English side Arsenal Football Club has officially confirmed that the first-team squad will travel to Nigeria this summer for a pre-season match in Abuja on August 5.
In what will be the club’s first match on Nigerian soil, Arsène Wenger’s side will play at the 60,000 capacity Abuja National Stadium.
According to the tour organisers, DanJan Sports, Arsenal’s opposition will be confirmed soon and is likely to be a leading African national team.
David Omigie of DanJan Sports, a Fifa-licensed match agent said: “We are delighted to announce that everything has been sorted between the club and DanJan Sports.”
“We are working on the opposition and once that is finalised we will announce it to the public in conjunction with the London club.
“Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and the club with arguably the biggest fan base in the country is visiting in August.”
According to Arsenal statement on its official website “The Club last visited Africa during a tour to South Africa in July 1993, and is returning as a result of the fantastic support which exists for the team, not only in Nigeria, but across the entire continent.”
The club traditionally hosts an annual pre-season tournament at the Emirates Stadium, but they opted to postpone the event for a year because of the 2012 London Olympics.
As part of their preparation for the 2012/13 season, the club have opted to connect with their huge fan base in Africa, by visiting the continent.
The visit to Nigeria will conclude an exciting pre-season tour schedule for Arsenal, who return to both China and Malaysia in July, following the success of last term’s Asia Tour.
In July 2008, DanJan Sports brought two other English clubs, Manchester United and Portsmouth, to the Nigerian capital Abuja for pre-season friendly.
Manchester United took on Portsmouth before Pompey then played against Nigeria Premier League (NPL) side Kano Pillars.
But DanJan Sports plan to go a step further this time around.
“We learned a lot from the 2008 tour and this one is going to be bigger,” Omigie said.
“Mr Arsène Wenger wanted a detailed plan and information. Facilities and other areas were well covered by the club.
“This is the beginning of big things between the club and the continent of Africa.
The visit to Nigeria will conclude an exciting pre-season tour schedule for Arsenal, who return to both China and Malaysia in July, following the success of last term’s Asia Tour.
Further details regarding the match in Nigeria will be announced by the organisers as soon as they are confirmed.
According to speculations in the local media, one of Ghana, Zambia, South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Egypt are the potential opponents of the Gunners.
On the eve of this year’s workers’ Day I was in a popular five star hotel in the Nigeria’s political capital city attending a social function alongside some friends that visited me from Lagos, Kaduna and Bayelsa States when suddenly a call came through from a mutual friend Miss. Victoria Osareme Oladapo, a final year Political Science Undergraduate of one of the public Universities, that there is a bomb scare somewhere around some of the most popular and frequently visited multipurpose commercial complexes in the Wuse two area of the Federal Capital Territory.
These commercial business premises owned by some private developers are located few minutes drive from the ThisDay Newsaper Abuja office which was only recently bombed by suspected suicide bombers from the armed Islamic fundamentalist group which has operational headquarters in Maidugri, the Borno State capital in the Noth East Nigeria.
Immediatelly this shocking news reached us, the journslism instincts in me drove me to make several calls to some knowledgeable sources who also confirmed that there were indeed credible threats of bomb attack at the commercial multipurposes buildings as narrated by my mutual friend.
The story forced every one of us to cut short our social meeting which should ordinarily had lingered till the wee hours of the night. We were forced to disperse to diferent safe locations to await further information on whether actually those who made the threats have successfully made good their words. But not without a major drama that played itself out. As we made to rise from the meeting because of the nature of the information that reached us, one of us informed us that the Minister of Information of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Mr. Labaran Maku has made it inevitable that every right thinking Nigerian should act promptly to every alert of possible security threat from the armed Islamic insurgents because of a number of spectacular gaffes that he the minister of Information committed in recent times which probably endangered the lives of a lot of Nigerians.
Further buttressing his claim that the Nigeria’s Minister of Information has become one of the most notorious marketers of doubtful information and raw barefaced propaganda, my friend reminded us that it was the Minister of Information that incongruously dismissed the well thought out security alert issued by the United States Embassy in Abuja warning American travellers to the Nigerian capital to be security conscious because of credible threats of bomb attacks allegedly by the armed Islamic fundamentalist which may target specific public institutions or hotels. The American diplomatic mission in Nigeria had issued this information just a few days befopre the media offices in Abuja and Kaduna were actually bombed by the Islamic religious insurgents. But on the day the security alert was issued by the American Diplomats in Abuja, the Nigerian minister of Information had sought to debunk it by warning the Embassy of the United States in Nigeria to desist from raising unfounded security alert and creating undue panic among Nigerians and other international visitors to Nigeria. But the Nigeria’s informaton minister goofed because exactly after he [Labaran Maku] exhibited this scandalous show of shame, the armed Islamic extremist waging a relentless insurgency against the Nigerian state actually struck the ThisDay office. For this reason our friend said the best thing we should do is to disperse and find safe havens to hide pending the disappearance of these threats.
Amid the panic that greeted this security alert I dashed into my car and drove straight home only to discover to my amazement that most of my neighbors had travelled out of the Federal Capital Territory for fear of the unknown particularly when these two commercial complexes were also a stone throw from our house. I was still in contemplation on whether to relocate to a fortified fortress of a three star hotel in another part of the Federal Capital City then came the sound of a knock in my door that woke me from my subconciousness and the visitor turned out to be the same mutual friend that in the first place informed me about information making round in the eve of May 1st 2012 that the members of the armed Islamic insurgents had issued a bomb threat targeted at those two business premises mostly frequented by buyers in Abuja.
She had hardly sat down when she requested passionatelly that i change the television station from the news channel that I was viweing before she visited to a popular movie channel and the first in the series of films shown that evening was aptly titled ‘Ghost’.
A little research showed that this particular movie which was originally released on July 13th 1990 had won two Academy awards, the United States equivallent of the Nobel Prize for films. The story line of ‘Ghost’ was reportedly written by Sami Al-Taher and it was indeed a story of two persons that I chose to call ‘love Birds’- namely Mr. Sam and his girl friend Miss. Molly. Sam and Molly were very happy couple and deeply in love. Walking back to their new apartment after a night out at the theatre, they encountered a thief in the dark alley, and Sam is subsequently killed. He [Sam] finds himself trapped as a ghost and realises that his death was no accident. He must warn Miss. Molly about the danger she is in. But as a ghost he cannot be seen or heard by the living, and so he tries to communicate with Molly through Oda Mae Brown, a Psychic who didn’t even realise that her powers were real.
Deep in contemplation on the import of this beautiful but incomprehensible film when Miss. Victoria Osayeme Oladapo, the 21-year old undergraduate sought to know from me whether Nigeria our dear country has been over run by some ‘ghosts’ that are unleashing unrelenting vicious cycle of bloody violence all across Nigeria hiding under the guise of some strange religious ideology.
But before she could finish, my mind went straight to a recent public statement carried in the media credited to the Chief of Army Staff in Nigeria-General Azubuike Ihejirika that the armed Islamic religious insurgents have perfected the art and craft of fighting like ‘ghosts’ because they know us and we do not know them and that they strike us and disappear. General Ihejirika then proceeded to warn his soldiers to be constantly in ‘war mood’ as they try to combat these amed religious extremists blamed for the gruesome killings of dozens of innocent Nigerians.
The Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff had stated thus; ” It is high time for you and your men to be in war mood to be able to deal with the challenges”.
My mutual friend asked again whether Nigeria is over run by ghosts because according to her, she read in a newspaper that the Acting Inspector General of Police Mr. Mohammed Abubakar said his operatives have not yet defeated the terrorists because the members of the public fail to offer meaningful information to the police for fear of reprisal. She also remnded me of the phenomenon of ghost workers that have infiltrated the Federal and State civil service in Nigeria and the cases of ghost pensioners and recently the discovery in Plateau state of the existence of a ‘ghost commissioner’ who has consistently drawn salaries and huge allowances meant for that office for several months before the recent discovery.
Do you remember the last time that President Jonathan addressed we the troubled and distressed members of the public worried about the unprecedented violence across the North?, she asked.
This question was thrown at me by my mutual friend as a follow up to her first inquiry on whether ghosts have invaded Nigeria. I quickly feigned ignorance of which of the speeches of the President of Nigeria she referred to because President Jonathan has made several of those empty rhetorics regarding the so-called determination of the current Federal Government to bring the volence to a quick end and each time he made the speech, the armed terrorists will launch more deadly and devastating attacks.
The last time our President spoke, she stated, he asured us that by June 2012 that the violence will come to an end but as things stand now those responsible for these attacks have upped the ante of their bloody attacks and the operatives of the security community paid with tax payers’ fund still behave as if we live in a country over -run by ghosts.
The drift of our debate with my mutual friend forced me to look into the Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia whereby I learnt that in traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spririt of a deceased person or animal that can appear, visible form or other manifestation, to the living. In many traditional accounts, ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance, or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. The aparance of a ghost has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death.
Now to the aforementioned question concerning the ghosts and the possibility that they may have over- run Nigeria, my rumination of it led me to two trends of thought namely whether we as contemporary Nigerians are now facing the consequences of the actions and inactions of our deceased political leaders who contributed in no small way to the mess that Nigeria has become or whether we have truly been over run by the ghosts of all those citizens of this country that died because of the collapsed of basic infrastructures of road and hospitals or more appropriately, the twin evils of bad roads and poor health infrastucture which are the largest causes of premature deaths suffered by hundreds of thousands of Nigerians.
The collapse of these infrstructures of roads and hospitals was caused by massive corruption on the part of political office holders both in the past and in the present day the extent of the heist has assumed frightening dimension.
The more research I conduct to know if Nigeria has become a failed state, the more I am confronted by the question of whether Nigeria has been over -run by ghosts.
Reading through a well researched legal essay by Ngozi Udombana[Mrs.], a Senior Research Fellow at the prestigious Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies titled; ‘Constitutional Constraints to the realisation of the right to the dignity of the human person’, I came across the scholarly essay on Nigeria credited to an intellectual named Sen. Y., in a symposium paper delivered at Carleton University Ottawa, Canada titled ‘Challenges and Prspects of Nigeria’s devolpment at 50’ in which an expression of shock over Nigeria’s stunted growth was made.
The writer stated thus; “Nigeria is enormously endowed. It is a country with almost one million square kilometers of land, more than 60 percent of which is cultivatable for a variety of soil and vegetation determined crops as well as livestock production. It is the eight highest producer of oil and contains the sixth deposits of gas Worldwide. Its estimated 150 million people, comprised of about 400 ethnic groups, rank it as the largest market in Africa”.
Ngozi Udombana then added thus; “It is, therefore, irksome that with such enormous endowment and potential for greatness, Nigeria is still a groping ‘giant of Africa’.
I think Nigeria is showing the symptoms of a failed state that has been infested by the ghosts of corruption, indiscipline, anarchy and bloody crimes but one thing is sure that the moment Nigeria gets a disciplined leadership these ghosts will automatically be exorcised.
Scott Peck in the work titled ‘The Road less Travelled’ stated realistically that; “Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. With total discipline we can solve all problems”.
I think this principle indeed was the then President George W. Bush’s guiding light when on September 11th 2001, the United States of America came under attacks by the international terrorism gangs based then in far away Afghanistan, and the then President Bush launched a totally committed war against terror which was built upon by his successor President Barrack Obama that has relatively made the American nation one of the safest places on Earth.
In his book titled “Decision Points” the former United States President, Mr. George W. Bush of the Republican Party, wrote down what compelled his government to take a totally disciplined approach to wage war against terror. His words;”…I caught enough fleeting glimpses of the coverage to understand the horror of what the American people were watching. Stranded people were jumping to their deaths from the top floors of the World Trade Center towers. Others hung out of windows, hoping to be rescued. I felt their agony and despair. I had the most powerful job in the World, yet I felt powerless to help them”.
For the compelling reason that as the then United States President, he is obliged to show disciplined leadership and not sit back and watch his country attack again and again by these blood sucking terror gangs, the then President Bush implemented far-reaching security measures and counter terrorism strategies that have helped to make the United States of America peaceful. President Obama followed the totally disciplined anti-terror campaign institutionalized by his predecessor in office George Bush which enabled his Demcratic Party-led administration to locate and kill Osama BinLaden, the leader of the terror group that attacked the Unietd States on September 11th 2001.
In Nigeria however while the ordinary people are gunned down and bombed out of existence by armed terrorists, government officials at the state levels are busy erecting formidable fences around the Governors’s offices for the purposes of protecting only the immediate family members of these politicians even when millions of other unarmed civilians are left to die. At the national level both the political and military leaders continuously inundate Nigerias with half baked rhetorics that paints these terrorists as ghosts who elude capture because the ordinary people fail to volunteer information to the security personnel. What a shame?
Nigerian political and military leaders must work to exorcise this and many other ghosts such as the ghosts of corruption, indisipline, greed, avarice and impunity that have taken centre stage in the affairs of Nigeria or we may face the ever more terrible consequences associated with an irretrievably failed state. God forbis!
+Emmanuel Onwubiko, head, Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria, writes from www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, industry, Mines and Agriculture, (PHCCIMA) has frowned at the depth of colossal corruption in the nation’s oil sector.
President of the body, Dr. Vincent Furo made this position known while speaking to newsmen at his office. He said the rot in the industry has made it virtually impossible for the country to attain its full and enviable potential as the world eight biggest producer of crude oil. Furo noted thatNigeriahas nothing to show for its massive oil production due to recalcitrant corruption in the sector and lack of political will by government to pursue vigorously measures that will address corruption in the industry.
“If you want my sincere advice, I think NNPC should be totally reorganized and replaced with an entirely new man power that is committed and result oriented to operate the national corporation”, the PHCCIMA boss was quoted as saying. He maintained that with reviewed copies of investigation showing billions of dollars missing fromNigeria’s oil revenue as a result of huge discrepancy and irregularities in NNPC, every right thinking Nigerian would agree that the best option is total reorganization where fresh and transparent individuals will be brought in to run NNPC.
According to him, NNPC is too large and stenches with corruption as a result of fraudulent activities between the corporation and multinational companies in the country.
“Where is patriotism and national conscience”, he asked, expressing regrets that a manager in NNPC entrusted with the job of monitoring the quantity of oil loaded for distribution, shows little or no concern about actual figures but rather sits at the comfort of his office and waits for a fat envelope to be sent to him by his cohorts in corruption. “It is high time government and relevant authorities wake up from its slumber and ensure that no one is left in a position unmonitored for a longer period to reduce the debilitating effect of corruption in our oil sector.
The PHCCIMA helmsman also decried the fact that some NNPC managers are richer than states in the country, stressing that the trend must be brought to a halt. He reiterated the need for us to take a queue from advanced countries where refined systems that monitors and assesses productivity in staffs are put in place to ensure no one remains in a position arbitrarily.
According to him it is only in this country that an individual occupies an office for donkey years and continuously reduces his/her age to avert retrenchment and to perpetually remain in office to benefit from embezzlement.
He therefore urged the federal government to wade into the unwholesome activities of civil servants inn the country by setting up private agencies who will monitor the conduct of managers as well as to receive constant reports of proceedings accruing from oil, instead of allowing for a longer un-audited account that will linger and accumulate for as much as a quarter of the year or more.
“Government must take forceful measures to ensure that all money embezzled from the coffers of government are refunded and recovered to the last kobo, even if it means taken possession of properties of such individuals before sending them to jail with hard labour to serve as deterrent to others.
On the role of the judiciary in administering justice to corruption charges in the oil sector,, he emphasized the need for the judicial system to be up and doing in their responsibilities through ensuring that corrupt individuals are giving the punishment they deserve for defrauding and embezzling the country to serve as restraint.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a 48-year old businessman Yinusa Adebisi, owner of Taiken Filling Station, before an Oyo State High Court, sitting in Ibadan on a 6-count charge bordering on obtaining goods under false pretence. The accused is alleged to have fraudulently obtained 33,000 litres of Dual Purpose Kerosene, DPK valued at Five Million One Hundred and Fifteen Thousand naira (N5, 115,000) from one Miss Titilayo Onasanya of Kalhari Limited. When he was docked this morning before Justice O. A. Boade, the accused told the court that he would like the charges to be read to him in Yoruba Language. The Court Clerk read the 6-count charge in Yoruba Language and the accused person pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecution counsel, Zainab Ettu thereafter urged the court to remand the accused person in prison custody, pending the determination of the bail application. The defense counsel, F.A. Bello did not objectJustice Boade then ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody and adjourned the matter till May 11, 2012. The journey to Agodi Prison began for Adebisi in July 5, 2011, when the EFCC received a petition alleging that Taiken Filling Station, Iseyin, Oyo State placed order for 33,000 litres of DPK (Kerosene) from Kalhari Limited. It was agreed that payment shall be effected through a draft in favour of Kalhari limited on full delivery.On July 22nd 2010, the product was delivered at about 6pm. Adebisi who claims to be the real owner of the filling station, confirmed that he and his partners Zacheus Adeojo and David Oyelere ( both at large) placed the order. Adebisi told Miss Titilola Onasanya who accompanied the product from Lagos that he could not pay on that the bank had closed. He promised to make the payment the next day. Adebisi and his friends signed for and received the DPK and stated in writing on the waybill that payment would be made the next day by draft. When Miss Onasanya returned to Taiken Filling Station the following day, the accused (Adebisi) told her that he could not pay. In his statement, Adebisi claimed not to be the real owner of the filling station that the Station belongs to one Mr. Oguntude who lives and works in Port Harcourt . He said he only took the station on lease and that the product in question was ordered by Zacheus and David, who approached him for use of his storage facility at a fee.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was not the “puppet master” of jihadi groups around the world and complained of what he called their “incompetence,” according to an analysis of documents seized from his hideout in Pakistan.
The Combating Terrorism Center, a privately funded research center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, posted on its website on Thursday 17 declassified documents taken in the raid on bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad in which he was killed by U.S. forces a year ago.
“On the basis of the 17 declassified documents, Bin Ladin was not, as many thought, the puppet master pulling the strings that set in motion jihadi groups around the world,” a report on the documents by the Combating Terrorism Center said. “Bin Ladin was burdened by what he saw as their incompetence.”
The center spells bin Laden’s name as Bin Ladin.
The report said the al Qaeda leader, who was behind the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York, “was unimpressed by the recent trend of American populist jihad.”
He appeared to have little regard for Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen accused of instigating a number of violent al Qaeda attacks from Yemenand who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last year.
Awlaki is mentioned in one letter, assessed to be from bin Laden who writes, as translated: “I hope that he be informed of us still needing more information from the battlefield in Yemen, so that it is feasible for us, with the help of God, to make the most appropriate decision to either escalate or calm down.”
The 17 documents are electronic letters or draft letters totaling 175 pages in the original Arabic, dating from September 2006 to April 2011, and they do not all state who wrote or received them.
U.S. intelligence officials have said Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which operates from Yemen, has emerged as the most dangerous affiliate.
But according to the West Point study, bin Laden himself regarded many of al Qaeda’s affiliated groups, including the ones feared by the West, with disdain.
The letters show that bin Laden worried about AQAP, the Yemeni affiliate, and urged its leadership to focus efforts on attacking the United States rather than the Yemeni government or security forces, the report said.
It said the confiscated material showed that the actions of another affiliate, Al Qaeda in Iraq was of particular concern to bin Laden, especially its killing of Shi’ite civilians following the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
One of al Qaeda’s main English-language spokesmen, American-born Adam Gadahn, even suggested that the main al Qaeda group should disassociate itself from Al Qaeda in Iraq. At one point Gadahn compared the activities of the Iraqi group to the policies of former U.S. President George W. Bush, who had launched the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Bin Laden also apparently wanted to keep al Qaeda’s Somalia-based affiliate, Al Shabaab, at arm’s length, the study says, because he was concerned about its poor organization, management and brutality.
The report said that bin Laden’s relationship with the TTP, one of the main Pakistan-based Taliban groups, was so strained that the group almost came into “direct and public confrontation” with al Qaeda’s central leadership over its indiscriminate attacks on Muslim civilians.
Videotapes and audiotapes from bin Laden were broadcast sporadically during the decade that he was in hiding. In a letter dated August 27, 2010, the al Qaeda leader gave detailed instructions about how to get the message out and shows he wanted it timed for the upcoming September 11 anniversary.
“Attached with this message is a visual statement to the American people that I hope a copy of it be given to the International Al Jazeera and the Arab Al Jazeera. I also hope for it to be translated (voice over) to English and to be delivered to the Al Jazeera channel prior to the anniversary of 9/11, to be broadcasted during it. Also, two copies of it are attached, one of which is recorded and the other written.”
“We sent you, along with the messages that preceded this, a statement regarding the floods of Pakistan. Its broadcasting to media was delayed, thus perhaps it’s for a good reason. However, in any case, I had attached the content of this card to this message.”
“Note: Please broadcast the flood statement before the American People statement, as the American People statement to be during the anniversary of 9/11.”
BY THE HONOURABLE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION
AND MINISTER OF JUSTICE, MR. MOHAMMED BELLO ADOKE, SAN, CFR
ON THE REPORT OF THE FUEL SUBSIDY REGIME
1. The attention of the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has been drawn to recent calls by some groups and well-meaning Nigerians for the prosecution of those allegedly indicted in the Report of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime.
2. It is pertinent to reiterate government’s position as aptly captured by Mr. President’s initial reaction to the Report of the Fuel Subsidy probe to the effect that any person found wanting will be prosecuted irrespective of the person’s standing in the society. Nigerians must however appreciate that in discharging this onerous responsibility, Government must be guided by the dictates of the rule of law and due process as required of any democratically elected and responsible government. In this regard, the need to ensure that thorough investigations are carried out by relevant law enforcement agencies cannot be overemphasized.
3. This is more so, as the exercise carried out by the House of Representatives is mainly fact-finding. I also wish to point out that the Report of the Ad-Hoc Committee and the Resolutions adopted by the House of Representatives is yet to be transmitted to the Executive arm of government. Nevertheless, when the report and accompanying resolutions are received, the relevant law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies will commence the tedious process of sieving through the report, with a view to assembling all the essential ingredients required to sustain criminal charges that may be filed as a result of such investigations.
4. I therefore call on Nigerians who are understandably concerned about the revelations arising from the Fuel Subsidy Probe to be patient and exercise restraint while these difficult, but essential processes are carried out by appropriate agencies. As Attorney General of the Federation, I swore to uphold the Constitution and I am therefore not oblivious of the constitutional responsibility placed on my shoulders to ensure that those who contravene our laws are held accountable through the legal process.
5. However, experience has shown that whenever our law enforcement agencies are stampeded to arraign suspects, the end result is usually the discharge of such suspects by the courts ostensibly for want of evidence. Nigerians must therefore allow our law enforcement agencies to conduct painstaking investigations that will ultimately satisfy the standard of proof required in criminal cases.
6. The foregoing notwithstanding, we must accept that the allegations contained in the Subsidy Probe Report deserve serious action on the part of all those with oversight responsibility over the agencies and persons concerned. Aware of this responsibility, Mr. President had as far back as 2010 ordered a forensic audit of the accounts of the NNPC with a view to sanitizing the oil sector. Since then, other processes have been put in place to enhance accountability and transparency levels in the oil sector even before the commencement of fuel subsidy probe.
7. I therefore humbly urge Nigerians to have faith in the processes being undertaken and to patiently wait for the outcome of the investigations and subsequent prosecutions that may flow from the fuel subsidy probe conducted by the House of Representatives and the on-going probe by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In this respect, I wish to observe that the ultimatum being given by some groups and the threat to embark on demonstrations and strike actions will only compound the problem and divert attention, as well as, the energy that would otherwise have been channeled into productive use by law enforcement agencies.
The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, has revealed that the federal government cannot prosecute the people indicted in the House of Representative probe into the management of the fuel subsidy, saying the probe was just a ‘fact-finding’ mission.
Reacting to calls for the prosecution of those allegedly indicted in the report of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime, the AGF in a statement on Thursday stated that the government will need relevant agencies to conduct necessary investigations before it can commence the prosecution.
According to the AGF, “government must be guided by the dictates of the rule of law and due process as required of any democratically elected and responsible government. In this regard, the need to ensure that thorough investigations are carried out by relevant law enforcement agencies cannot be overemphasized.”
Even as the House of Representative in a unanimous vote approved all the recommendations of the report, the AGF noted that the exercise carried out by the legislature is “mainly fact-finding.” He further pointed out that the report of the ad-hoc committee and the resolutions adopted by the House of Representatives, were yet to be transmitted to the executive arm of government.
“Nevertheless, when the report and accompanying resolutions are received, the relevant law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies will commence the tedious process of sieving through the report, with a view to assembling all the essential ingredients required to sustain criminal charges that may be filed as a result of such investigations” he added.
Lack of evidence
Referring to recent flaws recorded by the anti-corruption agencies in the trial of some corrupt allegations, Mr Adoke stated that “experience has shown that whenever our law enforcement agencies are stampeded to arraign suspects, the end result is usually the discharge of such suspects by the courts ostensibly for want of evidence.”
“Nigerians must therefore allow our law enforcement agencies to conduct painstaking investigations that will ultimately satisfy the standard of proof required in criminal cases.”
He however admitted that the allegations contained in the subsidy probe report deserve serious action on the part of all those with oversight responsibility over the agencies and persons concerned.
He urged Nigerians to have faith in the processes being undertaken and to patiently wait for the outcome of the investigations and subsequent prosecutions that may flow from the fuel subsidy probe and also the on-going probe by the Senate.
Divert attention
Mr Adoke also reached out to the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) that has given the government a two weeks ultimatum to commence the prosecution of all those indicted in the report; else they will call for a nationwide protest.
The AGF stated that the threat to embark on demonstrations and strike actions will only “compound the problem and divert attention, as well as, the energy that would otherwise have been channeled into productive use by law enforcement agencies”
Mr Adoke reiterated government’s commitment to anti-corruption as he recalled the President’s initial reaction to the Report of the Fuel Subsidy probe, saying that “any person found wanting will be prosecuted irrespective of the person’s standing in the society.”
He therefore enjoined all Nigerians who are concerned about the revelations from the fuel subsidy probe report to be “patient and exercise restraint while these difficult, but essential processes are carried out by appropriate agencies.”
“As Attorney General of the Federation, I swore to uphold the Constitution and I am therefore not oblivious of the constitutional responsibility placed on my shoulders to ensure that those who contravene our laws are held accountable through the legal process” he stated.
Tension within the Anambra State government circle may have begun to simmer yesterday [May 2, 2012] as some of the members of Governor Peter Obi’s cabinet began to submit their handover notes to the Governor. This is as 247ureports.com gathered that some of the Commissioners involved have already cleaned out their offices and have resolved their fate to being asked not to return – by the Governor after the dissolution of the cabinet.
Available information indicates that the long rumored dissolution/reshufflement of the Anambra State Executive Cabinet may have come to bare – and may result to possible announcement by the Governor of Anambra State. But a usually reliable source reveals that the Governor may have had a rethink over the planned reshufflement of his cabinet. The source notes that the Governor may have reacted to the recent “noisy” actions of the All Progressive Grand Alliance [APGA] National Chairman, Chief Victor Umeh – who laid explosive allegations on the Governor of Anambra State. The source added that the Governor has decided to have a calm rethink of the strategy required to execute a noiseless/frictionless dissolution of his cabinet.
Among the Commissioners who have submitted their handover notes include, the Commissioner for Works [Arc Ilodiba], Commissioner of Finance [Echesi Eze], and three other Commissioners. A source inside the governor’s office revealed that the Commissioner for Environment [Mike Egbebike], Commissioner for Women Affairs [Ego Uzozie] may also be included among the cabinet members who will be asked not to return. The current Secretary to the State Government, Paul Odenigbo is reported to not be returning to the cabinet – he is said to be preparing to join the Anambra gubernatorial contest in 2014. Paul Odenigbo is expected to be replaced by E. D. Chukwuma. The current Commissioner of Lands [Hon Afuba] is expected to be moved over to the office of the State Attorney General.
The current Commissioner for Local Government Affairs and Chieftaincy Matters [Hon Dubem Obaze] is expected to be moved to another ministry. 247ureports.com is not certain which ministrt he will be moved to. But information has it that Dubem Obaze expects to join the Anambra gubernatorial race in 2014.
Also, the present secretary of the APGA, Okoli Akirika is expected to be given a cabinet position.
The expected dissolution, according to sources in the Anambra government house, will enable for new ideas and new faces to Anambra governance. The source adds that it will also enable the State to govern itself without the undue influence of the National APGA Chairman.
Information available to 247ureports.com indicate that an attack in Potiskum by armed gunmen has left over 50 catle herdsmen dead. The attack occurred at a cattle market in northeastern Nigeria by men armed with explosives. The initial death toll was pegged at 34 immediately following the attack.
But hospital officials who confirmed that about 34 bodies were deposited at the hospital indicated that more bodies were on the way to the hospital – and that the casualties are expected to rise beyond 50.
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan’s army said Tuesday it killed 27 soldiers from Sudan’s armed forces during a clash along the countries’ contested border.
South Sudan’s military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said the fighting took place in Hofra along the road to South Sudan’s Unity State capital, Bentiu.
He said three South Sudanese soldiers were killed and two others wounded after soldiers for the south intercepted three Sudanese trucks mounted with machine guns traveling to positions held by South Sudan’s soldiers.
“They were trying to surprise the SPLA, but we had been monitoring their preparations for the last three days,” said Aguer. The SPLA is an acronym for South Sudan’s military.
He said South Sudan’s forces killed 27 soldiers, including the Sudanese major leading the attack, before driving the trucks back across the border.
This is the latest in a steady stream of confrontations between the two forces since South Sudan left the oil-rich and disputed town of Heglig more than 10 days ago. South Sudan had invaded Heglig, saying it belonged to the south. Sudan later retook the town; Sudanese forces say they pushed out the South Sudanese while South Sudan says its troops pulled out to avoid an all-out war. Sudan elevated the tension even further by bombing South Sudan.
Aguer said Sudan’s military launched Tuesday’s attacks from Heglig. Aguer said the SPLA forces only pursued the Sudanese troops “about 5 kilometers” from Hofra, and did not plan to immediately respond.
But he said South Sudan would retaliate if Sudan continued launching attacks from Heglig.
“This may be the first of many attacks,” he said. “It has not reached that level, but definitely if they continue to advance toward Jau and Pariang, SPLA has the right.”
The international community has condemned the fighting and has called for an end to the hostilities between the countries, but those calls have largely been ignored. The two nations’ armies have continued to clash around positions at Teshwin and Panakuac near the disputed border, and Sudanese jet fighters have repeatedly dropped bombs inside Unity State, including on Bentiu.
South Sudan split from Sudan in July last year, but the two countries have yet to agree on border demarcation and divvying up oil revenues and resources.
