Group carpets Tinubu over comment on A/Ibom election

THE Godswill Akpabio re-election campaign organi-sation has taken a swipe at the former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu, over a statement credited to him that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) will reclaim its lost mandate in Akwa Ibom State, saying that he is being unnecessarily flippant.

In a statement in Uyo, the organisation frowned on the claims by Tinubu, adding that it was unfortunate that “a highly informed personality in the mould of Tinubu could go about making unwarranted statements over an election that has been adjudged generally free, fair and credible.”

According to the campaign organisation, Tinubu’s unwarranted outburst was a reflection of the desperation from his political camp, adding that for the avoidance of doubt, Tinubu and his ACN dreamers needed to be reminded that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the gubernatorial election in the state with over 85 per cent of votes and also won in 25 out of the 26 seats in the state House of Assembly.

The group invited Tinubu and leaders of the ACN to visit Akwa Ibom State during the swearing-in of Governor Akpabio for a second term in office, so that they would appreciate the feat achieved by Akpabio, as well as his support base in the state.

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Jonathan slashes 2011 budget by N500b

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has proposed an amendment to the 2011 National Budget of N4.9 trillion, as he asked the National Assembly to approve a review of the budget, which he pruned down to N4.4 trillion.

The reduction by Jonathan ran into over N500 billion, affecting mostly the statutory transfer, which had a provision of N496.6 billion and the National Assembly votes, which had been cut to N120 billion from the initial sum of N232.7 initially approved.

The figure for debt servicing was increased by N50 billion from N445 billion to N495 billion, while recurrent expenditure was reduced from N2.469 trillion to N2.401 trillion.

The president also slashed the figure for the contribution to development fund for capital expenditure from N1.562 trillion to N1.122 trillion, a reduction N440.1 billion.

The chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Honourable Ita Enang, told members that there was a correspondence from President Jonathan, asking the House to amend the 2011 appropriation bill
which he assented to on Monday.

The bill passed through both the first and second reading after the chairman, House Committee on Finance, Honourable John Enoh and chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Honourable Ayoade Adeseun, supported the motion in national interest.

The Speaker, Honour-able Dimeji Bankole, referred the bill to the House committees on finance and appropriation, while directing the committees to meet and submit their report to the House at the plenary by 10.00 a.m today.
The Senate, also on Tuesday, agreed to review the 2011 appropriation bill of N4.9 trillion and reduce it by N500 billion.

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Rivers Assembly grants approval for N100bn loan

The Rivers State House of Assemly has approved a N100 billion loan from Zenith Bank Plc for completion of ongoing projects in the state.

During an emergency sitting in Port Harcourt, on Monday, the lawmakers voted unanimously to grant the approval.

The Speaker of the Assembly, Honourable Tonye Harry, who presided over the sitting, noted that the request for loan by the executive would have been needless had the funds from the 86 restored oil wells formerly held by Akwa Ibom State started accruing to the state.

He explained that the executive was seeking to borrow to fund ongoing projects in the state, which included water project, rural electrification and construction of six roads.

He added that instead of going to the bond market to borrow, the executive had decided to source for funds inwards to meet its immediate expenditure.

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Pension arrears: Ajaokuta Steel Company pensioners appeal to FG

Pensioners from the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL) in Kogi State have called on the Federal Government to pay the 22 months pension arrears owed them. The arrears amount to N2 billion.

The chairman of the pensioners of ASCL, Mr Clement Ohida who spoke, on Tuesday at a press briefing in Lokoja under the auspices of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Kogi State Council, also called on the management of Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) to pay the pension fund of N300million released to it by the Federal Government since 2009.

Ohida said that IGI, which served as one of the underwriters to the board of pensioners, had refused bluntly to release funds to pay pension benefits, stressing that the association had employed maturity and sense of responsibility to prevail on the management of IGI to pay the credit balance of N300million meant for pensioners in its custody without success.

The chairman noted that due to the poor management of pensioners funds by IGI, the insurance company had been under suspension, while he noted that the company continued to hold tight onto their benefits since 2009.

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Arrest of guber candidate: ACN accuses police of victimisation

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has condemned the arrest and detention of its gubernatorial candidate in Benue State, Professor Torkuma Ugba, at the police headquarters in Abuja.

The party, in a statement issued in Lagos, on Tuesday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the police which was slow to act in the petition submitted to it on the murder of Professor Ugba’s aide, Charles Ayede, was so quick to act when a petition alleging the breach of peace and complicity was submitted by Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State. It described the action as a brazen act of victimisation.

‘’This is the same police force that has bluntly refused to act in all the complaints by Professor Ugba and the ACN in Benue against the killing, harassment and intimidation of our party’s members. It is now clear that IGP Hafiz Ringim is turning the Nigeria Police to a highly-partisan force, which can only lead the security agency to perdition,’’ it said.
ACN said the situation amounts to a clear case of turning victims to villains.

Meanwhile, Professor Ugbah and 15 others were granted bail on Tuesday by Chief Magistrate Cecilia Bakare .

Others granted bail included Professor Ugbah’s special adviser, Mr Samuel Adam Magbe and former chairman, Gboko Local Government council, Simon Abua.

When the case was mentioned, the Police Prosecutor,Victor Nwadike, told the court that Professor Ugbah and his special adviser, Adam Magbe, were being charged with criminal conspiracy, inciting disturbance, rioting and criminal intimidation.

Nwadike stated that the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, was informed vide a petition written by Governor Gabriel Suswam dated May 16, 2011 that Professor Ugbah, Paul Unongo and Senator George Akume addressed a press conference in Makurdi where they wrongfully accused him (Suswam) of masterminding the killing of Ayede, media adviser to Professor Ugbah.

The police said had the press conference, Professor Ugbah incited Terwase Ashekaa and 12 others, who conspired to burn down the house of Torkwse Malu, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) women leader in a locality in Kwande local council.

In the application for bail, counsel for Professor Ugbah, Samuel Orkuma, who led 17 other lawyers told the presiding magistrate that all the offences were bailable since they were not capital offences.

Chief Magistrate Bakare, after listening to the arguments by the police prosecutor and Mr Orkuma granted bail to the accused for the sum of N200,000 each and one surety each, who must be resident in Makurdi and would have their passport photographs deposited with the court.

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Plane crashes in Kaduna, kill two

Authorities in Kaduna State on Tuesday, confirmed the death of a British pilot and a maintenance engineer on the outskirts of the state capital, where their plane, on a test flight became faulty and crash landed near a river.

According to a farmer who was close to the scene of the incident, Mallam Muhammad Musa, the ill-fated plane hovered in the sky for over 40 minutes and crash landed in his farm at the Barakallahu area of Rigachikun village in Igabi Local government area of Kaduna State.

“As the plane crash landed, I, some farmers and soldiers near the scene of incident made frantic efforts to break the screen of the plane but it was too strong for us. We were finding our way out of the place, because we feared the plane might explode when we noticed thick smoke billowing out of the plane. It was sad as we saw the victims struggling before they finally died but there was nothing we could do,” he said.

The Director, Search and Rescue of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Air Commodore Bankole, said the Bureau for Accident Investigation was yet to give the technical details of the accident and expressed shock over the tragedy.

Similarly, the Director General of NEMA, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Sidi, said they were in a meeting when information about the plane crash reached them but before they could get to the scene, the aircraft had burnt beyond rescue while those inside had died.

“We understand that there were two people inside, one British and one Nigerian. The aircraft formerly belonged to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan. It is being maintained by Dornier here in Kaduna. So that is the information we have as at now,” he said.

Also speaking on the incident, the director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren, said the Dornier 228 aircraft was on a test flight in the area before it crashed.

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FG destroys ex-militants’ weapons today

The Federal Government, will today, publicly destroy the arms and ammunition submitted to it by Niger Delta former agitators, who accepted the amnesty programme in 2009.

The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, who made the disclosure in Abuja, yesterday, said the historic exercise scheduled to take place at Lokpanta, a boundary town on the outskirts of Enugu, will bear testimony to the success of the amnesty programme.

A total of 295, 203 ammunition, 2, 909 weapons, 1,853, UXO, D-caps and dynamites, and 3,454 magazines will be destroyed in the exercise to be conducted by the Nigerian military

Mr Kuku added “the public destruction of the recovered arms and ammunition will further enhance the efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan to consolidate on peace, safety and security in the Niger Delta using the instrumentality of the Amnesty Programme.”

He said the destruction of the arms and ammunition was also necessary to avoid their acting as a destabilising influence in the country.

It will be recalled that as a step towards resolving the protracted crisis in the Niger Delta, the Federal Government, then under the leadership of the Late President, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, on June 25, 2009, proclaimed unconditional amnesty for agitators in the zone.

The terms of the amnesty included the willingness and readiness of agitators to surrender their arms, unconditionally renounce militancy and sign an undertaking to this effect.

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Pipeline explosion claims two lives in Delta

A pipeline explosion occurred yesterday at the outskirt of Amukpe, Sapele Local Government Area, leaving two people dead and several others injured.

Investigation revealed that the explosion occurred as a result of the breaking of the pipeline conveying refined products from Warri Refinery at Ekpan to pipelines belonging to the Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC). The action was said to have been carried out by a syndicate that specialises in the theft of petroleum products at various locations across the state.

It was learnt that those behind the act dug a ditch around the broken pipeline from where they scooped petroleum products.

An indigene of the community who identified himself as Nelson Okudiete, stated that the entire community was covered by thick smoke immediately after the incident occurred, stressing that it was the sound of the explosion that woke many of the indigenes who were already asleep at about 2am.

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Jonathan cuts National Assembly budget

The National Assembly yesterday reversed its decision on the 2011 budget - criticised by the executive as high - and began considering amendments that will reduce total national budget by N600 billion and cut lawmakers’ allocation by more than 50 per cent.

The House of Representatives approved two swift readings on Tuesday while the Senate took one reading of a review sent by President Goodluck Jonathan the same day, proposing that federal spending be reduced from initially passed N4.97 trillion to N4.41 trillion.

If the final readings, expected today from chambers are given, the bulk of the budget slash will come from the National Assembly allocation, which the lawmakers arbitrarily moved during earlier appropriation from N112.24 billion to N232.74 billion - more than 100 per cent raise.

The sharp increment drew criticisms and the executive warned that the total budget, with about N1.9 trillion deficit, was not sustainable and needed a review.

In the proposed reduction, the National Assembly budget was reduced to N120 billion, a little above the original figure submitted by Mr Jonathan in November 2010.

Mr Jonathan’s amendment now comes as the legislature winds down its session, amid unresolved financial crisis rocking the House of Representatives over unpaid allowances and corruption charges against its leadership.

As of Tuesday, lawmakers speaking unofficially confirmed the House had not still sourced much-needed funds to clear members’ allowances owed after the released money was confiscated by a bank in lieu of unauthorised loan allegedly taken by the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole.

The loan, which makes it hard for the leadership of the House to pay the entitlements of members, is at the heart of restiveness among the lawmakers, some of whom have launched efforts to sanction Mr Bankole. The other leaders of the House have, however, rallied around the Speaker.

Eseme Oyibo, the spokesperson of the House, said this was done to ensure that the session ends without rancour.

With no bank willing to grant fresh loans, according to sources, one of the options remained for the House to speedily facilitate a compromise on the budget, from where the backlog could be cleared from subheads that received rolled-in allocation.

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