By Tosin Omoniyi

The Bomb Victims Association of Nigeria, BVAN, an umbrella body of victims of various bomb blasts across the northern part of Nigeria have demanded for the accounting of the N80bn support fund initiated by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to cater for their welfare.

According to the group, the welfare package, which includes contributions from corporate and individual entities, has not been judiciously used to take care of its numerous members, many of whom have died as a result of neglect in recent months.

In a press statement jointly signed by its chairman, Kayode Oladele Olatunji and secretary, Musa Baba Audu, the group claimed that to the best of its knowledge, none of its members has benefited from the multi-billion naira package.

It challenged the Buhari-led government to commence immediate investigations into how the funds were spent.

It decried the needless death of many of its members due to unavailability of funds at their disposal to take care of their medical expenses.

“As a result of prolonged neglect of the victims of this bomb blasts across Northern Nigeria, some of us who initially survived the bombings have died, many due to little or no medical care and others as a result of their inability to continue with their medical bills or further their treatment here in Nigeria or abroad,” the group said.

It said its members cut across different tribes and religious affiliations and were affected in the various blasts that occurred in tragedies like the October, 1, 2010 blast at the Eagle Square in Abuja, the December, 31, 2010 blast at the Mogadishu Barracks, the Suleja blast at the INEC office in April 2011, the Madalla Catholic Church Bomb blast in 2011, the United Nations House blast in August 2011 and many other such explosions across the north.

It cited the example of one of its members, Hope Musa, an indigene of Taraba State, who died two weeks ago due to injuries sustained from the blast.

It said Musa’s death could have been avoided if he had access to funds.

“Victims are dying needlessly, deaths that are avoidable if urgent and continuous medical attentions are provided. We have cases of first-degree burns, cornea opacity, compound fractures and orthopedic cases, limb amputees, tympanic membrane and osicular bone damages on the ear, keloid skins, intensive nerve and tissue injuries and so on, which are in need of urgent medical attentions,” the group said.

It added that many of the victims had lost their lives as a result of government negligence and that many who initially survived their ordeal, died months later due to their inability to cope with exorbitant medical bills, which the Federal Government had promised to take care of.

It said the challenge led to the formation of the group which now has many members across the nation.

It appreciated the efforts of the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Chidi Odinkalu, whom it said had offered support for the activities of the group over the past few years.

Part of the demands of the group include the setting up of an investigative panel to assess the use of the funds raised for the bomb blast victims and the review of the modalities used for its disbursement if at all it had been given out to victims.

It also asked that genuine victims affected by the bomb blasts be included in subsequent welfare packages.

It urged the government to expedite actions that would curtail the spate of violent attacks and bomb explosions racking parts of the north.

“As of now, the victims of bombing are increasing daily, and in just this month of July alone there has been a blast in Zaria, Kaduna state, in which no less than 50 persons were killed. There is the recent twin bomb blasts in a market on the eve of Sallah and also the one in Damaturu on July 17, which claimed the lives of over 50 people and left scores injured,” it noted.

It urged Nigerians to support the efforts of the present government aimed at nipping the issue of terrorism in the bud.

Musa Baba Audu, secretary of BVAN, in a phone interaction and a subsequent email message to the reporter said its members were suffering immensely as a result of neglect by the government.

But when asked if he had any proof that the said monies had been frittered, he said he had none.

He also said there was no proof that the monies had been dispensed to those who genuinely needed it.

He said the group which now had 300 members was based in Abuja and Suleija, Niger State and was growing daily.

He said they were using the avenue of the social media and the support of the NHRC to ramp up support for their cause.

“We are dying slowly and it is our earnest desire that someone will finally listen to us and bring our ordeal to an end,” he said.

It would be recalled that on July 16, 2014, the Jonathan led government set up a Committee on Victims Support Fund to mobilize funds and administer same to victims of insurgency and Boko Haram terror activities all over the country. Theophilus Danjuma, a retired general was chosen to head the committee.

And in August 2014, a fund raising dinner was held, where the committee raised over N80bn. The former president said the fundraising was part of government’s efforts to raise funds so that the widows, orphans, and those whose business premises, homes and places of worship had been vandalized could be catered for.

The BVAN is however, not the first group to raise eyebrows over the judicious use of the funds raised as many Nigerians have continued to ask for the whereabouts of the funds raised to assist hapless victims of insurgency.

By Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin

The Inspector General of Police, IGP, Solomon Arase, on Saturday said road blocks set up by the police, on highways across the country, would not curb the rising spate of crime across the country.

Arase, who spoke at a reception organized for him by the Ora people in Owan West local government area of Edo State in recognition of his elevation to the position of IGP, noted that roadblocks on highways are mere avenues that create social friction between law enforcement agents and members of the public.

“Road block is not a panacea to curb crime. It is an avenue that creates social friction between us and members of the public,” he said.

The police chief was only restating a position he took as soon as he assumed office when he ordered the dismantling of roadblocks across the country mounted by policemen.

He said the implementation of strategies on police reforms was being perfected.

The IGP also vowed that he would continue his clampdown on cultists and their activities across the country, adding that he had no apology on his actions on cultism in Edo State.

“I have dealt with cultists in Edo and Kogi and I will continue to deal with them. No country can eradicate crime but we can make crime tolerable. We are going to remove police orderlies from politicians. It is an ongoing thing,” he said.

Arase appealed to youths to imbibe the spirit of endurance, positive ambition and contentment as only through such could make them enviable role models and great achievers whose lives would be as worthy as his
and other Edo citizens.

He said when youths are without these ideals, their communities will remain perpetually endangered and threatened with serious social disorders like kidnapping, armed robbery and cultism reigning.

He called on parents to join hands in the restoring the dwindling discipline, moral standard and academic passion of the youths.

In his goodwill message, the state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, said Nigeria needs people like Arase to drive the change that President Muhammadu Buhari had promised.

He said this would secure the country so that people can go about their businesses without hindrance.

He expressed confidence that the IGP possessed the required skills to deal with the challenges in the Nigeria Police.

He described IGP as a man of very unique ability and one who represents the finest qualities of the Edo man.

By Tosin Omoniyi

Sixteen civil society groups have commended the recent dissolution of boards of parastatals, agencies and departments by the federal government, expressing particular satisfaction over the dissolution of the
Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, which they accused of corruption.

The organizations also asked the government not to be intimidated into going back on its intention of changing the leadership of the various boards.

The groups held out the NEITI board for indictment, alleging that members were politically partisan and corrupt.

The civil society organisations include Partners for Electoral Reform, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, Protest to Power, Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education, CHRICED, Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD, State of the Union, SOTU and Zero Corruption Coalition, ZCC.

Others are, Civil Society Network Against Corruption, CSNAC, Social Action, Say No Campaign, Women in Nigeria, National Procurement Watch Platform NPWP, Environmental Rights Action, ERA, Tax Justice Nigeria
and Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative.

The groups claimed that based on their findings, several members of the dissolved Board had long lost their credibility, independence, neutrality and therefore, the moral right to remain on such boards.

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They said that not less than three members of the dissolved board displayed brazen partisanship during the recently held general elections.

Those listed included Musa Nashumi, a People’s Democratic Party, PDP, governorship aspirant in Katsina State; Bassey Ekefre, former commissioner of works who was an active participant in the PDP presidential campaign team from Cross River State, Patrick Udonfang, PDP director of legal services in Akwa Ibom State and Abiola Ige, another active participant in the PDP campaign in the South West.

The groups alleged that all members of the NEITI board representing each geo-political zone in the country were fully involved in partisan-politics during the just concluded 2015 general elections.

They also stated that the board’s initiation of formal correspondence with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation requesting and obtaining approval to be downgraded from status A to D
to facilitate their operation like the boards of conventional parastatals contravened Section 9 (1) of the NEITI Act 2007.

The CSOs said this was aimed at legitimizing the corrupt collection of allowances by the board members for meetings, many of which never held, thus enriching themselves in the process.

They alleged that the NEITI board usually expended up to five times its allocated budget annually.

The groups also alleged that the board initiated the idea of a NEITI Multi-Donor Fund and initiated correspondences with the International Oil Companies and the NNPC, soliciting funds for the use of the board which weakened its ability to effectively play the role of keeping the companies in check.

“Although the Fund never effectively took off because the sound judgment of the Executive Secretary, who as Secretary to the Board clearly understood that this would undermine the institution, there are clear indications that several members of the Board benefitted financially from some of the companies through sponsorship to the annual Offshore Technology Conference in the USA. It is difficult for such a Board to effectively protect national interest in relations with the oil companies,” the organisations said.

The CSOs also said that they had proof that the dissolved board interfered with the procurement processes for the appointment of the NEITI auditors thereby compromising their independence.

They noted that this was a clear violation of the fundamental principles of the global extractive industry transparency initiative and the Public Procurement Act 2007.

“There are indications that the EITI recently observed gaps in the recent Solid Minerals Audit Report where the auditor questioned the validity of the data. We are also investigating the role of the members of the dissolved Board especially the civil society representative, who should ordinarily serve as a whistle blower, concerning allegations trailing the 2012 oil and gas report. The findings already are quite revealing. All of these, including allegations of conflicts of interests in the award of contracts by some members of the Board, all combine to completely discredit the Board and makes its dissolution timely and deserving,” the groups noted.

They said while they recognized the genuine efforts of some board members, several of the others who were appointed on the basis of political patronage made the board tainted the integrity of the board.

The Yobe State governor, Ibrahim Geidam, has refuted reports that he said during a recent National Economic Council meeting in Abuja that five local governments in the state were under the control of the Boko Haram insurgents.

The governor’s director of press, Abdullai Bego, in a press statement issued over the weekend said the Geidam was quoted out of context.

He said the governor only referred to a point in time in the past when the insurgents held sway over two out of the 17 local governments in the state.

“These reports are misleading and totally out of the purview of the brief that His Excellency Governor Gaidam gave to the National Economic Council regarding the security situation in Yobe State. While security is still a concern and more work needs to be done, there is not a single local government council in Yobe under the sway or control of the insurgent Boko Haram,” Bego said.

He said the governor only commended the gallant efforts of the armed forces in retaking the two communities, Gujba and Gulani, freed and liberated from insurgents’ stranglehold.

“His Excellency, the governor, did of course ask for additional troops and weaponry to be deployed to Yobe State. He made this request only within the context of the need to sustain the momentum against Boko Haram and ensure that terrorists and insurgents are denied a chance to further harm our people,” Bego said

He said the government and people of Yobe State would continue to support and partner with the federal government and security forces as they stepped up effort to restore peace and security in Yobe State, the Northeast and the country in general.

The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has indicated its willingness to support the current administration’s anti-corruption campaign.

The party also said it would not protect any of its members who is found to have engaged in corrupt practices while in office.

The national publicity secretary of the PDP, Oliseh Metuh, who said this on Thursday, in Lokoja, however, asked the government to follow due process in its campaign against corruption and not witch-hunt the opposition.

Metuh noted that all well meaning Nigerians were fully in support of Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign, stressing that no PDP member whose hands are clean had anything to fear from any corruption investigation.

“Even if the PDP members are being probed, we support the probes because people are being held to account for their stewardships in office but we don’t want political lynching,” he said.

Metuh said the country would be in a better position when corruption is eradicated and the rule of law is allowed to operate without hindrance.

By Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin

The Edo State Election Petitions Tribunal on Thursday issued a bench warrant on the West Africa Examination Council, WAEC, after it failed to obey an earlier subpoena requesting it to appear before the tribunal.

The tribunal had summoned the examination body to testify in the case filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate for Oredo East constituency, Okoro Osadebamwen, to enable the defendants close their case.

In the petition, the Osadebamwen alleged that the school certificates presented by Osaigbovo Iyoha of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who was declared winner of the election by the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, were not genuine.

However, Iyoha, who later appeared before the Tribunal insisted that the certificates he presented were genuine.

He told the tribunal that he gained admission into the Edo State University but as at the time he applied to get his certificate, the state government had changed the name of the institution to the Ambrose Alli University.

He added that the names on all the certificates belonged to him and that the name Tony on one of the documents was his baptismal name.

At the tribunal sitting, counsel to the Iyoha, Eghogho Enahoro, expressed sadness at the refusal of WAEC to appear before the tribunal to clear the air about the genuineness of the certificates.

However, counsel to Osadebamwen, Solomon Odiase, said that the defense counsel was only using the refusal of WAEC to appear before the tribunal as a ploy to delay justice.

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday stopped the planned hike of electricity tariff by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC.

A Lagos-based lawyer, Toluwani Adebiyi, had taken the commission to court over the planned hike saying that it would add further hardship on already impoverished Nigerians.

He had asked the court to restrain the commission from going ahead with its plan.

Justice Mohammed Idris, had subsequently on May 28, restrained NERC from going ahead with the proposed increment.

The commission in response had filed an application seeking to discharge the restraining order claiming that Adebiyi had grossly misrepresented facts before the court and in the process misled the court into granting the order.

Counsel for the NERC, George Uwechue, had equally argued that the applicant failed to explore all available diplomatic remedies before rushing to get the court order.

However, in its ruling on Thursday, the judge dismissed the commission’s application and held that the application was not filed within seven days as stipulated by Order, 26 Rule 11 of the court’s proceedings.

The judge said this failure had rendered the defendant’s application null and thus made its application seeking to discharge the restraining order incompetent.
“The ex-parte order of this court restraining hike in electricity tariff is valid and still subsisting,” the judge held.

READ ALSO:

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• PDP Expresses Support For Anti-corruption War
• Edo Election Tribunal Issues Bench Warrant on WAEC

Also, the judge had struck out the preliminary objection filed by the commission challenging the applicant’s locus standi to institute the action.

The judge said that the defendant breached the provisions of Order 29, Rule 4 of the court’s Civil Procedure Rules by failing to file its preliminary objection within 21 days of being served with the applicant’s originating summons.

“The learned Senior Advocate for the defendant holds the view that the provision is discretionary. I honestly and sincerely disagree with that view. In the circumstances, I hold that the preliminary objection was filed in breach of the rules of the court. The objection filed is therefore, in my view, incompetent and is hereby struck out.”
The matter has been adjourned till September 23, 2015 for further hearing.

Operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in Abia State, have impounded a tanker truck carrying adulterated crude oil.

The operatives seized the tanker suspected to be conveying about 33,000 litres of suspected adulterated at Osisioma, along Port Harcourt Expressway.

According to reports monitored on Channels TV, the commandant of the corps in the state, Benito Eze, confirmed the arrest of the suspects in possession of the tanker.

Eze restated the agency’s commitment and determination at ensuring that vandals and oil thieves were chased out of the state.

He also said that the suspects arrested with the impounded tanker would be charged to court after investigations were concluded.

In a related development, the Imo State Command of the NSCDC also detained seven suspects alleged to be involved in the illegal sale and adulteration of stolen crude oil.

Three suspects who were involved in vandalism of public property and the sale of armoured Nitel cables were equally arrested.

The suspects, who were paraded at the Command Headquarters in Owerri, would soon be charged to court, according to the police.

The Imo State NSCDC commandant, Pedro Ideba, said the suspects had been involved in the illegal business for a long while.

At least 50 people are believed to have been killed in a multiple bomb blast that exploded in Gombe State on Wednesday night.

It was gathered that one of the explosions which occurred at the Dadin-Kowa motor park killed many people and also injured a large number of people at the ever busy park.

Two other explosions reportedly rocked the Dakku motor park, also within Gombe metropolis, about 20 minutes after that of Dadin-Kowa park.

An eye witness, Adamu Chiroma, who spoke on phone with our correspondent, said the second explosion was more devastating, as it hit groups of people that were still at the park.

“The bombs were concealed in two different bags and they went off simultaneously, while people were still at the park, we just heard the loud bangs, one after the other and we had to run for our dear lives,” he said.

Spokesperson for the state police command, Fwaje Atajiri, a deputy superintendent, who confirmed the incident, said an explosion occurred at the park located along Biu Road in Gombe metropolis in the night.

“Yes I can confirm to you that the incident occurred round 19:40 hrs, we do not have casualty details now but just know that an explosion has occurred and the details will be made known to you tomorrow,” he said.

Atajiri said the area had been cordoned and the Police, Red Cross and other emergency workers were busy conveying survivors to the hospital for medical attention.

The information officer in charge of the Gombe office of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Umar Madigawa, said the explosions were massive and that many deaths were recorded while several people were injured.

“The explosions were three but at two motor parks, Dadin Kowa and Station Dukku. I cannot just give you the number of casualties right now but men from our office and the Red Cross are involved in evacuating the dead bodies and injured to the hospital,” he said.

The multiple blasts came hours after the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase paid a working visit to the state.

Arase had assured Nigerians of adequate protection of their lives and property.