By The Citizen

The Police are  set to enlist the services of the Interpol against oil chiefs who have fled the country in the wake of recent arrest of the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Capital oil & Gas Industries Ltd, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah.

Police sources told THE CITIZEN that some CEOs of companies indicted in the oil subsidy probe have fled the country on the excuse that they are on business trips.

The source at the Force Headquarters said it would only take days to arrest them as police would use the Interpol to track them down and bring them to face justice.

He said, “We are working round the clock to ensure that all those people indicted by the Presidential panel on the oil subsidy scam to be arrested to face the law.

“Many of them have fled the country but what they failed to understand is that the world is a global village and the network against criminal elements is high. I can assure you that nobody is above the law.”

The source further stated that in the days to come, the Police would make sure that all the indicted oil marketing and trading companies are brought to book, with no sacred cows.

“All the issues of fuel subsidy scam will be addressed soon as the indicted suspects will be brought to custody to answer for themselves at the law courts. We are not leaving any stone unturned in ensuring that this is done. We know some of them ran away on the excuse that they are on business trips but we have given the grace to either appear or we declare  them wanted and with the assistant of the Interpol, they will be brought to custody,” he said.

The Special Fraud Unit , Milverton Ikoyi, last arrested Uba over the  alleged involvement of his companies in the fuel subsidy scam.

His company was indicted  by Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede’s led 15-man Presidential Panel constituted by President Goodluck Jonathan to re-investigate the findings of the report of an earlier investigation panel set up by the Ministry of Finance on Fuel Subsidy payments valued at over N2 trillion.

HEMPSTEAD, United States – US President Barack Obama outperformed his Republican challenger Mitt Romney Tuesday evening at their second debate, pulling almost even their support in the last stretch of this election cycle.

But he was met with an evenly invigorated Romney, whose commanding performance last time shifted the election’s momentum to his side.

The more lively performances from both candidates all but ensured that the debate was full of confrontations and sparks, as candidates trade barbs when answering questions from undecided voters.

Such questions covered topics ranging from economy and jobs to foreign policy and women’s rights.

Although commentators warned beforehand that failing to preserve grace and humor could be fatal, as style is considered at least as important as substance in a town-hall style debate, both candidates frequently flouted debate rules, and at times, physically circled and pressed each other on issues.

Mark Salter, former chief of staff for Republican Sen. John McCain and senior adviser to the McCain for President campaign, opined in a recent piece that “gaffes in presidential town-hall debates, even an unthinking glance at your watch, can be fatal with just a few weeks left in the campaign.”

Romney made a visible gaffe during a confrontation with Obama. He insisted Obama didn’t call the attack on US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens an act of terror the second day, which he did. Moderator Candy Crowley pointed that out on the spot, blunting Romney’s attack.

It was not immediately clear how much damage the gaffe could inflict on the Romney campaign, but Republicans have already begun crying foul, arguing it was not appropriate for Crowley to step in like that.

Besides that blunder, Romney also appeared, at times, rude and arrogant towards the president, interrupting him and at one time prevented Obama from interjecting, saying “you’ll get your chance in a moment,” drawing gasps from the audience.

Besides the heated exchanges, both Obama and Romney seemed genuinely engaged with the audience, and made visible efforts to connect with them during the debate, looking voters in the eyes when answering their questions, and leaning in when listening.

According to an instant poll by CNN and ORC International, 46 percent of debate watchers said Obama won the debate, while 39 percent said Romney did.

As is custom after each debate, both campaigns rushed to the media center afterwards to declare themselves the winner.

Sen. John Kerry, who helped Obama prepare for the debate, said the president “has done a terrific job,” and the night marked the start of the “unraveling” of Romney’s campaign.

Ed Giellespie, a senior adviser to Romney, said “the president can change the plan, change the tactics, but he can’t change four years of failed economic policy.”

The Obama campaign is trying to stop Romney’s surge, but how much headway the president has made in the direction with his commanding performance Tuesday night remains unclear.

A multitude of polls have shown Romney has momentum behind his back. A Gallup poll released Tuesday showed that Romney is leading Obama 50 percent to 46 percent in 12 crucial swing states, as Obama’s previous lead among women voters has sharply declined to a virtual tie of 49 percent to 48 percent.

Federal Government, on Tuesday, said it had no cash now to pay teachers the outstanding N1.44 billion allowance owed them for the 2011 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) training programme.

The non-payment of the outstanding allowance had been a subject of controversy between the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) with the former threatening to boycott the 2012 training programme.

The Minister of State for Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, who waded into the imbroglio, revealed on Tuesday that the Federal Ministry of Finance had said it had no money to pay the allowance for now.

Wike spoke in Abuja at a meeting at his instance as part of efforts to resolve the standoff, assuring teachers that he would personally supervise this year’s training programme in order to forestall the recurrence of what happened last year.

NTI had last year trained 125, 000 teachers under the 2011 Federal Government MDGs Teachers’ Training Programme and disbursed N2,500 to each teacher instead of N14,000 .

National President of NUT, Mr Michael Alogba Olukoya, had accused NTI of shortchanging the teachers of N11,500.

The minister further said that he had personally written to the Ministry of Finance over the balance of the allowance, adding that the reply he got indicated that government had no funds now to pay the outstanding balance.

He noted that the funds were not being withheld by NTI as the teachers had alleged but advised NTI not to repeat the mistake of getting involved in such a programme without adequate cash-backing.

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Source: Tribune