The FG said Zakzaky was taken into custody following intelligence report that he was going to be attacked and killed.
Responding to a N2 billion fundamental human rights enforcement suit filed by Zakzaky through his lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, the FG explained that Zakzaky’s detention was a proactive measure to forestall a similar incident that made the Boko Haram sect turn violent in 2009.
FG say it believes that if the applicant (Zakzaky), who is the leader of one of the largest Islamic groups in the country, was allowed to be killed as contained in the intelligence report, the country may again be plunged into another Boko Haram-like crisis.
In a 13-paragraphed counter affidavit deposed to by Ayodeji Ibitoye, an operative in the legal services department of the DSS, the FG said Zakzaky was evacuated to the medical facility of the service where he is being attended to by the best doctors and his treatment has gulped millions of naira at the expense of the state. The affidavit has it that members of the Nigeria Supeme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, had been to visit him.
Joined as respondents in the suit were the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, the DSS and the Nigerian Police Force.
Zakzaky is asking the court to enforce his fundamental human rights to life, personal liberty, dignity of human person, right to private and family life and private property.
Counsel to the applicant, Falana, is contending that the continued detention of his client without being charged before a competent court is a violation of his fundamental human rights as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution.
Justice Kolawole fixed July 23 for hearing of the substantive suit.
It would be recalled that Zakzaky was arrested and detained following a violent clash between his followers and the Nigerian Army on December 14, 2015, resulting in the loss of lives of many members of the Shi’ite sect.
Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-kayode will be prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a 17-count charge bothering on fraud and money laundering.
Fani-Kayode would be arraigned at the Federal High Court, Lagos, along with Nenedi Usman, a former minister of finance, Danjuma Yusuf and a company named John Trust Dimensions Nigeria Limited.
The charges border on conspiracy, unlawful retention of proceeds of theft and money laundering.
The suspects were said to have allegedly committed the offences between January 8, 2015, and March 25, 2015, in the build-up to the general election.
In one of the counts, the EFCC alleged that Fani-Kayode, who is listed as the 2nd defendant in the charge sheet, and his co-defendants conspired among themselves to “indirectly retain the sum of N1.5billion, which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act to wit: stealing.”
The charge sheet indicated that the said crime constituted an offence under Section 18(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012, punishable under Section 15(3)( 4) of the same Act.
In another count, the EFCC alleged that Fani-Kayode “directly retained the sum of N350m,” which the anti-graft agency claimed he ought to have “reasonably known formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act to wit: stealing.”
Fani-Kayode was accused of directly using parts of the money at various times, including a sum of N250,650,000, which he allegedly used between March 20 and 25, 2015.
Fani-Kayode was also accused of making a cash transaction of N24m with one Olubode Oke, said to still be at large, on February 12, 2015 “to Paste Poster at 125, Lewis Street, Lagos Island.”
The duo were said to have made the transaction without going through any financial institution, an act the EFCC claimed was contrary to Sections 1(a) and 16(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012 and punishable under Section 16(2)(b) of the same Act.
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun will today meet with finance commissioners from the 36 states of the federation to finalise discussions on a fresh bailout package.
The meeting will afford the commissioners the opportunity to explain how their states managed the first bailout given to them by the federal government.
The federal government and the state governors during the last National Economic Council meeting on Thursday, 9 June, agreed on a 22-point fiscal reform action plan codenamed Fiscal Sustainability Programme, FSP, which if fully adhered to by the various states, would qualify them for a fresh bailout package.
The FSP has five key strategic objectives namely: accountability and transparency, increase in public revenue, rationalization of public expenditure, public financial management reforms and sustainable debt management. The aim of the programme is to enable the various states achieve fiscal sustainability.
Requirements contained in the FSP include, biometric capture of all civil servants in the state, establishment of an efficiency unit, implementation of continuous audit, improvement in internally generated revenue, among others.
Under the FSP, states are also required to publish audited annual financial statements within six months of financial year end. States will also publish their annual budgets as well as budget implementation performance quarterly with effect from March 2017.
The federal government will provide the various states with an International Public Sector Accounting Standards, IPSAS, software to monitor the progress of the programme.
A coalition of youth groups within the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has expressed concern over the crisis rocking the leadership of the party.
The group also gave leaders of the party a seven-day ultimatum to settle their differences and resolve the dispute or the group would take over the party secretariat.
Briefing journalists at the end of their meeting on Tuesday, at the National Secretariat of the party, chairman of the group, Aderemi Olusegun, said they were saddened by the “unabated internal wrangling” bedevilling the party.
He said as concerned youth, they found it necessary to come together to take a firm position in the interest of PDP members nationwide.
Aderemi said the youth had waited enough for the party’s leaders since the Port Harcourt convention to amicably resolve the lingering problem of leadership, and gave a 7-day ultimatum to the leaders to resolve the problem.
“However, if this is not resolved, we shall be compelled to mobilize all concerned youths nationwide to take over the affairs of the party, as we have started putting in place an effective structure to take over the party secretariat,” he said.
Aderemi said the PDP as a party is bigger than individuals and groups and would not accept anyone “taking the party for a ride”.
“We are therefore demanding the immediate withdrawal of all pending litigations in the courts of law, so that we can amicably resolve all issues,” he said
The group also said it was disappointed that the leaders of the party appeared unconcerned about the likely effect of their actions on the forthcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States, which, they said, were likely to affect the fortunes of the party.
“Our party members world over are seriously disillusioned and unhappy.
“We have therefore constituted an 11-man committee to liaise with all the parties concerned and stakeholders to as a matter of urgency resolve all disagreements in our party.
“We shall be making further demands known to all the stakeholders in order to reposition our party as a viable alternative for all Nigerians,” the youth said.
The PDP has been embroiled in crisis since May 21 when different factions emerged at two national conventions held in different cities- Port Harcourt and Abuja.
JetBlue, a New York based airline, is offering free flights to the families of the victims of Sunday’s mass shooting at an Orlando gay club.
Today in the Sky reported spokesman of the airline, Doug McGraw, as confirming the offer.
“JetBlue is providing free seats on its available flights to/from Orlando for immediate family and domestic partners of victims who were killed or injured. Those family members and domestic partners requiring travel assistance can contact 1-800-JETBLUE for details.”
JetBlue is also waiving change fees for customers who wish to change their travel plans in the wake of the tragedy. Fliers ticketed to fly through Orlando from Sunday through Tuesday will be allowed to make a change to their itineraries without paying the customary change fee.
Forty-nine people were reportedly killed and another 50 were injured in the Sunday attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
New York-based JetBlue has a sizable presence in Orlando, where it operates a base and maintains support facilities.
Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima has ordered the immediate hospitalization of 61 critically malnourished infants recently rescued from Boko Haram captivity.
The children were part of the 478 children and 219 adults that were rescued after two years in captivity.
A statement by Isa Gusau, spokesman of the governor, said all of them showed signs of malnutrition but that the 61 children hospitalised were in critical condition.
The statement said : “The 61 infants now hospitalized at Umaru Shehu Specialist Hospital, owned by the State Government in Maiduguri, are undergoing medical care arising from extreme deprivation of food. They were part of the 478 children moved from Bama alongside 219 adults also malnourished. The adults consist of 196 women, some of whom gave birth to part of the 478 children. The rest of the adults are 23 men, looking emaciated.”
Gusau disclosed that the victims were among those rescued by the military in continued operations against Boko Haram insurgents who in the last six years attacked communities, killing residents and abducting many.
He said after the governor ordered the health and Emergency Management Agency staff to set up the special unit on Monday night, he was at the unit on Tuesday to meet the kids and parents.
“Anyone that shows sign of being in critical health condition should be sent for medical admission on Government shoulders. Food and water must be constant and so should medical staff and drugs at the unit. I will monitor every step of what happens here” Shettima told staff.
He also revealed that: “There were humanitarians from particularly Empower 54, an Atlanta based humanitarian organization led by a Benin Princess, Modupe Ozolua. The princess played a key role in working with the Borno State Government since the last weeks and she indeed accompanied Government officials to Bama on Monday to convey the 697 suffering souls to Maiduguri.”
According to Gusau, the governor had recognized the contribution of the Benin Princess in supporting the people of Borno.
Gusau also revealed that the governor had relocated thousands of freshly rescued villagers displaced in Marte and Mafa.
He said the governor was on hand to visit the victims who stayed under trees along Maiduguri- Dikwa road on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
He said the villagers who were said to be over 10,000 were rescued around Mafa and Marte after a recent raid by the military.
He said they were trapped as a result of insurgency activities on the routes to their villages.
The Dangote Foundation has flagged off the distribution of 106 trucks of food items to Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.
This is for the feeding of people in the camps during the ongoing Ramadan period.
According to Zouwaira Youssufu, chairperson of the foundation, the donation was in fulfillment of Aliko Dangote’s earlier promise to feed people who have been displaced by insurgency in the state.
Dangote recently donated N2 billion to the Borno State government for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of critical infrastructure that was destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents.
Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima who was present at the occasion acknowledged that in time of very serious challenges, the Dangote Foundation had stood firmly on the side of the people. He disclosed that the donation of food trucks was not the first time that the foundation was intervening in Borno state, adding that a year ago, the Foundation donated the sum of N400 million to 40,000 IDPs and indigent people of Borno. “Apart from that, for the past couple of years, the foundation had been sending food items for distribution to the people of Borno state,” Shettima added. He assured the foundation and the people of Borno State that the N2 billion expected from the foundation would be judiciously utilized for the good of the people in areas of health, education and gender empowerment.
He said the state government will provide the Dangote Foundation with the list of the projects to support so that the monies will go directly into the projects for which they were intended to avoid the issue of embezzlement.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has seized a N3.58bn mansion in the Asokoro area of Abuja allegedly belonging to the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, said this during an interview with Al-Jazeera, a Qatar-based news network.
Magu said items in the house included jewellery, furniture, and a bulletproof gym worth about $2m.
He stated that the house was part of the $10bn in cash and assets that had been seized by the federal government in the last one year.
Magu said the agency had been able to take on a lot of big shots that were hitherto untouchable in the country, including top shots in the military and the political class, adding that a total of 164 convictions have been made in the last one year.
He denied claims that the fight against corruption was politically-motivated.
“No, not my EFCC; not the EFCC of today. We are not politicized. If there is an allegation against anybody, we will go after them,” he said.
Comptroller-General of Immigration, Muhammad Babandede, has given Passport Control Officers nationwide 48 hoursto clear all backlog of passport applications.
The order, given on Monday, also include all Passport Issuing Desks in Nigeria’s Foreign Missions.
Babandede said failure to comply with the directive would be interpreted to mean the passport officers were incompetent and will therefore be removed.
He warned all passport offices to ensure that processing of passport does not exceed 72 hours as stipulated by the service policy.
He called on Passport applicants to always get their breeder documents such as birth certificate, age declaration, certified guarantor’s forms from the right sources to avoid delay in the processing of their Passports.
In a related development, the CGI said he has inaugurated a Committee comprising the Assistant Comptroller-General of Immigration (Passports), Ndubisi Ndife and NIS Technical Partners, Messrs Iris Technologies Ltd and NewWorks Ltd to re-configure the NIS Passport platform in order to enable State Passport offices re-issue Passports to applicants who want to change their data on account of marriage or due to loss of previous ones.
With this development, such category of applicants need not travel to Abuja to effect any change in their travel documents but go to the Passport offices in the States they reside to do it. Presently, women who wish to change their data such as name due to marriage are required to travel to the Service Headquarters in Abuja to effect those changes, which sometimes take up to three days.
The South-South edition of the federal government’s Town Hall meetings ended in Uyo,the Akwa Ibom State Capital, today with a revelation by Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was yet to allocate oil blocks to anyone since coming to power in May last year.
The minister also said that he had reached out to the Niger Delta Avengers on the need to stop the destruction of oil installations in the region.
Kachikwu made the disclosure while answering questions from the audience after all the ministers present had given their speeches.
Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transport, also said the federal government would soon commence the revival of old railway lines and construction of new ones, adding that the Lagos-Calabar rail line is one of those to be constructed.
Kachikwu said over N7 billion has been invested by the federal government in the oil and gas sector with a large part of it located in Akwa Ibom State.
He urged militants blowing up oil installations to desist from destroying the environment, stressing that “there is no where in the world where violence has solved any problem.”
He said President Buhari was yet to allocate oil block to anybody because he was more interested in “clearing the mess.”
The town hall meeting is an initiative of the federal ministry of information and culture under the leadership of the Minister, Lai Mohammed.
Ministers of Budget and Economic Planning, Udoma Udo-Udoma, Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Usani and that of Environment, Amina Mohammed also took turns to address the audience on steps taken so far by the federal government to put Nigeria back on the path of growth and progress.
Udo-Udoma said the current economic challenge in the country could partly be attributed to the decline in crude oil prices which is the major revenue earner for the country and also the disruptions in oil production which makes it impossible to reach the production target. He however added that the 2016 Budget, if fully implemented, will bring progress to Nigeria and Nigerians.
Kachikwu said his ministry has done a lot within the period in review, including the restructuring of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
Also his ministry has started publishing a monthly report which shows all its activities in the month in order to enhance transparency and accountability.
On the issue of subsidy, Kachikwu said, “We’ve taken on the issue of fuel subsidy which was plagued with so much fraud, was costing the government about N1.4 trillion every year, we’ve managed to remove fuel subsidy from Nigerian space.”
He said the greatest feat the ministry has recorded so far is the deregulation of the petroleum sector which has made it possible for more people to import petroleum products after going through the legal processes. He said this has led to competition in the sector and will eventually bring down the price of petroleum products in the country.
He however said gas flaring was still a major challenge.
Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed said the federal government was partnering with the international community to tackle desertification, coastal erosion and floods.
“We have to protect our world,” she said, “Without it, we would not survive; without us, the environment will survive and so we have to talk about the issues of pollution and sanitation.”
The minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Usani, said government has entered training agreements with various European institutions, including United Kingdom in order to train the youths from the Niger delta region.
He urged the youths of the region to eschew violence and destruction of oil installations as that would only worsen the level of environmental degradation in the area thereby making life more difficult for the people.
The south-south edition of the town hall meeting is the fourth in the series after similar exercises in Lagos on April 25, Kaduna, May 10 and Kano, May 25.
