Coaches for the Abuja-Kaduna Rail Modernisation Project have arrived in Lagos and will begin test-run by March 31 - Minister

The minister reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to test-run the rail project to ensure that by May, the project could commerce commercial activities.

He made the disclosure when Abuja Transport and Aviation Correspondents Association (ATCA), paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja on Friday.

"The coaches have arrived, I was to inspect them on Monday but unfortunately we lost our colleague, the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, so I had to call off the inspection.

"We are making arrangements to bring the coaches to Abuja. I just signed the letter for China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), requesting for approval to test-run the coaches.

"We are still on target; the only problem we have is that of the Daughters of Charity Hospital, Kubwa, Abuja.

"The Certificate of Ownership has been signed and the Federal Government has paid the compensation, though not released to the hospital yet.

"But the CCECC is trying to be evasive with its corporate social responsibility commitment to the hospital, it previously agreed upon our request.

"CCECC is supposed to donate a building to the hospital. We are still discussing with the company.

"I feel CCECC should support the hospital.

"It’s not too much because the company is making money on the project; the church practically offers services to the community,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Muktar Muhammed, CCECC’s Public Relations Officer, said the company was committed to its agreement to donate a building to the hospital.

He, however, said the company had yet to effect the agreement because it was expecting another payment to carry on with the project.

Mohammed said that as soon as the money was paid, CCECC would commence the building. 

(NAN)

Nigerians Reactions On The Restructuring of NNPC

The restructuring of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC as announced by the Minister of state for Petroleum Ibe Kachicwu has continued to generate interest among Nigerians.

Guests on good morning Nigeria examined the restructuring initiative, its impact and controversies.

On Tuesday, the Minister unveiled a new structure for the NNPC. Under the new arrangement, there are seven divisions comprising the upstream, downstream, refining group, midstream, and finance ventures and services groups. In addition, there are 20 subsidiary companies.

This development generated reactions from different stakeholders particularly oil workers of the NNPC and its subsidiaries who shot down operations.

While a member of the house committee on petroleum downstream insisted that unbundling the NNPC requires legislative input other guests said the concept needs to be explained and the unions properly carried along to avoid misunderstanding.

As explained by Dr Ibe Kachikwu, the initiative will lead to a stronger NNPC.

Nigerians are however looking forward to benefitting more from the oil endowment that the nation is blessed with as the policy is fully put to test.

Federal Government on Friday apologised to Nigerians for the hardship they are experiencing due to the prevailing power failure across the country

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in a statement issued in Abuja by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Segun Adeyemi.

Mohammed, who cited gas failure, sabotage and vandalism of power infrastructure as causes of the outage being experienced, said all efforts were being made to rectify the situation and ensure a gradual improvement of the situation.

''There will be a decent improvement in the power situation from this weekend, thanks to ongoing remedial efforts that will double the current power supply to 4,000MW.

"Getting back to the 5,074MW all-time high that was reached earlier will take a few more weeks.

"At a time the routine maintenance by the Nigeria Gas Company has affected the supply of gas to power stations, forcing down power supply from an all-time high of 5,074 MW to about 4,000MW.’’

According to him, it is a combination of unsavoury incidents that has further crashed the power supply to about half that figure.

''The vandalism of the Forcados export pipelines forced oil companies to shut down, making it impossible for them to produce gas.

"Then, workers at the Ikeja Discos, who were protesting the disengagement of some of their colleagues after they failed the company's competency test, apparently colluded with the National Transmission Station in Osogbo to shut down transmission.

''Finally, the unfortunate strike by the unions at the NNPC, over the restructuring of the Corporation, shut down the Itarogun Power Station, the biggest in the country.’’

The minister said due to these factors, only 13 out of the 24 power stations in the country were currently functioning.

According to him, it was this same kind of unsavoury situation that has affected fuel supply and subjected Nigerians to untold hardship.

Mohammed condemned the situation in which some Nigerians, under the guise of the various unions in the oil and gas sector or sheer vandalism, would continuously sabotage the country's power infrastructure.

"The bitter truth is that for as long as these groups of Nigerians continue to sabotage the power infrastructure, Nigerians cannot enjoy a decent level of power supply.’’

The minister urged Nigerians, who may be agitating for their rights in whatever form, to refrain from any action that would further hurt the same people they claim to be protecting. (NAN)

FIRS Director Arraigns for N5m Bribe

Osagie and Ojora had on January 27, 2016 allegedly approached Senator Datti, the Chancellor of Baze University, Abuja and gave him a tax assessment of N20,029, 496.00 through a letter of intent, which he paid.

However, when Senator Datti requested for the assessment certificate, they refused to oblige him. Instead, they allegedly demanded for N5million gratification.

Consequently, marked N5million was delivered to the director through Ojora in a sting operation, an operation which led to her arrest. Consequently, her confession led to the arrest of Osagie.

The offence contravenes Section 17(1)(a) and punishable under 17 (1) (c) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

One of the counts reads:
“Abumere Joseph Osagie and Jamila Ojora on or about January 27, 2016 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, corruptly accepted the sum of N5,000,000.00 ( five million naira) from one Senator Ahmed Datti as a gift for having done a tax assessment for Baze University”.

The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.

Upon their plea, counsel to EFCC, Joseph O. Uzo urged the court to fix a date for trial to commence and remand the accused persons in prison custody.

However, Oboma-Obla and S.B Mono representing the first and second accused persons prayed the court to admit the defendants to bail.

Relying on Sections 158 and 162 of the Administration of the Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 both counsels pleaded that the accused persons had been on administrative bail of EFCC and have never breached any of the terms granted them by the Commission.

The prosecution raised no objection to the application.

Justice Goodluck, in admitting the two accused persons to bail ordered them to deposit their international passports with the court and provide two sureties who are public servants of grade level 14 from any federal government parastatals. The sureties must be resident in Abuja and their
residential address must be verified by the court.

The judge also ordered the accused persons to be remanded in prison custody until the bail terms are met.

The case has been adjourned to April 27 and 28, 2016 for trial.

Federal High Court, Abuja Grants Badeh N2bn Bail

Badeh, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, alongside Iyalikam Nigeria Limited on a 10-count charge bordering on money laundering, criminal breach of trust and corruption to the tune of N3.97 billion, had on March 7, 2016 pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The trial judge had adjourned till Thursday to rule on his bail application. Moving the application, defence counsel, Samuel Zimiri, SAN, pleaded with the court to grant Badeh (who was not in court) bail on self recognition. He argued that the former CDS served Nigeria meritoriously for 35 years.

“We depose to the fact that the applicant will be available in court for his trial. “His presence at the trial is what is paramount according to the Supreme Court, and it should be considered first before the charges,” he told the court.

He argued further that his client was, according to Sections 35 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution, presumed innocent until proven guilty.

His submission was in response to the argument of prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, that the offfences against Badeh were very weighty, and “he might disappear in a bid to avoid the shame of facing trial, so the severity of the offence should be looked at”.
Jacobs added that: “Some of the witnesses who would be called to give evidence against him include some of his subordinates, and so if granted bail, his presence will have impact on them.”

One of the subordinates, according to him, is the Director of Finance of the Nigeria Air Force, NAF, which according to him “was given instruction by Badeh to convert public funds into dollars and to use same to buy all the assets referred to in the body of the charges”.

He further told the court that EFCC operatives found $1m cash in the bedroom of an Abuja mansion belonging to him. He noted that while Badeh denied ownership, properties belonging to him including photographs were found in it.

Justice Abang, in his ruling, upheld the argument that constitutionally, a defence applicant is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

“Having considered the gravity of the offence, availability of the defendant to stand trial, the weighty evidence and fear of the prosecution that he may evade trial, what is not in doubt is that we cannot overlook the fact that the presumption of innocence holds here,” the judge said.

The trial judge, thereafter, granted him bail in the sum of N2bn with two sureties in like sum. His trial continues on March 14, 2016.

The sureties, according to the judge, must have landed properties in Abuja, the Certificates of Occupancy, which must be submitted to the Chief Registrar of the court. He ordered that the Registrar must verify in writing the value of the assets from the relevant department of the Federal Capital Territory Development Administration and the genuineness of their certificates.

He also ordered that Badeh’s international passport and/or official passport must be submitted to the registrar, including three years tax clearance certificates of the sureties, two passports each and their proof of means to provide the amount attached to the bail.