Local governments’ workers in Ondo state have cried out over deductions from Council funds for spurious projects.
They fingered some top Government officials, including the Commissioner for Finance, Accountant General of the State and the Leadership of the Association of Local Government Chairmen, (ALGON) in the state.
The Council workers, under the aegis of National Union of Local Government Employees, (NULGE) called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), to help them retrieve the money totalling about a billion naira, already deducted from Local Government allocations.
In a statement in Akure, NULGE state President, Mr Bola Taiwo, disclosed that the money was initially proposed for the construction of Heath Centres in the 774 Councils in the country.
“The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), proposed to construct and equip one Comprehensive Healthcare Centre in each of the 774 Local Governments and Area Councils across the country.
“Surprisingly, we discovered that the project has not been executed in any of the eighteen (18) Local Governments in Ondo State
“It is pertinent to mention that the deductions have been made so far over the period of three months.
“On discovering this shady deal, we consulted with ALGON who confirmed our discovery.
“We officially communicated the State Government of the sad development, seeking to know the State Govemment’s involvement in the illegal processes.
“Precisely, on the 19th of October, 2020, we alerted the State Government to this unusual and illegal steps and copied other state functionaries, including the Accountant General, and we registered our dissatisfaction.
“We found out that the State Government has no involvement; except for the complicit of the Commissioner for Finance and Accountant General of Ondo State.
“It should be noted that the funds accruing to us from the Federal Allocation already is not enough. Now, imagine 119 million Naira being deducted on monthly basis from the source.
“We want the EFCC to invite the Ondo State ALGON Chairman for questioning on why he decided to embark on these non-existing projects, and the Minister of Finance, Budget and planning, the minister of Justice, the Accountant General of the Federation, the Ondo State Commissioner of Finance, and the Accountant General of Ondo State on their complicit roles in the illegal projects.
“We also call on the EFCC to help us recover the three-months illegal deductions made so far and revert same to the Ondo State Local Governments accounts.
“We, at NULGE would like to state, without any measure of fear, that if the three-months illegally deducted from our Local Governments accounts are not returned to us, and if any further deduction is illegally made at any future time, either by ALGON or any other group, NULGE cannot guarantee harmony between the Union and ALGON on one side and the collaborators on the other side.”
From his dingy room at the Kuje Prison, Senator Ali Ndume, Borno South, Senate Committee Chairman on Army, has asked his lawyers to appeal the Court ruling which threw him in there.
He should.
Nobody should be an Ndume. Nobody deserves what fate has thrown at him.
What happened to him is a classic example of, please, excuse this cliche’, “man’s inhumanity to man. In my place, we say, one’s kindness should not kill one. It is Senator Ndume’s kindness that is “killing” him now. It is his kindness to another man, in need, that has separated him from his family, from the comfort of his home, from his legislative work, and consigned him to prison.
For two consecutive nights, and counting, Ndume has passed the night at the Kuje prisons. What is his story?
His story is the story of man at his most wicked. The story of man at his most ingratitude. Or as former President Obasanjo would say, the story of “This Animal Called Man.”
Ndume’s ordeal began the day he decided to stand Surety for an alleged pension thief called Abdulrasheed Maina.
Maina was a former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Team. But down the line, Maina was said to have positively reformed his bank accounts to the tune of billions of Naira, and began to live a life fit for kings.
When the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, began to ask questions he did an Usain Bolt from Nigeria to Dubai. And, like a king he held court, even, with, surprisingly, Government officials from Nigeria.
His story has always not been straightforward, and it has been, atimes, inexplicable.
At a point, he actually came back to Nigeria, went back back to work, was paid arrears of his, salaries, and got promoted. All the while, unsuspecting Nigerians were given the impression that he was being looked for. The Media blew the mess open.
That was when he escaped for the second time. For months on end, Maina was being looked for. Wherever he was, he was comfortable. Then, he put the wrong foot forward.
Abdulrasheed Maina
Nobody quite explained what happened. But he became too sure-footed, or as some people would put it, over confident. Perhaps the piper which was playing the tune for him, dictating his dance steps, assured him it was okay for him to raise the tempo of his dance-steps, and go into full gyration, instead of taking the dance-steps slowly, one at a time.
To cut the long story short, he entered Nigeria, with his son, Faisal, a student in Dubai. They lodged in one of the most expensive hotels in Abuja, living it up.
But luck ran out of them when the DSS got wind of their whereabouts. The DSS personnel went to the hotel and nabbed both father and son. But not without resistance. Maina’s son, allegedly, pulled a gun at the Security officers.
Anyway, the EFCC hauled both father and son before the court. They were given bail. But the conditions attached were too strident.
Even when it was reviewed, it was still difficult.
For months, Maina languished in jail. Until Senator Ali Ndume surfaced.
I cannot quite confirm if Maina and Ndume were close, or were friends, or had done something in common before. Whatever, Senator Ndume came to his aid. He agreed to stand as surety for Maina. The bond was set at a whopping N500m. But Ndume signed. And, also, threw in his palatial Asokoro residence into the bargain.
But that was a mistake. Big mistake.
Maina appeared in court a couple of times, and thereafter, did another Usain Bolt, leaving Ndume in the lurch. Ndume, on the orders of the Judge, The Hon. Justice Okon Abang, appeared in court on every date. But there was no Maina.
Each time he was asked of Maina’s whereabouts, Ndume said he didn’t know; that he has been cut off; that Maina has since stopped picking his calls; that he had no way of reaching Maina, and knew of nobody who could reach him. That continued at every court hearing.
Last week, an angry Justice Abang revoked Maina’s bail, and issued a bench warrant against him. At the next hearing, the Judge did what he had been threatening to do. He descended on Senator Ndume.
He gave Ndume three options.
Pay the bond sum -N500m- into the Federal Government account, or forfeit his Asokoro residence to the FG, or be in jail until Maina appears. Ndume went to jail.
I don’t quite know Ndume. I follow his contributions on the floor of the Senate. But I was diminished, as a human being, as I watched Ndume escorted by Prison officials to jail.
What Maina has done is beyond understanding. It is beneath contempt. Wherever he is, he must have known of Ndume’s fate. He must have heard. Yet…
The same way Maina has put Ndume in trouble, is the same way his son, Faisal, has, also, put an Honourable member of the House who stood surety for him into trouble. Like his father, he has absconded. The Honourable member is in trouble. He has been summoned by the Court. And may suffer Ndume’s fate.
What both father and son have done is to put off men of goodwill from standing surety for people. Nobody would want to be an Ali Ndume. Nobody would want to be sacrificed for people of such character.
Seeing Ndume’s situation, a group of Northern youths have suddenly remembered the case of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Senator Abaribe stood surety for Kanu, and Kanu has, also, since disappeared.
Enyinnaya Abaribe
He is travelling the world. And left Abaribe in a quandary. So, the Northern youths are asking why Abaribe is not suffering same fate as Ndume.
Their counterpart from Abaribe’s South-east has reacted to the Northern youths, threatening not to allow Abaraibe suffer same fate.
They say they would fight.
I beg to differ.
It is not not a question of threat. It is a question of putting out facts.
Which are:
That Kanu and Maina’s case are not the same; that Kanu just did not wake up and jumpe bail; that he had no intention to jump bail; that he was forced to leave the country; that he was in his father’s house when Nigerian soldiers came calling, violence ensued, blood flowed, and Kanu ran for his life, as his parents did. Both parents died in exile, victims of a forced exile. They were brought back dead, and buried same day.
But back to Maina, if he has any conscience left, if he is the man that he ought to be, he should come out of hiding, save Ndume the embarrassment, and apologise profusely to him.
Otherwise, for whatever it is worth, the Northern establishment should raise the sum of N500m, and save Ndume.
He doesn’t deserve what Maina did to him. Nobody should be an Ndume.
The budgetary allocation for road construction across the country is grossly inadequate, the minister of works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has said.
The minister made the statement amid fears that construction work on many major roads across the country, including the Lagos/Ibadan expressway, will be slowed due to falling revenue from crude oil, the nation’s major forex earner.
But Fashola who spoke at a town hall meeting in Ogun state, said the road awarded to construction Giants, Julius Berger and Reynold Construction Company, RCC, will be completed on record time.
Fashola’s ministry got the highest allocation of N262 billion from the N10. 33 trillion 2019 budget which has been slightly increased in the 2021 estimate presented by President Muhammadu Buhari’s to the National Assembly.
The minister however, said the country would require at least N500 billion annually to turn the fortunes of the 35,000 kilometers road across the country, around in the next three years.
He blamed past governments for the state of the roads in the country, insisting that much should have been done when more fund was earned from crude oil sales. He added that the Buhari’s administration has focused on massive road construction.
According to him “We inherited a number of roads and we resolved that we were going to complete as many of them as possible. Many of these roads, some of them started in 2007, some in 2006 and others are even older, but unfortunately for reasons that we can only imagine, at a time that the country was earning more revenues, up to $100 per barrel, the total budget of this country was N4 tr.
“It is now that the country is earning very less, $40 per barrel that it is budgeting N13 tr. So, those roads should have been done before we came. Even the ones done by the state governments were not paid for, and so we are just paying.”
He explained that over N1 trillion would be required for road construction in the next three years, insisting that the entire country has now become a construction site, considering the huge contracts awarded to contractors across the six geopolitical zones.
Fashola said “I think that a minimum of half a trillion every year over the next two, three years would be a strong support to really advance and complete as many as the 711 contracts we have. Again, some people are mistaking these contracts to mean roads. No. For example, on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, we have one road but two contracts.
“On Benin-Lokoja, alone, we have one road but five contractors. So, the totality of these are 711 and the total road network now under construction or rehabilitation is a little over 13, 000km in different stages of repairs out of the total federal road network of 35, 000km”.
The nation’s roads have been badly abused by road users, he said, noting that “How do we get the best out of these roads? It is to use them properly. We must stop abusing the roads. Let me tell you some of the ways we abuse roads.
“I have told you we have designed to some of the highest conditions but the more we design, the more some of our people exceed their axle load. The maximum axle load is 45 tons but people are now carrying 60 tons.
“So, if you have something designed for a particular capacity and you are using it for something in excess of the design, it is going to fail.
“The other ways of abuse has to do with those who do trucking business, whether it is those who carry food, petroleum products, or other things. They must go and get truck parks. Once you run a fleet business, go and get a place to park your fleet.
“You cannot pass that burden to the government. The government is not involved in the trucking business. Government is responsible for providing a reliable road network for you to transport your goods and services.
“There is a part of the road that is called the shoulder. That is where Trucks Park and that is where the damage to the road starts. That is where they drop diesel too and once they drop diesel, the road starts to disintegrate. Most of the road components, the bitumen, and the asphalt, and also petrol or diesel are products of the same hydrocarbons, but they do different things.
“So, once you start pouring solvent on binding components, the road starts to disintegrate. Those who sell diesel by the roadside are the first people destroying the roads, those who sell petrol by the roadside are the first people destroying the roads.
“Those who park on the shoulder are also destroying the roads because once you create that weak point, water seeps under it and the road begins to fail from under, not even the top”
The Chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Gambari, led a Federal Government delegation to a meeting with South south leaders Tuesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, amid expectations that president Buhari was to lead the delegation.
The meeting which was earlier scheduled against November the 7th, was botched at the last minute because the Presidency did not attend.The botched meeting, especially as the Governors and stakeholders were already at the venue, angered many stakeholders in the region who felt the region was deliberately treated shoddily.
The Chief of staff has no constitutional role, but given his experience, especially in displomacy and conflict resolution, the President put him at the Head of the team, which includes Heads of Security Agencies and Ministers from the zone, to interface with Governors and other stakeholders from the zone, since after the #EndSARS protest.
The team had already met with other Zones, including the South-east and South-west Zones.
At the end of the meeting, however, the leaders of the zone stood on restructuring along the lines of true federalism and devolution of powers to all federating units.
A statement released Tuesday form the Delta state Government House Asaba noted that it was the Governor of Delta state, Ifeanyi Okowa, that presented the demands of the region to the meeting.
He insisted that now is the time to bring back the country to true federalism.
“For us in the South-South, the #EndSARS protest is a metaphor of almost all that is wrong with us, our refusal to properly understand issues, and imbibe and entrench the virtues of justice, fairness and equity”, the release said.
“The previous system of true federalism was jettisoned and it created a powerful center controlling and distributing all the resources unevenly.
“There is now a strong desire to restructure the country in order to guarantee peace, security, stability and progress of the nation.
“The region demands true federalism and devolution of powers to the states, including creating and managing their own police and security architecture, true fiscal federalism guided by the principle of derivation, revenue sharing and control of resources by each state,” he said.
According to statement, Nigerians have refused to understand the peculiar condition of the region.
“All we demand and ask for is fairness and equity and as we await actions to restructure the country, we hereby renew our demands for: ‘The relocation of the headquarters of major oil companies in Nigeria to the region; relocation of several NNPC subsidiaries from Lagos and Abuja to the region.
“The region further requests the completion, without delay, of the East-West Road and all federal roads in the region; Construction of the Lagos-Calabar railway, reconstruction and rehabilitation of the region’s major seaports notably the Port Harcourt, Calabar and Warri,” he said.
Part of theirn demands are privatization of the refineries in the South-south, release of all funds owed the Niger Delta development commission, NDDC and the amendment of the acts establishing the Commission.
They called for the establishment of buffer dams to control flood waters in the region and abandoned gas revolution industrial park at Ogidigben and the stepping down of power plants at the Okpai and Utorogu gas plants.
In response, Gambari apologized for earlier botched meeting of November 17.
“We are here on behalf of the President as part of the ongoing and continuing conversation on how to make our nation better, and I must thank the Governor of Delta, Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa, for his tireless effort in ensuring that this meeting was held”, he said.
“Our youths took to the streets to express their bitterness on ill-treatment meted out to them by the police and the President, recognizing the importance of the demands made by the protesters, agreed to implement the five-point demands.
“All over the world, people have right to protest but in doing so, respect for law and order must be adhered to, and they must also respect the rights of others.
“The President commends Governors, traditional rulers and other stakeholders for their role in handling the protesters,” he said
The region which have been agitating for the control of its resources was futther energised to emphasise on that since Zamfara State mined and sold a bar of gold to the CBN at a cost of N5b.
Controversial Senator Elisha Abbo who assaulted a woman at an Abuja sex toy shop has left his party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP.
Abbo who is representing Adamawa North in the National Assembly Elisha Abbo has now become a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The Senator announced his defection in a letter addressed to Senate President Ahmad Lawan during Wednesday’s plenary session, citing crisis in Adamawa state branch of the PDP.
He accused the state governor, Umaru Fintiri of mismanagement of the PDP, an action which is no longer comfortable for him.
The senator, was last year, accused of beating one Osimibibra Warmate, a female attendant at a sex-toy shop in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He was later tried by an FCT High Court in Maitama, which awarded N50 million damages against Abbo, in September last year, after Justice Samira Bature found him guilty of violating the fundamental human rights of the victim.
By retaining the monetary policy rate at 11.5 per cent, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has taken another bold step to expand credit to the productive sector of the economy at low interest rate, keen watchers of the economy say.
This development, came after the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed announced that the country has officially entered into recession, the second in five years, with palpable fears among Nigerians of what the economic outlook may look like in 2021.
What the Monetary Policy Committee, MPC of the CBN, sought to do on Tuesday at its meeting for November and the last one for the year, policy analysts say, is to boost production and propel both business activities and consumer spending in the country despite the two digit inflation rate.
The Finance Minister has set the first quarter of next year to end the recession, but the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele advised serious caution to such optimism.
Emefiele who spoke at the end of the two days MPC meeting, said the committee also decided unanimously to retain the Liquidity Ratio, LR at 30 percent and Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR at 27.5 percent.
The CBN Governor also warned speculators against creating panic in the Nigerian foreign exchange market, by using the parallel market to determine the value of the national currency, Naira.
“The foreign exchange rate in Nigeria is determined by the forces of supply and demand in the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) window,” he said, adding that the apex bank CBN will attack inflation from the supply side through low interest rates.
Meanwhile, analysts say, CBN has followed in the footsteps of the United States Federal Reserves which recently decided to keep interest rates at near zero percent until 2023, to support the economy amid the headwinds caused by the corona virus pandemic.
Nigerians are, at once, angry and disappointment over the statement credited to Minister For Petroleum, Timipriye Sylva, urging Nigerians to be proud that the nation is importing Petrol from West African neighbour, Niger Republic.
Niger Republic is rated by the United Nations as one of the poorest Nations in the world, but has succeeded in developing its refinery to produce at a greater capacity than its very rich neighbor, Nigeria.
The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, last week, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Niger Republic, for the importation.
The decision to import petrol from Niger Republic angered many Nigerians, who described it as an act of retrogression for the country.
Responding to the backlash, Sylva, in an interview with Channels TV on Monday, November 23, 2020, said there was nothing to be embarrassed of, at all.
“I don’t see that as an embarrassment at all. As a country, Nigeria is a big market, we need products, even if all our refineries were functioning, we will still need extra products.
“Niger Republic produces oil and they are landlocked as a country. They have a refinery that produces in excess of what they require as a country and they offered to sell to us in Nigeria because this is a bigger market.
“In the spirit of regional cooperation, regional trade development, we decided to buy from them. I don’t see anything wrong with that. If your neighbour is producing something that is required in your country and you buy from him, why is that a big problem?
“So, we agreed with Niger to buy the excess of what they don’t require in Niger because this is a big market. Nigerians should be proud that we are doing that to encourage sub-regional trade because we have been talking about sub-regional trade for a long time and this is how it should be between neighbouring countries.
“Niger Republic should import from us what they have and we should be able to import from Niger what they have. Let us encourage intra-regional” he said.
The Federal High Court, Kuje, Abuja, has ordered the immediate arrest of Faisal, son of former Pension Boss, Abdulrasheed Maina.
The Court revoked the bail granted Faisal, just as his father’s was revoked. Both are now under a bench warrant for arrest.
Faisal, like his father, is being tried for money laundering related offence by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before the court.
Ruling on Tuesday, Justice Okon Abang granted an oral application by the prosecuting lawyer, Mohamed Abubakar, for the revocation of Faisal’s bail and ordering his arrest for failing to turn up for his trial.
Abubakar had noted that Faisal has failed to attend court to stand trial, as against the undertaking by his surety, Umar Sani Dan Galadima, (Kaura Namoda Federal Constituency of Zamfara State) that he would always attend court.
Justice Abang also granted Abubakar’s request the summons be issued on Sani Dan Galadima to show cause why he should not forfeit the N60million bail bond he undertook to forfeit should Faisal jumps bail.
The judge ordered the lawmaker to attend court on Wednesday (November 25) to show cause, failing which an arrest order shall be made against him.
Senator Ali Ndume, who stoof surety for the senior Maina, was on Monday committed to prison because Maina Senior, for whom he stood for bail, absconded, his whreabouts, unknown. The trial Judge asked him to forfeit his Asokoro house to tne FG, or pay in the sum of N500m to the Government Treasury.
He would be released if he does any of them, or even produce Maina.
Galadima may suffer the same fate, unless Faisal is in Court on Wednesday.
Faisal was first arrested alongside his father, a year ago after allegedly pulling out a gun to stop the operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) from arresting his father, who is now standing trial for fraud activities he allegedly committed while serving as Chairman of the now defunct Pension Reform Task Team.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has again reiterated that it has nothing to do with former Governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose, or any group that he is championing.
The party, apparently reacting to a decision by some State chapters in the South- west to go along with Fayose, maintained that there are no cleavages within its ranks.
This was contained in a resolution made available at the end of a meeting in Akure, signed by the party’s publicity secretary, Mr Kenedy Peretei.
In attendance were stakeholders, including State Working Committee members, Chairman and Secretary of the State Elders Committee, Board of Trustee Members, former state Chairmen and the Governorship Candidate of the Party during the last election.
Part of the resolution reads: “We appreciate the support and contributions of Governor Seyi Makinde towards the holding of successful and rancour free Congresses, especially, the State congress that held on 4th August, 2020.
“We recognise and support Engineer Seyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State as the leader of PDP in the South West, being the highest political office holder in the Zone.
“As Chairman of the National Campaign Council for Ondo 2020 Governorship Elections, Gov Seyi Makinde did not only make himself available for the Election, he stood with us throughout the campaigns and the election.
“Ondo State PDP is not made up of ingrates, but a crop of matured and resourceful leaders who can read in between the lines.
“We do not want to be dragged into the cesspool of over ambitious persons who wish to create factions in the PDP family with the sole aim of leading such a faction to join the sinking boat of the All Progressives Congress ( APC).
“The meddlesome interlopers from neighbouring states fanning embers of disunity should stay clear of Ondo state.
“They are only feathering their nests. We encourage them to put their house in order.
“Once again, we stand in solidarity with Governor Seyi Makinde and we support his leadership of PDP in the South West.”
On a visit to Fayose by Ondo State Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi, to Felicitate with him on his 60th birthday, Fayose had asked Ajayi to return to the PDP. Ajayi had decamped from the PDP to the APC, and decamped again in the run up to Governorship election to the PDP, with an eye on the Governorship ticket.
When he lost the ticket to Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, he defected from the PDP, again, to the ZLP. He contested under the ZLP and came a distant third behind the Governor and Jegede.
Yoruba Leaders under the aegis of Voice of Reason, VOR, has vowed to wrestle the Yoruba Nation out of Nigeria if the President Muhammadu Buhari administration fails to restructure the nation before the 2023 elections
The Prominent Yoruba Elders comprising of 75 Persons said they would do everything within their power to pull the Yoruba Nation out of the alleged shackles of the Nigeria entity.
Acting under the aegis of Voice of Reason (VOR), a socio-cultural group, the elders made this known in an advertorial on page 25 of The Punch Newspaper
Some of the elders that signed the advertorial include: former Chief of Army Staff, General Alani Akinrinade; former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe; co-founder, EKO Hospitals, Olorogun Sonny Kuku; and spokesperson, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin.
According to the elders, the 1999 constitution under which the country is being governed is “flawed” and designed to give undue advantage to the Northern regions of the country over their Southern neighbours.
“The Yoruba people are irrevocably committed to a fundamental restructuring of this current union within the shortest possible time, preferably, before the elections, failing which, we Yoruba people may have to exercise our option not to continue to be part of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as presently constituted.
“In the inalienable right to self-determination guaranteed by the United Nations Charter, we are prepared to use ALL means and resources available to us to extricate our people from this failed, unfair and unworkable union,” the advertorial read in part.
