Singer 9ice is set to combine music and politics, as reports reaching Pulse.ng has it that the artiste will be running for electoral position in the 2015 general elections.

9ice to participate in 2015 elections

Singer 9ice is set to combine music and politics, as reports reaching Pulse.ng has it that the artiste will be running for electoral position in the 2015 general elections.

The music star 9ice has announced plans to run for political office in 2015, specifically as a House of Representatives member representing the Ogbomoso North Constituency in the National Assembly.

9ice who has had difficulty reviving his musical career, might have thrown in the towel, capitalizing on his popularity in his home state to give himself a new lease of life.

9ice is not the first musician to toe the line between entertainment and politics. He joins a growing list of entertainers who have taken the dive into Nigerian music.

Actor Richard Mofe-Damijo, singer Tony One Week, actress Nkiru Sylvanus, and many others have all actively participated at different levels of governance

Council Chairmen Accuse Uduaghan Of Trading With SURE-P Funds Through Unknown Accounts

Posted: Jan, 12 2014, 9:01AM

Governor Emmanuel Udughan of Delta State

Several transition committee chairmen in the twenty-five local government areas of Delta State have accused Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of using the Subsidy Re-investment Program (SURE-P) funds meant for the councils to trade with banks.
Some of the council chairmen, angry over what they called an unnecessary delay in the release of the funds, told SaharaReporters that the governor has failed to release funds SURE-P funds to them to use in pertinent projects.
The council chairmen alleged that the governor deposits the funds into some banks for several months to yield interest that they believe Mr. Uduaghan then pockets.
“The Federal government releases the funds every month along with every other allocation accruing to the local and state governments. As soon as the allocations get to the state, the governor will release them to the councils though with massive deductions. But the SURE-P funds he will lodge into an unknown bank account to yield bountiful interest for several months. And when releasing the funds at last, the interest goes straight into his private pockets. This has been going on since the SURE-P came to be,” a spokesman for a group of the council chairmen alleged.
He added that the interest accruing on the deposits should go to local government councils, not to the state governor.
The council chairmen also accused the state governor of making illegal deductions from their normal monthly allocations as well as leaving the responsibility for paying a huge chunk of primary school teacher salaries to them.
“The state government’s contributions to the primary school teachers’ salaries are not up to 30%, but at every opportunity [Governor Uduaghan] will shout at the top of his voice that the state is footing the bulk of the teachers’ salaries. We challenge him to come before the public with facts and figures that we council chairmen receive the actual normal monthly allocations as released from the federal government and to show the public with facts and figures the actual monthly contributions to the primary school teachers’ salaries. We are really sick and tired of all these corrupt practices going on.”
One of the chairmen said, “We recently went for a meeting Governor Uduaghan called. A few of us approached him about the SURE-P funds, especially the unnecessary and continuous delay. We [had] heard that the funds were to be released sometime between November and December last year, but all of a sudden we never heard anything again. Guess the surprise response the governor gave to us? He told us in pidgin, ‘Una don spoil me tire, una don tire abi? When una dey talk say I be bad and wicked man everywhere, una don tire, so una need the money abi, for what? Abeg make una talk another matter jare.’ And that was how the issue died immediately.”
The source added: “We have been trying to tread with caution as far as the issue of the SURE-P funds are concerned because we are always threatened with dissolution and we have no option than to maintain our cool, but we discovered that the more we keep our cool the more things get out of hands. However, this time around we have decided that let the worst happen. After all we were given only six months and we have spent over a year now in office.”
One of the chairmen alleged that the governor was amassing a huge cash to pay for his senatorial ambition in 2015.
The council chairmen said that the governor’s desire to keep reaping huge interests from SURE-P funds was perhaps the reason for his reluctance to hold local government elections.
“Just calculate how much interest the SURE-P funds must have yielded since the program commenced. We are talking of billions of naira interest here,” one of the council men said.
At a press conference held at Government House, Asaba on Thursday, Mr. Uduaghan reacted furiously to the allegation that he was filching SURE-P funds. He said that, unless the names of the chairmen who made the allegation were revealed, he would have no option than to dissolve the councils.
Mr. Uduaghan challenged the council chairmen to come forward with details of any unknown accounts where the SURE-P funds are allegedly been kept. He added that the SURE-P funds had created a series of crises in the councils because of mismanagement.
A source at Government House, Asaba told SaharaReporters that Mr. Uduaghan was irate that the disaffected local government chairmen had taken their case to SaharaReporters. “His Excellency has said he must summon them over their decision to go to [SaharaReporters],” the source said.
Last year, some heads of personnel management (HPM) as well as several chairmen of local government councils in Delta State had accused the state’s commissioner of local government affairs, Newworld Safugha, of demanding and receiving millions of naira in kickbacks.
The officials told our correspondent that the commissioner routinely demands monthly kickbacks from the local councils’ monthly allocations. “Any council that fails to oblige will see pepper,” one of the local government transitional chairmen.
A source also told SaharaReporters, “In those days when HPMs were overseeing the councils before inauguration of transition committee chairmen last year, the chairman of Local Government Service Commission, Ms. Nkem Okuofor, was always collecting kickbacks from HPMs across the state as soon allocations came.”

APC And PDP Clash In Sokoto

Posted: Jan, 12 2014, 9:01AM

Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Muktari Shagari

Thugs loyal to the governor of Sokoto state, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko went wild today and set ablaze some structures belonging to members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
In retaliation, the PDP thugs in support of the Deputy Governor, Barrister Mukhtari Shehu Shagari also attacked the APC members in retaliation and injured many in a free for all fight with dangerous weapons such as knives and cutlasses freely used by assailants on both side.
An eyewitness confirmed to SaharaReporters that  All Progressives Congress (APC) thugs on motorcycles stormed a PDP youth joint in Runjin Sambo area and engaged them in a physical combat before setting the place ablaze.
Eyewitness said they heard them chanting SAI ALU WALLAHI as they disembarked from their motorcycles and start beating people up around the PDP stand. At first the youth they met there resisted, but after some serious fighting the PDP thugs overpowered them and sent them away. They set the stand ablaze before leaving.
SaharaReporters learnt that the PDP thugs regrouped later and also attack some structures of APC mostly large billboards of Governor Wamakko recently mounted in a strategic location in the state capital after he announced his defection to All Peoples Congress.
This signal the returns of political violence in the state like the one witnessed in the year 2007. The fight may not be unconnected with the recent reception accorded the deputy governor on Friday after he returned from Abuja.
The Deputy Governor said he remains loyal to PDP and will never decamp to any other political party despite the fact that his boss has already decamped to the opposition APC. The PDP at the national level has since appointed Mr. Shagari as the party leader in the state.

Police Fire Rubber bullets And Teargas At Senator Magnus Abe In Port Harcourt

Posted: Jan, 12 2014, 7:01AM

A Nigeria Senator from Rivers State was today shot at point blank range with rubber bullets during a rally in Port Harcourt.
Policemen in the state tried disrupting a scheduled opposition rally in the city’s College of Arts and Science by teargassing those in attendance and residents in the area.
Senator Magnus Abe was reportedly shot at with rubber bullets on his chest after he appeared on the scene to inquire from the police team the reason they disrupted the early morning rally. The Senator claimed the order to shoot him was given by the Joseph Mbu, the controversial police commissioner of Rivers state
The Senator is currently in hospital receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital in Port Harcourt.

German guillotin

GERMAN officials have discovered a guillotine the Nazis used to execute three resistance heroes in 1943, posing a dilemma about whether it would be in good taste to put it on public display.
The contraption was gathering dust in a storeroom of the Bavarian National Museum in Munich.
Embarrassed officials said on Friday they recalled its use in a previous museum exhibition where it was shown chopping off the heads of toys.
At that time it was not realised the machine had been used to execute members of the White Rose, a secret circle of non-violent university students who spread leaflets in Munich criticising the Nazis.
Evidence showed the machine put to death Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst on February 22, 1943 in Munich's Stadelheim Jail, museum expert Sybe Wartena said.
In all, the Nazis killed seven White Rose members.
Consultations will begin on how to exhibit the guillotine, Ludwig Spaenle, Bavaria's minister of the arts, told DPA.
"It's not an item to exhibit disrespectfully."
The White Rose has sacred status in Germany, where the vast majority of people fell in line behind Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
The only other serious resistance group, army officers behind a vain plot to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, were also brutally crushed.
The White Rose members' writings came out of copyright a week ago, 70 years after their deaths, and became public-domain documents.

Governor Adams Oshiomole Gives Bold Child Plantain Hawker N1million

Governor Adams Oshiomole is all shades of benevolent now, his latest act of kindness coming yesterday.

The former NLC chairman reportedly gave a N1million cheque to a girl hawking plantains at New Benin by Total filling station in Benin City.

The Governor and his entourage were reportedly passing by and as usual, he was on foot, while his cars were on the move when some children hawking (with their goods on their heads), got scared and took to their heels.

However, a little girl hawking Plantain chips stood still and greeted the governor instead of joining others to escape.

Stunned by her boldness, Gov. Oshiomole allegedly walked up to her, brought out his pen and wrote her a cheque of one million naira.

Excitedly, she threw her plantain chips away and began to scream with joy, and at same time thanking the governor for his kindness and generosity.

Japan Proposes 'Super-Maglev' Train Connecting Baltimore to D.C. in 15 Minutes

Image credit: theverge.com

Could high speed trains, long envisioned to connect America's vast expanses and decongest its axes of commute, soon become a reality?

The Japanese government is so keen on its Super-Maglev (magnetic levitation) technology that it has offered to partially fund construction of a train that will reportedly travel from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. in 15 minutes, according to The Telegraph.

The 38-mile journey from Baltimore to D.C. now takes approximately 45 minutes on Amtrak.

Central Japan Railway Company--Japan's biggest high speed rail operator--said in Asahi Shimbun, a local newspaper, that it would pay for half of the estimated $8 billion in construction costs.

Maglev technology uses electromagnetics to propel carriages that float above the ground within a guide way, eliminating friction from wheels and allowing for the aerodynamically-designed vehicles to reach speeds upwards of 310 mph in tests.

The railway was initially discussed by President Obama and Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, in February, with a line spanning the 438 miles between D.C. and Boston also proposed.

Japan hopes to make the line operational in the next decade, with the goal of encouraging other regions in the states to adapt the technology.

PHOTONEWS : Panic in Gusau As Fuel Tanker Explodes In Fiery Fireball

Posted: Jan, 08 2014, 8:01AM

There was pandemonium  in Gusau, Zamfara State early this morning as a petrol tanker exploded along Igala Quarters by-pass  instantly killing three people.   
  The tanker which belong to Conoil was negotiating a sharp bend opposite NNPC mega station when it skidded off the road and somersaulted several times before exploding into a huge fireball .
An eyewitness said that the driver and two other occupants of the tanker were killed instantly in the inferno.  "The tanker loaded with petrol was on high speed and fell at this corner and went up in flames immediately . The driver lost control of the vehicle because of the high speed”, said the eyewitness.
  Fire fighters were seen on the scene of the incident battling  to put off the fire as time of this report  .  Many residents earlier believed it was a bomb attack when a huge smoke billowed the sky.

Lagos State House Assembly Offers Million Naira Reward After Pepper Seller Sodomy Case Hearing

Posted: Jan, 08 2014, 1:01PM

Lagos State House Assembly lawmakers frustrated over the lack of information about the perpetrators of an alleged sodomy of two Ejigbo women, is today offering a reward of N1.25M for any information.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Ajibayo Adeyeye announced the reward of Naira 1M for information leading to an arrest, and said he would personally add N250,000.
The reward is offered following a public hearing today at the Lagos State House Assembly where testimony was heard from the Chairman of the Ejigbo Local Government, Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Police Department, civil society leaders, community leaders and market women.
Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, President of the Women Arise for Change asked that the video of the sodomy be played at the hearing, which it was.
The video first aired on the internet in February 2013, and shows a faceless gang attacking two women, unidentified, stripping them naked, and thrusting ground pepper and hard sticks into the genitals of one of them and covering her in a heavy liquid.  A second victim, a teenage girl, was tortured as well. 
Dr Odumakin lead a protest to the House Assembly on December 23, 2013, to demand a proper investigation into the alleged sodomy case, concerned that no one knows whether the women survived the torture.
Odumakin has accused Bamigbetan and the police of doing little to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan said in his testimony, which included a long Facebook thread, that he had done everything he could to find the culprits.
Ejigbo police and members of the community also added nothing about who the gang members might be.
SaharaReporters said in their report from December 12 there were conflicting reports from police and local government about the controversial case.

President Jonathan Plans To Force CBN Governor Sanusi Out Of Office As Central Bank Governor

Posted: Jan, 09 2014, 6:01AM

President Goodluck Jonathan and several of his close aides met today to remove the Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi from office after the governor told his staff yesterday that he can only be removed by the President if 2/3rd majority members of the Nigerian Senate decides against him in a vote.
 Faced with that difficult choice since majority of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have decamped to the All Progressives Party (APC), the President and his aides decided on the new strategy which was to suspend the Central Bank Governor and use security agencies to prevent him from entering the premises of the bank until the end of his tenure in June 2014.
Mr. Sanusi became a high value target for the President and his team after a letter he penned to the President in September 2013 about the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC. In the letter Mr. Sanusi accused the corporation of stealing $50 billion from proceeds of crude oil sales.
The later was later leaked to the press. SaharaReporters was first to reveal the content of the letter.
Mr. Jonathan and his aides of accuse Mr. Sanusi of conniving with opposition politicians including former President Olusegun Obasanjo to bring down the Jonathan regime by leaking the letter.
The meeting today calculated that if Mr. Sanusi is suspended, he will go to court to seek redress while the President then appoints current Deputy Governor of Financial System Stability, Kingsley Moghalu as interim CBN Governor to oversee the affairs of the bank until a substantive governor is appointed in June.
Sources at the Presidency told SaharaReporters that because Mr. Sanusi has remained adamant in exposing the corruption perpetrated by the NNPC, insisting that a proper audit of the account of the corporation be carried out by an external auditor especially after the NNPC could not still account for $18 billion in crude oil sale between January 2012 and December 2013 in recent accounts reconciliation meetings between the CBN and NNPC.

US Education Department, California-based University Confirm Stella Oduah’s Honorary Ph.D Is Fake 

By Musikilu Mojeed

The American National Centre for Education Statistics has told PREMIUM TIMES that the Pacific Christian University, Glendale, which Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, claimed awarded her a doctorate degree, does not exist, confirming this newspaper’s Wednesday’s report that the minister’s purported honorary Ph.D is fake.
The National Centre for Education Statistics is an agency under the U.S. Department of Education.
Responding to a PREMIUM TIMES’ inquiry, the spokesperson for the agency, which maintains a comprehensive and up-to-date database of all American public and private educational institutions, said, “Thank you for your inquiry. I do not see a university in our database that is Pacific Christian University in Glendale”.
She however suggested that the closest to Pacific Christian University in the database might be Hope International University in Fullerton which she believed used to be known as Pacific Christian College.
Contacted,  Every Delarosa of the registrar’s office at Hope International University confirmed that the institution used to be known as Pacific Christian College and not Pacific Christian University as Mrs. Oduah indicated in her resume.
Even at that, Ms. Delarosa insisted Mrs. Oduah could not be referring to Hope University because the institution changed its name from Pacific Christian College in 1997 while Mrs Oduah claimed she was awarded a doctorate in Business Administration 1998.
The Hope University official also explained that the institution, even when it was known as Pacific Christian College, had never had a campus in Glendale. She said the university was based in Long Beach city at the time.
“We do not have any records of any candidate by the name Stella Oduah or related names,” Ms. Delarosa said, after pouring through the university record. “Whether now that we are Hope University and in the past when we were Pacific Christian College, we did not give any such person a degree here.”
This newspaper had Wednesday reported that the aviation minister lied on oath to the Nigerian Senate, by claiming that a Pacific Christian University awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in 1998.
Mrs. Oduah had made the claim in a 7-page resume she distributed to Nigeria’s 109 senators during her confirmation hearing on July 2, 2011.
On page four of the document, the minister claimed the university, which she said was based in Glendale, awarded her an honorary doctorate in Business Administration.
Download the resume Minister Stella Oduah submitted to the senate here.
It was based on this document that she was grilled and eventually confirmed by the lawmakers.
But investigations by PREMIUM TIMES had determined Wednesday that no university called Pacific Christian University existed in the United States.
The U.S. Department of Education, through its National Centre for Education Statistics, keeps an up-to-date database of all public libraries and educational institutions in the country – public, private  and colleges.
PREMIUM TIMES reporters spent hours on Wednesday searching this database.
Our reporters searched by state (California), city (Glendale) and name of institution (Pacific Christian University). Y
et, nothing came up in the name of the university Mrs. Oduah claimed gave her an honorary doctorate.
According to the database, there are six colleges (universities) in Glendale,  a city of 191,719 inhabitants in Los Angeles County, in the state of California.
The colleges are American Medical Sciences Centre, Brand College, Glendale Career College, Glendale Community and North-West College.
There is no such university known as Christian Pacific College as claimed by the minister.
Efforts by PREMIUM TIMES to get the spokespersons for the minister to comment for this story were unsuccessful.
Joe Obi, her special assistant on media, did not answer or return calls.
Yakubu Datti, the spokesperson of the aviation agencies, who usually speak for her, answered our call but immediately said he would call back. He is yet to do so as at the time of publishing this.
Mrs. Oduah, and her associates have been cleaning up the minister’s biographies on the Internet, following allegations that she lied about her academic qualifications.
The minister claimed she got Bachelor and Masters degrees from St. Paul’s College.
But after it became clear she might not have earned a Masters from that university, Mrs. Oduah edited her biography on the website of the Ministry of Aviation, with references to St. Paul’s College removed.
The Wikipedia page of the minister was also edited and it now has no reference to the university Mrs. Oduah attended. The last edit on the Wikipedia page was done at 14:41 p.m. Nigerian time Tuesday.
All links and reference materials on the Wikipedia page capable of linking the minister to the university were also deleted.
Even the minister’s personal website  was reviewed to remove any reference to St. Paul’s College.
Mrs. Oduah had since October been enmeshed in a a N255 million armoured cars scandal in which she was accused of compelling an agency under her supervision, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to buy her two exotic bullet cars at clearly inflated prices.
The purchase of the cars generated outrage for weeks because its cost was inflated, and it was neither listed in the government-approved budget nor did it comply with the Nigeria’s public procurement law.
The House of Representatives has since asked President Goodluck Jonathan to sack the minister but the president has failed to act.

Police Confirms Arrest of Controversial Lagos Pastor, Sign Fireman over Alleged Ritual Murder Of A Virgin Girl

Pastor Sign Fireman

Controversial Lagos miracle Pentecostal priest, Pastor Ofuche Ukoha (also known as) "Sign Fireman" has been implicated in a ritual murder scandal involving a boy in his church who strangled 12 year old teenage girl while trying to obtain feces from her for ritual purposes.
The disclosure of Pastor Fireman's involvement in the scandal was made by an eighteen year old boy paraded by the police in Lagos. The teenage suspect stated during the parade that he was sent on the ritual mission by Pastor  Fireman.
He said he had always dreamt of becoming rich and had approached the pastor personally, after years of attending the church without his own financial miracle happening, Mr. Fireman reportedly told him the way to get his Sign for finance was to get the feces of a virgin girl. The suspect said Pastor Fireman promised him a reward of N100,000 for the assignment.
The suspect narrated how he sought and killed the 12 year old girl simply named "Bose", the daughter of poor lady on his street.
Confirming the incident to a Lagos correspondent this morning, Lagos Police PRO, Mrs. Ngozi Braide said Pastor Fireman was arrested on Tuesday five days after he was declared wanted by the police. She said investigation has commenced regarding his involvement.
She also said the outcome of the investigation would  soon be made public.
With his church receiving hordes of miracle seekers every weekend, Pastor Fireman's church auditorium at Aguda, Surulere area of Lagos is reportedly notorious for using semi-nude female ushers.
The pastor was a subject of a UK-based Channel 4 documentary carried by journalistSeyi Rhodes of Channel 4's "Unreported World" in 2011.

"Nigeria's Millionaire Preachers" with Seyi Rhodes from Sahara Reporters on Vimeo.

First Lady Patience Jonathan Orders Rivers Police Commissioner Mbu To Release Arrested Armed Thugs Of Her Political Allies

In a rare show of power she constitutionally doesn't have, Nigeria's First Lady Patience Jonathan has reportedly ordered the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, to release the armed thugs of her close political allies, Senator George Sekibo and Evans Bipi.
The six men were arrested on Friday by the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in Ogu, the hometown of the two politicians, and they were handed over to the police for prosecution.
But SaharaReporters has authoritatively learned that Mrs. Jonathan ordered Mr. Mbu to release the suspects as well as return to them the arms and ammunition that were found in their possession.  It is as yet unclear if Mbu has complied with the order, but Mr. Bipi, a former domestic aide of Mrs. Jonathan, is understood to be actively trying to ensure the release.
Meanwhile a crisis of confidence seems to have erupted between the JTF/Army and the police in Rivers State concerning how the story, which was broken by Saharareporters, leaked to the media.  Mbu is said to have complained loudly that the Army/JTF must have leaked the story to the media.
The police commissioner is further said to have lamented that the other security agencies (Army, Navy, Airforce, SSS) in the State are not helping him and the police at all in the fight against Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi.  According to our source, he is citing the arrest of the six men and the subsequent leakage of the story as an example of such lack of cooperation, arguing that had the arrest been made by the Rivers State police command, the media would not have heard about it.
A source within the JTF/Army has however dismissed Mbu's claims, describing them as ridiculous and preposterous. The source maintained that the army does not get involved in politics and certainly does not take sides in political fights, calling Mbu a joker if he expects the army to do otherwise.
The source further stated that Mbu should look inside the police concerning how the story got to the media, saying that it was after the Army handed over the suspects to the police for prosecution that the story went public.
It would be recalled that the six armed youths were arrested by the JTF on Friday on their way to Ogu in Ogu Bolo Local Government Area.  They had on them several AK-47 rifles arrested six youths bearing seven AK47, 146 rounds of 7.62mm Special life ammunition and 10 life magazines.
Their names were given as Daniel Ibito-Anga, Sunday Elisha, Uche Jenikachi, Ibinabo Lawson, and Okechukwu Okoro.  Their leader, Ibito-Anga, is known to present himself as Security Adviser/PA to both Senator George Sekibo as well as State Assemblyman Bipi.
Sekibo and Bipi hail from Ogu and are known to be very close allies of Mrs. Jonathan.

JTF In Kano Reports Midnight Seizure of Armed Terrorist

The Joint Task Force (JTF) has announced the arrest of one “terrorist” on Saturday following a midnight assault on a residence in Kazuare Local Government Area, Jigawa State.
In a press statement today, a spokesman said the arrest followed extensive intelligence build-up upon which troops of the Third Brigade in the area conducted the midnight assault on the residence and made the arrest after a gun battle.  
In addition to the arrest, three women and three toddlers were “extricated unhurt,” the statement said.
“Five AK 47 rifles, five magazines, and 333 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition and various improvised explosive devices were recovered from the residence on further search. Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect is an Improvised Explosive Devices manufacturer and his residence a staging ground for terrorist activities in Kano.”
JTF recalled its earlier alert to the public of terrorists about fleeing major theatres of operation in the Northeast axis to ‘cooler’ areas due to pressure being mounted on them by the ongoing military operations in these areas.
“Members of the general public are once again enjoined to continue complimenting the efforts of the JTF by carrying out thorough checks on the background of persons who wish to let properties especially in cool zones or out skirt areas of major towns,” the statement said.  “The 3 Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Kano would not allow its area of operational responsibility to be used as haven for terrorists. The appeals of the JTF will continue to be complimented with the destruction of properties terrorists reside in and the arrests of their owners.”
It again called on all residents not to relent in the fight against terrorist elements by reporting any suspicious persons regardless of gender for immediate action so as to prevent the loss of life and property.

President Jonathan Seeks N1.8billion To Fund Ghost Project

Posted: Jan, 04 2014, 3:01AM

President Goodluck Jonathan cutting a ribbon

President Goodluck Jonathan is asking the National Assembly to appropriate about N1.8 billion this year to help connect his home state of Bayelsa, to the national electricity grid, but this request suggests that federal officials only want to pocket the money.
PREMIUM TIMES investigations into the proposed project reveal that President Jonathan is asking money for projects that have been completed seven years ago, and that were all fully paid for in 2006 when he was the governor of the state.
In the 2014 Federal budget recently presented by the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to the National Assembly for consideration and approval, the government lists as priority, the need to connect the state to the national electricity transmission network, but this shocking blunder is drawing attention to the absence of project monitoring and evaluation principles in policy making under the current administration, and the shabbiness that attends to budget preparation.
When contacted, the Special Adviser to the President on Power, Beks Dagogo-Jack, could not explain how the provision found its way into the budget, but claimed the issue might involve some complicated technical explanations only the bureaucrats at the Federal Ministry of Power could make.
PREMIUM TIMES investigations reveal that such provisions, that many federal crime investigators are familiar with, are some of the several fraudulent financial requests smuggled into budgets to steal public funds.
The Special Adviser to Bayelsa State governor on Power, Olice Kemenanabo, on Tuesday, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that Bayelsa State was indeed linked to the national grid more than eight years ago.
The Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Bright Okogwu, demanded a text message enquiry when contacted Thursday. He did not respond to the enquiry as at the time of publishing this report on Saturday.
However, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, insisted Friday night the N1.8billion request is not fraudulent.
“It is true contract connecting Yenagoa to the national grid was awarded in 2006,” Mr. Okupe said in response to a PREMIUM TIMES enquiry. “It is a 2x40MVA station connecting only Yenagoa. That voltage is far too small to cater for the needs of the state.
“The present contract is to further upgrade what is on ground and extend services to other parts of the state. It will be wrong and ignorant to say the 2014 provision is fake!”
But officials at the Federal Ministry of Power, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES but requested anonymity for fear of official reprisal, insisted that there is no official documentation for the project, and that it is merely a “graft allocation.”
The officials said they were “stunned and amused at the claim from the presidency which is obviously an afterthought.”
“It is not true that the Bayelsa transmission line needs an upgrade. If it’s an upgrade, why didn’t they say so in the budget? Why was it presented as a totally new project?” the official queried.
The project, titled, “Connection of Bayelsa to national grid”, under the allocation of the Federal Ministry of Energy (power), was described as a new project with reference number MOP1001637.
The budget did not say the requested N1.8billion was needed for an upgrade of an existing facility.
Power ministry officials point to the existence of a 132kv transmission line from Owerri, in Imo State, linking Ahoada, in Rivers State, and Yenagoa, in Bayelsa State, which was constructed by Pivot Engineering Nigeria Limited, insisting that the current fresh provision in the budget amounted to “linking the state to the national grid for the second time, evidence that the money goes into someone’s pocket.”
Documents from the Bayelsa State Investment Promotion Council and the power ministry offer the historical background to power development in the state, dating it back to 1988 prior to the creation of the State in October 1, 2006.
Then, the area relied on only one transmission line, which was not upgraded by successive administrations.
This spurred the Federal Ministry of Power and Steel, in conjunction with the then National Electric Power Authority, NEPA, to award a $56 million, [N3.2billion] contract to Energo Nigeria Limited in 1999 for the construction of a single phase Owerri-Ahoada-Yenagoa 132 kv transmission line to link Owerri to Yenagoa.
However, in November 2000, the scope of the job was reviewed to accommodate the Yenogoa-Imiringi and Ahoada-Abonnema 33KV double circuit lines, with the associated substations at Ahoada and Yenagoa.
The contract was renegotiated before it was re-awarded for $76million to Pivot Engineering Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of Honeywell Group, owned by Oba Otudeko, a chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and one of the notable political allies of the President.
Subsequent reviews raised the contract sum to about N6.3 billion initially, and later N11 billion in 2005.
Despite the allocation of about N1.115 billion in the 2005 budget to facilitate the completion of the project, the contractor failed to meet the December 2005 completion deadline.
Pivot finally completed the job and successfully connected Bayelsa State to the national grid in 2006.
Like Bayelsa, like Gurara, others
As in the Bayelsa case, the 2014 budget also indicate that officials of the federal government have also fraudulently budgeted about N700 million to the purported reason of linking Gurara, in Kaduna State, to the national grid this year.
PREMIUM TIMES investigations, however, show that Gurara’s connection to the national grid has remained one of the constant features in successive federal budget proposals since 2011
About N918 million was provided for the project in 2011; N556.74 million in 2012, and N1.5 billion in 2013.
Officials at the power ministry say this is a loud indictment of the federal budget making process under the Jonathan administration where project monitoring and evaluation doesn’t appear to be a factor for policy development.
It is just another drainpipe into some pockets officials at the power ministry said in Abuja.
Other controversial provisions, which had featured in successive budgets since 2010, include those for the 10MW Katsina Wind Farm, which took N3.15billion in 2010; N510 million in 2011; N800 million in 2012; N250 million in 2013, and N1 billion in 2014.
Similarly, the construction of the 215 Kaduna low pour fuel oil, LPFO/gas-fired power plant, which was allocated about N3.7billion in the 2014 budget, gulped N7.65billion in 2011; N3.7billion in 2012, and N2.744billion in 2013.
Feasibility studies for coal-fired power plants in Enugu and Gombe States, which got allocation of about N1.7billion in the 2014 budget, took about N2.04billion in 2011; N2.223billion in 2012, and N1.7billion in 2013.
Apart from the N461 million set aside for some renewable energy projects, these projects, which were initiated to help provide alternative sources of power towards meeting government-set electricity generation target of 10,000 MW, have incidentally turned out to be pipe-drains for corrupt public officials.

Alleged Associates of Senator Sekibo And Evans Bipi Arrested With Arms; Both Are Close Associates Of First Lady Patience Jonathan

The Joint Military Task Force (JTF) yesterday in Rivers State arrested six youths bearing seven AK47 rifles around Ekporo Road on their way to Ogu.
Among them was Daniel Ibito-Anga, who parades himself and is known in Ogu Bolo as Security Adviser/PA to Senator George Sekibo (Rivers East Senatorial zone) and Evans Bipi, the Rivers State Assemblyman who was recently stopped by a court from parading himself as the Speaker of the Assembly.
Others arrested gave their names as Sunday Elisha, Uche Jenikachi, Ibinabo Lawson, and Okechukwu Okoro.
In addition to the rifles, the men had 146 rounds of 7.62mm Special life ammunition and 10 life magazines among others.
They were stopped on the basis of their suspicious movement as they headed for Ogu Bolo Local Government Area in an off white Land Rover jeep with registration number JJ441BZ.
Both Senator Sekibo and Evans Bibi are from Ogu and have publicly confessed to being extremely close associates of Nigerian First Lady Patience Jonathan, who hails from nearby Okrika, and they all speak the same Okrika dialect.  Evans Bipi was a domestic aide of Mrs. Jonathan before he was elected into the Rivers State House of Assembly in 2011, Sekibo, who nurses gubernatorial ambitions, hopes to ride into Government House on the back of Mrs. Jonathan.  They are all publicly known to be fighting the Rivers State governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
Following their arrest, the men were taken to Bori Camp, the military base in Port Harcourt.  Unconfirmed information reaching us is that they were this morning handed over to the Police in Rivers State.
The police command in the State is headed by Commissioner Joseph Mbu, who is said to have been brought to the command by Mrs. Jonathan, from whom he has been widely accused of taking directives.
Only recently, Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi raised the alarm that arms, ammunition and weapons were being brought into the State by people opposed to his administration ahead of the next general elections.  He alleged that the weapons were meant to be used to intimidate and perpetrate violence against the people of Rivers to enable his opponents to rig the elections.

How Strong Networks Create Strong Companies

ge credit: wqxr.org

For many entrepreneurs, the first stages of founding a company can be a very lonely experience. It often involves countless solitary hours conducting research, outlining a product vision and piecing together ugly proofs of concept. But what I have discovered and rediscovered with each of the companies that I have founded is that building a company is a highly creative process. Like all creative processes, the moment of inception for any truly great idea is extremely dependent on a community of trusted people to bounce ideas off of and get feedback from.

As Steve Blank says, "No business plan survives first contact with the customer." I believe that the first iteration of an idea never survives first contact with an intelligent network of people you trust. Their feedback will help move your ugly hatchling into something viable much faster than you acting alone. Because that early feedback is so important, the networks that help in those early, creative stages of founding a company are extremely crucial. But getting fresh, quality feedback can be extremely difficult as there is often very little institutional support for those trying to start a business. Academics have universities, writers have editors and writing circles, artists have studio spaces -- where do entrepreneurs go?

Three years ago I co-founded Founders Den, a co-working space for experienced entrepreneurs, for this very reason. I was working from home on my next start-up when I realized that I wasn't getting the feedback loop that I really needed. At the end of the day there is only so much you can learn from your personal network over email or lunch. So, I started an email thread about getting some office space with several of my friends who were also working on their start-ups.

Several weeks and a few sponsorships later we were moving into a space large enough to accommodate 15 to 20 early stage companies. Since then, over 72 companies have come in and out of Founders Den. Some have since garnered $100 million valuations (Wanelo), others have been acquired by great companies such as AutoDesk (SocialCam) and Samsung (Movl).

While knowing that you have been involved in the early success of multiple start-ups is an extremely satisfying feeling, even more satisfying has been watching my current company, August, grow in this environment. We have also had the opportunity to use the products created by other Founders Den companies, such as Streak and Survata, and in turn provide them with valuable feature requests and product feedback.

Having a strong environment for your company to grow is clearly important, but so too is finding business partners that help facilitate the growth of your team members. Too often we think of business to business relationships in terms of goods delivered in a statement of work. What entrepreneurs often lose sight of is the fact that any business that your company works with has an impact on your team and their development. Business practices are contagious and a company you partner with can easily spread those contagions to your team.

When possible, businesses of the same size with the same growth trajectory should conduct business with each other. This ensures that your productivity expectations are aligned. When you need to operate with a company larger than your own, it is incredibly important that company has practices you are comfortable with, practices that you'd like to take in as your own. This way you avoid many of the operational inefficiencies that come with legacy companies.

As children, we all heard the adage "You are what you eat." As an entrepreneur, it is important to be extremely aware that your team, and in turn your company, can often become who they are surrounded by.

When it is all said and done, strong networks create strong companies. Who you do business with and who you talk about your business with matters. No founder builds a company alone, and no company becomes great without great partners. 

Three Killed, 16 Wounded In Plateau Church Attack 

Posted: Jan, 02 2014, 10:01AM

The peaceful atmosphere that pervaded the Christmas celebration in Plateau State was shattered on Wednesday when two persons were reportedly killed while 16 others were wounded when a group of gunmen invaded the Church of Christ in Nations on the eve of the New Year at  Maiakworigold Maikatako village in Bokkos Local Government Council of Plateau State.
One other person was said to have been killed in Manguna area of Bokkos Local Government of the state in the early hours of Wednesday.
The gunmen, suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, were said to have stormed the COCIN Church Maiakworigold Maikatako  and started shooting sporadically. The two people were killed on the spot while the 16 people sustained various degrees of injuries in the ensuing stampede.
The third victim in Manguna area of the same local council area was said to have been killed by the retreating gunmen.
One of the eyewitnesses, Mr. Augustine Bim, told newsmen that during the service to usher in the New Year, some gunmen stormed the church and started  to shoot at different directions.
He said that the casualties were recorded when the worshippers started escaping through various directions.
Speaker, Plateau State House of Assembly, Mr. Titus Alams, who confirmed the incident, described it as unfortunate.
Alams, who is the member representing Bokkos State constituency, said that five of the victims were currently on admission  at the Plateau State Specialist Hospital.
He said they were in a stable condition while 11 people were receiving treatment at Barkin Ladi General  Hospital.
While  commending  the security operatives for their prompt response, he also urged them to do everything possible to fish out the perpetrators of this act.
He said, “This latest incident is regrettable because we have been doing a lot to sustain the current peace we are enjoying in the state. We are appealing to security agents to do everything in their power to fish out those responsible for this heinous crime against humanity.”
Alams appealed to the youths of Bokkos  to remain calm and not to take the law into their own hands. He also urged them to report any suspicious movement to law enforcement agents in their area.
While reiterating the importance of safeguarding themselves against further attacks, the Speaker urged the people to avoid making themselves vulnerable to attack by congregating in large numbers at any point at night.