2015-02-06 14:05
Bauchi - Suspected kidnappers shot dead a top government official
with the Bauchi State Ministry of Local Government Affairs, Babangida
Garba, Punch reports.
A
police sergeant was also said to have been injured following an
exchange of gunfire between security operatives and the gunmen who later
escaped.
It was gathered that the gunmen stormed the mosque, at
about 6am where the deceased had gone to pray at about 6am. They
reportedly asked everybody in the mosque to lie on the floor and took
him (Babangida) away, but angrily shot him when he refused to follow
them.
The
53-year-old was a one time accountant at the Secretary to the State
Government’s office. He was, until his death, the Director of
Administration and Finance with the Ministry of Local Government
Affairs.
Read more at Punch
Friday, 6 February 2015
7 passengers, pregnant woman dies in Onitsha auto crash
2015-02-06 14:05
Onitsha - Seven persons, including a pregnant woman, in Onitsha, Anambra State, lost their lives in an accident involving a tanker and other vehicles, Vanguard reports.
A witness account said that the accident occurred when a fuel-laden tanker, descending Awka Road, had brake failure and rammed into vehicles at Anambra Broadcasting Service, ABS/Awka Road traffic light junction.
According to the source, the driver, in a bid to avoid more destruction, crushed a blue Mitsubishi bus, fully loaded with passengers, and then hit four tricycles.
The pregnant woman was said to be standing at the bus stop, when she was crushed by the tanker. Others were mostly passengers in the four tricycles that were hit in the multiple accidents.
Read more at Vanguard
Onitsha - Seven persons, including a pregnant woman, in Onitsha, Anambra State, lost their lives in an accident involving a tanker and other vehicles, Vanguard reports.
A witness account said that the accident occurred when a fuel-laden tanker, descending Awka Road, had brake failure and rammed into vehicles at Anambra Broadcasting Service, ABS/Awka Road traffic light junction.
According to the source, the driver, in a bid to avoid more destruction, crushed a blue Mitsubishi bus, fully loaded with passengers, and then hit four tricycles.
The pregnant woman was said to be standing at the bus stop, when she was crushed by the tanker. Others were mostly passengers in the four tricycles that were hit in the multiple accidents.
Read more at Vanguard
Bayelsa contractors sue Agip over breach of contract
2015-02-06 16:34
Bayelsa - Pipeline surveillance contractors from Obama, Okoroma in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, have sued Nigerian Agip Oil Company, claiming N3 billion as damages for breach of contract, Vanguard reports.
The plaintiffs are claiming in the suit that Agip reneged on a contractual agreement entered on May 24, 2014 between parties, by opting out of the contract outside the terms of the contract.
The contract was for a retainership of surveillance services against oil thieves and pipeline vandals on Agip’s pipeline network within the Obama Operational Area in Okoroma, Bayelsa State.
They are asking the court to direct Agip to pay them N500 million being arrears for services rendered, for the period between June 2014 and October 2014, under the terms of the anti-crude oil theft surveillance agreement.
They also want the court to award the sum of N3 billion damages against the defendants for breach of contract and undue interference.
Read more at Vanguard
Bayelsa - Pipeline surveillance contractors from Obama, Okoroma in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, have sued Nigerian Agip Oil Company, claiming N3 billion as damages for breach of contract, Vanguard reports.
The plaintiffs are claiming in the suit that Agip reneged on a contractual agreement entered on May 24, 2014 between parties, by opting out of the contract outside the terms of the contract.
The contract was for a retainership of surveillance services against oil thieves and pipeline vandals on Agip’s pipeline network within the Obama Operational Area in Okoroma, Bayelsa State.
They are asking the court to direct Agip to pay them N500 million being arrears for services rendered, for the period between June 2014 and October 2014, under the terms of the anti-crude oil theft surveillance agreement.
They also want the court to award the sum of N3 billion damages against the defendants for breach of contract and undue interference.
Read more at Vanguard
Anatomy of the missing $20 billion
2015-02-06 16:35
Abuja - In late 2013, Nigeria's then central bank governor Lamido Sanusi wrote to President Goodluck Jonathan claiming that the state oil company had failed to remit tens of billions of oil revenues it owed the state.
After the letter was leaked to Reuters and a local news site, Jonathan publicly dismissed the claim and replaced Sanusi, saying the banker had mismanaged the central bank's budget. A Senate committee later found Sanusi’s account lacked substance.
Sanusi has since become Emir of Kano, the country's second highest Islamic authority, and has smoothed over relations with the president. He declined to discuss his earlier assertions. Before he was sacked, though, the central banker submitted to Nigeria’s parliament more than 300 pages of documentation in support of his claim. Reuters has reviewed that dossier, which offers one of the most comprehensive studies of waste, mismanagement and what Sanusi called “leakages” of cash in Nigeria’s oil industry. Detailed here, the dossier includes oil contracts, confidential government letters, private presidential correspondence and legal opinions.
Sanusi’s letter and documents do not state whether he thinks the money was stolen or lost through mismanagement. Nor did he make allegations of illegal acts against any specific individuals or entities. Both corruption and bad governance are perennial problems in Africa’s most populous nation, and central issues in elections due on February 14.
Nigeria’s oil industry accounts for around 95 percent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. If Nigeria continued to leak cash at the rate described in his letter to the president, Sanusi said at the time, the consequences for the economy would be disastrous. Specifically, the failure of state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation “to remit foreign exchange to the Federation Account in a period of rising oil prices has made our management of exchange rates and price stability ... extremely difficult," he wrote. "The central bank of Nigeria is always blamed for high rates of interest,” but “given these leakages, the alternative is a devalued currency ... and financial instability."
That is exactly what has happened. As oil prices have plummeted to around $55 a barrel, half their level at the beginning of 2014, Sanusi’s successor Godwin Emefiele has devalued the naira, Nigeria’s currency, by 8 percent, and raised interest rates for the first time in more than two years.
Nigerian foreign exchange reserves are down around 20 percent on a year ago, while the balance in the country's oil savings account has fallen from $9 billion in December 2012 to $2.5 billion at the start of this year, even though oil prices were buoyant over much of that period. Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told reporters at a press conference in November that a significant portion of that money was distributed to the powerful governors of Nigeria’s 36 states instead of being saved for a rainy day.
Nigerians are rarely shocked by stories of billions going unaccounted for, or ending up with politically powerful individuals. Africa’s largest oil producer has for years consistently ranked towards the bottom of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
Abuja - In late 2013, Nigeria's then central bank governor Lamido Sanusi wrote to President Goodluck Jonathan claiming that the state oil company had failed to remit tens of billions of oil revenues it owed the state.
After the letter was leaked to Reuters and a local news site, Jonathan publicly dismissed the claim and replaced Sanusi, saying the banker had mismanaged the central bank's budget. A Senate committee later found Sanusi’s account lacked substance.
Sanusi has since become Emir of Kano, the country's second highest Islamic authority, and has smoothed over relations with the president. He declined to discuss his earlier assertions. Before he was sacked, though, the central banker submitted to Nigeria’s parliament more than 300 pages of documentation in support of his claim. Reuters has reviewed that dossier, which offers one of the most comprehensive studies of waste, mismanagement and what Sanusi called “leakages” of cash in Nigeria’s oil industry. Detailed here, the dossier includes oil contracts, confidential government letters, private presidential correspondence and legal opinions.
Sanusi’s letter and documents do not state whether he thinks the money was stolen or lost through mismanagement. Nor did he make allegations of illegal acts against any specific individuals or entities. Both corruption and bad governance are perennial problems in Africa’s most populous nation, and central issues in elections due on February 14.
Nigeria’s oil industry accounts for around 95 percent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. If Nigeria continued to leak cash at the rate described in his letter to the president, Sanusi said at the time, the consequences for the economy would be disastrous. Specifically, the failure of state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation “to remit foreign exchange to the Federation Account in a period of rising oil prices has made our management of exchange rates and price stability ... extremely difficult," he wrote. "The central bank of Nigeria is always blamed for high rates of interest,” but “given these leakages, the alternative is a devalued currency ... and financial instability."
That is exactly what has happened. As oil prices have plummeted to around $55 a barrel, half their level at the beginning of 2014, Sanusi’s successor Godwin Emefiele has devalued the naira, Nigeria’s currency, by 8 percent, and raised interest rates for the first time in more than two years.
Nigerian foreign exchange reserves are down around 20 percent on a year ago, while the balance in the country's oil savings account has fallen from $9 billion in December 2012 to $2.5 billion at the start of this year, even though oil prices were buoyant over much of that period. Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told reporters at a press conference in November that a significant portion of that money was distributed to the powerful governors of Nigeria’s 36 states instead of being saved for a rainy day.
Nigerians are rarely shocked by stories of billions going unaccounted for, or ending up with politically powerful individuals. Africa’s largest oil producer has for years consistently ranked towards the bottom of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
Thursday, 5 February 2015
Fire engulfs NTA Zonal office
2015-02-05 13:41
Jos - Fire on Wednesday engulfed the NTA Jos Zonal office located in the very busy Yakubu Gowon Way, throwing the area into confusion as people scurried to escape the raging flames.
The cause of fire, which started at 3.15 p.m. has not been confirmed, but a top NTA source described the fire as mysterious because it started from the top.
Correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who rushed to the scene, observed that the flames kept worsening as they raged through the top of the building.
The flames from the one-storey structure were visible about 500 metres away from the scene.
Among sections already engulfed by the time NAN reached the scene were the building housing the marketing and finance department of the NTA.
Also gutted down were Engineering and accounts departments, as well as communication items, files and a mass of documents.
Our correspondents also report that three fire fighting vehicles – one PW, a construction firm, and two from the Plateau fire service, arrived at the scene about more than forty minutes and were battling to control the inferno.
Efforts to speak with the NTA management staff were not fruitful as the senior staffers appeared too confused to react.
A top source, however confirmed that no one was caught in the mid afternoon inferno.
Jos - Fire on Wednesday engulfed the NTA Jos Zonal office located in the very busy Yakubu Gowon Way, throwing the area into confusion as people scurried to escape the raging flames.
The cause of fire, which started at 3.15 p.m. has not been confirmed, but a top NTA source described the fire as mysterious because it started from the top.
Correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who rushed to the scene, observed that the flames kept worsening as they raged through the top of the building.
The flames from the one-storey structure were visible about 500 metres away from the scene.
Among sections already engulfed by the time NAN reached the scene were the building housing the marketing and finance department of the NTA.
Also gutted down were Engineering and accounts departments, as well as communication items, files and a mass of documents.
Our correspondents also report that three fire fighting vehicles – one PW, a construction firm, and two from the Plateau fire service, arrived at the scene about more than forty minutes and were battling to control the inferno.
Efforts to speak with the NTA management staff were not fruitful as the senior staffers appeared too confused to react.
A top source, however confirmed that no one was caught in the mid afternoon inferno.
Delaying polls may benefit Boko Haram – report
Jonathan has been criticised for failing to end the violence unleashed by Boko Haram over the years. His rival Muhammadu Buhari, on the other hand, has made security the cornerstone of his campaign.
"If Boko Haram continues with its campaign of deadly bombings — a female suicide blew herself up in the north-eastern state of Gombe on February 2 — a delay in elections might actually harm Jonathan's chances," the report said.
Foreign powers
The report comes as INEC commissioner Amina Zachary told Reuters on Wednesday that the elections may be delayed over fears that not enough registered voters would be able to cast their ballots.
"Let's see how the PVC (permanent voter card) distribution goes by February 8, then maybe," Zachary, said.
She, however, made it clear that no decision had been taken.
INEC extended its deadline for voters to collect their cards to 8 February, but only 44 million out of 68.8 million have been distributed so far, with just 10 days to go before the poll.
Foreign powers are closely observing how elections will be held in the country and have voiced concerns over violence in the aftermath, as was the case after the 2011 election, when 800 people died.
A delay would stoke already rising tensions ahead of the vote, but failure to get enough cards out would also compromise the poll.
Row over Jonathan Ph.D thesis deepens
Several attempts to persuade the university to make available Jonathan’s Ph.D thesis have proved abortive.
Efforts to also locate the thesis in either the school’s library or the Zoology department were also unsuccessful.
Since the story of Jonathan not possessing a doctorate degree became a public knowledge, many Nigerian have besieged the university in search of the thesis.
Prof. Tam David- West, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources is one of those who have requested to see the thesis but has been unable to lay his hands on it.
Read more at NewsDay.
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