Tag Archives: Despite

FG in Secret Talks with Niger Delta Militants Despite Failure to Formally Name Negotiating Team- Report

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Despite its reluctance to officially set up a negotiating committee to hold talks with militants in the Niger Delta, the federal government has continued discreet talks with the belligerent groups in the region.

It was gathered that at least three meetings had taken place in the last few months between the militants and federal government emissaries coordinated by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Mohammed Moguno (rtd).

The backroom discussions, which have incorporated other smaller aggrieved groups, are continuing, it was learnt, just as there is growing anxiety among elders and leaders in the region over the inability of the government at the centre to formally name its team of negotiators about six weeks after their meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

All the meetings between the agitators and the office of the NSA, took place in Abuja, after the Joint Task Force (JTF), a special security outfit fighting militancy in the area, cleared and certified the various groups which have attacked oil installations since the beginning of the year.

A source close to the goings-on between the government and the agitators, said government agents reached out directly to the groups instead of going through third parties to learn first hand the underlying reasons for the several attacks on the oil infrastructure aside the ones publicly voiced by the warlords.

To avoid the complaints of exclusion that has continued to trail the amnesty programme, the government was said to have gone beyond only the known violent groups like the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM) two groups that have publicly claimed responsibility, to reach out to smaller groups.

But the source added that to avoid making the meetings an “all-comers-affair,” the security agents subjected the groups to serious scrutiny which ensured that ‘portfolio militants’ were screened out.

According to the source, most of the issues being discussed still bordered on the 16-point demand by the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), led by Chief Edwin Clark.

However, it was gathered that the Iduwini Volunteer Force (IVF),  one of the groups operating along the coasts of South-western Delta State and North-western Bayelsa State, in the last meeting with the office of the NSA, insisted that one of the conditions for peace should be the direct payment of 13 per cent derivation to the source of the oil, the communities, rather than the state government.

The group reportedly told the government negotiators that it was an aberration to pay the derivation funds to the state governors who were hardly accountable to the oil producing communities in the Delta.

The IVF, led by one Commander Johnson Biboye, it informed, maintained during one of the meetings that the part of the constitution that set aside the 13 per cent derivation specifically said that the monies should be paid directly to the source of the natural resource and not the states where they are found.

Confirming the discreet discussions between the parties, the source  said: “We have been meeting and interfacing with the government through the office of the NSA. We have told them that the last amnesty programme did not carry many genuine groups along. So, after clearance, several groups have been meeting with them, though there is no definitive conclusion on the discussions.

“As far as you are cleared by the JTF, and they (security agencies) know you have antecedents, you are allowed to be part of those they are talking to. But we have also told government to be consistent.

“If they want peace, let them follow through with the withdrawal of soldiers from the creeks. They cannot be looking for peace and deploying soldiers to harass innocent people at the same time,” it added.

On how the talks were progressing, it said that though the federal government has not made any particular concession, it had agreed in principle to allow the Marine University in Okerenkoko, Tompolo’s town to continue as originally planned by the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Read More: thisdaylive

UNILAG To Screen Candidates Despite List Withdrawal By JAMB

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The University of Lagos on Monday says it will go ahead with its screening of prospective candidates for admission into the 2016/2017 academic session as scheduled.

The institution’s Deputy Registrar, (Information), Mr. Toyin Adebule, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.

Adebule gave the university’s position against the backdrop of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board withdrawing the list of recommended candidates for admission, earlier sent to the various universities.

JAMB, in the statement signed by its Head of Media and Information, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, stated that the withdrawal was to ensure that the senate of each of the universities performed its statutory functions.

NAN reports that UNILAG had, last month, announced that it would begin screening candidates, who chose the institution as their first choice with a cut-off point of 200 and above, between Wednesday Aug. 3, 2016 and Aug. 24, 2016.

“We want to inform the public that our screening, for candidates that will be admitted for the 2016/17 academic session, will still hold as scheduled from Aug. 3, 2016 to Aug. 24, 2016. It is true that JAMB had sent a list to us, which it had considered as those who met our cut-off point. It is this same list that it withdrew to allow the universities to carry out their admission process as required by the law setting up their senates.

“There are statutory functions meant for all university senates, among which admissions is part one. It is only after selecting the candidates for admission that the senate refers the list to JAMB for confirmation in line with the admission criteria of merit, catchment and educationally disadvantaged states. And so, it is only proper for JAMB to have taken this step, realising that it had taken over the job of the universities’ senates,’’ he said.

Adebule, however, added that the withdrawal of the list did not interfere with UNILAG’s proposed plan to screen its candidates. He added that candidates would be screened based on the authenticity of their results and their course combinations.

Credit: Punch

Fuel Price Hike: NLC, TUC, To Go Ahead With Strike Despite Court Order

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Despite an order of the National Industrial Court restraining the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress from going ahead with their planned strike to protest the hike in price of petrol, the strike will go ahead as planned on Wednesday, labour officials have said.

The General Secretary of the NLC, Peter Ozo-Eson, on Tuesday night told Premium Times that from all indications the strike would go on as planned.

On the meeting with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, earlier convened to attempt to broker a last minute truce on the matter, Mr. Ozo-Eson said the meeting was yet to hold at about 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

“There was no resolution yet. We are just going for the meeting now. ,” the NLC scribe said on telephone interview. “We have been meeting on our own on matters that are important to us. It is clear the strike will go ahead as planned,” Mr. Ozo-Eson said on telephone on his way to the venue of the meeting.

He however assured that an official statement would be issued on the final position after what promises to be an all-night meeting.

The General Executive Secretary of Medical and Health Workers Union, north central, Richard Gbamwuan, in an interview with this newspaper, shortly after an emergency NEC meeting of the NLC held in Abuja on Tuesday, said that they were going ahead with the proposed strike.

“We have resolved to go ahead with the protest nationwide, as far as we are concerned, we are yet to be aware of any court injunction,” he said.

“And if there is any court injunction, we are just doing what federal government is fond of doing. The same Industrial court had stopped federal government from increasing electric tariff but till date federal government ignored us, they still went ahead, so we are embarking on the protest.”

Credit: PremiumTimes

Fuel Scarcity Bites Harder Despite N407bn Subsidy Payment

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Fuel queues continue to mount in many parts of the country despite the recent payment of N407 billion subsidy claims to marketers.
The queues are worsening in Abuja, Kano and many states, both in the north and south of the country.
Nigerians intending to travel home for the Christmas and New Year celebrations have started to voice concerns about the lingering fuel shortages.
In states like Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto, Nasarawa, River, Enugu and Niger, petrol is sold above the government regulated price of N87 per litre.
The federal government had last week released N407 billion as subsidy to oil marketers. Before the payment, the marketers attributed the scarcity to non-release of the fund but there has been no respite for motorists as the long queues continue in most filling stations, indicating that Nigerians may spend the Christmas searching for petrol.
In Abuja, there were long queues of vehicles yesterday at the Conoil and Total filling stations opposite the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) headquarters at the Central Area, leading to obstruction of traffic. Similar scenes were observed at all other fuel stations that dispensed the product within Abuja city centre and suburbs.