Managing Director of the Petroleum Product Marketing Company (PPMC) Prince Haruna Momoh, has been sacked. PPMC is a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) whose five executive directors were also sacked yesterday. In the haze of sack that is sweeping across the federal government owned oil giant, a Presidency source confirmed that it is a way by which the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) wants to take full control of the system, saying: “we have power now, while PDP is still in control (of NNPC).” The new Group Managing Director of the Corporation, who was appointed late last week, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu announced the sacking of eight Group Executive Directors and promotion of four Group General Managers yesterday. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has advised three new ambassadors to Nigeria who presented their letters of credence to him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, today, to go ahead and explore the vibrant economic potentials of Nigeria. The President told ambassadors Andrezj Dycha of Poland, Stanislas Kamanzi of Rwanda and Stephane De Loeckeras of Belgium that he looks forward to working with them. “We are hopeful that our diplomatic and economic relationships with you will be substantially improved during your time here. “The Nigerian business environment and the community are quite vibrant and we should be able to explore additional areas of common interest during your tenure.” President Buhari assured them that his administration will work with them to further improve existing bilateral relations between their respective countries and Nigeria. The President also assured the three new ambassadors that the Federal Government will continuously engage with them and other diplomats serving in Nigeria on issues of common interest and benefit to Nigeria and their countries. He wished them very successful tenures in Nigeria. The new ambassadors thanked the President for receiving them and assured him that they will work hard to enhance and strengthen the cordial existing relations between Nigeria and their countries. [myad]
Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus has narrated how the party shared the N12 Billion which the workers in the party’s headquarters in Abuja have alleged was embezzled to the hierarchy.
Secondus, who spoke to news men today in Abuja over the workers’ allegation, said that the money in question was not even up to the N12bn as alleged by the workers.
“The money is about N11.billion plus. We are not corrupt. We have our mechanisms on how the money is to be spent and shared among the party’s hierarchies.
“For example, we will share to the states, local governments, zones and then the national body.
“Besides, we also have money for the elections during the campaigns. Nobody, no member of the NWC had embezzled any money.”
Apart from this, he said, the party was the one who raised the money and was at liberty to spend it.
The workers, while reacting to the plan of the party to sack 50 per cent of them as stated in a memo to them by the party’s National Secretary, Professor Wale Oladipo, had asked members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to explain what happened to the N12bn which was accrued to the party in the last few months.
The workers said if the money had been judiciously spent and saved, the party wouldn’t be in a financial mess to warrant the planned sacking of the workers. [myad]
The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Abdulmajid Ali has ordered his men to shoot on sight any cultist, ritualist or kidnapper caught in the act.
Confirming the directive at the state Command Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta today while parading 23 suspects, among whom were suspected ritualists, cultists, kidnappers and murderers, Ali said that criminal activities in the state are getting to an alarming rate.
He said that drastic actions needed to be taken to stop them, even as he warned that criminals would no longer be treated with kid gloves.
The police commissioner said: “It is barely 30 days that I assumed office, and I have promised to do my best and I will continue until we get rid of the bad eggs in our society.
“I want to inform you that the issue of cultism and ritualists will not be treated with levity any longer. We have decided and I have given order to my boys to shoot on sight any cultist, ritualist caught perpetrating any of these activities.
“Either armed personally or they are found in group with arms, my men will bring them down.
“We have decided that a cult member would be treated as an armed robber, a murderer.”
Among those paraded were murder and kidnap suspects. They are: Abdulgafar Odunayo, Morufu Olasoji, John Akindumola, Titilayo Olanrewaju, Sakiru Balogun, Jimoh Sikiru and Adesanya Emmanuel.
The suspected cultists are Olupitan Olufemi, Olumide Sogbesan, Mutalibu Seun, Abdulkareem Abiodun, Muyideen Tijani and Idowu Adams. Others were Adedeji Adenuga, Sodiq Surakatu, Jimoh Akapo, Shobande Aanu, Aanu Amusa and Yusuf Oriade.
Also paraded were two suspected ritualists: Fatunbi Rahaman and Hassan Kunle, who were caught with one human skull and assorted charms.
Speaking about the progress made so far on the murder of Iyaloja-General of Ijebuland, Alhaja Saidat Elewuju, the police boss said his men had arrested one suspect, who had already been charged to court. Elewuju was killed on Wednesday, July 8 in her home in Ijebu Ode.
The police boss said that Chief Olasile Ifayemi, who was linked with the abduction of a 20-month- old baby, Opeyemi Ogundele, in Abeokuta, escaped when his men stormed his hideout in Lagos to arrest him. [myad]
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has alerted state governments and communities along River Benue, of possible flood, following information from Cameroonian authorities on plans to release excess water from Lagdo Dam.
In a statement, Director General of NEMA, Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sidi, said the Cameroonian authorities in Garuoa have indicated that between now and November 2015, there would be routine release of water from the Lagdo Dam due to excessive amount of water presently contained in the facility.
Sidi said the authorities have also warned “all those living around the dam and along River Benue in Garoua up to Nigeria side to be at alert and be ready for evacuation in case of possible flooding.”
He called on the frontline state governors, state Emergency Management Agencies, first responders and relevant authorities to alert the communities at risk, prepare safe locations for possible evacuation and adequate preparedness. The Director General said that the agency has dispatched the alert to the affected state governors and is following up with appropriate advocacy.
The release of excess water from the dam in 2012 contributed to massive flooding of communities along the river. In 2013, the two countries reached an agreement that Cameroon should give early warning to enable Nigeria put in place proactive measure to prevent destruction of lives and properties. [myad]
Wife of the former President, Dame Patience Jonathan
Former Nigeria First Lady and wife of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience Jonathan has been alleged to be working for All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State for the purpose of foisting a candidate of her choice in the forthcoming governorship election in the State.
A group, which identified itself as ‘Forum For Political Freedom in Bayelsa State’ (FOPOF) accused the former First Lady of using illegally acquired wealth to heavily fund and create a power bloc in the APC in Bayelsa State. She was said to be using members of the defunct Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) whom she equally used to undermine the leadership of the PDP in the State in the period leading to the last presidential election which the husband lost.
The Director General of FOPOF, Elder Adenzi Kakarite, alleged that majority of those defecting from the PDP to the APC are not only her close associates, but vocal members of the defunct TAN in Bayelsa State, whom she wants to use to impose a candidate of her choice to run on the platform of the party in the upcoming elections.
Elder Kakarite pointed out that the former First Lady, who had promised to remain in Okrika, has now made Otuoke her political sanctuary, where she holds daily meetings and raises funds, with a view to ensuring that the defectors hijack the machinery of the APC.
He alleged that Mrs. Jonathan is also funding and working with the PDP Unity Forum, made up of PDP members who were accused of anti party activities during the last State House of Assembly polls in the state, and were either expelled or suspended from the party.
Elder Kakarite explained that most of this group of PDP members, who were readmitted into the party after the peace and reconciliation efforts of the National and State offices of the party, are being funded by the former first lady to carry out campaigns of calumny and spreading deliberate falsehood to discredit Governor Seriake Dickson.
The FOPOF leader warned Bayelsans to be mindful of the dirty and anti progressive antics of this group of persons, who are going about propagating falsehoods, using some vulnerable Bayelsans to state that the PDP would lose the Bayelsa governorship if it fields incumbent governor Henry Seriake Dickson in the upcoming election.
The statement read in part:
“The former First Lady is very greedy and selfish by wanting to sponsor the candidates of both the PDP and the APC, so that she can continue to milk the state dry.
“Bayelsans must rise up and resist this woman, who clearly does not mean well for Bayelsa state, because she was partly the reason for the husband’s defeat in the last presidential election; and since she couldn’t succeed at the national level, she wants to come and force a governor of her choice down our throats. No, we must resist it.”
The statement disclosed that Mrs. Jonathan was meddling in Bayelsa politics, because she has fallen out of favour with her kinsmen in Okrika, Rivers state. [myad]
A suicide bomb attack on a mosque being used by security forces in Abha, close to the Yemeni border in Saudi Arabia has left 13 people dead.
A senior Saudi official said today that the many of those killed were members of the security forces. The mosque was used by a Swat team tasked with domestic security, officials said.
It is not yet clear who carried out the attack and no group has yet claimed it.
Two deadly attacks on Shia mosques in May were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Saudi Arabia is also heading a campaign against Shia-led rebels in neighbouring Yemen. [myad]
The authorities of the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State have announced the appointment of the Emir of Hadejia in Jigawa state, Abubakar Adamu Maje, as the fifth Chancellor of the university. The appointment was said to be on merit.
The Vice Chancellor, Comfort Ekpo, presented a letter of appointment to the monarch in his palace in Hadejia today. She led a delegation of the university’s top management to the emir’s palace
“The university governing council has chosen you to be its royal father based on your track record and the rich historical background of your emirate,” Mrs. Ekpo said.
The vice chancellor said the university believes that the monarch would use his vast experience and position in making the university one of the best in Africa in terms of academic performance and discipline.
The university of Uyo, which was established in 1991, currently has over 21,000 students with a staff strength of about 4,009, Mrs. Ekpo said.
In his response, the Emir, Adamu Maje assured the university and the Federal Government of his readiness to serve in the new position, adding:“I promise to do all what I can in my position to work with university council and all relevant people to actualise the dreams of the university’s founding fathers.
“I will work relentlessly to justify the confidence reposed on me and I am expressing my gratitude to the university governing council for this honour given to my emirate.” [myad]
Presidency has descended on an Abuja-based newspaper, The Pilot for exaggerating the cost of President Muhammadu Buhari’s official trip to the United States of America recently. The Presidency said: “Our attention has been drawn to an editorial published in the Nigerian Pilot of August 2, 2015 and an earlier report in which the total cost of President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent trip to the U.S. was estimated at N2.2 billion.” A statement by the senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Mallam Shehu Garba expressed sadness that in this age of free-flowing information “and in this era of CHANGE, a media organisation would make itself available as a vehicle to peddle a lie of such low and ignominious quality. “Contrary to the newspaper’s assertions, the total cost of the trip to the Nigerian taxpayer was at the most minimal, in line with the policy of this administration to cut waste and extravagance. “In point of fact, the total amount expended on the trip by the Office of the President amounted to nothing near ten per cent of the speculated figure. “Owing to the free accommodation provided by the host government, all the personal staff who accompanied the President on the trip received reduced allowances. “His son, Yusuf, received neither allowances nor estacode. The five Governors on the trip each paid his own way. Permanent Secretaries who traveled on the delegation did so in accordance with extant rules and none of them exceeded their estacode entitlements.” Shehu said that apart from what he called “the Nigerian Pilot’s mischievous mathematics, it is shortsighted and misleading of the newspaper to have claimed that President Buhari’s trip to the U.S. achieved nothing.” He recalled that Nigerian-US relations had suffered severely over the past few years which he said has now been reset. According to Shehu, the benefits of this symbiotic relationship will become more and more evident as the Buhari administration continues to tackle the challenges of corruption, security and the economy. “Some of the more immediate benefits of the President’s trip to the U.S include: the proposed $2.1 billion fund from the World Bank for the re-development of the northeast battered by Boko Haram; $5 billion from US investors in Nigeria’s agriculture sector; $1.5 billion investment in the Nigerian health sector; and another $5 billion investment from the U.S in our country’s power sector. “Also, as things stand at the moment, the embargo on the sale of weapons sales to Nigeria is in the process of being removed. “The trip to the U.S by President Buhari was definitely very successful and beneficial to Nigeria.” The senior special assistant said that it is only those “rabidly determined to find faults unnecessarily will cook up falsehood in a futile effort to rake up murk where none exists.” [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the commencement of the environmental clean-up of Ogoniland in earnest in the Niger Delta region, even as he inaugurated the Governing Council of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) as well as the Board of Trustees for the Trust Fund This was one of the actions which the President approved today at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, aimed at fast-tracking the long delayed implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Report on the environmental restoration of Ogoniland. According to a statement from the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, the President’s actions, which are in tandem with his avowed commitment to working for the development and well-being of all Nigerians, were also based on recommendations to him by the Executive Director of UNEP, the UNEP Special Representative for Ogoniland, Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Ministries of Environment and Petroleum Resources, and other stakeholders, include the amendment of the Official Gazette establishing the HYPREP to reflect a new governance framework comprising a Governing Council, a Board of Trustees and Project Management. The President further approved that the HYPREP Governing Council should be composed as follows: Ministry of Petroleum Resources – One Representative Federal Ministry of Environment – One Representative Impacted States (Rivers)
– One Representative Oil Companies & NNPC
– 4 Representatives Ogoniland – 2 Representatives United Nations System – One Representative Secretariat Headed by Project Manager President Buhari also approved the composition of a Board of Trustees for the HYPREP Trust Fund as follows: FederalGovernment – One Representative NNPC – One Representative International Oil Companies – One Representative Ogoniland – One Representative United Nations System – One Representative The statement from Adesina said that after a meeting held on the directive of President Buhari, it was also agreed that a contribution deposit of 10 million United States dollars will be made by stakeholders within 30 days of the appointment of members of the Board of Trustees for the Trust Fund who will be responsible for collecting and managing funds from contributors and donors. It said that a new implementation template has also been evolved at the instance of President Buhari. [myad]
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