The Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Paul Orhii, has denied  involvement in a N700 million scam as reported by an online publication.

An online news site had published last month that a  petition to the Economic Financial Crime Commission, EFCC,  linked Orhii to N700million in a Lagos account of his former special assistant, AisahtOkpa-Iwenofu.

The site alleged that the unnamed petitioner had concrete proof of deals between Okpa-Iwenofu and fake drug dealers, claiming  further that she was a mistress to the D-G.

But the NAFDAC boss has denied having illicit relationship withOkpa-Iwenofu and is also claiming ignorance of  the N700 million said to have been found in her bank account. He described the allegation as outright falsehood.

He said he was never invited by the EFCC on the ‘so-called’ petition submitted to the anti-graft agency and that the publication of the allegation through an online news site, an unrecognised newspaper, was a campaign by aggrieved counterfeiting agents to bring him and the agency down.

“There is no iota of doubt that my detractors, some of who are drug counterfeiters would go to any length this time around to paint me black.They are envious, badly hit and uncomfortable with our well-coordinated, multifaceted and successful anti-counterfeiting strategies,” Orhii said.

According to him, the failed attempt to assassinate him in 2010 made his detractors hell-bent on assassinating his character with falsehood.

“How could I sack someone who has got my N700 million without first of all collecting my money? This is absolutely not logical,” he said.

The NAFDAC boss said he remains committed to fighting counterfeit drugs in the country and that his dedication to serving the nation will remain unshaken.

“I can never disappoint millions of Nigerians and friends abroad who have invested so much trust, confidence and hope in me,” he said.

Also speaking, the Chairman, NAFDAC Governing Board, John Ibu, noted that all allegations aimed at the Agency’s DG, were part of the plot to derail him from the good works he was doing.

“The DG has enviable achievements, which is recognised both locally and internationally and we are in support of his fight against fake drugs to safeguard the health of Nigerians. “If there is substance in the allegation, we would have investigated and dealt with it our own way,” he said.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, on Tuesday unveiled the  revised guidelines on the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act,FOIA.

The unveiling took place in Abuja during a public presentationorganised in collaboration with the Democratic Governance for Development, an arm of the UNDP, and other development bodies.

Represented by his the Senior Special Assistant 1, Peter Akpe, theAGF said the revised Act is aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability, pointing out that under the Act, public institutions are required to disclose certain information to the public.

“The revised guidelines are built upon the fulcrum of transparency on which the FOIA rests and incorporates lucid explanatory materials on the provisions of the Act. Under Section 1 of the Act, all government or public institutions are required, subject to certain exceptions, to disclose information pursuant to a request by any person,” he said.

Adoke also unveiled the website of the FOIA, which he said would help in achieving the aims of the Act  in addition to the revised guidelines.

“On this website, the public can access the report of the various activities related to the Freedom of Information Act and reports submitted by MDAs under Section 29 of the Act,” he said.

The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, urged Millennium Development Agencies, MDAs, to support the efforts of the Ministry of Justice in actualising the objectives of the  Act by reviving theirFOIA desks and ensuring that adequate awareness via public education and enlightenment is created.

“This is in the sense that all public servants and public institutions are guided properly in their obligations to provide necessary information to requesting individuals and bodies,” Maku said.

The Project Director, Democratic Governance for Development Project of the UNDP, Mourtada Deme, said the revised guidelines will ensure active citizen participation.

“A young democracy like Nigeria’s can only be strengthened when the citizenry are empowered with access to public information that can assist them to make informed contributions to democratic reforms and to hold elected officials and public servants accountable,” Deme said.

Also, a representative of the European Union, EU, Alan Munday, said the FOIA was essential to national development.

“Freedom of information is essential to the citizenry as it will assist them to contribute to the development of the nation,” he said.

The FOIA has been employed to demand for certain information that are of public interest in recent times, but it would appear that it is at variance with the oath of secrecy, which prohibits public officials from disclosing certain information deemed capable of jeopardisingthe security of the country.

This, he explained, has provided a refuge for public officials to function in secrecy, which is the bedrock of corruption.

On Monday, the federal government was dragged before a Federal High Court, Ikoyi, by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, for failing to provide information on the spending of the N700bn borrowed between December 31, 2012 and April 30, this year.

Requests have also mounted on the leadership of the National Assembly to disclose the salaries and allowances of its members, which is yet to be provided.

The Minister of State for Health, Muhammed Pate, has resigned from office to take up the position of professor at the Duke University’s Global Health Institute, USA.

He would also serve as senior adviser to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation based in Washington DC and participate in a university-wide Africa initiative.

In his resignation letter dated July 22, which was addressed to the President, Pate said he would continue to serve on part-time basis as the chairman of the Presidential Task Force on polio eradication and the public-private coalition for saving one million lives initiative.

“I wish to offer the continuation of my service on part-time basis as chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication and the public-private coalition for Saving One Million Lives Initiative, if you agree, in fulfilment of my previous commitments to see to conclusion of these important national priorities. This may entail an honorary advisory role reporting directly to you progress at least on quarterly basis,” he stated.

Responding to his resignation, the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Reuben Abati, said President Goodluck Jonathan is highly delighted that members of his cabinet were attracting global attention.

He said the President views the appointment as a plus for the administration and the country and commends the minister for the  integrity and competence which he brought on board while carrying out his duties first as the chief executive of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and later as a minister.

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Abati also noted that another cabinet member, the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was one of those shortlisted for the position of the World Bank’s President last year.

Pate who was appointed minister in July 2011, is an American Board-Certified medical doctor in both internal medicine and infectious diseases, with an MBA, Health Sector Concentration) from Duke University, USA.

He is also a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts, SAGE, on Vaccination and Humanitarian Emergencies at the World Health Organisation, WHO, in Geneva.

A Federal High Court judge sitting in Abuja, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, has asked for an amendment of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 to ensure that information supplied in compliance with the Act is done on a need to know basis.

Justice Kolawole said that unless adequate statutory safeguards are embedded in the Act, the underlying intention of government for enacting the law may be undermined or sabotaged as “irate individuals or busy bodies will abuse the rights which it has created with regard to information on public administration.”

According to him, the Act as it stands has created legal rights without a corresponding legal responsibilities and would lead to a situation where scarce public resources, time and energy are squandered in attending to requests which the applicant does not need.

He insisted that the responsibility to use the Act by Nigerians as an instrument to ensure transparency in governance “should not be left so loose and at large without any form of checks and, perhaps, balances”.

“It is my view that it is also part of transparency that rights created by enactments such as the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 are themselves not abused by irate litigants or those one may describe as ‘busy bodies,” the judge said.

He called on the National Assembly to undertake a review of the Act so as to ensure that access to information is only made available to such applicants who genuinely need it for specific purposes.

Kolawole expressed these views while delivering judgement in a suit instituted by Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, PIN, a non-governmental organization, seeking an order of mandamus to compel presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, to provide detailed information on the multi-million dollar contract awarded in April 2013 to an Israeli company, Elbit Systems, to monitor Internet communication in Nigeria.

The Stop Impunity Nigeria, SIN, Campaign had filed a ex-partemotion on behalf of PIN on June 5, 2013, seeking leave of the court to apply for: “a declaration that the denial of access and refusal to make available to PIN detailed information on the contract awarded to Elbit Systems, a company based in Haifa, Israel,  for the supply of the Wise Intelligence Technology  System for Intelligence Analysis and Cyber Defence for Nigeria by Dr Abati without an explanation constitutes an infringement  of PIN’s rights  guaranteed and protected  by section 1 (1) of the Freedom Information Act, 2011,” among other reliefs sought.

Ruling on the motion, Justice Kolawole stressed that there is no country in the world where access to all forms of public records are thrown open even to an applicant who is not required to show any specific interest in the information requested from a public body.

The judge noted that reading through the processes filed on behalf of PIN in the case, the applicant merely stated that the respondent is the “Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity” but did not state that the respondent in that capacity was being sued as one who awarded the contract in issue.

The judge also questioned whether it was sufficient for Abati to be sued for being a “Special Adviser” to the President on media and publicity, when he has not been shown under any law to be involved in the award of the contact on which information is being requested.

He said he was not aware of any legislation by which the “Office of a Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity” was created as to make “the Respondent as sued in the Motion Ex-parte to be seen as a public body, authority or officer who is prima facie amendable to prerogative orders of mandamus which are judicial instruments to enforce the performance of public duties, Justice Kolawole struck out the motion.

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, on Monday banned for life players and officials of four Nigerian amateur clubs involved in two promotional play-off games into the Nigeria Nationwide League that produced scandalous 79-0 and 67-0 score lines.

The four clubs, Plateau United Feeders, Akurba FC, Babayaro FC and Police Machine FC, have also been banned from the game for 10 years.

Addressing the journalists in the board room of the NFF secretariat in Abuja, the first vice-president of the NFF board who also doubles as the chairman of the organising and disciplinary committee, MikeUmeh, said after due deliberation that followed the debriefing of all the actors involved in the saga, the only option was to seriously sanction the culprits because of the disrepute they had brought the game to.

“It will be recalled that the two fixtures have given the football world a record goal of 146 with Plateau Feeders accounting for 79 of the goals while Police Machine scored 67 goals against BabayaroFC of Gombe.” Umeh said.

Lamenting the global embarrassment the teams have caused theNFF, Umeh stated that the investigating committee was not able to confirm any exchange of money or material inducement, but determined that the winners were desperate to win and losers were desperate to lose.

One of the board members of the  Nigeria Nationwide League found  wanting in the discharge of his responsibilities, Tanko Bawa Maiyaki, has not been sanctioned but was referred to the league’s board for appropriate action.

A statement by the head of national competition of the football federation, Sanusi Mohammed, stated that photographs of the culprits have been forwarded to all relevant security agencies to forestall further scam.

“… as we are talking to you people now, we are already sending I mean scanning their pictures to the Inspector General of Police, theSSS, CAF and FIFA, we know they could go ahead to change names and other particulars but on our part we intend to tie up all loose ends with this act,” Mohammed said.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, today charged members of the new board of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to make the rule of law and due process their guiding principle in the discharge of their functions.

Adoke who gave this charge while inaugurating the board of the commission at his office, also admonished the chairman of the anti graft agency, Ibrahim Lamorde, to bring his wealth of experience and expertise to bear and uphold the virtues of integrity, commitment and dedication which are essential tools for success.

Adoke bemoaned the unbaiting incidence of economic and financial crimes in the country and noted that the board was inaugurated to ensure that the agency discharges its mandate effectively and in line with Nigeria’s obligations under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, UNCAC, and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, UNTOC.

“There is no doubt that Nigerians have long come to the realization that high prevalence of economic and financial crimes are antithetical to our development objectives as a nation. Government has therefore enacted appropriate legislation and approved policies and programmes designed to tackle the menace of economic and financial crimes in the country,” the minister said.

Lamorde, who also serves as chairman of the new board, thanked the government for the opportunity to serve and assured that the board will not disappoint the nation.

“We will try to discharge our responsibility to the best of our knowledge. To whom much is given, much is expected,” he said.

Members of the newly inaugurated board are Emmanuel AdegboyegaAremo, the secretary to the commission; EmmanuelIbitolu, Uwasomba Udochukwu, Ismaila Mohammed Dukku and Michael Ebong.

The Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday lauded the Supreme Court’s ruling granting state governments the right to regulate hotels, restaurants and tourism.

The Speaker of the House, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, said in a statement that the judgment was a “resounding victory for states”.

The apex court had on July 19 dismissed a suit filed by the attorney general of the federation seeking the control of the hospitality industry by the National Tourism Development Corporation, NTDC.

The court upheld the contention of the attorney general of Lagos State that the 1999 Constitution only empowered the National Assembly to regulate tourist traffic and not hotel registration or licensing.

The Lagos State government and the federal government had been embroiled in a controversy over the proper authority to license and grade hospitality establishments.

This resulted in the NTDC and the state government setting up parallel registration and regulation structures in the state.

Ikuforiji said: “I commend the ruling of the justices of the Supreme Court which gave a unanimous victory to the Lagos State Government for the Hotel Licensing Law and the Restaurant Consumption Law.”

He said with the judgment, the issue of separation of powers between states and the federal government has now been finally settled.

“It is pertinent to put on record that the Supreme Court has been proactive and consistent in discharging its enormous statutory responsibilities,” the statement added.

The speaker added that the country must return to the path of true fiscal federalism and the rule of law in order to uphold its democracy.

The former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, has described his suspension from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as an outright destruction of the entire PDP in Ekiti State.

“Fayose is an institution that cannot be excised from a party likePDP,” he said.

Earlier, the state chairman of the party, Makanjuola Ogundipe, suspended the former governor for the roles he allegedly played in the invasion of the state secretariat by hoodlums last week.

Also suspended are: the state secretary of the party, Tope Aluko; state women leader, BusolaOyebode; as well as state public relations officer, Kola Oluwole.

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Ogundipe said investigations conducted by the party indicated that the suspended persons were connected to the crisis in the party.

The chairman denied allegations that he collected N5 million from an aspirant based in Abuja to help him emerge as the party’s consensus candidate. He said those suspended would appear before the party’s disciplinary committee at a date to be announced soon.

But Fayose who was brought back to the PDP by the national chairman, BamangaTukur and is widely believed to be eyeing the governorship ticket of the party in 2014, dismissed his suspension.

“This is not only laughable but ignoble. Suspending Fayose is like suspending PDP in Ekiti. It is the national leadership of the PDP, notOgundipe, that can suspend Fayose who toiled to make the party occupy its present position as major opposition party in the state today,” he said.

One person died on Saturday in a stampede that followed an attempted attack on a mosque in Maiduguri by suspected BokoHaram insurgents.

Pandemonium broke out at the l-Amin Daggash Mosque in the GRAas worshippers fled for safety upon hearing the sound of gunshots near the mosque.

Eyewitnesses said that an unspecified number of men suspected to be Boko Haram members had approached the mosque shooting into the air to scare away worshippers..

However, when they tried to gain entrance into the mosque, apparently to launch an attack, they were reportedly repelled by heavily armed vigilante youths who were providing security there.

In an attempt to flee the scene and the escape the crossfire, a stampede ensued in which one person was trampled to death and many others injured

An eyewitness said the attempted attack took place at about 4:30pm during a Ramadan sermon at the mosque.

However, the Joint Task Force, JTF,  in Borno State, tagged Operation Restore Order, gave an entirely different account of what happened at the mosque, denying that it was an attempted attack by insurgents.

Although it confirmed that one person died near the mosque in GRA, the JTF in a statement signed by its spokesman, Sagir Musa, a lieutenant colonel, said there was no terrorist attack at the mosque.

“The incident was not a terrorist attack as no worship centre inBorno was attack in recent time,” the statement said.

Musa explained that what happened was that a policeman was pursuing somebody who had stolen a tricycle and shot in the air near the mosque leading to a melee during which one person died.

“It was an error of judgement by a policeman on duty that pursued someone who allegedly stole a tricycle and a bag of rice and drove off. The policeman was in mufti, wore NPF Reflective Jacket, pursued the alleged thief and fired two shots,” the JTF spokesman stated.

“The incident happened very close to Al-Amin Mosque when Ramadan preaching was on. The firing by the policemen attracted the attention of worshippers including Youths vigilante that were within and around the mosque. As a result, there was pandemonium that led to the death of one minor and three others sustained injuries,” he further explained further.

According to Musa, youths guarding the mosque lynched the policeman, burnt the Toyota Carina belonging to him and the tricycle, adding that “the JTF patrol team rescued/took away the policeman, calmed the youth and restored normalcy to the area.”

The federal government has been dragged before a Federal High Court, Ikoyi by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, for failing to provide information on the spending of the N700bn borrowed between December 31, 2012 and April 30, this year.

On May 28, SERAP’s executive director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, had asked President Goodluck Jonathan to provide information on the spending of N700 billion borrowed between December 31, 2012 and April 30, 2013, and to introduce a moratorium on borrowing.

The rights group in a letter to the Accountant-General of the Federation,  gave the government 14 days within which to supply the information or risk a legal action.

“… we fear the money could have been mismanaged, diverted or stolen. Despite this huge borrowing, the same period also witnessed decreased spending on basic social services such as roads, electricity, health, education, and thus explaining in part why the government has lagged behind in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals,” the group stated.

Having waited nearly two months without compliance, SERAPdecided to institute a legal case against the federal government relying on provisions of the Freedom of Information, FoI, Act 2011.

Joined as defendants in the suit are the Accountant-General and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

Among the reliefs sought in the suit are:

“A declaration that by virtue of the provisions of Section 4 (a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011, the 1st Defendant is under a binding legal obligation to provide the Plaintiff with up to date information on the spending of N700bn borrowed between December 31, 2012 and April 30, 2013 and details of projects on which the money was spent.”

“A declaration that the failure of 1st Defendant to provide the Plaintiff with the information requested is a breach of section 4(a) of the Freedom of Information 2011.”

“An order of mandamus directing and/or compelling the 1stDefendant to provide the Plaintiff with up to date information as requested.”

According to the organization, by the clear provisions of section 2(3)(d)(V) of the FOI Act, documents containing information relating to the receipt or expenditure of public or other funds of a public institution constitute part of the information which a public institution is obligated to publish, disseminate and make available to members of the public.

It also argued that the 1st defendant is legally mandated by the provisions of section 4(a) of the FOI Act to comply with a request for access to public information except where the FOI Act exempts a public official from so disclosing.

The organization further argued that the 1st defendant “has no legally justifiable reason for refusing to provide the plaintiff with the information requested” and urged the court “to compel it to comply with the provisions of the Act by providing the plaintiff with the information requested.”

A date is yet to be fixed for the hearing of the application.