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Tag: presidential committee

  • Boko Haram fighters paid $3,000 daily, says presidential committee

    A member of the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative (PCNI) , Dr. Sidi Ali Mohammed, yesterday said that members of the terrorist organisation Boko Haram are being paid $3,000 daily.

    Mohammed spoke at the presentation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Sub-Sahara Africa’s Economic Outlook Report in Abuja. According to him, the payment dwarfs the N1,000 daily allowance paid to Nigerian troops at the war front.

    Mohammed, who is the Head of the Humanitarian Assistance and Rehabilitation arm of the PCNI, lamented that Boko Haram has been hijacked and operates like a cartel. “I will give you an example. The Nigerian military, for example, gets N1, 000 per day for being in the Northeast, at the war front, as an allowance.  The same Northeast, where if you are a member of Boko Haram you get $3,000 per day, as allowance.  So it is lucrative.  Sometimes they even give you money upfront.  So we must do something about the youths from where they are recruiting.”

    His answer to the problem, he explained, is that while there is no one-solution to the Boko Haram conflict, various avenues that could guarantee peace should be explored.

    Mohammed said: “If it is amnesty that will guarantee that peace, then we have to think of it.  Most importantly, we need to deplete the army of youths on the streets and take them away from the streets so that Boko Haram does not recruit them.  Don’t forget, they (Boko Haram members) are being killed on daily basis, but they are also recruiting on daily basis.  They are getting people to recruit because it is lucrative.”

    Read also: Air Force strikes Boko Haram in Sambisa forest

    “Part of the reason why this problem has refused to go away is the abundant natural resources in the Lake Chad Region. We need to think outside the box.  It is now more like a cartel.  When you see the type of weapons they use, it is more sophisticated than the type of weapons that our military are using.”

    He likened the BoKo Haram menace “is like a guerilla warfare. As we are here discussing, if somebody here is a member of Boko Haram, he will not say anything. He goes out there to strategise and comes back.  It, therefore, means that the conventional ways of fighting a warfare cannot work here.  It, therefore, calls for thinking outside of the box.”

    Another problem identified by the PCNI member is the rejection of repentant members of Boko Haram who had been de-radicalised by his committee, working with the military but are rejected by the communities, thus creating problems of re-integration.

    Mohammed attributed the rise of the terrorist group to failure of governance. He said: “States and local governments are supposed to be closest to the people.  The local governments are supposed be closest to the people but in all honesty, are they really there?  For those of us that know the North very well, not only in the Northeast, even in the Northwest, the only time you go to the local government secretariat and you see people is 26th, 27th and 28th of the month to collect their salaries.”

    “The moment they collect their salaries, they just disappear.  90% of local government chairmen,  in the North , reside in their state capitals.  So what do we see?  That gap that has been created in terms of governance is what Boko Haram has taken advantage of. It might be news to you that Boko Haram are even collecting revenue from the people where they are operating. They collect taxes. They have government.”

    He said that the PCNEI was making efforts to counter the Boko Haram narrative , as well as, remove the youths from the streets to deny Boko Haram recruitment targets.

    The IMF economist Mr. Siddharth Kothari, noted that “conflicts cause decline in investment, trade and productivity, and destruction of physical and human capital.”

    The government he said, “has to prevent conflicts and mitigate the adverse consequences of conflicts through limiting the loss of human and physical capital, and trying to maintain well-functioning institutions.”

  • Presidential Committee on drug abuse begins work

    The Presidential Advisory Committee on Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA)  has embarked on a mission to the Southwest.

    The committee, headed by the retired brigadier-General Muhammed Buba Marwa and wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, Dolapo said the survey by the United Nations Office on Drug Control (UNODC) contains high prevalence of drug abuse.

    Speaking for the committee, Alhaji Abubakar Jimoh, the Director of Public Affairs in the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), said the report had showed that Nigeria has a national average of 14.4 per cent prevalence, which almost tripled the world average of 5.6 per cent.

    According to the report, Lagos State has the highest figure of 33 per cent followed by Oyo State with 22 per cent.

    Describing drug abuse menace as hydra-headed, Jimoh, however, said: “This was not insurmountable considering the star-studded composition of the Committee headed by General Marwa, whose antecedents in Lagos with his Operation Sweep and successful military career, are strong pointers to the fact that PACEDA is a serious-minded and achievement-oriented Committee.

    “I am very happy that General Marwa had accepted the gauntlet with the proposed launch of War Against Drug Abuse (WADA), which will further amplify and accentuate the Youth Against Drug Abuse (YADA) programme launched last December in Kano by Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye.

    “The combined forces of WADA, YADA and several interventions by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), UNODC and other agencies will surely lead to accelerated elimination of the growing monster of drug abuse in Nigeria. The committee is on that finding and advocacy visits to all the geo-political zones in the country.”

     

  • Presidential committee to appeal court’s judgment on its powers

    THE Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property says it will appeal against Court of Appeal judgment on its functions.

    The court had ruled that the panel had no powers to prosecute or seize assets of persons perceived to have fraudulently enriched themselves at the expense of Nigerians.

    The Head, Media and Communications of the panel, Ms Lucie-Ann Laha, said in a statement yesterday in Abuja that the agency was still studying the verdict and may take necessary steps to appeal against it.

    She said that the panel’s chairman, Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, was quoted out of context by an online publication, Metrolawyer, as saying that “the judgment was political as the panel was not given fair hearing”.

    Laha said the panel was “rather happy with the court’s ruling in part’’ because it affirmed its powers to investigate the assets of those who corruptly enriched themselves and contributed to economic adversity of the country.

    “Notwithstanding the judgment, Executive Order 6 of 2018 vests upon the panel as an anti-corruption agency, the powers to seize in the interim, assets and property of persons under investigation by the panel,” she said.

    The spokesperson said the panel was established in Aug. 2017 pursuant to the Recovery of Public Property Act of 2004.

    “It has a clear mandate to, among other things, investigate and recover public assets misappropriated by fraudulent individuals.

    “The panel’s personnel are drawn from the law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies, including officers and men of Nigeria Police Force, who are statutorily vested with the power to arrest when and where necessary,” she explained.

     

     

  • Boko Haram: Presidential committee develops orphanages for 56,000

    Community based orphanages are now emerging in the North-East at the instance of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiative (PCNI) to cater for children orphaned by Boko Haram insurgency in the region.

    56,000 of such children are targeted by  the project, according to the  Vice Chairman of PCNI, Alhaji Tijjani Tumsa.

    Tumsa said at a  media roundtable in Maiduguri that the move was imperative to ensure protection, survival, guaranteed child’s education and health needs and improvement of their social wellbeing.

    He explained that the committee was working in collaboration with humanitarian actors to build the capacity of Community Based Organisations (CBOs) to enable them take charge of existing orphanages in the region.

    He said: “What we are thinking of is to have orphanages that are run by local people who are desirous of taking up the orphans,” he said.

    He added: “We will like to give people the opportunity to also participate in the process. PCNI is willing to promote it through organisations that are willing to also participate in it, as sustainability is key.

    “In the last count, we have 56,000 orphans on record and that is not a small number, it is larger than most armies in West Africa, and it is a lot of process to cater for them.

    “We want to have a community based orphanages run by the local people and to be sustained by tle themselves,’’

    Tumsa also said  the committee was providing food and non-food items intervention to existing orphanages in Borno.

    According to him, the committee had supplied drugs and medical equipment, food and non-food items to the Special Orphans Learning Centre, Maiduguri, established by the North East Children’s Fund, an NGO.

    “Statistics by the Borno Government indicate  that more than 53,000 children were orphaned and 50,000 women widowed by the insurgency in the state.

    “The state government also embarked on 22 mega school projects to enroll the affected children, while some organisations and individuals also offered health and education support to the orphans in the state,’’ Tumsa said.

  • Presidential committee releases 66 inmates

    Sixty-six inmates were yesterday freed from the Kirikiri and Badagry prisons courtesy of the Presidential Committee on Prison Reforms and Decongestion.

    They had been unable to pay their fine. They were freed following the payment of their fine by the Lagos State Government and some civil society organisations and on medical grounds.

    The panel handed by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Judge Justice Ishiaq Bello, visited the prisons yesterday to release the inmates whose ages range from 19 to 63 years.

    Others on the prison visit included the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Opeyemi Oke, Attorney General, Mr Adeniji Kazeem, Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey, Justice Adenike Coker, Justice Omobolanle Okikiolu-Ighile, representative of the Federal Attorney General (AGF), Mr Pius Oteh, Assistant Comptroller General of Prisons, Mr G. Abubakar and Lagos State Controller of Prisons, Mr Tunde Ladipo, among others.

    Released from the Medium Security Prison is one Okafor, who has hernia and a big cancerous lump on his left buttocks; nine were freed from the female prison and 20 from Badagry Prison.

    Six inmates of the Kirikiri Maximum Prison whose imprisonment carried options of fine were denied freedom.

    Justice Bello said his committee did not visit the prison because it found out that they were jailed for dealing in hard drugs.

    “We believe that those who deal in hard drugs should not be sent back into the society. We have decided they should serve their full sentence”, he said.

    Also a prison inmate who was sentenced to six years with a N415,000 fine option, missed freedom because he was on anti  intro viral drugs.

    “You look healthy, agile and handsome. It is our decision that you should not be sent back to the society so that you don’t pass it around””, Justice Bello said.

    Earlier in a chat with reporters, Justice Bello said the committee’s visit was not only to decongest the prisons but also to look at the conditions under which the inmates live.

    He said the government plans to improve conditions of prisons since they are meant to be correctional centres.

    Oteh said the job of decongesting and reforming the prisons “is constantly in progress.”

    He said the committee had visited five states so far to carry out similar exercise in accordance with its mandate, adding that its experience in Lagos differed from what it experienced in other states.

    He commended Lagos state judiciary for the” leadership and trail blazing role it has been playing in prisons reform and decongestion”.

  • N1.3b charge pits Presidential Committee against AG’s Office

    Acold war is raging between officials of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OGF)and members of the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) in the Ministry of Finance over N1.3billion increase in the one per cent service charge imposed by the Inter-Ministerial Committee for PICA members.
    A document obtained by The Nation, titled: Summary of Entitlements and Pension Pay off for Nigeria Airways in Liquidation, covered 10 years pension for workers still alive, members of presidential fleet, SAHCOL retired and serving workers, Airways Properties workers, Catering, transferred pensioners and the 1988 group.
    Other components of the entitlements include arrears of pension from July 2010 to last July, and outstanding pension, from April 2012 to last July.
    Included in the N78 billion bill are one per cent administrative charge, mark up for contingencies’salaries of four retained workers working on the benefits for 12 months, office running costs for 12 months as well as a supplementary list of workers not captured during the first payment worth N3,019,292,142.
    The tussle over which body will disburse the money is coming on the heels of controversies surrounding the sudden increase in the approved one per cent administrative charge from N 734,061, 097 by the Inter-Ministerial Committee to over N2,88,472, 162 by PICA.
    Investigations reveal that the new charges were a fall-out of the third computation by PICA.
    Sources within the Finance, and Aviation Ministries and former workers of the Nigeria Airways Limited are for the rationale for the increases, which resulted in a difference of over N1,353, 411,65 without carrying the relevant committees along.
    The source said the former Nigeria Airways workers were worried that PICA, which slashed their entitlements from the proposed N80 billion to N78billion, wanted to reduce it to N43 billion, before the lid was blown open.
    Sources said the former workers wanted the PICA officials probed to stop them from denying them of their entitlements, which was supposed to be pegged at between 20 and 25 years’pension pay-off but was reduced to 15 years for the liquidation of the former national carrier by the government in 2003.
    Failure to pay the huge cash may stall the government’s efforts to deliver a national carrier.
    The outstanding severance entitlements to over 6,000 ex-workers of liquidated Nigeria Airways Limited was N78 billion.
    Investigations reveal that the payment of the N78 billion to former Airways workers is part of the conditions given by the Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika to enable government clear hurdles that may militate against the formation of a new national carrier.
    Nigeria Airways Limited was pronounced liquidated in May 2003 by the Obasanjo administration, but it took effect on September 13, 2004.
    The entitlement was arrived at after meetings between the Aviation Union Ground Alliance (AUGA), representing three aviation unions- National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria ( ATSSSAN) and National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), Ministry of Aviation and Office of Accountant-General of the Federation.
    Despite presidential approval for the N78 billion, investigations show that some forces within the system are working hard to reduce the entitlements to N43 billion as the documents to process the full payment are presently stuck in the Presidency.
    The attempts to reduce the amount have triggered fresh disagreement between officials of the Ministry of Aviation and personnel of the Presidency, in particular PICA.
    A source close to former ex- Airways workers said failure to pay the full amount will trigger litigation over plans to float any national carrier.
    The source said the former Airways workers were only paid N29.1 billion as severance benefits for five years, with agreement that the government would pay the outstanding N78 billion being severance benefits for 15 years .
    The agreement, he said, was the fallout of recommendations by the Inter-Ministerial Report of 2006 at a meeting with stakeholders in April 14, 2011 in Abuja.
    The Inter-Ministerial Committee completed its work in October 2006, recommending in addition to all earned entitlements a pension pay-off system with liabilities for 15, 20 and 25 years at N49,451,474,384.82 , N63,376,033,029.95 and N77,756,059,178.183 to be paid to the 5,415 verified beneficiaries.
    “However, those that could not present themselves for verification at the close of the Inter-Ministerial Committee sittings were later captured in a supplementary report with entitlements, amounting to N3,019,142.80 for 2, 181 staff beneficiaries,’’ he said.

  • Trial of presidential committee member stalled

    Trial of presidential committee member stalled

    •Judge insists DSS must comply with bail order

    Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, yesterday declined a request by the state to begin trial in the case against a Presidential Committee member investigating procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces, Air Commodore Umar Mohammed.
    The judge’s decision was informed by his realisation that the prosecution refused to comply with his earlier order admitting the defendant to bail.
    Mohammed, 54 years, was in late September, arraigned with his company – Easy Jet Integrated Services Limited – before Justice Tsoho on a four-count amended charge.
    The judge admitted Mohammed to bail and ordered, among others, that he should be remanded in prison custody until he met the bail conditions.
    At the resumption of proceedings yesterday, prosecution lawyer Labaran Magaji said the state was read to begin trial.
    But lead defence lawyer Hassan Liman (SAN) objected on the grounds that the court’s previous order was not complied with by the prosecution.
    He noted that his client, as against the order of the court, was still held by the Department of State Services (DSS) in its custody.
    Liman said the prosecution did not transfer the defendant to prison as ordered by the court and refused to release him even after he met the bail conditions, developments the prosecution did not deny.
    Upon being informed that the defendant was still in DSS’ custody, Justice Tsoho said he would not commence trial when his earlier orders had not been complied with.
    He said the prosecution should not be asking for trial when it was yet to comply with the court’s orders.
    The judge adjourned till December 19 for prosecution to comply with his order to release Mohammed after meeting the bail conditions.
    A similar incident played out before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba (also of the Federal High Court, Abuja) before who Mohammed and his company were earlier arraigned in July.
    Justice Dimgba admitted Umar to bail at N100 million, with two sureties at N50 million each, who could be a private citizen or public officer, with landed property in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
    Mohammed met the bail conditions, but the DSS refused to release him or transfer him to prison custody as ordered by the court.
    The judge, who was angered by the refusal of the DSS to comply with his orders, elected not to take any steps in the case until his orders were obeyed.
    The case remained stalled until it was re-assigned to Justice Tsoho’s court by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.
    Mohammed and his company were charged with money laundering, illegal possession of firearms and violation of the Official Secret Act.
    They were said to have accepted $1,030,000 from a firm, Worldwide Consortium PTY Ltd “as payment for flight services without going through a financial institution as required by law”.
    They were said to have committed the offence of money laundering contrary to sections 18 (a) and 16(1) (d) of the Money Laundering Act 2011 and punishable under Section 16(2) (b) of the Act.
    Mohammed was accused of being in illegal possession of two pump action guns (marked: SBSG Magnum 397 and SBGS Interpress 09-1573) between June 1, 2011 and June 19, 2016 without valid licences and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 4 of the Firearms Act 2004 and punishable under Section 27(1)(b)(i) of the act.
    He was also accused of having in his possession, at his No. 4 Lungi Close, Mississippi, Maitama, Abuja, home, “classified/official documents without lawful authority and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1) (b) of the Official Secret Act and punishable under Section 7 (1) (a) of the same Act.”