₦airaland Forum

gbanikiti: what's the difference between a panel and committee?

Abuja – The Minister of Power, Prof Chinedu Nebo, in Abuja on Monday inaugurated a 13-member Technical Investigative Panel to articulate ways of mitigating constant system collapse in the power sector.

The members of the panel include Fatai Olapade, Chairman; A. Adebisi, Secretary; as well as Sanusi Garba, Sam Amadi,
R. Dagogo-jack, and J. Ognonna.

Others are Kingsley Achefe, O. Ekpo, James Olotu, Mike Uzoigwe, Chris Akamnonu, Don Priestman, and Kunle Olubiyo, President of Network for Energy Reforms.

Nebo said that the panel would determine the immediate and remote causes of the system failures and review all system collapses which occurred since January.

He urged the panel to review the performance and effectiveness of the grid’s protection system in the period under review.

The panel is also expected to recommend measures to further strengthen the protection mechanism and to consider any other system collapse related issues in the sector, Nebo said.

He gave the panel two weeks to submit its report and warned that the ministry would not tolerate any excuse on failure to carry out the assignment.

Earlier, the Minister of State for Power, Hajia Zainab Kuchi, urged members of the panel to be `bold and innovative’ in their investigation.

She called on the panel to get results that would be permanent to solve the problems of power in the country.

Responding on behalf of members of the panel, Olapade said they would submit the report within the specified period. (NAN)

Five Limpopo police officers beat a Nigerian man to death, the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday.

“I put it to you that you beat him, he fainted and you resuscitated him. He woke up and… you beat him again,” prosecutor Jacky Mabasa told the officers during cross-examination. “You also sprinkled water on him.”

The five, Boitumelo Ramahlala, Mashiba Mathata, Collins Sekoati, Thabo Mabotja and Clement Tsotsane, face murder and assault charges. They were applying for bail.

They are accused of beating Onyechiabi Iwuaka to death on May 21 while he was visiting a friend. His friend escaped the assault. Iwuaka died on the way to the Polokwane police station.

The court was told the officers stopped on the way to the police station to buy water, as Iwuaka was bleeding from his ears.

Mabasa said an ambulance was called for Iwuaka after he died.

“The reason you cannot tell me specifically what you did that day is because you assaulted him. That’s why you cannot tell what you did,” Mabasa said.

The court was told Iwuaka was merely in his friend’s home, and was the wrong person to be arrested.

The five evaded questions, and said they never accused or hurt anyone. This prompted magistrate Janine Ungerer to question if they shared the same holding cell. She suspected they had coached each other on how to respond to questions.

The bail application was postponed to Monday.

President Goodluck Jonathan has given a fresh mandate to the military to end the insurgent Boko Haram sect within the next three months to enable the federal government execute projects meant for the Northeast geo-political zone which are allegedly stalled by the violence in the region.

Until last month’s declaration of a state of emergency by President Jonathan on Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, insurgents had made life difficult to residents of some states in the north.

The new presidential directive, military sources disclosed was part of efforts of the federal government to ensure that the six months emergency regime in the affected states was not extended.

Already, the president has formally proscribed Boko Haram and Ansaru with heavy sanctions on their collaborators and members. An informed source in the security circle told our correspondent that the policy was part of the outcome of the last Security Council meeting held in the State House.

At the meeting on Tuesday were the National Security Adviser, all service chiefs, led by the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, the Inspector-General of Police, the security chiefs, the ministers of state for defence, police and interior. It was presided by President Jonathan who reportedly told the Security Council that he wanted the Boko Haram menace to become a thing of the past within the shortest time possible.

“After listening to the briefs from the military chiefs about the situation in the three states where the state of emergency is in force, President Jonathan expressed his satisfaction with them and told them that he had promised the whole world that the state of emergency declared in those states would be lifted before the six months allowed by the constitution. He then told them, ‘I want an end to the Boko Haram (sect) within the next three months’ and they all promised to do so,” the source disclosed.

According to the source, Admiral Ibrahim assured the president that the rules of engagement were strictly obeyed and that civilian casualties were being avoided by the troops. It was then the idea of the proscription was mooted and adopted in order to discourage people from identifying with the sect.

The minister of state for defence, Erelu Olusola Obada, allegedly lamented how the insurgency had prevented the government from implementing the transformation agenda in the affected states and argued that if the presidential directive was enforced, the government would be able to make impact in the area before the 2015 general election.

YOLA — Some victims of last year’s flood in Adamawa State have claimed that they received paltry sums ranging between N200 and N240 as compensation from the government even after the Federal Government had released N500 million to them.

They have, however, said that they would not relocate to safer areas, following predictions of heavy flooding at the peak of rainy season this year.

The Kobis Ari Committee in the state was saddled with the responsibilities of both the assessment and disbursement of the N500million from the Federal Government.

However, some of the victims in Demsa Local Government Area of the state, who spoke to Vanguard on the issue, criticised the alleged poor handling of N500 million from the Federal Government.

Some of the victims told Vanguard at Gindin-Kuka ward, which was one of worst hit, that they were yet to get any form of assistance except for an offer of between N200 to N240, and asked that the matter be probed.

One of the victims, Moses Ginam, said he learnt of the N500 million assistance from Federal Government from the media, but was yet to receive any assistance except that he was told that the sum of N93,000 was allocated to affected people in his area whereby each person would get N240.

”To be candid I only read in the newspapers that N500 million was given to Adamawa State. We were told that we were given N93,000 and when you divide this money each household will get N240.

”The Federal Government should investigate this matter because those affected were not the people who benefited from the money.”

Another victim, Mr. Francis Emmanuel, also asked the government to investigate the incident , saying that, his community in Mbula chiefdom rejected the N1.5 million given to them as it was too meagre to go round.

”They sent N1.5 million to the entire Mbula chiefdom and the people refused it because if you are going to share this money to the people, each will get just a little above N200.

”Imagine somebody that lost his house and farm and he is given just N200?” he asked.

Mallam Abdullahi Gindin-Kuka, who also called for probe into the handling of the Federal Government’s largesse, said he was asked to collect N240 from the ward head as assistance from the government, but that he rejected the offer.

The Secretary to Adamawa State Government, SSG, Mr. Kobis Thimnu who was the state chairman of Quick Response Committee that handled the issues involving the flood victims, said the money was used for the purchase of 60 trucks of fertiliser and varieties of seedlings, among other things, for the farmers.

Thimnu said the measure was taken in view of the fact that most of those affected we’re farmers.

”You are aware that the state is an agrarian area and that is why we decided to give priority to food security by providing fertiliser and seedlings to framers,” Thimnu said.

He also explained that cash was given to affected local governments based on the level of destruction, adding that Lamurde was given N29 million as the worst affected.

According to Thimnu, committees were set up in each of the local governments with commissioners from the affected local government areas serving as chairmen of the disbursement committees.

Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has said that 11, 000 youths involved in cultism have decided to renounce it, and that he will soon meet with them to chart the path to meaningful ventures.

The governor, who was speaking in Yenagoa at the inauguration the new Bayelsa Youth Development Committee, said the government was extending an olive branch to those who had made the decision to change.

“Our government is determined to redirect and reintegrate these youths into the society for positive development,” he said, welcoming the change of attitude. “They have abused the youths' privileges in the state. A number of them are on drugs, and we want to re-integrate them.”
It was gathered that the government may be planning some kind of ‘amnesty’ deal which will involve regular cash disbursement to the youths, which may explain the large number of people registered under the scheme.

A source said that the youths were initially informed that were being registered for an ‘empowerment scheme.’

On the recent killing of policemen in the state, the governor accused unidentified “enemies of the state’’ as the brains behind the incident, saying it was aimed at compromising the peace.

“From available records, some people are making efforts to truncate peace in the state,” the governor said. “The recent killing of policemen in the state is to paint the state as an insecure state and to scare away investors.”

Despite repeated promises by the police, no arrests have yet been made in connection with the crime.