The Nation Newspaper

Tag: PRESIDENCY

  • Presidency probes ex-NSAs over N3bn security contract

    Presidency probes ex-NSAs over N3bn security contract

    A N3 billion contract for the procurement of 20 units of K-38 patrol boats for the Nigeria Army is now under investigation by the Presidency. Also being investigated is the role of two former National Security Advisers (NSA) in the deal, sources said last night.

    Only eight units of the boats were supplied by the contractor. The investigation was triggered by an October 12, 2012 petition by one Hassan Rabiu of Hypertech (UK) Ltd. The petition is entitled: “Conspiracy, fraud, supervision and compromising of Nigeria’s National Security and Official Corruption in the award and execution of National Security and Defence projects in Nigeria by a group of Jews operating under many guises with the active connivance and involvement of a few unpatriotic Nigerians government officials and businessmen.”

    The petitioner said that sometime in 2007, the Ministry of Defence awarded the contract to an Israeli firm to supply 20 units of the K-38 patrol boats to the Nigeria Army at the cost of over N3 billion. The said firm allegedly collected 80 per cent of the total contract sum, but supplied only eight units of the boats.

    He alleged that five years after the company bolted away with government‘s money without supply, Hypertech was introduced to TP Marine B.V, the manufacturers of the boat by the firm’s original agent, Mr. Zvi Turbo of Shval Saar Limited.

    TP Marine, the petitioner added , expressed its willingness to auction the remaining 12 boats to offset its banking obligation. The petitioner alleged fraud in the execution of the contract and demanded a comprehensive probe into the deal in the interest of the country.

    A source privy to the on-going investigation in the NSA’s office said: “Investigation into the issues in the petition is on-going. The inference is that the firm who got the contract might have had a link with a former NSA. We will get to the roots of the crisis and bring those responsible, no matter how highly placed, to book. It is curious too that we have discovered that the petitioner’s alleged company is also being backed by another former NSA.”

    “So, there appears to be more to the contract row than the case. This explains why the Presidency has directed the Office of the NSA to probe the contract deal. The two ex-NSAs are being probed in order to establish how the contract went awry.

    “In fact, this office in the past few days has been looking at the records of the Hypertech being paraded by Rabiu at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Nigeria. We discovered that it is a breakaway company from the original Hypertech owned by Mustapha Mohammed because of this contract.

    “Also, in the statements so far made to us, the Israelis have opened up on the relationship between them and the petitioner – including a disagreement over $800,000 from two previous business deals.”

  • FCTA, Presidency partner on job creation

    FCTA, Presidency partner on job creation

    The Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide has disclosed that the FCT Administration would jointly develop a framework for job creation with the Office of the Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation.

    Akinjide, who stated this in Abuja while welcoming to her office the Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation, Miss Josephine Washima, said job creation was a crucial part of nation building which in turn makes a virile economy.

    “The FCT Administration will work together with the Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation to develop a template for job creation. This is an important assignment to which Mr. President attaches top priority.

    “The government wants to grow the economy and is seriously focusing on sectors that will provide employment to the people. The 2013 Budget has been christened ‘Fiscal Consolidation and Inclusive Growth’ by Mr. President. It shows the crucial nature of job creation and seriousness attached to it by the government,” she said.

    She noted that the government’s objective was to achieve inclusive growth by identifying and developing job creation opportunities in different sectors of the economy such as agriculture, manufacturing, construction, housing, solid minerals, aviation and creative industry.

    The minister encouraged the presidential aide to collaborate with ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the government in carrying out her assignment.

    The Special Assistant explained that her office was established in order to reduce the increasing rate of unemployment in the country.

    She added that this would be done through monitoring and evaluating the various agencies and sectors, saddled with the responsibility of generating employment through their activities.

    “The aim of the Office of Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation is to develop strategic programmes that will generate mass employment of Nigerian youths and interface with all job creation agencies on policy direction of government.

    “We shall also be developing a strategy for self-employment and entrepreneurship with emphasis on agriculture and agro-industries, small and medium enterprises and mineral resources, among others,” Washima noted.

  • Call Kuku to order, Governor urges Presidency

    The Presidency has been urged to call the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, to order over his alleged activities in the riverine areas of Ondo State, which are inimical to the October 20 poll.

    Kuku, an Arogbo Izon, hails from Ese-Odo in the Southern Senatorial District of the state.

    The Mimiko Campaign Organisation (MCO) had alleged that the Presidential Adviser was using his position of overseeing the amnesty programme of the Federal Government to attempt to subvert the election in favour of his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    MCO accused him of arming ex-militants, some of whom have been brought from neighbouring Niger Delta states and are now being used to intimidate those perceived to be opposed to the candidature of the PDP standard bearer, Chief Olusola Oke.

    In a statement, MCO’s Director of Publicity and Media Relations, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, said it is regrettable that Kuku has not only reversed the gains of the amnesty programme in Ondo by re-arming ex-militants who are loyal to him, he has surreptitiously removed the names of those opposed to his bidding from the payroll of the amnesty programme.

    He said: “We are alarmed that Kuku is not only reversing the gains of the amnesty programme of President Goodluck Jonathan, which has received commendations in Ondo State, he is going about with the aim of causing mayhem against opposition in the area.

    “Today, Oke, the PDP candidate in the forthcoming election, has been supplied with armed militants who now go about with him, terrorising the state while ex-militants who are not in tandem with their plans are punished by not paying their monthly stipends.

    “While we are happy because of the assurance by President Jonathan that the October 20 election will be free and fair, a stance repeated by Vice-President Namadi Sambo when he came to Ondo State last week, we are at a loss why Kuku will now attempt to subvert this same election when his employers have stressed their commitment to a level playing field.

    “We urge Mr. President to call Kuku to order. We also enjoin him to beam his searchlight on the activities of those who manage this important programme, which has restored peace to the hitherto troubled Niger Delta states.”

  • Disgruntled presidency?

    Disgruntled presidency?

    • Wilful denial cannot vitiate the correctness of the Lagos fuel subsidy removal protests of January

     

    President Goodluck Jonathan is beginning to exhibit a serious dissociation of sensibility syndrome. That ought to bother lovers of democracy; and alarm those who want to deepen democratic culture.

    That is the only logical way to interpret the president’s revisit of the January anti-fuel subsidy removal strikes, which for a week grounded the country, before the administration was forced to partially backtrack by somewhat reducing the pump price of petrol.

    At the 52nd independence anniversary lecture on September 18 at which John Kuffour, Ghana’s former president was guest lecturer, Dr. Jonathan came out with a presidential old wives’ tale that the Lagos protests were sponsored by some imaginary presidential opponents, using the explosive attempt at complete subsidy removal to unhorse him.

    His proof? The demonstrators were served bottled water unavailable to people in his own presidential village of Otuoke; and expensive food that ordinary Lagosians could not afford. Also, Jonathan’s alleged anti-presidential forces hired the cream of musicians and comedians (which by the way, his own presidential campaign organisation had hired to sell his Goodluck Nigeria message) to throw virtual missiles at his office and authority. The sweeping, presidential verdict? “Even to eat free alone attracts people. I believe that that protest in Lagos was manipulated by a class in Lagos and was not from the ordinary people.”

    The president is entitled to his own belief, no matter how misguided. That is the legal right of a citizen in a democratic republic. But unlike the ordinary citizen, the Number 1 citizen must be wary of his utterances, which often assume the garb of presidential authority. With the chain of verbal faux-pas to which the president has treated Nigerians, it just might be too much to ask that his utterances must always be rigorous and logical. But at least, they must not be the stuff of which child-like rumours are made.

    To start with, the strikes took place nationwide, leading to some heart-warming sights in Kano and Kaduna, where protesting Christians formed rings round praying Muslims, when it was prayer time. Even in Abuja, the president’s base, Labour mobilised the people and it was a grand carnival, as the people peacefully let off their anger at the hare-brained and unconscionable subsidy removal policy – and in January of all months.

    Now, if demonstrations took place nationwide, why did the Lagos demonstration alone merit presidential growling, some eight months, and fuel probes, later – probes fast proving that the so-called bloated subsidy payment, which led to the attempted complete removal, could well be illicit payments to fund the electioneering expenses of the federal ruling party?

    Besides, if the Lagos strikes were organised by presidential enemies playing high-stake politics, were the same enemies responsible for the protests at Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Ilorin and other major cities nationwide? If not, why the attention on Lagos? Does this president harbour any personal grudge against Lagos and its fiercely republican and irreverent citizens, beyond the perfectly legitimate and legal action of protesting when the pocket hurts?

    Besides, in a fit of presidential deviousness, the president would carpet Lagos and its protesters in Abuja, only to hop into a plane to praise into high heavens, celebrating Dr. Tunji Braithwaite at a book launch – Braithwaite incidentally, one of the high-calibre protesters tear-gassed by Jonathan’s security operatives, with legal icon, Prof. Ben Nwabueze? Is His Excellency then playing high-wire politics with his high presidential office?

    President Jonathan perhaps deserves sympathy for still being haunted by the epic rebuff of January, which, in any case, he wilfully brought on himself; and has not been able to live down. But no amount of presidential whining can stop freedom-loving citizens of Lagos from legitimate protest. The choice is simple: the president must get out of the kitchen, if he cannot stand the presidential heat.

    No amount of ethnic scape-goating can vitiate the legitimacy and legality of the Lagos protests of January.

  • Workers petition Presidency over oil firms’ operations

    Workers petition Presidency over oil firms’ operations

    Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has petitioned the Presidency over activities of some oil and shipping companies, resulting in the loss of revenue to the nation, as well as the union.

    In the petition routed through the Minister of Transport, it named Shell Petroleun Development Company, Pacific Drilling, Noble Drilling, Trans Ocean Sedes Forex, Red Transport and Megatop Nigeria, among the culprits.

    The petition, signed by the President-General and Secretary-General, Comrades Tony Nted and Aham Ubani, called on government to call the affected companies to order failing which the union would shut down the maritime sector.

    The petition reads in part: “We have observed with pain and disbelief the open show of impunity by some seeming powerful agents, Shipping Companies and multinationals, which specialise in anchoring and operating their vessels off-shore/midstream in naked contravention of the given conditions governing off-shore/midstream operations in our territorial waters.

    “All ships/vessels are expected to berth and operate at the conventional Sea Ports, at the hard Quays. In very exceptional cases however, ships/vessels that cannot berth at the conventional ports for declared reasons, must as of law, obtain the direct approval of the Minister of Transport; pay all statutory NPA dues and stevedoring bills; must ensure the presence of Customs, Navy, relevant Security Agencies at the point of operations to ensure that the State Security is not compromised, and the Stevedoring Companies notified for supply of the appropriate labour force – the registered Dockworkers for the operations.”

    It alleged that some of these companies operate off-shore/midstream without the mandatory approval of the Minister of Transport. They have also refused to pay the statutory NPA charges and stevedoring bills, thereby giving rise to loss of employment to Dockworkers and loss of revenue to the Government.

    “It is disheartening to note that while hiding under the cover of challenging the enforcement of these approved conditions in the Law Courts against NPA management, the Companies have not relented in perpetuating these illegal acts that encourage revenue leakages, non-payment of NPA statutory Port Charges, NIMASA levies, under-declaration of tonnage, stevedoring bills and loss/denial of gainful employment to Dockworkers, among others.”

    “These companies for example, are Pacific Drilling, Noble Drilling, Trans Ocean Sedes Forex, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Red Transport and Megatop Nigeria and host of others. We therefore call on the Federal Government as a matter of urgency to investigate closely, the activities of these defiant Off-Shore operators and put a stop to illegal off-shore operations.

    “We as an Industrial Union, whose members – the Dockworkers daily lament the loss/denial of income ,by such dubious Off-Shore Operations, wish to alert the nation that the continued failure to restore sanity and appropriate discipline in future Off-Shore/midstream Operations will attract total withdrawal of the services of our members from all the conventional Sea Ports. We have shown enough restraint on this issue and can no longer accommodate any further breach.”