Those who stole from Nigeria have newspapers, radio & TV stations - Lai Mohammed

Those who stole from Nigeria have newspapers, radio & TV stations - Lai Mohammed

By Unknown   20:20   No comments:

While speaking at a meeting with Nigerian entertainers in Lagos over the weekend, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said those who stole Nigeria dry have newspapers, Radio and Television stations and are very powerful people in the society. He added that the fight against corruption by the Buhari administration is already getting global attention ...

"The federal government is delighted that the anti-corruption war being led by President Muhammadu Buhari has been acknowledged and applauded on a global stage. It is particularly gratifying that in that speech, Mr Kerry made the link between corruption and terrorism. We agree that corruption is indeed a radicaliser because it destroys faith in legitimate authority. Let me remind you, gentlemen, that radicalisation is a key causative factor of terrorism. We know that those who stole us dry are powerful. They have newspapers, radio and television stations and an army of supporters to continuously deride the government’s war against corruption. But we are undaunted and will not relent until corruption is also decimated.”he said

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FG removes subsidy on kerosene, product now sells for N83

FG removes subsidy on kerosene, product now sells for N83

By Unknown   20:19   No comments:

The Federal Government has officially removed subsidy payment for kerosene products. According to the new pricing template for House Hold Kerosene released by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency PPPRA on Saturday January 23rd, Kerosene which was sold at N50 per litre, will now be sold at N83 per litre.

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Nigerian Army reacts to group's call for Buratai's to be investigated in $2.1bn arms deal

Nigerian Army reacts to group's call for Buratai's to be investigated in $2.1bn arms deal

By Unknown   20:17   No comments:

The Nigerian Army has reacted to the call by the Save the Nation Group, for Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, to be interrogated over the $2.1 billion arms deal. The group in a statement released yesterday said that since Buratai was the Director of Procurement in the Army between 2012 to 2015, he has questions to answer. Reacting, the Nigerian Army in a statement signed by the Acting Director Army Public Relations, Col S.K Usman and released today, said contrary to this claim, Buratai was the Director of Procurement from 2014 to 2015. Read the statement below...

The Nigerian Army has noted with dismay the attempt to rubbish the hard earned name and reputation of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai and the Nigerian Army by a faceless group that called itself “Save the Nation Movement” (STNM) through orchestrated campaign of calumny in the media. In a release signed by Steven Chilaka, its “National Secretary” on Sunday, they wanted the Chief of Army Staff to be included among those indicted in the ongoing probe of abuse of funds meant for the procurement of arms simply because he was the Director of Procurement at the Defence Headquarters (DHQ). The public will recall our earlier warning of this type of campaign of calumny against the Nigerian Army and the Chief of Army Staff. This has again reared its ugly head again. Unfortunately, the movement could not get their facts right as has always been the case with people with dubious intents. Contrary to their mischief, it should be noted that General Buratai was Director of Procurement at Defence Headquarters from March 2014 to May 2015, not from 2012 to 2015 as they wished to mislead the public. Furthermore, there is the need to educate the ignorant group that, Defence Procurement in Nigeria is decentralised; each Service is responsible for its procurement. It is advisable for the group to look elsewhere if they want to attack the Chief of Army Staff. For the avoidance of doubt, the Chief of Army Staff has never been involved in any questionable act throughout his career as military officer let alone when he was at the DHQ. As a matter of fact, the Chief of Army Staff has always been a reference point in exemplary conduct, probity and integrity. It is on record that he voluntarily declared his assets both as Commander MNJTF and as Chief of Army Staff. In addition, he has directed all Nigerian Army officers to do so. One wonders what is the faceless group’s motive and why they are in a hurry to rubbish the good name of the Chief Army Staff and the Nigerian Army, when there is a Presidential Panel already working selflessly. Why is the group trying to jump the gun. Let these mischievous elements which Steven Chilaka represents, allow the Panel to discharge its duties dispassionately as it is doing. It is advisable also that the faceless group should get their facts right and not just merely speculate or disturb us with their wishful thinking. They should further understand that whatever mischievous intentions they have against the Chief of Army Staff and indeed, the Nigerian Army, both would not be deterred, we shall remain focused and never to be distracted. Consequently, the public is please requested to disregard the so called Movement’s evil machinations which would surely fall back on them. You are please requested to disseminate this information to the public through your medium. Thank for your kind cooperation.

Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman
Acting Director Army Public Relations

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Wayne Rooney shares first photo of his new-born son online

Wayne Rooney shares first photo of his new-born son online

By Unknown   20:14   No comments:

Yesterday, Man U captain Wayne Rooney announced the birth of his 3rd child, a son named Kit Joseph Rooney. And today, he shared a photo of his newborn son taken at just a few minutes old 'Meeting Kit for the first time. Home time now,' the football ace captioned the pic shared on Twitter..

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15 people including a DPO killed in fresh attack by Boko Haram in Adamawa state

15 people including a DPO killed in fresh attack by Boko Haram in Adamawa state

By Unknown   20:11   No comments:

No fewer than 15 people including the Deputy Police officer of Viniklang Police Division, were killed in separate attacks by suspected Boko Haram members in six villages in Girei Local Government of Adamawa State over the weekend. According to residents of one of the villages, the sect members stormed their homes in the middle of the night while they were sleeping and started killing people.

They said that there was an exchange of gunfire between the Nigerian military and the attackers who were forced to retreat into the bushes. During the attack, many homes in the villages comprising of Koh, Demsare, Tabongo, Fawure, Noyine and Ndikajam were completely razed by the invading Boko Haram insurgents.

Bodies of those killed in the attacks have been removed by officials of NEMA, ADSEMA and the Red Cross.

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Cradinal Okogie comes hard on Buhari, says "What sort of change is the Pres­ident talking about?"

Cradinal Okogie comes hard on Buhari, says "What sort of change is the Pres­ident talking about?"

By Unknown   17:35   No comments:

Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Anthony Car­dinal Olubunmi Okogie, yesterday released a statement criticizing the Buhari-led government. In the statement which was signed by the Director of Social Com­munications of the Diocese, Monsig­nor Gabriel Osu, Cardinal Okogie criticized Buhari for failing to heed court injunctions that granted both Dasuki and Pro-Biafra group leader, Nnamdi Kanu, bail. The respected religious leader asked what sort of "Change" is the President talking about when such acts of judicial disobedience is now the order of the day.

According to Okogie, the belief of many Nigerians is that the government is turning the nation into a police state comprising of the President, the EFCC and the DSS. He alleged that governors, who arm-twisted Okonjo-Iweala into signing reserves held by Central Bank, are today ministers in the All Progres­sives Congress (APC) government. Read part of the statement below

“He (Buhari) must retool, re­focus and aggressively face the so­cial, economic (fiscal and monetary) problems we have head-on, without letting the anti-corruption drive look like a political distraction. A snail-paced and disordered methodology in governance, his ap­parent disdain for judicial authorities and decisions, a lost today and found tomorrow 2016 Budget debacle, and a rather rudderless and confused Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with an unclear monetary policy strategy (inevitably increasing the economic uncertainties being faced by Nigeri­ans), have set alarm bells ringing in my mind and in the minds of many discerning Nigerians. Indeed, his perceived discord­ant relationship with the leadership of the Legislature has many naysayers chuckling and remarking that Pres­ident Buhari’s government is head­ing into his comfort zone, a one man show. A lot of Nigerians are beginning to feel that Buhari is fast transforming this na­tion into a police state where the president, the Economic and Finan­cial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Secu­rity (DSS) rule the day. What they say is given lurid headlines in the me­dia, and it seems to all that some of the defendants cum accused persons are being tried in the press with in­formation conveniently slipping into the hands of the press, presumably from the security agencies, even be­fore such people have been charged to court. The pro-Biafran activ­ist, Nnamdi Kanu and the erstwhile NSA, Sambo Dasuki, were granted bail by the courts but such bails were disregarded by the security agents under Buhari’s watch. Unfortunately, democracy is difficult and this government must realise that democracy pervasive­ly coloured with impunity, arbitrar­iness and highhandedness, cannot be used to fight and correct the finan­cial impunity and reckless abandon of the previous administration, even if it is more difficult to do so; the rule of law must be obeyed and be the or­der of the day. If Buhari wants to leave a cred­itable legacy come 2019, he should retool the bureaucracy. For instance, the roof of the Central Bank is leak­ing water. Governors, who arm-twisted Okonjo-Iweala into signing out our reserves held by Central Bank, are today ministers in the All Progres­sives Congress (APC) government. We are still talking about change and corruption when old things refuse to pass away! These political gimmicks can only car­ry away gullible or naive Nigeri­ans. President Buhari should beam his flashlight on policies and pro­grammes that will lift up the masses. Existing industries are almost dead and they call for urgent revital­isation. The budget ought to aid so­lutions to the mass unemployment, rural-urban migration, skewedness in the distribution of income, abject rural poverty and industrialisation of rural economy. The 774 local government cap­itals should be linked to their state capitals. Even the mindboggling in­frastructure deficits can take the en­tire tenure to address. The weakness in the bureau­cracy has not been addressed. The problem the APC government is trying to solve is bound to re-occur because it is treatment of effect rath­er than the cause,” he said, adding that causative factors are being to­tally ignored or glossed-over while institutional weakness pervades the Ministries Departments and Agen­cies (MDAs), offices of the Account­ant-General, Auditor-General and the Central Bank. Our Change must change something. How could we continue to talk of change in a static system? How could we be talking of change when the same crew are governors, ministers, senators, and members of the House of Representatives? This is a cyclical devolution of power to the same people who are never out of power! What sort of change is the Pres­ident talking about? When will the youth take over when even a gov­ernor does not take a bow and go? When shall we plan for the replace­ment of delinquent leadership? This is what constitutes change. Change is not changing from Jonathan to Buhari. Change is be­havioural and pervades all levels of society including the family, the church, the mosque, schools, market women and business men. When we talk of change, we talk of positive-salutary, healthy growth and devel­opment oriented change that cuts across the entire gamut of the so­ciety. What sort of change is this that ignores the glaring unequal distribu­tion of national income? It is absurd that the same government that is un­able to pay N18,000 per month to the lowest grade of labour can afford to pay N1.8 million per month to anyone in the economy. Why must tax payers’ money be used to feed Mr. President and his family? Why must the tax payers’ mon­ey be used to buy brand new exotic vehicles for the legislature, judges, ministers and governors when they are heavily paid? Why don’t they use loan finance or mortgage finance to buy their cars and houses? This is also a form of looting and it is the cause of grounding the economy and calling in an IMF spin-doctor all the time. Precisely two years ago this same President Buhari rejected off-hand this use of a spin doctor to heal the ailing economy. He pre­ferred the use of counter-trade and inward looking policies like cutting down costs and flamboyant exotic life styles. Today, I am not so sure we have the same Buhari. I do hope he has not changed all the colours of the rainbow. The ruling elites are living a luxurious lifestyle while the mass­es are in abject poverty and yet we are all Nigerians. Enough of this change-conundrum”.

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Witness claims Metuh gave her $2million cash to invest for him

Witness claims Metuh gave her $2million cash to invest for him

By Unknown   17:31   No comments:

At the resumed hearing of the case filed by EFCC against former PDP National Publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh for receiving N400 million from the office of Sambo Dasuki, one of the prosecuting witnesses, Nneka Ararume, told the court that Metuh gave her $2 million at his house in Prince and Princess Estate, Abuja, to help him invest.

Nneka who says she is a Wealth Manager with Asset and Resource Management Company Limited, a company reportedly owned by Metuh, said she changed the money to its Naira equivalent through two bureau de change operators and put the money in the company account.

"He gave me the sum of $2m in $100 bills. It was taken to bureau de change operators who would then transfer the money to ARM. From there (Metuh’s house) I proceeded to Mr. Sie Iyenome’s office at Wuse 2 where I gave him the sum of $1m. I also invited Mr. Kabir Mohammed and I also gave him the sum of $1m to transfer the naira equivalent in favour of Destra Investment Limited. Later on the same day, December 2, 2014, Mr. Kabir and Mr. Sie Iyenome confirmed the receipt.”

One of the Bureau de change men, Iyenomealso testified in court, confirming that he changed the $1m he received from Nneka and paid it into the account of Nneka's company. EFCC says it has 16 more witnesses to produce that will testify on the $2m investment money. They will be produced in court tomorrow when the case will resume for hearing.

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