The United States of America has expressed its determination to partner with Nigeria and neighbouring countries to rescue demale students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno who were abducted from their school by members of Boko Haram on April 14 2014.
The U.S Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Ambassador Samantha Power told news men shortly after she had a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Presidential Villa, Abuja today, Thursday insisted that the issue of the Chibok girls and others who have been abducted by Boko Haram is huge priority to the U.S.
“And it was the issue I discussed at length with president Buhari today. We had moved to provide the information and intelligence needed to the Nigerian authorities. We have, in recent months, been able to allocate additional information sharing platforms and additional surveillance to aid the fight against Boko Haram.
We will not rest: we will continue to deepen our partnership and be more effective with our partners on the ground. We are determined to support Nigeria and other neighboring countries efforts to secure more rescues of abducted people and releases in the days and weeks ahead.”
She said that America is concerned that mechanism should made in pursuing the rescue of the Chibok girls, adding: “what we talked about was the importance of pursuing every need related to the Chibok girls and making sure we have mechanism whereby parents and family members who have been abducted by Boko haram can be given information whereby videos can be examined and family members offer their feedbacks on their impression on the videos to have a process by which family of those who are missing work more constructively with the government and indeed with those involved in the operations in trying to rescue the girls
“So, that was the nature of our discussion with the president .
The recent video was one part of our discussion and the larger puzzle that will need to be assembled.” [myad]

Mohammed Ataba Sani-Omolori has been appointed acting Clerk to the National Assembly. The appointment was made today, Wednesday in a letter signed by the Executive Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission, Adamu Fika.

“I am writing you that the National Assembly Service Commission at its 440th meeting held on Wednesday, April 16, 2016, has approved your appointment as Acting Clerk to the National Assembly.”

“The appointment which takes effect from 13th May, 2016 to 15th August, 2016 is in exercise of its powers as provided in the Section 6b of the National Service Commission Act 2014.”

Sani-Omolori will succeed Salisu Maikasuwa who will commence his pre-retirement leave May 14, 2016. The new clerk currently serves as the Clerk to the House of Representatives.

He is the Ciroma of Ebira land, Kogi State, and son of the immediate past Ohinoyi and paramount traditional chief of Ebira.

Born June 7, 1961, in Okene, Kogi state, Sani-Omolori is a 1982 Law graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

He joined the service of the National Assembly in 1992. Before 1992, he had worked as legal officer at the Ajaokuta Steel Company and now defunct National Electric Power Authority.

He was at the Royal Institute of Public Administration, London, where he took a course in Legislative Drafting in 1992.

He also attended Legal Drafting Courses at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in 1991 and the Public Law Centre, New Orleans, Luciana USA in June 2001. [myad]

Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu is angry with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which had denied that the agency decorated him as its Anti-Corruption Ambassador.
Senator Ekweremadu said that the denial by the EFCC which came in two different statements all within a few hours is baffling, inexplicable, and contradicitory.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on media and publicity,Uche Anichukwu, the Deputy Senate President referred to the EFCC claim that it had never and could not have decorated anybody as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador, since, according to him, “the Commission is not in the habit of awarding titles to individuals” and referred the agency to December 7, 2007, when the Nuhu Ribadu-led EFCC conferred the Role Model Award in the Fight Against Corruption, on certain persons, including a former President of the Senate, a taxi driver, and a former Justice of the Federal High Court at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.
Senator Ekweremadu wondered whether Mr. Bakari who gave the award could have acted on his own or read from a prepared text without recourse to the Commission, which he represents, especially as the visit and decoration was never solicited for in the first place.
Part of the statement read:
Our attention has been drawn to a statement purportedly issued by the spokesperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Wilson Uwujaren.
We want to put it on record that the EFCC Liaison Officer to the National Assembly, Mr. Suleiman Bakari, and his team, applied for and susbsequently paid a courtesy call on the Deputy President of the Senate in his Office on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.
Mr. Bakari, amongst other issues he raised, solicited the support of the Senate and National Assembly towards the anti-corruption crusade of the present administration, and even presented a frame with a bold picture of President Muhammadu Buhari, bearing the inscription: “If we dont kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.”
Mr. Bakari also, on behalf of the Acting Chairman, management, and staff of the EFCC  decorated Senator Ekweremadu as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador of the EFCC.
His words: “It is, therefore my honour, Your Excellency, to on behalf of my Acting Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Mustafa Magu and the entire management and staff of the EFCC, decorate you as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador and formally present this frame, as a token of our appreciation to your person and office, and as a symbol of institutional partnership between the EFCC and the National Assembly”.
It is also a fact that the visit and decoration was captured in both pictures and video.
As for the purported claim by the EFCC spokesperson that the agency has never and could not have decorated anybody as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador, since, according to him, “the Commission is not in the habit of awarding titles to individuals”, we wish to refer him to December 7, 2007, when the Nuhu Ribadu-led EFCC confered the Role Model Award in the Fight Against Corruption, on certain persons, including a former President of the Senate, a taxi driver, and a former Justice of the Federal High Court at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.
That the said denial by the EFCC is coming in two different statements all within a few hours is, therefore, baffling, inexplicable, and contradicitory.
Taking cognisance of the command structure of the agency, we also wonder wether Mr. Bakari could have acted on his own or read from a prepared text without recourse to the Commission, which he represents, especially as the visit and decoration was never solicited for in the first place.
We leave the rest to discerning members of the public to read in-between the lines and make their own judgments.
However, Ambassador or no Ambassador, the Deputy President of the Senate will not back down from his legislative efforts and advocacy as captured in his several pulbic statements and lectures over the years, pushing for legal and institutional reforms such as Special Anti-Graft Courts; security of tenure and financial autonomy for the EFCC and related agencies. Only such reforms would fast-track justice and insulate the anti-corruption agencies from external interferences and self-reversals.

Uche Anichukwu
Special Adviser (Media) to Deputy President of the Senate
20/04/16. [myad]