Posted by Jude Aririesike September 24, 2009.
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Sony 'Apologises' to Nigeria for Offending Advert
The Management of Sony Corporation has apologised to the Federal Government for its play station TV commercial which pokes fun of Nigerian scam.
The Managing Director of Sony, Gulf Middle East and Africa, Mr. Muira Osamo who led a delegation of the company to Nigeria’s Minister of Information said that the company sincerely apologises to anyone the commercial may have offended.
However, the Information Minister, Professor Dora Akunyili took exception to the wordings of the apology and demanded that it should be written in clear terms.
In her words “we have some reservations about that apology because it says there may be some people that are offended. We have made a statement from the Nigerian government that we are offended and the good people of this country are offended but the apology says there may be some people that are offended. I don’t want to say we reject the apology I only want to say we want the apology to be re-written. It has to be clear enough for Nigerians to feel comfortable with it”
Sony recently launched a commercial in the United States advertising the new price and model for the Play Station 3. The footage features a line that says “you can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Otherwise, I’ll be a Nigerian millionaire by now.”
This was not acceptable to the Nigerian government who demanded an apology from Sony. The company responded quickly by removing the offending line from the commercial with a new one.
It was recalled that the Federal Government asked cinemas in the country on Friday, September 18 to stop showing a science fiction film, District 9 which according to the Minister of Information, Professor Akunyili "denigrates the country's image."
The Minister said that she had asked the makers of the film, Sony Pictures Entertainment for an apology. She also said the film clearly took a swipe at Nigerians and portrays Nigerians as cannibals, criminals, and prostitutes.
"We feel very bad about this because the film clearly denigrated Nigeria's image by portraying us as if we are cannibals, we are criminals. The name our former president was clearly spelt out as the head of the criminal gang and our ladies shown like prostitutes sleeping with extra-terrestrial beings," Professor Akunyili said.
The Information Minister said she had ordered the Nigerian Film and Video Censors' Board to ask all cinemas to stop showing the film and to confiscate it.
The Malawian actor, Eugene Khumbanyiwa, who played the gang leader with the nickname of Obasanjo, also the surname of former President Olusegun Obasanjo said that it was not just Nigerians who were portrayed as villains.
He said the film is about alien refugees who set up home in a South African shanty town called District 9.
Khumbanyiwa said Nigerians in the cast did not seem worried by the portrayal of their country.
He suggested that the film, which depicts people wanting to eat aliens to gain the superhuman powers, should not be taken too literally.
"It's a story, you know," he said. "It's not like Nigerians do eat aliens. Aliens don't even exist in the first place." Khumbanyiwa said.
Courtesy: Channels Television
Posted by Jude Aririesike September 14, 2009.
AU Body Halts Execution of 20 Nigerians in Libya
Twenty Nigerians on death row in Libya may not be executed after all – if the country’s leader, Muamar Ghadafi, heeds an order by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to suspend their execution.
It is yet uncertain if Ghadafi, who is also the chairman of the African Union (AU), would obey the order, which was based on the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
The ACHPR, based in Banjul, The Gambia, is an organ of the AU charged with overseeing member-countries compliance with their legal obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Recently, the Chairperson of House of Representatives Committee on the Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, alerted Nigerians on the plight of Nigerians on death row in Libya.
Subsequently, a petition was filed by a Nigerian-based NGO, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), through its solicitor Mr Femi Falana to ACHPR seeking to stop their execution.
The Nigerians covered by the African Commission’s decision include: Adepoju Adebowale, Abdulah Usman, David Okiki Awolabi, Micky Remi, Okuronbo Osazemhide, Gani Olu, Livingstone Kennedy, Ikeoma, Ogurapulu Richard, Don Emmanuel Nwaeueje, James Amala, Declan Nnamdi, Emmanuel Ude, Moses Anigbogu, Ogoubamu, Okhwku Moha, John Andrew, Jude Idahosa, Juliana Okolo, and Luke Ejike.
In the provisional measures with reference number ACHPR/ PROVM/LIB/01/75/09 dated September 9, 2009, and signed by the Acting Chairperson of the Commission, Bahame Tom Mukirya Nyanduga, the commission said it was seriously concerned about the allegations that several Nigerians were held on death row, while others were held in prison under inhuman and degrading condition in Libya.
The provisional measures read in part: “I have the honour to bring to the Brother Leader’s attention, a complaint submitted in terms of Article 55 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a human rights non-governmental organization based in Nigeria against the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, on behalf of a number of Nigerian nationals alleging that they are currently held in Libyan jails in contravention of their rights guaranteed by the African Charter.
“The Complaint has been registered as a Communication against Libya. I would also like to inform the Brother Leader that the Communication shall be tabled before the African Commission, for seizure during its next Ordinary Session, which is scheduled to take place from 11-25 November 2009, and will subsequently be sent to the authorities.”
The African Union Commission also said: “In accordance with Rule 111(3) of the Rules of Procedure of the African Commission, I request Brother Leader to intervene in the matter with the view of preventing irreparable damage being caused to the victims while the African Commission inquires about the veracity of the Complaint. The appeal is particularly pertinent in respect of the imprisoned Nigerians, whom the Complainant alleges that they await the death penalty.
“The African Commission while not expressing its position at this point on the legality of these allegations, wishes to draw the Brother Leader’s attention and the attention of the authorities in Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to Resolution ACHPR/Res. 139 (XXXXIV) 08 adopted at the 44th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on the Moratorium on the Death Penalty in Africa.
“In this regard, the African Commission would be grateful if the Brother Leader would heed its request and suspend the carrying out of the death penalty on the victims, pending the consideration of the Communication. The African Commission would also like to assure the Brother Leader that this Communication would be dealt with expeditiously. I hope this appeal for provisional measures shall receive your positive response.”
Reacting to the African Commission’s decision, SERAP’s lawyer Falana said it was a landmark decision and one which showed the willingness of the African Commission to assert its authority in critical situations such as the present one to ensure full protection of the human rights of the African people.
Dabiri-Erewa commended SERAP for its positive intervention while expressing surprise that the foreign ministry is still in a state of denial. She expressed sadness to have seen the Nigerian ambassador to Libya justifying their condemnation and the human rights commission saying that the matter was over exaggerated.
“I even heard that the Nigerians did not get fair hearing and we should not sit back and watch these lives wasted and we call on more NGOs to join SERAP’s struggle,” she told THISDAY yesterday.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ayo Olukanmi, told THISDAY that his ministry was yet to get the document where the ACHPR took a stand and promised to react as soon as it was made available to his ministry.
Courtesy: Thisday
Posted by Jude Aririesike September 04, 2009.
Sell off the banks, if you can–Fafowora,ex-MAN DG tells CBN Gov
Former Director-General of Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), Ambassador Dapo Fafowora has given the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the go-ahead to dispose off the five troubled banks. The affected banks are Union Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank, FinBank and Afribank.
Fafowora, a former Nigeria Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), told Daily Sun that there was nothing wrong in selling off any ailing bank to protect depositors’ interest: “I have absolutely no objection to that. The whole basis of private enterprise is that you have freedom of entrance and freedom of exit. If there is any bank that is ailing, and the likelihood of its being distressed, then it should be sold off; at least to protect the depositors.
“I don’t worry unnecessarily about foreigners coming into banking. They are already in Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC Bank is a good example. It is a banking partnership between Nigerians and foreigners. And it works very well. Things like that don’t worry me. Afterall, when the so-called foreign banks come in, they bring in fresh capital, which will assist the banks (their local partners).
“From the Nigerian perspective, that should be a welcome development. The global economy is more open. And you cannot close your borders to foreign interest. It is in the interest of the country that this kind of foreign partnership should be promoted and encouraged.”
Any deceit?
“This distress we are talking about didn’t happen suddenly and it is not a 24-hour wonder. The trend was obvious. There were even rumours which nobody believed. Nigerians trusted the banking industry so much that they ignored rumours that some of the banks were in distress. And the amazing thing, nobody ever mentioned such solid banks as Union Bank, Oceanic, Intercontinental. People were thinking of the smaller banks.”
Its genesis
“The problem started during the Babangida regime when he libralised the banking sector, which itself was a commendable policy. New banks came in, microfinance, community banks etc. That obviously depleted the capital base of the big banks. Capital had to be spread among these new banks.
“Then Soludo came with his own idea of consolidation, and many other banks fell out. Consolidation actually has not really worked. We need to have not as many banks we did under the Babangida’s strategy of liberalizing the banking sector. But we need a handful of more banks, so that capital is not consolidated in only a few hands.
“Within these five banks, the account I hear, is quite a sizeable proportion of the liquidity in the banking sector. The risk is correspondingly high. If anything goes wrong with these top five banks, it has a ripple effect, and affect other banks. And we are already beginning to see that. The trend is affecting industry in general. I just read that the Lagos Chamber of Commerce has complained that the crisis in the banking sector is beginning to affect their business. That is the kind of thing that one is concerned about.”
I was shocked
My reaction is that of shock. The banking industry is the only institution that was still standing. Virtually all other public sector institutions have collapsed. As a result people are saying that Nigeria should be declared a failed state. One still had expectations that the banking sector would remain stable. We were giving assurances now and then by the leaders of the banking industry that the banks were safe.
“It came as a shock. If the banking industry collapsed, it would have a severe impact on the economic activities in the country. And all our hopes of the future would have been dashed. It was a rude shock to the people that the banking sector is not immuned from the stress Nigeria has gone through in the last few years.”
Measures superlative?
“Certainly, the CBN had to act. There is no question about it that those five banks were distressed and they would have gone down. But what the CBN has injected into these banks, N420 billion, is not going to be sufficient. The banks are being owed N747 billion. So far, I think N80 billion has been recovered, I am not sure of the figure. There is still a short-fall of close to N400 billion, I think it is an interim measure,a to keep the banks going. I believe the banks would require a further injection of capital.
“It is not all the loans that are going to be recovered. The banks should be lucky if they could recover 30 percent of the outstanding loans. That is extremely unlikely that they would be able to recover all the loans. Don’t forget that the N420 billion injection is supposed to be a loan. Really, they will still continue to be under some kind of distress. The situation is not as bad as it was when the CBN intervened. But that does not make those five banks healthy now.”
Courtesy: Daily Sun
Posted by Jude Aririesike September 02, 2009.
Sanusi: We Didn’t Go to UK to Sell 5 Banks
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi yesterday said last week’s trip of CBN officials to the United Kingdom to explain the new banking reforms in the country to the international community was not designed to advertise the five banks, whose managements were sacked, for sale to international investors.
He also revealed that the nation’s external reserves stood at $41.597 billion as at August 28, 2009, indicating a slight drop from $42.98 billion as of August 14 and $43.317 billion as at the end of July.
The CBN governor offered to resign if fundamental errors were discovered in respect of his decision on any of the first audited five banks and the others that are also being audited.
He made these known while fielding questions from correspondents after a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Abuja.
Sanusi was responding to speculations in some quarters that he was getting ready to sell the five banks whose managements were axed over their huge bad loans to foreign investors.
In the wake of the post consolidation banking reforms unfolded three weeks ago, CBN had sacked the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of Oceanic International Bank Plc, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru; Afribank, Sebastian Adigwe; FinBank, Okey Nwosu; Intercontinental Bank, Erastus Akingbola, and Union Bank, Barthlomew Ebong, saying lax governance had left them dangerously undercapitalised.
The apex bank had then injected a N420-billion lifeline into the banks.
On Monday, four of the five bank chiefs namely Ibru, Adigwe, Nwosu and Ebong were arraigned in Lagos while Akingbola remains at large.
Sanusi said the apex bank went to the UK to meet with the correspondent banks of the affected local banks and their creditors with a view to assuring them of the safety of the banks.
He said: “The principal focus at this point in time is not to sell the banks. We did not go to the UK to sell the banks; we did not go to the UK to meet investors. We went to the UK to meet with the correspondent banks and creditors and assured of the safety of the banks and to make ourselves available to any questions they had about the actions that we took.
“The primary purpose of that is to tell the good news about the Nigerian economy and to situate our action against the general process of guaranteeing financial stability.
“Once these banks are stabilised and it is time for things to move on, our preference is for these banks to have a core investor that will run them professionally and put in place a governance structure and system that will ensure that we do not have a recurrence of what happened before. This core investor could either be foreign or local.”
The CBN governor, however, pointed out that there was no law preventing a Nigerian bank to be owned 100 per cent by a foreign investor, adding that the law did not also preclude a foreign investor from owning a Nigerian bank.
He also said CBN did not require approval of the National Assembly to grant N420 billion lifeline to five banks that were discovered to be undercapitalised.
The House of Representatives Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes had faulted “unilateral decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)” to inject funds into the affected five banks and demanded that the funds be withdrawn until it is duly appropriated by the National Assembly.
The committee had claimed Sanusi breached provisions of the 1999 Constitution that empowers the National Assembly to appropriate expenditure for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.
But Sanusi said that the CBN Act gave it absolute control to supply money, which it did by lending the ailing five banks the much-needed funds to shore up their assets and stay afloat.
He also explained that the N420 billion was not meant for the bailout of the banks or equity but a convertible loan, which they will pay back after a long period of time.
“On the issue of appropriation, what have we done as a central bank? We created money. The technical term is that we created an asset on the balance sheet but all that we have done is to increase money supply and we also lent money to the banks because it’s a convertible loan; it’s not equity. The CBN Act gave us absolute control over the supply of money, we do not need an appropriation,” he said.
He noted that prior to the injection of the N420 billion, the CBN had been giving the five banks and other banks “this money in the expanded discount window.”
He said what the CBN had done “is that we say, take this money for a longer term, don’t bother on paying us now, keep the money, focus on meeting your obligations to creditors and depositors. So you don’t have to keep paying us back because if we had checked this exposure, I have no doubt in my mind that they would not have been able to pay us back and that would have thrown them into crisis”.
On the reserves, Sanusi said the monetary policy committee believed that “the recent improvement in the output of oil and the price of crude oil in international markets should help improve the external reserves position towards the end of the year”.
He said that generally the foreign exchange market had been relatively stable with the re-introduction of the wholesale Dutch Auction System and measures taken to further liberalise the inter-bank market since the last meeting of the MPC.
Sanusi said the MPC had decided to keep the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) unchanged at six per cent per annum and maintain the interest rate corridor at +/- two per cent around the MPR.
In addition, he said the MPC had approved in principle the establishment of an “Asset Purchase Fund”.
According to him, both the CBN and Federal Ministry of Finance will jointly consider modalities for establishing the APF for “effective liquidity injection and credit easing targeted at specific areas of the economy”.
On the offer to resign in respect of the banking reforms, Sanusi said: “Yes, I will resign if a lot of the decisions we have taken are wrong. But I have no doubt in my mind that the decisions that we have taken are after objective analysis of the fact. We are all human beings. Are we above mistakes? No. If there was a mistake, if there was a fundamental error, as the governor, I will take personal responsibility and if I have to resign, I will resign.
“The fear of making a mistake is what is making people not to do anything. But I have no doubt in my mind that if I see that a bank is heading for failure, I have the responsibility on behalf of the Nigerian people to take whatever action is considered appropriate.”
Courtesy: Thisdayonline
Posted by Jude Aririesike August 28, 2009.
Court Orders Intercontinental Non-Executive Directors Freed
A Lagos High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Comm-ission (EFCC) to release the nine non-executive directors of Intercontinental Bank Plc on bail. The bail, according to the court, should be on reasonable terms.
The applicants are non-executive directors and members of Board of Directors of Intercontinental Bank Plc who went to the anti-graft commission since last week Monday on invitation and had since been detained.
They are Dr. Raymond Obieri, Chief Samuel Adegbite, Mr. Chris Alabi, Mrs. Toyin Philips, Mr. Bayo Dada, Elder Sanni Adams, Engr. Hynacinth Enuha, Alhaji Isyaku Umar and Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs. The court presided over by Justice Bukola Adebiyi also granted the applicants leave to enforce their fundamental rights against the commission.
Justice Adebiyi said the leave granted the applicants shall operate as a stay of all actions that might infringe on the fundamental rights of the applicants pending the hearing and determination of the proceedings.
The court, however, stated that the anti-graft commission while releasing the applicants from detention or admitting them to bail must ensure that they provide two sureties each.
It added that the two sureties shall be an individual employed in the civil service at a grade level not lower than Level 14 or one civil servant and the second surety being an individual with land property in Lagos.
The court further granted leave to the applicants to serve the respondent with all court processes in its Lagos office not later than seven days.
Last night, however, one of the non-executive directors, Toyin Phillips, was said to have collasped in the custody of the EFCC.
Contacted, EFCC spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said the commission offered to take her to the hospital but she declined, insisting that “she would not go anywhere except her doctor arrives.”
The court made the orders in respect of a combined ex-parte application filed and argued by the applicants’ lawyer, Professor Gabriel Olawoyin (SAN).
The judge restrained the anti-graft agency from engaging in any act that could undermine or jeopardize their rights to freedom as enshrined in the 1999 constitution.
While arguing the application, Olawoyin contended that the applicants’ detention beyond the constitutionally stipulated period was a violation of their fundamental human rights.
The applicants are praying the court to declare their arrest and detention as unlawful and a violation of Sections 34 and 35 of the constitution and Article four and five of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.
They also urged the court to declare as unlawful and a breach of their rights, their detention and seizure of their international passports.
Meanwhile, an attempt by the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Intercontinental Bank Plc, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, to reclaim his position following his sack by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi suffered a setback yesterday as a Federal High Court, Lagos deferred hearing of the matter till September 14, 2009.
The court presided over by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdullahi Mustapha, also assigned the matter to Justice Ibrahim Duta as he (Mustapha) is proceeding on retirement from service.
Before the adjournment, counsel to Akingbola, Chief Felix Fagbohungbe (SAN), who led a team of 17 lawyers sought the permission of the court to take his substantive suit together with the preliminary objections raised by Sanusi and CBN, questioning the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the matter.
He urged the court to invoke Order 29, Rule 1 of the Federal High Court by pairing the two separate preliminary objections with the originating summons.
But counsel to the CBN governor, Dr. Konyinsola Ajayi (SAN), raised an objection by asking the court to hold the question of jurisdiction tenaciously.
He argued that under Order 29, Rule 1, the court is obliged to pair the preliminary objectives with originating summons only if oral evidence would not be given during the trial.
He submitted that paragraph 9 of the 1st respondent’s affidavit had shown that the first respondent would rely extensively on oral evidence and huge amount of documentary evidence to argue his case.
Counsel to the second respondent, Mr. Kola Awodein, in his objection, said since the applicant was seeking a judicial review of the CBN action, it would not be fair for the judge to rule or transfer the matter since he would be retiring soon.
Before deciding to transfer the matter to another judge, Justice Mustapha, however, said he did not see why the applications should not be taken together as far as he was concerned, but he nonetheless transferred the matter to a new judge in the interest of fair play.
In the substantive suit, Akingbola is asking for a judicial review of the CBN action, which unseated him as the CEO of Intercontinental Bank Plc.
Courtesy: Thisdaynewsonline
Posted by Jude Aririesike August 27, 2009.
FG: Nigeria’s Oil Reserves Rebound, Now 37bn Barrels
The Federal Government has disclosed that the nation’s current crude oil reserves stand at 37 billion barrels. The reserves, which stood at 35 billion barrels before the Niger Delta crisis escalated, dropped to 32 billion barrels at the height of the crisis.Petroleum Resources Minister Rilwan Lukman, who disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the 33rd session of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, yesterday, also said the government was working to ensure that the reserves hit the 40 billion mark in the not so distant future.
The meeting was chaired by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Lukman said following the ongoing amnesty for repentant militants in the Niger Delta, the oil production capacity had shot up to 1.7 million barrels per day.
Nigeria’s monthly oil revenue dropped to $1 billion revenue from an average of $2.2 billion last year.
Yesterday’s FEC meeting being the last in the month of August was devoted to the sectoral review of the 2009 budget performance.
Six ministries including those of Health, Aviation, Interior, Petroleum Resources, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Education came under focus.
The Petroleum Resources Minister said that before the amnesty deal, the country was producing as low as 1.2 million bpd, a shortfall he attributed to the activities of the militants in the region.
He stated that given the enabling environment, the country has the capability to produce about 3.3 million barrels of crude oil per day.
Also, the minister reiterated that full implementation of the deregulation of the oil sector of the economy would be completed in the next one or two months.
He said at the moment, Nigeria cannot exceed the 1.7 million bpd quota imposed on the country by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at the Oran, Algeria meeting in December 2008 by member countries.
Lukman was optimistic that if the ongoing amnesty was fully implemented and peace eventually returns to the troubled Niger Delta region, oil production activities would prosper and the nation would be able to meet its oil and gas needs.
“We are definite on the deregulation of the downstream sector and the matter will be concluded in the next one to two months,” he said.
The minister, however, pointed out if the environment got better and the pipelines were rehabilitated, the gas situation would improve.
He listed the challenges facing the Ministry to include pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta, delayed passage of the Oil and Gas Reform bill and the need for increased budgetary provision to consolidate on the gas related projects.
Lukman said: “The attainment of the 6,000 megawatts of electricity is predicated on the sufficient gas supply in which it is expected that gas required will be sourced from the following areas – Okoloma, Utorogu, Escravos, Oben-Sapele, NPDC, Pan Ocean, Ughelli, Alakiri and Obigbo North. The reform programme contained in the oil and gas industry bill is before the National Assembly, hoping to get concluded by the end of the year.
“Arrangements have been concluded with the World Bank in securing gas supply to government-owned power plants. This is a major breakthrough in the development of gas supply for power. A gas pricing structure has been concluded, which represents a roadmap for domestic gas price to attain export parity within four years while recognising the capacity by different domestic sectors to pay. Gas supply agreement was finalised by the end of July. This means that for the first time, there is a bankable agreement, which pins the huge investment the IOCs have to make in supply/development in the domestic market.”
He added: “On some of the projects being undertaken by the ministry and its parastatals, the percentage achievement indicates that they have attained 20 per cent completion and it is expected that by the end of the year, it will record 100 per cent completion.”
The highlight of the Health Ministry’s presentation, which the Minister, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, said had achieved 60 per cent implementation, was the installation of equipment nationwide to the tune of N1.1 billion as part of response to HIV/AIDS.
Also, the ministry is executing other projects in excess of N5billion as part of the ministry’s midwifery services scheme targeting the recruitment of 3,000 midwives to be deployed in local government areas and wards across the country.
The aim, according to the minister, is to reduce maternal mortality ratio by at least 60 per cent and child mortality by 55 per cent in 2009/2010.
The minister also said that the country has the largest malaria programme in the world; stressing that with the acquisition of very promising technology from Cuba, the country is pushing towards complete eradication of malaria.
With the ongoing programmes on malaria, Osotimehin said by 2010 every household would have received bed net.
He also noted that the sale of bed nets, which was meant to be free, is a good development as it shows that there are demands for them.
He, however, said that the ministry was also dealing with the situation as it intends to push more nets into the market thereby making nonsense of whatever price the product is going for.
Osotimehin, however, highlighted some key challenges of the ministry which includes response to health emergencies and epidemics and continued need to provide resources to sustain the HIV/AIDS programme.
The Ministry of Interior has a total capital budget of N11,503,647,727.00 out of which N10,779, 650,721.00 has been committed.
Of this, N8,427,728,297.31 has been released while actual spending, according to Interior minister, is N3,188,148,908.55.
Explaining the variation gap between money released and spent, the minister said: “though commitments were made, the actual payment has to wait job completion certification”.
This, he, however, said would be achieved in the fourth quarter and promised that by the end of December, 2009 100 per cent implementation would have been achieved.
For the FCT, the Minister, Senator Adamu Aliero, said 84 per cent of the national priority budget and 89.9 per cent of the FCT statutory had been implemented.
In these are included engineering infrastructure work at Guzape, Idu, Asokoro, Maitama, Bwari, Kubwa, Karshi, Wuye and Jabi districts as well as the light rail project which is 15 per cent completed.
Airport and Kubwa roads expansion project stands at seven per cent completion.
Aliero said a draft bill had been forwarded to the National Assembly to effect the introduction of property tax in the FCT to supplement the allocation from the Federal Government in efforts to finance development projects.
He explained that only N60 billion is available for FCT projects expected to cost over N300 billion
Education Minister Sam Egwu said implementation of the 2009 budget of his ministry had reached 60 per cent and regretted that the on-going ASUU strike was affecting the accessing of the funds meant for the ministry.
Courtesy: Thisdaynewsonline
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Posted by Jude Aririesike August 25, 2009.
Gunmen Abduct Businessman In Anambra State
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Posted by Jude Aririesike August 25, 2009.
Gunmen Abduct Businessman In Anambra State
Violence in Nigeria’s South East region continues unabated with the kidnapping of a prominent businessman in Onitsha, the commercial nerve center of Anambra state.
The Governor therefore promised his administration’s continuous support to the force.
Courtesy: Channels Television |
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Posted by Jude Aririesike August 18, 2009.
Edochie: Kidnappers demand N10m ransom
The kidnap of Chief Pete Edochie on Sunday has already begun to take its toll on the movie industry especially in the South-East.
As at Monday, major operators in the industry have gone into hiding, while activities in the industry suffered nosedive as many could not turn up for appointments.
This is coming just as the kidnappers of the frontline Nollywood actor have established contact with his family and demanded N10 million ransom.
According to reliable family source who pleaded anonymity, “the kidnappers initially demanded N50 million but after we pleaded with them to come down on their demand, they came to N10 million.”
Stating that Edochie was hale and hearty as they had spoken with him, the source stressed that the family was still urging the kidnappers to come to the level the family could afford.
He said: “Pete as a Nollywood star is only popular but not rich and, therefore, raising such amount will be too difficult for the family, we have been running around since Sunday evening when he was kidnapped to raise some money to secure his freedom but it has not been easy.”
Meanwhile, the President, Anambra State Chapter of Actor Guild of Nigeria, Chief Iyke Ezenagu, told Daily Sun on Monday that the industry had started counting losses over the kidnap of Edochie.
He said: “Do you know what that means to the industry? What it means is that movie production in Nigeria or at least in the South East is as good as dead. That also means that a lot of people who are actors and operators in the industry have been thrown out of job and that is a bad development.
“If I tell you how much have been lost so far since Chief Pete Edochie was kidnapped, you will be surprised but at any rate with prayer God would touch these people’s hearts to release him and also stop all these things that they are doing.”
Courtesy: Sunnewsonline
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Posted by Jude Aririesike 13-8-2009
Saudi Arabia Beheads Nigerian for Alleged Murder
Amnesty International has expressed serious concern about the recent execution of foreign nationals, including a Nigerian, Qorbi bin Mussa Adam, over an allegation of murdering a Saudi national.He was the second Nigerian to be executed in Saudi Arabia this year after another Nigerian, Jamil 'Abbas Shu'ayb, was beheaded in May. In both cases, the Saudi Arabian authorities have disclosed very little information about their trials but Amnesty International said that these are likely to have been held in secret as in the case of Suliman Olufemi, another Nigerian who remains at imminent risk of execution in Saudi Arabia. He was sentenced to death in 2004.
In a bulletin received by THISDAY in Abuja, Olufemi’s trial was held in secret and conducted in arabic, which he does not understand, without adequate interpretation facilities. He had no legal representation or any legal assistance. It is feared that he was tortured while being held incommunicado in pre-trial detention to force him to “confess”.
Adam was the 51st person to be executed in Saudi Arabia this year, according to Amnesty International’s monitoring. As in previous years, the figures reflect a disproportionately high rate of executions of Africans and Asians. Of the 51 people executed so far this year, 36 were Saudi Arabians, out of a population of some 21 million, while 15 executions were of foreign nationals residing in Saudi Arabia, whose number approximately six million. In 2008, the Saudi Arabian government executed, on average, more than two people a week.
Almost half of them were foreign nationals from developing countries, including Nigeria.The government of Saudi Arabia uses the death penalty for a wide range of offences, including offences which are ill-defined or do not have lethal consequences. The process by which the death penalty is imposed and carried out is harsh, largely secretive and grossly unfair.
Executions in Saudi Arabia are generally held in public, and are in some cases, followed by crucifixion of the bodies. Saudi Arabian judges have wide discretion and can hand down death sentences for vaguely-worded and non-violent offences. Some migrant workers are reported to have even been unaware that they had been sentenced to death until the very morning of their execution.
The Saudi Arabian government's continuing high use of the death penalty runs counter to the growing international trend towards abolition and the UN General Assembly's adoption in 2007 and 2008 of resolutions calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions. According to Amnesty International, 139 countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
Courtesy: Thisdayonline
