Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was one of the chieftains of All Progressives Congress (APC) who turned up at the grand rally of the party in support of the party’s governorship flag bearer in the Saturday election in the state. the rally was held in Lokoja. [myad]
No fewer than 15 traditional rulers from four local government areas of Osun State stormed the office of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company in Osogbo, today to protest poor supply of electricity in their domains.
The monarchs said they decided to make their anger public following threats of violence from some of their subjects over the epileptic supply of electricity in their communities.
The traditional rulers, who were led by the Olufi of Gbongan, Oba Adetoyese Odugbemi, had Apetumodu of Ipetumodu, Oba James Adegoke, Akire of Ikire, Oba Olatunde Falabi, Onikoyi of Ikoyi, Oba Yisau Otunla; Olumoro of Moro, Oba Ezekiel Oyeniyi; Salu of Edunabon, Oba Elijah Oyelade; Alayegun of Odeomu, Oba Lamidi Oke, among others.
The traditional rulers reportedly told the IBEDC Regional Technical Manager for Osogbo, Mr. Salami Waheed, that they would not leave the office unless they were given an assurance on the matter.
Details of the outcome of the meeting between the two parties are not yet known. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has requested the approval of a supplementary budget to cover mainly the 413 billion naira ($2.1 billion) of debt owed to fuel importers under a subsidy scheme.
Buhari asked the Senate to approve 465.64 billion naira to cover subsidies, funding for the military operation, code-named Lafiya Dole against the militant insurgency in the northeast, prisoner rations and pay for out-going and incoming legislative aides.
This was contained in a letter which the President forwarded to the Senate today.
Pushing through the supplementary budget will be key to resolving fresh fuel shortages and closing the book on debts still owed to importers from 2014 and this year.
Subsidized imports account for about half of Nigeria’s gasoline needs and firms bringing in the product have not been paid since Buhari came to power at the end of May. They are increasingly struggling to finance their purchases with low dollar availability and shrinking credit lines.
Fuel shortages and panic-buying have returned to major cities, creating long queues outside retail stations. [myad]
“All contracts and accruing payments were with the approval of the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan). Once the ex-President approved, the former NSA paid. So, there was due process for every purchase in line with regulations guiding arms procurement for the Armed Forces.”
These were the defences put forward in a statement by the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd.), apparently in reaction to yesterday’s intermi report of Presidential committee on arms procurement by the ilitary between 2007 to date.
Dasuki, who insisted that he was not given chance to defend himself before the committee came up with the report asked Nigerians to note that all the services generated the types of equipment needed, sourced for suppliers most times and after consideration by the Office of the NSA, the President will approve application for payment.
“For sensitive sectors (military/security), there was no room for awarding fictitious contracts. The conclusions of the panel were presumptive, baseless and lacked diligence.
“There were no fictitious contracts; contract sums were not diverted and the relevant services in writing acknowledged delivery of equipment. For all procurements, the Nigerian Army, the Air Force and the Nigerian Navy have their contractors.
The full statement reads: “In a theatrical manner, the Presidency fed the public with many allegations against my person and yet to be named former public officers.
“To draw sympathy, the presidency quoted some absurd findings including extra-budgetary interventions; award of fictitious contracts; 53 failed contracts; payment for jobs without contractual agreements; non-execution of contracts for the purchase of 4 Alpha jets, bombs and ammunition.
“For undiscerning Nigerians, they may tend to assume that the allegations were true and pronounce the former National Security Adviser guilty as charged.
“The statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, who should know better as a former President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and a witness to history, was nothing sort of propaganda to cast aspersions on Dasuki.
“To set the records straight, Nigerians should appreciate that the AVM Jon Ode-led panel did not invite the ex-NSA under any guise before arriving at its ambiguous findings. At least, fairness demands that the panel ought to hear from Dasuki instead of its recourse to hasty conclusions. If the panel had been more patient and painstaking, it would have been availed of all relevant documents on some of the jaundiced findings.
“As if acting a script, the Presidency alleged that the Panel accused Dasuki of awarding fictitious contracts between March 2012 and March 2015. Contrary to this claim, Dasuki was not the NSA in March 2012 and he could not have awarded any contract in whatever name. The ex-NSA was appointed by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on June 22, 2012.
“All contracts and accruing payments were with the approval of the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces. Once the ex-President approved, the former NSA paid. So, there was due process for every purchase in line with regulations guiding arms procurement for the Armed Forces.
“And Nigerians should note that all the services generated the types of equipment needed, sourced for suppliers most times and after consideration by the Office of the NSA, the President will approve application for payment. For sensitive sectors (military/security), there was no room for awarding fictitious contracts. The conclusions of the panel were presumptive, baseless and lacked diligence.
“There were no fictitious contracts; contract sums were not diverted and the relevant services in writing acknowledged delivery of equipment. For all procurements, the Nigerian Army, the Air Force and the Nigerian Navy have their contractors.
“While awaiting judicial process on these allegations, it is proper to make some references to show that the presidency was just desperate to hang some former public and military officers who served this nation at the risk of their lives.
“It is laughable for the panel to assume that 4 Alpha jets and 12 helicopters were undelivered. In a memo to the Office of the National Security Adviser(ONSA), referenced NAF/905/D/CAS of November 28, 2014, the immediate past Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Adesola Amosu acknowledged the receipt of the 4x Alpha jets attack aircraft and the helicopters.
“On 10/21/14, the Chief of Air Staff also confirmed the receipt of F-7 N1 aircraft combination of 250kg bombs and accessories at $2,894,000 with the cost of freight at $1,200,000. The same Air Force confirmed getting 2xTri Shield 36DG Tactical radars
“In another letter of December 1, 2014 signed by L.S. Alao(on behalf of the Chief of Air Staff), the Air Force said it received five containerized fuel storage and dispensing units with equipment.
“The Nigerian Army wrote the ONSA to acknowledge the delivery of 14 armoured tanks. In a December 13, 2014 memo, the Brigade of Guards thanked ONSA for releasing N30m for RCA, Operation allowance for Troops on Op Urban Sweep II for third and fourth quarters of 2014. This is apart from the installation of CCT Cameras at the Brigade Headquarters, 2 backscatter bomb detection vans and other equipment.
“On November 26, 2014, the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh sought for approval of the award of one pair of uniform(in the interim) for the Armed Forces at N165, 375 to El-Jahab Mubarak Nigeria and N330,750,000 for two pairs.
These are some of the acknowledgement letters submitted to me by the end-users(the services). It is not for me to go and find out whether the equipment were delivered or not. I am not the one keeping the inventories.
“To show that I have nothing to hide, I submitted a comprehensive list of all requests for procurements by the services, the items bought and those equipment being awaited to His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari long before I left office. If there were issues, I should have been questioned. I was just the clearing house, I did not award contracts to my company or proxies. There was no contract awarded or equipment bought without approval from the then President and Commander-In-Chief. I am not a thief or treasury looter as being portrayed.
“In order not to endanger the nation’s security, there are many salient issues and contracts which I cannot put in public domain. I am ready for trial on all these allegations in order to prove to Nigerians that I did nothing untoward in office. We will certainly meet in court.
“I have a lot to tell Nigerians but in the interim, they should not believe some of the allegations as the gospel truths. The good thing is that some of the key actors in the present administration were parts of the past process being viciously challenged.
“As for my tenure as the nation’s NSA, I acted in the interest of the nation and with utmost fear of God. I did not use the office for any self-serving agenda. I occupied the Office of the National Security Adviser at a difficult moment in Nigerian history when terrorism was at its peak and I am leaving posterity to judge me accordingly.” [myad]
The Kogi State Government has ordered the closure of all public and private schools in the state from November 18 to 23.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Alhaji Adamu Sheidu, confirmed today in Lokoja that the order affects only all primary and secondary schools in the state.
He said that the step became necessary as many of the schools will serve as temporary camps for security agents being deployed to the state for the November 21 governorship election.
Sheidu said the closure order, which came into effect on Tuesday, will last till Monday.
The spokesman advised parents and guardians to take note of the development and keep watch on the movement of their children during the period of the election.
He also warned proprietors of private secondary and primary schools in the state against violating the order.
The Inspector-General of Police, Sunday Arase, had yesterday in Lokoja announced that 12,000 policemen will be deployed for the election.
According to Arase, a unit of mobile policemen will be sent to each of the 21 local government councils in the state.
He explained that a Deputy Inspector General of Police, one Assistant Inspector-General of Police and no fewer than three Police Commissioners will be on the ground to coordinate the operation. [myad]
Moves by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last governorship election, Terhemen Tarzoor, to unseat governor Samuel Ortom of All Progressives Congress (APC) met a final brick wall today when a Court of Appeal upheld the verdict of the Benue State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which affirmed the qualification and election of the governor.
The governorship candidate of the PDP, had asked the court to reverse the tribunal’s judgment and declare him winner of the April governorship election in the state. He said that the tribunal erred in its judgment as Ortom was not qualified to contest in the election.
According to him, Ortom was not validly nominated by the APC to stand for the election.
He had sought for a declaration by the appellate court to set aside the tribunal’s judgment, which had dismissed his petition for lack of merit.
Tarzoor had also asked the court to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare him winner of the April governorship poll.
In its argument, the APC had insisted that its candidate was validly nominated in conformity with the requirements of the Electoral Act, 2010, adding that the burden of proof rests on the shoulders of the appellants.
In an unanimous decision read by Justice Mohammed Garba, the court dismissed the appeal in its entirety for lack of merit.
Garba said the appellants failed to discharge the burden of proof, which rested on them, in line with the legal dictum that “he who alleges must prove”, adding that the lower court was right in dismissing the petition.
Meanwhile, counsel to the PDP, Donald Kertyo, had vowed to test the ruling at the Supreme Court. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has made it clear that nothing would stop him from wiping out Boko Haram from Nigeria soo, even as he sent his sympathy to the victims of the latest attacks that killed many both in Yola in Adamwa state yesterday and Kano, today.
A statement by senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, quoted Buhari as asking for increased vigilance among the civilian population to help ward off suicide terror attacks on soft targets around the country.
“The President condemned in strongest terms the barbaric suicide terrorist attacks which took place in Yola on the evening of Tuesday, November 17 and in Kano today, causing numerous deaths and injuries among civilians.
“The President extends his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims as well as to the Government and people of Adamawa and Kano States respectively.
“President Buhari reassures Nigerians that his administration is very much determined to wipe out Boko Haram in Nigeria and bring all perpetrators of these heinous crime against humanity to justice.”
The statement quoted the President as asking all Nigerians not to despair in the face of cowardly terrorist attacks but to have confidence in the ability of Nigeria’s re-invigorated, well-equipped and well-motivated Armed Forces and security agencies to overcome Boko Haram very soon.
The President stressed the need for vigilance on the part of the citizens, saying that it is a potential life saver as security agents cannot be everywhere to deter every planned attack.
He emphasised that citizen’s vigilance will help to reduce the frequency of such attacks.
Earlier in the day in Kano, an explosion went off at the GSM market around Farm Centre, killing many people and injuring several others.
This was even as another bomb exploded yesterday in Yola, Adamawa state capital, killing over 30 people.
It is believed that both explosions were carried out by the dreaded Boko Haram sect. [myad]
A 13-member Presidential Committee on the procurement of arms and equipment for the Nigerian army has come up with a damning report that a total extra budgetary interventions of N643,817,955,885.18 and $2,193,815,000.83 which were supposed to have been expended on the procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces and Defence sector from 2007 to date were laden with fraud.
The committee, which was set up by the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) on the authority of President Muhammadu Buhari said that the amounts quoted did not include grants from the State Governments and funds collected by the DSS and Police.
“It was observed that in spite of this huge financial intervention, very little was expended to support defense procurement.”
These revelations were contained in the interim report which the committee submitted to the President today.
A statement by the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina said that while the committee which was inaugurated on 31 August 2015 is yet to complete its work, its interim report has unearthed several illicit and fraudulent financial transactions.
“As part of the findings, the committee has analyzed interventions from some organizations that provided funds to the Office of the National Security Adviser, Defence Headquarters, Army Headquarters Naval Headquarters and Nigerian Air Force Headquarters, both in local and foreign currencies.
The committee also observed that of 513 contracts awarded at $8,356,525,184.32; N2,189,265,724,404.55 and €54,000.00; Fifty Three (53) were failed contracts amounting to $2,378,939,066.27 and N13,729,342,329.87 respectively.
“Interestingly, it was noted that the amount of foreign currency spent on failed contracts was more than double the $1bn loan that the National Assembly approved for borrowing to fight the insurgency in the North East.”
The committee also discovered that payments to the tune of Three Billion, Eight Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (N3,850,000,000.00) were made to a single company by the former NSA without documented evidence of contractual agreements or fulfilment of tax obligations to the FGN.
“Further findings revealed that between March 2012 and March 2015, the erstwhile NSA, Lt Col MS Dasuki (rtd) awarded fictitious and phantom contracts to the tune of N2,219,188,609.50, $1,671,742,613.58 and €9,905,477.00. The contracts which were said to be for the purchase of 4 Alpha Jets, 12 helicopters, bombs and ammunition were not executed and the equipment were never supplied to the Nigerian Air Force, neither are they in its inventory.
“Even more disturbing was the discovery that out of these figures, 2 companies, were awarded contracts to the tune of N350,000,000.00, $1,661,670,469.71 and €9,905,477.00 alone. This was without prejudice to the consistent non-performance of the companies in the previous contracts awarded.
“Additionally, it was discovered that the former NSA directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to transfer the sum of $132,050,486.97 and €9,905,473.55 to the accounts of Societe D’equipmente Internationaux in West Africa, United Kingdom and United States of America for un-ascertained purposes, without any contract documents to explain the transactions.
“The findings made so far are extremely worrying considering that the interventions were granted within the same period that our troops fighting the insurgency in the North East were in desperate need of platforms, military equipment and ammunition. Had the funds siphoned to these non performing companies been properly used for the purpose they were meant for, thousands of needless Nigerian deaths would have been avoided.
“Furthermore, the ridicule Nigeria has faced in the international community would have been avoided. It is worrisome and disappointing that those entrusted with the security of this great nation were busy using proxies to siphon the national treasury, while innocent lives were wasted daily.
“In light of these findings, President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the relevant organizations arrest and bring to book, all individuals who have been found complicit in these illegal and fraudulent acts.” [myad]
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, was today, at the Convocation Ceremony, installed as the 7th Chancellor of the University of Ibadan.
L-R – Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), O.I. Olukoya (Registrar), The 7th Chancellor, University of Ibadan, His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar (CFR), Sultan of Sokoto. [myad]
A British court has convicted a couple, Emanuel Edet, 61, and Antan Edet, 58 for keeping and treating a Nigerian immigrant as slave for more than two decades, forcing him to work for no pay and threatening him with deportation if he tried to escape, prosecutors said.
The Crown Prosecution Service told the court that the couple held their victim captive from the time he was brought to Britain when he was 14 years old. The husband and wife were convicted at Harrow Crown Court in northwest London on charges of child cruelty, slavery and assisting in illegal immigration.
They had told the teen when they brought him from Nigeria in 1989 that they would pay him and provide him with an education, prosecutors said. Instead, the victim, now 40, was forced to cook, clean, garden and care for the couple’s children without any pay for up to 17 hours a day, they said. He was forced to eat alone and typically slept on hallway floors, they said.
He got no education and had only very limited contact with his family and the outside world. The couple took his passport, and he had no identity documents, prosecutors said.
Prosecutor Damaris Lakin said the Edets told their captive he would be arrested as an illegal immigrant and deported if he left the house and contacted police.
“He believed this and felt trapped and completely dependent on the Edets,” Lakin said in a statement. “Emanuel and Antan Edet have cruelly robbed this victim of 24 years of his life. They have treated him with complete contempt.”
“This was a shocking case of modern day slavery,” he said.
The convictions came on the first day of a two-day Trust Women conference in London on women’s rights and human trafficking held by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Prosecutors said the Edets had changed the victim’s name and added him to their family passport as their son when they brought him into Britain. [myad]
