The Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, has adjourned its sittings till after the 2016 annual recess.
Chairman of the tribunal, Danladi Umar, on Tuesday adjourned all sittings scheduled for this week and those to come within July and August till after the tribunal’s judges, who are set to embark upon a recess soon, resume.
The decision was taken due to the ongoing Roundtable Discussion involving CCT and other critical stakeholders within and outside the country, to develop the Code of Ethics and Practice Directions for the Code of Conduct Tribunal to ensure fair and speedy trials, sponsored by European Union, EU, and implemented by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC.
He however, assured litigants currently with cases before the court, that new dates would be communicated to them in September, 2016, after the tribunal resumes.
A statement signed by Ibraheem Al-hassan, Head, Press Relations of CCT, said “The Tribunal regrets the pains caused by the sudden change.”
Senator Representing Sokoto North, Aliyu Wamakko, has denied reports that senators held series of meetings on how to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari in his residence.
He made the made the denial in a statement on Wednesday.
He said: “My attention was drawn to a false and malicious story published by an online newspaper that series of meetings were held in my residence to strategize on the impeachment proceedings of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“To set the records straight, a meeting was only held in my residence towards finding amicable solution to the frosty relationship between the Executive and Legislature.
“We have observed the growing disharmony between the two arms, and we resolved that finding amicable solution to the impasse will move the nation forward and give the president focus to pursue his Change Agenda,
“As a principled politician, I have no cause to scheme against the president and the party I campaigned for or the cause I believe in.
Let me once again reiterate that we hold the president in high esteem, and we will do our best towards ensuring that there is cordial relationship and harmony between the two arms of government.”
Wamakko, a pro-Saraki senator, is the Chairman Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education.
Former Vice President of the World Bank for Africa and leading voice on the global BringBackOurGirls campaign, Obiageli Ezekwesili was on Tuesday, July 12, conferred with an honorary degree from the University of Essex, England, United Kingdom.
The former Minister of Education was honoured for her work in promoting transparency and accountability in government and lending a voice to the importance of the office of the citizen in a country like Nigeria.
“This is a humbling experience, I consider this so inspiring of the work that have done so far in my career and the University of Essex being one of the top universities in the world, values match those of the university and my father inspired me to be diligent and continue to learn till I reach my goal in life,” said Oby Ezekwesili while addressing Essex Business School graduates at the ceremony.
Professor Neil Kellard, Head of the Finance Group at Essex Business School, paid tribute to Oby saying: “We celebrate today a woman who pushes political and ideological boundaries for education and equality. We celebrate today a woman who challenges corruption and encourages transparency.”
Ezekwesili is a staunch advocate for active citizenship and a leading voice in sensitizing the government on the plight of the abducted Chibok school girls.
She is currently a Senior Economic Advisor with the Africa Economic Development Policy
Initiative, AEDPI, where she advises Presidents of African countries and their cabinets on economic development strategy, policies and implementation.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris says his office has commenced a forensic audit of federal government’s agencies to access true state of their revenue generation.
He made this known in a statement signed by Kenechukwu Offie, his Chief Press Secretary, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The statement said Idris had engaged 18 professional Audit companies to undertake the Process Audit of the federal parastatals and agencies.
He said the audit process would cover 2010 to 2015, and would be completed in 18 months.
Idris said that the audit would also cover capital, personnel and overhead expenditures across all federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies, in order to enable the federal government take better decisions in view of the dwindling inflow of revenue.
He said the first phase of the assignment was divided into two categories and will involve 33 Agencies.
“Category A, comprises of eight agencies with a turnover of above N100 billion while category B involves 25 agencies with a turnover of below N100 billion”.
Some of the terms of reference given to the Audit firms as contained in the statement include:
“To review the sources of revenues accruing to the organisations and the effectiveness of revenue generation and accounting.
“Undertake a critical review of the financial statements of the organisations over the last five years, confirm the sources and quantum of funding received from Government, whether loans, subventions or grants and reconcile with treasury records.
“Study in detail the enabling laws establishing the organisations with a view to identifying possible constraints and areas of improvement.
“Determine the amount of remittances made to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) over the last five years in the form of operating surplus and revenue dividends.
“Determine the extent of compliance with extant regulations regarding the adequacy and regularity of remittances to the CRF.
“Identify all income and interest thereon and make adequate recommendations on the future management of the organisations,” he said.
Ahmed said the consultants were to establish the cost of operations and make appropriate recommendations to understand real personnel cost and cost associated with revenue collection or revenue sharing arrangement, adding that their activities would be closely monitored by experienced staff of the OAGF to ensure that “government gets value for money”.
The audit exercise follows accusation by the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, FRC, that revenue generating agencies were short-changing the government.
According to Victor Muruako, acting Chairman of FRC, many agencies under-declare their revenue, thereby failing to remit 80 per cent of their operating surplus into FG’s Consolidated Revenue Funds.
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami
The Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Abubakar Malami has appeared before the Senate after the upper legislative chamber threatened to issue an arrest warrant to compel him to appear before the red chamber.
The AGF was at the venue of the meeting with the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal even before members of the Committee.
Malami, who was summoned by the lawmakers to explain why he had dragged the Senate’s principal officers to court for alleged forgery, said that the ‘issue before them is a criminal case against certain members of the Senate’ and not the entire senate, insisting that the police conducted investigation into the case on July 2015 while he was appointed in November 2015.
The AGF stated that the first case on the forgery was a Federal High Court case initiated by some Senators even before his appointment as AGF.
Malami maintained that as the AGF, he works for the sustenance of Nigeria’s democracy.
The Senate had in their first plenary session after the Eid-el-fitri break, threatened to issue an arrest warrant on the AGF after he failed to appear before its Committee on Judiciary and Human Rights.
Although he sent a representative, the Committee refused to grant the representative any audience.
The Federal High Court Ikoyi has ruled that the 45 per cent tariff increase by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, was illegal and should be reversed immediately.
The court said on Wednesday that the implementation of the huge increase constitutes a violation of its interim order.
It also awarded a N50, 000 cost against NERC.
The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, which has opposed the price hike, described the ruling as victory for the ordinary Nigerian whose life has been worsened by the exploitative electricity bills.
The NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, urged NERC and electricity distributing companies to obey the court judgment and immediately revert to the old rates.
The new electricity tariff took effect from February 2016 as sanctioned by the Minister of Power, Babatunde Fashola and Sam Amadi, Chairman of NERC; despite a resolution by the National Assembly and restraining court order against it.
Dakuku Peterside, DG NIMASA (middle) with other delegates at the IMO/MOWCA Summit in Brussels, Belgium.
Nigeria has expressed its support for any regional initiative geared towards eliminating the scourge of piracy and maritime crimes especially in the Gulf of Guinea.
The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside, stated this at the on-going International Maritime Organisation, IMO, Maritime Organisation for West and Central Africa, MOWCA, sponsored integrated sub regional coast Guard function network in Brussels, Belgium.
Peterside who is the leader of the Nigeria delegation to the IMO/MOWCA meeting noted that Nigeria’s position is premised on the fact that crime at sea, especially in the Gulf of Guinea, is always transnational and therefore a regional integrated approach is most suited for checking the menace.
While addressing delegates at the conference, Peterside said “Nigeria with the longest coast line in the continent is mostly affected by the activities of these criminals. If the continent and maritime actors do not rise up to tackle piracy, it will affect commerce which is the driver of growth and by extension hamper development”.
He described as unfortunate the situation where the Gulf of Guinea has become notorious as one of the top three locations where piracy occur globally saying freight rates, insurance and ports of call for vessels are all a function of the perceived maritime security of the region.
According to the NIMASA DG, human capacity, infrastructure, legal and organisational framework were important in any regional initiative to fight piracy.
Peterside briefed delegates on Nigeria’s efforts in tackling and mitigating piracy saying “apart from military led patrols on our territorial waters to deter the criminals and high intelligence and surveillance network, Nigeria with the assistance of the IMO is pushing for early passage of a dedicated anti-piracy bill to provide the needed legal framework to tackle the crime”.
He said Nigeria’s fight against piracy enjoys total support from the government in Nigeria and called on all governments in the Gulf of Guinea to show greater interest in dealing with maritime crimes in the region which according to him “has adverse economic and reputational impact on member nations”.
The summit was declared open by the President of Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa, MOWCA, and current Transport Minister of Ghana, Fifi Kwetey.
Addressing the summit, the Secretary General of MOWCA, Alain Michel Luvambo of Angola said the summit is a follow up to the MoU signed by 16 coastal member states of MOWCA at its 13th General Assembly of Ministers which was adopted by the African Union commission and United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea.
He said the MoU approved the setting up of a sub-regional coast guard function.
The purpose of the meeting is to bring together partners, development agencies/donors, funders, financial institutions, shipping operators and maritime administrations across Africa and Europe to pull resources together to finance the regional coast guard function and National Maritime coast guard institutions.
The summit was attended by Ministers of Transport from different African countries and maritime administrations from Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Liberia, Côte d Ivoire, DR Congo, Guinea, Ghana, Angola as well representatives of African Development Bank, AfDB, Regional Maritime University Ghana, Regional Academy of Science and Technology of the Sea, Abidjan amongst others.
The summit continues today with presentations by AfDB, European Union, World Bank, AFRIEXIM Bank, Chinese Exim Bank, amongst others.
The United States government has clarified that it has no information on the alleged crimes committed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha.
Acting Public Affairs Officer, US Consulate General in Lagos, Frank Sellin, gave the clarification in an email sent to a correspondent of the Punch Newspaper on Tuesday.
Sellin gave the reply in response to an enquiry made by the correspondent regarding allegations that the President’s wife was wanted in the US and was avoiding travelling to the country.
“Thank you for the inquiry. We have no information to provide on this matter,” Sellin was quoted as saying.
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State had alleged that the wife of the President was involved in the $185m Halliburton scandal, claiming that she was a wanted person in the US.
“Her name was on page 25 of the sentencing of Jefferson. We can serialise the judgment for people to see and read.” Fayose said.
The governor was reacting to the freezing of his Zenith Bank accounts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The allegation was repeated in a statement by Idowu Adelusi, Fayose’s Chief Press Secretary, who said that the First Lady refused to travel with the President to the US because of her involvement in the scandal.
The Nigerian Army said 25 bodies of Boko Haram terrorists had been recovered after Troops of 119 Task Force Battalion stationed in Kangarwa northern Born repelled an attack on Tuesday night.
This was contained in a statement by Sani Usman, the Acting Director Army Public Relations, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The Army Spokesman had on Tuesday said the number of terrorists killed in the attack could not be ascertained due to poor visibility in the area.
He also clarified that one soldier lost his life in the operations and eleven others were injured as against Tuesday’s statement in which he said that two soldiers were killed and seven others sustained injuries.
Usman explained that the attack started at about 6.30pm but was successfully repelled after about 3 hours of exchange of heavy gunfire that inflicted tremendous casualties on the terrorists.
He stated: “As at this morning, the troops counted 25 bodies of the Boko Haram terrorists and recovered 2 Rocket Propelled Grenades 7 (RPG 7) tubes, a 60mm Mortar tube, 2 Machine Guns, 12 AK-47 rifles and one Light Machine Gun,
“The body of the gallant soldier and those wounded in action are being evacuated, while the unit is carrying out mop-up operation,’’ he stated.
He noted that the successful repelling of the attack was made possible by support from the Nigerian and Chadian Air Force fighter jets.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, have suspended their strike after a meeting with the Federal Government on Wednesday.
The meeting which ended at 1am was attended by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, the oil unions and International Oil Companies, IOCs.
The discussion bothered on issues of job security, causalisation of workers and improved welfare, and the minister appealed to the IOCs not to lay off workers as government is trying to make the environment more conducive for their businesses.
Other areas of discussion were the implementation of the 2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the federal government and the unions, the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Bill and the state under which the oil workers operate, especially the lack of power and bad roads.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, it was concluded that only one government agency had been affected by the non-implementation of 2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
It was agreed that the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission and the Ministry of Budget and National Planning would make corrections to be effective from March 1, 2015.
The communiqué also stated that “Most of the IOCs and Indigenous Oil Companies that have laid-off workers without passing through the due process of the law all agreed to comply and in such cases where the workers had gone on strike or locked out by employers, the meeting directed them to unlock such premises while the actions of employers have also been put on hold to make for a free and unfettered atmosphere during the negotiations.”
