The Nigerian Navy said it successfully repelled attack by suspected sea robbers on a Marine Tanker travelling from Port Harcourt to Lagos on Friday, 16 September.
A press release on Monday by Christian Ezekobe, a Commodore and the Director of Information in the Navy stated that the attack occurred 50 nautical miles off Bayelsa State but the attackers “were heavily engaged and overpowered in a gun duel by naval personnel.”
The statement added that a naval patrol team deployed to Bonny in Rivers State had on September 14, arrested a Marine Vessel named ‘FB PERE IPAMO’ for alleged involvement in illegal bunkering activities.
“At the time of arrest … the vessel was carrying about 500 metric tons of illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil, AGO.”
Ezekobe also stated that on Saturday 17 September, a patrol team deployed by NNS DELTA conducted anti-crude oil theft operations in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.
He said the Navy personnel, during the operation, raided and destroyed two illegal refineries at Lakpaje and Ubeje Creeks.
“About 18,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil and 15,000 litres of suspected illegally refined AGO” were also destroyed.
“The feat achieved by the Nigerian Navy in cracking down the activities of the criminals in the maritime domain is a pointer that there is no hiding place for any criminal. The Service is ever committed to safeguard the maritime environment,” the Navy spokesman said.
Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, has said that the Commonwealth supports plans by the United Nations for a global agreement to end the refugee and migration crisis around the world.
The global compact for safe, regular and orderly migration is part of the agenda for sustainable development and achieving full respect for the human rights of migrants by 2030.
This would be a subject of discussion at a roundtable event at the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA.
She stated: “I would like to commend this initiative of Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon and the UNGA president, Peter Thomson,
“This high-level plenary meeting is a bold response to forced displacement of populations, which has now become a global crisis that requires our collective effort as the international community.”
A statement by Barnie Choudhury, Director of Media and Public Affairs, said the Commonwealth Secretary General will stress the importance of nations considering how best to use the mechanisms needed to tackle the crisis, such as economic, political, legal, humanitarian aspects.
This year, UN member states will begin the process of intergovernmental negotiations, leading to the adoption of the compact in 2018.
Scotland will say: “The Commonwealth will play an important role to ensure that this global compact leaves no one behind by identifying specific challenges faced by our member states, especially small nations, which represent the majority of our members.”
Migration remains a big challenge for the Commonwealth:
80% of refugees are hosted in the developing world
Pakistan hosts more than 1.7 million refugees, more than any other country in the world
African countries account for 40% of all Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
Conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Somalia are crucial factors which lead to the increase in refugees in East Africa, particularly Uganda and Kenya
Of the more than 850,000 asylum seekers worldwide, nearly 200,000 are present in South Africa alone
East Africa, Southern Africa, the Caribbean and South Pacific regions of the Commonwealth are particularly vulnerable to migration based on the effect of climate change
Scotland will be focusing on the challenges of climate change on migration as well as calling on leaders to pay more attention to the needs of young people.
“Our young people represent more than 60% of our total population. We recognise they have an important role in building stable, secure and prosperous societies,” she will say.
“In this regard, we strongly believe that the proposed compact must identify specific needs and vulnerabilities of young people, who constitute one third of the world’s international migrants. We need to engage with them to find durable and innovative solutions.”
She is also expected to make a passionate case to protect women, who make up half the world’s international migrants.
“The Commonwealth member states have made clear political commitments to address collectively the causes of irregular migration, while ensuring full respect for human rights and the humane treatment of migrants,” she will conclude.
The Industrial Training Fund, ITF, has commenced a skills acquisition programmed for more than one thousand persons in Borno State.
About 600 of the participants in the training exercise are Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, drawn from various camps in Maiduguri, the State capital.
The programme is part of the ongoing skills training by the federal government under the 5th National Industrial Skills Development Programme, NISDP.
Director General of the ITF, Dickson Onuoha, who was present during the flag-off of the training scheme, noted that the programme was aimed at giving the IDPs hope of a fresh beginning, as well as fast-tracking the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan.
“We are here today as a clear manifestation of the Federal Government efforts towards helping the IDPs to get integrated back to the society,” Onuoha said.
“The idea is to give them a means of livelihood while they return home.”
“We will not rest until we provide access to the IDPs on various skills and facilities,” he added.
The ITF DG said that participants in the training would also be taught Entrepreneurship Skills.
“This will enable them to be able to organized themselves into cooperatives and then we can now be able to introduce them to the Bank of Industry which will help them to have access to finance.
“That is how the Federal Government has designed the program, so that the ITF will provide the skills component, SMEDAN (Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria) to provide entrepreneurship skills. While the Bank of Industry help in getting fund,” Onuoha explained.
Governor Kashim Shettima commended the ITF for the initiative, but pleaded for training of additional 000 IDPs.
Shettima, who was represented by the Head of Service, Yakub Bukar, expressed optimism that the many empowerment trainings going on in various IDP camps in the state would result in poverty reduction among the citizens whose life has been devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency.
President Muhammadu Buhari has showered encomiums on the Nigerian contingent to the just concluded 2016, Paralympics which was held in Rio De Jenario, Brazil.
Presidential media aide, Garba Shehu, conveyed the president’s message to the paralympians in a statement released in Abuja on Monday.
“President Buhari joins all sports-loving Nigerians in commending the athletes for doing the country proud by winning 12 medals and setting new records, which made them the top-performing African team at the 2016 games,” the statement read.
The President extoled the athletes for their resilient spirit which enabled them to excel in the face of adversity thereby bringing glory to the country.
He also expressed gratitude to all the officials and trainers of the athletes for their sacrifices and perseverance.
Katsina State Comptroller of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Mohammed Yaro, has disclosed that human traffickers now use motorcycles and donkeys to transport their victims from Nigeria to neighbouring countries in order to avoid being detected by security agents.
Yaro made this known while parading 11 victims of human trafficking who were rescued over the weekend by the state Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service in various border areas of the state.
Seven out of the 11 victims are from Edo State, three hails from Delta State and one is from Kogi State.
Yaro told journalists that the victims were picked up individually on Saturday while attempting to cross over to the neighbouring Niger Republic on their way to Italy without any travelling documents.
He said the NIS was able to rescue them as a result of new strategies adopted by men of its intelligence unit.
The NIS Comptroller would not disclose the border areas where the victims were picked up, insisting that doing so would jeopardise the investigation being carried out by the service to track down the traffickers.
“Our investigation revealed that their mission was to cross border en route Agadez in Niger Republic to Libya and then Italy for so-called employment,” Yaro said.
“It was further established that none of them was in possession of any travel documents.
“It is important to note that the victims were misled by the traffickers whose business is to ferry persons across the border through illegal routes.
“We are, however, prepared to deal with the syndicates. Katsina State will no longer be used as a transit route for human trafficking,” he vowed.
The Presidency will install plagiarism detection software in the computers of its speechwriters to prevent a recurrence of plagiarism in presidential speeches, sources in the State House disclosed.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in his “Change begins with me” speech this month lifted a paragraph from US President Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech.
The Presidency had apologized for the incident – which it blamed on an overzealous aide – and said it wouldn’t happen again.
Sources said officials in the Presidency have now resolved to take a range of measures to guard against any further embarrassment.
“One of the measures will be to install plagiarism detection software to check speeches before they are delivered by the president,” an official involved in the plan told Daily Trust.
He said they all felt embarrassed by the plagiarism case, even though it was essentially the stupidity of one individual who didn’t envisage the gravity of his action.
When contacted over the planned installation of plagiarism detector, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu confirmed the plan.
He said the Presidency is determined to ensure that a case of plagiarism will never happen again.
He had earlier issued a statement in which the Presidency blamed a deputy director “for the insertion of the contentious paragraph”.
It said: “This serious oversight will be investigated thoroughly and appropriate sanction meted.
“The Presidency wishes to state in the clearest possible terms that it regrets this unfortunate incident and will ensure that this does not happen again.
“President Buhari urges Nigerians to look beyond this incident and focus on the message of change,” the statement added.
Sources told Daily Trust that the deputy director responsible for the incident would be removed from the Presidency.
The case was particularly embarrassing to the Presidency, especially as it came at the time US officials scheduled a meeting between President Obama and President Buhari.
The two presidents are expected to meet on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session.
President Buhari is already in New York to attend the UN session and conduct several other international engagements.
The economic recession in the country has claimed its first set of causalities in the ivory towers as the Federal University, Lafia, has sacked 35 non-teaching staff in what may be the first batch of retrenchment.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Mohammed Sanusi, a professor, who disclosed this to journalists in Lafia, said the sacking of the affected staff was due to lackof funds to pay their salaries.
The affected staff were among those engaged by the university earlier this year comprising of 11 corps members, who were retained after their service year in the school, and 24 others.
Liman said the council had directed the management to source for money and pay off the affected staff since they had worked for over five months without pay.
“It would be inhuman to keep the staff working when we cannot pay them given our poor budget, and that is why the council decided that we should pay them off,” he said.
According to him, the university consistently has a shortfall of over N38 million in her allocation for several months, which has adversely affected the running of the institution.
The VC said the management had uncovered a job racketeering syndicate in the university, which had given illegal employment to some persons.
“When we got wind of the matter, the management set up an investigative committee, which turned in a report that was submitted to the council.
“The university council referred the matter to its disciplinary committee for investigation and appropriate action,” he said.
Abdulmumin Jibrin and Speaker Yakubu Dogara when the going was good
Embattled Kano member of the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has denied allegations that he owns and operates a bank account in the United Kingdom.
A group, the National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, had alleged that it traced £1.558 million to an account in the United Kingdom, allegedly owned by the former chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations.
The allegation was contained in an e-mail sent to journalists by Ifeanyi Okonkwo, the Head of the Anti-corruption unit of the NYCN.
Jibrin however, denied owning any account in the UK or having anything to do with the address in the e-mail sent by the NYCN.
In a series of tweets on Monday, the lawmaker said the report was just the handwork of mischief makers who are bent on foiling the anti-corruption campaign he had initiated against speaker Yakubu Dogara and three other principal officers of the house.
He stated: “My attention has been drawn to a widely circulated report that I own an account with ING bank UK with Essex address and balance of £1.3m.
“The document is FAKE; I DO NOT own such account or balance neither do I have anything what so ever to do with the said address at Essex.”
The Kano state lawmaker said the report was “part of a wider propaganda arranged by the desperate Speaker Dogara through his Deputy Chief of Staff Hon CID Maduebum.”
He also alleged that Maduebum recruited and paid N20 million to one Okonkwo and Ugochinyere “to do the hatched jobs.”
“Ahead of resumption of the House, they are back at work to divert attention from allegations of budget fraud and corruption against Mr Speaker.
“The plan is to create credibility problem for me as I release more revelations on Mr Speaker that will send shock down the spines of Nigerians,” Jibrin said.
He vowed to ensure that the allegations were investigated, saying that “my lawyers are taking the necessary legal actions. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
The NYCN had claimed that documents obtained from the UK revealed that Jibrin allegedly “owns and operates the said account domiciled in ING Bank Channels Island, United Kingdom.”
Part of the letter sent by the NYCN read: “The bank is located at Forum House, Grenville Street, St-Heller, Jersey JE2 4UF, Channels Island United Kingdom.
“Jibrin opened the account with his address at 453 Crank brook Road, Ilford Essex IG2 6EW.
“Details of the account statement obtained by some lawyers in the UK show that Jibrin has a total £1.558m (approximately N825m) in the account between June 1, 2016 and June 30, 2016.”
Okonkwo in the letter claimed that Jibrin had withdrawn £623.44 pounds within the one month period bringing the balance in the account to £1.376, 193.84 British pounds.
“Jibrin’s ownership of foreign account contravenes the provisions of the 1999 Constitution which bars public officers from owning and operating foreign account,” he added.
Paragraph 3, Part one of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, states:
“The President, Vice-President … members of the National Assembly and Houses of Assembly of states and such other public officers or persons shall not maintain or operate a bank account in any country outside Nigeria.”
Several punishments were recommended in Paragraph 18 of same Schedule of the constitution for any public officer that defaults on the above provision.
They include: vacation of office or seat; disqualification from membership of a legislative house; seizure or forfeiture of assets or property being proceeds of such corruption; and prosecution in addition to the above sanctions; where the conduct constitutes a crime.
The deputy director, who reportedly was responsible for the controversial ‘Change begins with me’ speech delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari, will this week be transferred out of the State House.
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, had on Friday said that the presidency was greatly embarrassed by the development and promised that sanctions would be meted out on whoever was responsible.
“The Presidency wishes to state in the clearest possible terms that it regrets this unfortunate incident and will ensure that this does not happen again.
“Already, a Deputy Director in the Presidency has accepted responsibility for the insertion of the contentious paragraph.
“This serious oversight will be investigated thoroughly and appropriate sanction meted,” the statement read.
Sources at the presidency hinted that the official will start facing disciplinary proceedings according to civil service rules on Monday.
But he will first be directed to vacate his seat at the president’s office, officials said.
The deputy director is expected to be queried by the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal Arabi, before the case will be referred to the Head of Service for further actions.
The plagiarism was first detected by a Newspaper columnist and President Buhari has since apologised for the incident.
Public secondary schools in Borno State will reopen on Monday, September 26, more than two years after they were closed due to Boko Haram insurgency.
Borno State Commissioner for Education, Inuwa Kubo, told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Maiduguri that Internally Displayed Persons, IDPs, who were camped at the schools, had been relocated so that academic activities could resume.
He said that repair works had been carried out on the structures in the schools to provide conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning.
The statement read: “I wish to announce that on September 26, all public schools are going to be re-opened.
“I want to state that government has repaired all the structures damaged by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the schools, to ensure comfort for the returning students.
“Parents and guardians should please make sure that they send their children back to school,” he said.
The commissioner said it was unfortunate that proprietors of private schools in the state had taken advantage of the closure of public schools to arbitrarily hike their school fees.
“We understand that some of them have taken undue advantage of the closure to hike school fees; we will not allow the situation to continue,” he said.
“We are going to visit the schools to find out how much they are charging and how much they are paying their teachers.”
It would be recalled that public schools in Borno State were forced to close in March, 2014, after suspected terrorists attacked a school in neighbouring Yobe.
The government reopened the primary schools in 2015 but could not do so with the secondary schools as they had been taken over by IDPs.
