Thursday, October 11, 2012

Ifeanyi Uba Arrested Over Alleged N22 Billion Subsidy Fraud

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The Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police Tuesday arrested the Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas, Mr. Ifeanyi Uba, for his alleged involvement in the fuel subsidy fraud, running into N22.4 billion.
The SFU was said to have arrested him in Lagos at about 2.30pm.
Uba was taken to the SFU office in Ikoyi, where he was grilled by a team of detectives.
 Police Public Relations Officer for SFU, Ngozi Isintume, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, confirmed Uba’s arrest, adding that the suspect is presumed innocent until investigations are over.
She said: “I cannot really say much for now because he is currently being interrogated by SFU detectives. Ifeanyi Uba was arrested because of his alleged involvement in the fuel subsidy scam.
 “We are still investigating the case so I cannot say if he would be released at the end of today (Tuesday).  He was indicted by the presidential committee on fuel subsidy verification.
“Our job is to thoroughly investigate the matter and then prosecute if it comes to that. We don’t want to pre-empt investigation by commenting on everything. As you are aware, investigation is still on.
 “But be rest assured that the Commissioner of Police, Tunde Ogunsakin, would in line with his mantra of zero tolerance to corruption see this case to a logical end.
“Remember the law says one is innocent until otherwise proven guilty. That is the line we are towing until investigations are over.”
Uba, alongside other marketers, was indicted by the Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments, led by Access Bank Plc Managing Director, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.
The name of his company is on the list of the 25 companies indicted by the committee and recommended for criminal investigation for their alleged involvement in the N62,501,511,789.24 fraudulently obtained through the subsidy scheme.
In addition, Uba and his company are on the list of 113 companies and 419 directors/shareholders that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has barred banks in the country from extending further credit to.
The CBN arrived at this decision because of the reluctance by the debtors to pay back their loans despite the purchase of the debts at an agreed price by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
His company is said to owe over N48.014 billion to banks.

Source: ThisDay
 

In the article

Topics:
Fraud, Subsidy
Countries:
Nigeria

Budget: Education, Defence, Police Get Lion’s Share …As Jonathan Proposes N4.9trn For 2013

President Goodluck Jonathan, on Wednesday, presented a N4.9tn budget to the National Assembly for the 2013 fiscal year.
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In the estimates titled, budget of “fiscal consolidation with inclusive growth,” Education, Defence and Police were allocated the highest share of N1.095trn
A breakdown of the N1.095trn shows  the Education sector getting N426.53bn;  Defence, N348.91bn, and  Police, N319.65bn.
Missing copiously from the budget was a provision for fuel subsidy, an indication perhaps that government may fully remove the subsidy in 2013.
The presentation was done even as the National Assembly slammed the Executive for the poor implementation of previous budgets, warning that it would no longer tolerate such tardiness.
While presenting the budget, Jonathan stuck to his original proposal of $75 per barrel of crude and rejected the $80 recommended by the House as the “realistic” crude oil benchmark for the 2013 budget
Observers believe that the development might set off a fresh budget dispute between the National Assembly and the Executive.
The N4.92trn proposed for 2013 is five per cent more than the N4.7trn budgeted in 2012.
The President had proposed a $75 benchmark in the 2013-2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper he sent to the legislature in September.
The 2013 budget has a deficit of N1.03trn. The House had argued that with the extra $5, the deficit would be cut down to N666.3bn.
Jonathan argued that his administration decided to stick to the proposed benchmark because of the unpredictable nature of oil prices in the international market, adding that the decision was taken “based on a well established econometric methodology of estimating oil price moving averages.”
The government puts daily oil production for 2013 at 2.53 million barrels as against the current 2.48m computed for 2012.
 Fiscal consolidation
The 2013 proposals  also  has the Health sector getting  N279.23bn as allocation; Works, N183.5bn; Agriculture and Rural Development, N81.41bn; and Power, N74.26bn.
The funding of the power and gas sector, the President said, would be complemented with a proposed infrastructure Euro Bond of about $1bn (about N160bn) in order to complete the gas pipelines and other infrastructure investments.
According to the President, the projected  GDP growth rate for 2013 is 6.5 per cent, different from the 6.85 per cent it earlier proposed in the MTEF.
“The revision is underpinned by the fact that the severe floods experienced over large parts of the country are expected to impact on economic activity in 2013, especially Agriculture. However, the growth prospects may improve with the plan to boost dry season farming,” he said.
Out of the aggregate expenditure of N4.92trn, Jonathan said that N2.41trn was earmarked for recurrent expenditure and N1.5trn for capital projects. The sum of N380.02bn was also allocated to Statutory Transfers and N591.76bn for Debt Service.
Jonathan added that the budget proposed a reduction in recurrent expenditure from 71.47 per cent in 2012 to 68.7 per cent. Similarly, he said that capital expenditure would increase from 28.53 per cent in 2012 to 31.3 per cent in 2013.
He said, “Based on the above, the fiscal deficit is projected to improve to about 2.17 per cent of GDP in the 2013 Budget compared to 2.85 per cent in 2012.
“This is well within the threshold stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 and clearly highlights our commitment to fiscal prudence. We are determined to further rein in domestic borrowing, and this way, ensure that our debt stock remains at a sustainable level.”
The government anticipates the gross federally collectible revenue in 2013 to be  N10.84tn “of which the total revenue available for the Federal Government’s Budget is forecast at N3.89trn, representing an increase of about nine per cent over the estimate for 2012.”
To promote agriculture and industry, the Federal Government proposed ‘supportive fiscal measures’ for some priority areas.
The President said from January 1, 2013, importation of machinery and spare parts for local manufacturing of sugar would attract a zero per cent duty while import duty and levy on raw sugar would be 10 and 50 per cent. He also announced a five-year tax holiday for ‘sugarcane to sugar’ value chain investors.
According to him, import duty and levy on raw sugar would be 10 per cent  and 50 per cent respectively, while refined sugar would attract 2o per cent duty and 60 per cent levy. Rice –both brown and polished – would attract 10 per cent  import duty and 100 per cent levy.
“All commercial aircraft and aircraft spare parts imported for use in Nigeria will now attract zero per cent duty and VAT. This will appreciably improve safety in our skies as newer fleet and less onerous maintenance will prevail,” he said.
 Business unusual
Indications, however, emerged after the speech that the President’s proposals might have a tough time at the National Assembly.
The first salvo came from the Chairman of the National Assembly, Senator David Mark, who warned that budget proposals “were mere estimates and not immutable figures.”
He said, “As to whether the National Assembly has the power to make inputs to Appropriation Bills laid before it, our stand is that parliament is constitutionally empowered to make inputs. What the 1999 Constitution enjoins Mr. President to lay before the National Assembly are mere estimates and not immutable figures.
“And once the estimates are so laid, their consideration becomes subject to the constitutionally prescribed modes of exercising legislative power. Therefore, we do not think that the constitution intended to turn the National Assembly into a mere mechanical rubber-stamp that must robotically pass budget estimates as presented.”
He added that the National Assembly would deploy “its weapon of oversight” more than ever before in order to ensure the full implementation of the nation’s budgets.
“The need to ensure efficient utilisation of public finance for the promotion of the public good will be our guiding principle. We will work to ensure that the lofty developmental goals embedded in the budget are fully realised,” he said.
Mark noted that in exercising its constitutional power, the National Assembly would be mindful of the fact that the social and economic challenges currently facing the nation were the severest in the country’s contemporary history.
“The National Assembly is also conscious of the fact that urgent steps need to be taken to address dire infrastructural challenges,” he said.
Mark also pointed out that the nation’s budgets tended to incorporate every conceivable project, including those that the local governments were better positioned to execute.
“I advise that we depart from this practice and target projects that are realistically attainable with defined mechanisms for implementation and easy monitoring,” he said.
On his part, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, told Jonathan that the committees of the House, which just returned from an assessment tour of the 2012 budget projects, passed a “clearly unimpressive” verdict.
Tambuwal reminded the President that legislators had no “other motives” when they demanded budget implementation other than to ask for the dividends of democracy to be delivered to the people through the execution  of projects.
The speaker called for a change in poor implementation in 2013 to avoid Executive-Legislative disputes. He also opposed the rising debt profile of the country, especially domestic borrowing, which he noted had crowded out private investors in the economy.
Tambuwal said, “It is important to state at this point the clear provisions of Section 8 of the Appropriation Act to the effect that approved budgeted funds shall be  released to MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies) as at when due. This is sadly observed more in breach.
“The Composition of the Public Procurement Council provided under the Public Procurement Act is very critical to budget implementation. The sanctity of extant legislations and respect for the rule of law are critical hallmarks of true democracy. We, therefore, once more call on Mr. President to expeditiously constitute this council so as to free the Federal Executive Council from the burden of contract administration, so they can concentrate on the more sublime issues of their constitutional roles and responsibilities.
 “It will be recalled that the 2012 budget contained a deficit and the main source of funding this deficit was domestic borrowing. Figures emanating from the Debt Management Office regarding domestic borrowing are however worrisome. At a whopping $33.6bn, government appears to be monopolising domestic borrowing to the unhealthy exclusion of the private sector. This is certainly a matter of grave concern because global statistics on sustainable debt-GDP ratio percentages cannot continue to be used as guide for an economy that is not keeping pace with global trends.
“In our effort to address this concern, only yesterday(Tuesday), in passing the 2013-2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, which is the basis for annual budgets, the House resolved to raise the oil price benchmark from $75 per barrel to $80  per barrel with the objective that the difference of $5 per barrel be channeled exclusively towards reducing the deficit in the budget and consequently reducing domestic borrowing for same purpose by 66 per cent. This will make available these loanable funds to our private sector which will stimulate the economy and job creation for our teeming unemployed youths.”

Source: Punch Nigeria 

In the article

Topics:
Goodluck Jonathan

Nigerians Should Prepare For Food Shortage – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday asked Nigerians to be prepared for imminent food shortage.
The party said scarcity of food would be one of the effects of the floods that ravaged some parts of the country recently.
Rising from its National Working Committee in Abuja, the PDP however commended President Goodluck Jonathan for steps taken so far to cushion the effects of the flood on victims.
According to a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP said Nigerians must know that flooding was a global phenomenon.
The statement reads, “PDP has commended the President for the firm and reassuring steps the Federal Government has taken to mitigate the impact of flooding across the states of the federation and forestall further threat to the nation.
“The Party has also called on relevant government agencies and entire Nigerians to brace up for the challenge of food shortages which the impact of the flooding may likely occasion.
“Flood disasters are a global phenomenon but our peculiar challenges of development demand deeper insight and capacity which the President has demonstrated.
“We therefore commend him for the medium and long term measures being put in place to first ameliorate the suffering of the affected Nigerian communities as well as for the steps already being taken to permanently put under check, the incidence of flooding in future.”
The party further appealed to federal, state and local governments as well as farmers to take measures to avert imminent food shortages on account of the flood.
It promised to liaise with all the relevant agencies of government to work out plans to forestall possible food shortages arising from the food.
Metuh said in the statement that the party noted with happiness that the Presidential Technical Committee set up by the President urgently rounded off its interim impact assessment of the flood ravaged states upon which government energised its agencies to offer immediate relief.
He added that the party had also noted that the President had been in synergy with the leadership of the National Assembly and Governors of the affected States in confronting this menace.
The party particularly commended the President for releasing the sum of N17.6 bn and for setting up National Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation to further assist it in raising fund for what it called the “post impact rehabilitation of the affected victims.

Source: Punch Nigeria

In the article

Topics:
Flooding, Food, PDP

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Nigeria's Ailing First Lady To Return Home

A presidential jet is scheduled to fly out of Abuja tonight to bring home Nigeria's ailing First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan.
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Presidency sources told SaharaReporters today that Mrs. Jonathan will return to the country as early as tomorrow if everything works as planned.
Mrs. Jonathan was secretly flown out of Abuja nearly six weeks ago, at the end of August, after she developed complications from a cosmetic procedure she had undertaken in Dubai.
Upon returning to Nigeria from Dubai, she was flown out to Germany in an air ambulance following an emergency which was initially diagnosed as "food poisoning."   Several investigations by SaharaReporters however revealed that her medical condition was more complicated and precarious.  Among others, in the early stages she lost her power of speech for four days.

In an effort to cover up her health condition, the presidency has, during Mrs. Jonathan’s hospitalization, engaged in a game of hide-and-seek with the media, at first claiming that the First Lady was only resting after a hectic schedule of hosting the African First Ladies Forum.
Although several reports have pinpointed the nature of Mrs. Jonathan’s condition since then, the President and his aides have chosen to hide it from the public despite spending several millions of dollars in public funds on her treatment.
Last week, the president's office made available to the public a grainy, three-second video clip that said showed that Mrs. Jonathan was "hale and hearty."  Neither the date nor the location of the video was identified, but Mr. Jonathan 's spokesperson said the president had embarked on a secret trip to his wife accompanied by the Presidential villa's vicar and two of the president's kids.

Source: Sahara Reporters

In the article

Topics:
Patience Jonathan
Countries:
Nigeria

Wife Of Osun Speaker Kidnapped

Unknown gunmen in Ejigbo, Osun State, on Tuesday, kidnapped the wife of the Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly, Mr Najeem Salaam.
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Muiba, the first wife of the Speaker, was kidnapped in the Bamagay Square area of the town shortly after she had left her shop where she sold bags of rice, semovita and groundnut oil.
Her Honda car was overtaken by the vehicle of a six-member gang. The gang reportedly forced her Honda car to stop along Union Baptist Road in the Oke-Oyo area of Ejigbo, the Speaker’s hometown.
Our correspondent learnt that Muiba, who alighted and attempted to run from the kidnappers, was stopped and forced into a waiting car.
Chairman, House Committee on Regional Integration and Special Duties, Mr Femi Fafiyebi, confirmed the development, saying the news was “shocking.”
“I just heard about it a few minutes ago. Osun is a very peaceful state. We are the only state that checked flooding and created the most enabling environment in the south-west. I don’t know why this should happen in our dear state,” Fafiyebi said.
Police Public Relations Officer, Osun Command, Mrs Sade Odoro, who promised to get across to our correspondent over the development failed to do so.
Her phone was switched off when our correspondent called her back for confirmation.
Our correspondent reports that it is in Odoro’s character to ignore inquiries by journalists over crime matters in the state.

Source: Punch Nigeria 

In the article

Topics:
Crime, kidnap, Osun

UNIPORT 4: We Have Charged 11 Suspects To Court –Police

The Rivers State Police Command said on Monday that it had charged to court 11 out of the 13 persons, who were allegedly involved in the killings of four students of the University of Port Harcourt.
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The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Ndabawa, made this known on Tuesday when the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Ben Angwe, visited the command in Port Harcourt.
Ndabawa, who was represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. Thomas Etomi, explained that the two remaining suspects, who had not been charged to court, would assist the police in their ongoing investigation.
He described the killings of the students by a mob as barbaric, maintaining that there was no justification for such action.
Ndabawa said that such display of wickedness would not be allowed to repeat itself, even as he promised to keep the NHRC abreast of the developments in the course of police investigation.
Earlier, Angwe told the state police commissioner that they were in the state to get information on the murder of the four students and added that the NHRC would visit the community where the incident took place.
Promising to visit and commiserate with parents of the deceased, Angwe said that the commission would stand by them to ensure that justice was done in the matter.
Angwe said that the NHRC had been getting calls from the international community on the killings of the undergraduates, even as he urged the students to be calm and not take laws into their hands.

Source: Punch Nigeria 

In the article

Topics:
Death, Portharcourt, University

Traffic law: Lagos Destroys 3,000 Seized Okadas

The Lagos State Government has commenced the process of crushing 3, 000 motorcycles, popularly called okada, impounded from their owners for violating traffic law.
Officials of the state Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit on Tuesday dismantled the okadas at the task force yard in Alausa.
The Taskforce Chairman, Bayo Sulaiman, an Assistant Superintent of Police, said after the end of the dismantling exercise, the iron parts would be taken to the state Crushing Plant in Oshodi, where they would be crushed and recycled.
He said the action was to show that the government had stepped up its enforcement of the state traffic law, adding that the crushing of the okadas would serve as deterrent to other commercial motorcycle operators.
Sulaiman said, “These are okadas impounded since the new traffic law was signed into law. There are 3, 000 of them. Okada riders must obey our traffic law. They are fond of driving against traffic, on kerbs and several unauthorised places. The law has been passed and gazetted and there is no going back on its enforcement.
“We are dismantling the okadas now to separate the parts that are crushable from the ones that are not crushable. After this, we will take the crushable parts to Oshodi crushing plant, where they will be crushed and recycled. The non-crushable parts will probably be auctioned, but not in the state.
“The Taskforce has not started enforcing the law fully. But this should serve as a warning to them because we won’t hesitate to impound any okada caught on the restricted roads in the state.”
Sulaiman, however, said there were no riders to be prosecuted because the owners of the 3, 000 okadas abandoned them on sighting law enforcement officials.
On Monday’s protest by some of the riders, Sulaiman said, “They have the right to protest, but the government will be firm in what it does. It does not in any way stop our job, those who intend not to obey the law, we are coming after them. The protest is a group action, but our arrests will be one after the other and we will be out there on a daily basis.”
According to him, the law has been passed and those who will not obey the law will be punished.
The task force boss, however, said the law’s compliance level was improving on a daily basis. He advised the riders to go to areas where their operations are not restricted.

Source: Punch Nigeria 

In the article

Topics:
Lagos, Okada, Traffic Law
Countries:
Nigeria