President Muhammadu Buhari and Former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar
Former military Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar has called for calm in the Niger Delta region, saying that the violence and destruction of the country’s oil infrastructure was an unnecessary distraction.
He expressed hope that the Buhari Administration would overcome the challenges posed by the current economic gloom in the country.
Abubakar was speaking with State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja on Thursday, but refused to disclose details of the meeting.
He called for the understanding and support of Nigerians in order to enable the administration to tackle the numerous challenges facing it.
The former head of state, who is also the Chairman of the National Peace Committee, stated that the committee is working to ensure that peace reigned supreme in the land especially among the political parties.
“We are still working, although quietly. We are working to make sure that there is peace in the country and all the political parties work amicably because each one has got a role to play”, he said.
Not less than 29 police officers in Osun state are currently on trial for various offences contradicting the code of conduct of the Nigerian Police Force.
The Osun State Commissioner of Police, Femi Oyeleye, made this known while briefing reporters in his office in Osogbo, the capital of Osun State.
The police commissioner said that the officers’ offences include extortion, dereliction of duty and inadequate supervision from superior officers among others.
He maintained that in line with the vision of the Inspector General of Police to ensure discipline in the force, no act of misconduct or illegality would be entertained in the state police command.
The traditional monarch of Osogbo, Jimoh Olanipekun, had raised an alarm on the planned abduction of the votary maid “Arugba Osun”, the centre of attraction in Osun Osogbo festival.
Reacting to this, the Police Commissioner assured residents of the state that security had been beefed up to forestall kidnapping.
“We have received intelligence report that some people are planning to kidnap the Arugba Osun.
“The monarch of the town also said this. So we have increased surveillance around the Arugba to prevent this. We have reinforced security around the Arugba and even the ‘Igba’ so that the festival can go on without any hitch.
“We are also assuring worshippers and all visitors of adequate security. The crime rate in Osun State is one of the lowest in the country and we will do everything to sustain this,” he said.
Every year, the Osun-Osgogbo festival is celebrated in the month of August, attracting thousands of Osun worshippers, spectators and tourists from all walks of life.
The ongoing festival will come to a climax on Friday.
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has won the first appeal with regards to the judgments of the Federal High Court in Abuja June 27 which ordered that he be removed from office.
The judgment was delivered by a five-man panel of justices led by Justice Helen Ogunwumiju of the Court of Appeal, Abuja.
Ikpeazu had appealed the ruling delivered by Justice Okon Abang of the Abuja Federal High Court on July 8 in which the judge insisted that he had jurisdiction to hear a motion for stay of execution of his earlier judgments delivered on June 27 even after appeals against the judgments had been entered.
The panel of appeal court Justices unanimously agreed in their judgment that Justice Abang erroneously assumed jurisdiction to hear the motion and adjourned it till a later date.
Justice Philomina Ekpe, who read out the lead judgment, said that what Justice Abang ought to have done was to have transferred the motion to the Court of Appeal for determination.
She also said that Abang wrongly interpreted the provisions of Order 4(10) and (11) of the Court of Appeal rules when he held that the said provisions were only applicable to an interlocutory ruling of the lower court and when a final judgment in a suit had been delivered.
She also held that Justice Abang lacked jurisdictions to interpret the provisions of the Court of Appeal being the rules of a superior court.
Justice Abang on June 27 had ruled that Ikpeazu was not the legitimate governor of Abia State, having tendered fake tax documents during the screening for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, primary election in 2014.
He ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Ikpeazu and issue same to Uche Ogah, the runner up in the PDP governorship primary.
Abang also ordered the Abia State chief judge to immediately swear-in Ogar as the substantive governor of the State.
A series of court cases had ensued ever since, the latest of which is the appeal court judgment today in Abuja.
APC Deputy Nat’l Secretary, Oji Ngofa and Nat’l Chairman John Oyegun
The All Progressives Congress, APC, has invited the warring factions in the ongoing crisis in the Ondo State chapter of the party to Abuja for a peaceful resolution.
This was made known by Oji Ngofa, the Deputy National Secretary of the APC, while briefing journalists on the outcome of the party’s National Working Committee, NWC, meeting at its Secretariat in Abuja.
Ngofa said that the decision to summon the conflicting parties was to rebuild confidence in the process.
It would be recalled that the state chairman, Isaac Kekemeke, was accused by some members in the state of compromising his position and conniving with a party leader, Ahmed Tinubu, to impose a candidate on them.
The development had led to a crisis in the state as some youths of the party locked up the Party’s State secretariat, saying that Kekemeke was no longer the party chairman.
But on Wednesday, another group of youths, loyal to Kekemeke, stormed the party secretariat and broke the padlocks, while a team of Police and Civil Defence personnel were dispatched to the Secretariat to maintain law and order.
“We have taken a decision to invite all the aspirants, the state chairman and the state secretary to a meeting here on Saturday at 12 noon,” Ngofa said.
“At that meeting, we will ensure that everybody is on the same page; what our party Constitution says on primaries, we’ll get the confidence of everybody.
”There’s no need for crisis in Ondo state. As a party, we are committed to transparent, credible primaries; we have a reputation for that and we will continue to do that,” he added.
The APC scribe called on the party supporters in the state to remain steadfast and retain confidence in it.
He said: “From what we have seen and read in the newspapers, they seem to think that the state is responsible for primaries, but it is not.
“We at the national level are responsible for the primary and we will go according to the constitution of our party.
“As far as we are concerned, we are not aware of any chairman that is sacked and all that.
“What we are aware of is just a misunderstanding of the processes and that is why we are inviting them here on Saturday to ensure that everybody is on the same page.
“We understand that when you’re going for primaries people want to know who the real delegates are; we’ll make all that clear and that will be according to our constitution.
Ngofa assured that nobody, not even the state chairman of the party has the power to alter the delegates’ list, as he was accused of.
“We have our delegates list and we’ll make that very clear and available to the aspirants,” he said.
Acting Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Mohammed Maccido, Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, Ambassador Nolan; Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy in Nigeria, Alan Tousignant
The federal government has expressed its readiness to collaborate with the United States of America on Security Governance Initiative Programme for mutual benefit of both countries.
Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau stated this when he received the United States’ delegation on Security Governance Initiative, SGI, in Abuja.
The minister noted that the focus areas of SGI programme is in line with the administration’s three main focus areas of Good Governance, Transparency/Accountability and Security.
He said that the SGI involves all security agencies in the country, and not limited to agencies under the Ministry’s purview.
Dambazzau added that a steering committee would be set up to over-see and implement the joint action plan that would be drawn up after the deliberations.
Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy in Nigeria, Alan Tousignant, who was among the delegation explained that the SGI programme was launched in August 2014 by the Obama administration.
Tousignant said the aim of the programme was to help some African countries, including Nigeria, to identify security challenges, and to assist in managing security outfits to efficiently and effectively deliver security and justice to its citizens.
He added that the United States has identified three priority focus areas to help the country.
These are: enhancing the Ministry of Interior’s nationwide emergency response, planning and coordination; enhancing the Ministry of Defence material needs identification, procurement and acquisition procedures and processes; and enhancing civilian security planning for the Northeast.
Tousignant noted that at the end of the deliberations, a draft copy of a joint-country action plan would be produced, which would outline the road-map for security problems and solutions.
The delegation was optimistic that a lot would be achieved from the exchange of ideas and goals on key issues concerning security, assuring that the partnership would continue after the expiration of President Obama’s administration.
Former Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang, has described the decision of his successor, Simon Lalong, to probe him, as an exercise in futility and a waste of state resources.
Governor Simon Lalong had on Wednesday inaugurated a six-man panel to scrutinize Jang’s administration which lasted for two tenures.
But the former governor, in a statement by his media aide, Clinton Garuba, said that the exercise was just a waste of time.
Garuba stated that the “Plateau State Government under Simon Lalong continues to waste scarce resources that would have been put to better use for the good of the State on a needless voyage of fantasies and fixation bound for the rocks.
“So much money has been expended in what is now a wild goose chase,” he said.
The statement added that “millions of taxpayers’ money capable of paying workers’ salaries for about two months” has been paid to KPMG to conduct a forensic audit.
Garuba said that the commission of inquiry set up by governor Lalong was the fifth of its kind since he became governor.
“As at the last count, the Judicial Commission of Inquiry is the fifth committee Lalong has constituted, mandated, empowered, and inaugurated to probe the tenure of the former Governor,” the statement said.
“Governor Simon Lalong had recently petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to probe Senator Jonah Jang only to impulsively resort to self-help by constituting the commission of inquiry when his phantom claims and capricious desires were not indulged.”
“Senator Jonah Jang is ever ready to give an account of his time as Governor of Plateau State; he absolutely without equivocation has nothing to hide,” he stated.
The federal government may have launched an investigation into the possible involvement of former President Goodluck Jonathan with the spate of bombings that have crippled the country’s oil industry and affected its power generation capabilities.
The DAILY TRUST reported that a hushed up investigation is already underway to establish the extent of the former President’s involvement in the series of bombings of the country’s oil and gas infrastructure which has reduced the country’s crude oil production.
Both the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun and the Minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu have said that Nigeria’s current crude oil production rate will not be enough to fund the over N6 trillion 2016 budget.
Adeosun had even said that the country is technically in recession.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, had repeatedly alleged that the former President is complicit in the bombing of oil installations, an allegation he denied.
DAILY TRUST sources in the investigations said that suspicion of Jonathan’s involvement with activities of militants in the Niger Delta region “was further strengthened after it emerged that one of the groups that threatened to declare a Niger Delta republic was dissuaded from doing so by Mr Jonathan.”
However, the newspaper said that when it spoke to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, he said that “he was not aware that the former president was being investigated by security agencies over allegations linking him to the spate of bombings by militants in the Niger Delta region.”
Mohammed however added that “these allegations have refused to go away, and those making the allegations are not backing out. So I will not be surprised if the security agencies show interest in it, but I am not aware.”
The paper said it could not reach Jonathan or his media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, for comment.
But another of Jonathan’s former aides who pleaded anonymity said that the ex-president had earlier this month denied the allegations when it was first made by MEND.
On August 7, Jonathan’s aid, Eze, issued a statement denying the claims by MEND and adding that MEND were after the former president’s life.
Recall that during the campaigns for the 2015 presidential election, ex Niger Delta agitators had at various times threatened to make the country ungovernable if Jonathan lost at the polls.
The National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, is set to expand its coverage to the thirty-six States of the Federation to enable more Nigerians benefit from the scheme.
The NHIS was established under Act 36 of 1999 to provide universal access to healthcare for Nigerians. But more than 16 years after it was established, less than 10 percent of Nigerians have healthcare insurance.
The Executive Secretary of the scheme, Usman Yusuf, gave the indication in Abuja during a courtesy visit on the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC.
Yusuf said the scheme was designed to facilitate access to quality healthcare services for Nigerians and stressed that the rights of the enrollees must be safeguarded.
The Executive Secretary of NHIS solicited for the support and partnership of the NLC to enable the scheme to achieve its objectives.
The NHIS Act requires only federal government employees and private sector businesses with 10 or more employees to register with NHIS.
Unfortunately, the majority of government workers work for state agencies, not federal agencies. Since the law does not apply to them, most don’t opt to join NHIS.
If the NHIS is to increase its coverage, the act may need to be reviewed.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, called on the new leadership of the NHIS to sanitize the scheme to make it deliver effective services to Nigerians.
Comrade Wabba said the contributory medical fund deducted from workers’ salaries to drive the scheme was not part of government revenue and should not be remitted into the Treasuring Single Account.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has urged customers and other stakeholders of Skye Bank and the general public to disregard any message saying that the bank has been liquidated.
This is according to a statement by the CBN Acting Director, Communications, Isaac Okorafor.
Okorafor said the rumuors were baseless and malicious.
He said, “The CBN wishes to state, and emphatically so, that it has not liquidated Skye Bank or any other Deposit Money Bank for that matter.
“The bank also wishes to reiterate its earlier assurance that Skye Bank is not in distress and remains a healthy bank in the Nigerian banking system.
“Indeed, the health of the Nigerian banking system remains strong; all banks in Nigeria are safe and depositors have no cause to fear over their deposits.’’
The CBN spokesman stated that Skye Bank had corporate governance challenges which had been resolved by the apex bank CBN.
The CBN had on Monday, July 4 took over the Board and management of Skye Bank Plc after it failed to meet the regulator’s minimum key liquidity and capital adequacy ratios.
Godwin Emefiele, governor of the apex bank announced the appointment of a new board and management for the bank following the resignation of the Chairman, Tunde Ayeni, and Management Director/Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Oguntayo.
Emefiele said the CBN had appointed MK Ahmad as the new chairman, while Tokunbo Abiru is the new MD/CEO.
“I maintain that Skye Bank is not in distress. We have only taken this unavoidable decision to ensure that depositors’ funds are not eroded,” Emefiele had said.
The National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA, has stated that Nigeria will witness an eclipse on Thursday, September 1, less than two weeks away.
A statement signed by Felix Ale, Head of Media and Corporate Communications of the agency, said the eclipse will be visible all over the country with different degrees of totality.
The highest degree of obscurity as a result of the eclipse is expected to be in the Southern part of the country, particularly in Lagos which is expected to have 80% obscurity.
The agency added that the lowest degree of obscurity would be about 45% and this would be observed in the northern part of the country, particularly in Sokoto
“The annular eclipse will be observed as a partial or near total eclipse across the nation with Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, expected to be about 60%”, the statement said.
The statement further stated that the annular eclipse is expected to occur between 7:15am and 10:03am with slight variations in actual timing across the country.
In Lagos, the first contact will occur at about 7:15am while the maximum eclipse will occur around 8:30am and will end by 10:03am, NASRDA said.
“The eclipse is expected to commence in Abuja around 7:17am, with maximum eclipse to be recorded at about 8:32am and the eclipse will end around 10:00am”, the statement added.
It noted that eclipse is not a spiritual issue but a natural occurrence that can be accurately predicted by science.
The agency appealed to the general public not to panic or adduce any mystical interpretations to the event, and advised that nobody should observe the eclipse with naked eyes.
