Park Geun-hye, ousted South Korean president, on Tuesday apologised to the country’s citizens after appearing in the prosecutors’ office for questioning over corruption allegations that led to her impeachment.

According to NAN, Geun-hye said she was sorry in front of the cameras at Seoul central district prosecutors’ office, vowing to face her interrogation faithfully.

“I am sorry to the people. I will faithfully cooperate with questioning,” Geun-hye said as she proceeded to the prosecutors’ office.

Geun-hye who has stayed in her private home since she vacated the presidential Blue House on March 12, was slammed with a total of 13 counts.

She will be interrogated by state prosecutors for her alleged involvement in the scandal, which removed her from office after the impeachment was passed in the parliament on December 9. The constitutional court upheld the motion on March 10.

During the interrogation, prosecutors would focus on Geun-hye’s alleged involvement in bribery, abuse of power and leakage of state secrets.

Geun-hye, 65, has been accused of colluding with her decades-long confidante Choi Soon-sil, who is now in custody, to receive tens of millions of US dollars in bribes from Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong, the heir apparent of Samsung group.

The kickbacks are suspected of being offered in return for helping Lee inherit the overall management control of the country’s biggest family-controlled conglomerate from his ailing father Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was hospitalised after a heart attack almost three years ago.

Geun-hye was also identified as an accomplice of Choi in helping solicit tens of millions of US dollars from scores of large business conglomerates to establish two non-profit foundations Choi used for personal gains.

Choi has been charged with meddling in state affairs behind the scenes by receiving government documents on a regular basis delivered by one of Park’s former presidential secretaries.

Geun-hye will be the fourth South Korean former president to be questioned by prosecutors.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday arraigned Christian Oyovweyho, alias Femi Adesina, before Justice Z. B. Abubakar of the Federal High Court Kano on a two-count charge of obtaining by false pretence.

The defendant allegedly impersonated the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammad Buhari, Femi Adesina, and attempted to obtain N300,000 from a professor of Economics at Bayero University Kano, Dalhatu Galadanci.

According to the complainant, sometime in July 2016, the defendant sent him a text message claiming to be Femi Adesina, S.A to the president on Media and Publicity. The defendant fraudulently claimed to be speaking on behalf of the president and that the name of the professor has been forwarded for appointment in the presidency. The complainant further stated that the defendant claimed to be searching for a better office for him.

Subsequently, the defendant asked the professor to make payment of N300,000 to facilitate his appointment to Nigeria Port Authority or Nigerian Railway Cooperation and Rural Electrification. At that point, the professor got suspicious and reported the matter to the commission.

After listening to the charge, the defendant pleaded not guilty.

Prosecution counsel Musa Isah requested a date for trial in view of the plea of defendant.

The counsel representing the defendant, T.M. Oyedema however brought a motion for bail, praying the court to admit his client to bail pending the hearing and determination of the case.

Justice Zainab granted the defendant bail in the sum of N500,000 and two sureties in like sum. One of the sureties must be a state or federal government official not below grade level 8.

The other surety must be a respected member of the society with a landed property within the jurisdiction. Also certificate of Occupancy in respect of the landed property shall be deposited with the Deputy Chief Registrar of the court.

The case has been adjourned to April 11, 2017 for commencement of trial while the defendant remains in prison pending the perfection of his bail terms.

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has warned a former Attorney-General of the Federation, Bello Adoke, to cease further mention of his name in the controversial $1.1 billion Malabu Oil deal.

Obasanjo gave the warning from Addis Ababa during an interview with the media.

The ex-President said he saw the controversial award of OPL 245 oil field licence as the “height of corruption,” and, as such, could not have participated in negotiations that led to it.

His rebuttal came a day after Adoke insisted that the controversial Malabu oil Block Agreement was endorsed by the previous administrations of Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan.

However, Obasanjo admonished Adoke to concentrate on rendering accounts of his actions while in public service and stop the name-dropping forthwith.

“I don’t support that kind of conduct,” Mr. Obasanjo said in his first reaction to the intercontinental oil scandal that has haunted three administrations for nearly a decade.

“Adoke and others should not drag me into a matter I know nothing about,” Mr. Obasanjo said.

“If they have been asked to answer questions over decisions they took while in office, they should do that honourably.

“They should not bring Obasanjo into an Etete deal. I was not part of any such deal.”

“If I hold that view, I could not have approved a deal with Dan Etete. What Etete did is the height of corruption. He appropriated the asset to himself illegally, illegitimately and immorally,”

Obasanjo added that it was inappropriate for any government functionary to “appropriate to himself or herself what he or she is in charge of.”

The federal government has finally released its economic recovery and growth plan (ERGP), which has been in the works since 2016.

The document seen by newsmen is a medium term plan aimed at revamping the economy between 2017 and 2020.

“The ERGP differs from previous plans in several ways. First, focused implementation is at the core of the delivery strategy of the plan over the next four years,” the document read.

“More than ever before, there is a strong political determination, commitment and will at the highest level. Whilst all the MDAs will have their different roles in implementing the plan, a delivery unit is being established in the presidency to drive the implementation of key ERGP priorities.

“The ministry of budget and national planning will coordinate plan-implementation and for this purpose will, amongst other things, build up its capability for robust monitoring and evaluation.”

the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has said that nobody above 50 years of age will be governor of the state again.

The governor who spoke in Owerri, the state capital as a special guest of honor at the occasion marking the beginning of the 2016/2017 legal year in the state, asserted that nobody above 50 years would succeed him in office in, 2019.

Responding to the remarks made by Mike Ahamba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the governor said that the governorship position of the state from  2019, are not meant for people who are above 50 years age bracket.

The governor said “Mike Ahamba, SAN, did not attack me today. This is unlike him, it maybe because he wants to be governor in 2019, but let me advise him not to contest because nobody above 50 will be governor in Imo again”.

Okorocha alleged that all politicians in the state who are above 50 years had at one time or the other in the past improvised the state and brought untold hardships on the people and therefore should not be allowed to ruin the state anymore.

He said that the state should be entrusted to the people below the age bracket who have the burning and genuine desires to move the state forward after his exit as the governor of the state.

The governor equally debunked the allegation by the lawyers that some judiciary workers were being victimized by the state government for joining the state chapter of Nigeria Labour Congress to embark on strike by saying that he insisted “no work, no pay” so as to instil discipline in the civil service.

Okorocha equally boasted that apart from a former governor of old Imo State, late Sam Mbakwe, no other governor before him did 20 percent of what he had done as the state’s helmsman.

The Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday said that more than 25 of its staff members were hospitalised due to Saturday’s supplementary election held in Etche, Rivers.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Elder Aniedi Ikoiwak, said in Port Harcourt that the victims were attacked and wounded by Rivers people.

According to him, one of the victims regained consciousness on Sunday.

He said, “This is one area that Nigerians should ask questions. Over 25 INEC staff members are in hospital today because the people of Rivers State decided to either kill or wound them.

“They were all beaten up because they went to those villages to conduct an election.

“Let the people of Rivers State tell us the offence of any of them.

“What did they do? They were bringing materials for the election; they decided to descend on them, beat them up, collect their personal belongings and run away.”

Ikoiwak noted that the victims were on official duties and needed a peaceful environment to achieve success.

He called on Nigerians to condemn the alleged attack.

He said, “It is very sad. None of them was beaten up in his home but where they went to conduct an election.

”Why shouldn’t Nigerians discuss that? Why should people sent to conduct an election be beaten up and their belongings taken away from them?”

About 700 staff members of the commission were mobilised for the supplementary legislative election in Etche.

The National Youth Service Corps had withdrawn from assisting INEC in the election due to security issues.

Ghana’s former President, Jerry John Rawlings, has bemoaned Nigerians praying for President Muhammadu Buhari’s death.

He described the emergence of President Buhari as a divine intervention because of his anti-corruption credentials.

Rawlings made this known weekend during a courtesy call on him by a group of actors including legendary actor, Pete Edochie.

He said, “It is unfortunate that the cost of living in Nigeria appears to be suffocating the people.

“So while some are praying for his health, unfortunately, some are praying he wouldn’t come back.”

Recall that Buhari had been on a 10-day vacation in the UK .

The Presidency had announced that Buhari wrote to the senate to extend his vacation indefinitely due to ‘health issues’, an action that has drawn so much condemnation from Nigerians.

“Rather than blame Buhari, we should be blaming the extent and depth to which corruption had gripped Nigeria.

“But I guess you need a creative team that would know how to resolve the economic situation of the country without possibly undermining the cost of living of the people.

“People are getting away with massive corruption because they are not compelled to conform to traditional religious authority.

“We swear by the Bible and the Koran and lie but dare not with our local traditional deities.

“We are destroying the fabric of our society. This is not good enough. People are distorting historical truths all the time.

“When you find yourselves at the centre of human endeavours like I have, truth must be sacrosanct,” Rawlings added.

Residents of Rosettenvile, South of Johannesburg, South Africa have expressed displeasure over the acts of immigrants living in the country. Last few days, at least 15 houses belonging or rented by immigrants, especially Nigerians, have been burnt by the angry residents.

They are furious that Nigerians give their children drugs and turn them into prostitutes. They say they didn’t want to burn the houses but wanted them to live their country.

The houses were razed after the police started shooting at the protesting residents. The community got angry and started burning the houses.

They ask: How can a 9-year old child be a prostitute?They say when the children go to school, they are scared because they don’t know if the child would come back. They explained they don’t have enough money to hire buses to bring the child to the front of their gates.

They reported the case, but their was no action, that is why they resorted to what they did.

Source: www.nigerianeye.com

A renowned lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria Femi Falana have condemned President Muhammadu Buhari for not disclosed the status of his health condition to Nigeria.

Falana said Nigerians have the right to know the health status of a sitting president.

Speaking on a Channel television’s programme, Falana said even if the law does not mandate the president to make such disclosures, Nigerians deserve to know his health status.

“Under the Freedom of Information Act, the right to health is supposed to be shrouded in secrecy but I am saying now that henceforth, this situation calls for a review of the law so that we won’t be left guessing next time,” Falana said.

“We are talking of the President. Many state governors go in and out of the country, some for a month or two, some for three months without anybody asking any question and without any handover to their deputies,” he said.

The senior lawyer said the system has been structured in a manner that a public office holder does not have to be secretive about issues concerning him.

Falana said: “But I am saying that with what we are going through now, we must come to appreciate that if you are going into public office, you have no secrecy.”

“It is our duty and right and the President took cognizance of that last year when he disclosed to Nigerians what he was going abroad for. This year should not be an exception.

“This is what has given room to a lot of rumours and speculation which are totally uncalled for,” he said.

Source: www.nigerianeye.com

Patrick Akpobolokemi, former director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), recently threatened to slap a female journalist in the premises of the federal high court, Lagos.

Akpobolokemi is standing trial for alleged corruption.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused him of defrauding the federal government to the tune of N795.2million.

In a video, which is now circulating on social media, Akpobolokemi is seen in the presence of one of his lawyers, and some unidentified individuals.

One of the men around him apparently drew his attention to the reporter who was trying to take some photographs.

“Which one be this one na?’ asked the man putting on a blue shirt with stripes.

“This is the premises of the court,” the reporter responded.

At that moment, Akpobolokemi moved closer to the journalist, using his right hand to block the camera.

“Who are you now? Why should you just come here?” he asked.

“I am a member of the press. I can take pictures within the premises of the court.”

Losing his cool, Akpobolokemi threatened: “I will just slap u now; I will slap you,” to which she responded: ” No you cannot, sir. You cannot slap me. What’s that?”

It is not clear when the incident happened.

This is not the first time that Akpobolokemi would be involved in an altercation within the premises of the court.

He was in the news in December 2015 for resisting arrest.

Akpobolokemi, who had just been released from prison custody on Friday after fulfilling a bail condition of N50 million, was walking towards his car when officials of the anti-graft agency approached him.

“I am not going anywhere,” he screamed on top of his voice, as he struggled with them.

With the support of armed mobile policemen, the operatives overpowered Akpobolokemi and bundled into a white Toyota Hiace bus.

Below is the video of the latest incident.

https://www.facebook.com/Nigerianey/videos/1176730052445829/

Source: www.nigerianeye.com

Ex- Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, has returned a fresh sum of N30m to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, with a promise to pay a balance of N417 million.

Tthe former minister has now returned N167 million to the Federal Government.

A reliable source revealed that the former minister paid the money from his Diamond Bank account to the EFCC Recovered Funds Account.

The source stated, “I can confirm that Senator Obanikoro has been meeting up his part of the agreement. You will recall that last year, he promised to return a certain amount of money every quarter.

“He has made a payment of N30m, his first instalment in 2017. He is also reporting at the EFCC as he should.”

The ex-minister, who returned to Nigeria in October 2016, after spending about 15 months in the United States, was accused of receiving N4.7bn from the Office of the National Security Adviser under the leadership of Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.).

Obanikoro had said in his statement of oath at the EFCC that after receiving the money in 2014, he gave N1.219bn to the then governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, while N1.3bn was given to the PDP governorship candidate in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore.

He also confessed to giving Fayose a separate $5.377m at Spotless Hotel in Ekiti State in the presence of party stalwarts, including the then PDP state secretary, Mr. Tope Aluko.

Obanikoro was said to have kept about N785 milliom for himself, which he allegedly spent while campaigning ahead of the PDP governorship primary in Lagos State, which Mr. Jimi Agbaje won.

However, the EFCC asked him to return about N584m, out of which he has returned N167m.

At the Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, Mr. Alade Sunday, a manager at Zenith Bank, narrated how Obanikoro delivered about N1.219bn to Fayose’s aide, Abiodun Agbele, for onward transmission to Fayose.

He had added that it took the cashiers about 10 days to count all the money.

Sunday had said Obanikoro flew the cash to Akure airport and the money was loaded onto bullion vans.

“When we got to the airport, we waited for some minutes before the aircraft arrived. When the aircraft offloaded its passengers, one of them appeared to me to be Senator Musiliu Obanikoro and the other one appeared to be his ADC, Adewale.

“Agbele walked up to them and had a discussion with them. Thereafter, he signalled to me to bring the van. Bags loaded with cash were loaded into the van and Obanikoro’s ADC, I and Agbele drove back to the bank,” he had stated.

Source: www.nigerianeye.com

Sen. Solomon Olamilekan (Lagos West Senatorial District) on Thursday said that having soaked “garri’’ and dried fish as a meal gave him more satisfaction than any other food.

Olamilekun, a member of the Senate Committee on Finance, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that garri and dried fish was his favourite food.

“I don’t know why I just like garri and dried fish, it gives me the kind of satisfaction I can`t describe, I just feel good after having it. “Some people would ask me, why would a senator like garri and not all these expensive stuffs? and the answer I give is that it makes me feel great.

“It is so amazing that sometimes when I am having stomach upset, and I take garri everything disappears within minutes. I think garri is best suited for my body,’’ he said.

Olamilekan stated that he preferred mostly local foods to foreign delicacies. Speaking on his political career and speculations that he intends to contest for the governorship position of his home state Ogun in 2019, Olamilekan did not give a direct answer.

“I am from Ogun state. I visit and interact with my people. It will be an honour to serve them. But we would not make any announcement for now.

“At the right time, we would come out and tell the people. The concentration is on the Senate right now. We are waiting on God to determine our next move,’’ he said.

The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, on Wednesday expressed disappointment with General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), General Abdulsalaam Abubakar (rtd) and General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd) for expecting payment of their salary arrears as ex-heads of state when workers have not been paid for months in some states.

Recall that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, had revealed that the federal government has not paid the former Nigerian leaders including Goodluck Jonathan, Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari allowances since January this year owing to the none availability of funds for the service-wide votes for their salaries.

But MURIC, in a statement issued by its Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, regretted that the ex-presidents, who it described as “overfed”, cannot voluntarily forgo their entitlements particularly in Nigeria’s trying period, and called on the government to withhold the arrears of former heads of state until the country gets out of the current recession.

Akintola went on to ask the former heads of state: “What exactly do you want to offer this country in these troubled times? What are you prepared to sacrifice? Who among you is a pauper today? Who among you is not a billionaire? Who among you is ready to declare his assets as they stand at the moment? Do you really need these arrears before you can survive?”

According to the statement, “This is how Nigeria is being bled nearly to death. There are too many yawning drainages. It is most unwise for this country to continue to throw scarce resources down drain pipes. This culture of waste must stop.

“Twenty one (21) ex-governors are currently in Senate. They get salaries, houses, vehicles, staffers, etc from their states as former governors. The vehicles must be changed every three years. This is parliamentary fraud. They are collecting full salary as senators and pension entitlements as ex-governors. Nigeria is indeed adept at wasting resources. This country is being scammed.

“Enough is enough. ‘Monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’. The rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. The middle class has long been eliminated and the gap between the rich and the poor gets wider every day. Too many people are hungry. Too many people are starving and somebody is talking about paying arrears to ex-heads of state.

“Nigerian workers are overworked, underpaid and overtaxed. Their take-home pay cannot take them home. We are just being patient with FG because we have faith in the Buhari administration. We have seen how prudent FG has been since Buhari took over. That prudence must be maintained. We therefore say capital ‘NO’ to salary arrears for overfed ex-presidents.”

There is a clash between civil society organisations and pro-government protesters over the provision of N300m worth of houses as pension benefits for the immediate past governor, Adams Oshiomhole, and his deputy, Dr. Pius Odubu on Tuesday in Edo State.

The confrontation occurred at the Ring Road area in Oredo Local Government Area of the state .

Details later…

Nigeria winger, Victor Moses has vowed to keep improving after picking the man of the man of the match award in Chelsea’s 1-0 win against Middlesbrough at the Riverside on Sunday.

The former Wigan player put up a fine performance as the Blues moved to the top of the table with a win courtesy of a first half strike by Diego Costa.

“I’m happy I got into the starting eleven and I want to improve in every game, ” Moses stated in his post match interview.

“I have been on loan three times, but we have a good manager here who wants to give youngsters an opportunity.

The 25-year old also heaped plaudits on his team for protecting their lead in the face of spirited fight back by their hosts in the second half.

” In the second half, Boro came at us, but we were very strong at the back. The big man here (Cahill) was dominating,” Moses added.

“I think we showed great character today from the start. We had chances in the first half and we should have taken them.

“We have to keep working hard to make sure we stay at the top until the end of the season.

” It’s very tight from the fifth to the first.The league is hard this season, we want to take each game as it comes.”

Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr, has told defender William Troost-Ekong, to move to a bigger club in a bigger league in Europe, to improve his game.

Troost-Ekong, who currently plays for Gent in Belgium, put in another fine performance, as Nigeria defeated Algeria 3-1 in a 2018 World Cup qualifier last weekend .

Rohr believes a player of his quality, should be plying his trade in one of the top leagues.

“Ekong just have to change club. He must play at a higher level. He wants to go to a Belgium club, but he just has to play at a better level. He just finished a season in Norway, but his game has outgrown the club he intends going to, and I think we have to help him get a club at higher level to improve his game,” Rohr told newmen.

“We have to do it quietly because it is not official work of a national team coach, but I know clubs in the higher leagues would be willing to give him offer. Ekong and Balogun have impressed me in their partnership in the Eagles central defence. So we must find ways to help them improve better.”

Rohr continued: “I am satisfied with the two central defenders that played against Algeria and I believe they can only improve with time, but I will be going to search and monitor players in Europe to strengthen the Eagles defense ahead of the World Cup qualifiers next year.”

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers has restated its determination to resist any increase in the price of petroleum products in the country

The President of NUPENG, Mr. Achese Igwe, said that the union was partnering with the Indepedent Petroleum Marketers Association and other stakeholders in the sector to prevent scarcity and increase in the price of the products

Igwe made the comment while speaking with journalists shortly after the opening ceremony of the of the 2016 NUPENG National Education Seminar in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said, “I would say there is no increment for now, N145 is the price. We have said clearly that any increment would be resisted by us.

“It is a rumor for now, that is why we are also working very hard to partner with IMPAN and all necessary stakeholders in the depot environment and depot community to see that scarcity of petroleum products is abated, and also the issue of fuel price increase is also abated.”

Igwe who also commented on the issue of pipeline vandalism in the country called on the Federal Government to return contracts for the protection of the pipelines to those who handled it under former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

According to the NUPENG President, the people who made promises to the President to protect the pipelines and who were awarded the contracts lacked the capacity to secure them.

For so many years I had assumed my hood to be that shanty type that encouraged nothing but an uncivilized society with mirage of early pregnancies, dropouts, smokers, thieves, bunkers and touts.  It never for once dawn on me that one could ever reach the top except one relocated from the area. Although, I came across few exceptions but to me nothing good will from this Nazareth proceed.

This same Nazareth crushed my near cousins into visible and invisible sexual endeavours; and my parents into becoming alcoholics. My siblings also had their shares as they grew to become incubated touts. Life in the hood is a composition of acute extremes fleshing defects as opium of escape from an economically, politically, socially, and culturally disadvantaged society. But knowing bro Tunde today changed everything. In fact, bro Tunde is the irregular testimony of my regular hood.

I remember Tommy and Bolu’s comment earlier in the day that ‘that bro Tunde is a normal guy. He was on an Okada when we saw him. He’s just like every other guy in the hood.’

Sometimes, the simplicity of who we imagine others to be limit our discoveries about their potentials which in most occasions serve as the necessary potent we require to get better. Bro Tunde, currently is pursuing a PHD degree from the University of Pretoria, South Africa and his dissertation is summarized as the next generation wireless technology.

According to him, ‘this technology is far above 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, in fact, what he is working on is a sophisticated cognitive wireless radio technology that can survive many generations’. He earlier highlighted that this work is a sort of development for the mobile wireless satellite technology he worked on during his master’s classes in the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. For him, nothing would have worked if not because of God.

His seeming dimpled smile baked my focus as he took us back in time to how he started up from the hood up until where he is right now. He told us that his parents were the regular low middle class types, that is, his dad was a principal in a local secondary school and his mum a teacher in a public primary school. He revealed to us how the impoverished environment of his primary school made his dad transfer him to a better primary school. He was emphatic about sitting on the floor to receive lectures. His high school days passed by with him carrying unprocessed cassava proceeds from the mini farm his father had in  Government college in other to sustain the family.

I remembered him saying, ‘I really didn’t like doing that kind of job’ but he did it. His amazing story from Government College, Ikorodu would not have had a force on his audience if the influence of Gbenga Salako, his best friend, was pulled out of it. He told us how he borrowed his friend’s notes and text books and slept over at his place on unnumbered occasions. His cherished sister Seyi to him was a figure of adoration.

In fact, he said ‘I wish to have a girl child as my first. Sister Seyi was just too awesome.’

He snappishly moved over to his experience at the Federal University of Technology Akure from where he told us about his studying Electrical Engineering.

Brother Laolu, my elder brother, could not hide his gregarious motivation as he said ‘Tommy too is a student of FUTA. He’s a three hundred level student of the Department of Physics’.

‘Wow, that’s a tough Department…I remembered when I was there’ bro Tunde responded as he continued his story.

Post graduate life was more of a miraculous journey that seemingly started roughly but in the long run, is about ending successfully. He recounts his teaching experience at Albert Aluko schools, Ikorodu and his post graduate scholarship for master’s programme at University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.

He told us about times when things didn’t work out, that point when he almost gave up and God came into the picture. According to him, the planes of life are not always smooth but most rough paths are assuring indexical when the God factor is there leading all the way. The clues we seek most times are near us than the answers we get because a Holy Spirit conscious Christian is always informed and not deformed. This agrees with his testimony about his PHD programme in University of Pretoria where he told us how he heard God told him who his supervisor was.

He said, ‘I just heard Prof. Maharaj. Send an email to him, that’s what I heard. I don’t know him. I have never heard or seen him before.’

It was a clumsy experience sending a message to someone he didn’t know. Bro Tunde didn’t delay his direction, he went online, got his information, and then sent Prof. Maharaj mails. In South Africa, for you to enroll for a PHD programme you must have gotten a supervisor. No supervisor, no admission. Prof. Maharaj is a miracle indefinable because he got the message and replied the mails, accepting to be bro Tunde’s supervisor. A lesson that stroked me was the truth about bro Tunde sending emails; I had never for once valued my email because all I did with it was to receive messages from others and not myself sending to them. He wasn’t sure about acceptance yet he continued sending.

Bro Laolu wouldn’t allow this pass by as he told us about a guy who out rightly declared his intention of having a meeting with Bill Gate and eventually he did.

Like he said, ‘this guy had to send unnumbered mails, invites, likes  and followed Gate on every (social) event he could, he attended most programmes related to him and finally, he was able to have a coffee with him. That was fantastic.’

Sometimes, the length at which we can go to achieve what we so wish for is the closest to achieving them. Success is not a product of lackadaisical engagement; rather, it is a deliberate act of pulling our admired wishes nearer our unrelenting zeal of owning our item of admiration.

He continued his story of the initial five PHD students turning three. He told us how two of his colleges were frustrated out of their research programmes. He was very explicit on his being undirected about his finding a problem for the first one year.

‘A research is all about finding a problem or advancing a former discovery,’ he said.

He didn’t give up; he continued still until he gained the greatest rhema to his quest which is, ‘investigate the effect of theta!’

At this point, I felt lost because my joy of learning math wasn’t fueled enough beyond simplification, algebra, deviation, and quadratic equation. For him, math was life and life, so far as it could be expressed has a solvable equation. I really didn’t follow up the discussion not until he summarized everything to me saying ‘i got my long searched problem’, and within nine month I was way ahead my other colleagues.

Although, I am still working on the project and getting massive sponsorships form various international organisations bro Tunde said, yet my thanks go to God for His indefinite grace upon me and the influences of my mentors on me in all aspects of my life. The industrious roles of mentors in one’s life not only polish and cultivate a desire and willingness to grow in one; they also shorten the distance of time between one’s wishes and the realities of the wish. They do.

I think, I have to take a break here.

My hood is and can never be a limitation for me anymore rather it will make me focus better on my plans of becoming great in life. In fact, I am going to make another hood of success for myself right in the greater world just like bro Tunde who saw and is still seeing beyond my shanty hood.

Fethullah Gulen’s Message regarding Rumors Circulated in Turkish Media about a Second Coup Attempt

Once again, the Turkish media, under government control or government pressure, is circulating horrific rumors, this time about a supposed second coup attempt in the works, supposedly prepared by my sympathizers with the backing of the United States.
Such rumors are unfounded and irresponsible.

As a victim of four military coups in the past, I reiterate my conviction that democracy cannot be achieved or protected through military interventions. Even if elected political leaders persecute me and the participants of Hizmet movement by trampling over fundamental human rights, I never approve their removal through anti-democratic means.

I strongly condemn the efforts to portray me as the architect of the treacherous July 15 coup attempt, despite the fact that I condemned it in the strongest terms while it was in progress and I repeatedly and clearly have denied playing any role in it. If some people who appear to be sympathizers of Hizmet were involved in the treacherous coup attempt, they betray my ideals and should face justice.

I believe that the rumors of a second coup attempt are being circulated in Turkish media deliberately to set a trap against our citizens, and especially against Hizmet participants. Already, declarations appeared in media by irresponsible individuals who suggest moving prisoners to solitary confinement in order to make it easier to execute them. The spread of these horrific rumors and suggestions by pro-government mass media generate an atmosphere of hate that paves the way for further atrocities.

Once again, I condemn the failed coup, any attempt to stage a coup and even the consideration of such action. I also condemn spreading rumors to defame a peaceful social movement to justify ongoing persecution of its participants.

About Fethullah Gülen
Fethullah Gülen is an Islamic scholar, preacher and social advocate, whose decades?long commitment to education, interfaith dialogue and altruism has inspired millions in Turkey and around the world.

By December this year, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would have clocked sixteen years and eight months in the making, and more than eight and half years since it was first presented to the National Assembly. That would have been two hundred months of several committees constituted for the purpose, of countless stakeholder consultations and engagements, of endless back and forth between the executive and the legislature.

By then, according to a Policy Brief recently published by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the PIB would have gone through four presidents, five presidential terms and five legislative tenures – without resulting in an overarching petroleum industry law.

Given the importance of the petroleum sector to Nigeria’s economy and the enormity of the problems that has plagued the country’s oil and gas industry over the years, there can be no justifiable excuse for the embarrassing impasse on the PIB. Add to these the fact that Nigeria’s oil industry does not exist in isolation but operates in a global environment that is constantly shifting in favour of countries with the most competitive instruments, it becomes obvious that the country has continued to wallow in the kind of luxury that it can ill afford, especially at a time like this.

The global market is changing rapidly, exacerbating old threats and creating new ones. The world’s largest consumers have become top producers and top importers have begun to export.

But the new threats do not however lie only in far away Alaska or the South China Sea. They are also showing up on our very door step. Two months ago, Ghana passed its Petroleum Production and Exploration law. According to Ghana’s energy minister, “the new law would create an attractive environment for potential investors by providing certainty and transparency in the ground rules for operations”.

If the pool of investment dollars was limitless, such development would hardly merit a glance. But it is not. According the NEITI Policy Brief (titled The Urgency of a New Petroleum Sector Law), international oil companies are increasingly channeling investment funds to “other viable oil and gas projects across Africa including Ghana Senegal, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania etc.”

The sad tale around the PIB rigmarole is not just the sixteen years that it has languished in limbo. The real story is that every additional year of waffling on the bill compounds the losses and worsens the problems of the sector and Nigeria’s economy. NEITI estimates that more than $200 billion has been lost in planned investment and projected returns on investment in the last eight years of delay on the PIB, as well as thousands of jobs. These figures appear very conservative. Other estimates, including a recent study conducted by the Natural Resource Charter, a policy think tank, put the losses at more than twice the figure.

Whatever the numbers, there is no question that Nigeria’s current economic problems would have been avoided if the opportunities were taken in the relevant sectors of the economy, including (and especially) the oil and gas sector. Most estimates of loss of investment due to the delay in enacting a petroleum industry law relate to the upstream sector. But the volume of domestic economic activity lies in the downstream and midstream subsectors. According to OPEC data quoted by NEITI, Nigeria has the least contribution of oil to total GDP ratio among OPEC member countries. This corresponds with data on the country’s refining activity as a ratio of total crude production. Only 3% of Nigeria’s oil is refined domestically.

Appropriate legislation to incentivise midstream and downstream investment would have reversed this massive imbalance. The fact that legislation did not happen has produced huge consequences. In five years alone (2011 – 2015), Nigeria spent more than $26 billion importing refined products. The double effect of lost domestic production and acute import dependency forms a significant part of the explanation for the country’s current economic troubles.

Swift action on the PIB would undoubtedly catalyse Nigeria’s recovery. Continuing to delay the passage of the PIB not only robs the country of this important opportunity, it would ensure that the bleeding continues.

The comparative swiftness with which Ghana produced its petroleum industry legislation should serve as both reminder and a warning. In less than two years after the bill was presented to the Ghanaian parliament, it was signed into law. Ghana became an oil producing nation in 2010, one whole decade after Nigeria initiated the process that produced the PIB. Ghana may be a relatively less complicated case, but a petroleum industry law is not the genome project. It is simply a political process. Politics is supposed to be about negotiation and consensus, not about endless stalemate.

Nigeria’s weakening global competiveness and the current recession should provoke a sense of urgency and rouse the political actors to action. So far, it has not.

The lack of progress on the PIB has been attributed largely to differences over issues like the host community benefits, the powers of the minister, the fiscal provisions etc. But the fact that these disagreements have been allowed to weigh down the PIB is because there has been lack of political leadership to moderate these differences and to drive the bill from conception through legislation. Due to the absence of political leadership, the different political actors have engaged in a manifestly unproductive contest over control of the process. Rather than focus on the core objective of petroleum industry reforms, the actors have resorted to endless political gamesmanship to secure the greatest advantage for their respective constituencies.

These were never the objectives of petroleum industry reforms. In the end both the nation and its constituent parts have suffered the consequence of stalemate. The zero-sum approach has yielded no winners.

Current attempts to revive the PIB do not look promising. For one it is not clear who is leading the process, or even that the executive and legislature are working in concert, with several bills being mentioned. It is hard to see how this enhances the chance of success.

Fortunately, everyone agrees that the petroleum sector in is desperate need of reforms, and that the PIB is a crucial piece of legislation. But, experience has shown that this is not sufficient. A more important consensus at this point would be to agree on what should be done differently this time. According to the NEITI policy brief, all actors first need to remember that corruption, lack of transparency and accountability and general poor governance of the sector were the main reasons for reforms in the first place. Secondly, precious time is being needlessly expended on starting the process from the scratch every time a new regime decides to revive the process.

But most importantly, the president should take charge of the process, not just because his position confers on him the responsibility to do so, but because his political mandate, secured on the platform of transparency and accountability, stands him in good stead to rally stakeholders around the core objectives of the PIB. There can be little contention in this regard.

NEITI proposes a formal instrument for facilitating this consensus. The publication also called for a clear roadmap and a communication strategy.

But the strategy is not the only thing that needs to change. The process has to be conducted with greater haste. The costs are mounting, and the the impact increasingly more severe.

Price volatility in the oil market is an ever present reality. But this up-and-down swing need not always translate into a boom and bust cycle for the economy. A petroleum industry law, complemented with relevant reforms in the management of oil revenue, can and will help ensure that it does not.

And the law does not need to be perfect, or a panacea. It just needs to be passed, and with the urgency that it demands.

* Okpene is the SA to the Executive Secretary of NEITI

And, sadly, it came to pass. It is well predicted that most countries blessed with natural resources, even in the best of times, perform worse economically than countries not so endowed; and that, when times are tough, countries that are dependent on natural resources come to an assured grief. There is a popular name for this strange but common condition: resource curse. It sounds metaphysical, it seems counter-intuitive even, but it is a position supported by enough evidence. And there can’t be better evidence than this: a Nigeria that is in the choke-hold of economic recession right after fifteen years of consistently high oil prices and over N70 trillion of oil revenues earned by the federation.

A recession might be a dramatic inflection point, but the brutal fact is that our country has never really been in sound economic health. A long spell of rising oil prices in much of our over four-decade addiction to oil had put us on a permanent high, masked the hollowness of our economic well-being, blind-sighted us to the dangers dancing in plain sight, and induced a costly work-avoidance in our leaders. Now that we are at this terrible pass, it will be tempting to just focus all our energy at getting growth back to positive zone. Without a doubt, getting out of recession should be the first order business. But doing only that will show us up, again, as a people eternally incapable of learning. This should be the time to finally wean ourselves of the unhealthy dependence on crude oil for most of our exports and government revenues; a time to reset the foundations of our economy and even of our politics; a time to get a permanent cure for what deeply ails us.

Clearly, natural resources do not come embedded with supernatural curses, as the positive experiences of Norway, UAE, Malaysia and Botswana have shown. But it is also clear how natural resources end up as blights, and not blessings, just as it is clear what to do to reverse the curse. So the problem is not lack of knowledge. The problem is that resource-endowed countries either do not do enough to prevent the sad prophecy from fulfilling itself or do not do enough to ‘cure the curse’ after it has manifested. And these countries fail to take both preventive and curative measures because countries blessed with natural resources are prone to certain risks and disposed to certain choices that create delusions, dependencies and distortions, which inexorably turn natural resources to impeders, rather than enablers, of development.

One known risk is that the prices of natural resources fluctuate. This creates revenue instability for countries that depend on resource rents to fund their budgets. Since this is known, the sensible thing would be for such countries to save enough when the prices are up as insurance against when the prices are down, and to use the windfall to create other more stable streams of income and to invest in the productive capacities of their people. But most resource-dependent countries rarely do that, as a surge of easy money induces the delusion of everlasting riches. Such countries get unreasonably high when prices of their natural resources are high and set themselves up for an inevitable fall when prices inevitably tumble.

Three episodes in four decades of our history provide good illustration. In 1972, a barrel of crude oil sold for a yearly average of $1.82. By 1974, oil price leapt to $11 per barrel, then to $29.19 in 1979, and then to $35.52 in 1980. But by the time the price of oil marginally dropped to $29.04 in 1983, our economy was already in trouble. It is important to look at the figures again: we were not in trouble when oil was $1.82 in 1972, but we were in a deep mess eleven years later when oil was $29.04.

A second episode: at the outset of democracy in 1999, oil sold for less than $20 per barrel (in actual fact, our Brent sold for a monthly average of $15.23 in May 1999) . In the 15 years between 1999 and 2014, oil prices rose steadily (except for 2008/2009), soaring to almost $150 per barrel at a point. However, by the time oil prices fell just below $100 in September 2014, we were on the way to distress district, close to the dark place we were just thirty years earlier. It is important to underscore this again: when oil was selling for $20 per barrel we got by but when it started selling for a little below $100, it was another season for weeping and gnashing of teeth, with most states and even the federal government struggling to pay salaries. What happened with the two episodes is that we got deluded into thinking high prices would last forever, we stretched public finances to breaking point, and we saved little for the rainy day.

But there is a third episode: oil prices tumbled from a high of $147 in June 2008 to $38 in December 2008. Yes, the dip was short. But we survived that slump largely because we had reserves in excess of $60 billion, which tied us over that bust time. Interestingly, the savings were largely accumulated at a period when oil never rose above $70 per barrel, when our oil supply was constrained on account of militancy in the Niger Delta and when $12 billion was paid to get debt forgiveness. But crude oil per barrel sold for an average of $77.38 in 2010, $107.46 in 2011, $109.45 in 2012, and $105.87 in 2013. However, by the time oil prices slipped to yearly average of $96.29 in 2014 and $49.49 in 2015, we did not have the kind of cover we had six years earlier not just because we didn’t save enough but also because we had also over exposed ourselves, as will be illustrated shortly. If the time between the first and the third episodes is long enough to induce amnesia, the space between 2008 and the onset of the current slide in oil prices is short enough to remind us of the risk we are constantly exposed to. But we failed to learn.

Another known risk that turns natural resources to curses is that resource-rich countries are prone to corruption, low levels of accountability, and high incidence of profligacy. Because of the nature of resource rents, it is easier for those in authority in extractive economies (as opposed to tax economies) to corner and capture public resources and expend them anyhow. Beyond the predisposition to graft and the wastefulness, resource rents concentrate and consolidate public resources in a few hands, nurture a ruling elite more interested in private gains than the common good, foster a rentier, patronage, and predatory political ethos, fuel intense competition for power, conflicts, poverty and inequality, inverse the relations between citizens (the principals) and those in authority (the agents), and distort the interaction between state and society. All these conduce to opaque and unaccountable management of the revenues from natural resources. Even before the ongoing revelations and probes, reports by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) had provided more than ample evidence of the mind-boggling mismanagement of Nigeria’s main source of revenue.

The other well known risk that resource-rich countries are exposed to is a dependency condition called the Dutch Disease. It manifests this way: massive inflows of foreign exchange on account of the high price of a natural resource raise the comparative value of the local currency and turn the economy into a high-cost one. This means that other sectors, like manufacturing and services, that the country can earn foreign exchange from become uncompetitive and are crowded out; and imports also become cheaper, eventually knocking off local industry. A double but dangerous dependency is thus created: the country depends solely on the natural resource for foreign exchange; and depends on imports for almost all its needs. While consistently high prices will mask the trouble, onset of low prices will burst the bubble. This is where, sadly, Nigeria has found itself today. The 1,851% increase in the price of oil between 1972 and 1980 infected us with the Dutch Disease, so much so that we depend on crude oil for 85% of government revenues and about 95% of exports. And we import almost everything, including, shamefully, refined petroleum products (which constitute about 40% of forex demands.)

This composite picture should show why Nigeria is in trouble today: little savings from a long boom time, and a 75% plunge in the price of a product that accounts for more than 80% of government revenues and foreign exchange in a country where so much revolves around government and in an import-dependent economy; fall in monthly forex earnings from $3.2 billion to about $400m sometime this year; decline in oil production from 2.2 million bpd to a little over 1 million bpd; and the growth in monthly import bill from N148.3 billion in 2005 to N917.6 billion in 2015 (519% increase). While it can be validly argued that recession could still have been averted, the oil and dollar dependence created a downward spiral: fall in the value of the Naira, cost-push inflation (since most things including industrial inputs are imported), drop in disposable incomes, which is compounded by the fact that most states are owing salaries, and the resultant negative impact on demand and ultimately on production. True, oil and gas sector now accounts for only 9% of our GDP, but our unhealthy dependence on it for government revenues and foreign exchange imbues the sector with a disproportionate heft. This we need to fix in a systematic and sustainable way.

We can easily spend our way out of this recession or bump up production in high growth areas. Oil prices and production may even rise again, making the get-out-of-recession task easier. But all these will not cure us of the oil curse. Hopefully, the present pain will permanently bury doubts about the need for a robust stabilization fund and the imperative of strengthening transparency and accountability mechanisms like NEITI. But we also need to permanently puncture the lie that we are a rich country just because we have oil. It is a trite fact that the wealth of nations is not buried under the soil. Countries become rich when their people and their companies produce value-adding, highly-sought, cutting-edge goods and services. But beyond fixing the defective structure of our economy, we also need to reinvent our politics. A governance model that is defined by extraction, sharing and consumption surely cannot lead to development. And by the way, development doesn’t happen: it is created. Rahm’s Rule should thus be our article of faith: “you never want to let a serious crisis to go to waste.” The crisis of this recession has thrown a massive opportunity our way, the opportunity for a total reset. It will be a shame if, again, we fail to seize this chance to heal our country.

* Adio is the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI)

A Nigerian tech company currently developing a new tech-based product would like to gather sample opinions that will aid in the final design of the product. The responders to this product survey will the the first adopters of the product and will get to use it before it is made available to the general public.

Click on the FILL FORM link below to open and fill the questionnaire to be a part of this.

FILL FORM

Former Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation ans self styled corruption whistle blower, Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin, has been invited by the Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption to make a presentation on the allegations of budget padding and abuse of office levied against Speaker Yakubu Dogara and other principal officers of the House.

The invitation follows a petition by Jibrin to the committee headed by Professor Itse Sagay SAN on allegations raised against Speaker Dogara,  Lasun, Doguwa, Ogor and 9 other members concerning his involvement in the padding of the 2016 budget and mismanagement of the finances of the House of Reps.

The letter signed by Executive Secretary of the Committee  Prof Bolaji Owasanoye which was made available to Omojuwa.com reveals Jibrin will make a comprehensive presentation before Committee on Wednesday 31st August in Abuja. In addition, Jibrin will discuss strategies with the Committee on how to tackle the institutionalized corruption in the House.

Recall that Jibrin began his series of revelations on the 2016 budget padding scandal in July after resigning from his position as Chairman of Appropriation Committee.

On Wednesday, 16 March, 2016, the Punch Newspaper published the story of Mr Peter Seun Adeyemi asking well-meaning Nigerians for financial assistance to undergo a surgery abroad. Mr Peter Seun Adeyemi is a 38-year-old Applied Chemical Scientist married with two lovely kids.

In September 2014, Seun felt there was a need for him to go for a medical check-up at Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria not knowing this would mark the beginning of another phase in his life, at the hospital he was diagnosed of Chronic Renal Failure (popularly known as Kidney Failure) where he was immediately prescribed necessary medications.

Sadly, in July 2015, the General Hospital at Gbagada, Lagos, Nigeria later confirmed that his condition had deteriorated and the only way to save his life was through a kidney transplant (i.e. a surgery to change his kidney) as the two kidneys were completely damaged.

Due to his critical and terminal condition, he was required to fly to India for treatment, unfortunately, his family could not raise the funds needed for the treatment and the trip, therefore, pending the time they would source for the money and donor and secure the Visa to travel to India, he began dialysis at Dialyzer Specialist Hospital, Arowojobe, Lagos, Nigeria. His family had to pay (millions of naira) through their nose for the dialysis which ran for three sessions per week (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) and lasted till 15, February, 2016.

Unable to find a donor, Seun’s kind and generous 69-year-old father decided to donate his kidney in order to save his son’s life. With the support of family, friends and well-meaning Nigerians and organizations (including The Punch Newspaper), out of the USD28,000 needed for the entire trip to India for treatment, USD18,000 was raised and immediately deposited at the hospital. This catered for preliminary investigations, screenings and operations.

After the initial operation (which lasted for two days), Seun and the kind father developed complications. The father had to receive further treatment, and for a longer period, before he could be stabilized while Seun had to undergo new rounds of surgery. Fortunately, after the numerous surgeries, their conditions stabilized and they have been recuperating ever since. The father returned lately to Nigeria leaving Seun with his younger brother, Segun Adeyemi, who also serves as the Chaperon in India.

The new surgeries conducted led to extra charge by the hospital and in addition to the initial USD10,000 owed at the hospital, an extra USD21,000 has been incurred which brings the total amount of debt owed to the hospital to ?2,073,397 rupees (USD31,000 / N10,000,000) as at 8 August 2016. Due to their financial inability to make the outstanding payment, they have been unable to fly back to Nigeria, as a matter of fact, their visas have expired and have been quizzed by the Police, but the hospital will not discharge them until they offset all medical bills.

Sadly, the longer they stay there, the higher the bill accrues and it is for this reason that they are appealing to well-meaning Nigerians to support them financially in making the outstanding payment needed at the hospital so they can return to Nigeria and Seun can continue a peaceful recovery process.

Segun Adeyemi, who is currently with Seun in India, can be reached on +918268696181

Thank you as you express your generosity and we pray that God will bless you richly and you will not have any cause to experience this kind of dilemma in life.
Below are the bank details of Mr Seun Adeyemi

Name: ADEYEMI PETER SEUN

Bank: FirstBank Plc

Acct No: 2011052296

Also, find below the details of the hospital where they have been admitted for verification purposes

Global Hospitals, Dr Borges road, Parel, Mumbai, India

Tel:+912267670101
Mobil: +917506403832
Email: international.mumbai@globalhospitalsindia.com
Website: www.globalhospitalsindia

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In no other period of Nigeria’s history has it mattered more who heads its Ports Authority than this period when the country battles an ailing economy, declining oil prices, militant activities and a dangerous level of decay in all its critical sectors.

The role of the Nigerian Ports Authority as the biggest maritime revenue earner in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized; afterall Nigeria looks to reduce its dependence on oil revenues. That and the fact that according to the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, the authority earned some N162bn in 2015 alone but remitted only N2bn to the Federation Account.

The thought of having someone as forward thinking as Hadiza Bala Usman as its Managing Director is indicative of the will to reposition the authority for effective revenue generation, this will is at the centre of restoring Nigeria’s continuously receding economy to the path of recovery and ultimately greatness.

I have worked closely with her for over four years and my respect for her intellect and strong will to get things done remains unwavering. It is the ease with which she performs multiple seemingly difficult tasks that appeals the most to me.

One particular memory I am fond of is how she set up the Kaduna State Bureau of Public Service Reforms. You see, two to three weeks’ worth of work had gone into setting up the agency, but there was very little progress. Not until she stepped in, demonstrated leadership and gave very precise instructions.

Seeing her instructions implemented and the bureau coming into shape, I had never been more proud.

As with most things Nigerian, her appointment has been faced with resistance largely surrounding yardsticks such as age, gender or ethnicity as opposed to hard work, competence and responsibility, all things that can actually judge competence.

What these people who see age and gender as pointers to her inability to effectively carry out her responsibilities do not acknowledge is the fact that her appointment is a victory for both Nigeria’s women and its youth; both populations that have being largely underrepresented.

You do Nigeria a disservice if you adjudge appointments so, the country painstakingly strives to move beyond these yardsticks that are at best prejudicial and constitute no real basis for measuring ability. We must judge her appointment based on capability, performance and work ethic that has been witnessed first-hand. As one who has spent all these years benefitting of her tutelage, I know that her appointment will do Nigeria good.

In my experience working under her, she has mostly referred to me as colleague: an equal of sorts even when we both know her towering career experiences and achievements by far dwarf mine. I probably would have corrected her if I did not immensely enjoy the feeling of self-worth that single compliment gave me.

She spearheaded reforms as Kaduna’s Chief of Staff and contributed to the cost cutting measures that have drastically reduced the cost of governance in the State. I saw as she took very significant pay cuts and rejected certain allowances due to her office just so some resources are available and can be re-allocated to more pressing concerns.

Her passion for girl child education and issues affecting people living with disabilities is phenomenal. She backs this by reminding everyone who will care to listen ‘I have seen family members deal with disability; I know they require a lot of support and the least we can do is provide this support’.

Beyond these, her public service record in Kaduna is one of dedication founded on providing equal access dependent on skills, capabilities and competence as opposed to ethnicity, religion or flawed ideology. I cannot imagine anyone more suited to manage our nation’s ports or its resources than Hadiza Bala Usman.

One realization we must make is that it will take nothing less than hard work to reform our ports for efficient operations, increased revenue generation and rid it of all those who seek to take advantage of the country’s inability to monitor maritime operations effectively and Hadiza Bala Usman is a woman who comes ready with the work ethic and skills required to do this work.

Adejoh Idoko Momoh writes from Kaduna, Nigeria. He can be reached on momoh.adejoh@gmail.com and tweets from @Adejoh

The recent appointment of Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman as the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) created a media furore, particularly the over -hyped Nigerian social media community. This may not be unconnected to her been inconspicuous in a world dominated by rabble-rousing politicians and overbearing opportunists. Her name may not ring a loud bell among such familiar amazons; but behind it is a sufficiently astute, forthright and outspoken woman whose thundering voice always echo in challenging the perennial rot in our body politic. It is believed that some of the greatest individuals who left remarkable traces wherever they have a stint are little known to the public. This was the case with Hadiza Bala Usman!
An amazingly fearless woman, Hadiza is a scion of the erudite scholar and unrivalled historian late Dr Yusufu Bala Usman, whose name resonates with a vibrating sound whenever it is uttered in both academic and political spheres of this country. Born on 2nd January, 1976 in Zaria, Kaduna State, Hadiza started her education at Ahmadu Bello University Staff Primary School and rose with her insatiable quest for knowledge that saw her off to the University of Leeds in United Kingdom where she obtained an MA in Development Studies.

Hadiza started her working career as a Research Assistant with Center for Democratic Development and Research Training (CEDDERT) Zaria, and then worked at the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), until October 2004 when she was hired by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) as Special Assistant to the Minister of the FCT on Projects Implementation, and later on Physical Infrastructure. In 2008 Hadiza served as Executive Director of Abuja Enterprise Agency, in charge of promoting the development of micro, small and medium enterprises in the FCT. She was also the Director, Fund Raising and Strategy for the Good Governance Group (3G).
Having drank from the fountain of her imperishable radical father, Hadiza made a dramatic foray into the murky waters of Nigerian politics and social activism. She was the candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) for the House of Representatives seat for Musawa/Matazu Federal Constituency in her home state of Katsina.  She served as Member and Secretary of various committees including the CPC Renewal Committee (2011); APC Strategy Committee (2014); North Central Gubernatorial Elections Screening Committee (2014); APC Elections Planning Committee (2014); APC Presidential Campaign Council (2015); Presidential Inauguration Committee (2015), among others.

In July 2015, she was appointed the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kaduna State, the active position she held until her recent appointment. A wild jubilation within government circle in Kaduna greeted her recent appointment, ironically, not because she has has gotten an elevation, but because the woman who ensured the enforcement of due process was now gone and, business will return as usual.
Hadiza was a co-founder of the global movement Bring Back Our Girls, which has been demanding for the rescue of the 219 young school girls abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok Secondary School in Borno State.

Her indefatigable energy shot her to limelight and prominence. Without mincing words, she is a woman of resilient spirit, mental and creative energy with unmatched ability to get things done. It was her involvement with the Bring Back Our Girls campaign and other patriotic campaigns behind the scenes that practically set her apart culminating into her winning international awards and recognitions. She bagged the Financial Time’s (FT) Most Influential Women Award of 2014; the CNN’s Most Inspiring Woman Award of 2014 and; Ebony Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Black Women in the world.
Certainly, Hadiza merited her new appointment, and the NPA is very lucky to have her as the new captain. Her vast experience, shrewdness and agility will surely be of immense benefit to the transformation of that transportation sub-sector.
Musa Azare wrote in from Abuja musaazarey@gmail.com

It was at the United Nations Environmental Assembly according to an informed source. The bone of contention appeared to be an issue with a resolution on Gaza. We have now accessed a document going within diplomatic circles on what really transpired. You can also see the tweet from one James Smart who appears to have been at the session or is in on what really transpired. Below is the text of the memo sent by Yvonne Khamati, the Chair of the Africa Diplomatic Corps Technical Committee.

“

MEMORANDUM

To:             Dean of the Africa Diplomatic Corps

Ambassador Kelebert Nkomani

1. Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs

Amb. Amina Mohammed

1. African Diplomatic Corps (ADC), Nairobi Chapter

bcc.            Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs

Amb. Monica Juma

From:          Chair of the ADC Technical Committee

Ms. Yvonne Khamati

Date:           29 May 2016

Subject:       EGYPT’S MIS-CONDUCT DURING THE SECOND SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENTAL ASSEMBLY (UNEA 2)

1. I wish to take this opportunity in my capacity as the Chairperson of the African Diplomatic Corps (ADC) Technical Committee, to brief you, Dean, honourable Cabinet Secretary and the entire African Diplomatic Corps, Nairobi Chapter on Egypt’s undiplomatic, irresponsible, uncivilized and insulting behaviour during the Second Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly.

2. During the closing session of UNEA-2, 24 resolutions were adopted by member States, which was a triumph for most countries, especially African countries. However, divisions evolved when the resolution on Gaza was not adopted due to procedural issues, that is, a lack of quorum because most delegations had left. As a result, a few African delegations consulted with the delegation of Morocco, in their capacity as Chair of the Arab League and Egypt, with the view to dissuade them from nullifying the resolutions that had already been adopted before the issue of quorum was raised.

3. During our consultations with Egypt, the head of the Egyptian delegation and current President of AMCEN dismissed our concerns by informing that they would speak in their sovereign capacity and to that extent, referred to Sub-Saharan Africa as DOGS AND SLAVES, in Arabic.

4. We wish to emphasize that, the African Union was founded on the premise of the principles of equality and non discrimination, be it on colour, creed, race, sex, religion etc.

5. Therefore the utterances of Egypt expressed by the Office of the President of AMCEN and the head of the Egyptian delegation have no place in the unity of Africa. They are uncivilized, undiplomatic, degrading and insulting of the fabric of Pan-Africanism and undermine these principles.

6. Furthermore, we believe that the utterances made by Egypt have the potential to undermine UNEP and Africa as its host. Moreover this shows their lack of loyalty towards Africa.

7. Africa has lost trust and faith in their leadership and we do not believe that they have the moral standing to represent the interest of Africa in ANY

8. In view of the forgoing, and following an informal post-mortem of the meeting by the Africa Diplomatic Corps Technical Committee, we are therefore recommending the following:

(a) That the Arab Republic of Egypt, at the highest level, unreservedly apologize to Africa of the utterances made by the office of the president of AMCEN

(b) That they should not negotiate or take any leadership position on behalf of Africa

(c) They should resign as president of AMCEN with immediate effect

(d) This issue should be raised to the Permanent Representative Committee in Addis Ababa, New York, Vienna, Geneva and subsequently to the Heads of State Summit to be held in Kigali, Rwanda in July, 2016.

We feel that these uncivilized, racist, discriminatory and vindictive utterances do not advance the vision of the 2063 African Agenda and the Pan-Africanism that was advocated by the founding fathers of the African Union.

Ms Yvonne Khamati

Chair of the Africa Diplomatic Corps Technical Committee (on behalf of the African group) “

It remains to be seen what position will be taken by the copied parties or whether Egypt wound consider an immediate apology to the obviously shocked ministers and their individual countries.

The Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, has berated members of the state Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who left when there was an internal crisis only to return when peace has being restored.

Shettima said this during the distribution of relief materials to Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Maiduguri, the state capital, by the National Logistics Committee on Distribution of Relief Materials.

According to the governor, “The politicians who left us to our troubles in the last five years only to come back when peace has returned to the state to tell us that Jonathan’s administration was better than the present, should be stoned just like the Satan is stoned at the Kaaba.”

The governor also commended President Muhammadu Buhari for taking proactive measureS in to end Boko Haram insurgence in the state.

I am particularly compelled to write you this letter sir knowing that the Senate is currently riddled with plethora of controversies that your ‘Common Sense’ campaign is yet to address. Your ‘Common Sense’ crusade have addressed almost every prevailing situations in this country save that of the Senate. Reason I can’t just help but remind you of the stellar height you have taken hypocrisy to.

Hypocrisy is not a way of getting back to the moral high ground. Pretending you’re moral and saying you’re moral is not the same as acting morally. Pardon me sir but I have never believed your ‘Common Sense’ campaign abinitio. To me leaders with ‘Uncommon Sense’ is what we need in this country at this critical time.
My major grouse with your ‘common sense’ campaign is how selective the application is and the fact that you lack it prior to this time. I am particularly not buying your ‘common sense’ catch phrase for obvious reasons;

Issues that makes you take to Twitter and Facebook to croak all day long are issues that have plagued our country long before the advent of the current administration, so why do you just started croaking about them now and making it sound like we just found ourselves here?
There is such thing as sounding like a broken record sir. And unfortunately that’s how you sound each time you come up with your ‘My name is Ben Murray Bruce and I Just Want To Make Common Sense’.

Infact, it is profoundly insulting, degrading, scornful and contemptuous that the legislative arm of government you belong to is the most controversial and the most riddled with corruption charges yet no commonsensical talk has emanated from your podium to address this anomalies plaguing it.

What is keeping you sir from taking your common sense crusade to the floor of the Senate? The President sent two bills to the Senate since January. They are; The money laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill 2016 and The mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal matters Bill. These bills are still pending in the Senate yet you and your colleagues in the Senate insist on making Laws that will help your colleague evade justice and decriminalise Code of Conduct laws. This bill passed 2nd reading within 48hours and that isn’t ‘common sense’ Oga senator.

Ostentation is the signal flag of hypocrisy and that is why you only make sense in the minds of those gullible and misinformed enough to think that you are sincere with this little catch phrase of yours. For us who are  far thickskinned and enlightened we can’t be fooled by your hypocrisy on social media. The bigwig Senators are reported to have appropriated N1.6 billion each to themselves in “constituency projects” inserted in the budget. Another N200 million was set for ordinary members. Sir what have you said to condemn this? Yet you vilify the President because of fuel queues and not for lack of fuel.

Sir, I know that every politician is a hypocrite, and every hypocrite, a politician but you took hypocrisy to another level when in June last year in a series of tweets you made a caricature of the governor of Osun state because of his inability to pay his state workers. You promised to donate your share of the controversial N8.64b NASS wardrobe allowance to unpaid workers of Osun State. In the 3rd series of the tweets you said “We are starting with Osun, but we will not end there. I will do as much to help workers who’ve not been paid in other states” when over 75% of the workforce in Bayelsa your home state have not been paid salaries for for over 5months and reports have it that some are owed as much as 10months.

In your write up ‘Wailing on the Economy’ Mr Ben you said in the article: “I buy majority of the books I read online. So you could imagine my shock when I tried to purchase some leadership and management books from a foreign bookshop (emphasis mine) online only to find that my account, which is well funded, would not work! Then I got an email from my bank explaining to me that due to the realities of our economy, my ATM card is being restricted. I was shocked!” Senator sir, what happened to our bookshops or we don’t have good enough leadership and management books in our bookshops in Nigeria? You can’t be crying for your candy when you just said candy is bad for the tooth.

The Senate has started taking delivery of 108 Toyota Land Cruiser Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) it ordered for members at the cost of N3.8 billion. Personally I am waiting for your big announcement since you love any display intended to excite admiration or applause that your own Toyota Land Cruiser Sport Utility will be donated to the unpaid workers of your state.

Sir, I must say that your messages will only make sense if you no longer insult our intelligence with your “my name is Ben Murray Bruce and I just want to make common sense”
My name is Richard Tayo and I just want to make an Uncommon Sense.
@richardtayo

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Thursday directed all domestic and charter airlines operating in the country to immediately forward in full unremitted funds accruable to the agency.
The Director General, NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman, handed down the directive at a meeting held with the airline operators on the non-remittance of five per cent Ticket, Cargo and Charter Sales Charges (TSA/TCA) in Lagos.
According to Usman, the directive was with regard to the five per cent TSA/TCA collected at source from the air passengers by the airlines, on behalf of the federal government.
He said the sales charges were to enable all aviation agencies carry out their responsibilities of providing safe, secure and efficient regulatory services for the overall benefit of all aviation stakeholders.
Usman noted that it was important that all unremitted funds be forwarded in full to the NCAA immediately.
“The airlines must desist from using these funds ‘held in trust’.
“The ongoing five per cent Ticket/Cargo/Charter/Sales Charges automation of payments which offers real-time transparent transactions must be completed within two months.
“This will remove endless reconciliation of data and the reduce high debt profile of Airlines to NCAA. Reconciliation of all outstanding debts must be completed within 60 days.
“Henceforth, the five per cent Ticket/ Cargo/ Sales Charges must be On Gross Ticket excluding VAT and Passenger Service Charge (PSC) only.
“All airlines must provide to the NCAA the breakdown of the recently introduced taxes plus fees component on all passenger tickets, which include the amount due to each government Agency.
“These include, the FAAN-Passenger Service Charge (PSC), the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS)- five per cent VAT; and the NCAA’s five per cent TSC,” he said.
Usman said henceforth, any add-on charge, surcharge such as fuel surcharges or any other miscellaneous added on passenger ticket must be approved by it before applying these charges on passenger tickets.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the airline operators, who were led by Capt. Chimara Imediegwu, reached an agreement with the NCAA on the issues raised.
The operators however, asked for adjournment till April 27 to enable the airlines hold further consultations on the timeline and its implementation.
In attendance were top officials from DANA Airlines, Azman Airlines, Medview Airlines, Chanchangi, and Overland Airways.

(NAN)

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has petitioned Professor Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights asking him to “use your good offices and position to urgently request the National Assembly of Nigeria, specifically the Senate, to withdraw amendments to the Code of Conduct Bureau and Code of Conduct Tribunal Act which if passed into law would seriously weaken the act, undermine the fight against corruption in the country, exacerbate extreme poverty and violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

In the petition dated 15 April 2016 and signed by SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni the organisation expressed “serious concern that the Senate of Nigeria will any moment from now pass amendments to Public Officers Protection Act; Administration of Criminal Justice Act; Code of Conduct Bureau Act and the Code of Conduct Tribunal Act with the political objective of securing a soft-landing for the Senate President Bukola Saraki who is facing corruption charges.”

The petition copied to Mr Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption reads in part: “SERAP considers these amendments to be in bad faith, patently an abuse of legislative powers, politically biased, and demonstrably unjustified in a democratic and representative society governed by the rule of law, and incompatible with the country’s international human rights obligations and commitments particularly the UN Convention against Corruption, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which Nigeria has ratified.”
“SERAP also considers the amendments to amount to “legislative rascality”, as they are not legitimate exercise of legislative power, and if allowed can exacerbate extreme poverty and violations of the right to an adequate standard of living of Nigerians and other human rights.”

“The amendments also threaten the injunction that government must be accountable, responsive and open; that public institutions must not only be held to account but must also be governed by high standards of ethics, efficiency and must use public resources in an effective manner.”

“SERAP is concerned that while deserving bills have been left to languish at the bottom of their legislative programmes, the Nigerian Senate has fast-tracked the passing of these obnoxious amendments. The drafters of the constitution would not have foreseen that the Senate would use its legislative power to encourage corruption and to undermine rather than advance constitutional guarantees and principles.”
“SERAP argues that limitations to the legislative powers of the Senate can be implied not only from the chapters two and four of the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended) relating to the obligations of all organs of government to promote transparency, accountability and combat corruption and recognition of citizens’ fundamental human rights but also by voluntary acceptance of international human rights obligations by Nigeria.”

“SERAP believes that a good government is one that rules according to the law, not according to the whims or caprice of parliamentarians.”

“SERAP notes that the Nigerian constitution 1999 (as amended) grants legislative power to the Senate to “make laws for the peace, order and good government”. SERAP believes that this power implies that the National Assembly including the Senate will serve as a crucial bastion of transparency, accountability, and the rule of law that are necessary to reduce poverty, establish a corruption-free society, and effective enjoyment of human rights.”

“Rather than be inspired by the spirit of public service by initiating legislation that promotes transparency, accountability and human rights, the Senate is legislating to encourage corruption and impunity, serving as both a shield and sword to advance personal agendas. SERAP argues that the state’s obligation to respect, protect, promote and fulfil human rights inevitably creates a duty to develop effective anti-corruption legislation and not to promote corruption and impunity of perpetrators.”
“SERAP notes that the Senate does not enjoy unfettered, unconditional and absolute legislative powers and should therefore not be allowed to create or change laws on a virtually unrestricted basis.”
“According to the constitution, all power and authority of Government and its organs is derived from the Constitution. Nigeria also is obligated to observe international human rights obligations in good faith and to take appropriate measures including through legislation to promote, protect and fulfil human rights. The law-making powers which are vested in the National Assembly including the Senate by Section 4 of the constitution are therefore to be exercised in accordance with the constitution and international obligations.”

“Similarly, the supremacy of the constitution including on all organs of government, and the sanctity of international human rights obligations imply that the Senate has no power to ignore the conditions of law-making that are imposed by the instrument which itself regulates its power to make law.”

SERAP therefore urged the Special Rapporteur to:
1. Publicly express concerns about the proposed amendments to the laws that will weaken anti-corruption agencies, undermine the fight against corruption and thereby exacerbating extreme poverty and violations of human rights;
2. Put pressure on the Senate to withdraw the amendments to the anti-corruption laws and to ensure that a climate of legislative impunity and official corruption is not allowed to undermine the mandate of the Special Rapporteur to advance human rights and address extreme poverty;
3. Urge the National Assembly in particular the Senate to promote in its legislative duties transparency and accountability and observe human rights principles, and that the exercise of its legislative power complies with Nigeria’s international human rights obligations and commitments;
4. Urge the National Assembly to allow anti-corruption agencies in this case the Code of Conduct Bureau and the Code of Conduct Tribunal to operate without any intimidation, harassment or interference whatsoever
“In charge number ABT/01/15, dated September 11 and filed before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr. Saraki is accused of offences ranging from anticipatory declaration of assets to making false declaration of assets in forms he filed before the Code of Conduct Bureau while he was governor of Kwara state.”

“The amendments which have passed the second reading just 48 hours after introduction indicate that Section 3 (c) and (d) of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act will be amended to alter the functions of the bureau. Also, the Code of Conduct Tribunal will no longer be able to try any accused public officer. The amendments also seek to put the anti-corruption agencies firmly under the control of the Senate, and to whittle down their powers.”

Source – Vanguardngr.com

A 13-foot python was killed in a building close to a male hostel at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka, the Anambra State capital, last Saturday. Worried by the development, students are calling on  the management to ensure their safety.

This happened at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka, the Anambra State capital, last Saturday when a python was killed in an uncompleted building close to a male hall of residence.

Being a weekend, majority of the students had gone out for extra-curricula activities; some chose to play football; others engaged in other games.

Few minutes past 9am, an unidentified man raised the alarm on sighting the python.  Those in their hostels thought it was a joke, until the python crawled out of the building.

Students ran helter skelter on seeing it. A local hunter, who lives in the building, chased the python with a cutlass, battling it for several minutes before overpowering it.

Students, who watched the scene from a distance, were stunned by his bravery. The brave among them joined the hunter to kill the python.

The students took the lifeless animal round the campus in a triumphant mood. As they went round, some students, out of fear that the python may come back to life, pulled back.

Reliving the incident, the hunter, who simply gave his name as Okey, said he found the python when he heard a strange noise in the building.

He said: “Out of curiosity, I moved round the building to know what was happening. I initially thought somebody was held in captivity within the building. But, what I saw was beyond my imagination. I saw the snake folded at a corner of a room. I quickly fetched my cutlass and an iron rod and moved to attack it before the students joined in killing it.”

The students wondered how the animal got into the campus.

A student, who gave his name as Iyke, compared the scenario to a “movie scene”. He said: “I was playing football with other mates as we do every weekend when we heard people shouting, “python”, “python”, “python”. We left the field to see what was going on and what we saw shocked us. It was like a scene in a movie. I never saw a snake as big and long as this. The length of the snake frightened other students, who ran away. We discovered that the hunter had already overpowered the python. We joined in killing the snake.”

Another student, Ebuka Ezeah, said: “When the hunter raised the alarm about the python, some brave students rushed to the scene with stones and sticks. They hurled stones at the snake, killing it on the spot.”

The students turned it all into a carnival, celebrating the python’s death. They sang and danced, carrying the python from one hostel to another and to various departments.

There was a drama when the school security officers came to the hostel and attempted to remove the python. But the students resisted, chanting: “bring back our snake”. The snake was returned to the hunter.

Credit: Nation

By Wale Ajetunmobi

A senator and former government negotiator with Boko Haram, Shehu Sani, yesterday said the schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State two years ago by insurgents are alive. He said the recent video of the girls released by a Boko Haram source showed the veracity of their parents’ claims.

Sani, who spoke on CNN, said negotiations with Boko Haram for the release of the girls remained frozen, given the military campaign against the insurgents. He cautioned the government on the terms of the negotiation to avoid the pitfalls which prevented the previous administration to secure the release of the girls.

On the negotiation, the human rights activist said: “Negotiation at this stage has been frozen, because of the military campaign emphasised by the government. And I believe there is a need to explore the option of negotiation to ensure that the girls are brought back home alive.”

“In the last three to four credible negotiations with the group (Boko Haram) on the issue of the girls, they were emphasising on the need to release their members that have been in detention for years. The issue of ransom came very late. What is important is to get these girls out.

“There are three ways to which we can get them out. One is to negotiate. And secondly is to use force, but the use of force comes with implication and consequences. Thirdly, it is to use force and continue to open the door of negotiation. I believe the third option is very much needed. We need to continue to use force to show it clearly to the insurgents that they can’t win militarily and also to open the door for negotiation, which will make it possible for the girls to be brought back home alive.”

On how the government can recognise the credibility of Boko Haram negotiators, Sani said: “We should be very careful at this time. But, the fact that we can get such a very credible video from some sources; it shows that those sources are elements that need to be used to achieve the goal of getting these girls out…

“I believe Nigeria should take this opportunity. The last government fell into the hands of many scammers, but I believe with such a very credible video, there is hope that these girls are alive. And the sources that provided the video should be used to get the girls out.”

Sani said President Muhammadu Buhari has confronted insurgency with a decisive action, noting that the present administration had made significant progress in ending the problem. He said there was more to do in routing the insurgents, but said the government should not abandon negotiation.

Sani hailed the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners for keeping the abduction on the front burner.

A former elementary school principal awaiting trial on charges of raping possibly dozens of pupils has hanged himself in a prison in central France, sources close to the case said Tuesday.

Romain Farina, the 46-year-old former head of a school in Villefontaine near Lyon, was charged about a year ago, with testimony against him concerning around 60 children in various schools where he had worked.

Video clips found at his home supported claims that he blindfolded students and placed his penis in their mouths for them to “guess” what it was in a game he called the “taste workshop”.

Under French law, the offence of rape covers any act of penetration.

In June 2008, a court convicted Farina of downloading paedophile pornography and gave him a suspended six-month sentence and an order to seek psychiatric help for two years.

The court’s failure to bar him from future contact with children sparked a scandal, and prompted the education and justice ministries to improve communication on cases involving sexual predators.

AFP

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), on Monday, confirmed the killing of a corps member, Mr Okonta Samuel, during the Rivers State re-run elections held on March 19.

This is contained in a statement signed by Mrs Bose Aderibigbe, NYSC Director of Press, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

The statement said the deceased, who was an orphan, was shot dead by gunmen in Ahoada West Local Government area of the state.

It described the act as primitive, barbaric and ungodly, urging all well-meaning Nigerians to condemn it.

The statement said NYSC would work with relevant agencies to ensure that the perpetrators of the act were caught and made to face the full wrath of the law.

According to the statement, Samuel’s death is a great loss not only to his immediate family but also the NYSC family and the nation.

It prayed that the Almighty God grants him eternal rest and give the family and the nation the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

The statement said two other corps members who were with the deceased at the time of the incident had escaped through the help of security agents.

It said another corps member, Anana Udoetor, who was earlier reported missing had been found and was hale and hearty.

(NAN)