Speaker of the Nigeria House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has appealed to the international community, especially Western nations to help return billions of dollars looted from Nigeria by corrupt politicians and business people.
Dogara, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs Turaki Hassan made the appeal at the close of the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union ,IPU, in New York.
The Speaker said that Western nations have both moral and legal obligation to Nigeria and other African countries to ensure that monies stolen from Africa are repatriated back.
He said that the return of such funds will help create jobs for millions of jobless young men and women and ultimately reduce to the bearest minimum the surge of migrants to Europe from Africa.
Dogara appealed to heads of parliaments from the West to enact legislations that will block the movement of stolen funds from Africa to their home countries.
He said that as Presiding officers of the legislature, Speakers of Western parliaments should put pressure on their governments to return such looted funds to Nigeria.
The Speaker said that the international community has to come together to fight terrorism as according to hin, “no nation is insulate from its scourge.”
Doing so, according to him, is the surest way to defeat terrorists because most terrorist organisations have links to each other.
He commended the Nigerian military for the recent successes recorded against the insurgents and urged them to push on until the war is won.
He said that Nigeria`s new government is determined to send the six years insurgency, fight corruption and put the country on the pedestal of growth and development. [myad]
Nigeria’s Federal Government has approved N400 million for the payment of upkeep allowances of Nigerian students on foreign scholarships.
According to the acting Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Hindatu Abdullahi, who made this known, the delay in the release of the fund was due to non-release of capital allowance for 2015, and the change in government.
She said that the upkeep allowance of the scholars did not come as overhead allocation but capital allocation, adding that the allowance, payable to the scholars outside the country, is from January to December and it is calculated and captured in the budget every year.
She said that the plight of the students was being taken seriously, adding that “we just have an approval of about N400 million, we are now working with the Federal Ministry of Finance to obtain it.
“After that, we will head to the Budget Office and the Central Bank of Nigeria to ensure that the money is remitted as soon as possible to the missions.
“In terms of the paper work, we have concluded; we want to pay something so that their hardship will be minimised.
Ms. Abdullahi said the entitlements were being worked out from January to December and that in 2014, the students got all allowances for the year between July and August.
“Whenever we receive capital allocation in the ministry, we work out the scholarship money and pay into CBN.
“CBN will now remit same in line with the information we have given them; it will remit to embassies which will remit to the scholars.” [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Rahman Adeola Ipaye as Deputy Chief of Staff and Laolu Akande as Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity in the Presidency.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the President, Femi Adesina said the two new appointees will work in the Office of the Vice President. Mr. Ipaye is the immediate past Attorney General of Lagos State.
He studied at the University of Lagos where he graduated with B.A. (Hons) Degree (History) in 1984; LL.B. Hons (1988) and LL.M. (1991). He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators respectively.
Before his appointment as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ipaye was employed as a lecturer in the Department of Commercial and Industrial Law, University of Lagos (1992 to 2001); Special Assistant (Legal Matters) to the Governor of Lagos State (2001 to 2007); and Special Adviser (Taxation and Revenue) to the Governor of Lagos State and member of the State Executive Council (2007 to 2011).
Laolu Akande graduated from the University of Ibadan in 1990 with an honours degree in History and a Masters degree in Communication and Language Arts in 1992.
He became a Staff Reporter of the Guardian newspaper in 1990 while still serving under the National Youth Service Corps. He left The Guardian to join the foundation team of The News Magazine in 1993, where he became Senior Writer. In 1997, he was appointed by Nigerian Tribune as editor of the Tribune on Saturday, a position he held until he moved to the United States of America in 1998.
In the United States, he worked as a journalist with the Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Newsday. He also served at the United Nations as a Press Officer and later as an Advocacy and Communication Consultant. He was also the Bureau Chief of The Guardian in North America and the Executive Director of the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN).
Akande taught at the State University of New York at Stonybrook and also Suffolk County Community College in Long Island, New York between 2002 and 2015.
Ipaye and Akande have been working with Vice President Osinbajo since the inception of the present Administration. [myad]
Former spokesperson of the State Security Service (SSS) Ms. Marilyn Ogar has been booted out of service after being demoted in rank and removed from the position of information manager of the Service.
Also sacked via compulsory retirement along with Ogar are 14 other senior officials, including two directors of the Service also known as Directorate of State Security (DSS).
A signal from the leadership of the DSS, issued last night, confirmed the development, but did not reveal the identities of other officers affected by the exercise.
Ogar was promoted Deputy Director alongside 44 others shortly before the Presidential election early this year, but the new administration of Muhammadu Buharid reversed the promotions, citing irregularities and breach of extant rules guiding such actions.
Ogar was believed to have earned her promotion following commendation she received from former President Jonathan for doing “a fantastic job” as spokesperson of the DSS.
The erstwhile spokesperson was said to have been transferred outside the Abuja headquarters of the Service shortly after the change in government at the centre. [myad]
Prince Abubakar Audu being led to Court by the EFCC Operative, in Lokoja after being arrested in Jos
The emergence of Prince Abubakar Audu as flag bearer of All Progressives Congress (APC) for the November 26 Kogi state governorship election came as a serious shock to the lovers of moral sanity, a paradox of the first order, an irony of fate and an insult to a sane society which we in Greenbarge Reporters believe Kogi State is. With Prince Audu’s emergence, APC has shot itself not only in the foot but, possibly, dead. Coming in this era of change: the Buhari era that is set to confront corruption head-on, makes the process that brought Prince Audu into the political limelight again looks incredibly strange, painfully laughable and thoroughly unacceptable. Indeed, if the change Nigerians asked and voted for in May this year should take firm root, definitely, Prince Audu is not a good news for the same party that has come to represent that change. And or the party that is positioning itself to be the agent of such change. Only a few years ago, the same man that APC has chosen and floated, from millions of qualified aspirants, to run the change mantra in Kogi, was arrested, humiliated, handcuffed in public glare, marched shamelessly to a court of competent jurisdiction and charged with stealing of over N11 Billion from the coffers of the state when he was governor. Specifically, Prince Audu was taken to a High Court in Lokoja, capital of Kogi state, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, December 04, 2006 on 80-count charge. Imagine 80-count charge! The Sun newspaper captured vividly, the scenario at the time he was led to the court thus: “Audu was taken to the court premises in handcuffs, around 10.08am, in a Peugeot Standard mini-bus marked Plateau A.G. 162-QAP and docked before Justice Michael Medupin. “Major roads leading to the court premises – through police headquarters, NUJ Press Centre and Crowther Road – were cordoned off by anti-riot policemen to check vehicular movements. “The tension led to the closure of offices of the Teaching Service Commission and Crowther Memorial College. “After all the 80 charges were read to Audu, Olanipekun made an oral application for his bail, saying that some of the allegations were political charges, all of which, he argued, were bailable. He assured that as a senior citizen of Nigeria, who had also previously been governor, Audu would not jump bail. “Counsel to EFCC did not object to the ex-governor being granted bail. However, he argued that Audu’s attorneys should not make ordinary oral application for bail. “The trial judge. after hearing their arguments adjourned the case to Wednesday, December 6, for ruling on whether or not to grant the accused person bail. He also ordered that Audu be remanded in the EFCC custody in Abuja, but ordered the operatives not to handcuff the former governor.” And about nine years after he was so humiliated, demonised, treated like a common criminal (the same way the security agents would treat armed robber, in handcuffs et al), Prince Audu is back, by hook and or crook, as a potential governor of the same Kogi state. And that is even when the same case for which he was so justifiably treated was and is still pending in court. Without beating much about the bush, the question is “has APC made its governorship platform ready for Prince Audu as an escape route to evade justice with the so-called immunity, should he go ahead to win the election and become Kogi state governor again?” What type of corruption would Buhari be waging war against if one of the governors under his party or, for that matter, if one of the top members of the party, wreaks of transparent corruption and is being ingloriously crowned with conferment of honour as a potential governor?
Is APC and or President Muhammadu Buhari comfortable with and proud of Prince Audu being floated as governorship candidate, and made to go ahead to contest the election with a big question-mark hanging on his forehead?
The mere mention of Prince Audu in a society or country that is struggling to cast off the yoke of demeaning and monstrous corruption would represent a mockery on, and a major black-spot in such anti-corruption crusade; the crusade which President Buhari in particular and APC in general are set to embark on. God forbid that such thing as using heap of sand to cover putrid “excreta” in the form of corruption should happen on the Nigerian soil again! Except if APC will allow itself to be seen as singing anti-corruption in the day time and embracing corruption with passion in the night. And, the Kogi people that we know, will not vote for Prince Audu with the darmorcle of corruption dangling from his head. APC has a precious second chance to re-think and correct itself before it lose not only Kogi state but its integrity and moral right to float anti-corruption mantra. To be forewarned…
A 57-year-old pastor from Brazil, Sobrini Valdeci Picanto, has described his sperm as sacred and that it is divine milk of the Holy Spirit. He added that Jesus Christ blessed his manhood and consecrated him with heavenly semen of the Holy Spirit.
According to a Brazilian online medium: Inbraziltoday.com, the Pastor was alleged to have asked his church members at Faithful Apore Assembly to always practice oral sex with him.
Picanto was reportedly arrested in Apore, Goiás, Brazil for raping several women attending his church, with the notion that his penis had been consecrated with divine semen of the Holy Spirit.
One of his followers, unnamed, said: “He convinced us that only God could come into our lives through the mouth. Picanto, usually after church service, asked us to do oral sex on him until the Holy Spirit came through ejaculation and delivered funds to the church.”
The follower further disclosed, saying, “Picanto claims to have had an encounter with Jesus in a brothel and gave him the mission of spreading the sacred semen throughout the state, beginning with the Faithful Apore Assembly which he is overseeing.”
A delegate of the Apore region, Denise Pinheiro, said: “Valdecir was caught red-handed while rubbing his manhood in the face of a local merchant, which promised to make more sales in her business due to the divine liquid. [myad]
Former Nigerian soccer star, Segun Odegbami has announced his bid to run for president of the sport’s international governing body FIFA.
His campaign chief said today that Odegbami who was nicknamed in his soccer days as “Mathematical Odegbami” has set up all the structures he needed to contest and win the Presidency of the world soccer body.
Odegbami was the top scorer when Nigeria’s Green Eagles won the African Cup of Nations for the first time in 1980. He also served as captain of the team in 1980-81.
Odegbami has previously tried to enter sports politics, having unsuccessfully run four times for head of the Nigerian Football Federation. He now runs a sports academy in Ogun state.
The election of a new FIFA head is due to take place on February 26 next year in Zurich, Switzerland. FIFA has never had an African President.
World soccer was thrown into turmoil this year after 14 sports marketing executives and soccer officials, including from Zurich-based FIFA, were indicted by the United States in late May on bribery, money laundering and wire fraud charges.
Longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced his resignation in June in response to the scandal.
“The current scandal at FIFA is the organisation’s worst crisis in its 111 years of existence. Moving forward, FIFA thus require a new era of leadership…I see myself fitting into this role,” Odegbami said in an emailed statement provided to reporters by campaign chief Ade Adeagbo.
Michel Platini, the French head of Europe’s soccer body UEFA, is seen as the front-runner in the race to replace Blatter, who will relinquish his mandate at the helm of world soccer’s governing body in the February vote. [myad]
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ekiti state, has announced the arrest of an alleged notorious drug baron, Shayo Oguntegbe, popularly called Oritano.
The acting Commander of the NDLEA in Ekiti state, Mr Nnanna Nworisa, who disclosed this today said that officers of the command had been on the trail of the suspect for 21 days in three states — Ondo, Osun and Ekiti where he had several cannabis farms.
Nworisa said the suspect was arrested on August 31 in one of his large cannabis farm in Ikere-Ekiti after `several strategic surveillance and consistent watch’ by officers of the command.
“Oguntegbe is a notorious drug baron, who has been declared wanted by the NDLEA command in Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states.
“He is an indigene of Ondo and bought several farms in Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states from leaders of the community.
“We arrested him when he came to harvest and supervise his cannabis farms located in a thick and hidden forest in Ikere-Ekiti. ”
The commander said the suspect had been on the watch list of the headquarters of the agency and Ondo command for several years.
He said the suspect is currently in the custody of the command and would be prosecuted as soon the Federal High court resumes. [myad]
Northern Christian Solidarity Forum (NCSF), a group focused on uniting the church in Northern Nigeria has shown appreciation to President Muhammadui Buhari for the appointment of Engineer. Babachir David Lawal as Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) and the election of Yakubu Dogara as speaker of the House of Representatives.
The group, in a statement by its chairman, Rev. Joseph Hayab who is former Adviser to Kaduna State government on Christian Affairs read: “As a body, we have been following the activities of President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly with keen interest.
“After the three months of steering the affairs of this country, we confidently say that President Muhammadu Buhari means well for this country.
“We commend President Buhari for appointing, Engr. Babachir David Lawal, a Christian from Adamawa State, North-East, as Secretary to Government of the Federal, SGF.
“In the same vein, we want to express our gratitude to the members of the House of Representatives for electing Mr. Dogara Yakubu, a Christians minority from Bauchi State as their speaker.
“The emergence of Babachir as SGF and Hon. Dogara Yakubu is a clear signal that President Buhari mean well for Nigerians. “We believe that the appointment of Babachir as SGF will further strengthen unity among Christians and their Muslim brothers in the region called north.
“We believe in the competency of Babachir, and there is no denying the fact that the new SGF will help Buhari transform Nigeria for good. “We commend President Buhari and the National Assembly for breaking religious barriers. The NASS did well by voting Dogara. By doing this, they are saying to Nigerians that the era of religious differences in the North are over.
“We thank President Buhari for the appointment, hoping that the new SGF and other Christians working with President Buhari will put in their best in helping the President fix Nigeria.
“We also want the Northern Christians to see their appointment as a call to service and must work hard to bring the desire change that Nigerians are yearning for.
‘’By this appointment, President Buhari has proved to Nigerians that he is after competence and not religion, ethnic or regional sentiments.” He has proven that he is a detribalised person.” [myad]
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