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Tag: Nigerian Newspapers

  • Court okays seizure of accounts, assets traced to retired judge, NDDC director

    A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered a temporary freezing of accounts and seizure of immovable property belonging to a retired judge and a director with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    The judge, identified as Maegaret Igbetar Movihinze, was said to have recently retired from the service of the Benue State Judiciary.

    She was alleged to have opened and operated an account in Ecobank in the name of her maid, Theodora Atsu.

    The NDDC official, identified as Solomon Okpa Ita, was accused of being a shareholder and director of a private company – Agare Wills Limited – while she was still a public servant in the employ of the regional commission.

    Following two ex parte motions filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and argued by its lawyer Osuobeni Akponimisinga, Justice Taiwo Taiwo, in a ruling on August 19, granted all the reliefs sought.

    Justice Taiwo ordered the ICPC to publish the reliefs granted in a national daily and for the affected parties to show why the assets should not be finally forfeited to the government.

    The first motion has Igbetar Movihinze Maegaret and Atsu Theodora as respondents.

    The reliefs granted in the motion include:

    * An order of interim forfeiture of N840,921,929.51, being proceeds of some unlawful activity allegedly stashed in Ecobank with account number 4701000812 in the name of Theodora Atsu.

    * An order of interim forfeiture of N3,688.27 standing as current balance other than the fixed deposit amount, being proceeds of some unlawful activity allegedly stashed in Ecobank with account number 4701000812 in the name of Theodora Atsu.

    Read Also: ‘Shell JV, SNEPCo have paid $2b to NDDC’

    * An order restraining any person or persons, whether human, juristic or artificial, not to part with, deal with, deal in or otherwise dispose of such property or any part thereof on account number 4701000812, pending the determination of the matter.”

    The ICPC, in seeking the reliefs, stated that “the victim of the alleged crime is the Federal Government of Nigeria and innocent taxpayers, who include judges of courts across Nigeria”.

    It added: “The moveable properties are alleged to have been acquired through some unlawful activities, which proceeds, if not illicitly taken from the coffers of the Federal Government of Nigeria, same would have been used to meet the infrastructural needs of the citizens and development of the nation.

    “The alleged owners, in the course of investigation, particularly the first respondent, opened the suspicious account with stolen identity, that is, she used her passport photograph to open the suspicious account in the name Theodora Atsu to avoid being noticed.

    “The first respondent is a retired judge, and she may have used her position to acquire the illicit funds and hide same in the name of the Theodora Atsu.

    “The respondents may likely dissipate the alleged suspicious moveable properties should the court not intervene at this moment to preserve the res (subject of the case).

    “The alleged moveable properties may likely be used by the respondents to fund activities that may make the country unstable and ungovernable by the present administration, which may also spill over to successive administrations in the future.”

    In a supporting affidavit, an operative of the ICPC, Markus Iliya said the commission received intelligence that the respondents were involved in some unlawful activity against the interest of the Federal Government.

    “The commission, upon preliminary investigation into the intelligence report, found that the first respondent is a retired judge, wherein she allegedly used her passport-size photograph to open an account with Ecobank in the name of Theodora Atsu – the second respondent – with number 4701000812. “

    “The second respondent is the house maid of the first respondent. From the preliminary investigation, the alleged suspicious funds are proceeds of crime.

    “The applicant (ICPC) has begun a thorough investigation around the first and second respondents to x-ray other facts, which are likely to be more shocking and ground breaking.”

    The second motion has Agare Wills Limited and Solomon Okpa Ita listed as respondents.

    The reliefs granted in relation to the motion include:

    * An order of interim forfeiture of the following immovable properties described as Agare Wills Petroleum/Gas Station Limited, located at Parliamentary Extension Expressway, Calabar, Cross River State, and Agare Wills Event Centre and warehouse situate at Parliamentary Extension Expressway, Calabar, Cross River State, being immovable properties linked to Agare Wills Limited and Solomon Okpa Ita during preliminary investigation as proceeds of some unlawful activity.

    * An order of this honourable court directing the applicant to publish a notice in the national newspapers calling for persons having interest in the moveable and immovable properties described in prayers one above, to show cause in court why the properties so described should not be finally forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

    The grounds, on which the applicant relied in seeking the reliefs, included that “the victim of the alleged crime is the Federal Government of Nigeria and innocent taxpayers, which include judges of courts across Nigeria.

    “The immovable properties are alleged to have been acquired with proceeds of crime, which proceeds, if not illicitly taken from the coffers of the Federal Government of Nigeria, same would have been used to meet the infrastructural needs of the citizens and development of the nation.

    “The alleged owners, in course of investigation activities, were unable to account for, with cogent proofs, how they came about the alleged immovable properties.

    “The second respondent (Solomon Okpa Ita), who doubles as shareholder and director of Agare Wills Ltd, his legitimate earnings are far less than the value of the alleged immovable properties, being a public servant in the employment of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    “The respondents may likely sell off or dissipate the alleged immovable properties to unsuspecting members of the public for value, should the court not intervene at this moment

    “The alleged movable properties may likely be used by the respondents to fund activities that may make the country unstable and ungovernable by the present administration, which may also spill over to successive administration in the future.”

  • Expert bemoans Nigeria’s exclusion from G7 Summit

    A foreign affairs expert, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, is unhappy about Nigeria’s exclusion from the ongoing Group of Seven (G7) Heads of Government Summit in France.

    Akinterinwa, a former Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), said Nigeria might have been left out because of the country’s poor foreign policy focus.

    Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and the country with the largest population, which should have qualified her for an invitation to the meeting of the top industrialised nations.

    Nigeria was not also invited to the last summit held in Canada. Only Senegal, South Africa and Egypt were invited.

    Speaking to an online publication, The Pledge, at the weekend, Akinterinwa said: “You would need to be agreeable to be invited to take a decision. So, who they believe should be invited are those countries that they have invited.

    Read Also: Buhari: Slavery still exists – we must take action

    “So, the truth of the matter is that Nigeria’s foreign policy is lacklustre; it doesn’t have any focus, and it is not ideologically driven; always very reactive.

    “More importantly, the President is the chief servant, but the entourage working with him are not allowing him to see clearly.

    “One major reason which explains why we couldn’t have been invited is that countries like Senegal, their foreign policies are always well-protected in France. They are very close to the European Union, but our own former colonial master is the one going out of the European Union. So, how will you want Britain to now come, advice and be pushing for Nigeria to be invited to an organisation itself is seeking to get out from? It’s not logically consistent.

    “Our foreign policy objectives are at best ill-defined. We don’t have it. Look at what we call foreign policy focus. Donald Trump set one example. He said America first. What does that mean? America first simply means that the determination of the priority of interest whenever they are at stake; it means under no circumstance will there be any interest that is superior to that of the United States of America.

    “Donald Trump, after America first, moved to the level of saying Make America Great Again. That has been his propaganda, but now as he is contesting for re-election now, he is saying “Keep America Great’, he is not saying Make America Great, he is saying that America is already great, let us sustain it.

    “What are we doing about Nigeria? In South Africa, they are killing Nigerians on a daily basis and then the foreign minister will come and tell us that they have signed one agreement with South Africa or they are going to have bi-national Commission. We are not really serious in this country. We have people whether they are cabinet members or politicians, who only think in terms of the centre-plan as national interest.”

    The G7 is a bloc comprising industrialised democracies, namely Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

    They meet yearly to discuss issues such as global economic and political governance. Like the G20, the G7 does not have a permanent secretariat or legal status and features the participation of ministers, central bank governors and heads of states of major industrialised economies, with member states accounting for 10 per cent of the world’s population and 46 per cent of the global GDP.

  • Banality upon banality

    If you always dive into the sewers, how do you soar to the skies, to help raise public discourse, lift policy and ensure good governance?

    How do you rise to dizzying heights, in terms of winning ideas, if your thinking is fixated on Lilliput — remember Lilliput, the fictional place of the puny race, in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver Travels?

    A president announced a line of official reportage, via the chief of staff and the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), and the media goes ga-ga with sterile controversy! Is the trite even beyond the ken of the most vocal in the public space?

    A new minister, in self-deprecatory banter to the top echelon of his ministry, jokes he knows little about his new posting, and a newspaper turns it to be hot news, followed by impassioned debates, about square pegs in round holes, as that cliche goes!

    Even if some members of the public can’t quite read between the lines, must the media also serve news outside its context, to drive banal controversies, and, for commerce, mislead their readers?

    What President Muhammadu Buhari said about ministers going through the chief of staff; and the SGF coordinating policy, cabinet, inter-ministry, agencies and departmental affairs is trite.  Yet it elicited thunderous debate, especially by the political opposition, which seems to have run out of gas, except when clutching to mischief, no matter how absurd.

    As to serving the comment by Rauf Aregbesola, new minister of the Interior, out of context, the media lobby that plagued his Osun governorship with deliberate bad press appears to have fired their first shot, to welcome him to his new beat.

    Still, doesn’t ethics in reportage hold anything for today’s media?  Is clear abuse of media space, by the deliberate skew of stories, which borders on media terrorism, now the norm?

    Clearly, such empty sensationalism is not sustainable.  It is the biblical wide and merry way that leads to perdition.  Any medium that travels that route only chisels away at its own credibility, until it becomes completely nude, with all the shame public nudity brings.  But beyond individual self-destruction by some media, it also chisels away at the believability of the industry, and a dip, in its collective confidence level, in the market.

    If sales and readership of newspapers are constricting by the day, at least you know one of the reasons.

    But beyond market suicide, how can the media raise the level of public discourse, if all its leading lights do is feed on empty and banal controversies?

    If the media yells and screams and hoots about low-quality governance, how can it be a solution and cure, if its own pastime is low-quality reportage, that fuels low quality controversies?

    For any society desiring progress and advancement, banality should be a no-no.  But that seems completely lost on all, in this season of banality and more banality.

  • Raring to go

    In his swaggering white agbada and sometimes supernova smile, the BOS of Lagos set his cabinet in motion. Many had waited for that moment. In a solemn, sometimes vivacious air, the roll call of the commissioners and special advisers turned the morning ceremony into a foretaste of the years to come.

    The governor called his cabinet “unique in diversity.”  From the experience of Tunji Bello, to the youthful promise of Olatunbosun Alake to  the new voice of a Joe Igbokwe, and my colleague, Gbenga Omotoso, we anticipate a new edge. There are also the women. So, from east to west, the BOS of Lagos is now raring to go. He inspired the team, at once praising and challenging them.

    His speech-making is growing from its initial tentative pace to a relaxed, rhythmic control, his pauses holding that power to tease… For instance, when announcing the portfolios, he brought an air of playful mischief when he announced Bello’s portfolio. Knowing the audience expected Environment, he reversed it and said, “water resources,” and the audience resounded through the hall with “ha!!” He smiled and completed it by saying “and environment.” It is the quality of an orator’s stagecraft.  He has so far run his affairs with stately poise and dignity without airs.

    So, Lagos is unlike some other states in the rear. Governor Sanwo-Olu promises to be on a tear. So much to do, from traffic to environment to the expansion and restoration of infrastructure and education. He knows he cannot be in the rear, but rare. That is the goal he has set and that is the glare he will get.

  • A modest applause

    It is not often that a writer can see his words travel from the page onto the stage of action. Not the playwright’s stage, which is often in the province of fiction; but when a piece of suggestion or observation translates into government action.

    This essayist has enjoyed this rare gift within one month. Not long ago, in the essay, Eye in the Sky, I suggested that the drone as a stealth strategy could radicalise the war on bandits. Barely 10 days later, President Muhammadu Buhari weaponised it as a major policy. Drone in the air, death on earth to goons.

    Barely two weeks afterwards, I suggested that the lanky Timipre Sylva be made the minister of state for Petroleum, and in a short, compelling sway, this column homed in on the former governor’s hefty credentials and competence. Again, Buhari’s ears opened and he picked Sylva to assist him in that ministry of ministries.

    Even the minister of Interior, the ebullient Rauf Aregbesola launched his service with a policy thrust on how to gather intelligence. As if under the spell of In Touch, he said the National Security and Civil Defence Corps would focus on intelligence gathering to complement government agencies, especially the military. In Eye In the Sky, this essayist also called on the government to domesticate intelligence agencies that could help as Nigeria’s private eye, stalkers and whispers in the fashion of Kashim Shettima’s Civilian JTF.  Aregbesola was also borrowing a leaf from himself as governor.  His Osun State stewardship refined the idea of youth mobilisation on many fronts, from agriculture to security. He is bringing that chorus to the centre.

    It is kudos to the President and Aregbesola that In Touch cruises into policy. It detracts from the view of some cynics, who see this essayist only in the light of a bulldozer. In Touch is a two-edged sword. This writer has, for polemical and patriotic standpoints, stirred some bubbles in the polity. And no apologies. In contrast, some can point to a tranquil record of official engagement as well, which has happened unadvertised several times over the years. I am not puffing and huffing like Norman Mailer who wrote, An Advertisement for My Style. As Yorubas say, Mi o sako. Warri people say, I no do yanga. Just stating the facts.

    On grander scales, writers have fuelled rebellions, revolutions, wars. William Randolph Hearst’s newspaper fomented the Spanish-American war. The writer of Uncle Tom’s cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, met American president Lincoln. And the 16th U.S president quipped: “So, you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this war.”

    Just as I predicted Sylva, permutations perfumed the air. Intrigues flared beneath the public glare. Some names were thrown into speculative maelstrom and some writers positioned them as inevitable. Jeddy Agba was seen in some quarters as the minister of oil. But they may have overexposed the man. They did not have In Touch’s prose and polemics but the Agba narrative revealed a basic skein of the ministerial intrigues. Names on the burner became targets of incineration. That may have given Sylva the upper hand since the argument of technocracy and politics favoured the former Bayelsa governor.

    Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) was another factor of speculation. Part of it was the Ambode factor. How could Fashola, the pre-eminent minister, lose his slot to Ambode, a new arm? Many asked. Ambode, according to reports, had lobbied laboriously. Some even said Buhari would pick him to spite the Lagos bigwigs and repay him for going into the doldrums after only one term as governor. Here again, the man was overexposed.  Buhari did not only reappoint Fashola, he also picked another Lagos man and party loyalist, Olorunnimbe Mamora.

    Fashola has two ministries. When he was given three ministries in the first term, he was a cynosure of envy and praise. I designated him three-in-one minister which gained traction more than the bellwether nomenclature. Now, he is given two, some have argued why not one? His typifies the contradiction in the debate over whether we should reduce the cost of governance. With one minister in three, he saved cost. One cost has been added. But power is a unique ministry. The fundamental problem of how the DISCOs and GENCOs emerged has to be tackled. The minister, as Fashola pounded into our ears, has no powers other than policy. Most of it has not been ironed out in the deals with the GENCOs and DISCOs. In the words of Prophet Ezekiel, we have to overturn and overturn and overturn until who deserves to run the shows of the agencies and the rules of engagement. Other than that, nothing can happen in power. We will generate and not distribute.

    Fashola as the Trojan of Works has opportunity to work without let. Eleyinmi and co did not give him money to work for political reasons. The minister, too, would not yield to blandishments and coercion from the lawmakers who wanted him to veer from his constitutional mandate. I hope the new assembly knows what is at stake.

    I am curious about the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management. It is curious. Is it going to take over some of the Vice President’s work, especially the social security part? Or is it bringing in more imagination to welfare?

    Many predicted Godswill Akpabio as Niger Delta minister and Festus Keyamo – Government College Ughelli old boy. In spite of Keyamo’s law acumen, few expected him to be attorney general. Malami had it wrapped up for all his failures. So too for Lai Mohammed for Information and Amaechi for Transportation. Amaechi’s job is pruned, but his hands are full with the rail project, though.

    Sunday Dare was expected to go to Communications, having served as the poster face of the NCC for the past few years. But he takes on Sports, a virile assignment that he has grabbed with gusto. Thinking legacy, he is talking up the revival of the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja.

    In all, the argument that it is a cabinet of politicians, not of technocrats is either ignorant or mischievous. To ignore those who worked for your victory is ingratitude. Yet we forget that many of the so-called politicians came into the fray as technocrats. Is it Amaechi, or Fashola, or Sylva, or Mamora? Or Keyamo or Akpabio? Technocrats became politicians and we forget because political flourish tends to overwhelm the life of a professional.

    Well, it’s time to work. Legacy beckons and there is no excuse.

  • Victims identify Wadume as ‘kidnapper’

    Four kidnap victims have identified Hamisu Bala Wadume as leader of the gang that seized them, it was learnt at the weekend.

    Wadume, a suspected kidnapper, is undergoing interrogation after he was rearrested last week in Kano by police detectives.

    He is being probed over his escapades and the killing of three policemen and a civilian by soldiers at a checkpoint in Taraba State, when he was being whisked away after his arrest for ‘kidnaping’

    Although he initially denied being a kidnapper but admitted to being an arms supplier to kidnap syndicates, the kidnap victims, it was gathered, contacted detectives after seeing Wadume’s photographs and video footage of his confession, and came forward to identify him to investigators.

    The victims, it was learnt, were the latest addition to the list of Wadume’s kidnapping victims said to have indicated willingness to testify against him.

    Four AK47 and two K2 rifles were recovered from one of Wadume’s relatives. Who claimed they belonged to the suspect.

    Wadume was said to have purchased 10 Ak-47 rifles from the black market within one year, adding that he admitted to gun running because of the possession of firearms which he could not explain.

    A source said: “The suspect is smart. It is better to confront him with evidence. He could not explain the guns that were recovered and so he confessed that he was selling guns.

    “He was a kidnap kingpin. Four more people he kidnapped have contacted the police and identified him. They have given details and are willing to testify against him.

    “Investigators are confronting him with evidence of his crimes and he cannot deny them.”

    The source also confirmed that Wadume’s gang members were responsible for most of the kidnap cases in Northwest and Northcentral regions, adding that he confessed to have been fueling security patrol vehicles in Ibi Town.

    Read Also: Wadume testifies before DHQ panel as more suspects held

    Wadume, it was gathered, also allegedly had links with terrorists in the northeast and cattle rustlers most of who he sold arms and ammunition to.

    Wadume’s revelation widely published in newspapers at the weekend, has created anxiety as the Joint Investigative Panel set up by the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) to probe the killing of three undercover policemen and a civilian on Ibi-Wukari Road by soldiers of 93 Battalion Takum is set to submit its report.

    There are speculations that the report of the panel constituted by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari is set for submission.

    A source said it might be submitted today or latest before the end of this week.

    The source said: “The joint panel will not be distracted by the publications and what some people have been saying on this matter. President Muhammadu Buhari ordered an investigative Panel.

    “The CDS constituted the Panel. Since then we have been reading all sorts of stories in the newspapers. Do you also expect the President to read the reports of the panel in the newspapers?

    “This is procedural. The military and other security institutions know that in any assignment before them, they must follow procedures. When the late CDS, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh was murdered, a panel was set up by the DHQ. Were you people invited to the DHQ to cover the submission of the report of the panel?

    “The joint panel is aware that some people are pushing an agenda, but we will not be distracted. The panel will do a thorough job, I can assure of that. Some have been saying all sorts of things, including dishing out unverified information from a principal suspect. They just want an indictment. But you have to support it with concrete, unassailable evidence.

    “The panel will have to examine the exhibits, visuals materials, interrogate all the suspects, review and distill all information available before coming up with a report. The report must stand the test of time and withstand any challenge at any court.

    “They should know it is not easy to just indict anybody, you must do your work thoroughly. That is what the panel is after.

    The Nation also gathered on Sunday that the seven-man panel with members drawn from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Department of State Security (DSS) and the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), have raised suspicion over the video confession by Wadume released by the Police headquarters in Abuja.

    It was gathered that the panel also frowned at Wadume’s interview published the media, wondering why it was allowed since the suspect was supposed to be under tight security.

    It was learnt that the Nigerian Army was planning to move all soldiers and officers allegedly involved in the incident to the Brigade in Yola, the Adamawa State Capital, from where they would be transferred to the Headquarters 3 Division in Jos, Plateau State.

    Defence Headquarters Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, declined to comment on the issue. He said the panel to be allowed to do its job and appealed to the media to avoid setting an unnecessary agenda for the panel.

    He said: “I think you should ask the police. Wadume is with them and they have released video and have been talking about it. The DHQ is there. I have told you before that whatever is going to happen, whatever issues will arise and whatever evidence that are available will be referred to the panel.

    “Let us avoid insinuations and avoid preempting the outcome of the findings of the panel. Let us give the panel time to do its job and come out with their findings.”

  • Southwest gets nod to establish security outfit

    Governors in the six Southwest states are putting finishing touches to the inauguration of a joint regional security outfit codenamed Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN).

    This followed the Approval in Principle given by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for the zone to establish a Joint Task Force (JTF) to tackle killings, banditry and kidnapping in the Southwest.

    The governors rose from a security summit in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital in July, where they decided to defend their domain.

    A source close to the project confided in The Nation on Sunday that the six governors had procured the patrol vans to be used by the outfit in readiness for the launch by October.

    The source added that the vehicles would be used in each state as branches of the regional outfit with a regional management team to coordinate its activities across the region.

    The regional management team would ensure exchange of intelligence and sharing of experiences for maximum performance.

    Read Also: Trouble with Southwest governors

    According to the source, the WNSN will be made up of unconventional security personnel, including local hunters and members of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) as well as other related personnel.

    They will work with traditional rulers and relate with the police on specific engagements, including prosecution of arrested suspects. Their relationship with the police is also to ensure that they operate within the ambits of the law.

    The WNSN members are to comb forests and monitor activities in urban neighbourhoods to support the conventional security operatives.

    Insecurity heightened in the region in June and July with the incidents reaching an alarming rate on the Ibadan-Ikire-Ife Road, Ilesa-Akure Road and roads in Akoko area of Oyo, Osun and Ondo states respectively.

    The fear generated by the incidents prompted the governors of Ondo, Oyo, Osun, Lagos, Ogun and Ekiti states to come together to seek a regional approach to tackling the menace.

    They directed the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission to organise a security summit to generate ideas on how to develop a regional blueprint to tackle the growing concern.

  • GTB, Resourcery partner on Tier III certification

    GTBank’s data centre, built with support of its technical partner, Resourcery Plc, has achieved Uptime Institute Tier III Design Certification.

    The centre, the first in the Africa to  accomplish this feat.

    Resourcery worked with the bank, its architects and structural engineers to design and implement the technologies within the stand-alone data centre.

    Uptime Institute is the global data centre authority, the most trusted and adopted standard for design, build and operation of data centres, the backbone of the digital economy.

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stipulates that  data centre infrastructure and facilities for financial institutions shall satisfy the requirements for Uptime Institute Tier III design and construction.

    This directive requires that all commercial banks design, implement and manage a Tier III Data Center infrastructure to enhance the capacity, cost effectiveness and efficiency of banking services in line with best global practices.

    Solutions Manager, Network Infrastructure at Resourcery Plc, Tunde Eso, said as  a leading system integration firm in West Africa, the firm  offeres cutting edge IT solutions. “Indeed, we are glad to have provided GTBank with the Uptime Institute Tier III Design Award and the technical support required to achieve certification of their data centre facility,” he said.

    Head, Sales & Business for Resourcery Plc, Angela Chike-Dike, also said:  “Resourcery Plc is delighted with the milestone achievement of GTBank as the first Nigerian commercial bank to privately own a Uptime Institute Certified Tier III Design Data Center facility.”

     

     

  • ‘Nigeria’s oil production cost among 10 world’s highest’

    Nigeria is among 10 producing countries with highest cost of crude oil production per barrel, it was gathered at the weekend.

    Chairman/Managing Director, ExxonMobil Affiliate Companies in Nigeria Paul McGrath, who spoke in Lagos, said the Federal Government needed to address some  issues in the petroleum industry to achieve major milestones in the industry.

    McGrath, also the Chairman, Oil Producer Trade Section (OPTS),  Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said targets such as increased investment inflow, increased oil reserves and daily production as well as sufficient in-country refining and domestic gas utilisation, may remain wishful thinking if issues drwaing back the industy are not addressed.

    He  described the country as the largest oil producer in Africa and with hydrocarbon prospects among the brightest in the world. “However, there are fixes to be put in place if it aspires to maintain and expand the investment profile in the hydrocarbon industry,” he added.

    “Nigeria ranks among the top 10 countries with highest cost of producing oil per barrel and its equivalent in gas. High cost is a major disincentive to investment, especially at this time of considerable global competitiveness. Operating costs are increasing due to attendant increase in required maintenance and well work-overs. Security costs are escalating as peculiarities of the business environment require additional resources to be deployed to secure our people and assets,” he said.

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) also said it would grow the country’s crude oil reserves to 40 billion barrels by 2025 from 37 billion barrels.

    NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari, spoke at a conference with theme: Harnessing the oil and gas potential for national Development.

    Kyari also said the Corporation will grow oil production to three million barrels per day (bpd)  from the current 2.2 million bpd by the same period.

    Represented by the Corporation’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr Umar Isa Ajiya, the GMD said the attainment of these targets by 2025 were part of efforts to optimise the potential of the petroleum industry for  rapid economic development.

    He said: “From the NNPC’s point of view, we are working with our partners to grow the national reserves to 40 billion barrels by 2025 and further improve crude oil production to three million barrels per day during the period. To achieve these targets, we are not oblivious of the fact that huge investment is required across the value chain.

    “The corporation is planning to open up the midstream, complete all critical projects targeted at delivering about three billion standard cubic feet of gas daily to the market and further ensure the closeout of investment decision on the Nigerian Liquefied and Natural Gas’ (NLNG) Train 7, and improve domestic utilisation to boost power generation and industrial growth.”

  • 236,000 artisans get N10b loan

    Over 236, 000 artisans and small business owners are to get interest-free loans of N100,000 each courtesy of the Association of Skilled and Vocational Artisans of Nigerian (ASVAN), in partnership with Farmers’ Cooperative Group and Kiakia Bit Limited.

    The patron of the association, Mr. Matthew Onyeabo, said the empowerment programme was the first phase of the disbursement of N10 billion  to members of the association from the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    Addressing the beneficiaries, who gathered at the Catholic Secretariat, Garki, Abuja, to collect their cheques, Onyeabo said the first phase of the cash disbursement is meant for beneficiaries from the five states of Ekiti, Anambra, Abia, Nasarawa, the FCT and Kaduna.