The Nigerian Army has inaugurated internet protocol desktop telephones at the 8 Task Force Division in Borno to facilitate easier communication with their families and loved ones.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the Deputy Director, army Public Relations, Onyema Nwachukwu, in Maiduguri on Friday.
Nwachukwu stated that the facility was inaugurated by Abu Nani, the General Officer Commanding, GOC, of the Division in Monguno.
The statement read in part: “The Nigerian Army has inaugurated the first set of internet protocol desktop telephone in some locations of the 8 Task Force Division in Northern Borno.
“The essence is to alleviate the sufferings of troops who spend two to three hours travelling to Maiduguri to communicate with their families on phone.”
He added that the telephone systems “were installed at the headquarters of the taskforce in Monguno, in 7 Brigade Baga and 153 Task Force Battalion in Marte.”
Nwachukwu also noted that “Each of the call centres provides five terminal points for officers and soldiers to communicate with their families from the front lines.”
Nwachukwu said that the provision of the facility had resolved the nightmare of troops being cut off from their families and friends.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has intensified investigations into the alleged corruption in the Judicial Arm of government.
At least three senior Nigerian lawyers were reported to have been invited by the anti-graft body to give clarifications on the alleged transfer of huge sums of money into the bank accounts of some of the judges under investigation.
The lawyers, whose names were given as Paul Usoro, Gani Adetola-Kaseem, and Felix Fagbohungbe, were sighted at the Lagos office of the EFCC on Thursday.
An EFCC source who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, told an online newspaper, PREMIUM TIMES that the agency was beginning to appreciate the fact that “corruption in the judiciary is widespread.”
“Those we invited were found to have transferred money into the judges’ bank accounts,” he said, “we want them to come and explain the reason for the transfers.”
“More are still coming, about 20 to 30 of them,” he added.
The source also noted that “Some Senior Advocates of Nigeria who have assisted the Commission in handling some of our cases in the past are also involved.
“Some of these lawyers had assisted us with useful legal opinions on several matters. So, we are in a dilemma.”
The source pointed out the leadership of EFCC may have invited the senior lawyers following accusations that the Commission was planning to cover-up the activities of these senior lawyers to preserve their existing relationship.
He also disclosed that another senior lawyer, Niyi Akintola, was also summoned by the EFCC, but he was unable to report because he had travelled to Abuja to defend a judge before the National Judicial Council, NJC.
Recall that last week, the anti-graft agency invited some judges as part of investigations into the alleged corruption in the country’s judiciary.
The judges invited include: Uwani Abba-Aji, James Agbadu-Fishim, Mohammed Yunusa, Nganjiwa Hyledzira, and Musa Kurya.
Another judge, Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, was also invited by the EFCC but she failed to honour her invitation.
“If any judge refuses to honour our summons, the EFCC will have no choice than to employ legal process to make him or her respect the law of the land,” the EFCC source said.
Supporters of the Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ondo State are protesting the announcement of Jimoh Ibrahim as the candidate of the PDP in the forth-coming governorship election in the state.
Ibrahim was the candidate of the Ali Modu-Sheriff faction of the PDP.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had on Thursday night released the list of candidates of the various parties participating in the Ondo election, but the list showed that Ibrahim was the PDP candidate instead of Eyitayo Jegede, who emerged victorious in the primary election held by the Makarfi-faction.
INEC cited a court judgement delivered by Justice Okon Abang of the federal high court, Abuja, which affirmed that Modu-Sheriff was the authentic National chairman of the PDP and ordered INEC to recognize Ibrahim as the authentic PDP candidate in the Ondo governorship election.
Justice Abang on Thursday also threw out an application by Jegede to appeal the judgement. He held that since Jegede did not take part in the election that produced Ibrahim as the PDP candidate, he has no locus standi to appeal the judgement.
Following the court judgement and INEC’s subsequent substitution of Jegede with Ibrahim, the town of Akure, the Ondo State capital erupted in protest on Thursday morning, as youths blocked the streets and lit bonfires along major highways.
The development led to serious traffic gridlock with motorists seeking alternative routes to their destinations.
Policemen were on hand to prevent the situation from escalating, though their number as at the time of this report was few when compared to the number of protesters.
Reports say similar protests are holding on in Ondo City and Ore.
Meanwhile, governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko met with President Buhari at the state house in Abuja on Thursday.
Mimiko told State House correspondents after the closed-door meeting that the decision by INEC had thrown the state into violence.
The governor described the announcement of Ibrahim’s name, instead of Jegede, as an act of injustice and mischief by INEC.
He added that President Buhari promised to look into the matter.
Dozens of Primary Health Centres, PHCs, built in the last two years across the country by the federal government at a cost of over N2 billion have remained unused, in spite of desperate need for such health facilities.
This is principally because money was appropriated, contracts awarded and construction commenced on the PHCs, without proper liaison and linkages with state and local governments where they are sited.
While most of the PHCs are still locked up months after they were built, others that have opened to the public lack equipment, drugs and health personnel to man them.
The Budeshi data showed that the new PHCs, which were awarded mainly at the uniform sum of N21, 986.893.00 to different contractors in many states raised the question of whether NPHCDA carried out competitive bidding on the projects.
Facts about new Primary Health Centres in Nigeria
A monitoring of these new PHCs by the Public and Private Sector Development Centre, PPDC, revealed that many of them were not functional and those that had been opened for services lacked the basic necessities to function properly.Under the Nigerian federal system, building and maintaining of PHCs are the responsibility of state and local governments.
The National Health Act in Section 2 listed all the services to be provided by the Federal Government and they do not include the building of PHCs.
The PPDC Report, which formed the basis of the Budeshi data, showed that only a few of the primary health centres built by NPHCDA in Delta and Benue were functional while the rest were locked and abandoned.
The report also showed that majority of the 14 new PHCs in Delta State were not functional and that only one seemed to be running optimally while few others that had been opened for services lacked staff, drugs and equipment.
A community member at Igbogili in Delta State told PPDC monitors that the new PHC, constructed by Sharpstone Company Limited, was locked up by the contractor who claimed that he had not been paid.
PPDC monitors observed that one of the new PHCs in Benue State, constructed by Sataab Investment Limited at Yandev Mbaluka in Gboko Local Government Area had been overtaken by grass as the facility was locked and had no access road.
Primary Health Centre building in Ughelli, Delta State overgrown with grass
The report also pointed out that other states of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Niger and Kano that have functional new PHCs had a shortage of staff as well as lacked drugs and equipment.
The Nigerian Health Watch, an online health focused magazine, in a report observed that “We can build, refurbish, staff, equip primary health care centres, but making them sustainably functional is a complex task that cannot be managed from Abuja.” “The role of the federal government should be that of a catalyst, guide, instigator, but not to deliver primary health care directly,” the magazine stated further.
Meanwhile, the PPDC report raises the question about how accountable the NPHCDA has been in the implementation of the Primary Health Care Under One Roof, PHCUOR. The National Council on Health approved the PHCUOR in 2011 to reduce fragmentation in the delivery of PHC services and integrate all PHCs under one authority. Under this arrangement, the NPHCDA is supposed to work hand in hand with the state PHC boards, local governments and communities in delivering PHC services.
Former Minister of Health, Professor Eyitayo Lambo said that PHCUOR was a new attempt to ensure a unified state-level structure that should be responsible for coordinating the management of PHC system and services.
But the PPDC report clearly shows that the local governments and communities were not carried along in the construction of the PHCs as the NPHCDA seemed to be interested in erecting the buildings without involving community stakeholders and mapping of existing PHCs in the communities.
According to the minimum standards for PHC in Nigeria, the Ward Development Committee, WDC, is responsible for co-managing the primary healthcare centres at the ward level. The WDC, which is made up of community leaders co-manage these PHCs with the local government.
Checks by www.icirnigeria.org show that the WDCs were not involved in the construction and management of the newly constructed PHCs. They had no say in the matter at all. This raises further questions on the seeming poor level of citizen participation and accountability in the construction of these PHCs.
The PPDC report indicated that one of the abandoned new PHC constructed by Federated Project Limited at Awume in Ohimini Local Government Area of Benue State is sited beside an old PHC which was operational but lacked adequate staff, drugs and equipment, a glaring case of duplication and waste of funds.
New Primary Health Centre in Igboli locked up
A report published bywww.icirnigeria.org in 2014 revealed that paucity of funds and government policy put PHCs in a state of total disrepair, leading to a largely inefficient healthcare delivery system at the grassroots.
Nigeria comes second to India in maternal and child deaths and accounts for about 10% of global under-five deaths. These deaths can be prevented if primary health care delivery in Nigeria can be made to function better in a manner that is accountable to the citizens.
Speaking at the first annual PHC Lecture organised by NPHCDA on December 8, 2015, former Minister of Health, Eyitayo Lambo, said that if the primary healthcare delivery system and the other two healthcare delivery systems were functioning well with effective referral system among the three tiers in place, the PHC system should be able to resolve the health problems of at least 70% of the people, compared to the less than 20% of the population that it currently attends to in Nigeria.
According to Lambo, given the high burden of infectious diseases and the related morbidity and mortality in Nigeria and the fact that about 70% of the population lives in rural areas, making PHC the cornerstone of our national health system is a step in the right direction.
As the PPDC report indicates, the building of PHCs without corresponding contributions from the states and local government in terms of staffing, equipping and maintaining of adequate drug supply will just be a waste of money by the federal government.
Appallingly, without addressing the obvious disconnect between healthcare strategies at different tiers of government, the Nigerian Muhammadu Buhari administration on January 19, 2016, announced a plan to rehabilitate and construct 10,000 PHCs within two years, at least one in each political ward across the federation.
A committee was also set up to map out all the existing PHCs in the country and determine how functional they are. Apparently, the committee discovered the futility of the government plan because on September 29, 2016, the Minister of Health Professor Isaac Adewole gave an indication that the federal government would not be able to implement the plan because it would put an additional financial burden on federal government and state governments might not meet up with their own contributions in the face of economic recession in the country.
Former Military Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar
Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Nigerian military head of State, has called for joint efforts by the government and other well-meaning Nigerians in order to find lasting solutions to the persistent deadly clashes between herdsmen and farmers across the country.
The former Army General-turned-farmer made this call when he hosted Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State, his Kebbi State counterpart, Abubakar Bagudu, Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh and Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, at his Maizube Farms on the outskirts of Minna, the Niger State capital.
Abubakar said the incessant herdsmen/farmers clashes were due to the increase in the rate of urbanization which meant that lands which were hitherto used for grazing and rearing livestocks have been converted to residential or industrial buildings.
He said: “The solution to the persistent clashes between farmers and herdsmen requires that all hands should be on deck.
“This should not be left to the government alone. We have to join hands with government to resolve the crisis.
“The animals need grazing field and water points but the rapid rate of urbanisation has grossly affected this.”
He suggested that government at all levels should provide grazing reserves for the herdsmen, with adequate water points, so as to reduce the violence, destruction and killings by the warring farmers and herdsmen.
“In providing the grazing reserves for these herdsmen, government should endeavour to build schools for the children of the nomadic herdsmen. This is very important,” Abubakar added.
The former military leader however pointed out that clashes between farmers and herdsmen “is not limited to this country, it occurs in virtually all the countries in West Africa”.
Agric Minister, Ogbeh disclosed that his Ministry is working on how to process Cassava leaves, which abound in the country, into feeds for cattle as part of efforts to mitigate the crisis.
The trial of Abiodun Agbele, an aide to Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, kicked off yesterday at the Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday as the first prosecution witness told the court how more than N1.2 billion was brought into Akure airport for governor Fayose.
The witness, Sunday Alade, the Akure branch manager of Zenith Bank, told the court that the money was brought in by former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro and two others, on June 17, 2014
Alade, was led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Wahab Shittu, and he gave details of how Fayose’s aide, Agbele supervised the lodgment of the cash into different accounts, including those allegedly belonging to Fayose, his company, Spotless Investment and others.
In a statement which was tendered by the prosecution before the court, Alade stated how he was directed by his colleague in Ibadan, Lawrence Akande, to arrange for a bullion van to take to evacuate some cash from the Akure airport, sometime in June 2014
He said that after waiting for some time at the airport the medium-sized aircraft conveying part of the money arrived.
“After the aircraft had parked, three individuals came down and Mr. Abiodun Agbele walked to meet them,” the witness stated.
“They had a brief discussion and two of the three men walked away and entered a waiting Toyota Hillux, one of the two appeared to be Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.
“The remaining individual, together with Abiodun Agbele then invited my team to come to the tarmac with the bullion van. And we off-loaded the cash to the bullion van.
“We then drove to the bank in the town in a convoy with their security team made up of soldiers and Mopol officers. At the branch, we just bundle counted the cash and ascertained it was N724,500,000.
“The person that handed over the cash later introduced himself as Adewale A. O and claimed to be a military aide de camp to Senator Obanikoro. He left us in the bank and went back to the airport in Akure.”
The witness added that they drove back to the airport “After about three hours … and waited until when another aircraft came with the second tranche, which was equally off-loaded to our bullion van and taken to the bank branch in Akure for ascertainment in the presence of Abiodun Agbele and one Adewale A. O.”
“This second movement was ascertained to be N494,990,000 only. We were then informed by Abiodun Agbele that the cash was to be credited to various accounts,” Alade said.
The witness also provided details of how the money was credited into the various accounts.
“The account credited and the amount are as follows: N100m was credited to Spotless Investment account: 1010170969 on 17/06/2014; Deprivateer Ltd was credited in account: 1013835889 with N219,490,000 on 18/06/2014 and another N300m on 19/06/2014 and another N200m on 23/06/2014.
“Another account owned by Ayodele Fayose was credited with N137,000,000 on 26/06/1014. This brings the total amount credited to the various accounts to N956,490,000.
“Mr. Abiodun Agbele then eventually took away the cash balance of N263m with their security team to Ado-Ekiti on the same day the cash was delivered in Akure.”
The zenith bank manager said he was able to recognize Obanikoro because of “his picture that I used to see on the television and newspaper but I cannot recognise the third person that came out of the aircraft with him.”
He also pointed out that the monies were stashed inside “several sacks popularly referred to as Ghana-must-go sack.”
Recall that Agbele was first arraigned before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja on August 3, 2016, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
He is facing an 11 count-charge of money laundering involving about N4,685,723,000,000, allegedly taken by former National Security Adviser, NSA.
The EFCC said Agbele, Obanikoro and the other suspects – still at large – “reasonably ought to have known” that the money was part of proceeds of Dasuki’s unlawful activity.
Wife of the Nigerian President, Aisha Buhari, on Thursday coordinated the distribution of relief materials to more than 300 households in Beneisheikh, a liberated community in Baga local government area of Borno State.
According to her, the relief materials, comprising both food and non-food items, were donated by well-meaning Nigerians to her pet project, ‘Future Assured’ through the “Get Involved” Programme.
She added that the gesture was her own contribution in the efforts to make life more comfortable for the people returning to their homes after the Boko Haram insurgency.
The wife of the president commended the wives of the governors of the Northeast whose efforts, she said, contributed to the successes so far achieved in the fight against insurgency in the region.
Buhari also called on the wives of state governors, national and state assembly members, local government chairmen and councilors to also see the need to always reach out to the less privileged in the society.
She noted that each of the 350 households that will would go home with 50 food and non-food items including rice, beans, semovita, spaghetti, macaroni, sugar, salt, Maggie cubes, soap, detergents, blankets, plastic buckets, cups, household cooking utensils, plates, dishes, plastic kettles, mosquito nets, fabric, wrapper, among others.
She said the distribution was informed by her desire to support the vulnerable and displaced persons, especially women and children.
The President’s wife expressed happiness that her pet project was reaching out to Nigerians together irrespective of religion, tribe, political and regional background.
She also thanked the people of Borno State and the entire country for supporting her project.
Governor Kashim Shettima in his remark thanked the Wife of the President for her care and concern towards the people Borno.
He also commended President Buhari and the Nigerian military for their support to the government and people of the state.
President Muhammadu Buhari and Minister of State for Petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu
President Muhammadu Buhari will meet with some Niger Delta leaders next week in Abuja in continuation of talks to bring the crisis in the region to an end.
This was made known by the minister of state for petroleum resources on Thursday at the unveiling of the new energy industry roadmap titled “the 7 Big wins” at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
“Our target is to ensure zero militancy in the area,” Kachikwu said.
“This planned meeting shows the level of interest the president has to ensure peace in the area.”
Delivering his speech at the event, President Buhari stated that though the golden era of high oil prices have passed, Oil and Gas resources still remain the most immediate and practical keys out of our present economic crisis, as it still remains the “critical enabler for the successful implementation of our budget as well as the source of funds for laying a strong foundation for a new and more diversified economy.”
“As important as it is to ensure that Agriculture, Solid minerals and other critical sectors of the economy are supported to grow and contribute more to the nation’s economy, we still need a virile and efficient oil and gas industry to take care of our foreign exchange requirements,” the president stated.
He added that “the task before the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is to maximize the potentials and opportunities across the whole range of the Oil and Gas industry to stimulate our economy in spite of the current challenges.”
He said: “There is also a dire need to instill a new culture of transparency and efficiency in the industry, streamline operations along best practices by championing and implementing strategic reforms at every layer of the industry.“If we are able to plug the leakages, and tighten loose systems that characterized this industry in the days of high oil prices, we are convinced that we can do even more with the little that we are getting at the moment than we did even in the time of plenty,” he added.
President Buhari acknowledged that recent developments in the Niger Delta had temporarily limited oil production, but reassured that “whatever challenges we are currently facing in the region, our resolve and capability to work with all stakeholders to restore normalcy will guarantee success.”
Kachikwu, in his speech, stated that the petroleum ministry plans to get the National Assembly to pass the long-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill by December.
The bill covers everything, including an overhaul of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as well as taxes on upstream projects.
The minister said Nigeria was also considering asset sales and wanted to improve the investment climate and enable development of the nation’s gas assets.
He said: “The seven elements of the plan are: solving the Niger Delta development and security problem, policy and regulations reforms, business environment and investment drive, transparency and efficiency, stakeholders management and international coordination, gas revolution and finally refineries and local production capacity.”
Kachikwu told the event that Nigeria’s oil output stood at 1.8 million barrels a day, compared with the 1.9 million bpd the Petroleum Ministry announced earlier this week.
He added, however, that the government hoped to get back to 2.2 million bpd next year – the level seen at the start of 2016.
“We have a capacity to produce 3 million,” he said.
Students of Isale Community High School in Oyo State, on Thursday, set their classrooms ablaze in protest over mass examination failure.
It was gathered that the protest began days ago across secondary schools in the state when the results were first released.
Men of the fire service agents were however called in to help put out the fire.
Teachers in the state say students in other government schools have threatened to also torch their schools.
It was gathered that a new promotion policy was introduced by the Oyo state government, making it mandatory for students to score up to 50% in English Language and Mathematics before such students can qualify for promotion to the next class.
The new policy was the reason behind the mass failure which led to the violence.
On Monday, students of Anglican secondary school in Oyo reportedly unleashed mayhem on their teachers and destroyed billboards bearing the picture of the state Governor, Abiola Ajimobi.
The state Commissioner for Education, Adeniyi Olowofela, declined to comment on the incident.
Minister for Information and Communication, Lai Mohammed
The ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to revive the nation’s economy will not yield positive results unless the fight against corruption is also intensified, says Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
Mohammed was speaking at the 2016 Annual Lecture of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that the government is tackling both issues of economic resuscitation and fight against corruption simultaneously.
“That’s why the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture launched a Sensitization Campaign Against Corruption (Change Begins With Me) on 18th January 2016…with a view to alerting Nigerians to the evils of corruption and carrying them along in the efforts by the government to tackle the menace,” he added.
Mohammed said that the theme for the lecture: “Fighting Corruption and Growing a Sustainable Nigerian Economy”, was quite appropriate.
“It is also noteworthy that the topic for this 2016 lecture incorporates two of the three cardinal programmes of this Administration, which are the fight against corruption and the revamping of the economy to create jobs and provide wealth. The third priority, of course, is the fight against insecurity,” he said.
The Minister said that corruption stifles economic growth in many ways by discouraging foreign investment, reducing tax revenue and preventing infrastructural development.
“In other words, in countries where you have a high level of corruption, there is reduced economic growth and, of course, higher poverty level,” he stressed.
He reiterated that the federal government will not relent in its efforts to tackle the menace of corruption to a standstill; since it has been determined that corruption is the biggest threat to the economic and political development of any country.
He said: “The Buhari Administration, since its inauguration, has left no one in doubt regarding its commitment to ridding Nigeria of corruption, as captured poignantly in President Buhari’s statement that if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.
”We are very much aware that the fight against corruption will not be easy.
“Fighting entrenched corruption can sometimes be a very lonely road to travel in our part of the world, where a true community of genuine corruption fighters are assailed from every side by unwary recruits of the looters among us, in our communities, places of work and worship.”
We also know that corruption is fighting back, fastly (sic) and furiously. But with uncommon commitment and determination, we will win the war against corruption,” Mohammed said.
