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Kidnappers Delivers Fingers Of Retired Army Major And Wife To Family

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From Jessica Tamaraduoye, Asaba

The Delta State Police command has stepped up investigations in the kidnap of 80-year-old retired army Major, Azum Asoya and his 55-year-old wife, Elizabeth, after their family claimed they received two parcelled fingers from the abductors.

A close family member who did not want to be named said the family has been negotiating with the kidnappers who initially demanded the sum of N30 million, but later reviewed it down to N9 million which he confessed the family still could not raise.

Upset at the seeming lack of cooperation from the family, the kidnappers had threatened to eliminate the couple and as if to drive fear into family members, decided to send them two parcelled fingers.

Our family source, however, could not confirm whether the fingers belonged to the couple but the state public relations of the force, Lucky Uyabeme, an assistant superintendent of Police. said he doubted the fingers were those of the Asoyas.

Uyabeme said he believed the fingers were those of dead people whom the hoodlums probably dug from the grave and that the abductors may have resorted to such a desperate act to force the family into paying the ransom.

He added that only a medical examination could determine whether or not the fingers belonged to the couple but urged the family not to yield to their demands, assuring that his men would soon close-in on the kidnappers and ensure the safe release of the couple.

Azum and Elizabeth were kidnapped on November 30 at Okpanam while on their way home from a burial ceremony in another part of the town.

Fresh Crisis Erupts In Rivers Assembly

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Fresh Crisis Erupts In Rivers Assembly

The Rivers State Police Thursday barred the 26 members of the state House of Assembly loyal to the state governor, Rotimi Amaechi, from sitting in compliance with a court order.

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday ruled that the state Assembly in not incapable of conducting its affairs, thus preventing the National Assembly from taking over its legislative duties.

But as the 26 members converged to hold a plenary at the State Assembly Complex, the police stormed the place and sealed off the building.

Undeterred, the lawmakers tried to hold their meeting outside, but again the police stopped them by firing gunshots and tear-gas into the air.

Video clips of the event aired by some local tv stations, showed that some persons were injured in the ensuing commotion.

Comfirming the incident, the state commissioner of information, Ibim Semenitari, said it is “an indication of the impunity ravaging the country and a clear indication that the PDP under the present leadership has lost all forms of democratic conduct.”

The state police commissioner, Joseph Mbu, could not be reached for comments at this time.

However, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rivers State Chapter, has blamed governor Ameachi for Thursday’s crisis and accused him of employing the services of thugs and hooligans to further threaten the peace of the state.

The party alleged that “armed thugs” who are neither members nor staff of the legislative assembly drove into the complex in buses with some legislators loyal to the governor to cause disturbance in the course of a sitting.

Special adviser to the state chairman of the party, Jerry Needam, commended the Police for its role in
“preventing what would have resulted to another face of chaos at the Assembly Complex.”

The PDP also advised the governor to appeal against the Court’s judgment if he feels uncomfortable with it, rather than squandering the wealth of the state on street thugs.

“The Party unequivocally says the action of the Governor is unacceptable and will not sit down and watch the State completely destroyed by him (Amaechi) and those who do not want progress and meaningful development in the State,” Needam said.

The PDP also reiterated that Evans Bipi remains the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, adding that it would not fail to ensure that he resumes proceeding in the House accordingly and as provided by the law.

The Party called on the Police Authorities to continue to ensure that the Assembly is safe for “normal” activities.

Obasanjo Reminds Jonathan Of His Single Term Promise

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Obasanjo Reminds Jonathan Of His Single Term Promise

As calculations towards the 2015 general elections intensifies, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has written a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan to remind his of his promise to run for only a single term, charging him to tread the path of honour by keeping his words.

Obasanjo’s letter gives credence to earlier agitations from some governors that Jonathan should not contest the presidency in 2015 going by an agreement he entered into in 2011 to appease the north, even though the President has continued to deny knowledge of such a pact.

The governors too are yet to provide evidence of such a deal but Obasanjo in the letter he tagged  “Before it is too late”, specifically mentioned that the governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, had informed him of Jonathan’s acceptance not to seek re-election in 2015.

“He (Suswam)  told  me  that  you  had  accepted  a one-term presidency to allow for  ease of getting support across  the board in the  North. I decided to cross-check with  you. You  did  not  hesitate to confirm to me that you are a strong believer in a one-term of six  years for the  President  and  that  by  the  time  you  have  used  the  unexpired  time  of your  predecessor  and  the  four  years  of  your  first  term,  you  would  have almost used up to six years and you would not need any more term or time,” the former President said.

According to him, up to two months ago, Jonathan continues to assure that he has not discussed plans to re-contest even when his body language says otherwise.

Obasanjo accused the President of destroying the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, by placing personal and political interests above national interests and failing to draw the line between advice from selfish and self-centered aides and advice from those who in the interest of the nation may not tell him what he will want to hear.

Citing some examples, Obasanjo accused Jonathan of supporting the candidates of opposition parties in governorship elections held in Lagos, Ondo, Edo and Anambra states, thereby causing disagreements between party members.

“Maybe you also need to know that many party members feel disappointed in the double game you were alleged to play in support of party governorship candidates in some states where you surreptitiously supported non-PDP candidates against PDP candidates in exchange for promise or act of those non-PDP governors supporting you for your election in the past or for the one that you are yet to formally declare,” the letter said.

He stated further: “If you as leader of the party cannot be seen to be loyal to the PDP in support of the candidates of the party and the interests of such party candidates have to be sacrificed on the altar of your personal and political interest, then good luck to the party and I will also say as I have had occasions to say in the past, good luck to Goodluck.”

The former leader charged the President to keep to his promise of a single term, saying it will be “fatally morally flawed” for him to contest in 2015.

“As a leader, two things you must cherish and hold dear among others are trust and honour both of which are important ingredients of character. I will want to see anyone in the office of the Presidency as a man or woman who can be trusted, a person of honour in his words and character,” he told Jonathan.

Obasanjo’s letter touched on many other national issues including security, corruption, oil theft, leadership, democracy and international partnerships.

He called on Jonathan to take at least one effective corrective action against high corruption which seems to top other issues bedevilling the country, using transparent means.

“This allegation will not fly away by non-action, cover-up, denial or bribing possible investigators. As  head  of  government,  the  buck  of  the  performance  and non-performance  stops  on  your  table  and  let  nobody  tell  you  anything  to the  contrary.    Corruption has reached the level  of impunity.    It  is  also  necessary  to  be  mindful  that  corruption  and  injustice are fertile breeding grounds for terrorism and political instability,” he warned.

Meanwhile, the President’s aides have described the letter as “most reckless, baseless, unjustifiable and indecorous”

Special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Reuben Abati, said he finds the letter “highly unbecoming, mischievous and provocative”, adding that it was deliberately leaked to the mass media in a deplorable effort to impugn the integrity of the President and denigrate his commitment to giving Nigeria the best possible leadership.

Abati said that the President has instructed that no response is provided to the letter on his behalf, as he would personally respond to the charges levelled against him and his administration at the “appropriate time”.

Rivers Assembly Crisis: APC Criticises Court Ruling

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Rivers Assembly Crisis: APC Criticises Court Ruling

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has criticised the ruling of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, which quashed requests for the National Assembly to take over the functions of the Rivers House of Assembly, following the mayhem that broke out on July 9.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed restrained the Senate, its President, the House of Representatives and its Speaker from assuming the law making functions of the Rivers Assembly, a move it said is unconstitutional according to of Sections 11(4) and (5) of the 1999 Constitution.

By Sections 11(4) and (5) of the 1999 Constitution, the court rules, the Senate, its President, the House of Representatives and its Speaker “cannot assume the law making functions of the Rivers State House of Assembly, when there are no facts that the House of Assembly is unable to carry out its functions.”

Justice Mohammed held that there are no facts to prove that the Rivers Assembly is unable to carry out its functions as provided under the Constitution and upheld the argument by the plaintiffs that the House reconvened under the former Speaker and passed the state’s 2013 budget after the fracas.

The court also faulted the directive by the National Assembly to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, to redeploy the state police commissioner, noting that by the provisions of Sections 215 (2) and (3) of the Constitution, the Senate, its President, the House of Representatives and its Speaker did not have the power to direct the IGP to redeploy the River State CP or any officer under the command of the Nigeria Police Force.

However, the APC views the judgement as bizarre and alarming.

“With the Mace as well as several heads broken and the hallowed chambers desecrated by a free-for-all that was watched all around the world, what else must occur before the stipulated conditions can prevail for the National Assembly to take over the functions of the Rivers House of Assembly?” the party queried.

In view of the judgement and the dangers it portend, the interim national publicity secretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, warned that any move to impeach the Speaker of the Rivers Assembly, Amachree Otelemaba, by 6 out of 32 members of the House will be highly resisted.

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“There is no doubt that the six legislators opposed to Gov. Chibuike Amaechi will try to hide under the cover of the judgement to convene the Assembly with the sole purpose of removing the Speaker as a prelude to impeaching the State Governor…any such act will constitute an illegality and trigger a cataclysmic reaction, the end result of which no one can predict,” the party said.

It added: “’The six legislators opposed to Gov. Amaechi do not and cannot form a quorum (9 members) that will even allow the House to convene legally, not to talk of at least 20 members, representing two third majority that can constitutionally impeach the Speaker.”

The APC also urged the police and other security agencies not to provide cover to any act of illegality, stressing that their role must be to ensure the safety and security of all legislators if and when the house decides to sit.

Senate Investigates NNPC’s Alleged Unremitted $49.8 Billion Oil Proceeds

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Senate Investigates NNPC’s Alleged Unremitted $49.8 Billion Oil Proceeds

The Senate has launched investigations into the alleged unremitted $49.8 billion accruing from oil sales which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, allegedly failed to pay into the Federation Account.

The Senate finance committee headed by Ahmed Markafi is to conduct the investigation and report back as quickly as possible “but certainly not more than one week,” Senate President David Mark said.

The senate investigation stem from reports of a letter written by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan, in which he expressed worry over what he described as huge shortfalls in amounts remitted to the bank for a period of a year and the half.

Sanusi said in the letter that the NNPC earned $65.3 billion from crude oil sales between January 2012 and July 2013 by selling 46 percent of Nigeria’s oil but only remitted 24 percent of this to the government’s account and that $49.8 billion representing 76 per cent of the total crude oil revenues within the period under review was still outstanding.

However, the general manager, media relations department of the NNPC, Omar Farouk Ibrahim, has tried to shed light on the allegation which he says show clear misunderstanding of the workings of the oil and gas industry, as well as the modality for remitting crude oil sales revenue into the Federation Account.

“Revenues from crude oil liftings are in various categories, namely Equity Crude; Petroleum Profit Tax, Royalty, Third Party Financing and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC,” he said.

Ibrahim said that revenues from each of these categories are statutorily collected by different agencies of the government and that the NNPC collects only the Equity Crude which it pays  directly to the Federation Account.

“For the avoidance of doubt, it needs to be stated that the figure of 594.024 million barrels of crude oil given by the CBN as the total crude oil lifting for the period of January 2012 to July 2013 does not represent the correct picture of crude oil lifting for the period. From our records, the correct figure is 618.55m barrels. This shows that the CBN understated the actual crude lifting by 4.13%,” he said.

Explaining further, the general manager said that the Petroleum Profit Tax is collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS and that while Royalty goes to the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, third arty financing goes to NPDC.

He said that the sum total of proceeds paid by the FIRS and DPR as PPT and Royalty respectively into the Federation Account with the CBN, make up the alleged unremitted $49.8 billion revenues.

Ibrahim stressed: “The 24% of total crude oil revenue receipts which the CBN governor is reported to have acknowledged that NNPC remitted represents the proceeds from the equity lifting which NNPC is directly responsible for. The alleged unremitted 76% was paid to the agencies that are statutorily empowered to receive them for onward remittance into the Federation Account.”

He said there was need for institutions of the Federal Government and top government functionaries to seek understanding of issues that are not clear to them from relevant agencies before misleading the public with information that is capable of creating public disaffection.

The NNPC has in recent times been criticised for lacking transparency and for diversion of funds but the matter has always stopped on the table of probe panels with no punishment for those found culpable.

Boko Haram Kill Nine Passengers In Maiduguri

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Boko Haram Kill Nine Passengers In Maiduguri

Musdapha Ilo, Maiduguri

Nine innocent lives were yet again wasted along the Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu highway on Wednesday by members of the banned Boko Haram sect.

The Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu road has become famous for attacks and killings carried out nearly on a daily basis.

Those slain were said to be commuters who were travelling before their vehicles, a bus and a gulf car, were suddenly attacked by members of the terrorist group.

Other motorists on getting to the scene, were forced to make a U-turn when they saw nine bodies lying on the road with slit throats.

Some supporters of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who were on their way back to Biu after a day’s out on political engagements in Maiduguri were forced to return to the town, following the attack.

One of them said: “the road today is not good, we have to turn back because we saw and counted nine dead bodies and there was nobody around there so we were afraid to continue our journey to Biu and made a U-turn.”

Security operatives could not be reached to react to the incident.

Gov Oshiomhole Present N159.2 billion 2014 Budget

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Gov Oshiomhole Present N159.2 billion 2014 Budget

Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has presented a budget of N159.213 billion for the 2014 fiscal year, to the State House of Assembly.

The proposal which is tagged “Budget of Renewed Hope” is aimed at opening up the state’s economy for rapid socio-economic development, the governor said.

The 2014 budget which is approximately N5 billion higher than the N154 billion of 2013 budget, comprises of N85,595 billion or 53.76% capital expenditure and N73.617billion or 46.24% recurrent expenditure.

Oshiomhole explained while presenting the budget that his government hopes to get N115.589 billion as revenue – N65.331 billion as statutory receipts; N25.095 billion from Internally Generated Revenue, N4.899 billion from Aids and Grants; N8.246 billion from VAT, N6.423 from Excess Crude Account and N5.595 billion from Capital Receipts.

Further breakdown revealed that road projects will gulp the largest share of the budget with  N24 billion of the Capital expenditure; followed by education which takes N15 billion; flood and erosion control/environmental protection N10.295 billion; Health N8 billion; while Agriculture, Housing and Urban Planning take N1.5billion each.

The governor said that the aim of the budget is to complete on-going infrastructural projects; provide qualitative and affordable education, improve health-care delivery services and create an investment friendly environment for a private sector driven economy.

He stressed that the state government would complete the construction and equipping of the new accident and emergency 200 bed ward complex at the Central Hospital, Benin City, as well as complete and furnish the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Block D of the new Secretariat complex to provide permanent accommodation for the Ministry.

“The outlook for our dear State in 2014 is very promising, despite the drop in inflows from the Federation Account and Internally Generated Revenue we have witnessed in 2013. We have a sound development strategy and we have drawn important lessons in the process of implementation of our projects and programmes over the years. We also have in abundance the political will, and critical mass of support to drive our development agenda, sustain the gains we have so far made and break new grounds,” Oshiomhole said.

Reviewing the state’s 2013 budget, he said the revenue performance was affected by the reduction in the Personal Income Tax, PIT, which led to a big drop in its Internally Generated Revenue to the tune of N500 million monthly.

The governor noted that the drop in the allocation from the Federation Account arising from the alleged oil theft also adversely affected the revenue profile of the State.

ASUU, FG Sign Agreement

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ASUU, FG Sign Agreement

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has indicated it will call off its over five months mass strike action before the end of the week as it signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the federal government Wednesday evening .

The agreement which was reached between both parties in Abuja at the ministry of education, follows the withdrawal of an ultimatum issued by the government to the union and the confirmation of payment of N200 billion to an account in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as part of fulfilment of the promise made during the last peace negotiation.

National chairman of ASUU, Nasir Fagge, signed the agreement on behalf of the union, while the supervising minister for education, Nyesom Wike, stood in for the government.

Fagge said that the federal government has agreed to fulfill most of the obligations agreed upon during meetings with the President, including a non-victimization clause, adding that the union will hold meeting with its National Executive Council to assess the content of the. MoU and decide on its next line of action.

The federal government on its part is expected to set up a committee to ensure that the agreement reached with ASUU is fully implemented.

ASUU Strike: FG Shifts Ground, Withdraws Ultimatum

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ASUU Strike: FG Shifts Ground, Withdraws Ultimatum

The federal government on Tuesday in yielding to pressure from parents and stakeholders over the prolonged shutdown of public universities, withdrew the ultimatum it issued to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

Senior special assistant to the President on public affairs, Doyin Okupe, told journalists that the idea behind the ultimatum was to ensure that the institutions are reopened as quickly as possible and that the compliance it received was quite substantial.

“Right now, the issue of ultimatum is not a matter for discussion anymore. There has been substantial compliance nationwide,” Okupe said.

According to him, about 70% of lecturers had returned to work.

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Okupe also said the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had in a letter signed by its deputy governor, Tunde Lemo，and addressed to the Accountant General of the Federation, confirmed that it received the N200 billion meant for the union as agreed in a meeting on  November 5, 2013.

The money is said to be deposited in a “Revitalization of Universities Infrastructure Account” domiciled in the CBN.

The consequence of disobeying the ultimatum initially issued, would have brought one of the largest lay-offs the country had ever witnessed but for the shift of grounds announced by the federal government.

Senate Backtracks On Law To Muscle Social Media Critics

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Senate Backtracks On Law To Muscle Social Media Critics

The Senate on Tuesday resolved to delete Section 13 (3) from the proposed Bill on electronic fraud for fear that it could be abused and misinterpreted.

The section stipulates a seven-year jail for people who intentionally publish slanderous messages about government electronically.

“Anyone who intentionally propagates false information that could threaten the security of the country or capable of inciting the general public against the government through electronic message shall be guilty of an offence…And upon conviction shall be sentenced to seven years imprisonment or N5 million fine,” the law stipulates.

Senator representing Ogun east, Gbenga Kaka, who announced this to newsmen, said the decision was taken after due consultation with stakeholders.

“Following the public hearing which was held after the second reading, the Section 13 (3) of the provision was taken exception to by the social media; and since the Bill is now in the public, I decided to consult with the Senate Committee Chairman on Information, Media and Public Affairs, and that of Judiciary,” he said.

He said that after consultations, the Senate resolved to expunge controversial section of the proposed Bill to prevent abuse.

“As a result, I have their permission to announce to the world that that section shall be deleted,” he declared.

The bill is entitled: “A bill for an Act to provide for the prohibition of and punishment for electronic fraud and crime in all electronic transactions in Nigeria.” It had passed through the second reading in the Senate and was greeted with a lot of criticism from the social media.

Kaka expressed gratitude for all the contributions made both locally and internationally, adding that they further enriched the Bill.

He added that more suggestions and debates concerning the Bill would still be welcomed to further enrich it in the overall interest of the country.

The lawmaker emphasised that the Bill was not to gag the media but rather was targeted against the misuse of the Internet, to curb the activities of scammers.

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