Suswam Gives Condition For Returning To Northern Govs Forum

Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam has given some conditions that would prompt his return to the Northern Governors Forum, saying until he was sure that him and his colleagues could take decision and abide strictly by it, he would not rejoin the fold.

Suswam had angrily called it quits with the forum of Northern governors recently on the ground that he felt betrayed by his colleagues during the election of a new chairman for the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).

He told State House Correspondents after he met with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja that he did not really vow never to rejoin the forum as being rumoured.

He said until he was confident that he and his colleagues in the forum could agree on a common stance and all stand by it, he would rather not be a member.

Rivers Attack: S’South Youths Apologise To Northern Govs

Youths from the South-South geo-political zone of the country have resolved to apologise and pay visits to governors of four northern states that were recently attacked in Port Harcourt while on a solidarity visit to Rivers State governor, Mr Chibuike Amaechi. The governors include Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Alhaji Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa).

The four governors were in Port Harcourt to pay a solidarity visit to Rivers State governor and chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Mr Chibuike Amaechi, when protesters believed to be members of the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI) pelted their convoy with stones as they made to leave the VIP Lounge of the airport.

Speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday, leader of the South-South Youth Democratic Vanguard (SSYDV), Alafaa Princewill, described the attack on the four governors, who are all members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as an embarrassment, which could lead to ethno-religious crisis if not properly handled.

Princewill said, “We met to deliberate on the issue of the embarrassment given to the Northern governors because it is not in our character to embarrass strangers that have come to visit one of our own, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the executive governor of Rivers State.

Underage Marriage: We Were Blackmailed - Mark

The Senate President, Sen. David Mark, on Wednesday in Abuja said that some senators were blackmailed into voting that section 29 (4) (b) be retained in the 1999 Constitution.

Mark said this when he received different women groups under the aegis of Gender and Constitution Reform Network (GECORN), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) who visited him.
Some of the women groups consist of former Ministers of Education, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, Mrs Josephine Anenih and Justice Mariam Uwais.

``They were simply blackmailed and on that day, if they didn’t do what they did, nobody knows the outcome or what the consequences will be today.
``The people outside can say this man, you are a Muslim and you didn’t vote for something that is of Islamic interest,’’ Mark said.

The Senate president said that it was the desire of the senate to remove the clause since out of the 101 senators who voted the first time, 85 voted that it should be removed.
 ``There was hardly any dissenting vote the first time but once it got mixed up with so many other issues, it didn’t get the required 73 votes anymore.’’ 

He said that the castigation of the Senate by Nigerians was largely due to misunderstanding.
Mark reiterated that the Senate was on the side of the people and that was why the Constitution Review Committee had recommended the deletion of that clause since it was discriminatory against women.

Mark promised that the Senate would try to re-visit the issue with the aim of deleting the clause from the constitution and stressed the need for Nigerians to get more education on the issue.

FRESH FG OIL CONTRACTS – REPORT

SUBSIDY FRAUD FIRMS GET FRESH FG OIL CONTRACTS – REPORT

One of the subsidy protest in Edo State

The Federal Government has expanded its list of fuel suppliers to include companies previously named in the multi-billion naira subsidy fraud investigation, Reuters news agency reported, quoting sources familiar with the matter.

Nigeria relies on fuel imports because it lacks the capacity to refine its own crude oil, and government tried to remove petrol subsidies last year but was forced to partially reinstate them after a wave of strikes and protests.
A House of Representatives investigation later found the subsidy administration had facilitated more than N1 trillion of corruption over three years, with half the approved fuel imports never arriving or being sold to neighbouring countries.
The list of petrol importers compiled by Reuters using information from five sources showed around 3.4 million tonnes was allocated for the third quarter to more than 40 companies, expanded from 30 last year.
The list showed four companies that failed to cooperate with the House of Representatives probe were named as suppliers. These were Nepal, Fresh Synergy, Ibafon and Techno, which the parliamentary report showed collectively claimed for subsidies of nearly N9.7 billion.
Nepal’s website lists its CEO as Barrister Ngozi Ekeoma who has twice been arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in relation to fraudulent subsidy payments. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Phone calls to her company went unanswered.
At least three other companies awarded third quarter allocations - Masters, Matrix and MRS - were also ordered to account for their shipments or refund falsely claimed subsidy money in another government report released last June.
Matrix provided documents to Reuters showing it had since been exonerated by Nigerian authorities.
The other firms declined or did not respond to repeated requests for comment by email and telephone, Reuters reported. It was not clear if these companies had since repaid their debts or been cleared.
The Finance Ministry would not comment on specific firms but provided a document which showed that in total only N14 billion out of N232 billion in questionable claims, or around 6 per cent, had so far been refunded.
The ministry has previously said importers will not be delisted so long as they paid back money owed to the government.
Nigerian authorities have taken some measures to improve controls,” said Marc Gueniat of Swiss NGO The Berne Declaration which campaigns against corruption in the developing world.
“But the fact that certain companies accused of participating in the fraud are continuing to benefit from allocations raises the question of whether the political will to change is sincere,” he added, quoted by Reuters.
Absent from the list of petrol importers are large trading houses like Vitol, Mercuria and Trafigura which have historically played an important role in supplying fuels to Nigeria but have been replaced by local firms.
However, some still provide fuels indirectly to the country or via crude-for-product swap deals.
The government has arraigned some fuel marketers and industry sources say the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has introduced measures designed to limit abuse of the system.
Officials at PPPRA’s public affairs department did not respond to Daily Trust’s request for comment on the Reuters report.
Industry sources suggested the rise in the number of importers may have been partly an attempt to stave off future supply problems, as some importers struggled to get bank loans.
“What they are doing now is giving smaller allocations to more and more companies because of the credit situation. The number is creeping higher and it could be a cause for concern if it continues,” said Dolapo Oni, oil and gas analyst at Ecobank.
The supply list showed Nigerian energy firm Oando PLC won the biggest allocation of 135,000 tonnes while Total and Folawiyo, in which global commodity merchant Glencore is a minority stakeholder, won 90,000 tonnes each.
Petrol subsidies soaked up N1 trillion last year, equivalent to 20 per cent of the federal budget and exceeding a budgeted N888 billion.
For this year, the Federal Government budgeted N971.138 billion to pay subsidies but PPPRA executive secretary Mr. Reginald Stanley was quoted to have said last month that no marketer had been paid for this year’s supplies yet.
The Finance Ministry had been paying backlog of subsidy claims for supplies made last year, and a total of N240 billion “verified claims” had been settled by July 15.
“There has been no payment for any marketer importing petroleum products in 2013. This is caused by delays in the payment of subsidy claims by the Federal Ministry of Finance, resulting in interest as foreign exchange differential claims request by marketers,” Stanley had said while briefing a Senate committee in Abuja on June 5
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SENATE PANEL SEEKS TRANSFER OF RIVERS POLICE CHIEF

SENATE PANEL SEEKS TRANSFER OF RIVERS POLICE CHIEF

Senator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya

The Senate committee on State and Local Government has indicted the Rivers State police commissioner over the crisis in the state, Daily Trust learnt in Abuja yesterday.

The committee, chaired by Senator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya (ANPP, Kano), was on 10 July mandated by the Senate to visit Rivers and investigate the remote and immediate causes of the crisis in the state House of Assembly.
Gaya yesterday submitted the report to the Senate in plenary session including video recordings of their proceedings and submissions made by different parties.
Contents of the report were not made available, but a source told Daily Trust that the commissioner was criticised in the report for his role in the violence at the state assembly in which some lawmakers were injured.
The source said the panel condemned the action of the Rivers State commissioner of Police Mr. Joseph Mbu who they accused of not leaving up to expectation, and called for his withdrawal from the state.
The investigation followed a motion sponsored by Senator Magnus Abe (PDP, Rivers), who raised a point of order citing matters of personal explanation drawing the attention of his colleagues to the fracas in the state assembly
Gaya and his committee had held hearings between 11 and 14 July in Port Harcourt where it received submissions from the warring factions.
The Senate is scheduled to consider the report today
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You can’t bury PDP, Presidency fires back at five Northern govs

ABUJA — The Presidency, yesterday, dismissed as empty boast the threat by five Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors to bury the party, if they are unable to resolve the crisis in the party.

The five Northern governors — Sule Lamido, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Aliyu Wamakko, Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu and Murtala Nyako — who have been meeting with political stakeholders in the country, had threatened on Monday to help bury the PDP if their efforts to solve its problems flopped.

Although Nyako was not present at the meeting with Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, he immediately released a statement aligning position with the four other governors, saying that it was time something was done to salvage the party or bury it.

President Goodluck Jonathan

The governor, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Sajoh Ahmed, noted: “We have held consultations with former heads of state on the need for them and other major stakeholders to save the party from dying.

“We will continue to make our efforts to save the party. But if our efforts do not work, we have no alternative than to fold our arms, and see PDP die and help in burying it.”

But firing back at the governors, Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Matters, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, said the five governors were incapable of bringing down the PDP.

Gulak, who also accused the governors of trying to force out President Jonathan, said, however, that they would fail, as their agenda was not in the interest of the generality of Nigerians.

The Presidential aide also said that all those working with the five governors would also fail in their selfish bid to unseat Jonathan because Nigerians were wiser than all of them.

The political adviser said: “They (the governors) cannot bury PDP, as the party is above them.

“Their agenda is not to bury PDP but to get President Goodluck Jonathan out but they will certainly fail. I can assure you that all those in that group and sharing their agenda will also fail woefully, as Nigerians are wiser,” the Presidential adviser said.

The governors, who had earlier met with Governor Rotimi Amaechi in Port Harcourt last week, during which they narrowly escaped being injured by irate political demonstrators, later moved to the country home of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State, and had a lengthy discussion with him.

Although their meeting with Obasanjo coincided with that of President Jonathan, who came out to say that he visited the former leader as part of his condolence visit to his media aide, Reuben Abati, over the demise of his mother, the details of what the four governors discussed with Obasanjo have not been made public barely a week after.

The motive of the governors notwithstanding, former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, on Monday described them as ‘real patriots’ and poured encomiums on them for taking the trouble to find answers to the nation’s crises.

Babangida said: “I just want to commend the governors and some of their colleagues. I am very impressed because they see the problems of this country as their problems and they have taken the right steps to make sure that they consult widely in trying to find solutions to some of the nagging problems. It shows they are real patriots and I am very happy with the
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Mixed reactions greet govs’ visits to ex-leaders

Mixed reactions have continued to trail the visits of some Northern states’ governors to three former Nigerian leaders – Generals Olusegun Obasanjo,   Abdusalami Abubakar and Ibrahim Babangida.

Four of the governors – Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); Sule Lamido(Jigawa); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); and Rabiu Kwakwanso (Kano) – had  last Saturday visited Obasanjo in Abeokuta where they discussed issues that have to do with the polity, especially the 2015 general elections.

On Monday, Wamakko, Lamido, Kwakwanso and Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu  headed for Minna, where they reportedly discussed similar issues, including the political crisis in Rivers State with Abubakar and Babangida.

At the meeting which was to have also been attended by Nyako, the governors appealed to Abubakar and Babangida to ask President Goodluck Jonathan to  urgently bring the Rivers State crisis to  an end.

While the main opposition political parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change –  described the visits as a welcome development, the  Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen and the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, disagreed.

In a   telephone interview  with  one of our correspondents,  the National Publicity Secretary  of the  ACN,  Alhaji Lai Mohammed,  said,   “I think the four or five governors made their case. They are worried and concerned about the growing climate of political intolerance and impunity and that these have consequences not only for democracy  but for the 2015 elections.

“They are concerned that the current attitude and frame of mind of the President regarding some governors even those considered as dissidents   is worrisome to them.

“They are saying that at the rate things are going there might be no election in 2015.

“This is aligning with our own position about four months ago that we are concerned about certain actions of  the government.  Then we  cried out about the despotic nature of the President but we were taken on by the President’s spokesperson that it was not despotism.

“This is what these governors are seeing now and what they are saying by their visit; in calling on all of these former Heads of State and elder statesmen is to appeal to the President to allow for democracy and a peaceful election in 2015.”

Mohammed’s counterpart in the CPC, Rotimi Fashakin, argued that some of the issues   raised by the governors  were capable of derailing the nation’s democracy if not urgently addressed.

He  said, “There is nothing wrong with people going round to troubleshoot  and  bring about   resolution of crises.

“You  will find out that in situations like this,  you must be able to explore all avenues.

“The   First Lady has confessed that as far back as four years ago, she bore a grudge against the Rivers State governor  and it was because of  this that we are witnessing what we are seeing now.

“Some of these issues are capable of derailing this democracy; it is understandable why they will continue to   explore avenues for peace.

“They are going round to see people they feel can have some influence on the President and his wife to speak up now so that we can have a stable polity.”

Their arguements were supported by  the  Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Mr. Otelemaba Amachree, who said the visits  were  capable of restoring peace to the PDP and ending the crisis in  the state.

 Amachree,  who spoke through his Media Assistant, Mr. Jim Okpiki, argued that Obasanjo, Abubakar and Babangida   were still relevant to the  Nigerian political  clime.

 He said, “The truth is that we cannot remove Babangida and Obasanjo in today’s politics. Apart from that, Babangida and Abubakar  are very influential people that can make things happen.”

However, the convener of the CNPAPB, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, believes that the visits  were  not to salvage the country but the PDP.

Mohammed said that if  the governors’ actions were to save the country, they should have also visited a former President, Shehu Shagari, and another ex-Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon.

He said, “As far as I can remember,  Shagari was a President of this country and he is alive and well. General Gowon,  like the others,  is a former  Head of State, who did this country proud.

“These men were not  visited  and this goes to prove that these visits have nothing to do with salvaging the country.  Indeed,  the goal is to  salvage  the PDP as a party  and  they have more to do with public relations.

 “None of these men that they visited  is in a position to salvage the nation. If the nation is to be salvaged, it will not be Babangida  or any of these people; it will be salvaged by forces beyond these individuals.   As a public relations exercise, I don’t mind the governors going to visit former Heads of State but I mind  the way it was done because Obasanjo, Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar and  Gen. (Theophilus) Danjuma, who  is  also being considered for a similar visit ,  have only one thing in common:  They are stinkingly rich.”

To the   Rivers State chapter of the PDP, the   governors  are desperadoes  looking for exit plans as their tenure  is  drawing to an end.

The party, in  a statement   by the Special Adviser on Media to its  Chairman, Mr. Jerry Needam, argued that the visits were not borne out of genuine interest to resolve the lingering political crisis in Rivers State, but to fuel it.

 It  wondered why the   governors who are now “patriots” of democracy could not remove the logs in their eyes before removing the speck in other people’s eyes.

 “How can any serious minded governor not be worried that the average Northerner today lives in grave fear of insecurity and poverty and yet these busybody governors are wasting tax- payers’ money, flying on chartered executive jets to stoke trouble in Rivers State,”  the party said.