The Nation Newspaper

Category: News Update

Oil benchmark: IMF tasks Nigeria on spending

The International Monetary Fund said the Federal Government needs to curtail spending to avoid putting pressure on the crude oil benchmark.

IMF’s Senior Resident Representative in Nigeria, Mr. Scott Rogers, gave the advice while briefing journalists on the Regional Economic outlook in Abuja on Thursday.

“Higher benchmark price most often determines how much of the oil revenue gets distributed; if oil revenue gets distributed, it doesn’t mean you have to spend it.

“So, generally raising the budget reference price means more money gets distributed to the different tiers of government, and what it then means is these governments can spend the money.

“And if you spend the money, then again you have the adverses on the economy because you have government paying salaries, buying vehicles, gas and all these put pressure on price rates.”

According to him, if the prices go up, the only way the Central Bank of Nigeria can reduce it will be by strengthening the monetary policy.

He said the only way to do that would be to reduce government spending, adding that the best mechanism to curtail spending was through the budget reference price of oil.

“The lower the budget reference price of oil, the lower government spending; assuming that you actually save the difference; which means, you don’t put it in the Excess Crude Account and take it back out again; you put it the Excess Crude Account and you leave it there.

“And that’s the way it was designed and that is the only way it really has an impact,’’ Mr. Rogers told journalists.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the 2013 budget has an oil benchmark of 75 dollars per barrel, but the House of Representatives wants it pegged at 80 dollar per barrel.

On the regional outlook, he said the region still retained robust growth outlook, but noted that there was the need to monitor the uncertain disposition of the global economy.

He said that Nigeria still had fair positive economic outlook, adding that in summary, the forecast for 2012 to 2013 showed strong but declining Gross Domestic Product.

Rogers identified lower oil prices due to weak global economy as one of the three major risks to positive outlook.

November 1, 2012
Jonathan hails Obasanjo’s appointment into Queen’s jubilee trust

President Goodluck Jonathan has felicitated with former President Olusegun Obasanjo on his appointment as the Country Representative for Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust.

The President in a congratulatory letter to Chief Obasanjo, according to a statement issued by his media aide, Dr. Reuben Abati , expressed confidence that in this new honorific position, the former president would through his “wide network of contacts across the Commonwealth, ensure that the Trust generates the resources required to fund legacy projects in the name of Queen Elizabeth.”

President Jonathan while wishing Chief Obasanjo success in his new endeavour, said that he considered the appointment not only a personal honour to the former head of state, but also to Nigeria as a country.

November 1, 2012
Four policemen bag 25- year sentence for robbery

A Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, on Thursday sentenced four policemen and an accomplice to 25 years imprisonment each for robbery.

Justice Joseph Oyewole convicted Bestman Dennar (52), Musa Mohammed (45), Peter Enidiok (53), Godwin Williams (44) and Emmanuel Ajogbor (48) on one count of conspiracy to commit robbery.

The sentence will run concurrently, beginning from March 3, 2005 when they were first remanded in prison custody.

The judge said: “I hold that sufficient facts exist beyond reasonable doubt upon which the court could infer conspiracy in the present circumstances and hold all the defendants guilty accordingly.

“I therefore find each of the defendants guilty of conspiracy as charged in Count 1.

“In conclusion, I hold in respect of Count 1 that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendants are guilty of the offence of conspiracy to commit robbery contrary to Section 403 (A) of the Criminal Code.

“I hereby convict each of them accordingly.

“I further hold that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendants are guilty of the offence of robbery simpliciter contrary to Section 402 (1) of the Criminal Code and I hereby convict them accordingly.”

The defendants were said to have conspired together to commit robbery on November 17, 2002 along Ikorodu and Ijebu-Ode Expressway, Ikorodu, Lagos.

The prosecution said they robbed a lorry loaded with George and Lace textile materials.

Justice Oyewole said the fourth defendant (Williams), though not physically at the crime scene, was part of the planning, execution and disposal of the robbery proceeds.

“He had a common intention with the others who were physically present,” he said.

After listening to the defendants’ lawyers’ plea to temper justice with mercy (alucutus), Justice Oyewole said the fact they were policemen was an “aggravating factor” to impose the maximum penalty.

He rejected the request that the sentence be mitigated as the defendants have been in prison for about 10 years.

“I’ve duly considered the alucutus. However, four of five defendants are policemen trained to protect the public and not otherwise.

“This in itself is an aggravating factor in handing out the sentence.

“The image of the police should not be dented to the extent that members of the public will begin to see police checkpoints as armed robbers’ locations,” he said.

November 1, 2012
UTME candidates to write computer- based test

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Thursday launched Computer Based Testing (CBT) for candidates sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).

Launching the new initiative in Abuja, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, said it was one of the transformative efforts of the government toward revamping the education sector.

“There are two major objectives of this initiative. First, it is aimed at advancing the nation technologically and the second and the more important goal is to reduce or completely eliminate exam malpractice,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the minister as saying at the launching.

She said it was a gradual introduction as candidates had two options where they could choose between the CBT, Paper-Pencil Test (PPT) and Dual Computer-Paper Test (DCPT).

The minister said the new system offered candidates the opportunity to get immediate feedback, get more secured and fair results in line with global best practice.

She said the other two options, PPT and DCPT, would be open from 2013 to 2015 by the end of which it was expected that all candidates for UTME would be computer literate.

Prof. Rufa’i said that only purely computer based examinations would be taken by JAMB candidates and expressed the hope that other examination bodies would toe the line of JAMB.

Announcing the plans, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, said a mass campaign had been lined up to enable stakeholders to understand the advantages of using the system.

Ojerinde said CBT was conceived out of necessity to address issues that had continued to affect the successful conduct of examinations.

November 1, 2012
JTF making Boko Haram insurgency worse – Amnesty

Human rights abuses committed by Nigeria’s security forces in their fight against Islamist sect Boko Haram are fuelling the very insurgency they are meant to quell, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

Boko Haram said it wants to create an Islamic state in Nigeria and its fighters have killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks targeting security forces, politicians and civilians since launching an uprising in 2009.

Reuters says the sect has become the No. 1 security threat to Nigeria.

The Amnesty report said the Joint Task Force acted outside the rule of law and their brutal tactics could build support for Boko Haram outside its extremist core.

A Nigerian military spokesman contacted by Reuters rejected the report as “biased and mischievous.”

“The cycle of attack and counter-attack has been marked by unlawful violence on both sides, with devastating consequences for the human rights of those trapped in the middle,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“Every injustice carried out in the name of security only fuels more terrorism, creating a vicious circle of murder and destruction.”

The report is likely to add to calls for Nigeria’s military to change its heavy-handed approach to tackling the insurgency, which critics have long said is driving desperate youths into the arms of Boko Haram.

It details cases of abuses stretching back to the start of the Boko Haram uprising in 2009.

The report said a “significant number” of people accused of links with Boko Haram had been executed after arrest without due process, while hundreds were detained without charge or trial and many of those arrested disappeared or were later found dead.

“People are living in a climate of fear and insecurity, vulnerable to attack from Boko Haram and facing human rights violations at the hands of the very state security forces which should be protecting them,” Shetty said.

Amnesty said it had spoken to witnesses who described seeing people who were unarmed and lying down with their hands over their heads shot at close range by soldiers.

In one case, a widow described how soldiers put a gun against her husband’s head three times and told him to say his last prayers before shooting him dead. They then burnt down their home. She now fends for her seven children alone.

Defense spokesman Colonel Mohammed Yerima said that Nigerian forces only kill Boko Haram suspects during gunfights, never in executions.

November 1, 2012
Nigerian pirates free foreign hostages

Pirates have released seven sailors – six Russians and an Estonian – seized after an attack on a ship operated by French firm Bourbon SA off the coast of Nigeria, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

A ministry statement said the freed hostages, kidnapped on October 15, were “feeling well” and would soon be flown home, but gave no details on how the sailors’ release was secured.

After the abduction of the sailors from the vessel, the Liberty Bourbon 249, another nine crew members remained onboard and maintained course toward the Nigerian port of Onne, Reuters reports.

The Bourbon is an anchor-handling vessel of the kind used to help supply oil rigs and tow them to a drilling site. The French firm supplies vessels in Nigeria’s offshore oil industry.

Pirate attacks are on the rise in Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, which is second only to the waters around Somalia for piracy.

November 1, 2012
Bayelsa police confirm loss of two personnel

The Bayelsa State Police Command on Thursday confirmed the loss of two of its men to suspected bandits in the Agbura suburb of Yenagoa.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Fidelis Odunna, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the assailants operating in a black jeep killed the officers at the Agbura roundabout on Wednesday night.

He said those killed were a corporal and a sergeant, adding that a manhunt had begun

A source in the Agbura suburb told NAN that the incident occurred at about 8.00pm when the policemen on routine duty at the roundabout were taken unawares by the bandits.

The source said the assailants slowed down and opened fire on the policemen, who died on the spot.

November 1, 2012
N18.3bn Loan: Panel indicts Oyinola

Former Governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, was guilty of leadership failure, the Commission of Inquiry set up by the state government to investigate a loan of N18.38 billion by his administration, said in its report.

The commission which was chaired by Prof. Femi Odekunle, was set up by Governor Rauf Aregbesola in September and mandated to investigate the circumstances surrounding the procurement of the loan from United Bank of Africa Plc.

The government also mandated the panel to investigate the conduct of Oyinlola, among other issues.

The commission, which submitted its report to Aregbesola in Osogbo on Wednesday, blamed the former governor for heeding the advice of the state assembly at a “non-emergency circumstance.’’

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the panel recommended sanctions for the former governor for heeding the advice of the defunct State House of Assembly to take the loan at a “non-emergency circumstance.”

The panel also recommended that Oyinlola be sanctioned for “irrational application of parts of such loan and for directing certain obvious reckless disbursement of the loan.”

It blamed the former governor for approving an “unthinking Memorandum of Understanding that had turned out to be a fraud against the state.”

November 1, 2012
Boko Haram: Senator slams N5b suit on Defence Minister, AGF

The embattled Senator Ahmed Khalifa Zanna has filed a N5billion suit against the Minister of Defence and three others for alleged libel and mental trauma when the Joint Task Force (JTF) claimed that a Boko Haram Commander, Shuaibu Mohammed Bama was arrested at his residence in Maiduguri.

Other defendants are the Chief of Defence Staff, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the spokesman for the JTF, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa.

Zanna, who is still being investigated by the State Security Service (SSS), deposed to a 19-point affidavit in support of the action in which he insisted that Bama was not arrested in his house.

In the Writ of Summons filed by his counsel, Mr. Gbenga Olagundoye, the Senator is “claiming N5billion jointly and severally against the defendants (including aggravated damages) for libel.”

The writ reads in part: “On or about the 19th of October 201, the 4th Defendant (Lt.Col. Sagir Musa) acting at all material time in the normal course of his duties as spokesperson of the Joint Task Force at a press conference attended by numerous representatives of the print and electronic media (both local and foreign) maliciously issued a written press statement which was distributed and disseminated to journalists and members of the public following defamatory words concerning the Plaintiff which the defendants knew to be false.”

In his affidavit, the Senator said: “That I am aware of the facts stated above because my attention was drawn to the publication of the press statement in all newspapers, television and radio stations as well as the internet. I read the report in the newspapers and on the internet, viewed the report on all the television stations in Nigeria and listened to the same report on all the radio broadcast on the issue in Nigeria

“Judging from the volume of phone calls and text messages that myself, my aides, my relatives, friends and well-wishers received on the issues, I sincerely believed that practically every Nigerian read the report of the press statement issued by the 4th Defendant

“That the words referred and were understood to refer to me by the following particulars:

“That I am the only serving Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who has a house along Damboa Road GRA Maiduguri

“That I am a member of the National Assembly and the Senator representing Borno Central Senatorial Zone in the Senate

“That the facts in (a) and (b) above are widely known to Nigerians especially my friends, relations and associates and the entire population of Borno State and the Borno Central Senatorial Zone

“That in their natural and ordinary meaning, the said words published concerning me, meant and were understood to mean that:

“I harbored a wanted Boko Haram terror suspect in my house and therefore I am a supporter of the terrorists group Boko Haram

“That the clear innuendo in the words complained of, bore and were understood to bear the meaning which I have just stated by the facts that pleading in the foregoing paragraph by way of innuendo with the following particulars:

“That Boko Haram is a notorious terrorist group operating in Nigeria and who had been held responsible by the public for a series of terrorist activities, bombings and killings of both of civilians as well as military, police and other Para-military personnel

“That it is generally believed by members of the public that the Boko Haram secretly receives materials aid and other support from some members of the society

“That the publication complained of falsely portrayed me as one of the persons who aid and support the Boko Haram in their terrorist activities.”

October 31, 2012
Akwa Ibom deputy governor resigns

The Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Nsima Ekere, has resigned from office.

In a letter of resignation dated Wednesday, October 31, the deputy governor said he was resigning on personal grounds.

A statement signed by his Press Secretary, Inemesit Ita, said Ekere thanked the governor and the people of the state for the opportunity given him to serve the state in the last 17 months.

“Mr. Ekere wished the governor and the people well in the remaining years of the administration, “ the statement added.

October 31, 2012