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Tag: Solomon Adeola

  • $16b Egina probe: $400m gas proceed unutilized

    $16b Egina probe: $400m gas proceed unutilized

    The Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Investigation of Local Content Element on Total Upstream Nigeria Limited $16 Billion Egina deep sea oil project and other related projects on Wednesday stumbled another un-utilised $400million proceed from sale of gas resources.

    The committee made the discovery when its chairman, Senator Solomon Adeola (Lagos West) requested to know from the Group General Manager of NAPIMS, Mr. Roland Ebuware who represented NNPC Group Managing Director Mr. Maikanti Baru, the fate of gas fallout of the 200,000 barrel per day Egina Oil project.

    Adeola noted that so far only the crude oil aspect of proceed is in public domain.

    Mr. Ebuware told the committee that no agreement is in place on what to do with the proceed of the gas from the project which is to be piped to Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company other than putting it in an escrow account.

    He added that a similar ongoing project, the Bonga Deep Sea Oil Project already have $400million in an Escrow account waiting for a detailed agreement on sharing formula between the Nigerian Government and the International Oil Companies (IOCs).

    He regretted that since no agreement is in place for such sharing the fund is just lying idle.

    He noted that it is expected that similar proceeds from Egina will lie idle until an agreement on sharing formula is arrived.

    He said that the Senate could come in through legislation or other instruments to ensure that such huge funds are utilized for developmental purposes.

    Vice Chairman of the committee, Senator Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom North West) expressed disbelief that such huge funds has been un-utilized for developmental purposes due to lack of agreement.

    Akpabio noted that in an era of serious budget deficits year in year out, such funds should have come handy in North East Development, the Second Niger Bridge and even payment of the monthly N5,000 benefits promised by the Federal Government to unemployed youths.

    Engineer Simbi Wabote, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) stated that in execution of the Egina projects there are infractions of the Local Content Act sometimes occasioned by exigencies of lack of capacity as well as infringement of expatriate quota adding that it is often difficult to enforce some provisions of the law as conviction through litigation process has to take place before enforcement.

    He suggested the need to amend the Local Content Act for sanctions for breaches without the long drawn litigation process adding that he will forward the various infractions to the committee as a guide in possible amendment of the law.

    Senator Adeola reiterated the need for a holistic amendment of the Local Content Act of 2010 in light of the various discoveries of the committee if the Act is to achieve it aims of allowing Nigeria to benefit from the Oil and Gas industry and prevent leakages of our foreign currency adding that such amendment will also include broadening the law to include manufacturing, ICT and construction industries.

     

     

  • $16bn Egina oil probe: Unqualified firm got N50bn contract – Senate

    $16bn Egina oil probe: Unqualified firm got N50bn contract – Senate

    The Senate ad-hoc committee investigating local content and cost variation on the $16 billion Egina deep sea oil project yesterday said that it has discovered that an unqualified firm, NOV Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited got a whopping N50 billion contract from Total Upstream Nigeria Limited.

    The committee said that this is contrary to the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Development ( NOGICD ) Act of 2010.

    It said that the discovery was made when the Managing Director of NOV Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited, Mr. Bertrand Huet, appeared before the committee to brief it on its initially awarded contract from Total Upstream Nigeria Limited of $163 million.

    It said that the contract was later varied to $200million (N50billion).

    Chairman of the committee, Senator Solomon Adeola in a statement by his Media Adviser, Chief Kayode Odunaro, noted that in course of questioning on the basis of document submitted by the company, Total Upstream, NAPIMS and Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Development Board ( NCDMB ), it was admitted by  Mr. Huet, a French citizen that that he solely owned the company without any shareholding for Nigerian.

    Adeola said that the fact admitted by Huet “completely disqualified the company from getting such contract in the oil and gas sector of the Nigerian economy.”

    He noted that by the NOGICD Act of 2010 all such companies operating in Nigeria oil and gas sector must have a shareholding of 51% for Nigerians and 49% for others to be given approval by NCDMB, the regulatory body on Local Content law.

    Adeola (Lagos West) stated that the company that got a whopping N50 billion contract is a one man business solely owned by the managing director.

    He said that it was also discovered that the company was solely incorporated to corner some aspects of the Egina Project that should have been done by Nigerians.

    Adeola said, “There is need to unveil the true identity of NOV Oil and Gas and its operations in Nigeria. Once that is done to ascertain that the company has not breached Nigeria laws in its ownership structure, we can then go into the suspicious variation of its contract from $163 million to $202million and related matter of non adherence to Local Content law that denied Nigerian opportunity for training, capacity building and transfer of technology.”

    Adeola insisted that as representative of the people, “members of the committee will not allow any foreigner to do what they cannot do in their countries in Nigeria or to engage in practices that do not meet international best practices thereby shortchanging the people of Nigeria and Nigerians.”

    Adeola also said that two similar companies AVEON, and GILS Automation engaged in the Egina Project that were billed to appear before the committee but refused risked having their chief executives arrested if they refuse to show up in the next 24 hours.

    He said that non appearance after being duly invited indicates they have something to hide in the Egina Project.

    “The companies should not allow the Senate to invoke Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic to order for a warrant of the arrest of the chief executives of these companies.” Adeola said.

    He directed the executive secretary of NCDMB to stop all dealings and approvals for the companies pending their appearance before the committee.

  • Senate invites IG-P over alleged unpaid N6.5bn revenue

    Senate invites IG-P over alleged unpaid N6.5bn revenue

    The Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Alleged Fraudulent Activities in Collection, Accounting, Remittance and Expenditure by Revenue Generating Agencies has invited the Inspector-General of Police (IG-P), Mr Ibrahim Idris, to appear before it.

    The committee’s Chairman, Sen. Solomon Adeola, said in statement signed by his Media Adviser, Mr Kayode Odunaro, on Sunday in Abuja.

    According to him, the invitation followed findings on a N6.5 billion unpaid revenue accruing from the Lagos Trade Fair Complex.

    He said, others invited to appear before the committee are the Director Generals of Directorate of State Security ( DSS ), Bureau of Public Enterprise ( BPE ) and National Council on Privatisation ( NCP ).

    Adeola said the essence of the invitation was to get the Police and DSS to assist the Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Bureau of Public Enterprise ( BPE )in recovering the money, which had accrued for over nine years.

    He said that the invitation was to also assist in ejecting the concessionaire of the Trade Fair Complex, LITFC, AULIC Nigeria Limited and recovering the complex.

    Adeola said it had become necessary to recover the 322 hectares multi billion Naira complex following a huge debt due in the N40 billion lease fees.

    Adeola quoted the Director-General of BPE, Mr Alex Okoh, as saying the concession agreement to AULIC Nigeria Limited was revoked in early September by the Federal Government.

    He further quoted Okoh as saying all efforts to eject the concessionaire including the use of the Divisional Police at the complex and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC ) proved abortive.

    Adeola said findings showed that “after the initial fees of N200 million paid by the concessionaire in 2007 and another N12 million, it has not paid a dime to the federal government, with outstanding revenue of N6.5 billion.

    “The concessionaire has bastardised the trade fair complex with hospitality and real estate businesses without approved plans.

    “It is shocking that an individual or corporate organisation could operate so lawlessly, withholding federal government revenue, while contravening a government revocation order of his concessionaire agreement.

    “What we need to do at this point is to recover the Trade Fair Complex from the concessionaire and subsequently pursue the issue of N6.5 billion unremitted federal government revenue.

    “Since the local police cannot handle the ejection with the concessionaire still operating and collecting revenue using all manner of tactics including thuggery, we are inviting the IG-P and DG-DSS to address this illegal challenge on the authority.

    “I am surprised that anyone can flagrantly operate as if he is above the law and the government,’’ the statement read in part.

    NAN

  • Ogun Central APC chair endorse Adeola’s guber bid

    Ogun Central APC chair endorse Adeola’s guber bid

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman in Ogun Central Senatorial District, Hon. Kunle Adesina, on Monday threw his weight behind Senator Solomon Adeola 2019 governorship ambition.

    Addressing a huge crowd at the residence of another APC chieftain in the state, Hon. Segun Osibote, in Ijebu Ife, at the weekend, Adesina said it is important that Ogun West aspirant gets the state governorship ticket.

    He said: “We cannot continue to rotate the governorship slot between Ogun Central and Ogun East. As our governor has said, it is only fair and just to support the aspiration of Ogun West this time around.”

    Other politicians who spoke at the event are former Commissioner for Chieftaincy Affairs in Ogun, Aare Tunde Alabi; former chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Hon. Mufutau Ajibola; a former commissioner in the state, Chief Samuel Aiyedogbon and the host.

    Adeola thanked those at the gathering for supporting his 2019 governorship ambition.

     

  • How varsities cook up figure to evade payment of IGR – Senate

    How varsities cook up figure to evade payment of IGR – Senate

    The Chairman of Senate ad-hoc Committee on Misuse, Non Remittance and Fraudulent acts of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by government agencies, Senator Solomon Adeola, on Wednesday accused university administrators of cooking up figures in the yearly accounts to evade payment of operating surpluses.

    Adeola said money involved runs into hundreds of millions naira.

    He said the universities failed to pay the money to the government as revenue as required by the Constitution and the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

    Speaking during the committee investigative hearing of Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, Adeola noted that so far all the 12 federal universities that have so far appeared before the committee presented fictitious documents with contradictory figures all in an attempt to justify why they did not remit a kobo to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federal government as required by extant laws.

    He said: “It is regrettable that the financial management of our universities is in such a terrible state with many of them like the FUT, Minna presenting obviously fictitious documents and figures all in an attempt to exonerate themselves from non remittances of revenue generated while completely expending all revenues generated on sometimes frivolous expenditure heads.

    “I believe there is serious fraud going on in FUT, Minna which will be revealed as they cannot reconcile the figures in their financial presentation.”

  • Senator Adeola seeks varsities at Yaba, Ilaro

    Senator Adeola seeks varsities at Yaba, Ilaro

    Senator Solomon Adeola (APC, Lagos West) yesterday commenced move for the establishment of federal universities at Yaba, Lagos State and Ilaro in Ogun State as part of his legislative agenda for educational development of the country.

    The Senator presented two bills in the Senate for the upgrade of two prominent tertiary educational institutions into technological universities namely Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos State and Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State.

    The bills “Federal University of Technology, Yaba (Est.,etc) Bill, 2017” and “Federal University of Technology, Ilaro, 2017” passed first reading for further legislative actions.

    Speaking on the need for the upgrade of the two institutions into universities, Senator Adeola  said that there is need to continue to expand and create institutions of learning in view of the massive growth of the country’s population.

    He added that the need to keep up with human resource development needs of the country made mandatory to upgrade of the two institution to further add impetus to the country’s technological advancement .

    He said, “We have serious shortages of spaces for our youths to get requisite and quality education. These two institutions have excelled in time past in providing middle and top grade level of human resources for the nation. Their upgrade will advance their capacities to further develop our youth for the challenges of a technological society.”

    Senator Adeola further stated that the passage of the bills and establishment of the two universities will further redress educational imbalance in the areas they are located in terms of huge population and the non existence of such institutions in the area of location particularly in Ogun West axis of Ogun state.

     

  • Senate summons ministers, AGF, four firms over e-passport deals

    Senate summons ministers, AGF, four firms over e-passport deals

    The Senate ad hoc committee investigating alleged misuse, under remittance, and other fraudulent activities in the collection, remittance and expenditure of internally generated revenue by MDAs has invited the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, Minister of Interior, General Danbazzau and  Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris over alleged shady deals in the production and sale of e-passport.

    Also summoned by the committee to shed light on the multi-billion naira production and sale of e-passport includes four companies.

    They are to appear before the Senator Solomon Adeola led committee to explain their roles on e-Passport production and other immigration related issues that the companies performed on behalf of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS). The firms were said to have entered into public private partnership (PPP) arrangement with the NIS over the years.

    The invited companies included Contec Nigeria Ltd, Greater Washington Nigeria Ltd, New work Solution and Investment Ltd, and Iris Smart Technologies which works on e-passport production, expatriate residence permit and alien card and related immigration.

    The companies are also said to have contractual agreements to perform some revenue generating service on behalf of the NIS “with the companies withholding a hefty percentage of revenue that would have accrued to the Federal Government.”

    Senator Adeola issued the invitation following the presentation made by the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. Mohammed Babandede, on the revenue profile of the service. The committee wanted to know how generated revenue, “running into billions of naira and dollar, were shared by the companies, NIS and the Federal Government.”

    Adeola said, “I am at loss why huge part of revenue generated by NIS continued to be paid to private firms in the name of PPP that should actually be based on Build Operate and Transfer (BOT).

    “We cannot continue to deny Nigerians the benefits that would accrue to them through increase revenue to government coffers instead of huge earnings for private concerns.

    “This is an area that government can generate huge revenue. There is need to get clarifications on this issue from all the parties involved.”

    The CG of NIS, in his presentation, noted that the reasons for entering into PPP arrangement at the time the government did was attributed to inadequate funding and late release of budgeted sums, multiple acquisition of travel documents and poor revenue generation. He added that the private partners provided all the funding while money realized in the course of issuing facilities is shared with government in order to allow the private partners recoup their investment.

    The Immigration boss said that for the period of investigation by the Senate between 2012-2016 total remittance to Federal Government stood at over N17 billion and over$112million.

    He noted that “revenue accruing to government has increased almost a hundred fold since the introduction of these (PPP) agreements”.

  • I’ll represent all, says Adeola

    I’ll represent all, says Adeola

    The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts and All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate for Lagos West, Solomon Adeola, has promised to represent all ethnic groups, if elected.

    Adeola made the pledge when some leaders of the Arewa Community in Lagos visited his campaign office in Ikeja.

    He said:  “Our district is mini Nigeria in all sense of the word with every ethnic group in Nigeria present and living here. I am going to ensure that in whatever I am doing as your elected officer,  these multiplicity of interests must be put into consideration.”

    Adeola said his cognate legislative experience spanning over a decade representing a part of the district, Alimosho that is equally multi ethnic in nature put him in good position to do the work without any hitches adding that the electorate.

  • N10b cash on jet: Speaker halts probe

    N10b cash on jet: Speaker halts probe

    •Members split, discover plan to blackmail them

    A directive from the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon.  Aminu Tambuwal, to the House Committee on Public Accounts  to suspend the ongoing probe of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke,  has not gone down well with some of the members.

    They want to defy him and continue with the assignment, The Nation  has learnt.

    The minister is accused of spending N10billion on chartered jet.

    Speaker Tambuwal had asked that the probe be suspended in view of the current mood of the nation occasioned by the Chibok abductions.

    The panel is said to have discovered alleged  plan to blackmail its members on phantom bribery .

    The Committee Chairman, Solomon Adeola, has sworn that neither he nor any member has compromised in any way.

    The Nation gathered that the Speaker told the Panel members that the House would appear insensitive to the plight of the abducted school girls if it continued with the probe now.

    It was learnt that apart from confiding in committee chairman and members, the Speaker also made his position known at the House plenary.

    But some members of the committee were said to have disagreed with the position of the Speaker.

    They alleged sell-out by some of their colleagues with a view to frustrating the probe.

    They said since the court had clarified that it did not stop investigation into the chartered jet, there was no basis for suspending investigation temporarily.

    The development provoked tension  with the committee chairman, Adeola,  having to swear to those casting doubt on the integrity of the panelists that  no one had compromised.

    Adeola vowed to do a good job rather than compromising in any form.

    A highly-placed source said: “The Speaker directed the committee to suspend investigation because of the pulse of the nation. Tambuwal said there was no point heating up the polity with the probe at a time Nigerians are desirous of rescuing the abducted 276 girls.

    “I think the Speaker was more concerned about the image of the House than the insinuations that he was trying to bow to pressure.

    “To show that he had no ill-motive, the Speaker justified why the probe should be halted during a plenary in the week. So, what is this noise all about?”

    A member of the committee said: “Some of us are suspicious because the search for the abducted girls has nothing to do with an investigation that was almost completed.

    “We believe we should not bow to terrorists by grounding government activities either in the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.

    “We are insisting that we should continue the probe, even if it means quietly, and come up with our findings. Or else, Nigerians will not know the truth and the personalities of some people are already painted in bad light.”

    Another source in the committee said: “We had a little disagreement on Thursday on why the investigation should be suspended. But it is one of those things in legislative business. We will resume at the appropriate time the House leadership deems fit.”

    A third member of the committee expressed sadness that some people have started blackmailing members of the panel for respecting the Speaker’s directive.

    The source added: “They have been levelling allegations against us for no just cause. They said some of us collected $3million, others $1.5million and $1million.

    “In fact, some of us had been called by our relations and advisers to find out the truth or otherwise about the phantom bribery allegation.

    “At a stage, some of us confronted the Chairman of the committee, Hon. Solomon Adeola, who almost shed tears. He swore in a hard manner that he has not compromised and will never do so.

    “No one should pre-empt the outcome of the ongoing investigation. These blackmailers should not stampede the committee.

    “We are aware that there is no legal inhibition but the Speaker’s advice is also timely. And the Speaker did not meet with the committee members secretly; he addressed the plenary on why the investigation should be suspended temporarily.”

    Disturbed by the development, the Speaker on Friday spoke with some members of the committee that he was not trying to gag them.

    He reportedly told them that the House would conclude the investigation “but the mood of the nation now is about how to rescue these innocent girls.”

    The committee had on April 28 resumed investigation into the controversial Challenger 850 aircraft.

    The Minister of Petroleum Resources and the NNPC have gone to court on some issues relating to the probe.

  • Reps raise alarm over missing ammunitions

    Reps raise alarm over missing ammunitions

    Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on Monday raised an alarm over 57,000 (5.6mm) live ammunitions sold by three officers of the Nigerian Police Force Headquarters in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State in 2008.

    The committee said it was interested in whom the ammunitions was sold to and those that collaborated in selling them.

    The members of the committee headed by Solomon Adeola thereafter summoned the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar to come and shed light how it is possible for the internal control mechanism of the Police to permit such an act.

    Chairman of the committee, Adeola said the House committee will have to fully investigate the incident, noting that it is such acts that cause proliferation of firearms in the country with its attendant security implications.

    The revelation came during an investigative session with the Police.

    The Auditor General’s report said that audit inspection of the records maintained at the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Ado- Ekiti revealed that 57,000 (5.6 mm) live ammunitions were lost between January 2009 and May 2010.

    Besides, the report stated that a total of 18 rifles including AK 47s and 3 pistols were lost within the same period.