandonment of works or loss of public funds,” the Office stated while highlighting the risk involved in non-compliance.

OAuGF is the supreme audit institution of the federal government headed by Ayine.

The Office is empowered to statutorily promote transparency and accountability across MDAs and ensure proper management of the nation’s resources independently.

Besides its responsibility, it also partners with relevant regional and international organisations such as the World Bank, African Organisation of English-Speaking Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E) in delivering its mandate.

As such, Ayine has repeatedly criticised non-compliance of some MDAs and late submissions of audited accounts and financial statements of federal government parastatals by their chief executives.

He described the trend to be of great concerns.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/bypassing-of-procurement-act-contract-splitting-other-illegalities-in-fasholas-ministry-that-cost-fg-about-n9-38bn/

For over nine years, the 14 – kilometre road connecting Pegi community to Kuje area of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, has been left uncompleted. The situation has inflicted hardship on the residents despite the fact that N676 million was awarded for the project. THE ICIR’s Niyi OYEDEJI reports on why and how the project was abandoned.

LATE September, a wraith-silver of moon hung in the lonely sky when this reporter set out on a journey to Pegi community. Tugging at his heart was the fact that the road leading to the community had been abandoned for almost a decade. More painful is the fact that a whooping sum of N676 million had been spent to upgrade the road to help people of the area commute more comfortably.

In fifteen minutes, he shuttled from the Abuja central area to Kuje. From there, he had planned to take a cab to Pegi community. Sadly, to his utmost dismay, all the taxi drivers he approached declined his request. Stunned, he asked why? And like a well-rehearsed movie script; they all told the reporter they could not convey him to the community due to the terrible state of the road.

The reporter had no other choice than to hop on a motorbike. The rider billed him N400, twice the amount the reporter paid for the journey from the heart of Abuja to Kuje.

Inside Pegi community

Pregnant Felicia Anthony had envisaged a smooth ride that ought not to exceed 30 minutes of commuting from Pegi to Abuja city centre.

The woman, in her second trimester, had to visit her hospital for a scheduled session. She was on her way to the clinic within the Abuja metropolis when the motorbike she was riding on from Pegi to Kuje got involved in an accident. There and then, Felicia suffered a miscarriage.

She would later spend a month in the hospital to recuperate from the wounds she suffered and, more painfully, from the miscarriage.

Recalling the incident, she said “the motorcycle slipped from a hilly part of the road and rammed into an on-coming vehicle.”

“I had landed at the hospital before I knew what was going on. That was how I lost my four-month-old pregnancy,” she lamented.

Speaking from an expert’s view, the Chief Medical Officer (CMD), of the only government health care facility at Pegi community, Mary Innocent-Dike, disclosed that Felicia was just one of five pregnant women who lost their pregnancies in the first week of September 2020 due to the bad nature of the only road that connects the community to Kuje Area Council and Abuja city centre.

She said that the 14 – kilometre road, which has been abandoned for over nine years, is terribly inflicting hardship on patients, particularly pregnant women and nursing mothers.

Innocent-Dike, who is the only medical officer attached to the health centre, also narrated how it has always been difficult for her to refer patients to hospitals in the city for proper care due to the bad shape of the road.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/miscarriages-avoidable-deaths-kidnapping-trail-n676-million-abandoned-pegi-road-in-abuja/

Editors Note: Not all names used in this article are real name of the speakers as some spoke to us on condition of anonymity for fears of intimidation

THE world football governing body, FIFA, in 2010 created an online platform called Transfer Matching System (TMS) for its member’s association to record player transfer between clubs.

This was to improve transparency, efficiency and governance among clubs and football associations, and, also, to eradicate conflicts among clubs on the legal ownership of footballers.

On this platform, all football clubs in the world register their players and indicate the outgoing and incoming ones when necessary.

Investigations however, revealed that the TMS platform has been turned into a conduit pipe in Nigeria to enrich a few individuals within the footbal’s administration.

According to FIFA and global practice, players are registered on the platform free. Findings revealed that clubs are made to pay N150,000 into a Zenith Bank account via online transfer to register their players.

The account, it was discovered, is owned by Nasiru Jibril, Personal Assistant to Amaju Pinick, President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF). Jibril is also the Chairman of NFF Staff Union.

Part of the goals of introducing the TMS by the FIFA is to allow both clubs and coaches to benefit from the transfer fees of their players, but the practice in Nigeria is robbing them of this opportunity.

A number of coaches who spoke during this investigation lamented this ‘day light robbery’.

“We are not supposed to pay the N150, 000 for registration of our players on Domestic Transfer Monitoring System (DTMS) that they (NFF) charged,” said Kingsley Amaechi, a grassroots football academy owner whose club cannot be named for fear of intimidation.

“NFF’s responsibility is to collect data from clubs and send it to FIFA. FIFA stated it categorically that registration on the platform is free. NFF also knows this but collected N150,000 from me, asked me to pay it into a private account and the person said when I do the transfer he will train me. Since 2017, I have not been trained, three years after,” he added.

If a European club signs a new player directly from a Nigerian football club, the new club pays a fraction of the sign-on fee to clubs that contributed to his development from age of 12. If the player is 18, for example, the new club pays for club/s that trained the player in the past six years. The Nigeria Football Federation knows this and deliberately denies Nigerian clubs the opportunity to register their players who are 12 year on TMS until they’re 17.

Meanwhile, countries like Ethiopia, Ghana and South African, among others, allow clubs to register players from 12 years. Despite not allowing clubs to register from 12, the Nigerian federation, through some ‘non-existing’ football academies, receives money from foreign clubs. These academies only exist on paper. Theirs names and account details are forwarded to European clubs when they want to pay the 5 percent for clubs that have trained the player they sign from Nigeria.

However, such briefcase academies are not involved in the process of discovering, grooming and development of young athletes that, among others, are the major reasons a football academy is set up.

There is a calculated amount for each year that’s paid by the European club from the twelfth birthday to the age when the player is signed. In Nigeria, most of the players who have started their career at 12 do not have records with their grassroots academies. Yet, the new club pays a fraction of 5 percent but these monies are always diverted by submitting account details of ‘non-existing’ football academies to the foreign clubs.

In a situation where there is no record of player’s youthful club, such monies are supposed to be paid into NFF’s account for youth development programme, but, in Nigeria the monies are diverted into individuals’ account.

“When my former player was transferred to Belgium, I didn’t get what was supposed to be sent to me from the new club. I went to the NFF only to find out that the name of academy has been substituted by a non-existing academy. And that was where the money that was supposed to be sent to me was paid.” Ismaila Bagudu, another grassroots coach who pleaded that the club’s name should not be mentioned told this reporter.

“Can you imagine how much Nigeria would have and can make from the years that they cannot account for, and the foreign clubs pay for these years? Do you know how much other countries make from those years that there were no records of the player playing for a particular academy? Is it because NFF does not give statement of account? Bagudu asked rhetorically.

When contacted for comments on October 25, Jibril, the Personal Assistant to the Nigeria Football Federation President, who is also the person in charge of the TMS in Nigeria, Jibril, refused to comment on the subject matter and frustrated all efforts to get his side of the story. The Secretary General of the NFF, Sanusi Mohammed, also failed to respond to the FOIA letter sent to the football body and received by him.

On three occasions in October, Jibril declined talking on the registration of players on TMS and when our correspondent spoke with him on phone, and immediately the issue of TMS came in, he excused himself.

He claimed he was attending a FIFA online course and that the caller should get back to him three hours later but refused to pick the calls subsequently. He also did not respond to all text messages sent to him.

He also kept silent on an FOIA Request written to his office by this newspaper to seek some clarifications on the TMS and other related information.

In an effort to get their response, as the supervising ministry over the NFF, this newspaper also wrote an FOIA Request to the Permanent Secretary and the Minister, Ministry of Youth and Sports Development on November 26 and after waiting for fifteen days without expected response, reminders were sent to the Permanent Secretary, Gabriel Aduda and the Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, on December 10.

In a response letter from the ministry on December 2, signed by the Head, FOI Committee, Ministry of Sports, Ramon Balogun, the ministry acknowledged receipt of our FOI letters and promised to forward our request to the NFF and get back to us.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-grassroots-clubs-are-robbed-through-transfer-matching-system-in-nigeria/

IN factories owned by Chines and Indian investors in Nigeria, low-cost labour, hazardous work without protection, breach of minimum wage law, and human rights abuse are the norms. And young Nigerian workers are vulnerable to avoidable bodily harm, physical and emotional injuries. Yet, these companies continue to exploit their workers, taking advantage of the Nigerian weak laws and poor regulatory system. LUKMAN ABOLADE reports.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exIxa7UaH9I

AT 26, Vincent Enahoro left his hometown of Oah Okpuje Iuleha in Owan Local Government area, Edo State for Ota in Ogun State, in pursuit of greener pastures.

Against his parents’ advice, Enahoro left Okpuje for the industrial town in the southwest state, with s burning desire to make success of his life by dint of hard work. His dream to hit fortune outside his hometown was fired by Michael, his friend who came home from Ota during the yuletide in 2013. Michael had told him of endless opportunities in Ota, a town dotted by many factories. Enahoro did not want to miss such an opportunity. So, weeks later, he left home for Ota together with his friend.

The End Of A Dream

Just as Micheal had told him that securing a job would not be difficult−he got a job factory job, but as a ‘helper’.

In factoryspeak, a ‘helper’ is casual or temporary worker engaged through a recruitment firm to work in the production factory.

Workers in this category are not given the good treatment of staff and can be easily stopped from working as there is no contract between them and the company.

Enahoro got a ‘casual’ job with a company called Manaksia Investment Nigeria Limited (MINL), a steel company sited inside the Ota Industrial Estate.

Late 2013 when he started work at Manaksia, he worked from 6 o’clock am till 7 pm every day and was paid N570 (less than $2) per day.

Helpers’ wages are calculated on a daily basis and the accumulation is paid to them at the end of the month.

In MINL, all helpers are to cumpolsorily work everyday including Sundays, while their accumulated wages are paid at the end of the month. Enahoro was later employed as a contract staff because he was hardworking, but with no employment letter and no increase in wages.

“When I joined as a helper in 2013, I was paid N570 per day to work from 6 am to 7 pm, Monday to Sunday, no resting day,” Enahoro said as he narrated his ordeal.

For his first three years at the factory, the hardworking young man, now a father of two, earned a total of N17, 100 at the end of every month. For working 365 days in a year, the highest Enahoro could earn in a year was N205, 200 if there were no deductions for late coming and other infractions.

“Sometimes when we come late, they deduct our money, so I mostly have about N13, 000 or less to go home with at the end each month.”

This continued until 2016 when he was considered for a promotion for working with the company for three years. His daily wage was increased from N570 to N600 in 2016− a N30 increase.

“In 2016 it was increased to N600 per day. One year later, they increased it to N700 per day but for Saturdays and Sundays, I was paid N750 since I am a contract staff,” Enahoro said.

This was what he earned while working as a machine operator in MINL factory, a role pivotal to the daily production of the company.

Enahoro said he was never trained to use the Cut to Length Machine but it was the only way through which he could get a job as a contract staff with the company.

“They did not train me on how to use the machine but they said if I want them to employ me as a staff, that is the only place they can employ me,” Enahoro said.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/slaves-in-their-country-story-of-hardship-by-nigerian-workers-in-indian-chinese-factories/

EIGHT years ago, there was a communal clash between Ogwu-Ikpele community in Ogbaru local government area of Anambra State and neighbouring communities in Rivers State, leading to bloodshed.

During the clash, several weapons such as cutlasses and daggers were used. Some youths of Ogwu Ikpele were injured while others died due to the injury sustained.

“Some of those who died could have survived if we had a functional primary health center with qualified doctors and nurses,” said Onyedika Ochije, a youth in the village.

“The health center was empty that period and no doctor was around when we rushed them to the center.”

Ogwu Ikpele is an oil-producing community in the Southeast that shares a boundary with Omoku, Okpai, and Uchi communities in Rivers State in the South-South region. The road to Ogwu Ikpele from Ossomala is bushy and not motorable as it has been severely affected by flood and erosion.

Preventable death caused by a lack of quality healthcare

Ochije said some of the injured youths died on the way to the general hospital in Ossomala, which is about 20 kilometers from Ogwu Ikpele. Besides the clash that claimed lives, people also usually died prematurely in the community from common, tratable ailments due to a lack of a functional healthcare system.

“People were dying, including pregnant women,” added Ochije.

“Before you take them to the other town in Ossomala, they would have died.” The existing healthcare in Ogwu Ikpele is dilapidated and underfunded.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says only about 20% of the 30,000 Primary Health Center (PHC) facilities across Nigeria are working, which makes it difficult for Nigeria to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Effective delivery of healthcare services requires the availability of adequate infrastructure, diagnostic medical equipment, drugs, and well-trained medical personnel. But where health centers exist, they cannot operate because of a lack of basic amenities due to inadequate funding and financial mismanagement by the leaders.

According to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) a PHC should have one or more doctors, a pharmacist, a staff nurse, and other paramedical support staff to provide outreach services.

It should also have a well-equipped open ward, labour room, children and female wards, doctor’s office and staff quarters, an ambulance for referrals, and drugs and equipment for immunization, preventive and basic curative care. But many PHCs in Nigeria lack most of these.

The lack of adequate facilities is the leading cause of maternal mortality in Nigeria. According to the Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS, 2018), the under-five mortality rate in Nigeria is 132 per 1,000 live births meaning that 1 in 8 Nigerian children never reach the age of 5. One Nigerian woman dies in childbirth every 10 minutes, and 1 Nigerian child under-5 years of age dies every minute.

To address the healthcare challenges in Ogwu Ikpele, NPHCDA awarded a contract worth N21.9 million in 2014 to Gridline Nigeria Limited for the construction of a new PHC.

The project was not completed. It was abandoned at the foundation level.

When contacted, the Managing Director of Gridline, Peter Ogbomo, said the project was abandoned due to non release of funds by the NPHCDA.

“We were not paid. They did not give us anything for that project. One single kobo was not given to us. Even after submitting the bill security, they did not give us anything. That was when we abandoned the project. It was around 2016 we left that place,” he said.

“I went to the agency several times and I did not know what happened. We applied for advance payment and we submitted documents. I could not keep on putting my money into the project. They did not pay us even after we had started the job and spent money.”

Ogbomo is sad that he is still being owed.

The PHC project was, however, re-awarded in 2016 to Maldini Construction Company Limited for N57 million as a Type 3 project, which included a PHC, staff quarters, and mortuary.

The project was initially abandoned until work started on the site in February this year. When the reporter visited the project site in late August, the PHC and the doctors’ quarters had been erected and roofed.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-abandoned-uncompleted-primary-healthcare-projects-litter-anambra/

In part two of the series highlighting corruption and mediocrity in the Nigerian sports administration, KOLAPO OLAPOJU spotlights the decay of the Abuja Stadium complex.

WHEN most people hear of the Abuja National Stadium Complex, the ‘main bowl’ is what readily comes to mind but there is more to the ultra-modern modern sports complex than the football pitch.

The stadium is divided into two sections, namely Package A and Package B. The former comprises the 60,000 capacity main bowl while the latter consists of a 3,000 capacity indoor sports hall, 2000 capacity gymnasium, 2,000 swimming pool, among others.

Built at a cost of N54 billion seventeen years ago, the stadium is now starting to look like a shadow of itself due to the badly maintained facilities and equipment. Although it was among the best of its kind when used for the first time at the 2003 All-Africa Games, these days, the facility is broken-down.

Poor maintenance

The main bowl and surroundings located in package A often appear desolate, largely because of the ongoing, but painfully slow, renovation by Dangote Ltd through the ‘adopt-a-pitch- initiative of Sunday Dare, minister of sports and youth development.

The package B area, on the other hand, is more frequently used owing to the facilities located there. Yet, the regular use of the facilities has done little to stop it from slowly becoming decrepit. The gymnasium, which appears out of use, is surrounded by overgrown weeds and human waste.

A better part of Package B axis also is taken over by bush so much that it is easy for a newcomer to miss the cricket pitch. Though, the handball and tennis courts as well as the indoor sports hall are functional, the Olympic swimming pool has been abandoned, and now derelict. Although shut down, weeds can be seen growing out of the concrete and falling into the pool which now plays host to tadpoles and mosquitoes. Seats by the stand are falling apart with their insides sticking out and much of the metal work has gone to rust.

The ICIR learnt that the much of the maintenance problems in the stadium is due to insufficient attention as only few personnel are engaged to care for the 29 hectares of land on which it is built.

Some of the stadium workers disclosed that various departments are understaffed, forcing the supervisors to prioritise the places and locations to be maintained. One of such departments is security. Out of six gates in package A, only one is in use and manned, and same for package B. One of the guards disclosed that the facility manager has written to the minister to request for more personnel.

Disused athlete’s hotel

Along the road leading to the package B axis lies a dilapidating massive building. From a distance, it appears unoccupied but on close inspection, one would discover that people reside there.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/wastefulness-underfunding-cripple-key-infrastructure-in-abuja-stadium-complex/

PASSENGERS on Nigerian domestic carrier, Dana Air, were stranded for at least 14 hours at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Friday, as three scheduled flights by the airline were delayed.

“No apology was tendered. We were left to our fate. They showed no concern after some of us paid about N100,000 for the flight,” one of the passengers, Atsenokhai Aloy, told The ICIR.

Among the abandoned passengers were pregnant women, nursing mothers and their babies, he said.

Aloy had thought of arriving early in Lagos Friday evening to sleep in his home, but he was abandoned with scores of other passengers by Dana Air at Abuja Airport lobby till 8am Saturday, when the flight conveying him and others finally arrived.

He said by 1am on Saturday, an aircraft landed and picked passengers that were supposed to fly at 11am the previous day.

He said he had arrived at the airport and checked in before 6pm on Friday. But getting to the departure hall, he met scores of other passengers who were supposed to have left for Lagos but stranded.

“I slept in the airport waiting for a flight!! Dana air kept passengers including nursing mothers, pregnant women, and children in the airport from 7pm yesterday till this time I am typing this message (Saturday morning).

“We were all checked in and given our boarding pass. But there was no aircraft to convey us! From 7pm yesterday till now, myself and several other passengers are all seated in the departure hall of Abuja Airport waiting for the aircraft that will take us to Lagos.

“I have heard of delayed flights, but never in my life did I ever imagine that I will sleep in the airport waiting endlessly for a flight that no one knows when it will arrive.

“At some point, three different sets of passengers bound for Lagos were all waiting. There was no aircraft and Dana wasn’t ready to give us any sensible explanation. I am sure they know that there won’t be consequences for this unbelievable service failure. After all, this is Nigeria…

“By 1am, one aircraft landed. It picked passengers that were supposed to fly at 11am yesterday. Passengers scheduled for 11am flight on Friday morning eventually left by 1am on Saturday morning. I was scheduled for 7pm and I am still here. I have been in the airport for over 10hrs!!!

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/dana-airline-abandons-passengers-at-abuja-airport-for-14hrs/

DESPITE deteriorating insecurity, snowballing cost of living and rising cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria, many citizens will travel home this Yuletide to reunite with their family for Christmas and New Year festivities. However, two major concerns that will prevent sizeable number of people from travelling are the poor and unsafe state of the nation’s highways. Senior Investigative Reporter, Marcus Fatunmole, examines some flashpoints in the nation’s roads and how motorists and travellers can arrive at their destinations safely.

A NUMBER of Nigerian roads have described as “death trap,” “highway to hell,” “Road to Death” among others, not necessarily because of many fatal crashes that occur on them, but because of high rate of abduction and robbery they witness.

Citizens like Oluwabukola Lawrence, a resident of Abuja would have to undertake prayer session before embarking on a journey outside the city.

“I’ve been in Abuja for the past three years, and I’ve been afraid to travel by road out of the city. I can’t afford the cost of air ticket. But, this year, I’ve prayed fervently enough; I think I should go and see my parents this Christmas,” she said.

The Abuja-Lokoja and Abuja-Kaduna highways which connect the southern and northern parts of the country have recorded some of the most atrocious criminalities in recent time.

Fully loaded buses have been flagged down at gun points and the passengers abducted but released after payments of ransome.

In some cases, after payment of large ransom, abductees were killed. These are some of the fears of people like Mrs Lawrence who now thinks twice before embarking on any journey on Nigerian roads.

The abduction of hundreds of students of Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina state on December 11 is the latest most scandalous and appalling incident that climaxed dangerous dimension insecurity is taking under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.

Poor condition of the roads, large-scale corruption among security officers on the highways, overspeeding by drivers, faulty vehicles are some of the factors responsible for tragedies on the Nigerian highways.

It is usually easy for marauders to halt moving vehicles, brandish weapons and bolt away with people and valuable materials where roads are bad.

When policemen or soldiers position themselves on roads and collect bribes from motorists, their action prevents road users from differentiating the officers from criminals who dress like them.

Here are some of the dangerous roads below and cases of abductions that have taken place on those roads in recent time.

Abuja–Kaduna Highway

This is arguably the most notorious road for kidnapping in Nigeria. Within the last three years, hundreds of persons have been abducted on the major road that not only links the northern part of the country to the south but to the nation’s capital, Abuja.

On November 15, 2020, nine students of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna State were kidnapped between Kaduna and Abuja. They were released days later by combined efforts of the Nigerian army and other security agencies, after reports had claimed ransoms were paid.

On September 8, 2019, six people were kidnapped along Abuja – Kaduna highway. The abductees were travelling from Offa, Kwara state.in a commercial vehicle belonging to a company operated by the Offa community.

The abductors would have had another field day on the road on November 27 2020, but for the prompt intervention of the troops of Operation Thunder Strike, according to a statement from the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/yuletide-flashpoints-for-abduction-crashes-on-nigerian-highways/

AS the wind of discontent blows from North to South, it’s easy to conclude that Nigerian football has seen better days. From the national teams to the various leagues, the state of affairs fails to inspire confidence in fans and stakeholders. Allegations of corruption, lack of transparency and accountability have dogged Nigeria’s football industry – particularly in recent years. And it is prevalent in various government parastatals and football management across the country. Since the beginning of Amaju Pinnick era in 2014, financial discrepancies, misappropriation and series of anomalies have been the order of the day in the operations of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF so much so that stakeholders and even members of the football body have written several petitions to FIFA. But these actions have failed to change much in the system. KOLAPO OLAPOJU takes a deep dive into the reckless use of funds and wanton disregard for due process that have tainted the NFF.

Misuse of FIFA Development Funds

In 2015, FIFA released a $2.5m grant to Nigeria as part of its FIFA Assistance Programme. The money was to be dedicated to football development programmes in the country.

The use of the grant, which was disbursed in five tranches between May and October 2015, raised eyebrows at FIFA. The football governing body expressed concerns over a lack of transparency, noting that the NFF leadership was unable to prove that the funds were not fraudulently expended.

FIFA also bemoaned the fact that the funds were not used for the approved programmes.

Consequently, PwC carried out a review and presented its findings to FIFA in October 2016.

In its findings, PwC said it “detected circumstances which may indicate or lead to a misuse of funds” and also noted that in several cases, the use of FIFA development funds could not be traced to supporting documentation or failed to align with FIFA prescribed purposes.

“We detected a misuse of funds or other non-compliance with FIFA regulations. These findings require immediate action,” the report added.

According to the report, the NFF made disbursements in cash, and as such, it could not be determined if the final recipient actually received the funds. Furthermore, the report noted that “nine cases totalling $801, 929 were identified where there was no supporting documentation to substantiate the subsequent disbursements”.

In conclusion, PwC stated that as a result of the lack of transparency, the FIFA development funds may have been misused or misappropriated. It also noted that the NFF management was unable to demonstrate that there was no fraudulent use of the funds.

BDC over CBN

Days later, the NFF issued an official response to the report through a letter addressed to the FIFA secretary-general by Sanusi Mohammed, NFF general secretary.

In a bid to defend the cash withdrawals, Sanusi wrongly informed FIFA that because Nigerian banks transactions are not denominated in dollars, the NFF had no choice but to “make cash withdrawals and exchange to naira to make payments”

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-how-the-pinnick-era-of-funds-misappropriation-zero-transparency-poor-accountability-is-killing-football-in-nigeria/

SENATOR representing Borno South, Ali Ndume, faces possible prosecution for alleged perjury and forgery, arising from the documentation he filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja as surety for Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the Pension Task Team, who is facing trial for corruption.

Ndume first ran into trouble two weeks ago when Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja ordered his remand in Kuje Correctional Centre for failing to produce Maina for trial. But the senator got a reprieve after spending five days in detention when the judge granted him bail on account of his “good behaviour and conduct,” even though the lawmaker challenged the court’s order to have him remanded in prison at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

With the turn of events which saw the arrest and extradition of Maina to Nigeria from Niger Republic earlier last week, it would appear that the senator is off the hook.

However, he has bigger problems to deal with as there are allegations that he deceived the court to grant Maina bail by lying and presenting to the court property that did not belong to him as bail guarantee and presenting forged documents to prove ownership of same.

Prosecutors in the Maina case are said to be considering action against the senator for perjury and forgery and misleading the court to grant bail to the embattled former pension task team boss, who has now been remanded in prison until his trial is concluded.

In early June, the senator stood surety for Maina, agreeing to a bail bond of N500 million. As guarantee, he presented a property, a house in Asokoro District in Abuja worth N500 million.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/ndume-maina-bail-face-prosecution/

By Ayodele AKINKUOTU

MANY decades hence, memories of the youths’ October protests, tagged #EndSARS, and the rage that came on its heels would continue to haunt Nigerian leaders. Not only for its smooth handling and coordination by the organisers but by the massive looting and destruction of properties that followed when the government mishandled its containment.

It has been insinuated that some agents of government were complicit in the violence unleashed on the peaceful protesters. Thus, one of the first lessons for the youths who are trying to reclaim Nigeria from those at the helm of affairs at present is that their mission is not a tea party. Those who have been running and ruining the country are not about ducking under their wives’ beds because some youths are angry.

While many of our leaders are shivering and foaming in the mouth at the development, not a few patriots are heaving sighs of relief as to the dawn of a new era. For, while police brutality and extrajudicial killings were the issues that ignited the protests, it quickly evolved into a larger agenda. An end to chronic unemployment, poor funding of education and health sectors, obscene salaries and allowances of political office holders, poverty in the midst of plenty, rampant inequality and mindless corruption. Many concerned Nigerians have cried themselves hoarse highlighting these salient issues in the past.

In private conversations with some of my professional colleagues in the last few years on the Nigerian Question, the wonder has been how did Nigeria journey its way back into the wilderness, the political jungle we are in today.

At the dawn of civil rule in 1999, there was hope writ large on the political landscape. The 15-year period, 1984-1999, was a nightmare for millions of Nigerians. And understandably for many journalists, it was no less so.

Last May 29 made it exactly 21 years into democratic rule when Nigerians retired the military to their barracks. Alas, many thought that with their exit, the years of the locusts had ended. How wrong we were.

A new army of invaders took over the helm of affairs from the locusts who had laid the socio-economic and political landscape bare. And the patriots who might have made a difference were side-lined. Since 1999, the nation has been blessed (or is it cursed) with politicians at all levels of government who are nothing but parasites. Those who claim to serve Nigerians have behaved like a neo-colonial army who have nothing to lose. What with their greed and arrogance.

They have behaved like vultures, perching in their multitude on the commonwealth recklessly gorging themselves, giving free rein to their insatiable appetite. The political class’s total indifference to the suffering of millions of Nigerians is at the heart of the youths’ October revolt.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/youth-is-an-identity-not-an-ideology/

NORTH-EAST Nigeria has recorded at least 612 deaths from the month of June to November 27, data gathered by the Nigeria Security Tracker, NST, has shown.

The deaths from the affected states – Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba were as a result of banditry, kidnapping, communal clashes and Boko Haram insurgency in the region.

While 233 state actors such as security operatives and government officials were killed within the six months period, 379 civilians from the region lost their lives to insecurity.

Based on data gathered from the Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), an initiative of the Council on Foreign Relations (cfr), Borno state recorded the highest mortality with 534 total deaths (231 state actors and 303 civilians).

From the figure, Boko Haram insurgency was responsible for more than 50 percent of the casualties put at 534 deaths.

In Bauchi, only 13 deaths were recorded. Though none of the killings was attributed to the insurgency, they were a result of the communal crisis and political clash.

Gombe recorded no deaths within the period.

Data on Deaths in the North East
Data on Deaths in the North East
However, Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba recorded multiple deaths due to insurgency, banditry and kidnapping.

In Adamawa for instance, a total of 27 people were killed in six months due to insecurity.

One of such killings in Adamawa occurred in June. On June 9, about 23 bodies were recovered after a communal clash between the Lunguda and Waja tribes in Zakawon community, Lamurde Local Government Area of the state. Houses were burnt and domestic animals and foodstuffs were also destroyed.

Suleiman Nguroje, former spokesperson of the state police command later confirmed the arrest of 32 persons accused of the crime.

While death was recorded in Yobe state within the period, Taraba had a much higher casualty figure of 37 civilian deaths.

One of the Taraba killings involved the attack on Emmanuel Bileya, a clergy at Christian Reformed Church-Nigeria (CRC-N) and his wife, Juliana while the two were working on their farmland in Mararaba, Donga LGA.

“killings of this nature have happened too often recently in Southern Taraba communities…,” Bala Dan Abu, Media aide to Darius Ishaku, the state governor, stated while reacting to the incident.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/over-600-deaths-recorded-in-north-east-within-six-months-borno-ranks-top/

By Isaac MARSKSON
THE idea of building an Independent Power Plant, IPP, for Delta State to address its power problems was first mooted in 2000, during the administration of Governor James Ibori. During his tenure, Ibori appointed a consortium of engineering firms to undertake a power survey of Delta State. The consortium was made up of three companies: Engineering Management Support Limited, Optimal Power & Control Engineering Limited, and George Spiropoulus & Associates. At the conclusion of its assignment, the consortium submitted a report that estimated that the power demand for Delta State would be between 440MW and 570MW.

However, Ibori, who left office in May 2007, did not take on the IPP project, but Emmanuel Uduaghan who took over from him did.

The N23B IPP Project in Oghara.
In an executive council meeting held in May 2009, Governor Uduaghan approved the contract award for the acquisition and installation of two Open Cycle Rolls Royce Trent 60wle phase 111 Gas Turbine generators capable of being fired by natural gas and diesel oil.

The turbines were to have an installed capacity of 116MW and expected to generate 100MW of electricity for the State Independent Power Plant (IPP) project.

The contract was awarded to Davnotch Nigeria Limited, in partnership with an American firm, Southern Integrated Energy Limited, at the cost of $125million (one hundred and twenty five million dollars). The dollar exchange rate used for the contract was N176 to a dollar, which translated to N21,750,000,000.00 (twenty-one billion, seven hundred and fifty million naira).

In 2010, Ovuozorie Macaulay, the then Commissioner for Energy, in his brief to the state’s Economic Management Team, disclosed that the government paid 60% of the contract sum to Davnotch that same year. At the time the contract was awarded, one of its owners of the company was Victor Ochei who was at that time the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly.

Further investigation revealed that the contract sum of N21.7 billion did not include land acquisition, appointment of Prime/Resident Consults, Insurance coverage, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), construction of 132/33KVA transmission line to evacuate power to be generated and construction for gas supply for the IPP project, a development that led to the upward review of the contract sum in 2010 to N23.2 billion.

Governor Uduaghan Fails to Complete IPP Project.
On July 26, 2011, Uduaghan boasted to journalists during a briefing that work on the power project would be completed before he leaves office in May 2015, noting that with the successful completion of the turbines in Europe, work had reached an advanced stage. He added that he was optimistic that the turbines would be shipped into the country by August 2011.

But his promise to complete the project before he leaves office was never fulfilled.
Our reporter gathered that in line with the contract agreement Davnotch Nigeria Limited supplied the two Rolls Royce Gas turbines at the stipulated time, but the turbines were still awaiting installation when the contractor demobilized from site in Oghara, in 2014.

The lPP project was aimed at providing adequate, stable electricity for the people of Oghara, the hometown of Chief James Ibori and other parts of Delta State, however ten years later the project remains uncompleted and abandoned.

Governor Okowa’s government inherits IPP Project in May 2015.

The state Independent Power Project (IPP) was among the many projects inherited by Ifeanyi Okowa, when he assumed office on May 29, 2015. In 2016, to ascertain why the IPP project was abandoned, Okowa set up a 16 – man committee headed by David Edevbie, then commissioner for Finance, to investigate, proffer solutions and advise his administration on what could be done to revive the moribund multi-billion naira project. While inaugurating the committee, Governor Okowa also said his administration would prosecute anyone found culpable considering the huge resources that the project had gulped.

Edevbe’s Committee Swings into Action.

In 2016, Edevbe and members of his committee went on an on the spot assessment tour of the IPP facility. The delegation included the project consultants, A & A Global, officials of Access Bank, the financial advisers on the project, and representatives of the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice.

Since the IPP project remains completely abandoned, frantic efforts was made by this reporter to obtain Edevbe’s panel report but all efforts hit a brick wall. Not deterred Sunreporters wrote a Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, request to the office of the state governor, copying the Chief of State to the Governor, now incidentally occupied by Edevbe and the Honourable Commissioner, Ministry of Power and Energy but there was no response until October 12, 2020, when the newspaper got a letter from the office of the Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice notifying it that the Delta State Government cannot release such documents under this federal Act and advised it to apply for the information under the Delta State Freedom of Information Act 2019, an advise the newspaper acted upon.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-delta-state-government-spent-over-20bn-on-two-ipp-projects-that-are-yet-to-generate-any-power/

IN A bid to give listening ears to the protesters demanding an end to police brutality in Nigeria and address their concern, the federal government after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting on Thursday October 16, ordered the establishment of Judicial panels of inquiry across the 36 states of the federation.

Since the establishment of the Judicial Panels of Inquiry across states, it has been an endless story of agony and pain as victims and families recount experience of police brutality and extrajudicial killings.

The ICIR though had earlier reported stories from hearings at some of the panel, last week, there were more gory tales than before as petitioners recounted their grief-stricken ordeal before the panels.

Lamentations at Lagos panel

One of the petitioners that spoke before the panel this week was Hannah Olugbodi, a middle-age hairstylist, who was crippled by the police stray bullet.

Olugbodi, who appeared before the panel on crutches on Saturday, said the awful incident happened on June 6, 2018, when she was going to buy spices for her family dinner at the Ijesha market.

She alleged that the SARS officers were after the boys, who were watching football at the Ogun City hotel, adding that she got hit by the bullet when the officers started shooting sporadically as the boys refused to settle them.

“On one of those days, some boys were watching a football game when SARS arrived and accosted one of the boys who had tattoos.

“When the SARS men couldn’t extort the boys, they started shooting at them as they ran into the Ijesha market and that’s how I was hit,” she narrated.

She later spent six months at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), without any of the police officers coming to visit her.

Olugbodi, who appeared before the panel with a large pack of files full of hospital bills said she wants justice, noting that she had spent all she had to pay for surgery, ye she still can’t walk.

Another petitioner, who spoke at the Lagos panel, Adeyemo Rotimi, completely broke down in tears before the panel, as she narrated how her husband lost his life in the hands of police officers.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/endsars-tales-of-pain-sorrow-as-victims-recount-ordeal-at-panels-across-the-country/

DESPITE domestication of violence against Persons Prohibition (VAPP ACT), signed in 2019 by President Muhammadu Buhari, cases of Sexual and Gender-based Violence, SGBV are on the increase as those saddled with the responsibility of checking the scourge do nothing to stop and protect those affected. The ICIR reports the travail of survivors of SGBV during the COVID-19 lockdown.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6pEi30KUjU

READ HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/video-survivors-narrate-harrowing-experience-of-domestic-abuse-during-covid-19-lockdown/

Despite a promise of commitment to Open Government, FG conducts business in secret as MDAs shun FOI requests


In Nigeria, governance is becoming increasingly opaque despite Buhari's commitment to Open Government Partnership initiative

DESPITE joining the Open Government Partnership (OGP) on June 23, 2016, with a commitment to make government more transparent, accounta‎ble and responsive to citizens, evidence has shown that, contrary to the spirit of the OGP initiative, the Federal Government is making it more difficult for Nigerians to access information concerning its activities.

The OGP is a multilateral ini‎tiative that was launched in 2011 to provide a platform for domestic reformers – in the form of civil society organisations, the private sector and individuals – to partner with the public sector to make governments more responsive, accountable and transparent to the citizens.

While signing on to the OGP initiative, President Muhammadu Buhari had declared the Federal Government’s commitment to increase transparency in governance, stamp out corruption and improve service delivery.

The Federal Government also made commitments to: establish a public central register‎ of company beneficial ownership information; ensure transparency of the ownership and control of all companies involved in property purchase and public contracting; full implementation of the principles of Open Contracting Data Standard, focusing on major projects like building of health centres and the improvement of health services; enhance company disclosure on the payments to governments for the sale of oil, gas and minerals, complementing ongoing work through EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative); and strengthening asset recovery legislation.

However, investigations by The ICIR shows that, rather than governance becoming more transparent and accountable, ‎in line with the commitments made by President Buhari when the country joined the OGP, government business in Nigeria is becoming increasingly opaque, with the Federal Government and its agencies seemingly wilfully witholding relevant public information from the citizens.

A major indicator of the non-transparent nature of the Federal Government is the abysmally low level of compliance with the Freedom of Information Act by the government and its agencies.

The Freedom of Information ‎law is a major pillar of the OGP initiative. According to the Open Government Partnership, the website of the Open Government Partnership, “Access to information means access to justice. Citizens armed with information can claim what is rightfully theirs. For this reason, OGP members are required to have laws guaranteeing the right to information.”

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011, was meant to make public records and information more freely available, provide for public access to public records and information, protect public records and information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the protection of personal privacy, protect serving public officers from adverse consequences of disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorisation and establish procedures for the achievement of those purposes.

‎The FOI Act established the rights of citizens to apply for information or records in the possession of a public institution or private bodies providing public services, performing public functions or utilising public funds. Such information is to be made available to the applicant within seven days of the receipt of the application. The law also guarantees the citizens’ right to receive information that public institutions are obliged to proactively disclose.

The law equally empowered individuals to take legal action in court to compel public institutions to comply with provisions of the Act, including discharging their proactive disclosure obligations. The FOI Act also stipulated the category on information that may not be disclosed by public institutions, even upon application by applicants.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/despite-a-promise-of-commitment-to-open-government-fg-conducts-business-in-secret-as-mdas-shun-foi-requests/

Pfizer Kano Trial: 24 years after, some victims not compensated and still can’t live normal lives

ONE sunny afternoon in April 1996, Maryam Ibrahim, also known as Ladi, took Maryam Ibrahim Sulaiman, her six-year-old daughter, to the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in Kano for vaccination after the child had suffered severe headache and fever overnight.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9HdPss5CJM

Before dawn, the child’s situation became so severe that she could barely walk. Ladi strapped her daughter to her back and headed for the hospital.

The child was later confirmed by a female European doctor at the IDH to be suffering from Meningitis.

After giving her four rounds of injections, the doctor handed her a wristband and a whistle. She also took her photograph, and gave her mother a copy as gift. And the pink colour registration card was taken from her by the officials of the hospital.

Ladi was excited, especially as the treatment was done free of charge. But her excitement would later be short-lived because, what transpired at the hospital cast doubts on the treatment administered on the poor child.

“…On reaching there (IDH) I entered with Maryam and she was accepted immediately and they took her to a particular room,” she recalls during an interview with The ICIR.

“I peeped through the window where they laid her on a bench but when they discovered that I peeped, they let the curtain down, and as of then they’ve cut her open from the waist to fetch some fluid. I saw something like a TV connected with a cable on her, yes, I saw that. But after that I was not allowed to see anything again. Later they asked me to get a seat for myself, which I did.

“Later, I saw a staff held her by the neck and told me to follow so as to get a bed for her, and I did.

“All that I cared about then was my child’s health and well-being.”

Later, the hospital officials instructed her to come back with the child after a week for check up.

But during the week, the child began to feel chronic pain in the leg and waist region.

On the day she was asked to come back with her daughter, Ladi was amazed when she was told that the white doctor and her colleagues had gone back to their country.

A physician who witnessed the event said the doctors left Kano unceremoniously immediately after the treatment.

Ladi did not know that her daughter had been used as one of the 200 guinea pigs to test the efficacy of a vaccine manufactured by the United States-based pharmaceutical company, Pfizer.

Since then, Maryam has continued to live her life with complications arising from the treatment. Her problem include chronic waist and leg pains and incessant fever. Later, she started complaining of auditory problem, then dizziness, resulting in loss of balance.

The vaccine later affected the mobility of her waist and legs. So, she was being taken from one hospital to another administered with different injections and drugs, Ladi narrated.

It is not clear if the complications affected Maryam’s memory 24 years after but many of her answers to questions were incoherent and she seemed to have forgotten many things about herself.

The treatment, it seems, has changed her life and now all she desires is living a healthy life free of pain.

“Most time, she is sick and to play basketball with her fellow girls is difficult. She complained that some of her school mates poked fun at her and she tried to explain to them that her waist and legs are not strong enough” Ladi said, sadness written all over her face.

She eventually finished high school in 2012, after enduring years of crude jokes and verbal assaults from insensitive peers.

She could not continue with her education because her parents could not afford it. And she also could attract intimate relationships because of her poor health condition, her mother told The ICIR.

“Men are scared to marry her because of her intermittent sickness. And she can’t walk long-distance without feeling pain in her hips”.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/pfizer-kano-trial-24-years-after-some-victims-not-compensated-and-still-cant-live-normal-lives/

IF only Pa Amiola Sunday, a 64-year-old retired primary school headmaster, had foreseen the indignity waiting for him at the end of his career, he probably would have rejected the offer of employment given to him on the 1st of September 1981 by Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ2Hc-5qta4

When The ICIR visited him at his rented single-room apartment around Fateema area of Ikire (Irewole local government), he was seen seated on a bug-infested tattered mattress, looking through his window as if expecting a message.

But he was sightless.

Pa Amiola Sunday became blind after years of inability to pay medical bills to treat his defective eyes.

In 2015, a year after Amiola’s retirement, he was diagnosed with Glaucoma and other health challenges.

He would later expend his savings on the payment of medical bills, and when that was not enough, he sold his six-room bungalow built around the Osun State University, Ikire Campus, and six motorcycles in order to offset his medical bills.

But all this was inadequate to save him from deteriorating health.

In fact, he was ejected from Government Specialist hospital, Ibadan, Oyo state, where he is currently owing N5,000.

Yet, his failed sight is just one out of other medical challenges he battles.

In May 2017, Amiola’s wife left home one fateful afternoon without returning. Two years later, his four children also left the house without any note of their whereabouts.

“People now donate food items for me. As you can see, someone just came to give me gaari. I can spend four to five days without eating. Our pastor comes to give me money. Our landlady also does give me money. This is the 4th year I have not paid for rent. They are no more collecting rent from me when they see my present condition with the notion that I repay whenever we are paid our entitlement. I can’t see,” Amiola told this reporter.

Before the Covid-19 lockdown, Pa Amiola had resorted to begging for alms on the roads with a 9-year old boy taking him around the town of Ikire. Most times, he goes to schools to beg from students and visits churches and mosques on worship days.

According to him, his situation may not have become worse if the then government of the state led by Rauf Aregbesola paid his seven months modulated salary arrears, gratuity and monthly pension.

For four years, the old man and many other retirees have been left stranded without payment, a total violation of section 210 of the Nigerian Constitution subsection 2, which states that any benefit to which a person is entitled shall not be withheld or altered to his disadvantage.

Pa Amiola’s case is just one of many of Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) beneficiaries in the state who now wallow in abject poverty after long years of service.

On the 1st of July 2015, Rauf Aregbesola, the immediate past governor of Osun State and the current Minister of Interior, introduced a new system of salary structure to the state due to the economy crisis caused by the global fall in the price of oil.

The salary structure popularly called “half salary” in the state was described in a post on the state’s website as the payment of “full salary to Workers in Grade Levels (GL) 1-7 and at least half or more to those on levels from 8 and above”.

The system which was sustained in the state till the 1st of July 2018 had wrecked most retired civil servants in the state.

Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) is housed in the Pension Reform Act 2004 which repealed the 1993 Nigerian social Insurance Trust Fund Act.

CPS was enacted in 2004 partly as a result of the failure of the past scheme to address the pension needs of Nigerians and partly as a result of the quest by Stakeholders to evolve a scheme that can cater to both public and private sector employees.

Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Osun State former Governor, gave assent to the establishment of the CPS for employees in the public service of Osun State and for other connected purposes on August 3, 2009. The law is the state’s domesticated version of the Pension Reform Act 2004 at the federal level and is referred to as Osun State Contributory Pension Law 2008.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/on-their-own-how-osun-retirees-are-denied-of-their-salaries-and-pensions/

LAI Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture has said that the Nigerian economy is improving though the country is in recession.

Mohammed said this on Thursday when he featured on a breakfast programme, “Good Morning Nigeria” aired on the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).

“By comparison, South Africa recorded a decline of -50 in 02 2020. The economic conditions are actually improving, with 17 activities recording positive real growth in the third quarter, compared to 13 in Q2. Also, 36 of 46 economic activities did better in Q3 2020 than Q2 2020, Mohammed said.

Mohammed stated that the decline of -3.62 percent in Q3 is much smaller than the -6.10 percent recorded in Q2.

According to the minister, the -3.62 percent contraction recorded in Q3 2020 was better than the -6.01 percent earlier forecast by the National Bureau of Statistics, adding that this outperformed several domestic and international forecasts.

He noted that before COVID-19, the Nigerian economy had been experiencing sustained growth that was improving every quarter until Q2 2020 when the impact of COVID-19 was felt.

Mohammed said the major reason for the economic downturn is the COVID-19 pandemic.

He argued that Nigeria is not alone as dozens of countries, including economic giants like the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, had entered recession due to the global pandemic

The minister said other countries in recession include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, and Spain.

He also said the oil sector was largely responsible for the slow-down in economic activity in Q3 2020.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigerias-economy-is-improving-despite-recession-lai-mohammed/

A NON-EXISTING journalism institute, International Institute for Investigative Journalism (IIIJ), has faulted the investigative report done by the US-based news giant, Cable News Network (CNN) on the October 20 shooting at the Lekki Toll gate in Lagos.

A report that has been widely shared on social media claimed that IIIJ, which did not exist until 24 hours ago, issued a press statement saying CNN report was “poor” hatchet job targeted at the Nigerian Army.

In an electronic statement signed by, Francois Deburoiche, its special rapporteur on Wednesday, the IIIJ said it came to this conclusion following a careful investigation on the events that led to the escalation of violence at the toll gate.

Checks by The ICIR however, showed that Francois Deburoiche is a pseudonym and the only reference to that name on the internet is in the press statement issued.

Also, the body that is supposedly international has no digital footprint on the internet- it has no website, nor any social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook to identify them with.

Further checks by The ICIR revealed that an account associated with the ruling party in Nigeria, the All Progressive Congress (APC), on Twitter shared the report published by The Daily Sun newspaper from the press statement issued by the non-existing journalism institute, a report that was later deleted on the website of the newspaper due to lack of verification.

In a phone conversation with an official of Daily Sun newspaper who declined to be named, it was confirmed to The ICIR that the report was pulled down due to lack of verification of source of the press statement.

“We pulled the story down because there were no fact and the reporter will receive a query for the report,” Daily Sun disclosed to The ICIR.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/fake-journalism-institute-condemns-cnn-report-on-lekki-shooting/

INVESTIGATION: Horror in Southern Kaduna: Untold story of endless massacres, plunder (Part II)

By Ibanga ISINE

As the shock over the unending killings in Kaduna State, Nigeria's North-west continues, Fulani leaders and groups have cried out saying 85 of their kin have been murdered and their properties destroyed in Southern Kaduna.

The NEXT EDITION and its associates had in the first part of this story, reported how more than 136 people, mainly Christians, were slaughtered between June 10 – August 21, 2020 in nine Southern Kaduna local government areas.

INVESTIGATION: Horror in Southern Kaduna: Untold story of endless massacres, plunder by suspected Fulani militia (Part I)

However, Fulani groups and survivors have rejected the narratives of the killings, saying their people have also been murdered and their properties pillaged by Atyap and other indigenous communities in the zone.

According to them, Fulani people were being killed in many parts of Zangon Kataf and Kaura local government areas.

The Chairman, Miyeti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Kaduna State chapter, Haruna Tugga, his counterpart in Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GADFAN), Ardo Gundaru, and Secretary General of the state chapter of Mobgal Fulbe Development Association (MOFDA), Nuhu Ibrahim, have come out to tell the other side of the story.

Others are the Chairman, Bandiraku Fulbe Youth Association of Nigeria (BAFYAN), Kaduna State chapter, Abbas Julde, and Coordinator, Kaduna State chapter of Fulbe Development and Cultural Organization (FUDECO), Abubakar Naseh.

The heads of the five Fulani groups have accused the media of putting out a jaundiced narrative about the crisis and insisted that their people have been slaughtered in many parts of Zangon Kataf and Kaura Local Government areas of the state.

In a document signed by leaders of the five groups and made available to this reporter, they alleged that between June 11 – 14, their members were "deliberately targeted, killed and maimed in a coordinated and systematic manner that leave us with no other conclusion than the fact that they are premeditated and well planned."

The leaders of the Fulani groups said they are speaking up against the calculated attempts to divert attention from the carnage meted to peace-loving and law-abiding Fulbe communities in Kataf Chiefdom and its surrounding villages.

"The current crisis emanated from a land dispute between the native Kataf farmers and the indigenous Hausa farmers of Zango town which eventually metamorphosed to an allegation of killing of a farmer of Atyap tribe, who went to cultivate the disputed farmland by unknown persons.

"This is a fact also acknowledged by the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, (SOKAPU) in its statement issued hurriedly by its National Publicity Secretary, who is also from the same aggressor Kataf (Atyap) tribe on 11th June, 2020, following which the Kataf youths erupted in violence on the same date by launching simultaneous but ferocious attacks on unsuspecting Fulani communities across several villages in the Atyap Chiefdom.

"The unanswered poser still remains, why should the Atyap youths transfer their aggression on peaceful Fulani communities which have nothing to do with either the farmland dispute or the alleged killing of the Kataf farmer?

"The answer is probably not far-fetched, the Atyap youth have been brainwashed and sponsored for such evil acts by a certain illegal union which has been instigating and supporting Adara youth to launch similar attacks against Fulani communities in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State and even in other parts of Southern Kaduna geo-political zone," the Fulani leaders indicated in the signed document.

The tribal leaders also alleged that after the June 11 protest in Zangon town, Fulani communities were subjected to four days of well-coordinated attacks by suspected Atyap people.

During the attacks, they said helpless Fulani women, children and the aged were slaughtered in their homes while sleeping, on the highways and in the bushes where they raised cows.

While the level of damage to lives and properties to their members cannot be quantified, the leaders said they have credible intelligence pointing to the Atyap people as those launching the bloody attacks.

According to records made available by the groups, a total of 14 Fulani settlements have been invaded and 84 persons killed in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area.

The affected settlements are: Kurmin Masara, Gora Chibob, Tangjei (Angwan Gaya), Kwakwu, SabonKaura (Yola Rebo), Zamandabo, Asha Awuse and Manchon Kodel.

Others are Sako, Barkin Kogi, Ungwan Dawakai, Mate, Zambina Tsam Chiefdom and Warkak Yagwak village.

Murders on highways

Apart from killing Fulanis, burning their homes and plundering their settlements, the leaders of the Fulani groups also accused Atyap youth and their collaborators of murdering Fulbe people along highways and roads in Southern Kaduna.

For instance, they alleged that Jankado Sule (49) and his two children, Sadiya (12) and Abubakar (17) were waylaid and killed on their way to hospital in Kurmin Masara village.

Similarly, they said one Ibrahim and his daughter, Mairo (22), were brutally killed at a roadblock mounted by Atyap youths at Angwan Wakili.

They said one Alhaji Yanki, who was attacked along Zangon Kataf Barkin Kogi Road, was lucky to escape with severe injuries and was rushed to a hospital in Mariri, Lere Local Government Area.

They also reported that two unidentified persons were killed at Mate near Samaru Kataf and Kankurmi villages within the Atyap Chiefdom.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-horror-in-southern-kaduna-untold-story-of-endless-massacres-plunder-part-ii/

MANY indigent residents of Benue State are dying at the hands of unqualified medical personnel due to shortage of qualified medical doctors in most rural communities in the state.

Auxiliary nurses and laboratory scientists across the state posing as medical doctors maim and send hapless patients to their early graves.

While Agbo John, a university undergraduate was lucky to have cheated death, his younger sister, Stella, who was a high school student, died at the hands of a laboratory scientist who posed as a medical doctor.

Stella John was a senior secondary school student at the Gateway Excel College at Ogeneago in Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State.

“Stella was a highly intelligent student, who looked out for other people,” Mary Ochoche described her teenage niece whose life came to a tragic end in February 2018.

Narrating late Stella’s ordeal, Ochoche said the deceased’s dream of becoming a medical doctor in order to cater for the health needs of her family and community was cut short by Friday Onuh, a laboratory scientist at the Federal Medical Centre, Efekwo, Otukpa.

“In the first week of February 2018, I took Stella, my niece, to Able Hands Diagnostic Laboratory and Maternity Clinic here at Old Otupka Branch, Ogbadibo LGA of Benue State. She was operated upon by Mr. Friday Onuh, the ‘doctor’ in charge of the hospital. The surgery that was performed on Stella was to correct an inflammation which the doctor said was appendicitis.

“But a few weeks after the surgery, Stella’s health kept deteriorating as her eyes turned greenish and she became pale, because she neither ate nor drank water.

“When we asked ‘Dr. Onuh’ why Stella’s health was getting worse by the day, he responded that, ‘I’m on top of the situation.’ So, I discussed with other family members and we forcibly took Stella away from Dr. Onuh’s hospital to the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), where they demanded to see Dr. Friday Onuh who carried out the surgery on Stella.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-deadly-quacks-how-benue-healthcare-workers-endanger-lives-part-1/

THE Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has called for the immediate resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari over the killings of unarmed protesters by operatives of the Nigerian army at Lekki tollgate.

CNPP in a statement on Wednesday by its Secretary-General, Willy Ezugwu, also wants Tukur Buratai, Chief of Army Staff and Armstrong Idachaba, the Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, to resign over what it described as “ignoble” roles played and “unpatriotic” attempts to cover up the incident.

“The CNPP has called for the immediate resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, and the Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, Prof. Armstrong Idachaba, for their ignoble roles in the shooting of unarmed protesters at Lekki Tollgate and the unpatriotic attempt to cover up the extrajudicial killings of Nigerians singing the national anthem while protesting killings of their compatriots by security forces,” CNPP read.

Reacting to an investigation by American Cable News Network (CNN) that detailed the event Lekki on October 20, CNPP called on “the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest and prosecute various state actors and their co-travellers for crimes against humanity to serve as a deterrence to other African leaders who kill unarmed peaceful demonstrators, protesting bad policies of the government.

CNN investigation

The Nigerian Army which had earlier denied its involvement in the shooting and later claimed that its men only went to Lekki to enforce a curfew imposed by the Lagos state government have continued to maintain that no casualty was recorded by the soldiers during their report.

Ahmed Taiwo, Commander of the 81 Military Intelligence Brigade, told the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Saturday that troops deployed to the scene only fired blank bullets into the air to disperse the protesters.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/lekki-shootings-cnpp-resignation-buhari-buratai/

AS Nigerian universities strike lingers, Biodun Ogunyemi, the president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said employers from Ethiopia came to Nigeria recently and harvested 200 professors from public universities.

Ogunyemi said this when he featured on Arise TV to discuss the ongoing strike, demands of the Union from the federal government and a possible brain drain after the strike.

“We are aware that a few months ago, Ethiopia came to Nigeria and harvested 200 professors from public universities, and they are still looking for more,” said Ogunyemi.

He added that within the last two months, 25 scholars from public universities were also harvested by a private university in Yola state.

Ogunyemi further stated that the reason Nigerian politicians fail to understand the demands of the Union on the revitalisation of universities is that about 90 percent of their children are not enrolled in public varsities.

“About ninety percent of Nigerian politicians do not have their children in public universities that is why they do not understand the demands we are making,” he further stated.

According to Ogunyemi, the revitalisation fund agreed between the Union and the FG in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in 2013 was based on the needs assessment of public universities.

“The 2013 MOU on the report of a needs assessment of Nigerian Universities. The tranche that we asking for is to ensure that government goes back into the path where we said it is for fixing the utter decay in our universities,” he stated.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/few-months-ago-ethiopia-harvested-about-200-professors-from-nigerian-universities-ASUU-president-ogunyemi/

ABOUT a month after the Federal Government told university lecturers to resign their jobs and go into farming, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has advised its members to seek alternative means of livelihood.

The advice followed the inability of the Federal Government and ASUU to resolve outstanding issues over which the lecturers embarked on the industrial action which had grounded Nigeria’s public universities‎ for several months.

Coordinator of ASUU, Abuja Zone, Professor Theophilus Lagi, ‎at a press conference at the University of Abuja on November 17, revealed that the union has advised lecturers ‎to find alternative means of livelihood.‎

L‎agi suggested that the Federal Government, represented by Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, had not been sincere in negotiations with ASUU.

‎“Our members have been advised to seek other legitimate means of survival as the government has not released salaries withheld since February 2020. ‎One need not be a psychologist to understand the behaviour and recent utterances of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige.

“The minister has clearly shown his disdain for Nigerian academics and has failed to play the role of an unbiased umpire in moderating the imbroglio. ‎In the past few weeks, for instance, Ngige has said one thing when he met with the union and a different thing on the same subject in interviews with the media,” Lagi said.

But he also gave indications that the union was not going to back down from its position in the protracted, unending negotiations with the Federal Government.

“Our members are relentlessly determined to continue with the ongoing strike until our demands are met,” the ASUU official said. ‎

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/one-month-after-fg-told-lecturers-to-resign-and-go-into-farming-ASUU-advises-members-to-seek-alternative-livelihood/