The Joint Military Task Force in the Niger Delta, Operation Delta SAFE, has arrested two militant leaders and discovered three human skulls in the ongoing military operations.
Lt.-Cdr. Thomas Otuji, the Spokesman of the taskforce said that troops raided a shrine used by militants and discovered the three human skulls.
Otuji, via a statement made available to newsmen on Friday in Yenagoa, said troops raided five shrines at Debe and Ikot Ofing in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River on Thursday.
He said that troops on covert operation in Esighi waterside of Cross River apprehended a suspected militants’ leader found with charms, while another suspected leader was picked up at a hideout in Ikpa Road, Uyo.
Otuji also said that the air component of the Operation Delta SAFE during a reconnaissance patrol at Onne in Rivers, sighted barges of 15,000 litres of petrol concealed with green grass.
The troops also arrested three oil thieves operating illegal refineries at Bennet Island, Asugbo, in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta.
He said that the oil thieves had connected a hose linking the site to a wellhead from where crude was siphoned.
Otuji said that a locally made gun, five live cartridges, a crude laden wooden boat storage tank, seven speed boats with outboard engines were seized at the site.
He said that a kidnap victim, Mrs Roseline Duku who was abducted by gunmen at Afiesere junction in Ugheli North Local Government Area was rescued by troops in response to a distress call.
Otuji said the victim’s RAV 4 car with registration number FST 927 was however, abandoned by her abductors along Ejode Road in Ughelli while being pursued by troops.
“Troops in conjunction with the police and local vigilance group rescued the victim at Ekapkamre, Ugheli North LGA, Delta.
“Furthermore, troops deployed at Koluama in Bayelsa trailed and arrested a notorious pirate known as Labiesta, who attacked innocent citizen s at Ogubene creeks,” he added.
Otuji said that the militant had been on the wanted list of security agencies.
Otuji noted that the successes recorded by the troops in the ongoing operation were traceable to the timely information provided by members of the public and resilience of the troops.
He restated the commitment of the troops to degrade the capacity of criminals in the Niger Delta region and pledged to provide a safe environment for legitimate business to thrive in the region. http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/military-discovers-3-human-skulls-arrests-2-militant-leaders-in-ongoing-raids-in-niger-delta/166827.html#pzA9yzYMf8YDOJcR.99

ogba20:
even if pmb kill ur father u wil still support him. the worst thing in life is to be blind.

why must you accept everything in print, use your brain and think.

Sometimes it is quite impossible to describe the disgust you feel in having to respond to absurd comments on your facebook wall. You see, this evening i posted my unalloyed support for the DSS in raiding houses of Judges and finding what i hear is evidence of corruption. Some people have called me names because of my position, but some of their reasons are downright heartbreaking, because these are people whom you expect to know better.
Pompey Esezobor wondered why i would hold this sort of opinion "in this time and age." But he forgot to tell me what "time and age" we are in for my opinion on this issue to be so inappropriate. Chinedu Anene was courageous enough to call my opinion "scandalous." Now, I readily forgive Chinedu Anene because he is a young lawyer. I can live with his insolent comment, without engaging him, for the simple reason that he is not worth my time. When he grows a bit older in the profession and understands the law better, I guarantee i'll find time to sit with him to remonstrate fine points of law. But not today.
To the many others who commented, please be assured that I respect your views. But here is my answer:
Judges are not immune from arrest or prosecution for corruption. Section 36 of the Constitution categorically states that any person may be arrested "on reasonable suspicion of having committed a criminal offence" Judges were not made an exception. In the wisdom of drafters of the Constitution, only the President, Vice-President, Governors and Deputy-Governors enjoy immunity from prosecution. Judges do have some sort of immunity though. But it is immunity from civil law suits by litigants for anything done in an official capacity by the Judges. But I'm sure nobody can argue that corruption is one of the official acts of a Judge. You may want to see the House of Lords reasoning in Re: Pinochet on how you lose your immunity once your act cannot be construed as an official act.So please, Judges, like everybody else, have no immunity from prosecution for corruption and certainly CAN BE ARRESTED.
I have heard arguments that they should have been referred to the NJC. This is quite a stupid argument to make, considering that the NJC is just an administrative disciplinary organ of the Judiciary and has no prosecutorial powers for crimes. This is far beyond the NJC. Yes, the NJC can recommend the dismissal of the Judges but that certainly does not foreclose their prosecution.Someone even talked about the judiciary being an arm of government and should not be interfered with by the executive. How bland an argument!! I wish they had referred to the law they were relying on to make this argument. Anyways, enforcement of the law will always lie with the executive, and the DSS is a law enforcement agency of the executive arm of government. Unless we are to argue that laws cannot be enforced against Judges, in which case i would just give up.
Someone said it was wrong to have raided the Judges' home at night without warrant. Who said this anyway? I think that person cannot be a lawyer. I'll tell you why. In the US, there is the legal principle called the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine. This doctrine states that evidence obtained illegally cannot be admissible in Court against a suspect. So if you effect an arrest or obtain evidence illegally, no matter how damning that evidence is, it will not be admissible in the US Court and your suspect or accused will walk away a free man. The belief in US is that if the tree is bad, then the fruit, that is the evidence, must necessarily be bad too. Now when this doctrine was argued before the Nigerian courts, guess what the Judges decided? Yes, they decided that no matter how unlawful the process of obtaining evidence was, it would be admissible to convict in Nigeria. Consequently, no accused person can ever go free because he was arrested in the night instead of the day, or that he house was searched without warrant. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SUCCESSFULLY MAKE THAT ARGUMENT IN NIGERIAN COURTS!! It is how our Judges interpreted the law. The chicken has only come back to roost!! Are we to change the law the Judges upheld as right just because it's back to bite them?
Even then, let us not forget that in 2009, in this same USA, a sitting Governor of the State of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, was arrested in a dawn raid by FBI agents, quite like what the DSS did, on corruption charges. He was eventually impeached and convicted of the corruption charges. Well, that was America where issues of corruption are taken very seriously. We think differently in Nigeria.
I remember Ricky Tarfa's issue began like this. As a joke. Over 90 SANs went to put an appearance for Ricky Tarfa "in show of solidarity" on the first day of his arraignment, until the man himself filed an affidavit stating that he actually gave a Judge, before whom he had cases, money for 'burial." The next date of the case, the number of lawyers showing "solidarity" dwindled dramatically. Who would have thought that a SAN would do such things? But it happened. In Nigeria. It is happening everyday in fact.
The sorts of bribery going on in the Judiciary is simply mind-boggling. Oh well, how do you suppose Ibori was set free by Nigerian Courts for the same crimes he was convicted of in UK courts? How do you suppose Peter Odili procured a perpetual injunction to free him from prosecution for corruption? Corruption in the Nigerian judiciary is as filthy as the Augean stables. Perfunctory cleaning will not do. Like Hercules, we will need to divert the flow of rivers through the judiciary to clean its mess.
One thing I, Fidel Albert, will not do, i will never join the NBA in any solidarity strike or protests on this issue. I will never shield anybody accused of corruption. When you are persecuted for no cause, only then will i come to your defense. And my reason is simple. I am that lawyer who has no life outside of my work. I burn my candles on both ends to prepare for cases. Because of this, i don't have many friends or a buoyant social life. It then pains me when i have to lose a case, not because my argument was not correct, but because the Judge was bribed. It pains me even more when the Client thinks it was my fault.
This is why appellate Courts in Nigeria now hand down Judgments that inferior courts refuse to follow. Because they sometimes simply turn the law on its head on very clear and obvious points. Believe it or not, stare decisis is dead in Nigeria. Why are there so many conflicting decisions of the Court of Appeal? Where did inferior courts get the effrontery to dissent and depart from Supreme Court decisions?
I recently read a UK decision where someone had tried to argue that the same issues were already pending in Nigerian courts and so should not be re-litigated in the UK. It was so sad the way the British Judges smirked at the argument and immediately dismissed it and continued the proceedings in the UK. They did not for once think that pendency of the same issues in a Nigerian court was a serious constraint to their jurisdiction because, according to them, the Nigerian courts would take forever to resolve the issues and there was no assurance of the integrity of the system.So they proceeded with the case in UK anyway! That was a sad indictment. But, it is understandable for a UK Judge to think this way of the Nigerian Judiciary with all sorts of tales of soddy dealings with Judges because no UK Judge has EVER been sacked for corruption in the history of their judiciary. They simply do not have those kind of characters on the English bench deciding people's fate of a daily basis. Lucky English!
Now let's continue our talk on Nigeria. Do you remember Wamakko's case in the Sokoto Gubernatorial elections? Well, I still do not believe what happened in that case. The Constitution had stated that Governorship petitions ended at the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court had no jurisdiction over Governorship appeals at the time. But the then Chief Judge, Katsina-Alu, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, arranged to have the case heard as an appeal to the Supreme Court, even without constitutional jurisdiction, simply because, as we later got to learn from Justice Salami's affidavits, he had vested interest in the case. Now, a few years later, Olujimi SAN went to the Supreme Court on a matter that the Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction and rightfully in my view cited this same Wamakko's case as authority, but the Supreme Court ducked and said the Wamakko case was a one-off decision, or something to that effect. Can you beat that? The Supreme Court was too ashamed to follow its own earlier decision!! Now Katsina-Alu is enjoying retirement, fully paid for by my taxes. But that is just one instance. I can give you 2,000 other examples off the top of my head of similar incidents in recent times.
Previously, not so long ago, Nigerian Judges were the toast on the African continent. Justice Udo Udoma was Chief Judge of Uganda. Akinola Aguda was Chief Judge of Botswana. Justice Charles Onyeama, Justice Teslim Elias, Bola Ajibola, Chile Eboe-Osuji, etc, all sat as Judges of International Court of Justice and other tribunals. Every country wanted a Nigerian Judge on its bench. In fact Elias, because of his brilliance, had one of the longest tenures as a Judge in the history of the ICJ. He served for 15 years. These were incorruptible men. But today, countries would think twice before touching a Nigerian Judge with a ten-meter pole. Gambia tried it recently, and got its fingers burnt. It appointed Joseph Wowo as President of its Court of Appeal. Not long after, this fellow was caught on tape negotiating a bribe from a litigant, over a bottle of Hennessy. The President of a Country's Court of Appeal. He has since gone into hiding.
I did election petition last year. In fact, we handled 22 petitions in all. I know what we passed through in those cases. I know what went down in those cases. But i'll say no more on this. I'll just leave it at saying: "Let the law take its course". And as the Judges themselves say: "No one is above the law."
The DSS has done nothing wrong for now, in my view!!.... # copied

false

oga pmb i hail na only you fit arrest judges

The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) says it will soon embark on a nationwide audit of journalists in order to rid itself of quacks.
The President of NUJ, Mr Waheed Odusile, told newsmen on Monday in Lagos that impostors interested in joining the profession should enrol in a school of journalism.
“Quackery is something that is of major concern to us in NUJ and one of the ways we want to fight it is to have a proper register of journalists in Nigeria.
“We’ll build a data bank of journalists; we give them a proper identity card, such that when their identity is being called to question, we can use that card to verify whether actually they are journalists or not because, most of these people parading themselves as journalists and truly they are quacks.
“They do not have valid identity cards; we believe if we start with that we would have been able to rid the union of about half of these quacks.
“And some of those quacks really want to practice as journalists but they do not know how to go about it.
“So we’ll make it possible for them, anybody that want to be journalist, we welcome them but they should come and train first as journalists.
“And that is where we want to upgrade our International Institute of Journalism in Abuja to be like a post-graduate school for training of journalists in Nigeria, such that that when you come there you know you are being trained as a journalist.
“The same way lawyers go to law school, the same way we want people to either go to Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) in Lagos or IIJ in Abuja.
“By the time we upgrade the training this issue of quackery would have been reduced to the barest minimum.’’ http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/10/quackery-nuj-audit-journalists/

Ade Adesomoju, Abuja
Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), on Sunday criticised the Nigerian Bar Association for demanding the unconditional release of the judges arrested by the Department of State Services between Friday and Saturday.
He described the demand by the leadership of the NBA as an embarrassment to the “incorruptible members of the bar”.
The operatives of the DSS had raided the official quarters of judges at Abuja, Gombe, Kano and Port Harcourt and ended up arresting at least four judicial officers.
The arrested judicial officers comprised two Justices of the Supreme Court – Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and John Okoro – as well as Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court and another judge of the Gombe State High Court, Justice Mu’azu Pindiga.
In a statement issued at the end of the raid, the DSS alleged that the suspects had engaged in judicial misconduct and corrupt practices, adding that a huge amount of money was recovered from three of the judges.
In response to the raid, the NBA had declared a state of emergency and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the judges.
Falana, however, criticised the move, saying, “In particular, the Nigerian Bar Association which has information on all corrupt judges and lawyers in the country has continued to shield them to the embarrassment of incorruptible members of the bar and the bench.
“The few lawyers who have plucked up the courage to expose corrupt judges and lawyers have been stigmatised and treated like lepers by their colleagues.
“It is on record that when both the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Offences Commission and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission sent invitation letters to judges suspected of corruption they had rushed to the Federal High Court to obtain interlocutory injunctions to prevent their arrest, investigation and prosecution.”
He said members of the legal profession had themselves to blame for the harassment of judges by security forces as they had failed to take advantage of the relevant statutory disciplinary bodies to purge the bar and the bench of corrupt elements.
“It is on account of negligence on the part of the legal profession that the SSS which screens candidates before they are recommended by the National Judicial Council for appointment as judges has now engaged in the arrest of judges for alleged corruption and abuse of office,” he said.
Falana, however, said because the detained judges “are presumed innocent until the contrary is proved by the State, they should be admitted to bail in self recognisance.”
He urged the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, to ensure that the judges were immediately arraigned without delay.
He lamented the state of the legal profession, saying, “It is a matter of grave concern that the legal profession has allowed the denigration of the hallowed temple of justice because of the misconduct of a few corrupt judges.
“For several years, judges who committed grave criminal offences were not prosecuted but merely retired by the authorities on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council.
“Although the National Judicial Council recently recommended the dismissal and prosecution of a judge for extorting the sum of N197m from a litigant the authorities had paid lip service to the menace of judicial corruption in the country.” http://punchng.com/falana-condemns-nbas-demand-for-unconditional-release-of-arrested-judges/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

one nigeria is all we want.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday approved the appointments of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the April 11 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State, Umana Okon Umana and 12 others as Chief Executives for 13 Federal Government agencies.
Mr Bolaji Adebiyi, the Director of Press in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) stated this in a statement in Abuja.
He listed the appointments are as follows: Mr Joseph Ari, Director-General, Industrial Training Fund; Dr Isa Ibrahim, Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, and Mr Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Monitoring Board.
Others are: Mr Aboloma Anthony, Director-General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria; Mr Mamman Amadu, Director-General, Buureau of Public Procurement, and Sharon Ikeazor, Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate.
Princess Akodundo Gloria, National Coordinator, New Partnership for Africa’s Development; Alhaji Ahmed Bobboi, Executive Secretary, Petroleum Equalization Fund; and Umana Okon Umana, Managing Director, Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority.
The new appointees include, Sa’adiya Faruq, Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons; and Usman Abubakar, Chairman, Nigeria Railway Corporation.
The rest are: Dr Bello Gusau, Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund; and Yewande Sadiku, Executive Secretary, National Investment Promotion Commission. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/09/buhari-appoints-aibom-apc-guber-candidate-12-others-agency-heads/

The Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, Bayo Onanuga, has come under fire after accusing the Nigerian media of embellishing reports about the country’s economic crisis that has left families struggling to survive.
Mr. Onanuga accused the media of “over-sensationalization”, and said reports about hardship appeared to be a “mere propaganda”, inflamed by those who lost the 2015 election.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, Mr. Onanuga said his findings showed that the cost of food items had not gone up, contrary to reports in the media.
“I was in Bauchi and Jos at the weekend, I also found that food was cheap everywhere,” said Mr. Onanuga, who appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari last May.
“In our hotel, we paid about N700 for a plate of semovita, or eba with a choice of cat fish or chicken.
“On the roadside, I found to my surprise that with just N1000, I bought over 50 oranges, two giant water melon and 10 pieces of sweet potato.
“I had experienced a similar thing in the market at Abuja, where I found that with N1, 400, I could make a big vegetable soup, with tomato, pepper and roasted Titus fish.
“Are the media and bloggers really painting a correct image of our country? It’s time for the media to objectively conduct a reality check about our reports, whether we are not over sensationalising so-called hardship that we talked about.”
Mr. Onanuga also faulted recent media reports that due to the grinding hardship, foreign airlines fly almost empty out of Nigeria.
“My daughter was on the Virgin Atlantic Flight that took off from Lagos to London today,” he said.
“I asked her to find out whether the plane was filled up or going to London near empty judging by the noisy campaign from a section of the country about the ‘hardship’ in our country.
“My daughter sent back this one-line text, after boarding: “daddy, the flight was filled up o.
“This makes me to wonder whether all the seeming orchestrated campaign in the media was not mere propaganda to make the Buhari regime look really bad.”
A respected journalist, Mr. Onanuga was among those who confronted the tyranny of military rule in Nigeria in the 1980s and 1990s. He suffered persecution during the Sani Abacha dictatorship and fled the country in December 1997.
Before his appointment as head of NAN, Mr. Onanuga, a multiple award winning publisher, editor, and reporter, was the chief executive officer of The News/PM News.
His comments Tuesday drew scathing criticisms from his online followers on Tuesday, with some readers asking him to take down the post.
One user, Adeyemi Adeniyi, described Mr. Onanuga’s comments as “plain insensitive”.
“Mr. Onanuga certainly does not belong here in the world of Nigerians who daily toil and yet groan under excruciating hardship,” he wrote.
Victor Ojelabi suggested the NAN MD’s account had been hacked. “Someone should please inform him,” Mr. Ojelabi.
Mr. Onanuga confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that he authored the post. Again, he suggested that the claim of hardship was politically motivated.
But he said he merely posed a question, and had not taken a definite position on the issue.
“I am not saying there’s no problem in our country, but some of the things are exaggerated. I just raised a kind of intervention to ask are these things really true,” Mr. Onanuga told PREMIUM TIMES. “I have seen photographs of children suffering from kwashiorkor and they are passing them off as what’s happening in Nigeria.
Mr. Onanuga said he was not surprised by the criticisms that followed his post.
“Some people have taken position. Some people who lost election in 2015 are still behaving as if they were still campaigning. If you look at some of criticisms, they appear to be coming from a particular section of the country persistently and consistently,” he said.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/209940-reports-of-hardship-in-nigeria-mere-propaganda-nan-chief-onanuga.html

so who is going to rule? when pdp already zone president slot to north for 2019.

lawmakers don buy job

Abuja — More trouble that may worsen the frosty relations between the executive and legislative arms of government appears to be looming as the Federal Government moves to punish the brains behind the insertion of illegal projects worth N481 billion by the National Assembly into the 2016 budget.
Although President Muhammadu Buhari grudgingly and belatedly assented to this year's budget, the executive is settled that the fiscal document would not be fully implemented, given the 'padding' of the budget with a significant amount of money, which it claims had seriously distorted its permutations.
Vanguard learned from competent sources that the Presidency is still seething with anger over the distortion of the first budget presented by President Buhari by a cabal within the NASS and that it was determined to wield its sledgehammer against the masterminds.
To unravel the culprits for appropriate punitive actions, the Presidency has directed Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to set in motion an impassioned team to probe how the N481 billion was added to the budget and who spearheaded the action.
Acting on the President's directive, the Office of the AGF has tapped a senior police officer to carry out the probe of top National Assembly officials believed to have conspired among themselves to pad the budget and report back within a short time for necessary disciplinary action, including criminal prosecution.
The top police officer, an Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, described as a no-nonsense police spy, is said to have silently swung into action by holding series of meetings with some officials of the National Assembly without divulging the motive of the interactions
Contacted last night, the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, confirmed raising of the probe team, saying the Federal Government was determined to stamp out all corrupt tendencies in its budget process in order to achieve success.
The AGF, who declined to give details of the probe team, said the aim of the investigation was to ensure that the masterminds were brought to book to serve as a deterrent to would-be corrupt officials in the country.
Malami said the panel would determine the criminal roles played by those involved in the action and how much money was hidden away and the agencies of government involved in the budget scam.
Issues to be determined
Major issues to be determined by the probe include who got what and for what projects; how much the leaders and members of the Senate and House of Representatives pushed into their respective MDAs to be 'warehoused' for them and the agencies involved.
Vanguard learned that the embattled former Chairman of the Finance and Appropriation Committee of the House of Representatives, Mr. Abdulmumuni Jibrin, might be summoned to brief the probe panel.
It was further gathered that it was in a bid to extract vital documents and information from Jibrin and give him adequate protection from possible harm that some top police officers went to his home in Abuja and Kano, early last week, but did not find him. allafrica.com/stories/201607290770.html

Buhari Appoints Heads of Health Institutions
6 President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of heads of five strategic health institutions in the country, including the Centre for Disease Control, National Agency for the Control of Aids, the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research, National Primary Health Care Development Agency and National Health Insurance Scheme.
To head the Centre for Disease Control is Dr Chikwe Andreas Ihekweazu, who until his appointment, was the managing partner at EpiAfric, a public health consultancy firm that focuses on Africa.
Dr Sani Aliyu, a consultant in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Cambridge University, UK is to paddle the affairs of the National Agency for the Control of Aids.
The president also approved Prof. Babatunde Salako as the head of the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research. He was the Provost, College of Medicine at the University of Ibadan before his new appointment.
Prof. Echezona Ezeanolue is to hold sway at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency. He was a professor of Paediatrics and Public Health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.
The National Health Insurance Scheme will now be headed by Prof. Usman Yusuf, who until his appointment, was a professor of Paediatrics at St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
All appointments, according to Presidency sources have taken effect.
July 29, www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/07/29/buhari-appoints-heads-of-health-institutions/

President Muhammadu Buhari said he was averse to the inclusion of members of the private sector in his administration’s Economic Management Team because such people frequently steer government policy to suit their own narrow interests.
According to a statement by the Presidency on Sunday, the President spoke in an interview he granted a magazine, The Interview.
Buhari was said to be reacting to criticisms that he has no economic team.
During the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, private sector players such as Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mr. Femi Otedola, Mr. Tony Elumelu, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and Mr. Atedo Peterside among others were members of the EMT.
But the President said he did not include private players in his team because such people do not work for the over-all national interest.
He said, “The Vice-President heads our Economic Management Team.
“You have Finance Minister, Budget and Planning Minister, Minister for Industry, Trade and Investments, Governor at the Central Bank, National Economic Adviser and others. Some still ask for a team. I don’t know how they define the word ‘team.’
“We will listen to everybody but we are averse to economic team whose private sector members frequently steer government policy to suit their own narrow interests rather than the over-all national interest.”
Buhari also said that one of the things on his priority list is to change the way things are done in Nigeria.
He said that was the only way that could lead the nation into a great future.
Buhari was also said to have expressed his desire to see a Nigeria where all funds are used to the benefit of the common man.
“My wish is that we will truly change the way we do things in Nigeria. Therein lies the future of our country as a great entity.
“I also wish for a fully diversified Nigerian economy which is no longer dependent on oil only and a Nigeria where every naira that comes into the treasury is used for the good of the people, particularly, the ordinary people,” the President said. https://www.today.ng/news/national/157448/excluded-private-sector-players-economic-team-buhari

okay, thank you imf

We know those behind Niger Delta militancy – Usani
— 15th July 2016
From Iheanacho Nwosu, Abuja
There appears to be no solution yet in sight in the current crisis in the Niger Delta, how depressed are you over the situation?
To suggest that there is no solution is against my faith; there is nothing God cannot do. I know there is a solution and we are working towards it. I am bold to let you know that some elite in the country want to take advantage of this to get recognition; that is why the issue of militancy has continued. The approaches we are adopting to end the crisis are strategic.
To begin to tell you what we are doing will not be okay. When you give out information, it means you must be able to manage it. We are getting down to the roots.
Is your allusion that the elite want the crisis to continue based on investigation; and are the elite you fingered from the Niger Delta?
The crisis is traceable to the elite from the region and other sections of the country. They are doing that for various reasons which are not connected to the Niger Delta improvement.
Why do you think that some leaders from the zone are against federal government dialoguing with the militants?
I am not aware of any leader that said we shouldn’t dialogue. The Minister of Transportation said, ‘If you will have to negotiate issues of the region, then call the leaders of the region, not those who pose to be representing the region whereas they are only representing criminality.’ That means he believes that the solution can come once and for all without facing it on the basis of social strategy. That the governor of Edo State suggested that government should drop charges of those who committed crime against the country as object of negotiation isn’t correct; this is promoting crime that was what I heard them say.
The only pressure I feel is the pressure of the normal work of an office that is encumbered with crisis. Since the ministry was formed, there was no much measure of militants; maybe true or not true. Not everyone is willing to see and appreciate the change in the governance, in strategy, approach, vision, in the total fabric of Nigerian moral content. The difficulty of adapting forms the agitations. The Niger Delta region in appreciating the change is sentimental than rational. Many are more sentimental about the administration, they have forgotten that every administration since 1999 has come in by the ballot rightly or wrongly perceived, rightly or wrongly introduced, legitimately or otherwise. But when there is a government in place, we have learnt to accept that all along. Why is it that at this time, we will not learn to accept that? Some people think that if it doesn’t happen the way they want it to be, then it is wrong. Before the election, it was said that if the Niger Delta indigenous president did not win the election then the country would not be in peace. So, various theories that can be accommodated in the speculations subject to prove and otherwise.
The tangent of reality is between the pronouncement and the eventualities, otherwise there is nothing else you can say. Are they really carrying out the threats? If they were to carry it out, how will it have gone other than what is going on and I think there is no reason for that.
But don’t you think that it was this way that the Boko Haram insurgency began?
Between 2003 and 2004, there was no Boko Haram, the US issued a warning of Nigeria as a terrorist state and instead of us digging into their investigation, we decided to ask for apologises and abused their Parliament. If the foresight was there or crafted on the account of intelligence; the issue of them using Boko Haram to destabilize Jonathan’s government wouldn’t arise. The first time the bombings occurred in 2010, the President said the bomb wasn’t made but later when the evidence proved otherwise, a Nigerian was convicted in South Africa, did it make any meaning? Can you draw chronologies between the eventualities? It was safe for the president to conclude without waiting for due intelligence. It suggested a mindset of ethnicity and the government does not run that way. If we say again that Boko Haram was used to destabilize his government, I ask a question, who has the capacity to degrade Boko Haram? Is it you and or the government?
This now drives us to the current vogue of hearing the confessions of how money which was supposed to be used to fight insurgency was shared, who presided over it? During the campaign, there was a claim that the present president sponsored Boko Haram, he was almost killed in a bomb blast, it was the same man that said the fight against insurgency must leave the headquarters to the location where it is happening and within one year, have we not seen the effort? Maybe he is pretending but if that pretence leads to safety and peace, let it continue.
I am not just uncomfortable by the things happening in my state but by the things happening in Nigeria. We may not have a nation soon. Where is there peace in Nigeria? Other countries that have problems were not like this, ours is worse in terms of foundation. The case in Cross River State where politicians want to seek recognition, we have ideas of the funding and those funding them.
The threats are not overwhelming the government; government has a spirit, any man in authority is a minister of God, biblically, politically; the strength of government by its foundation is such that it can’t be overpowered no matter how small it is. This government doesn’t want to be at war with the citizens. Idle minds would want to endanger the citizens the county is trying to protect. When the government wants to defend the state, those ideal people would start talking about human rights. Do rights only pertain to a category of people? Rights have duties and responsibilities, you can’t have a right when you don’t have a duty to perform and you can’t have a duty when you don’t have a responsibility. Government has the rights to protect the people, and a duty to sustain the rights and the responsibility that goes with it to provide the social security. Government cannot be weighed to provide without them carrying out the security. The difference between the criminals is that one section is educated and they call themselves elite.
The fact that government isn’t confronting the people means they are thinking outside the box. The killing of the woman was condemned by the government. It is a collective responsibility. If you say the killings are not your business, it will get to the point where it’s at your doorstep and you will be ignored.
The popular thinking is that the president has not been fair; that he is favouring one section of the country?
In Nigeria, gaps are widened with the vocal posture of advocacy on any matter, because some people have learned to cry out loud, the gap seems to be widening. Look back at the appointments from 1999 till now and let us know the time it has been rating in favour of one region to another until we carry out that analysis, then we will understand. Some of the appointments we are crying for, we don’t have a reason to cry because appointments that border on the administration of the presidency and his personal security are not the issues any one should talk about at all, we don’t have to play democracy. People want to attack anyone that says no to corruption.
When Obasanjo set up EFCC under Malam Nuhu Ribadu, those same people made the allegations that they were using him to fight those he didn’t like. In the present administration, have you not heard that the close associates of the president are being arrested, those who will speak and it will be like the President has spoken; that’s what I mean by close associates. The government wants to show a transparent face.
The transition committee of this administration recommended the removal of subsidy, but the President said it would bring a lot of hardship on the poor people; then it got to a stage where the foreign reserve was so depleted that there was nothing there to import, and they agreed to deregulate totally. Non-payment of salaries existed before this administration came and the president came and gave bail out for salaries to be paid. There is a social justice to ensure that the administration takes care of the citizens. If you are using the money gotten to solve problems from the past, then you need money to solve that of the present. Then economic infrastructure which is destroyed by the people; you cannot ask a day old child to chew bones when he or she has no teeth, how do we attend to the economy without resources? Some ministers are living in boys’ quarters or are even squatting in two bedroom flats. The truth about this administration is that they are determined to solve the problems of the country; they were pretending that the country was doing well. Economic growth doesn’t amount to development, economic development doesn’t even amount to human development, it is policy framework that distributes the resources, and once the policy framework are faulty, nothing can be done. The money recovered from the former NSA alone; presume that it was ploughed into the economy what will happen by now. It is not the lack of consent but the lack of resources that limits the government.
There is no hopelessness. A hopeless situation would not be better than the attempts of the government. This nation has been affected with something more dangerous than cancer. There is no alternative than to keep doing what we are doing to recover the economy.
What are you doing at the level of the Niger Delta Ministry in this whole process?
The first thing in respect of achievement is to juxtapose the mandate of the ministry with our activities. As a ministry, we are working strictly by the terms of our mandate. We have set up several things that you will want to see in the near future. The great challenge we have is that the economic capital is a critical infrastructure. Our bidding processes are on and trying to send people to the site to work on what you see. It is the intangibles that shape the tangibles. We have put in place frameworks that could ensure that work is done appropriately. The achievement is that we now have a focus. http://sunnewsonline.com/we-know-those-behind-niger-delta-militancy-usani/

By Miriam Malek
There have been no attacks on Exxon Mobil Corp. oil infrastructure in Nigeria, according to a company spokesman.
News reports citing the 'Niger Delta Avengers' said the militant group had blown up a 48-inch crude oil export pipeline, but Exxon said the claims were false.
A senior executive from a major oil company with operations in Nigeria said the militant group often contacts the press to alert the press of attacks on oil infrastructure aimed at global oil companies, which have often not actually taken place, putting into question the accuracy of the militant group's statements.
Militant attacks have subsided in recent weeks. The Anglo-Dutch giant Shell lifted the force majeure on its Bonny Light export facility last week, returning up to 200,000 barrels a day of oil back onto the market.
But Nigeria is still considered a major supply risk. There has yet to be a tangible agreement between the government and the Avengers, and the militant group still maintains on its website that it wants to reduce oil output in the country to zero.
http://m.nasdaq.com/article/nigeria-avengers-oil-attack-report-false-exxonmobile-says-20160712-00506

nigeria senate

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Mr. Babachir David Lawal has clarified that the prosecution of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu for forgery charges was not a trial for the Senate or the National Assembly as a body but for those accused.
In a statement personally signed by him on Wednesday, Lawal stated that a case of forgery is usually preferred against individuals, recalling that such case of certificate forgery led to the resignation of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives who did not even allow the matter to go to court.
He stressed that bringing the National Assembly as a body into the court case is unwarranted, adding that such action can only be for other purposes and reasons outside the investigation and legal proceedings.
According to him, “Since the arraignment of the President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki and, his Deputy Senator Ike Ekweremadu before the Federal High Court on Monday, June 27, 2016, the two leaders of the Senate, have issued two separate press statements conveying messages that are far from being complementary to the person and government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Senator Saraki in his statement clearly insinuated that Mr. President is not in control of his administration and that a cabal now runs the federal administration. On the part of Senator Ekweremadu, he insists that President Buhari is exhibiting dictatorial tendencies that can derail our democracy.
“From their statements, the two leaders of the Senate also gave this erroneous impression that by their arraignment, it is the entire Senate and indeed, the Legislative Arm of Government that is on trial.
“They want the public to believe that their prosecution is utter disregard by the Executive Arm of government for the constitutional provisions of separation of powers and that preferring the forgery case against them is a vendetta exercise.”
The SGF then went on to state that since the case is in court, the Judiciary should be allowed to do its job, stressing that the case only involves the four accused persons not the entire Senate.
His words, “And should not be presented to the unsuspecting public as involving the entire Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The complaint leading to the forgery investigation was reported to the Police by some aggrieved Senators who specifically accused certain persons.
“It is not the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that is involved and definitely not the House of Representatives. To bring the National Assembly as a body into this court case is totally unwarranted. It can only be for other purposes and reasons outside the investigation and legal proceedings.
“A case of forgery is usually preferred against individuals. This is not different. As was the case with a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was accused of certificate forgery, what he did was to resign, honorably. The matter did not even go to court.
“In that particular case, it was never orchestrated as a matter for the National Assembly. The individual involved did not drag the entire Legislature into the matter,” he said
Noting that the separate statements by the Senate President and his Deputy were contradictory, Lawal said: “While Senator Saraki believes Mr. President has abdicated his powers and that a cabal is in charge of Federal Administration, Senator Ekweremadu says President Buhari has become a dictator.
“Our democracy is still evolving and being deepened. The provisions of the separation of powers are entrenched in our Constitution and should guide everyone in our conduct. The rule of law is indeed supreme.
“This particular case is before the judiciary and is not being decided by the Executive Arm of Government. All that has transpired is still within the confines of our laws. These are the rights to accuse, to be investigated and be arraigned before the court.
“To impute other considerations to the process is unfortunate. We should allow the process to take its course, in consonance with the dictates of the law and total obeisance to the cardinal democratic principle of the separation of powers,” the statement read. http://dailypost.ng/2016/06/29/forgery-case-only-the-accused-are-on-trial-not-national-assembly-sgf-insists/

face the law sen saraki.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Engr. Babachir David Lawal, immediate past National Vice-Chairman, Northeast of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is famed for his unwavering political affinity to President Muhammadu Buhari since the president’s first political outing in 2003. He is famously known within the Abuja political circus as having Buhari at the centre of his politics and was one of the key figures behind the scene in the emergence of Buhari as the presidential candidate of the APC.
Lawal, from Hong in Adamawa State, an electrical/electronic engineer in this interview bares his mind on sundry national issues. Excerpts:
By Omeiza Ajayi
Where are we as regards the 2016 budget?
Well, you know that our concept of budgeting is zero-budgeting where we only appropriate money for key projects that the government considers important for implementation of its key policies.
To that effect, the Ministry of Budget and Planning has sent out memos for MDAs to submit their request for capital releases and they have all complied.
The Budget Office has started releasing the capital projects releases according to the priorities of government.
This is because the revenue of government has fallen by about 47 percent since the budget was approved by the National Assembly. Budget is a statement of intention, the implementation is based on the reality of your revenue as the days go by, and because of that MDAs are required to write and request for funds only for those projects appropriated by the National Assembly and secondly, that are of importance, as a priority.
Budget process
Obviously, quite some projects that are in the budget might not be a priority for the MDAs. As you are aware, during the budget process, we had this issue of padding in which the Executive discovered that the National Assembly included certain projects in the budget and appropriated for them, even when they did not originate from the Executive arm.
So, obviously, such projects will not be considered a priority for the executive arm of government if at all they manage to sneak through the vetting process jointly carried out by the Executive and the National Assembly which eventually produced the budget.
Now, even those that have been appropriated for, in the light of the dwindling revenue of government would still need to be re-prioritized. For example, the government might find it very difficult to implement the constituency projects to the letter because MDAs might not find constituency projects as critical to the execution of their mandates and given the dwindling resources, these could be some of the areas that would suffer during implementation.
If the revenue of the government improves, of course, all capital projects would be fully implemented, but we do not see that happening soon. So, while the government is willing to do that, it is obvious that you can only implement that for which you have money, and I think, to my mind, these are some of the areas that might suffer non-implementation in the budget.
The Senate has summoned you in connection with the recently-unveiled list of ambassadorial nominees. What is the issue?
One thing, however, is clear - the constitution makes it clear that it is the president’s prerogative to nominate ambassadors, and the criteria he would use to do so is also the constitutional right of the president.
Whatever criteria he chooses to use is constitutional. Be that as it may, I must say that we are disappointed that the National Assembly took the decision that it did, but again we believe that the Senate we know is made up of very responsible and patriotic Nigerians, there are some past governors who have governed and known the constitutional provisions regarding separation of powers. We know the Senate would not do anything that will bring the country into disrepute because right now Nigeria enjoys tremendous goodwill all over the globe.
It is important to have ambassadors therefore to sustain this goodwill. Again, a lot of the travels by the president and government representatives is to attract foreign direct investment into the country and ambassadors are key to sustaining this and ensuring that the goals are achieved.
Global terrorism
The third reason why we think ambassadors are key is because of the phenomenon of global terrorism. Almost every nation around the world is facing it, and all nations are now collaborating with each other to fight this international terrorism. It is important that Nigerians have representatives on the ground who would present its interest and defend it.
The non-presence of ambassadors even by one day is inimical to the country, and we believe, senators, being patriotic Nigerians would not want to cause undue hardship and put Nigeria at an undue advantage in any regard. We expect that in coming to a decision on this, they will take into consideration the interest of their own country and not political or even personal considerations.
Of course, we read in the newspapers some of their concerns such as federal character and so on.
At the last count, my recollection is that out of the 47 diplomats-nominee, 32 out of 36 states and the FCT were represented. Now, while the constitution preaches federal character, it does not always say that every state must be represented in every appointment except of course, in the case of ministers where the constitution said there should be a minister from every state, and not in all other appointments.
Spirit of the constitution
So, the spirit of the constitution has been fully satisfied by having ambassadors from 32 states out of 36 plus one. I believe every objective analyst would agree with this. Secondly, there has to be merit and qualifications in every nomination.
Now, one of the criteria, I understand that was used was that it is important not to appoint someone that would soon retire. If you know the processes of nominating and deploying ambassadors, you would understand that it is highly unlikely that the Senate would be done with it within the next two or three weeks.
They would need to be presented to their countries of deployment for checks and confirmation by those countries, and we cannot dictate the speed, so it could take, in all honesty, probably six to seven months for an ambassador to be fully cleared and assume his new post. It would take longer still for him to acclimatize and settle down in his work.
There has been a subsisting policy, not by this regime alone, that it would be good if someone, for example, has 30 months to retire, he should not be posted. He would just be settling down before retiring, and so it does not make sense. A lot of countries have complained about this. You send an ambassador, and after one and half year he retires. So, one of the criteria was that the person must have not less than 30 months to retirement.
Again, another criterion that was considered was your seniority level. You must be someone on GL16/17. Now, due to no fault of this government, not all states have people in the Foreign Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. About four states did not make it, however, not necessarily on the criteria of seniority.
There are other qualifications that are required to post you to go and represent Nigeria. Again, there are specialist areas for which only specialists are required. There is also the requirement of gender sensitivity.
What has delayed the appointments of people into Federal Government boards?
Let me tell you; it took some of the previous governments two years to make board appointments.
Issue of board appointments
Now, the issue of board appointments is moving faster than in previous governments. We need to do it very diligently. Up until September, only the president and vice president were running the country and their hands were too full for them to get engaged in board appointments. Then the SGF, Chief of Staff and quite some few others came on board, and it is the OSGF that co-ordinates all of these.
The president approved the setting up of a committee late last year to do this. The first thing the committee did was to set up criteria for people who would merit being on a board in an APC government. We needed to get all the parastatals whose boards need to be constituted. Then we did what we called ceding, in the sense that we needed to share the boards in an equitable manner among all the states so that each state, as much as possible, would have its own fair share of board chairmen and board members.
I think we started with close to 400 or 500 parastatals. It was not a mean job with board membership of, in those days, I think five to 6, 000 people -chairmen and members- from all the states and we decided to cede them in such a way that when it comes to a state, the board membership must also be representative of the local governments there.
So, first, we ceded among the zones, then we said okay, maybe north east zone has 20 chairmanships and 1,000 board membership, then we go back and share the chairmanship in an equitable manner according to the weight of the parastatals because in government I understand there is Category A, B and C boards so that you do not end up with only Category C or A; so it is not a very simple job.
Oronsaye Report
While we were doing this, the government had to also look at the Oronsaye report which recommends the scrapping or merging of some parastatals. There was a White Paper by the former government on the implementation of the Oronsaye Report. So, this government decided to study that report which had very good merit in it because a lot of the parastatals were just doing nothing or were doing what others were doing.
So, in considering the Oronsaye Report, is there any likelihood of carrying out the merger or scrapping of parastatals?
Look, the Oronsaye Report is domiciled here as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. They did a good job, not necessarily that everything is acceptable. What happened to the Oronsaye Report was that they made their recommendations and took it to the Cabinet. By the time the White Paper came out, it appeared that only 40 per cent of the recommendations were approved for implementation by the White Paper. It appeared that every minister started defending his staff. So, for example, parastatals recommended for scrapping suddenly found themselves in the survival list, because government is like that.
So, the Oronsaye Report was completely mutilated during the White Paper. While the activity in itself was commendable, as a government, it is only natural that we look at it in the context of our own objectives.
So, we are looking at it. A lot of hardwork went into it, and we would like to study it and implement it in agreement with our policies.
Are you most likely to also look at the 2014 Confab Report in that manner?
Well, the government has not taken a decision on the 2014 National Conference. I understand that some Nigerians want it implemented but the government has been too busy with key areas of governance to talk about an exercise that we thought was essentially diversionary and a sort of, maybe, a ‘job for the boys’, because if you remember, it was reported that almost everybody in the committee got N7 million, and we consider it essentially as job for the boys.
They probably produced a document that is good and commendable but I mean, this government is too busy with very more vital areas of governance, and we are not intending to spend our time reading reports. The exercise of governance is not about reading reports. The reports are here, so many volumes that for example, it would take me like seven days to go through.
Economy needs attention
I wonder what happens to my work while I am reading it; while the economy needs attention, unemployment is there, insecurity is there, people are blowing up pipelines and so on.
Back to the National Assembly. How true is the allegation in some quarters that you are responsible for the travails of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu? See, let me tell you, the Office of the Secretary to Government is the punching bag of everybody, and that is how it should be. My own understanding of the present government in relation with the opposition is such that the integrity of our president has been established over his almost 73 years as solid; you cannot assail it. So, the only option left for you as a ‘dirty’ opposition since you must attack the government is to attack those less known. And those less known that are easy targets, that they think when they attack them, they are attacking the president are the SGF, the Chief of Staff, Minister of Petroleum and the CBN Governor, for one reason. These are appointive positions; they are not elective. Probably, they think that “oh, if we make him look dirty, the president would sack me.” In my life, I have seen Ekweremadu for, maybe twice, and the second one, was incidentally, in a church in Yola. I do not understand the psychology of, when you are accused of something, instead of defending yourself, you waste your time hunting for who could have been the cause of your travails. If they remove Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President, how does that personally benefit us? Of course, while I was in the party then as National Vice Chairman, it was the party position that because we are the majority party in Parliament, that we should produce all the Principal Officers.
To that extent as an APC member, I am not happy that APC has not produced the deputy senate president. It is an aberration, but the senators decided, which is their constitutional right, to create the aberration.
The solution, if they need any solution would lie with them not BD Lawal, not SGF because I am not a senator. I am the SGF. So, whoever tells you that I am responsible for the travails of Sen. Ike Ekweremadu is burying his head in the sand rather than running.
When is the president going to start dealing with corrupt persons in APC?
Let us be very sincere and reasonable. Obviously, to my mind, the preponderance of corrupt people would be in the PDP for one reason; they have been in government for 16 years and they were the only ones enjoying the booty, and they were doing it in a flagrant manner.
Tracing my own (political) genealogy for instance, from ANPP to CPC and now APC, we were not getting anything. Nobody was giving us contracts. PDP were the ones in government; they were the ones the president was approving money for sharing; they were the ones that took government money to fund their election.
Access to government money
This is the truth. APC had no access to government money to fund the president’s election. It got to a stage when PDP saw it clearly on the wall; you remember they even shifted the elections; it was so clear they were going to lose, and so they thought they could buy it.
Throughout the last tenure of the Goodluck Jonathan campaign, their goodwill among Nigerians was on the decline and they were spending, and it got to a stage that they did not care about following the due process anymore because they thought they were in power and they thought they could buy their way through and remain in perpetuity.
So, they became even careless about the manner they were taking the money. Remember Nigeria even borrowed $100million from the international market to fund the war on Boko Haram and they simply shared it. APC did not go to borrow anywhere. We were not sharing oil wells. We had no access to NNPC funds. So, if these agencies were converted into agencies for looting and pilfering, it is obvious that even if we had corrupt men in the APC, they did not have the opportunity to steal, and that is assuming we had. I cannot, in all honesty, say that all of us in APC are saints, but the truth is, we did not have access to funds to steal in the first place, and so we did not have opportunity also to reject the stealing. So, let them roast in their stew. Let them carry their cross.
They can make all the noises and try to deflate APC, but our hands are clean by providence. Look, let us face it. If they arrest you, why don’t you say, ‘I shared the money with so and so persons’ and then let him turn out to be in APC?
Those that they are arresting, it is from the interrogation that the information burst out. Let them leave us alone. This is just the beginning. They will return our money by the time we finish digging their soak-aways and bringing down their (overhead) tanks; we would recover our money. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/06/anti-graft-crusade-not-probing-apc-members-lawal-sgf/

T
SOURCE:
BY ABDUL-RAHMAN ABUBAKAR, ISMAIL MUDASHIR & ADELANWA BAMGBOYE
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he 8th Senate led by Senate President Bukola Saraki is enmeshed in a protracted crisis that has divided the chamber since inauguration on June 9, 2015. The two groups that fought hard to secure leadership of the Senate last year have remained at loggerheads over allegations of illegal amendments to the Standing Rules that purportedly aided the emergence of Saraki as President of Senate and Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy President. Daily Trust on Sunday brings you an in-depth report on major alterations to the Senate Rules and the controversies that trailed the amendments.
Reports of alteration to sections of the Senate Standing Rules have been causing ripples in the Nigerian political landscape since June 9, 2015. The replacement of ‘open’ with the ‘secret’ voting system, among other amendments to the rules, have set the stage for the prosecution of Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, on allegations of conspiracy and forgery.
The forgery suit against Saraki, Ekweremadu, the outgoing clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa and the deputy clerk to the National Assembly, Mr. Ben Efeturi, is slated for tomorrow at a Federal High Court in Abuja.
The charge preferred against the quad, signed by the principal state counsel, Federal Ministry of Justice, D. E. Kaswe, reads thus, “That you, on or about June 9, 2015, with fraudulent intent, forged the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended) causing it to be believed as the genuine Standing Orders 2015 and circulated same for use during the inauguration of the 8th Senate when you knew that the said order was not made in compliance with the procedure for the amendment of the Senate orders. You thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code laws.”
The 8th Senate has not known peace since its inauguration on June 9, 2015. The crisis rocking the Senate originated from the bitterly contested leadership tussle between the camps of Senate President Bukola Saraki and Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan. Following the controversial emergence of Saraki as president, the Ahmad Lawan-led Senate Unity Forum alleged that Saraki’s camp; the Likeminds, conspired with bureaucrats in the National Assembly to “illegally alter the Senate rule with the intent of dubiously” ensuring his emergence.
Soon after the election, the Unity Forum reported the alleged forgery of the rule to the police for investigation. The present leadership of the Senate was elected based on the Senate Standing Orders 2015 as amended, which contains provisions that differ from the 2011 Orders submitted to the 8th Senate.
The contentious amendments
A comparison of the two documents by Daily Trust on Sunday shows amendments to the main provisions regarding the mode of election of the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President. A fundamental amendment to the rule is on the method of voting provided in sections 3 (3e) (i & ii), (f) and (k). The 2011 Standing Orders provides in section 3 (3e) that “When only two senators-elect are nominated and seconded as presidents of the Senate, the election shall be conducted as follows; (i) the Senate shall divide with proposers and seconders as Tellers; (ii) voting shall be conducted by the clerk-at-the-table using Division List of the Senate with the Tellers in attendance. The Clerk of the Senate shall submit the result of the division to the Clerk of the National Assembly; (iii) the clerk shall then declare the senator-elect who has received the greater number of votes elected as President of Senate.”
But the controversial Senate Standing Orders 2015 as amended introduced electronic voting and secret ballot system to the procedure.
The document provides in section 3(3e) that “when two or more senators-elect are nominated and seconded as Senate President, the election shall be conducted as follows; (i) by electronic voting, or (ii) voting by secret ballot which shall be conducted by the clerks-at-table using the list of the senators-elect of the Senate, who shall each be given a ballot paper to cast his vote, with proposers and seconders as Tellers.
“(iii) The Clerk of the Senate shall submit the result of the voting to the Clerk of the National Assembly, who shall then declare the senator-elect who has received the highest number of votes as Senate President-elect.”
The voting pattern proposed by the Senate Orders 2011 provides an election process where all senators are required to openly declare support for the candidate of their choice, while the allegedly forged 2015 version provides for secrecy in the voting procedure.
Another contentious amendment is the right of all senators-elect to vote during the inauguration sitting. Section 3(3k) of the Standing Rule 2011 provides that “all senators-elect shall participate in the nomination and voting for the president and deputy president of the Senate.”
But the 2015 amended version provides in its Section 3(i) that “all senators-elect are entitled to participate in the voting for Senate President and Deputy Senate President.” This provision is another major point of disagreement in the 8th Senate as some of its members did not attend the inauguration session. It would be recalled that Saraki emerged as the Senate President unopposed as his main rival, Senator Ahmed Lawan and several other APC senators were at the International Conference Centre (ICC) for a purported meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari when the Upper Chamber was inaugurated. They did not take part in the elections that produced Saraki and Ekweremadu as presiding officers.
Police investigation report
In the letter to the police, challenging the amendments to the rules, members of the Unity Forum contended that at no time was the Senate Standing Rule 2011 amended during the 7th Senate. In the letter, signed by the secretary to the Forum, Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi (APC, Kaduna North), the group stated, “The Senate Standing Order 2015 as amended and used by the Clerk of the National Assembly and Clerk of the Senate to inaugurate the 8th Senate on June 9, 2015, was fraudulently produced as the 7th Senate did not, at any time during its tenure, amend the Senate Standing Rule.”
The police, after conducting its investigations, concluded that the amendment to the Senate Standing Rules was illegal as it failed to follow laid down procedures provided by Section 110 as amended. The police investigation report on the matter stated, “The allusion by the Clerk of the Senate, Benedict Efeturi, to the procedure of amending the Standing Orders of Parliament through ‘practice and not necessarily by procedure’ is a misplaced analogy and undemocratic because the Nigerian Senate has a clear procedure to be adopted in amending its standing orders.”
In his statement to the police, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business in the 7th Senate, Senator Ita Enang, said the standing order was not amended. Enang told the police that the committee proposed the amendment of the 2011 standing order, but up to the expiration of their tenure, the proposal was not debated and approved or rejected at any sitting.
But in his statement, the Clerk to the 7th Senate, Mr. Benedict Efeturi, said there was nothing wrong with the amendments. He told the police that, “The leadership of the 7th Senate ordered the 2015 Standing Rules as amended by their convention and practice. The Senate Standing Orders 2003, 2007 and 2011 followed the same procedure as that of 2015. In the parliament, amendment of standing orders is by practice and not necessarily by procedure.”
Another prosecution witnesses, Senator Abdullahi A. Gumel said, “During the induction course of the National Assembly, he was given a copy of the Senate Standing Order 2011 (as amended) as the rules book to guide their conduct and working in the Senate. On resumption of the 8th Senate, a new standing order 2015 as amended was shared to them with which all the businesses of the Senate are being conducted.
“In one of the sittings of the 8th Senate, Senator Kabiru Marafa raised a point of order that the new Standing Order 2015 (as amended) produced and shared was never approved by the 7th Senate, as such, it is a fraudulent document. At that point, it came to his notice that all the activities conducted from June 9, 2015 are null and void."
In its recommendations, the police stated, “From findings, especially from the statement of the Clerk of the Senate who doubles as the Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly, the Senate Standing Orders 2015, which was used to inaugurate the 8th Senate on June 9, 2015 was ordered by the leadership of the 7th Senate without following Section 110 of the Senate Standing Rules 2011 as amended, which requires that any amendment to the rules must be debated and approved by senators on the floor of the Senate.
“This practice where some senators amend the rules of the Senate without following legal procedures is not only criminal but portends danger for our growing democracy. It should be discouraged.”
Procedure for amending the Senate Standing Orders Section 110 of the Senate Standing Order 2011 provides that “(i) any Senator desiring to amend any part of the rules or adding any new clause shall give a notice of such amendments in writing to the president of the Senate, giving details of proposed amendment; (ii) the president shall, within seven working days, cause the amendment to be printed and circulated to the members. Thereafter it shall be printed on the Order Paper; (iii) the mover or movers of the amendments shall be allowed to explain in details, the proposed amendments; thereafter the Senate shall decide by simple majority votes whether the amendment should be considered; (iv) if the decision is to consider the amendments, then another date shall be set aside by the Rules and Business Committee, whereby an opportunity would be given to senators to further propose amendments, but must strictly be confined to the original amendments; (v) two third majorities shall decide the amendments, and such amendments shall form part of the Rules of the Senate.”
However, speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday via telephone, the leader of the 7th Senate, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said that at no time did the 7th Senate amend the Standing Orders 2011. He said, “The Committee on Rules and Business proposed an amendment, but it was not debated.” He, however, declined further comment as the matter is already a subject of litigation.
Checks by Daily Trust on Sunday showed that the Senate Standing Orders was last amended on May 18, 2011, to provide, among others, Section 3(2) that introduced ranking to the process of electing presiding officers and other appointments in the chamber. The amendment was a sequel to a motion for the amendment to the Senate Standing Orders 2007, sponsored by then Senate Majority Leader, Teslim Folarin. It followed all the procedures of amendment laid down in Section 110 of the standing rules.
The litigation
Based on the recommendation of the police investigation report dated July 14, 2015, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, sued the accused before a Federal High Court in Abuja. Former Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa, outgoing Clerk of the Senate, Ben Efeturi, President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Deputy President of Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, are charged with conspiracy and forgery, an action contrary to sections 97 and 362 of the Penal Code law.
According to court documents seen by Daily Trust on Sunday, the prosecution contends that, “It is a prosecution’s case against the defendants, that about June 9, 2015, the defendants (Saraki, Ekweremadu, Efeturi and Maikasuwa) conspired among themselves to forge the Senate Standing Order 2011 (as amended) and caused the said forged document to be circulated among the elected senators for use during the inauguration of the 8th Senate of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“It is the forged document that was used in the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly which paved the way for the election that ushered in the present leadership of the Senate.”
Punishment for forgery
The offence of forgery carries a penalty of a jail term of 14 years, lawyers said.
In a telephone interview with our reporter, Mr. Festus Okoye said that forgery was a serious offence, but added that its punishment would depend on the law in which the accused were charged - the Penal Code (PC) or the Criminal Code (CC).
According to him, the first consequence of being convicted of forgery would be a sentence to a jail term. Secondly, convicts will not be able to contest elections again. He added, however, that for someone already in the National Assembly, it will be different.
Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said he would not want to comment on the matter.
Saraki’s camp threatens Ita Enang
Mixed reactions have continued to trail the disclosure of the list of witnesses in the forgery suit. It has created tension at the Upper Chamber.
Pasted alongside the court summons at the National Assembly on Tuesday was the list of witnesses which include the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly (Senate), Senator Ita Enang. The list of the witnesses, which include both serving and former senators, has Senator Sulaiman Hunkuyi; Senator Kabiru Marafa (APC, Zamfara Central); Senator Ahmed Lawan (APC, Yobe North); Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice (APC, Ondo North) and Senator Abu Ibrahim (APC, Katsina South). Others are Senator Solomon Ewuga, Senator Ojudu Babafemi, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Dan’Azumi J. Doma and a police investigator, David Igbodo.
In a phone interview, a senator in the camp of Saraki said the battle line had been drawn between them and Enang.
“You cannot be a liaison officer to the Senate and testify against us. If you are not with us, then you are against us. He cannot be against us and still be with us. There is a likelihood that he would be denied entry into the National Assembly in due time,” the senator said under condition of anonymity.
Efforts to get the reaction of Senator Enang yielded no result as he didn’t pick calls put through to him.
Senate mulls president pro-tempore
Another source in the Saraki camp told our reporter that they had commenced arrangements for a president pro-tempore.
The Senate rules made provision for a temporary Senate president in the absence of its president and his deputy. The provision is contained in Order 27, which reads: “In the absence of the president of the Senate and the deputy president, such senator as the Senate may elect for the purpose, shall be known as president pro-tempore.
In a phone interview, the senator, who did not want to be named, said that Saraki and Ekweremadu “with the overwhelming support they enjoy, will nominate anybody of their choice as president pro-tempore.
“If Saraki is going on trial, a president pro-tempore will be appointed if the need arises. Saraki can bring anybody of his choice from our camp. He can even bring Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West). You know that unlike the House of Representatives, there is no duration for a president pro-tempore at the Senate.
“In the Senate at the moment, our camp in the All Progressives Congress (APC) has 40 per cent majority, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 40 per cent and the anti-Saraki senators only have 20 per cent. They only have the capacity to drag the leadership to trial. They have disruption ability, but they lack the capacity to effect leadership change. You know the battle is that of number,” he said.
Last minute peace moves collapse
Moves to make members of the Unity Forum who had gone to court over the forgery of the Senate rules to withdraw the case has failed. A peace and reconciliation committee was constituted in May this year to, among other things, facilitate the withdrawal of the forgery suit. The report of the Committee chaired by Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South) was considered last Wednesday in a closed-door session that lasted about two hours.
At the end of the session chaired by Senate President Bukola Saraki, Daily Trust on Sunday gathered that the various camps stood their grounds.
A senator who attended the session said there was no need to compel the members of the Unity Forum to withdraw the suit as a date had already been fixed for the case.
However, a report of the committee obtained by our correspondent recommended the review and adjustment of the membership of the Senate standing committees to reflect equity and fairness.
It also recommended that all vacant positions for chairmen and vice chairmen of committees be filled up forthwith and that no senator should be chairman or vice chairman of more than one committee.
The 12-man committee also stated, “Apparent discriminatory actions in choice of senators for overseas conferences, seminars and tours should be corrected.”
Reaction of the Unity Forum
In an interview on Thursday, the spokesperson of the Unity Forum, Senator Kabiru Marafa, said they had no regret instituting a legal action on the forgery. “I have no regret at all. At my age and status, do you think I will do something wrong and be reluctant to apologise? I am of the conviction that what I did was the right thing. And for your information, I am trained to speak the truth.’’
Saraki, Ekweremadu fault suit
In separate statements by their media officers, Saraki and Ekweremadu denied forging the Senate standing rules.
“Those who decided to smuggle the name of the Senate President into the charge sheet know perfectly well that only the leadership of the 7th Senate were invited for investigation. But they needed to implicate him in keeping with their declared vow to ensure that even if their current efforts to nail him through the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) fail, they would find other ways to carry out their vendetta.
“This so-called forgery case is another wanton abuse of the judicial process and making a mockery of the institution of justice. As the Senate earlier stated, the sponsors of this plot are not only gunning for Dr. Saraki, what they have just launched with this latest antics is a grand onslaught on the foremost institution of our democracy. Therefore, by seeking to cripple the National Assembly, they have declared a war on our hard-won democracy and aimed for the very jugular of our freedom,” Saraki’s media aide, Yusuph Olaniyonu stated.
Also, Ekweremadu’s special adviser on media, Uche Anichukwu stated, “So far, everything is in the realm of the onslaught to malign, bully, intimidate, and divert attention from the real challenges presently confronting the nation. However, when the bird jerks in the air, we can fathom where it would perch.”
Both media aides insisted that their principals were never interrogated by the police.
The Assistant Force Public Relations Officer (AFPRO), DSP Abayomi Shogunle, told newsmen at the Force Headquarters on July 6, 2015, that although the police team met Mr. Salisu Maikasuwa, they neither invited nor interrogated Ekweremadu. sources: sahara repoters.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday said the ongoing sub-sea gas pipeline project by the Dangote Group which will supply three billion cubic feet of gas daily had the potential of solving the problem of electricity shortage which had plagued the nation for decades.
Speaking when he paid a working visit to the Dangote’s ongoing $17 billion Gas pipeline, fertiliser, petrochemicals and refineries project at the Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ), said the investment as a whole was an incredible industrial project being the largest and the most ambitious in Africa and possibly the entire world.
Addressing journalists after a two-hour presentation on the entire project, Osinbajo said the gas pipeline project “is meant to supply 3 billion cubic of gas daily to Lagos and its axis. It will largely address power outage. That is huge when compared with our current requirement, it is about 2 billion cubic of gas daily.
“If it can be done, it is a major asset for Nigeria. It will boost our gas supply tremendously. For me, that is the most important project that could be done in this country. It will be a major boost for industrial development.”
He explained that the sub-sea installation, estimated at N500 billion, would go all the way from Bonny in Rivers State through Ogedegbe, Olokola to Lekki and Escravos Lagos pipeline and then West Africa Gas Pipeline.
In terms of security, Osinbajo said the pipeline “is secure. The pipeline is installed under the sea. It is a subsea project. It is fortified and goes into the sea. It is not what anybody can go there and vandalise with the way it is designed. It is designed to prevent vandalisation. It is designed very deep into the sea.”
Noting that the project would boost power supply tremendously, he said on completion it would be a major strategic asset for Nigeria.
Commenting on the refinery, he said: “It is meant to refine 650,000 barrels per day. By all projection, it is the largest in the world. It has a petro-chemical plant. It also has fertilizer plant, which is projected to be the largest in the world.”
Speaking further, he said, “The refinery will take off in the first quarter of 2019. I think the sub-sea gas pipeline, which is very important project, is meant to take off in 2018. The gas pipeline project there. It is an incredible industrial undertaking. It is possibly the largest and the most ambitious on the continent today. It is truly inspiring to see.”
In his remarks, President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said the decision to site the projects in Lagos was due to the investment friendly climate in the state.
“Lagos is one states that is very investor friendly and the governor himself has always been asking, what are the issues, and he normally put in place steps to resolve those issues immediately,” he said.
Dangote said the Gas Pipeline Project would guarantee uninterrupted power supply in Lagos on completion, which he said would also positively increase the State’s Gross Domestic Project (GDP).
Dangote further said the projects would also attract other bigger investors into the Zone.
He also said the projects would benefit the local communities as at least 65 per cent of people in the catchment area would be employed, while over 1,000 would be trained.
“Our target is that in the next five years or so from now, we hope and we believe that half of Nigeria’s crude will be refined and exported rather than just exporting crude to go and create jobs elsewhere,” Dangote said.
The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, while commenting on the investment, said the refinery, petrochemical, gas and fertiliser projects being undertaken by Africa’s richest man, Dangote, in Lagos, would significantly boost the economy of the state and Nigeria in general.
According to Ambode, “First, there is a refinery project that is ongoing, second there is a petrochemical project that is also ongoing. There is pipeline transfer project that brings gas from Bonny down to Olokola and down to Lekki and then the fourth one is the fertiliser project all in one location.”
He said the projects would also be critical to the economic growth of the Lagos East and West Senatorial Districts, which according to him, will be open to massive investment opportunities on completion.
On the working visit with the vice president were the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Works, Power & Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and former Ekiti State Governor, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo among others. https://www.today.ng/news/national/143134/dangote-subsea-pipelinell-help-nigeria-tackle-electricity-problem-osinbajo

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday charged leaders of the All Progressives Congress who have friends among militants blowing installations in the Niger Delta to plead with them to sheathe their swords.
He said the way the militants had been deploying technology to attack installations showed that the country was faced with a national problem.
Buhari spoke while breaking the Ramadan fast with leaders of the ruling APC at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
“For those of you who have friends either among the leadership or among the militants themselves, please beg them in the name of God Almighty to take it easy. We need to stabilise the economy to create employment,” the President appealed to his guests.
Buhari said the technology the militants used to go deep into the waters and blow installations could not be described as small.
He said it was unfortunate that all these were happening at a time when the country was clamouring for more investments.
He said while no insurance company would be willing to insure installations that could later be blown up, banks too would not agree to finance such installations.
The President admitted that the nation was facing tough time economically and security wise.
He said he agonised over the situation in the country every time.
“We are in a very difficult time. It is particularly bad. We have to organise ourselves and our constituencies. Tell them we are all in this together,” the President said.
Buhari also promised that his administration would ensure that votes count in the forthcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states.
He said he would ensure that Nigerians resident in the states are happy that their votes count at the end of the elections.
While congratulating the party leadership on the success of the APC governorship primary in Edo State, the President said the exercise gave him hope.
He said the success was no mean achievement coming after the ugly incident in Rivers State where people were killed and maimed.
Earlier, the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, told the President that the party was pleased with what he had accomplished so far and the strong leadership he had given the country.
While admitting that the nation was going through tough and difficult time with multitude of challenges, Odigie-Oyegun said change “does not come cheap or easily.”
He said, “Any meaningful development requires strong and determined leader. Things must change. Those things don’t come easily. Nigeria is clearly a difficult nation to govern.”
Apart from the party chairman, other party leaders who attended the event included former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar,; a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Na’ Abba; the party’s Deputy National Chairman (South), Segun Oni; and former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva among others.
A national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was absent. http://www.punchng.com/beg-militants-stop-attacks-buhari-urges-apc-leaders/

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is to investigate the withdrawal of over N11bn from the Rivers State Government’s account between October, 2015 and February, 2016 under the present administration of Governor Nyesom Wike.
The money was allegedly withdrawn from the Rivers State Government’s account with the Central Bank of Nigeria by the Director of Finance and Administration of the state’s Government House, Mr. Kingsely Fubara, in cash.
The anti-graft agency is also to probe the transfer of another sum of N1.5bn from the state’s account with the CBN to the Zenith Bank Plc account that belongs to one Mr. Samuel Anya “on or about January 27, 2016.”
An EFCC source confirmed to The PUNCH that the anti-graft agency received the directive to probe what had been described as “suspicious withdrawals” from the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, sometimes in March this year.
A document obtained from the source shows the alleged withdrawal of about N5.1bn by Fubara from the government’s account between October and December, 2015 in 10 tranches.
The document indicated that Fubara commenced the alleged suspicious withdrawals with N1bn on October 15, 2015, and followed by another N1bn six days later on October 21, 2015.
He was also said to have withdrawn N269m from the account on November 2, 2015; N300m on November 3, 2015, and N500m on November 4, 2015.
In December 2015, three of such withdrawals also took place with N200m withdrawn from the account on December 12; N240m on December 22 and N460m on December 23.
According to the document, Fubara also allegedly withdrew N6.1bn from the same Rivers State’s account between January 5, 2016 and February 9, 2016 in 11 tranches.
Five of the withdrawals, which took place in January, 2016, in the following order: N849.5m withdrawn on January 5, 2016; N300m on January 7, 2016; N250m on January 14, 2016; N750m on January 15, 2016, and N200m on January 22, 2016.
The rest of the six withdrawals in February, 2016, were N500m on February 1; N600m on February 2; N300m on February 4; N200m on February 5; N1bn on February 8; and N1.2bn on February 9.
Indicating the various sums of money was in cash withdrawal, the document stated that the money was “delivered and received by Mr. Fubara.”
The source added, “We were also asked to investigate the withdrawal of N1.5bn on or about January 27, 2016, by one Mr. Samuel Anya of 69B Forces Avenue, old GRA, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, from the state’s account with CBN through the transfer of the money to his account 0248922015 with Zenith Bank.”
The phone number Anya was said to have left with the bank could not be reached on Wednesday and Thursday as it was switched off.
But the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr. Austin Tam-George, described the claim by the EFCC as another bizarre fabrication.
Describing the move by the AGF as a national embarrassment, Tam-George pointed out that there seemed to be no end to the “total” erosion of the commission’s credibility as an institution of the country.
He said, “It is clear that the EFCC is now a fully integrated unit of the All Progressives Congress with the sole mandate of hunting down opposition politicians and critics of the Federal Government.
“When will this embarrassing media roulette they call anti-corruption fight come to an end?”
All attempts to speak with the spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, proved abortive as his phone indicated that it was switched off while a text message sent to his phone had not been responded to as of the time of filing this report on Thursday. http://www.punchng.com/alleged-n11bn-withdrawal-agf-orders-efcc-probe-rivers-director/

Nigerian business magnate and founder of Silverbird Group, Benedict Murray-Bruce, has responded to the ongoing crisis rocking his three companies (Silverbird Galleria Limited, Silverbird Promotions Limited, and Silverbird Showtime Limited.
The Assets Management Company of Nigeria,
AMCON, on Thursday took over all assets owned by Silverbird Group over a debt of about N11billion it owed the agency and law enforcement agents barricaded all properties belonging to the Senator.
The politician, in his response to the development said the situation is under control.
On his Twitter handle @benmurraybruce, he tweeted: “I have been on an international flight and have only just landed.
“The situation is being resolved and things will be back to normal.
“In 36 years, Silverbird has grown and like any body, it will face challenges. Tough times don’t last. But we, as tough people, outlast them.”
Meanwhile, prior to the invasion, Bruce had tweeted: “It is actually possible to fight corruption and grow the economy at the same time. One does not have to happen at the expense of the other.”
http://dailypost.ng/2016/06/23/amcon-n11bn-loan-tough-times-dont-last-situation-is-being-resolved-senator-ben-bruce/

President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday in Abuja charged public officers entrusted with certain responsibilities to live up to their duties and justify the confidence reposed in them as this was the only way Nigeria can get out of the current hardships facing the nation.
President Buhari said this while decorating two of the newly promoted officers of the Nigerian Police Force deployed to his office with their new ranks.
Abdulkarim Dauda and Kayode Sikiru Akande, both promoted from the position of Assistant Commissioner of Police to Deputy Commissioner of Police, serve as the Chief Personal Security Officer to the President and the Officer in Charge of Presidential Movement respectively.
President Buhari congratulated the officers and urged them to justify their new ranks by increasing their commitment to the service of the nation.
He also commended them for their hard work and achievements which brought about their promotion.
He said Nigeria needed their dedication and unwavering commitment for it to achieve greatness and assume its rightful position, cautioning them not to abuse their positions.
(Source: PREMIUM TIMES)

President Muhammadu Buhari pledged Tuesday in Abuja his administration’s ongoing war against corruption will be vigorously sustained to rid the country of the debilitating effects of the wanton looting of public funds in past years.
Addressing State House staff who assembled to welcome him back from his recent vacation, President Buhari assured them that he will continue to lead the country with patriotic zeal, integrity, dedication and commitment to improving the living conditions of ordinary Nigerians.
“I have never in my life believed in corruption. If we make any mistake in what we are doing and compromise our integrity, the country will be further dragged back.
“We’ll not touch anybody that did not touch public funds. If you behave yourself, you will sleep soundly, your children and families will enjoy respect.
“But if you have short-changed the treasury, you will be caught and you’ll have your day in court,’’ the President said.
President Buhari thanked the State House staff for their service to the nation and urged them to remain patriotic and eschew corruption in the discharge of their duties.
“I’m asking you to re-dedicate yourself to your country. As I said thirty years ago we have no other country than Nigeria. We are determined to rehabilitate the country for coming generations.
“The process of change is not easy but with your dedication, we can deal successfully with the issues that currently confront us,’’ the President said.

By SYLVAIN CYPEL
JUNE 8, 2016
PARIS — Last month, Emmanuel Macron, a onetime investment banker who is now the Socialist government’s young minister of the economy, visited Lunel, a small town in southern France. He was taken to task in the street for the “loi travail,” the labor law — recently pushed through by his government — that he was in Lunel to promote. A trade unionist wearing a T-shirt challenged him: “You, you’ve got lots of cash, you buy yourself nice suits.” Without missing a beat, Mr. Macron responded, “The best way to afford a nice suit is to work.”
A video of the interaction has been practically running on a loop on YouTube ever since. To most people in France, this exchange says it all about the gap between Mr. Macron and the working classes. In his eyes, if you don’t have a suit, it’s because you don’t work.
In France these days, not only is it getting harder and harder to find a job, but even those people who have one are unlikely to be able to afford a nice suit. Work pays less and less, except for the elites represented by Mr. Macron. As in the United States, income inequality in France is growing.
The new labor law aims to make employment in France more “flexible.” Its main provision follows a single guiding idea: to facilitate companies’ ability to fire people, which, proponents of the law promise, will make the labor market “more fluid” and in the long run create more jobs. Unions have responded with major strikes at oil refineries, railroads and nuclear power plants, shaking the foundations of power. A sympathetic youth-led movement, Nuit Debout (Up All Night), has also sprung up — albeit disorganized and idealistic — calling into question the triumph of finance capitalism.
The overwhelming majority of the political class, big business, the news media and the intellectual elites have applauded the labor law. For them, the strikes offer yet more proof that France is “unreformable.”
Why is the law the subject of such debate? And how are two of the country’s main
trade unions — both in a decades-long decline — managing to stay mobilized and carry out big strikes? Why have people gathered to discuss injustice in public plazas night after night since the end of March under Nuit Debout’s informal banner?
Even though no one knows precisely what effect the law will have, very few wage-earners in France, unionists or not, believe that making firing easier will create more jobs. Logically enough, they think it will create more firings. But more important, the French know recent history and can perceive trends.
The new law is not the first to favor greater flexibility. The past 30 years have seen the gradual deregulation of France’s labor market, and that evolution has been accompanied not by a sinking rate of unemployment but by its steady rise. The strikers can’t imagine why this time would be any different.
Their protests are focused on the part of the law allowing companies to set their own terms for workers’ vacation allowances and other benefits, rather than adhering to a national standard. The strikers fear that this measure will accelerate the disappearance of “bons boulots,” good jobs, and increase the number of precarious ones. Once again, nothing new there. The labor market in France has been offering less and less job security for decades. Today, 85 percent of new hires are temporary employees and the duration of their work contracts keeps shrinking — 70 percent of new contracts are for one month or less. How could a labor law that will encourage even more insecurity stimulate employment?
The government provides no satisfactory response to that question, except to point out that the current situation is not viable and that refusing to change is the worst possible option. For the last 30 years, the unemployment rate has typically fluctuated between 9 percent and 12 percent, with a brief dip in 2007 and 2008. The president, François Hollande, has said that persistent long-term unemployment has created a “ social and economic emergency.” Overcoming a long-lasting structural crisis of this type is much more daunting than getting out of a cyclical one.
There are 5.7 million unemployed (including the partly unemployed) workers in France today, the equivalent of some 28 million Americans. Action is urgently required. But the great absence from the debate over the labor law in the government is any reference to the reality of the jobs that will supposedly be created. Most people fill that void with dread.
The current round of strikes will probably come to an end soon. And Nuit Debout has already largely disintegrated. But its American cousin Occupy Wall Street left a legacy, the idea of the “1 percent” and of the noxiousness of ever-growing social inequalities. What’s going on in France now is similarly clarifying trends: To work in the future, you’ll have to settle for being less well paid, and for having worse health insurance and lower unemployment benefits. As for your children, they’ll live in a world with much greater inequality than yours. That’s the new rule.
Sylvain Cypel, a former correspondent and editor for Le Monde, is at work on a book about immigration. This essay was translated by John Cullen from the French.