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Tag: Bassey Akpan

  • Senate probes NNPC diversion of $1.05 bn NLNG dividend

    The Senate, on Tuesday, asked its Committee on Gas Resources to investigate alleged diversion of $1.05 dollars by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, last week, told the Senate that the NNPC was using Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) funds to augment under-recoveries in the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

    The NNPC GMD claimed that the landing cost of the product was higher than the government control price of N145 per liter.

    Baru who appeared before the Senate ad-hoc committee set up to investigate alleged $3.5 billion subsidy fund, noted that the fund was sourced from the NLNG dividend funds.

    He said that the decision was taken at the height of last fuel scarcity experienced by the country between December 2017 and January 2018.

    Baru said that the corporation acted in line with a directive from the National Assembly “to do everything necessary to end the scarcity of fuel in the country”.

    Baru noted that the decision was also in line with section 7 (4) (b) of the NNPC Act which mandates it to fund its operations from its revenues.

    The NNPC represents the Federal Government, which holds 49 per cent stake in the NLNG shareholding.

    In a statement on Monday, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said that it was illegal for the NNPC to unilaterally draw from the NLNG dividend funds without appropriation by the National Assembly.

    Saraki said the dividends paid to the federal government from the NLNG business were supposed to be kept in the federation account and shared among the three tiers of government.

    Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Bassey Akpan, Tuesday, raised a point of order at plenary, seeking the permission of the Chamber to carry out a thorough investigation into the withdrawals and spending by the NNPC from the NLNG account.

    Akpan noted that utilizing the funds without appropriation by the National Assembly and without the knowledge of state and local governments was an illegal act that should be investigated.

    He said: “The Senate Committee on Gas has received several calls, complaints and questions from the general public through phone calls, emails on the basis of what has been trending in the newspapers and social media on the unauthorized withdrawal of over $1 billion from the proceeds of the NLNG dividends account by the NNPC.

    “The NLNG dividend account belongs to the three tiers of government and comes under the Consolidated Revenue Account. Therefore, any unauthorized withdrawal from the account without the approval of the National Assembly or any other structure of government is illegal.

    “I therefore, seek the leave of the President of the Senate, to allow the Senate Committee on Gas to investigate this withdrawal and other withdrawals and the way and manner the account of the NLNG proceed is treated by the NNPC and report back to the Senate,

    Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, said that the investigation of the 1.05 billion dollar NLNG dividend fund should be left for the ad-hoc committee, which he chairs and is already looking into the matter.

    The 15-member ad-hoc Committee was set up on Oct. 16 to investigate the alleged secret spending of 3.5 billion dollars by the NNPC on fuel subsidy.

    Lawan said, “Mr President, I don’t think at this juncture that the Senate Committee on Gas should go and investigate the utilization of the 1.05 billion dollar from the NLNG dividend fund.

    “We are already doing that. But if the committee on gas is to do this, it means our work is over, because we adjourned, NNPC is presenting all their documents to the committee next week.

    “We are sitting this afternoon with other stakeholders. So, I pernally feel that this will subtract from what we are doing, and I think it will make our work unnecessary.”

    Senator Emmanuel Paulker (Bayelsa Central) disagreed with Lawan saying that the matter being investigated by the ad-hoc committee was different from the NLNG fund.

    He said: “The ad-hoc committee was set up specifically to look into the alleged spending of 3.5 billion dollars on fuel subsidy.

    Subsidy issue should not be confused with the issue of the interest that arose from the dividend of the NLNG. So, I believe they are two different issues.

    “So, while the ad-hoc committee is going on with their work to identify what NNPC did with the subsidy, I see nohting wrong for the gas committee to investigate the usage of the dividend arising from the NLNG Ltd,” Paulker said

    Saraki agreed with Akpan and Paulker.

    He said that the Gas committee’s investigation would be restricted to the utilisation of the NLNG dividend fund.

    He noted that the dividend issue was beyond the alleged 3.5 billion subsidy payment and should be separately investigated by the Committee on Gas.

    Saraki said: “Who knows, maybe the dividend is also being used for other things, may be for recurrent expenditure, we don’t even know. I think the ad-hoc committee’s investigation is wide, and Akpan is talking about dividend of NLNG being used for subsidy.

    “Could it be that the fund is also being used for other things as well? I think they are two separate issues.”

  • $1bn Pipeline Contract Probe: NNPC, Total absence stalls session

    The Senate Committee on Gas on Friday, said deployed major stakeholders’ absence at its investigative sitting on the alleged one billion-dollar pipeline contract, saying it was a setback to the committee.

    Chairman of the committee, Sen. Bassey Akpan, told our reporters  in Abuja that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Total Nigeria Plc led the oil companies and other stakeholders that failed to appear at the session on Thursday.

    He said that the committee was forced to adjourn the session due to poor attendance by those expected to defend their levels of involvement in the allegation.

    According to him, the development has set the committee back as we ought to submit our report before the National Assembly proceeds on its annual break on July 26.

    The lawmaker disclosed that while Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) obtained permission for absence, other stakeholders did not do so or were represented by officers below the rank of Managing Directors, adding that it was unacceptable.

    “We have been investigating the astronomical cost of completing two major gas pipelines – Northern Option Pipeline (NOPL) and Obite-Ubeta-Rumugi (OUR) Pipeline by Total.

    “We have been on this investigation for a couple of months now. Only recently we had an on-the-spot assessment of the pipeline, about a 100-kilometre pipeline.

    “A section of it is about 26 inches; another section is 22 inches and the 100-kilometre pipeline was completed at the cost of over one billion dollars.

    “In view of this, the Senate mandated the committee to investigate the matter.

    Read Also: Reps probe NNPC over N100b under-remittance to CRA

    “The meeting was meant to communicate our findings and who we need to indict on the astronomical cost of completing this major pipeline but it did not hold.

    “NNPC was not there, NAPIMS was not there and the MD of Total was not there.

    “As you know, it is the tradition of the Senate not to attend to anyone below the rank of a Managing Director or Group Managing Director or Deputy Managing Director,” he said.

    The lawmaker said the meeting was adjourned until Thursday, and urged those involved to be in attendance unfailingly.

    He said, “We had to adjourn the meeting for one week owing to the fact that we are embarking on annual recess soon and this report must be laid before we proceed.

    “This report must be laid at plenary so that we can concentrate on other legislative activities.

    “We urge all the relevant stakeholders to ensure that by Thursday, next week, everybody is in attendance so that we can communicate our findings and recommendations to all the major stakeholders.

    “We give them the benefit of the doubt till Thursday.”

    The mandate for the committee to investigate the one billion dollars contract for the construction of OUR and NOPL was given to the committee in August, 2016.

    NAN

  • Senate to probe Kaduna power plant failure

    The Senate on Thursday mandated its Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy and Committee on Gas to investigate the failure of Kaduna State government-owned power plant to generate electricity.

    The plant has a capacity of 215 Megawatt.

    The Senate’s decision followed a motion moved by the Chairman of its Committee on Gas, Bassey Akpan, who said there was urgent need to save the plant.

    He said the plant’s problem had led to protracted power outage in northern part of the country, leading to shutdown of industries.

    Akpan said, “It is surprising that the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing appears to have jettisoned the use of gas to power the Kaduna power plant.

    “Instead, it opted for the construction of Automobile Gas Oil (diesel) tanks for the use of diesel, which is 60 per cent higher in cost when compared with gas.

    “It is further surprising that in the Federal Tenders Journal of May 28 to June 11, 2017, the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing advertised for supply of AGO instead of gas to power the Kaduna power plant.”

    He called for alternative source of gas supply to the plant to get it working.

    The Senate president, Bukola Saraki, urged the committees to carry out the investigation and get back to the Senate.

    He said, ‘’The committee must take this matter with the seriousness it deserves and quickly come back to us.

    “Clearly, there is an issue here. Obviously, there are people who are looking at personal interest as against the interest of the people.

    “There is no doubt about it; alternative option of gas is the way forward. To say now that it is diesel, I really cannot fathom.”

    Saraki assured the Senate would take a firm decision on the matter.

    NAN

  • A’Ibom: Group urges Senate to swear in elected candidate

    A’Ibom: Group urges Senate to swear in elected candidate

    A civil society organization, Human Rights and Civil Society Alliance, has urged the Senate to obey court judgment and swear in Mr Bassey Etim as senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East.

    The Chairman of the group, Mr Gabriel Ojo, made the call at a news conference on Sunday in Abuja.

    Ojo said that allowing Mr Bassey Akpan to remain in the Senate, representing Akwa Ibom North-East in spite of existing court verdict removing him, called for concern.

    According to him, the senate is setting a bad precedence with its action on the issue.

    He, however, warned that the group would not watch and allow such flagrant disobedience of the law to continue.

    ”The Senate leadership has refused to obey the judgment of the court that it should inaugurate Bassey Etim.

    “The leadership is doing this under the guise that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is waiting for legal advice from lawyers on what to do with the positive order of the court.

    “We are appalled by the fact that the senate leadership is not only disobeying the court order but encouraging double standard in the Red Chamber.

    “In order to discourage this show of brazen insult on the nation’s highest office of people’s representation, we call on the senate leadership to obey the court order and swear in Senator-elect, Bassey Etim,’’ he said.

    On a recent communiqué issued by Coalition of Concerned Lawyers (CCL) criticising the senate for previously obeying court orders over swearing-in of senators from Kogi-East Senatorial District, Ojo said it was misleading.

    He said that CCL’s support of Bassey Akpan was aimed at creating confusion in the minds of Nigerians by alluding to the fact that the senate leadership acted then in error.

    He stated that the action of the senate in the Kogi case was a clear positive precedence, but wondered why it refused to honour similar court order in the case of Etim.

    On the excuse that Bassey Akpan had appealed the Federal High Court order, Ojo said “you do not need to be a lawyer to know that an appeal does not constitute a stay of execution.

    “ The 90-day ultimatum given by the court for Akpan to refund the salary and allowances he had collected as senator before the judgment has passed and he has not complied.

    “Instead, he has gone to several courts looking for order to stop execution which he has been denied.’’

    It will be recalled that a Federal High Court sitting in Uyo on Feb. 27, 2017, removed Sen. Bassey Akpan as senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East and replaced him with Sen. Bassey Etim.

    The high court, in the judgment on a pre-election dispute between Akpan and Etim, both of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), asked Akpan to also refund within 90 days, all salaries and allowances collected.

    Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has retrieved Akpan’s Certificate of Return and issued a fresh one to Etim based on the court order.

    But, the Senate has failed to swear in Etim, saying it was seeking legal advice on whether or not to swear him in.

    The Leader of the Senate, Sen. Ahmed Lawan, had promised that the upper chamber would obey the rule of law.

  • Court strikes out stay of execution filed by Sen. Akpan

    The Federal High Court, Uyo, on Friday struck out the application for stay of execution filed by Sen. Bassey Akpan, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) representing Akwa Ibom North..

    Akpan filed the suit for the court to stay execution of its Feb. 27 judgment, which was in favour of Mr Bassey Etim, also of the PDP.

    The judge, Justice Fatun Riman, said that since there was an appeal on his judgment of Feb. 27, his court has no jurisdiction to entertain the same matter.

    The judge, therefore, struck out the case and awarded N50, 000 cost in favour of the plaintiff, Mr Bassey Etim, the defendant.

    The court in the Feb.27, judgment had ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) to immediately issue certificate of return to Etim.

    The court faulted the primary that produced Akpan as the flag bearer of the PDP.

    Speaking to newsmen after the judgment, counsel to the defendant, Mr Taiwo Abe, described the judgment as excellent.

    He said that the application was brought by the appellant, PDP and Akpan.

    “The record shows that the appellant had already filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal, Calabar.

    “His Lordship said that only the Court of Appeal can entertain stay of execution, since the case had been transmitted from the Federal High Court, Uyo, to Court of Appeal, Calabar, since March 10, 2017.’’

    “I made the application that the court should strike out the case and award me a cost, the judge today has agreed with me and even granted cost of N50, 000.’’
    Also speaking, counsel to Sen. Akpan, Mr Godswill Umoh, said that he was satisfied with the judgment.

    “Actually that is the rule of practice, since we have filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal; the lower court cannot adjudicate on the same matter.

    “Earnestly, the rule of practice is we withdraw the case, which I did.”

  • Bassey Akpan: Discipline, hardwork key to long career

    Bassey Akpan: Discipline, hardwork key to long career

    Akwa United goalkeeper, Bassey Akpan has attributed discipline, hard work and his belief in God to the fact that he and three former stars of the Golden Eaglets to Trinidad and Tobago 2001 FIFA U-17 World Cup are still playing top flight football till today.

    Akpan was the first choice goalkeeper when Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets were beaten 3-0 by France in the final of the 2001 U-17 World Cup and he also had Ndala Ibrahim, Joseph Eyimofe and Kennedy Chinwo in that team.

    He told SportingLife that God has been with them for ensuring that they still remain active while also stating that other stars of that squad have also moved on in life.

    Akpan narrated: “I and Joseph Eyimofe have always kept in touch even before the 2001 FIFA U17 World Cup because we played same youth tournaments together. We have been good friends. God has been preserving us.

    “When I got a call from the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel to come and help the team I had no option than to talk to my wife and start the job with them. I am happy that I am back home.

    “Olufemi Kayode and Victor Obiowho are young goalkeepers. Keeping is all about challenge and being level headed because at every given time you have to safe the ball. When it comes to a team with good goalkeepers you just have to give your best and don’t take things for granted.”

  • Akpabio sacks two commissioners

    Akpabio sacks two commissioners

    Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom has relieved two commissioners of their appointment.

    This is contained in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, in Uyo on Thursday.

    It stated that the minor reshuffle was to reinvigorate the machinery of government and drive further the Uncommon Transformation Programme of the state.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the commissioners, who were directed to hand over to the permanent secretaries were – Mr. Bassey Akpan (Finance) and Mr. Effiong Abia (Rural Development).

    The statement also announced the removal of the chairmen of six state-owned parastatals and agencies.

    The chairmen are – Mr. Sunny Udom ( Akwa Ibom Property and Investment Company Limited), Mr. Patrick Ifon ( Akwa Ibom Water Company Limited) and Mr. Dan Akai( Akwa Ibom Newspapers Corporation).

    The others are – Mr. Alex Nyong( Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation), Mr. John Asikpo (Akwa Ibom State Environmental Protection and Management Board)and Mr. Tony Esu( Akwa Ibom State Agency for Community and Social Development).

    The statement said the governor appreciated the former commissioners and board chairmen for their contributions to the development of the state and wished them success in their future endeavours.

     

  • Bassey Akpan hopes to be a champion in Vietnam

    Bassey Akpan hopes to be a champion in Vietnam

    Former Heartland goalkeeper Bassey Akpan believes his first division club side in Vietnam, Hoang Anh Gia Lai will be crowned champions as the Premier League starts March 2nd.

    Akpan told Goal.com that they have prepared very well for the new season and is confident that nothing will stop them in the new football year.

    “Last season, we came fifth on the league table. But we have been able to correct our mistakes and I am sure that we will be champions when the League kicks off March 2nd,” he said.

    “We made some mistakes last season, but we have been able to plug all the loopholes and after a rigorous pre-season camping exercise, I will say that we are set to take our rightful place in the Vietnamese League.

    “Our first game in the new season will be against Hanoi T&T and I am expecting a tough game. I am also ready as the first choice goalkeeper of the team. In my first season, I emerged as the goalkeeper of the season with a place in the team of the season.

    “I am praying to God to give me more grace to be able to improve on what I achieved last season. I was the best goalkeeper but my team finished fifth.

    “This new season, I want to remain the the best goalkeeper, but I want my team to win the trophy at the end of the season.

    “I have worked so hard in the pre-season camp and I cannot wait for the new season to commence,” Akpan said.