Wednesday 27 May 2015

YOU CAN'T PROBE ME ALONE ~ Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has advised
the incoming president, Muhammadu
Buhari, not to single his administration
out for probe.
He said if Mr. Buhari must investigate
him and his administration, he should
do the same for the past governments.
A probe centred only on the Jonathan
administration will amount to a “witch
hunt”, the president said Wednesday at
a valedictory cabinet meeting attended
by ministers ahead of his handing over
to Mr. Buhari on Friday.
Mr. Jonathan said his comments
followed calls from different quarters
for his administration to be
investigated.



“Some people are even calling for the
probe of the government, but I think in
Nigeria, there are a lot of many things
that will be probed, very many things,
even debts owed by states and debts
owed by this country from 1960 up to
this time.
“They say it is Jonathan’s administration
that is owing these debts. I believe that
anybody that is calling for probe must
also ensure that this probe is extended
beyond the Jonathan administration.
“Otherwise, to me, it will be witch-hunt.
If we are very sincere, it is not only the
Jonathan administration that should be
probed,” he said.
He said his government has had to
operate under the harshest of conditions,
some of which were politically
motivated.
Mr. Jonathan attributed the just abating
fuel scarcity and the strike action by the
oil union to sabotage.
He noted that as a cabinet, all ministers
had done their best despite the
challenges faced during their tenure.
Noting that Nigeria has twice sat on the
Security Council during the life of the
outgoing administration, the president
said it was obvious that the rest of the
world appreciated the little contribution
of Nigeria under his leadership.

FUEL PALAVER :: FUNKE AKINDELE RIDES ON BICYCLE

Star actress, Funke Akindele rode a bicycle to
church on Sunday due to the fuel crisis in the
country. This is according to her post on the
social media.
Nigeria has been brought to a virtual standstill by
fuel shortages, caused by a row between the
outgoing government and importers, as well as
strikes by petrol tanker drivers and oil and gas
workers.


Despite being Africa’s biggest oil producer,
petroleum products have to be imported to
Nigeria because of a lack of functioning domestic
refineries.
The government keeps the price at the pumps
below the market rate for consumers and pays
the difference to importers and marketers.
But they say they are owed $2 billion in arrears
and have shut fuel depots until the balance is
paid.
The government maintains the money has been
paid and the importers are holding the country to
ransom by demanding losses from the slump in
the naira currency caused by the global drop in
oil prices.

Monday 25 May 2015

THOMAS SANKARA remains :Burkina Faso Begins Exhumation.

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Nearly 30 years after President Thomas
Sankara was killed in a coup as he strived to make his West African country an
egalitarian one, his purported grave is being dug up to answer lingering questions
about his death.
Sankara was a Marxist, anti-imperialist revolutionary who in four years in power in
Burkina Faso doubled the number of children in schools, reduced infant mortality,
redistributed land from feudal landlords to peasants and planted 10 million trees
that still help shade Ouagadougou, the capital. His style was different from other
African presidents, ordering ministers to trade in Mercedes for more humble
Renaults.
Sankara's death at 37 in October 1987 after a coup staged by his once best friend
Blaise Compaore has remained shrouded in secrecy.
Sankara and his followers were hurriedly buried, and his family and many others in
Burkina Faso have for years wanted to know how he was killed, and if, in fact, his
body is really in the Dagnoen Cemetery, on the eastern outskirts of Ouagadougou.
"We want the truth," many people chanted Monday outside the cemetery, urging the
gendarmerie to let journalists in.
"We are here to see who is in the grave and we won't leave until we know the
truth," said 20-year-old mechanic Ismael Sawadogo among a crowd of people
waiting on dark brown earth outside the cemetery. "I was not born when Sankara
died but I heard that he was righteous and loves justice."
Medical experts from Burkina Faso and France are overseeing the exhumation of
the site where Sankara and the 12 others killed alongside him are said to be
buried. They will conduct DNA tests to identify the bodies.
At the time of the 1987 coup, Compaore said troops loyal to him uncovered a plot
by Sankara to arrest and then execute Compaore and two other members of the
ruling National Revolutionary Council.
When troops entered the government compound, Sankara pulled out a light
machine gun and a pistol and died in an exchange of fire, Compaore said in reports
from that year. Compaore has denied being a part of Sankara's killing.



Workers with pickaxes and shovels were seen starting the exhumation Monday
morning under tents.
"The exhumations have started," Benewinde Sankara, the lawyer for Sankara's
family, who is not related to the former president, told The Associated Press by
telephone from the cemetery.
He said that in principal they might begin exhuming Sankara's grave on Monday,
but "the process is going to take time." Sankara's family will not attend, he said.
Sankara's widow, Mariam Sankara, has long been fighting for the right to have
DNA tests on Sankara's body to prove the remains are really his, but until last year
she was blocked in the courts. The family long has doubted that the Ouagadougou
cemetery holds his remains.
The impoverished West African country's name was changed from Upper Volta to
Burkina Faso when Compaore and Sankara staged a coup in 1983 and ousted a
moderate military faction to launch a leftist revolution. The country had gained
independence from France in 1960 and had been under military rule since 1966.
Compaore then staged his own coup in 1987. The reasons for his split with
Sankara were never fully explained.
A new constitution that was supposed to restore democracy was adopted in 1991.
Compaore ruled from then until he was driven from the country by large-scale
violent protests in October amid resentment over his bid to remain in power.
Interim President Michel Kafando last year said investigations into Sankara's death
would go forward "in the name of national reconciliation." The exhumation was
authorized by the interim government in March.
On Monday, hundreds gathered outside the cemetery as the exhumations began.
Serge Bambara, a musician known as "Smokey" who is a leader for an activist
group called The Citizen's Broom, said it was an important day. He said he hopes
that this will help prove who killed Sankara, so that they can be brought to justice.
"This should have been done years ago," he said. "We are here because we are
concerned about the truth ... there is hope."
___
Associated Press reporter Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this
report.

BUHARI TO INHERIT #8.1 BILLION ASO VILLA DEBTS

Nigeria’s president-elect, Muhammadu
Buhari will be inheriting a debt
of N8.185,575,211.50 for the Aso Rock
Presidential Villa alone. On the 28th of
May, President Goodluck Jonathan will
conduct Buhari round the villa and in a
report submitted to the Federal
Government Transition Committee by
Vice President Namadi Sambo,
about N3,647,793, 305.76 is needed to
fix the infrastructure at the Villa. They
say the infrastructure is ageing.
The committee is expected to submit its
report today to the Ahmed Joda-led APC
Transition Committee.
The report has it thus:
“The President had on December 3 last
year approved the release of
N3,394,168,460.95 for the payment of
recurrent/overhead debts and capital
debts due to other contractors,
consultants and service providers. This is
yet to be released by the Federal Ministry
of Finance…President Jonathan on April
15 directed the Coordinating Minister for
the Economy/Minister of Finance, Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to look into the
State House appeal for the release of at
least N4billion to make part-payments
out of the total outstanding debts of
N8,185,575,2111.50 “to sustain the
existing mutual and cordial relationships
with the owed firms. This is still being
awaited”.

“The bills for these transition programme
works are yet to be received and will be
additional to the 2015 annual Service
Level Agreement for the State House
Facilities with an annual average
commitment of N3,531,793,631.77
certified for 2014,” the report added.
“The primary challenge facing the State
House has been the inadequacy of
successive budgetary appropriations. The
State House annual appropriations do not
match its actual activities, thereby
leading to regular recourse to additional
funding from Intervention Fund from the
Federal Ministry of Finance.
“About 283 of the temporary staff not
found eligible for regularisation were
with the approval of His Excellency, the
President given contract. appointments
renewable annually based on performance
and fitness.
“ However, payment of their salaries(an
average of N8million per month) is from
State House overheads provision, which
remains a huge challenge to State House.
“The existing infrastructure for
mechanical, electrical and associated
components have aged and are
performing well beyond their design lives.
“The proposal for their replacement/
upgrade has been reviewed and certified
by the Bureau of Public Procurement in
the total sum of N3,647,793, 305.76.
However due to paucity of funds, phased
implementation is being adopted for the
most vital and critical works, starting
with Phase I in the sum of N693,
119,509.55
“Inadequate office space to accommodate
staff of the State House and inadequate
operational vehicles for the efficient
discharge of the activities of the various
departments and units of the State House,
including shuttle buses within the State
House Complex and between the State
House and the State House Medical
Centre.”

I 'II PROBE AMECHI - Wike

THE Rivers State Governor-elect, Chief Nyesom
Wike, has indicated his readiness to probe the
Rotimi Amaechi administration after being sworn
in as the chief executive of the state.
Wike, who gave this hint while receiving the
interim report of the Transition Committee in
Port Harcourt on Monday, declared that his
administration would carry out a forensic audit
of all government accounts.
He explained that the measure would enable him
to recover funds that might have allegedly been
stolen by top officials of the outgoing
administration in the state.
Wike specifically said that those who
participated in the use of N4.5bn to conduct a
local government election by the Rivers State
Independent Electoral Commission, even when
the court had stopped the exercise, would be
made to account for their actions.
The governor-elect maintained that RSIEC
embarked on an illegal local government election
despite the court’s position on the matter.
Explaining that the days of impunity and
corruption were over, Wike noted that Rivers
would be a test case in the fight against
corruption.
He added that his administration would adopt a
comprehensive approach in fighting corrupt
elements in the outgoing administration in order
to entrench fiscal discipline in the state.
“I am not going to be intimidated. The only way
we can work together is to check the ills of the
past. The right thing must be done. Those who
have stolen the resources of the state must be
made to account for them.

“I have the political will to drive the process to
its logical conclusion. The massive stealing of
government resources was a deliberate attempt
to create problems for the incoming
administration,” Wike said.
The governor-elect declared that all backdated
appointments and certificates of occupancy
being hurriedly issued by outgoing governor
would be set aside.
“All the top officials of Amaechi administration
who have refused to cooperate in the interest of
Rivers State during the transition period will
soon cooperate whether they like it or not.
“Those who have closed the courts will be the
same persons rushing to the courts when we
open the courts,” Wike further declared.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Transition
Committee and state Deputy Governor, Mr. Tele
Ikuru, had recommended that the new
administration should carry out forensic audit of
all accounts in view of an alleged looting by
officials of the outgoing administration.
Ikuru pointed out that Amaechi and top officials
of his (Amaechi) administration refused to
cooperate with the committee for a smooth
transition.
The deputy governor urged the governor-elect to
work towards restoring basic services in the
state.
Reacting, the Chief of Staff, Government House,
Port Harcourt, Chief Tony Okocha, told our
correspondent that Amaechi was not afraid of
probe and added that the governor had been
transparent and sincere in governing the state.
Okocha argued that there was nothing wrong in
probing any administration, but stated that the
exercise would only becoming a vice should it
(probe) be done with mischief in mind.
“No government that is transparent and sincere
like that of Amaechi will be afraid of probe. It
(probe) is good to do except if it is originally
intended to be a witch-hunt,” Amaechi aide said.
On Wike’s claim that N4.5bn was used to
conduct the council election, Okocha disagreed
with the governor-elect, saying, “He (Wike)
should also understand that he who lives in a
glass house should not throw stones.”

Copyright PUNCH.

Sunday 24 May 2015

ANOTHER MAN CLIMBS TREE FOR BUHARI IN LIEU OF TREKKING.

In a n of trekkers, a 'climber' has finally
emerged.
A Facebooker, Thaddeus Yilmen, shared of a
photo the first 'climber' for Buhari.
Mallam Kaura, a husband of two and father of
five children, has climbed a tree and said heN
would not come down until President-elect,
Muhammadu Buhari, is inaugurated.
The man, who climbed a tree at Kurgwi Quan
Pan Local Government in Plateau State on
Friday, 22nd of May, has remained steadfast two
days after.

There has been been a huge wave of trekkers
since the Presidential elections in March. The
first and most famous of the trekkers, Hasheem
Suleiman » , trekked from Lagos to strictly to
fulfill the promise he made to trek to Abuja if
Buhari is declared winner.
Since then, a host of trekkers have tried their
own, including trekkers » for the outgoing
president, Goodluck Jonathan. Some other
trekkers have trekked for their state governors.
Hopefully, the trekking trend will stop after the
inauguration.

NIGERIA, POORLY MANAGED FOR 8 YEARS- Obj


Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday
said Nigeria had been poorly managed for eight
years, telling Nigerians to be patient with the
incoming administration of President-Elect,
Muhammadu Buhari, to correct the prevailing
abnormalities.
He said this during a visit of a delegation of
South-West women leaders, under the leadership
of Iyalode of Yorubaland,Chief Alaba Lawson, to
his Abeokuta Hilltop residence.Obasanjo noted
that it would take a sizable time for Buhari to
correct the anomalies.
He said, “The country had been poorly managed
in the last eight years, and it will take some time
for Buhari’s government to correct the anomalies.
But I want to him not to be frightened. When I
came in 1999, there was no fuel, there was no
power. The situation was like this, and I thought
we have put that one behind us. The man that is
coming on board has a lot of experience in terms
of governance.He is not a green horn. We have
both worked together in administering, then as a
military Head of State and we did it well.
Nigerians need to exercise patience because what
have been destroyed in eight years cannot be
rebuilt in a day.


“Let’s give him time. Let’s pray for him and let’s
cooperate with him. We are all concerned about
the present situation of Nigeria. The expectation
is very high but at the same time, there is a lot of
goodwill internally and externally for the incoming
government. Once the incoming administration
realises this and takes every step, particularly in
the first three months,when people will be
watching and counting, I think for me, we will get
there.”
The former president, however, warned Buhari not
to take Nigerians for granted but to be as honest
as possible in overseeing the country, adding that
Nigerians were clever and could not be deceived.
He told the visitors that he believed in the
managerial and political acumen of the President-
elect in leading Nigeria aright, because “he is not
a novice in governance, having ruled the country
as a military Head of State from 1983 to 1985.”
Obasanjo said with Buhari at the helm, the
citizens would have a new opportunity.
He said, “God has provided a new opportunity for
Nigeria and Nigerians and I believe God does not
make mistake. There are two things I believe the
incoming President appreciates. One is that he
knows that the expectations of Nigerians are high
and two, that he should not be frightened by the
situation on the ground.
“All he has to do is to be honest with Nigerians,
he should not deceive them. He should not be an
ostrich. He should not deceive Nigerians and not
to be too clever with them. There is a lot of
goodwill for the incoming administration from
within and outside the country. What is important
is that steps have to be taken that will not lead
to the squandering of the goodwill and I believe
the incoming government will be able to take care
of that.”

US BEHIND BURUJI's HOUSE ARREST --FG

The Attorney-General of the Federation
and Minister of Justices,
Mr.Mohammed Adoke
(SAN), said on Saturday that the
house arrest which
 the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency placed on the Ogun-East
Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu, was informed by a recent extradition request by the
United States of America.
Adoke told one of our correspondents on the telephone on Saturday that the
request came last week.
On May 6, the minister had disclosed to one of our correspondents that there was
no extradition request for Buruji by the US.
Adoke said this while responding to a suit filed by Kashamu to restrain the NDLEA
and 13 others from extraditing him to the US.

“The request came shortly after I spoke with you. It came last week,” he said.
He said immediately his office received the request it was passed to the
appropriate organ of government for implementation.
The implementation process involves filing an extradition request before the
appropriate division of the Federal High Court.
Responding to further inquiry, he confirmed that he was referring to the NDLEA as
the appropriate organ of government to take up the extradition request.
“Of course, it is a drug-related offence and the appropriate government agency that
handles such cases is the NDLEA,” Adoke said.
The NDLEA confirmed the confinement of the movement of Kashamu to his Lagos
residence on Oladipo Street, Lekki Phase 1 pending his appearance in court on
Monday (tomorrow).
The spokesperson for the NDLEA, Michael Ofoyeju, said the action was to perfect
his extradition to the US for drug-related charges.
In a statement sent via email to one of our correspondents by the spokesperson for
the agency, Michael Ofoyeju, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Ahmadu
Giade, was quoted as saying the operation was in line with the legal process of
extradition.
The statement further quoted Giade thus, “The agency has commenced extradition
procedures against Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu in line with the laws of country.
He has been in contact with his attorneys and will appear in court on Monday.”
He also confirmed that the residence of Kashamu was raided by the operatives of
the agency at about 5am on Saturday.
No fewer than 10 operatives of the agency were said to have invaded the Lagos
residence of Kashamu, around 5am on Saturday to effect his arrest following a
purported extradition request from the United States on drug- related charges.
They were said to be heavily armed and were ruthless.
As soon as they stormed his residence, SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that some of the
NDLEA operatives brought out a yellow tape and cordoned off the area, while
others went straight to the gate.
After they (operatives) reportedly knocked on Kashamu’s gate, his security men
were alerted about their mission.
Kashamu’s security men at this point demanded the arrest warrant from the
NDLEA men but they could not produce any.
Based on this, they were prevented from entering the residence.
However, this action was said to have infuriated the NDLEA officials who stormed
the compound after destroying the gate.
The media aide to Kashamu, Austin Oniyokor, in a statement made available to our
correspondent on Saturday, explained that the NDLEA operatives after they had
forcibly entered the compound, headed for the living rooms and began to destroy
all the doors one after other, in a desperate move to arrest Kashamu.
An NDLEA source said they (operatives) closed in on the bedroom of the PDP chief
who was said to have threatened to commit suicide if the agency tried to extradite
him to the US forcibly.
Oniyokor described the latest onslaught on his principal as a confirmation of the
alleged plot to illegally abduct him despite the pending suit against his abduction.
Oniyokor, however, accused a Peoples Democratic Party leader, Chief Bode George,
as being behind the onslaught against his boss, “in a bid to score cheap political
points.”
He said he is doing this through his wife who is the Director-General of the
agency.
“We urge all well meaning Nigerians to prevail on NDLEA, Chief George and his wife
to toe the path of the rule of law and follow due process.
“Nigeria is not a Banana republic. The United States being the bastion of
democracy, the rule of law and due process, should not lend itself to this kind of
illegality.”
However, George, who spoke to one of our correspondents from the United
Kingdom On Saturday, described the allegation as a ‘huge joke.’
The PDP leader said he did not have the power to give his wife orders because she
was not the chairman of the NDLEA and the agency adheres to due process.
He said no right thinking Nigerian would believe that he was behind Kashamu’s
ordeal because his name had never been mentioned before now. He added that he
had never been involved in Ogun State politics before and wondered how
Kashamu’s detention could benefit him (George).
He said, “I don’t understand what this is all about. How does Kashamu’s arrest
affect the price of milk? My wife is not the chairman of the NDLEA, so how can I
give her orders when she has a boss? Also, that agency always follows due
process.
“I am happy that the NDLEA has issued a statement to the effect that Kashamu’s
arrest has nothing to do with me or politics. I do not dabble into Ogun State
politics.
“Kashamu is like a younger brother to me and he is not known to speak in such a
manner. I am sure it is his media adviser that concocted this falsehood.”

( Photo of the week ) MANIFESTATION OF NAIJA CULTURE