“The loss of a spouse is one of the cruellest blows of our lives.” This was the word of sympathy which President Muhammadu Buhari dispatched to the former governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje, who lost his wife, Hajiya Fatima Yelwa, recently. The message was delivered by a Presidential delegation, led by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, at the funeral ceremony today, Thursday. President Buhari described Hajiya Yelwa as a kind and caring mother. “Further to our telephone conversation, I convey my deepest condolences to you for the loss of your dear wife, Hajiya Yelwa. “However, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala gives life and takes it away when He wills.” The President prayed to Allah to admit her into paradise. In his remark, Senator Goje expressed his appreciation to the President for sharing in the family’s grief. Other members of the Federal Government’s delegation were the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammad Musa Bello; minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Sulaiman Hassan; Permanent Secretary in the State House, Jalal Arabi and the President’s associate, Musa Daura. Others were the President’s Senior Special Assistant, Domestic Affairs, Sarki Abba and Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmad Idris. [myad]
Ebonyi state governor, David Umahi has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to go for second term by contesting the 2019 Presidential election. He admitted that he too, being the first timer, will seek for second term in 2019. The Ebony state governor, who spoke to news men shortly after a closed door meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, today, Thursday, said: “any first term governor would want to go for second term and if what you wish yourself, you should be honest enough to wish another person the same. “Since, Mr. President is doing his first term and I am doing my first term, it’s my wish to re-contest and I will, as well, wish the president the same to re-contest.” The governor said that his government iis fully ready to receive the President, who is scheduled to visit the state next week. “We are fully prepared for the visit. We pleaded with Mr. President for the visit and before then we have been preparing. We are fully prepared.” Governor Umahi said that the President will commission a lot of projects which his government had executed within the past two and the half years . “We have three numbers of twin flyovers that is built across the African tran-sahara road, running from Enugu to Cameroon, passing through Ebonyi State. So, we have to build three twin flyover to decongest traffic on that road. Each of the twin flyover is 700 metre length. “We have completed second one and the third one is 80 percent done. Mr President will commission the two. We also have a Mall, what we call Ebonyi Mall that is modelled after the famous Dubai Mall. “We intend for the President to lay a foundation stone of that Mall which we like Mr President to commission within the next 12 months. “Also, we are building a tunnel that dovetails into a flyover that is parallel to the existing flyover. That particular junction that is called Akanibium junction, we want Mr President to lay the foundation stone and that flyover bridge will be named after Mr. President and we are sure to finish that project in the next 12 months. “Mr President will also come back. He wil be commissioning it when he comes back during his campaigns so we will like to make them ready. “There is also a federal road that is 14.5 killometre, which we got the consent of Mr President to build and toll the road. It’s fully done. We have 18.5 killometre that is leading to the Federal University. We did that road with concrete and overlaid, with Asphalt. It’s fully ready. We have 15.5 killometre of Nigercem that passes through the first cement factory in the country which is in Ebonyi State and it passes to Benue. We will build the 15.5 killometre in the axis of Ebonyi with concrete, ready for Mr President to commission. “There is 23.5 killometre of state road which we built with concrete and it is ready for Mr President to commission. We have 500 killometre of internal roads which we completed in Ebonyi: it is ready for Mr President to commission. “We have the stadium which we remodelled. We have the best VIP stands in the whole country in our stadium. It is fully air conditioned and all the stands are fully covered. Mr President will also commission that. We can go on and on. We have a minimum of 30 killometre of concrete road in each of our local governments, most of them completed while some have attained 80 percent completion. We have quite a lot for Mr President to commission. “We have mushrooms factory Agric project that I want the president to commission. We have a launch of one man one hectare programme in Ebonyi. We want Mr President to launch it for us.” [myad]
The Nigerian Awards for Sporting Excellence (NASE) has been scheduled to hold on December 2 this year at Airport Hotel, Ikeja Lagos. In a statement, the Chairman of the Award Committee, Prince Isidore Oduah, said that the awards are designed to reward Nigerian sportsmen and women, who excel in any given year. “The idea is to motivate such outstanding sportsmen and women to do even better, and to inspire others to work harder to excel – thus contributing to the rapid development of Nigerian sports.” Prince Oduah, who is a former Executive Committee Member of the Nigeria Football Association (now known as NFF), said that NASE would hold annually, adding that and excelling sports administrators and corporate bodies contributing significantly to the development and growth of Nigerian sports would also be honoured. The Award Committee Chairman disclosed said that the Nigerian Awards for Sporting Excellence, a brainchild of Nigeria’s pioneer all-sport online daily newspaper, Daily Sports (dailysportsng.com): “has been enthusiastically embraced by critical stakeholders of the Nigerian sporting community. “Nominees for the maiden awards, as well as some of the dignitaries expected to grace the award ceremony on December 2 would be unveiled in due course,” the Award Committee Chairman stated. [myad]
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris has drew the attention of the Senate to certain sections of the law and guidelines of the Senate that prevent them from investigating matters that are already in the court of law.
The police boss, who appeared before the Senate Ad hoc Committee investigating allegations of corruption and misconduct leveled against him by Senator Isah Misau (APC Bauchi)
“I decided to appear before this committee on the allegations because of the high regard we have for the Senate and respect for the rule of law. It is expected that the Senate and the committee will refrain from making references to the issues as it will be against Order 41 (7) and 53 (5) of the Senate Standing Order, 2015 (as amended).
“Order 41 (7) states that the Senate shall not receive any petition or any matter for that which there is a judicial remedy.
“Order 53 (5) says reference should not be made on any matter in which the judicial decision is pending in such a way that it might in the opinion of the President of the Senate prejudice the interest of the parties thereto.’’
The IGP said that he would therefore, not make any comment or answer any question as the matter was already pending before the court, saying that his lawyer, Alex Iziyon would respond to the committee’s queries.
“I am represented by the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr Alex Iziyon. I will not make any oral comment or answer any question in respect of the allegations in view of the civil and criminal cases pending in the law court, more so that the senator has been arraigned in court in respect of these matters.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Francis Alimikhena, had said that the senate was not in any way trying to witch-hunt anybody but to carry out its responsibility as provided by the Constitution.
“In pursuant to the Senate resolution of Wednesday Oct. 4, you were invited to testify before this committee.
”The principle of separation of powers in a constitutional democracy requires that the senate carries out this function in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
“It is one of the vital functions of parliament in partnership with other arms of government in exposing and fighting corruption and abuse of office.
“The committee is not constituted to witch-hunt any person but to see that justice is done.”
He said that Nigerians were eagerly waiting to know the truth of the allegations “because “they are too weighty to be swept under the carpet.’’
This was even as the IGP’s lawyer, Dr. Iziyon said that his client had nothing to hide and that following instructions given to him, he had tendered his response to the allegations.
“We responded to each of the allegations to show that we do not have anything to hide.
““I have submitted 15 copies of the response to the committee.”
Earlier, a group of protesters in support of the IGP gathered at the entrance to the National Assembly to show their solidarity.
They were seen displaying placards with different inscriptions. Some of the placards read: “IGP Ibrahim Kpotun Idris is working, Senator Misau leave him alone’’, ““We stand by IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, We support Nigeria Police Force.”
The Senate had set up an eight-man ad hoc committee to investigate allegations of corruption brought against the IGP by Misau, who claimed that the IGP purchased two jeeps for the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari.
He also alleged that the IGP misused over N120 billion generated by the Force in one year.
Misau also alleged that the police boss got a serving police officer pregnant and hurriedly arranged a marriage ceremony in Kaduna.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has insisted that he handed over to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, a country that was adjudged world second largest economy; a country that produced the richest man in Africa.
“I took over a Nigeria that was the second largest economy in Africa with a GDP of $270.5 billion in 2009, I handed over a Nigeria that had grown to become the largest economy in Africa and the 24th largest economy in the World with a GDP of $574 billion.”
Responding to critics who accused him of handing over a nation at the verge of collapse to President Buhari, stressed that his government achieved a lot, including handing over a country that produced the richest man in Africa.
“I inherited a Nigeria in which the trains were not working, and handed over a Nigeria in which citizens can safely travel by trains again. I also inherited a country where illiteracy rate particularly in the Northern part was alarming. I handed over a country where every state in the North and indeed all the states had a Federal University.
“I inherited a country where there was total infrastructural decay in all the unity schools and colleges of education. But I handed over a country with massive infrastructural improvement in almost higher institutions.
“I inherited a country where agricultural inputs and production were almost zero. But I handed over a country where a bag of rice was sold for N6,500 to N7000. My regime since the establishment of ecological fund office did more irrigation dams in the North and other parts of the country than other subsequent administrations put together.
“I inherited epileptic fuel supplies resulting to endless queues at the filling stations. I maintained despite enormous challenges of fuel subsidies and handed over a relatively stable fuel regime.
“I inherited a Nigeria that was a net importer of cement, and handed over a Nigeria that is a net exporter of cement.
“In 2009 the richest Nigerian was the 5th richest man in Africa, but I handed over a Nigeria that produced the richest man in Africa.
“I inherited a country where people were almost losing hope on the credibility of its electoral process but I noticed that democracy will continue to grow in the African continent if leaders value the process of elections more than the product of the process. I handed over electoral process that engendered fairness in its conduct and conclusiveness.”
Dr. Jonathan recalled that prior to the 2015 general elections, there was potential for major crisis if was not re-elected President, adding that the campaigns leading to the elections almost polarized the country into Christian vs Muslims and North vs South divide.
“Most World leaders were worried that our elections will result into major crisis.
Some pundits even from here in the United States said that those elections would spell the end of Nigeria and that we would cease to exist as a nation because of the polls. That is where the leadership question comes into play.
“As a leader that was duly elected by the people, I considered the peoples interest first. How do I manage my people to avoid killings and destruction of properties?
“With the interest of the people propelling all the decisions I took, we were able to sail through. Indeed, we sailed through because I refused to interfere with the independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), having appointed a man I had never met in my life to run it. We sailed through because I maintained and still believe that my personal ambition, interest is not worth the blood of any single Nigerian.
“My philosophy was simple. For elections to be credible, I as a leader, must value the process more than the product of the process. And the citizens must have confidence in the electoral body.” [myad]
Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu has narrated how the operatives of the Commission traversed America, the Europe and other countries of the world in search of the monies looted by Nigerians and stashed away in those countries
Magu, who spoke today, Wednesday, at the ongoing 7th Session of Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in Vienna, Austria, listed some of the countries as Switzerland, USA, UK, UAE, Jersey, Island and Panama, amongst others.
The EFCC boss told over 100 delegates at the Convention that efforts were intensified in asset recovery, including the progress made in the specific cases related to Abacha loot, Malabu Oil deal, Diezani and Associates as well as the Arms procurement scandal involding the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki.
He said that monetary recoveries from May 2015 to October 20, 2017 was in excess of N738.9 billion which is equivalent to over $2.9 billion, adding that this does not include smaller currencies in other currencies such as Durham, CRA and British Pound.
Magu said that employing the mechanism of the non-conviction based forfeiture provided under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, the EFCC has also made a lot of recovery locally. According to him, in this year alone, the Commission recovered stolen assets running into several millions of US Dollars and billions in naira, include the sum of $43 million recovered from Deziani Allison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum and N2 billion spread in seven accounts in three Nigerian Banks, laundered from the Federal Capital Territory Police Command Salary Accounts.
The EFCC chief strategist suggested to the world body the need for improved coordination and cooperation among State parties in asset recovery through the consideration and adoption of measures that will remove traditional ‘barriers such as bank secrecy, consistent with Article 46(8) and dual criminality Article 46(9) as well as simplify legal technicalities in the recovery and repatriation of stolen funds. Magu sought for measures to reduce cost of recovery of assets for developing countries and ensure speedy return of all stolen assets to victim States in line with the current resolution, sponsored by Nigeria.
He suggested also sanction and prosecution of any financial institution that violates AML/CFT measures and the maintenance of a public register on beneficial ownership. [myad]
Six years old triplets of late Mr. Gordon Koniepu Obua, Chief Security Officer (CSO) to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Miss Eunice, Master Jonathan and Master Goodluck Obua, have sent a Save-Our-Soul letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, detailing how everyone, including their uncles have turned their backs on them and their mother.
“Life has become so miserable and almost hopeless and it is out of pains, sufferings and frustration that we have decided to write this letter which is almost our last hope.”
The letter from the triplets to the President exposed a situation where “our uncles and aunties are equally making life miserable for us and our mother.
“They have been threatening our lives. They even claim that our late father has other children and wife but we only hear about our elder brother, Akio our father had before he married our mother and gave birth to us. Contrary to their claim and lies, no child or wife attended the burial of our father at Emeyal 2 Community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. All the people that attended the burial saw that we were the only children that were there with our mother.”
The full text of the letter is reproduced here:
Special greetings to Your Excellency in the name of the most high God, the Alpha and Omega who see the beginning from the end.
We are Miss Eunice Gordon Obua, Master Jonathan Gordon Obua and Master Goodluck Gordon Obua. We are 6years old and we are children of late Mr. Gordon Koniepu Obua, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to former President Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR.
We are told that we are the first set of triplets that were born in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa and that was why our birth made headlines and we were celebrated by many. It is however very sad that things are speedily changing from good to worst. We do not pray for other innocent children to go through the hell we are presently going through in the midst of so much danger that we have been exposed to.
As we write this Save our Soul Message, our lives are in great danger. Beside the danger we are now exposed to, our two term school fees have not been paid. We feel very sad each time we are told about the school fees in the presence of our friends and classmates. We also feel bad when other children are writing but we are not given exercise books and textbooks.
With tears in our eyes we wish to inform you that we your children are presently homeless with our poor mother without any hope from anywhere and there is no way we can go to school today because of our homelessness.
We decided to write you this letter through this medium-Facebook because we watched on television sometime last month October, 2017 when you received some little children who wrote letters that they wanted to visit you and you immediately sent for them in spite of your busy schedule and programmes.
Our late father Mr. Gordon Koniepu Obua was arrested in 2015 by his office, the Department of State Services (DSS) and he was later released because of his health challenges. But all his properties and monies were seized in the process by the DSS. Our father was traumatized and he died on 13th April, 2017 at the National Hospital and was buried on 3rd June, 2017.
As we write this passionate Save our Soul Message, we have been evicted from the DSS Quarters we were living with our poor mother and we are presently homeless here in Abuja without food to eat.
Our uncles and aunties are equally making life miserable for us and our mother. They have been threatening our lives. They even claim that our late father has other children and wife but we only hear about our elder brother, Akio our father had before he married our mother and gave birth to us. Contrary to their claim and lies, no child or wife attended the burial of our father at Emeyal 2 Community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. All the people that attended the burial saw that we were the only children that were there with our mother.
During the burial, our uncles and aunties kept us outside, they never allowed us to enter our parents house. They almost killed us with our mummy and our mummy has written several letters to the SSS, the Police and the National Security Adviser (NSA) yet nothing has been done since then while we are living in perpetual fear. Life has become so miserable and almost hopeless and it is out of pains, sufferings and frustration that we have decided to write this letter which is almost our last hope.
We do not know what transpired between the government and our late father who served this country for over 30years that will make us innocent children to suffer this untold hardship and pains.
It is our fervent prayer that Almighty God will use you Mr. President who is father of all Nigerians to save our lives before it is too.
May God continue to grant you divine health, bless, guard, guide and protect you and every member of your lovely family.
President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed worry over the outbreak of a strange disease that has been ravaging parts of Jigawa State in the Northwest.
The President has therefore asked the minister of Heath, Professor Isaac Adewole to investigate the cause of the ‘unknown disease’ which had led to the death of several children.
A statement by the senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu said that Buhari has also directed the minister to deploy all the necessary machinery to combat the outbreak of the disease reported in Gidan Dugus village of Wangara district, Dutse Local Government Area of the State.
Garba Shehu said that the President engaged in a telephone conversation with the Governor of the state, Abubakar Badaru to get the details of the incident.
President Buhari sympathised with the governor and the families of the victims even as he gave assurance that the Federal Government will provide the necessary support to contain the spread of the disease. [myad]
The Federal Government has disagreed with the latest Moody’s downgrade of Nigeria from a B1 stable to B2, saying it does not reflect the positive trend in the economy.
“Since Nigeria was last rated by Moody’s (as B1 stable) in December 2016, Nigeria has successfully emerged from a protracted recession and recorded important improvements across a broad range of indices,” a joint statement by the Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria and Debt Management Office, read on Wednesday.
The statement stressed that the Nigerian economy has witnessed a growth of 0.55% in Q2 of 2017, as well as returning business confidence as evidenced by a PMI index of 55.0%.
Other indicators include; a stable foreign exchange window for importers and exporters, with improving liquidity and convergence of the parallel and official rates.
“It significantly improved foreign exchange reserves, now totalling $34 billion.
“Increased oil production, combined with stable and now improving oil prices.
“A slowly improving revenue profile with non-oil revenue (principally taxes) up 10%, month on month improvements in inflation levels since January 2017, with inflation continuing to trend downwards.
“Strong year on year improvement on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Rankings from 169th to 145th place, a 24 place move in one year and in 2016, the highest capital expenditure deployment since 2013, making investments in critical infrastructure to support further growth.”
The government observed that the Moody’s rationale for the latest rating is the need for Nigeria to improve non-oil revenue aggressively, which is says: “is absolutely and directly aligned to the government’s priorities.”
The statement reads: “This is critical to our economic development and is the basis for the establishment of a stable and inclusive economy, which can withstand global shocks and has the resources to increase investments in our infrastructure.
“We have put in place a number of measures to improve our collection and FIRS has made good progress in increasing revenues, particularly when considering that the economy is still recovering from the oil price shock. Examples include:
– Introduction of a Tax Amnesty (the on-going Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS)), which is showing positive results.
– Plugging leakages and deployment of technology driven revenue management strategies. An example is Health Pay, a pilot cashless revenue project in the health sector, which has recorded material increases in revenue.
“We have seen improvements in revenue in 2017. Fiscal revenues are linked directly to both the performance of the economy and the number of tax payers contributing. As a result of the foundation that has been established in 2017, we expect, similar positive trends in 2018.
“Our revenue initiatives are changing the mix of revenue sources available to government from the traditional oil or debt to a combination of oil, debt and domestic revenue. For example the 2018 budget includes N710 billion proceeds from the restructuring of the Government’s equity in the JV oil assets. The reform is aimed at increasing private sector equity participation to improve efficiencies in the sector and also provides revenue to the Government which will be deployed solely and exclusively for creating new assets in Nigeria.
“Moody’s highlights that while our debt levels remain low, interest is consuming a larger portion of revenue. It should be noted we are implementing a very prudent fiscal and debt management strategy to reduce the cost of our debt. Given the relatively higher domestic interest rates, we are focusing on longer term external borrowing with an aim to re-balance our domestic and international debt portfolio to a 60:40 split over the coming years. Our existing proposal to refinance US$3 billion of treasury bills through external borrowing is expected to reduce Nigeria’s debt servicing costs, further improving our fiscal position. We also expect this strategy to help to reduce the “crowding out” effect of Government borrowing in the domestic markets. The challenges that are highlighted in the Moody’s rating are clear, and are being addressed by the government, with the environment having improved significantly since the last period of assessment.” [myad]
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has formed strategic partnerships with agricultural commodity associations in the country in its effort to expand the implementation of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).
According to the Acting Director in charge of Corporate Communications Department (CCD), Isaac Okorafor, the decision to enter into strategic partnerships was to consolidate on the gains of the ABP and reach more deserving small holder farmers nationwide.
“The CBN is forming these partnerships to further ramp up domestic production of identified commodities by leveraging the existing organized structures of the agricultural associations nationwide, thereby providing huge economics of scale in the implementation of the programme.”
Okorafor said the strategic partnership had begun to yield results with the commencement of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme with the Bank of Agriculture where about 300,000 rice farmers across 20 States would be supported under the ABP during the coming dry season cultivation.
The CBN Spokesman said that an additional two million metric tonnes of paddy rice was expected to be produced under the dedicated RIFAN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme. He added that the strategic partnership with RIFAN was in tandem with the Federal Government’s agenda for Nigeria to be self-sufficient in rice production in the future.
Okorafor further said that all registered agricultural commodity associations could key into this strategic partnership by simply approaching any of the Participating Financial Institutions (PFI) collaborating with the CBN in the implementation of the programme.
It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 17, 2015 in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State.
The ABP has so far achieved success in terms of outreach and coverage, making it one of the most successful CBN development finance interventions to date. About N45.5 billion has been released through 13 Participating Financial Institutions in respect of over 218,000 farmers cultivating nine commodities across 30 States. [myad]
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“The loss of a spouse is one of the cruellest blows of our lives.”
Ebonyi state governor, David Umahi has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to go for second term by contesting the 2019 Presidential election.
