BENEFICIARIES of Federal Government’s Social Investment Programme popularly known as N-Power who are living with physical disability have pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari not to disengage them from the programme.
This follows plans by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to disengage beneficiaries engaged under Batch A and B of the N-Power from the scheme by June 30 and July 31, respectively.
In a letter to the president by a group of beneficiaries living with physical disability under the umbrella of Transnational Support Initiative for Persons with Disability (TRANSPED), Timileyin Olonisaye and Abejide Ifeoluwa, national coordinator and secretary of the association said the move to disengage them would lead them into abject poverty.
“Now that the Federal Government has decided to disengage all N-power beneficiaries, a shadow has been cast on the survival of the PWDs who will be dis-empowered by their disengagement from the N-power program. Will this not lead them back to abject poverty at a time where jobs are not readily available to PWDs?, they asked.
They urged the president to use his good office to make special consideration for People With Disabilities (PWDs) noting that the disengagement of PWDs from the batch A & B of the N-power program will lead to waste of experience and ultimately lead the PWDs back into poverty.
The group which termed the planned disengagement of the PWDs in Npower Batches A & B as the disempowerment noted that the stipends they received during program served as a source of income for them and also helped them to attend to their immediate needs.
Earlier last week, some beneficiaries of the National Social Investment Programme (N-power), have written to Ahmed Lawan, the Senate President over the failure of Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to pay their monthly stipends in the last three months.
On June 9, The ICIR reported how the beneficiaries had cried out over the non-payment of their allowances. Prior to the report, the Minister had promised beneficiaries and the program monitors across the country that they would start receiving payments for the months of March and April within the next 72 hours.
The N-Power Programme was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) with the mandate of lifting citizens out of poverty through capacity building, investment, and direct support.
AFRICA’S first human trial for a potential vaccine against the coronavirus has begun at a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, Reuters reports.
The volunteers who received their first shot of the injections on Wednesday were said to be nervous.
“I feel a little bit scared but I want to know what is going on with this vaccine so that I can tell my friends and others what is going on with the study,” one of the vaccine trial volunteers, Junior Mhlongo, said in Johannesburg.
The large-scale trial of the vaccine developed at the University of Oxford in Britain is being conducted in South Africa, Britain and Brazil.
South Africa has nearly one-third of Africa’s confirmed cases with more than 106,000, including more than 2,100 deaths. The country on Tuesday reported its biggest one-day death toll of 111.
The African continent now has nearly 325,000 cases as countries loosen restrictions under economic pressure from citizens who say they have to feed their families.
Shortages of testing materials and medical supplies remain a problem as Africa could become the world’s next hot spot.
The pandemic was delayed in Africa “but is picking up speed very quickly,” the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief John Nkengasong said Wednesday.
This is the second trial of the vaccine outside the United Kingdom after Brazil.
There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the illness caused by the new strain of coronavirus, but more than a dozen vaccines from more than 100 candidates globally are currently being tested on humans.
THE government of Ghana has disclosed the reason why the premises of the High Commission of Nigeria in Accra was demolished last Friday by unknown men.
Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Ghana Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, in a statement on Thursday, said though there is evidence that Nigeria had paid for the 4 -acre parcel of land, it is yet to possess the Title Certificate to the property from the Lands Commission.
Botchwey was a member of the Committee, comprising officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the Lands Commission, National Security Secretariat and the Ghana Police Service, that investigated the violation of the Nigerian territory in Ghana.
The preliminary finding shows that the Lands Commission, a government agency responsible for land registry in Ghana, confirmed that the letter of August 7, 2000, granting allocation and right of entry to the Nigerian High Commission, “was genuine and, indeed, emanated from its Head Office.”
The High Commission of Nigeria further presented receipts of payments on the said land, made by Bankers Draft payable to the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission.
But the Nigerian High Commission failed to perfect the title document.
Nearly 20 years after the transaction, the Lands Commission wrote a letter informing the High Commission of Nigeria, that the original owner of the land, Osu Stool had requested the Lands Commission to grant a lease to a third party on the land in question.
The Lands Commission, therefore, advised the High Commission of Nigeria to provide relevant documents on ownership of the land, but Nigeria did not respond.
“Based on the silence of the High Commission of Nigeria, the Lands Commission went ahead and issued a Land Title Certificate covering the said parcel of land to a third party,” the Committee report stated.
The ICIR later confirmed that the “third party” is GLICO Healthcare Limited, a subsidiary company under the GLICO group owned by Dr. Andrew Kwame Achampong-Kyei, a Ghanaian business mogul.
“Unfortunately, owing to the fact that the High Commission did not obtain a lease following the allocation letter, or proceed to obtain a Land Title Certificate or even a building permit for the new property, a search by the Lands Commission did not show that any proper documentation had been obtained in respect of the property,” the Committee stated.
So on June 16, a group of armed men showed up at the premises and demolished the fence around the premises.
Three days later they brought down a part of the building in the presence of arms-bearing security men.
Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, has condemned the demolition in his tweet on Sunday.
“We strongly condemn two outrageous criminal attacks in Accra, Ghana on a residential building in our diplomatic premises by an unknown person in which bulldozer was used to demolish the building.”
The minister was relying on articles 22 and 30 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations that stipulate that the premises of the Mission as well as the private residence of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable.
He asked the Ghanian government to find the perpetrators and provide adequate protection for Nigerians and their property in Ghana.
The following day, the Paramount Chief of the Osu Traditional Area and the President of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI said in a statement the land on which the building was built belongs to Osu Stool.
Nii Kinka Dowuona VI condemned the Ghanaian government of inviting the “trespassers” to produce documentation for their parcel of land.
“The Osu Stool remains the owner of the said parcel of land and wishes to notify the general public that all other intended users of the property must first seek the permission of the stool.
“The Stool informs the general public that there has never been a purchase of any parcel of land from it by the foreign office of the Nigerian High Commission.”
Despite the disclosure, the Stool did not admit that it was responsible for the demolition.
The latest news reports in Ghana disclosed that two people have been arrested in connection with the demolition.
The ICIR could not ascertain if Chief Dowuona VI is one of them.
Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI Credit: https://www.adomonline.com/
A Ghanaian journalist, Koku Mawuli Nanegbe, has blamed the government of Ghana “for sleeping on their duty” by allowing diplomatic territory of a sovereign state to be so violated.
He expressed shock that the president who gets daily briefings on intelligence on security matters failed to prevent the demolition.
“It makes it murkier when State security agencies are the ones reported to have provided cover for the demolition, whereas an attempt to get the police in Ghana to intervene failed,” Nanegbe told The ICIR in a Whatsapp chat.
Nanegbe was referring to the statement of the Chief Security Officer at the Nigeria High Commission, Emmanuel Kabutey, who said police officers arrived at the scene, but they did nothing to stop the demolition.
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana has resolved that the Lands Commission will issue a Land Title Certificate to the High Commission of Nigeria to regularize its ownership of the property, and pledged to rebuild the demolished building to its original state, as soon as possible.
The government also promised to sanction the perpetrators in accordance with the laws of the land.
Considering the status of the people involved, and the timing of the offence, some Ghanaians think the suspects may go scot-free.
“The Government, without putting out the culprits’ names, claimed it has arrested 2 people of which this chief is one. But trust me, the prosecution won’t get anywhere. It won’t happen. This is where politics will play out, election is about five months away.
“This Government cannot have the balls to prosecute this chief. It is the reason they are not putting out their names,” a Ghanaian who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of his position in Accra told The ICIR.
“Osu is a powerful traditional stool. The government might not take any action against the royalty because of 2020 election is around the corner,” Anthony Komlatse, a Ghanaian resident in Abuja, Nigeria said.
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has nominated Ishaq Usman Bello, Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, as judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague.
This was made known on Thursday in a tweet by Bashir Ahmad, Personal Assistant on New Media to the President.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.
Justice Ishaq Usman Bello was born on January 5 1956 in Zaira, Kaduna State.
He will be the fifth Nigerian judge to serve at the Hague. Others who had served at the ICC included Charles Onyeama, father of Geoffrey Onyeama, current Minister of Foreign Affairs. Taslim Olawale Elias, Prince Bola Ajibola and Chile Eboe-Osuji who was named in March 2018 as the president of the court.
In March 2018, Chile Eboe-Osuji was named the new president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, for a three-year term that begins immediately.
The new nominee, Bello paid attention to the de-congestion of prisons in Abuja. He started visiting prisons within his jurisdiction, releasing over 40 awaiting trial prisoners in the process.
By the end of October 2017, he was appointed as the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Prison Reforms and De-congestion, now Presidential Committee on Correctional Service Reforms and De-congestion, by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
The committee’s responsibility was to lead the reform processes of the Nigerian prison system.
The judge has visited 36 prisons and ordered the release of 3,822 inmates – about 5 percent of the Nigerian prison population.
He also presided over the “Apo Six” case starting from 2005. The case, which was called Nigeria’s “most infamous case of extrajudicial killing” by the BBC, cost six young civilians their lives.
In 2017, Judge Bello convicted two police officers over their involvement in the murder of two out of the six civilians.
“The two defendants have no regard for the sanctity of human lives,” Judge Bello was quoted by AFP news agency as telling the court.
“They are not only over-zealous but also extremely reckless.
THE Dubai Special Weapons And Tactics Unit (SWAT), Police have revealed how they uncovered a fraud plan worth of Dh1.6 billion (N168billion), involving a Nigerian Instagram celebrity, Raymoni Igbalode, popularly known as Hushpuppi.
In a video shared by the police on Twitter on Thursday, the six-man team SWAT that carried out the operation explained how they arrested Hushpuppi alongside one Olalekan Jacob Ponle, known as Woodberry, and ten others.
The operation titled Fox Hunt 2 enabled the arrest of the suspects for crimes committed outside the UAE, including money laundering, cyber fraud, hacking, impersonation, scamming individuals, banking fraud and identity theft.
Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, a Lt-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai Police, said the arrest of the suspects was another achievement for the police in ensuring the Emirate’s security and safety.
“Similar to operation ‘Fox Hunt 1’ that took down an African gang of nine online scammers last February, ‘Fox Hunt 2’ is another effective action against cybercriminals who try to mess with the world’s security and safety,” Al Marri said.
It will be recalled that Dubai Police in February, also foiled an attack of gang of nine fraudsters specialised in cyber crime after they had run 81 fake business across 18 countries around the world. The operation was tagged “Fox Hunt 1″
According to Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Major-General and Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Criminal Investigation, the suspects were caught in a series of synchronised raids by six SWAT teams.
“The operation was carried out in a highly professional manner in terms of planning and execution as well as setting a zero hour to take down all gang members in the same time,” Al Mansouri.
“The arrest of ‘Hushpuppi’,’Woodberry’ and 10 gang members involved in money laundry & cyber fraud activities, is another achievement added to the proud record of Dubai police in ensuring the emirate’s security and safety.”
The Fox Hunt 2 video shared by the Police revealed how the gang had 119,580 “fraud files” as well as addresses of more than 1.92 million victims.
Along with 13 luxury cars, valued at an estimated Dh25m ($6.8m), police confiscated 21 computers and 47 smartphones.
Police said in the video that email addresses for 800,000 potential victims were discovered, and that the gang could have scammed as much as Dh1.6 billion from victims.
Few days after the arrest of Hushpuppi and his gang, The ICIR made series of attempts to gather information by reaching out to International Criminal Police Organization ( Interpol) and the Dubai Police.
On June 6, 2020 this newspaper reached out to the Interpol at its UAE office via an email to verify the earlier reported story about the arrest of the accused but the Interpol referred the enquiry to the UAE authorities.
On the same day, the Dubai Police Authority was contacted via an email. The police also referred The ICIR to the General Department of its Criminal Investigations Unit.
After contacting the Criminal Investigation Unit, on June 15, 2020, the authority responded and forwarded the request to the appropriate office and suggested The ICIR contact three office telephone lines for further action in case there was no response.
However, as of the time of filing this report, there was no response from the Dubai Authority and the calls put to the three lines were unsuccessful.
A SUM of N250 million diverted from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by a contractor has been temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government by a Federal High Court in Lagos.
Justice Rilwan Aikawa gave the temporary forfeiture order following an ex-parte application filed by Usman Buhari, counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before the court.
According to the EFCC Counsel, the contractor had illegally diverted the sum from the NDDC, through a contract awarded by the Federal Government.
He also prayed for an order directing the publication of the interim forfeiture in a national newspaper for anyone interested to, within 14 days, show why a final order of forfeiture should not be made on the sum in the government’s favour.
Justice Aikawa, in a short ruling, granted all the reliefs and adjourned further proceedings till July 9, 2020.
Over the years there have been series of allegations of diversion of funds at the NDDC.
In 2015 the then Auditor General of the Federation Samuel Ukura affirmed that over N183 billion was missing from the accounts of the Commission despite denials by its officials.
President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2019 ordered a forensic audit on the operations of the NDDC from 2001 to 2019 in a move to check the excesses of corrupt officials in the agency at the expense of the Niger Delta.
In February, the president also approved the composition of a committee to monitor the activities of the Commission.
Also in March he revealed that over N3.7 billion and other assets have been recovered from former directors and contractors of the NDDC by the EFCC.
The NDDC was set up in 2000 by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to fast-track development in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Twenty years later, the region still remains backward in terms of infrastructure and standard of living, despite the huge amount of money made from oil exploration in the area.
NIGERIA’s economy is expected to plunge into severe economic recession, the worst the country has experienced in four decades, the latest World Bank Nigeria Development Update (NDU), has posited.
According to the report titled ‘Nigeria In Times of COVID-19: Laying Foundations for a Strong Recovery,’ the collapse in oil prices as well as the COVID-19 pandemic are two attributable factors of the impending crisis.
The report estimates that Nigeria’s economy would likely contract by 3.2 percent in 2020, based on projections that COVID-19 would be contained by the third quarter of 2020.
It stated that Nigerian economy could contract further in a case where the virus isn’t contained and its spread becomes more severe.
The report also highlights that if the country manages to contain the spread of COVID-19, its dependence on oil already spells doom, projecting that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria could fall to as low as five percent in 2020.
“Even if Nigeria manages to contain the spread of the virus. Oil represents more than 80 percent of Nigeria’s exports, 30 percent of its banking-sector credit, and 50 percent of the overall government revenue,” it said.
“With the drop in oil prices, government revenues are expected to fall from an already low 8 percent of GDP in 2019 to a projected 5 percent in 2020.”
As an human development indicator, the report shows that the human cost of COVID-19 could be high, noting that the COVID-19 shock could push about 5 million more Nigerians into poverty in 2020.
This, it described as an alarm bell for a country which has 40 percent of its estimated 200 million population living below $1 per day, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
“The COVID-19 shock alone is projected to push about 5 million more Nigerians into poverty in 2020.
“Before the pandemic, the number of poor Nigerians was expected to increase by about 2 million largely due to population growth, the number would now increase by 7 million – with a poverty rate projected to rise from 40.1% in 2019 to 42.5% in 2020,” the report states.
In proffering a solution, the report shares policy options in five critical areas that can help Nigeria recover from the COVID-19 crisis, including, containing the outbreak and preparing for a more severe outbreak; enhancing macroeconomic management to boost investor confidence; safeguarding and mobilizing revenues; reprioritizing public spending to protect critical development expenditures and stimulate economic activity; and protecting poor and vulnerable communities.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has approved a $750 million loan credit for Nigeria’s Power Sector Recovery Operation in a bid to improve electricity supply in the country.
COUPLES whose wedding ceremony violates the COVID-19 wedding guidelines put in place by Rivers State Government to stop the spread of the disease will pay a fine of N10 million, the State Government said.
Paulinus Nsirim, Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, who disclosed this said the guidelines were approved by the State Executive Council during a meeting under the leadership of Nyesom Wike, Governor of the state.
Nsirim stated that intending couples are to apply to the state governor through the Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation.
According to him, couples must include information on the venue of the ceremony, names, addresses and phones numbers of intending attendees, warning that any application missing the required details would not be granted approval.
He further explained that each ceremony must have a maximum of 50 attendees while the venue of the ceremony must have provisions for running water and soap in three areas, adding that the venue must decontaminated after the event.
“Soap and running water has to be kept at the entrance to the venue in not less than three places while all attendees are to wear face masks and maintain social distancing of not less than two meters,” he said.
The Commissioner stressed that church weddings must be conducted between 9 am and 12 pm, while traditional weddings would be conducted between 4 pm and 7 pm.
Nsirim said wedding receptions were prohibited under the guidelines, citing the need to prevent the risk of community transmission.
He further highlighted that residents that failed to follow the guidelines would be subject to a fine of N10 million.
“A representative of the Ministry would be present to observe the event. A fine of N10,000,000 is to be paid by anyone that puts people at risk by breaking this regulation,” the Commissioner said.
The Rivers State government has carried out strict measures in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
It would be recalled that the governor, Wike, in May, ordered and supervised the demolition of two hotels for flouting the COVID-19 preventive directive in the state.
THE leadership crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is yet to be over as the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party was on Thursday dissolved by Victor Giadom led faction of the party.
Bashir Ahmad, Presidential Aide on New Media twitted that the dissolution of the party NWC followed recommendation by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC has been dissolved, the decision has just been taken at the ongoing Party’s NEC Meeting,” Ahmad said.
“Following the recommendation of President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been dissolved.”
Giadom who is the self-acclaimed acting National Chairman of the party is already enjoying the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari, leaders of National Assembly and some governors of the party called the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party which held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
Speaking during the meeting, President Buhari warned that there would be dire consequences for party members who choose to ignore the resolutions arrived at during the meeting especially with regards to litigation.
The President emphasised that it was important to discontinue all litigation involving members of the party.
“In this regard, it is important to discontinue all litigations involving members of the party, which are connected to issues of the party and in respect of which several court orders and counter-orders have been issued against the party and some specific members of the party,” he said.
“This directive has been issued by the party before, unfortunately some members failed to heed the directive. Thus, at this time, it must be made a resolution of the party which must be effectively enforced with dire consequences for members who choose to ignore the directive.”
“I believe that the issues facing us at the moment are very serious and such requires that we take very firm and clear decisions that will be in the interest of the party.”
After dissolving the NWC, the NEC appointed a Caretaker/Convention Committee chaired by Mai Mala Buni , Governor of Yobe State. The Convention Committee is charged to organise a National Convention within six months.
This was as the NEC also resolved that all cases in court relating to the party be withdrawn while it ratified the governorship primary in Edo State which produced Ize Iyamu as its governorship candidate.
